I love KFC!

After applying for hundreds of jobs over the internet, it seemed as though I was doomed to live off cheap dumplings and flat coke for the next six months here in Shanghai. Thus when turks, Sloan and I decided to take a trip to neighbouring Suzhou, it seemed like the ideal opportunity to get our minds (well mine especially) off the stress...or at least to delay in some way the fact that the week ahead would be terrible.

How does this have any relevance to KFC you ask? Well I will skip the details of our weekend adventure and cut to the chase. After arriving at Suzhou train station at third o'clock to head back to Shanghai, it came with a shock when we learned that the next train would not be departing till eight that night. Frustrated, we found ourselves a table in the local KFC, counting down the minutes till the train would arrive. After a couple of hours of sitting on this table, a dutch man and his Taiwanese girlfriend sat down with us. (NB: In KFCs in China, there is no such thing as a empty table, every seat is accounted for.)

After chatting with this dutch man and his girlfriend, we soon learnt that the lady was the recruiting officer for a group of prestigious bilingual schools. She offered all three of us jobs then and there. A couple of days later, we had an "interview" - in which case meant they assumed we had accepted their job. Today I had my first day, where I spend the morning riding on merry-go-rounds, playing with kids, and getting repeatedly told by the principal that I am handsome. Not bad if you ask me. More importantly though, the pay is pretty good for China, which means I will be able to save a bit before we all head off on the Tran-Siberian railway to Europe.

The point of the story - I will never use KFC's name in vain again, even if its chicken is the worst-tasting ever.

Peace.

-e-

Will post photos of our suzhou trip.