I lasted at Yang's school two weeks. He lied from the get-go. The contract said 18 hours per week. He wanted to give me almost 30.

The apartment was a filthy seventh-floor walk-up. It stunk of sewer gas. The "furniture" was broken, stained and filthy.

He was no help at all with daily life, as they say. When I was there, late March, the weather was still - 20 C., gray, cold and wet.

So I left. I told him right to his face to f*ck off. He chased me to the local airport and made me pay a fine of RMB 5,000, with the connivance of the airport police.

Agreed. He smelled of Qiingdao beer the entire time. A sad, mean and pathetic figure. His school not much better.

Mark F.