selling my body

well, as luck would have it, my dream of selling my body for profit has come to fruition. upon accepting the offer for this job, i was unaware of the exact nature of my work, but i now understand that my physical body - my presence - is as important as my mind, if not more so. for the past few days, my job has entailed planning and teaching lessons for the "exceptional students" of the city to be taught during what the school likes to title the "english salon" (it is actually a ploy by the school to recruit more students from the city by parading the foreign teachers around = us), and then on my off days travelling into the city with some of my fellow english teachers to sit for hours on end at the recruitment office (picture a holding cell with a desk at one end, a water cooler at the other, and a tasteful plastic palm tree somewhere in between). mind you, the prospect of recruitment sounded fun and important at first mention. i imagined meeting the families of prospective students and having meaningful conversations with each, resulting in the student anxiously begging his/her parents to send him/her to this school that employed such talented english teachers as myself and the other foreign teachers. the parents would gladly write the tuition check on the spot and hand over their children to our talented and loving care . . .

so back to reality now . . . it is now the fourth hour of sitting without any sign of a family entering or even being interested in entering the dark and uninviting recruitment office. oh but wait, here is a little girl with her mother. they walk in heading straight for the desk at the far end of the room. i stand in surprise and readiness to sell the offerings of this progressive and well-outfitted establishment. i take a step toward the girl and her mother in anticipation of speaking with either . . . a few more steps . . . one, two, one . . . intercepted mid-step by one of the chinese teachers who had previously been lounging on a chair devouring crackers with ham flavored cheese spread between them (cue vomit now). she says that i "needn't talk with the families" but that i was just to serve as an "advertisement" for the school. befuddled, i sat back down on the couch, still warm from my previous four hours of sedentary boredom, and finally came to understand that i was not only here to teach these children english, but also to sell my body to all of tongliao . . . inner mongolia . . . china for that matter in an attempt by the school to attract the best and brightest of chinese children. with the northeast hope international school serving as my pimp for the next year, i will embrace my new-found whoredom . . . i mean, everyone has to get their jollies somehow.


the harem