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For three years, I have been in China teaching Swing Dancing. Now I'm wandering yet again...
2008-08-10
Four Days in Tokyo
My flight from the US connected through Tokyo on its way to Beijing. I postponed my connection flight by four days and stayed in Tokyo. This is what I found:
I have known for a long time Beijing is not the city for me. It was probably 6 years now. I never liked Beijing from the first time I visited it. Still don't.
Tokyo, by comparison, is civilized. People are (ultra) polite, and every technology, ethnic food, personal care product, or obscure cultural phenomenon can be found here. The girls are also incredibly cute, and flirting has worked very well this weekend, even though I speak next to zero Japanese.
The streets are clean. People in the subways take the escalator, and if they are standing they stay to the left. If the intend to walk up the escalator, the entire right side is open for them. When the subway doors open, those waiting outside take no action until those exiting have left.
The rules are the basis of societal engineering, and they work very well. The criticism (which will always exist in some sort) is that there are too many rules, and the letter of the rule is followed rather than the spirit. But, in Shijumen (the most-commonly filmed area of Tokyo), 200 people will sit calmly waiting for the light to turn green. When it does, 200 people will simultaneously cross the street from the five different intersections. Like schools of fish, they will all thrust forward in a planned trajectory, and no one will bump, and no one will have to stop and turn around. 200 peopel will all flow towards the intersection center, then on to their destination, all without issues. I have video.
I identify with this city. I have tried learning some Japanese. It is easier than Chinese. I can visualize myself being here one year from now. Its 9/1/2008. Let's look again in 9/1/2009 for results on this.
-J
2008-06-25
Life in Beijing
I have been in Beijing almost one year now. When I was in America, I was not happy. I had grown accustomed to a particular lifestyle in Shanghai, and I felt I must return. As such, I did return. Now I've been in Beijing, so it's time to give a little report on what life is like here.
First and foremost, it's not the same. A few things have changed within myself; namely I'm older and I actually *look* older. Before I was older but didn't really look it. Second, I have gained some weight on my trip to America. I think I was at over 205 pounds at one point. Most of that can be attributed to the combination of lack of daily dance-teacher exercise, plus eating the higher-fat, larger-portion American meals. Either way, fat came. These are the physical changes. Girls will tell you sometimes, that they are not so focused on physical changes. It's not true; it all matters. No one consciously wants to admit it, but at our base cores we are still survival-and-replication animals.
That said (yes, I'm having a bad day), what's good about my situation? Well, the #1 thing to point to is the job. it is not easy, but we have achieved a big success with the last project. The project went live last Saturday, and this week I'm taking a week off. It was a long and difficult haul getting things rolling. This includes learning the project goals, learning the new software, and working with the local Beijing team of Chinese. I'm the only American (or foreigner of any kind) in our group. There's a strange sort of build-up of stress which happens over days and weeks. Every day, you make progress but somehow feels there's so much beyond your understanding. Nevertheless, I persevered as a person, and the team achieved as a whole. Management in the US noticed, and the team responsibility has expanded.
You can't discount that. Professional success is by no means a small thing. It has been my #1 focus since coming to Beijing. I have not been engrossed in meeting people or trying to secure my social life, or swing dancing (:-)) for that matter. I've been mostly concerned about work, and that's the truth. 6 days a week, 12 to 14 hours a day for the last few months. But, done, and done.
Let's talk a little bit about the Olympics. As everyone knows, the Olympics is coming to Beijing. From a country point of view, everyone is excited about this. The government is certainly taking it seriously, and they are putting in place added restrictions and security measures to ensure it is a safe and orderly event. The downside is, the government is putting into place added restrictions and security measures to ensure it is a safe and orderly event.
Namely; visas are much, MUCH harder to obtain than before. This is odd, because people are trying to come to Beijing. Now, (as I have heard), if you want to come to Beijing and you want to get a visa, you must produce A) your Olympic ticket, and B) produce your hotel reservation. This sounds reasonable enough, but it means that any time any foreigner moves from one city to another, he or she is required to register with the police every time they enter a new city, even if just for two days. Technically, if my friend from the US wants to come from another city to Beijing for the weekend, we have to go to the police station right away an register him. The rub is, the police will sometimes say "No, you can't stay with someone, you must stay in a hotel." The enforcement and understanding of the rules is not universal; many police stations will each have a different result. In once case, a person was completely denied a stay in an apartment, even though he came with the actual landlord of the place and all the required paperwork. In another case, a person came with virtually no preparation and the police let them stay without any hassle or fine (which could potentially amount to $US700 or so.)
Second; housing. Beijing is on a real kick about the price of housing, both rental and purchased. Rental housing is hitting a major spike just before the Olympics. People are anticipating a stream of foreigners who will each want to rent from their own homes during the Olympics. As such, rent prices are spiking right now; landlords who have rents expiring before the Olympics are refusing to renew them, thinking they'll get several times the money by renting to a visiting foreigner.
There's a basic flaw in this thinking, if you review the Visa requirement issue. Foreigners are required to have a hotel reservation to enter the country; as such, it's really unlikely there'll be a flood of renters going into individual houses. It's also especially unlikely due to the fact that 95% of these landlords do not speak any English or other foreign language. They are not taking any aggressive steps to secure this windfall of foreigner rent-money; they just expect it will some how, uhhhhh, "fall" on them.
The second problem is the cost of purchased homes. This actually is not local to Beijing (Shanghai has the problem, too), and it's not completely related to the Olympics. Many people (myself included) think that there is a major housing bubble. Prices are far too high, and the supply is much greater than the available pool of buyers at that price. There's been a lot of speculative buying - people buy real estate as an investment only, and they don't actually live in or rent the houses. The net effect is that the cost of houses is really just too high. 2 million RMB for a two -bedroom apartment. (No one actually owns a 'house' in Beijing or Shanghai except for a few extreme elite. When people say 'house', they mean the American equivalent of 'condominium' or 'purchased apartment'.)
Anyhow, the rents are high and sales prices are high. One of my individual goals is to own some real estate; I feel quite insecure without any at this phase in my life. However, there's two more problems in this area. 1) the down-payment for houses is not like the American 5%, 3%, or less. It's 40% down (cash) for a new-construction home. It's actually 50% down (cash) for a re-sold home. This high amount of cash down was intended to curb speculation investement.
The 2) problem with housing is that in China, you don't actually BUY any properly. You purchase a lease on property. If your building has 6 or fewer stories, you have a 50-year lease. If your building has over 6 stories, you are purchasing a 70-year lease. Anyone with a basic accounting understanding can see that as time goes on, your investment quickly reaches $0 value. After 30 years, you can still sell your home, but now you are selling a 40-year lease on the property, which is very likely to be worth much less than you paid in the first place. After 70 years, your investment is worth $0 and the government takes possession of your home. Which means, no gain of equity and no handing-down of property to the next generation.
So far, there's never been a real test of this situation. Even the super office buildings 'owned' by corporations are subject to this rule. But China (in this incarnation of the government) has only been around since 1950's. No one knows precisely what will happen when these leases begin to expire. The government may just elect to impose a tax. However, it's clearly stated that they outright own the property, so no guarantees.
Aeishhh.
So what's good about this place? Dating has been bad. Shanghai and Beijing are not all all the same. Shanghai has a preference for foreigners. Beijing-people could pretty much care less. Shanghai girls much more frequently date (and marry) foreigners. It is quite unusual for a Beijing girl to marry a foreigner, and by extension that means they don't date 'em, either. And, from a more base point of view. on average Shanghai girls are much more attractive and Beijing girls. There is a bigger focus on fashion and makeup in Shanghai, but even that non withstanding, the girls her are just less physically attractive. They are much more culturally conservative, as well. Read into that as you may.
The air quality in Beijing is also not good. There's a combination of smog and dust constantly over the city. There is a permanent daytime haze, which you can perceive just looking at a building 2 blocks away. The sun is never clearly in view except for the day immediately following a rain. For the Olympics, the government is actually putting a moratorium on all manufacturing operations and construction. In theory, no building or manufacturing is supposed to happen in the city in the months preceding the big Event. Also, during the Olympics, Beijing will be enforcing an "Odd/Even" license place policy. On Odd-numbered days, only odd-numbered license plates may appear on the road. Even days, even-numbered plates. Taxis and buses are exempt. This will certainly diminish the traffic problems, which is rather significant.
From a social point of view, Beijing has a fraction of the entertainment choices of Shanghai. There's about 5 good night-club places here. Shanghai would number about 15-20. Granted, I'm getting a old to frequent these places anymore, but there you go.
I did see my old girlfriend from Shanghai for a while when I got back. In the end, she decided it was not practical and broke it off. It's true; it's not practical. I have no idea when I may be able to go back to Shanghai. I had hoped that Beijing would 'grow' on me, and that maybe I'd not want to go back to Shanghai after a year. It's been a year, and I've got no attachment to this city, I'll tell you that. I don't know if I'd head back to Shanghai, but there's little holding me here.
There's one bright spot, or hope, in all of this ranting. I am still interested in working in movies, and Beijing has its own movie making groups. As a middle-aged foreigner with some Chinese ability, I could qualify for many small parts. I've been trying to put together a 'reel' of my clips from TV and movies. Just Monday I purchased a new computer capable of handling the task. Yesterday I configured the new computer, and today - well, I didn't continue working. But tomorrow I can finalize the clips and also put in my movie work (I has asked my mom to send me DVD's of my previous movies, which I am finally putting into the reel as well).
I am hoping to get small, but parts in movies. I really want to stay active in that. It's the one thing which I really hope works. The one thing about China which I liked the most, and as far as I know there's nothing preventing me from achieving it here. I'm only going to do it part-time, but I really enjoy the work and the result.
So, tonight is technical Wednesday morning. I have a massive 3-bedroom apartment in Beijing. There is a friend-girl (note: not girlfriend) who is staying here at the moment in the other room. Tomorrow, I am going out of Beijing. I'm on vacation, and as I've said I'm not keen on this place. I'm going to get on a train and go to Dalian, or Qingdao (I know these names mean nothing to you, but each as a beach#).
It's 330am. I hope to sleep after this. Thanks for listening to my rant! It's not been the best of weeks :-)
Peace,
Jimbo
First and foremost, it's not the same. A few things have changed within myself; namely I'm older and I actually *look* older. Before I was older but didn't really look it. Second, I have gained some weight on my trip to America. I think I was at over 205 pounds at one point. Most of that can be attributed to the combination of lack of daily dance-teacher exercise, plus eating the higher-fat, larger-portion American meals. Either way, fat came. These are the physical changes. Girls will tell you sometimes, that they are not so focused on physical changes. It's not true; it all matters. No one consciously wants to admit it, but at our base cores we are still survival-and-replication animals.
That said (yes, I'm having a bad day), what's good about my situation? Well, the #1 thing to point to is the job. it is not easy, but we have achieved a big success with the last project. The project went live last Saturday, and this week I'm taking a week off. It was a long and difficult haul getting things rolling. This includes learning the project goals, learning the new software, and working with the local Beijing team of Chinese. I'm the only American (or foreigner of any kind) in our group. There's a strange sort of build-up of stress which happens over days and weeks. Every day, you make progress but somehow feels there's so much beyond your understanding. Nevertheless, I persevered as a person, and the team achieved as a whole. Management in the US noticed, and the team responsibility has expanded.
You can't discount that. Professional success is by no means a small thing. It has been my #1 focus since coming to Beijing. I have not been engrossed in meeting people or trying to secure my social life, or swing dancing (:-)) for that matter. I've been mostly concerned about work, and that's the truth. 6 days a week, 12 to 14 hours a day for the last few months. But, done, and done.
Let's talk a little bit about the Olympics. As everyone knows, the Olympics is coming to Beijing. From a country point of view, everyone is excited about this. The government is certainly taking it seriously, and they are putting in place added restrictions and security measures to ensure it is a safe and orderly event. The downside is, the government is putting into place added restrictions and security measures to ensure it is a safe and orderly event.
Namely; visas are much, MUCH harder to obtain than before. This is odd, because people are trying to come to Beijing. Now, (as I have heard), if you want to come to Beijing and you want to get a visa, you must produce A) your Olympic ticket, and B) produce your hotel reservation. This sounds reasonable enough, but it means that any time any foreigner moves from one city to another, he or she is required to register with the police every time they enter a new city, even if just for two days. Technically, if my friend from the US wants to come from another city to Beijing for the weekend, we have to go to the police station right away an register him. The rub is, the police will sometimes say "No, you can't stay with someone, you must stay in a hotel." The enforcement and understanding of the rules is not universal; many police stations will each have a different result. In once case, a person was completely denied a stay in an apartment, even though he came with the actual landlord of the place and all the required paperwork. In another case, a person came with virtually no preparation and the police let them stay without any hassle or fine (which could potentially amount to $US700 or so.)
Second; housing. Beijing is on a real kick about the price of housing, both rental and purchased. Rental housing is hitting a major spike just before the Olympics. People are anticipating a stream of foreigners who will each want to rent from their own homes during the Olympics. As such, rent prices are spiking right now; landlords who have rents expiring before the Olympics are refusing to renew them, thinking they'll get several times the money by renting to a visiting foreigner.
There's a basic flaw in this thinking, if you review the Visa requirement issue. Foreigners are required to have a hotel reservation to enter the country; as such, it's really unlikely there'll be a flood of renters going into individual houses. It's also especially unlikely due to the fact that 95% of these landlords do not speak any English or other foreign language. They are not taking any aggressive steps to secure this windfall of foreigner rent-money; they just expect it will some how, uhhhhh, "fall" on them.
The second problem is the cost of purchased homes. This actually is not local to Beijing (Shanghai has the problem, too), and it's not completely related to the Olympics. Many people (myself included) think that there is a major housing bubble. Prices are far too high, and the supply is much greater than the available pool of buyers at that price. There's been a lot of speculative buying - people buy real estate as an investment only, and they don't actually live in or rent the houses. The net effect is that the cost of houses is really just too high. 2 million RMB for a two -bedroom apartment. (No one actually owns a 'house' in Beijing or Shanghai except for a few extreme elite. When people say 'house', they mean the American equivalent of 'condominium' or 'purchased apartment'.)
Anyhow, the rents are high and sales prices are high. One of my individual goals is to own some real estate; I feel quite insecure without any at this phase in my life. However, there's two more problems in this area. 1) the down-payment for houses is not like the American 5%, 3%, or less. It's 40% down (cash) for a new-construction home. It's actually 50% down (cash) for a re-sold home. This high amount of cash down was intended to curb speculation investement.
The 2) problem with housing is that in China, you don't actually BUY any properly. You purchase a lease on property. If your building has 6 or fewer stories, you have a 50-year lease. If your building has over 6 stories, you are purchasing a 70-year lease. Anyone with a basic accounting understanding can see that as time goes on, your investment quickly reaches $0 value. After 30 years, you can still sell your home, but now you are selling a 40-year lease on the property, which is very likely to be worth much less than you paid in the first place. After 70 years, your investment is worth $0 and the government takes possession of your home. Which means, no gain of equity and no handing-down of property to the next generation.
So far, there's never been a real test of this situation. Even the super office buildings 'owned' by corporations are subject to this rule. But China (in this incarnation of the government) has only been around since 1950's. No one knows precisely what will happen when these leases begin to expire. The government may just elect to impose a tax. However, it's clearly stated that they outright own the property, so no guarantees.
Aeishhh.
So what's good about this place? Dating has been bad. Shanghai and Beijing are not all all the same. Shanghai has a preference for foreigners. Beijing-people could pretty much care less. Shanghai girls much more frequently date (and marry) foreigners. It is quite unusual for a Beijing girl to marry a foreigner, and by extension that means they don't date 'em, either. And, from a more base point of view. on average Shanghai girls are much more attractive and Beijing girls. There is a bigger focus on fashion and makeup in Shanghai, but even that non withstanding, the girls her are just less physically attractive. They are much more culturally conservative, as well. Read into that as you may.
The air quality in Beijing is also not good. There's a combination of smog and dust constantly over the city. There is a permanent daytime haze, which you can perceive just looking at a building 2 blocks away. The sun is never clearly in view except for the day immediately following a rain. For the Olympics, the government is actually putting a moratorium on all manufacturing operations and construction. In theory, no building or manufacturing is supposed to happen in the city in the months preceding the big Event. Also, during the Olympics, Beijing will be enforcing an "Odd/Even" license place policy. On Odd-numbered days, only odd-numbered license plates may appear on the road. Even days, even-numbered plates. Taxis and buses are exempt. This will certainly diminish the traffic problems, which is rather significant.
From a social point of view, Beijing has a fraction of the entertainment choices of Shanghai. There's about 5 good night-club places here. Shanghai would number about 15-20. Granted, I'm getting a old to frequent these places anymore, but there you go.
I did see my old girlfriend from Shanghai for a while when I got back. In the end, she decided it was not practical and broke it off. It's true; it's not practical. I have no idea when I may be able to go back to Shanghai. I had hoped that Beijing would 'grow' on me, and that maybe I'd not want to go back to Shanghai after a year. It's been a year, and I've got no attachment to this city, I'll tell you that. I don't know if I'd head back to Shanghai, but there's little holding me here.
There's one bright spot, or hope, in all of this ranting. I am still interested in working in movies, and Beijing has its own movie making groups. As a middle-aged foreigner with some Chinese ability, I could qualify for many small parts. I've been trying to put together a 'reel' of my clips from TV and movies. Just Monday I purchased a new computer capable of handling the task. Yesterday I configured the new computer, and today - well, I didn't continue working. But tomorrow I can finalize the clips and also put in my movie work (I has asked my mom to send me DVD's of my previous movies, which I am finally putting into the reel as well).
I am hoping to get small, but parts in movies. I really want to stay active in that. It's the one thing which I really hope works. The one thing about China which I liked the most, and as far as I know there's nothing preventing me from achieving it here. I'm only going to do it part-time, but I really enjoy the work and the result.
So, tonight is technical Wednesday morning. I have a massive 3-bedroom apartment in Beijing. There is a friend-girl (note: not girlfriend) who is staying here at the moment in the other room. Tomorrow, I am going out of Beijing. I'm on vacation, and as I've said I'm not keen on this place. I'm going to get on a train and go to Dalian, or Qingdao (I know these names mean nothing to you, but each as a beach#).
It's 330am. I hope to sleep after this. Thanks for listening to my rant! It's not been the best of weeks :-)
Peace,
Jimbo
2008-04-20
I am in Beijing
Hello again-
I just looked at my blog. I have been neglecting
it for a long time. Most likely, no one is
reading it anymore. So, if you are reading this,
you are the first one!
I am in Beijing, working for Microsoft. It takes
a lot of my free time. My life is nothing like
it used to be in Shanghai.
First of all, Beijing is not as good a city as
Shanghai. It is much larger here, and it takes
almost one hour to go across town by taxi. Plus,
the town is not nearly as beautiful as Shanghai.
The buildings in Beijing are square and
plain-looking. Plus, the people are not as nice
as those in Beijing.
On the good side, I do have a sustainable
lifestyle. I am making enough to live well. I
have a very large 3br apartment, and a maid. Of
course, I've always had a maid since I came to
China, but I do have one...
My life is mostly work right now. I am doing the
same type of work which I did in America --
business-to-business e-commerce. Setting up
systems, integrating ERP's, and so forth. It's
complicated work, and on top of it, I need to
follow all of the corporate policies for
documentation and procedures. I can't complain;
the job is good, the company is good. The people
are good, too.
I made a short video two weeks ago. Our local
department needed a promotional video, and the
guy in charge of it asked me to get involved. I
love this kind of work, so I said OK.
I wrote a small script, then I shot most of the
'artistic' type scenes. The theme of the video
was "University Break", based loosely upon the
"Prison Break" series: a student wants to get out
of the University and 'escape' to Microsoft, so
he asks his brother for help.
In all, I was happy with the result. I took a
lot of time to shoot it and edit, but everyone
who saw it liked it. The experience got me to
thinking.
While I do appreciate my job, it is a job. I
really liked working in movies more than anything
else. Including doing swing dancing. The other
week, I was at a Beijing Movie studio, and I
asked if they were looking for foreign actors.
They said Yes, and I told them I would send them
a short sample reel.
Last night, I put together a collection of clips
from my TV appearances. I can't find my movie
DVD's, but I asked my mom to send them to me.
When they arrive, I'll finish the sample movie
and send it off.
I would like to work on weekends and during
breaks making movies. I would like to work as an
actor, and eventually as a director. I really
get a kick out of the work, and I could see
myself doing it for the indefinite future if by
any amazing chance it could actually pay off.
Anyhow, one step at a time. I'm not going to
lose my head and quit my job. I lived a Bohemian
lifestyle for a long time -- and I got to tell ya
-- it ain't fun. There's nothing good about
living a life of art when you can't live in a
comfortable home. But I really do have an
interest in this. I want to pursue it and find
out what happens.
That's all for now. Probably no news on this any
time soon, but you never know!
Peace,
Jimbo
I just looked at my blog. I have been neglecting
it for a long time. Most likely, no one is
reading it anymore. So, if you are reading this,
you are the first one!
I am in Beijing, working for Microsoft. It takes
a lot of my free time. My life is nothing like
it used to be in Shanghai.
First of all, Beijing is not as good a city as
Shanghai. It is much larger here, and it takes
almost one hour to go across town by taxi. Plus,
the town is not nearly as beautiful as Shanghai.
The buildings in Beijing are square and
plain-looking. Plus, the people are not as nice
as those in Beijing.
On the good side, I do have a sustainable
lifestyle. I am making enough to live well. I
have a very large 3br apartment, and a maid. Of
course, I've always had a maid since I came to
China, but I do have one...
My life is mostly work right now. I am doing the
same type of work which I did in America --
business-to-business e-commerce. Setting up
systems, integrating ERP's, and so forth. It's
complicated work, and on top of it, I need to
follow all of the corporate policies for
documentation and procedures. I can't complain;
the job is good, the company is good. The people
are good, too.
I made a short video two weeks ago. Our local
department needed a promotional video, and the
guy in charge of it asked me to get involved. I
love this kind of work, so I said OK.
I wrote a small script, then I shot most of the
'artistic' type scenes. The theme of the video
was "University Break", based loosely upon the
"Prison Break" series: a student wants to get out
of the University and 'escape' to Microsoft, so
he asks his brother for help.
In all, I was happy with the result. I took a
lot of time to shoot it and edit, but everyone
who saw it liked it. The experience got me to
thinking.
While I do appreciate my job, it is a job. I
really liked working in movies more than anything
else. Including doing swing dancing. The other
week, I was at a Beijing Movie studio, and I
asked if they were looking for foreign actors.
They said Yes, and I told them I would send them
a short sample reel.
Last night, I put together a collection of clips
from my TV appearances. I can't find my movie
DVD's, but I asked my mom to send them to me.
When they arrive, I'll finish the sample movie
and send it off.
I would like to work on weekends and during
breaks making movies. I would like to work as an
actor, and eventually as a director. I really
get a kick out of the work, and I could see
myself doing it for the indefinite future if by
any amazing chance it could actually pay off.
Anyhow, one step at a time. I'm not going to
lose my head and quit my job. I lived a Bohemian
lifestyle for a long time -- and I got to tell ya
-- it ain't fun. There's nothing good about
living a life of art when you can't live in a
comfortable home. But I really do have an
interest in this. I want to pursue it and find
out what happens.
That's all for now. Probably no news on this any
time soon, but you never know!
Peace,
Jimbo
2007-10-07
First blog post from new home
Folks-
This is my first blog post from my apartment in Beijing. It was a long struggle to get the right place, and right now I am only halfway set up here. My ADSL is working, however, so I thought I would use my Sunday afternoon to send out an update.
First thing: last week was Mid-Autumn festival. The entire country takes a week off and goes home or goes on vacation. Of course, some people must work to run the trains and the restaurants. But most offices are closed and business grinds to a halt. My old Shanghai Love Interest came up to Beijing to visit me this week. It was a bit of a strain, because I still have not made the house ready to receive visitors. I didn't have curtains or sheets, for instance. The first day was going shopping to Wal-Mart and local shopping places to get basic necessities. Not the most exciting way to spend your vacation, but she was a trooper about it and didn't put up too much fuss. We spent a few days together and it was very nice. It was good to have a sense of 'continuity'.
Since leaving Shanghai, I have left so much of what I had been building for the past three years. The swing communy, my local area knowledge, and my network of friends. All I take with me to Beijing is my knowledge of China in general and my Mandarin (which is improving but still not great). Spending the month up here living out of a hotel and not having the money to get an apartment was a major drag. I was getting extremely fatigued day by day, and I could not do too much to relax.
Fortunately, that span is over. I told myself, 'Once this time is over and you have found an apartment, you'll completely forget about this short time you were living in a hotel.' It's not true. I remember the hotel life quite well, and it's not for me. I don't think I could be a travel-all-the-time type of person, like some salespeople. I don't like it.
Job is going fairly well. We are still mainly training and working out our group dynamics. We're going to be hiring many new people for our group, and we're going through the selection process right now.
My apartment has a decent size, and a decent view. There is a 'guard' at the door and elevator attendants in each elevator. The 'guard' is a apparently just out of high-school girl in a guard uniform, thus the use of 'guard' instead of GUARD. But it's still reassuring that someone is around to keep watch of things. The complex itself is quite nice, with lots of green grass between buildings and trees. It's not cheap, but it's much better than some of the places I looked at for the price.
Everything social in Beijing is far, far away from where I live. The existing swing dance community here is all the way across the city. It takes about one hour in a taxi (one way) to get there at 7pm. That's mostly because of the traffic, but even on a Sunday afternoon it takes 40 minutes. It's just not a fast city in which to travel. If I take the subway/metro system, it takes over an hour to arrive. It's much cheaper, though. Any method of travel to the swing dance night is a little tiring. On a Monday evening at 7pm after work I am usually not up for a one hour commute for a leisure activity. Add to this, of course, another one hour trip back. I just haven't been going.
I have felt this is a good time to start developing some interests outside of swing dancing. I really did it, that swing dance thing. Relaxationally, I have considered Yoga, for the health and mind benefits. I have also considered Salsa dancing, but sometimes I wonder if that will be good or not. Salsa does have the advantage of having MANY places you can go dance. Plus, it would a social, athletic, and a good way to practice Chinese. But it's another dance form, so maybe I could make it just a light hobby.
On the more serious hobby/activity areas, I am considering writing and some sort of movie making. Like being a filmmaker, director, that sort of thing. It's long been an ambition and interest of mine, and with some modicum of success previously, I would find an easier go of it than someone who had no experience at all.
For the remainder of the month, I still consider myself moving into my apartment. I'm getting a couch delivered on Wednesday. Today I'm going out to order curtains. Very domestic stuff. But I like it. I have been without a home of my own for so long. I like being able to set up my own space.
Well, all for now. Healthy and gradually more happy in Beijing.
Peace,
-J
This is my first blog post from my apartment in Beijing. It was a long struggle to get the right place, and right now I am only halfway set up here. My ADSL is working, however, so I thought I would use my Sunday afternoon to send out an update.
First thing: last week was Mid-Autumn festival. The entire country takes a week off and goes home or goes on vacation. Of course, some people must work to run the trains and the restaurants. But most offices are closed and business grinds to a halt. My old Shanghai Love Interest came up to Beijing to visit me this week. It was a bit of a strain, because I still have not made the house ready to receive visitors. I didn't have curtains or sheets, for instance. The first day was going shopping to Wal-Mart and local shopping places to get basic necessities. Not the most exciting way to spend your vacation, but she was a trooper about it and didn't put up too much fuss. We spent a few days together and it was very nice. It was good to have a sense of 'continuity'.
Since leaving Shanghai, I have left so much of what I had been building for the past three years. The swing communy, my local area knowledge, and my network of friends. All I take with me to Beijing is my knowledge of China in general and my Mandarin (which is improving but still not great). Spending the month up here living out of a hotel and not having the money to get an apartment was a major drag. I was getting extremely fatigued day by day, and I could not do too much to relax.
Fortunately, that span is over. I told myself, 'Once this time is over and you have found an apartment, you'll completely forget about this short time you were living in a hotel.' It's not true. I remember the hotel life quite well, and it's not for me. I don't think I could be a travel-all-the-time type of person, like some salespeople. I don't like it.
Job is going fairly well. We are still mainly training and working out our group dynamics. We're going to be hiring many new people for our group, and we're going through the selection process right now.
My apartment has a decent size, and a decent view. There is a 'guard' at the door and elevator attendants in each elevator. The 'guard' is a apparently just out of high-school girl in a guard uniform, thus the use of 'guard' instead of GUARD. But it's still reassuring that someone is around to keep watch of things. The complex itself is quite nice, with lots of green grass between buildings and trees. It's not cheap, but it's much better than some of the places I looked at for the price.
Everything social in Beijing is far, far away from where I live. The existing swing dance community here is all the way across the city. It takes about one hour in a taxi (one way) to get there at 7pm. That's mostly because of the traffic, but even on a Sunday afternoon it takes 40 minutes. It's just not a fast city in which to travel. If I take the subway/metro system, it takes over an hour to arrive. It's much cheaper, though. Any method of travel to the swing dance night is a little tiring. On a Monday evening at 7pm after work I am usually not up for a one hour commute for a leisure activity. Add to this, of course, another one hour trip back. I just haven't been going.
I have felt this is a good time to start developing some interests outside of swing dancing. I really did it, that swing dance thing. Relaxationally, I have considered Yoga, for the health and mind benefits. I have also considered Salsa dancing, but sometimes I wonder if that will be good or not. Salsa does have the advantage of having MANY places you can go dance. Plus, it would a social, athletic, and a good way to practice Chinese. But it's another dance form, so maybe I could make it just a light hobby.
On the more serious hobby/activity areas, I am considering writing and some sort of movie making. Like being a filmmaker, director, that sort of thing. It's long been an ambition and interest of mine, and with some modicum of success previously, I would find an easier go of it than someone who had no experience at all.
For the remainder of the month, I still consider myself moving into my apartment. I'm getting a couch delivered on Wednesday. Today I'm going out to order curtains. Very domestic stuff. But I like it. I have been without a home of my own for so long. I like being able to set up my own space.
Well, all for now. Healthy and gradually more happy in Beijing.
Peace,
-J
2007-09-16
Good weekend
This weekend I met with two of my old friends from Shanghai. One was the guy who shot the video for our very first swing dance party back in Christmas 2003. The other was one of my oldest friends back in Shanghai. Both of them were active in the Shanghai Swings group way back. It was really great to see the both of them, because this last week had gotten a little more difficult. Work had been just a touch harder than before, and I was getting tired and needed a good break. Good to see them both.
I am still living in the hotel, but soon I'll be in a position to put down a deposit on an apartment. This is always on my mind and my overriding priority. There are several things which I would like to arrange in my personal affairs. I want to get some new clothes, and get a Mandarin tutor, for instance. It does not make sense to do either of these, because I don't want to haul around a lot more stuff when I move, and I want to be sure my tutor does not live too far from my house.
But the weekend was good, I am feeling much better and recharged.
More later,
-J
2007-09-07
Stuff
It's the end of week 2. Things are pretty good. I met quite a few of my workmates. Plus, and old friend from Shanghai came into Beijing recently. He's doing some sort of program with a local college. And, he's asked me to put together a swing dancing class for his students. Why not? Sounds like fun.
The only big problem is that I haven't got my home sorted out. Thought I did, but then there were some difficulties with the deposit and up-front rent. I'm going to have to wait until I get my first paycheck at the end of the month, but the company was good enough to extend my hotel stay time, so it should all be ok. Wish I had a place, though. It drags on you not to have a home to go back to.
Today after work I went out and played basketball with some of the guys from work. Not too bad. I haven't lost too much skill, and I kept up with them OK. Not that I had too much skill in the first, place, but hey.
So, smooth so far.
-J
2007-08-24
First week in Beijing
Well folks, here's the story...
I'm in Beijing now. It does feel strange to leave my 'home', which is Shanghai. But I went into work the other day and met my co-workers. Everyone is quite nice and they are very enthusiastic to have me on board. I felt quite welcome and even a bit flattered by their response. So, thus far so good.
I am living in a part of the city called Hai Dian. This is considered by some to be 'outside' Beijing. Like living in the suburbs, a bit. It is technically in Beijing, of course, but it's a large town and some parts are very far from others. But, I like the area I am living in. I think I will get an apartment near work so that I can take the subway there and back. The traffic in Beijing is very congested, all the time. So, it seems a better idea to live near work and take the long trips into 'town' rather than living downtown and taking long trips to work every day. I have 30 days in a hotel, paid by the company, to decide on my final apartment location.
As for swing, I am good friends with the local swing dance leader, Adam. As for swing in Shanghai, I'm not much involved anymore. It does feel a bit strange, a bit of a sting, to be outside my old project. As said before, there were tensions between me and the person I left in charge. She took on the project as her own, which is great. But at the same time she seemed to feel my returning was a challenge to her authority. Which, I suppose you could say it was. In any event, I'm trying to remain positive about the whole thing. At least the swing dance community is continuing. Let's let some time go and let the thing work on its own. Perhaps indeed it is time for me to move on anyhow. But it's an emotional issue, which is always complicated.
I do have a small group of friends already here in Beijing. Expats who work in Shanghai very frequently move about. Many of the people I met from swing and in regular life live up here, and that's kind of good.
What else is there? I'm looking now for apartments, as I said. I can afford something halfways decent these days, and I'm going to treat myself on the home situation. For a long time I've been living in not-so-good apartments, or with roommates. Frequently I've moved about. If I add up the total places I've lived in the past four years, I'd say it's at least 12 by now. That can be tiring, changing places all the time. One of the very good things about my current new life is stability. I'll know where I am going to be for at least a year, probably two, and possibly more than that. Plus, I'm in China, which was honestly my preferred location. Plus, I have a job with a future. So, overall, things are pretty good.
I do miss my friends back in Shanghai and in America. It was nice to have gone back to the US to renew my visa. It gave me a chance to see everyone again, although briefly. It also gave me a chance to gather my stuff up, such a personal momentos and clothes and things I had left in the States.
That's about it for now. I started my apartment search today and I think I found the neighborhood in which I want to live. It's near a metro stop near a college town area. There are a lot of restaurants, clubs, and theatres around, and the feeling is very energetic and lively. The prices seem to be reasonable so far, though by no means cheap. But there are many low cost places to eat and drink, so that's a plus.
My official start of work is on Monday. Today is Friday evening. The last three days I have done paperwork, gotten my work and residence permits, and basically gotten ready. I wanted to start work right away, since I've been idle for a while and I'm restless. But there are a few things to do with the paperwork, so I have a four-day weekend. I'm sure I'll be glad that I had this time once I get into the daily grind.
All for now.
-J
2007-08-17
Done in America, heading back
I've spent the last week in the US. I had to return here to renew both my passport and visa, but it turned into a good chance to visit with some of my old family and friends. My brother was in town, so we got to spend some time together. Unfortunately, my mom was away in Montana and my sister in Colorado.
I did see each of my friends once. It's not like the old days. I used to just call them and say, "Hey how about such-and-such bar on Tuesday?" Nowadays, they all have kids. Besides me, all but two of the folks from my old group are married (one of which is currently engaged). Of those married, all have kids, except for one pair who are expecting soon.
SO! Any given evening, their plan is taking care of baby.
I'm the last one!
I'll be looking forward to starting work again. Good company, good opportunity. Country is interesting, lots of potential.
I have thought a lot about my ex-gf from Shanghai while here. I regret that I could not make that work out the way I had hoped. I wanted to, but it did not pan out that way.
I have to go. Only 3 minutes left on the Internet Cafe account. Tomorrow I sell my car, and Saturday I'm a plane back to Shanghai. Next week I move out of my Shanghai apartment and start my new life in Beijing.
Wish me luck!@
-J
2007-07-25
It's a "GO!"
After some amount of back-and-forth, I am happy to say that I have reached an acceptable agreement with the company in Beijing. My start date will be very soon; within a week's time. I'll be moving to Beijing for the foreseeable future. (So Mom, please sell the car!)
The timing on this came down to the wire. My visa expires at the end of this month, and I had set a last-possible-day deadline for myself. Either find some sort of job in China, or start the US job search. It would not have been bad to go to the US, but overall I would prefer to stay in China.
It is with some amount of sadness that I leave Shanghai. It has been my home and my 'original' China city for almost four years. I have a lot of background here, and I know a lot of people. Plus, as I said before, many people have heard of me from the swing dancing, too. Although I am not really that active in the swing dancing anymore, I invested a lot of my heart and energy into it. It was my life for many years.
A friend of mine recently said, "When first come to Shanghai, you can do just about anything. You are getting your feet wet, so feel free to direct movies, teach English, start a company, or even do swing dancing. But", he added, "I always thought you swung for about one year too long."
This may be so. I spent the last year getting the club stable for my departure. It's still running today, with the crew I set up originally. I went to the dance party last night, and it was fun in part but awkward in part, too. My ex- was there, and although we are on good terms it was our first time together in swing dance. But overall it was good. I had a decent time, and I was able to say goodbye to a few folks. So, nice.
Now I begin an entirely new chapter. There is a swing dance club in existance in Beijing. My friend Adam started it at the same time I started one in Shanghai. But he's running it just fine. I won't have the time to commit to it like I used to, and I really am ready for something new. I'll just join as a participant for the time being.
It's going to be a bit odd getting used to Beijing. It's a little different from Shanghai. And also, this gives me a chance (and, indeed, a reason) to drop some of my old bad habits. Such as.... oh... computer games! At least for some time, I'll need to stick to work, exploring Beijing, and making new friends. Not a good time to lose my evenings and weekends to games. Not right now.
With regards to the job, the aforementioned well-known US company is Microsoft. I'll be working in their e-commerce division, and it is an exciting opportunity. Their team is expanding, and there is a potential for promotion as time goes by. There's also many quite decent benefits. Overall, I am pleased with the offer and I am looking forward to this opportunity. It's quite a thing. I walk down the street sometimes and I think, Wow.
I think that is all there is to say for now. I'll be living in temporary housing for about one month while I get situated and find a place of my own in Beijing. So it's really happening. A job with a future, and in China no less. In probably two days I'll be on a plane to go there, so I'm packing today.
Nice!
-J
2007-07-22
Beijing or USA
Hey Folks-
It is Sunday in Shanghai. I'm waiting around a bit. I'll be going to the outdoor swing dance in a few hours to say goodbye to the folks there. One way or another, I will be leaving Shanghai within the week. Either going to Beijing to work with this company, or back to the States if they cannot come up with an acceptable offer. Things seem positive so far. I've been (still) waiting for the HR person to come back from Vacation. Lousy timing, that. But I've got a chance to meet with some of my Shanghai friends and say goodbye properly. Not fun business, saying goodbye. But it's good to see them all.
Yesterday I went with my (recent) ex- to the Cirque du Soliel (sp?). It's playing here in Shanghai. Good show, really. Acrobats, clowns, and all sorts of neat things. A really impressive show. It's the first one I've ever seen by that company. I guess they have eight different groups touring the world right now, so good stuff.
I must admit I'm feeling a bit of anxiety. Going to Beijing will be a good opportunity career-wise, but it's not my home. There's so much history here in Shanghai. Just last night I went to dinner with my ex-, a friend who recently moved from Beijing, and a friend of his. Halfway through the dinner, the waiter asked, Are you the guy who teaches swing dancing? Turns out the waiter had worked at a previous place where we held a party. It's really neat running into things like that. About a month ago, I was also out with the ex- at a small games bar (board games and such). A guy was playing Settlers of Catan, which is a huge game in my group back in the States. It is the first game set I've ever seen in Shanghai, so I was watching and trying to explain the rules to my girl.
About five minutes into it, one of the players said, Maybe you can put on some swing music? I thought I did not hear him right. I asked, Why do you know about that? He said, Oh, you're Jimbo. You do the swing dancing and also danced the Monkey King on TV. You're the next big star!
Chris hates when stuff like that happens. She always says, How come they never remember ME? I love it, personally. It gives me a sense of continuity. A sense of accomplishment at pride. I don't see that sort of thing happening in Beijing. I'm going to be just another foreigner.
But in all honesty, I was never able to turn the name-and-face recognition into something financially feasible. I suppose if I were a show business minded person, I could have. I suppose I still have an opportunity or a chance to do so. But if I go to work in Beijing, that's going to be the end of that, at least for two years. After such time, who knows?
I've been SAYING I'm going to write a book on the Shanghai Swings experience. People I talk to think it's a good idea, and say it's probably a good sell. I have been taking notes and writing character interaction charts and plotlines. I haven't really been doing much WRITING day to day, however. It's a hard thing to do a writing project. A very lonely experience, and it takes a lot of time. Plus, unlike the blog, there's no immediate interraction by people. They dont send you and email commenting on what's been going on, or even know about it. With a book you have to wait until it's entirely finished.
Still, I like the idea. It will give me something to show for my time here.
My ex- and I had not talked for several weeks. I broke it off with here while I was in Beijing, and thought it would be a good idea to take some time off from contact. Besides, I am either moving to Beijing or the US in about a week. Either way you look at it, there's a big problem. I suppose she would have considered moving to Beijing with me. If I had no doubts (or just reasonable doubts) about our relationship, I would have considered that. As it stands from our conversation yesterday, she seems to understand a lot more about the concerns I have in the relationship. She's knowing a lot more about my personality and her own, as well. However, it is a bit of bad timing. I'm heading out to somewhere very soon.
I think in the long term there is still a possibility. I can't say for sure. I'm not a young young man, anymore. I'm not an old-old man, either. I'm a young middle aged man. How about that? I'm not so convinced about the merits of marriage and children, but I have thought about it more recently. The big 4-0 is coming up in a few years. I think that before that time would probably be a good idea. But there's not much time before that, is there? You can't start and develop a relationship and know what its going to be like without spending at least a year with someone. And sometimes, that's not enough time, either.
I should not worry too much. These things have a way of working themselves out. But I want to plan ahead, you know. I want to make good decisions, and practical decisions, too.
Overall, I like China. I would rather be in Shanghai if I could, but Beijing has most of what I like about Shanghai. If I must go back to the States, it won't be the worst thing in the world, of course. Last time I was back I did not exactly have "fun", but it was good seeing the family again.
So, that's about it for now. In two days I will have my answer from the Beijing company, and I'll definitely give a holler about what happens.
Peace,
-J
2007-07-15
Job Update
Hello Folks-
The news is, the company in Beijing has stated they want to hire me. It's not a done deal yet; I am still negotiating for a suitable package. But I sent them my last offer, which is pretty much my 'final' offer, and the HR person says it sounds reasonable and they will probably be able to meet it.
The person in charge is on vacation next week, so I will not have an answer until then. That kind of sucks, because my visa expires at the end of July and I need to be ready to go back to the US if for some reason the job does not work out. I think it will, but in hiring you never know what can happen. I'm keeping the champagne on ice for the moment.
In other news, what other news? Not too much else to report. I'm spending the week in Shanghai relaxing and meeting with my old friends. Not much going on. I'd really rather just get to work right away rather than wait a week, but it's not such a bad thing.
So, if this deal closes, I'll be moving to Beijing within a two weeks. I'll have a temporary housing situation until I can find a permanent place. At the point where the offer is 'real', I'll post what details I can. I think it is unlucky to talk to much about a deal until it has been closed. Same thing as if you have a hot date coming up. Better not to talk about it beforehand. I don't know why. I'm not superstitious, but I think it's something psychological. It's bad to get your expectations up too much, because it leaves you mentally unprepared to handle those problems which can (and will) arise.
Overall, I prefer Shanghai to Beijing. The people in Shanghai are more open and friendly towards foreigners (i.e.: me). But in Beijing everyone speaks the same language, Mandarin. In Shanghai they all speak Mandarin, but they have their own dialect of Shanghainese. You can't understand it if you are a Mandarin speaker.
One thing I will miss is when I am walking down the street and I see an old friend. Every week I run into someone I have not seen in some years. It's a little like a 'club', being a foreigner. You tend to give each other the time of day, much moreso than you would back in your home country.
So, things are looking positive. I am, as they say, cautiously optimistic.
Peace out,
-J
2007-07-12
Hello!
2007-07-10
Interview
Today I had a phone interview for a job in Beijing with a well-known American company. Its the job in my specialty field. The first thing the interviewer said was, "Well, if you are talking to me that's good news already."
It was a one-hour interview, during which the expected questions were asked regarding my technical specialty, my approaches to work, and my ability to speak Chinese (which is considered an 'extra' rather than a prerequisite in this case.) At one point, the interviewer asked a question about the 'highest-level' meeting I have ever had to present. I gave him an example from my Silicon Valley days, in which I met with the heads of IT from two different merging companies. Taking into account the sensitive nature of the topic and the personalities of the people involved, I arranged them around the table so that the most quiet member was located in the center. I ran through the plan for which applications we could keep, and which ones we would replace. And, I told the interviewer, I arranged to have a pizza delivered about 1 1/2 hours into the meeting. It was around lunch time, so everyone would be hungry. Plus, I anticipated that by this point the tensions would have raised pretty high. I figured the extra blood sugar would help everyone, and when the pizza arrived (which was a surprise to everyone) I said, "OK, no more talk about work. Lunch time!"
In fact, they did continue to talk about work, but at a much relieved pace. It was during this time that the solutions actually came about. Everyone sat back a bit and agreed to the general plan.
The interviewer said, "That's the best answer I've ever heard to that question. And I've interviewed thousands of people!"
This seems to be a good sign. Of course, nothing is for certain. Even if the people like you and you fit the position, schedules and budgets can change at the last minute. You never really know what will happen for sure.
My visa is expiring in 20 days from now. This has been my personal deadline for stay-or-go. So in the end, when I was to ask questions, first I asked about the technologies the job would be using. Then I asked, what is your time frame on making a decision, one way or the other?
He said it would be 3-4 days, and I would hear an answer either way. This is a very imporant courtesy that most interviewers don't do anymore. When I was out of college, you could expect a rejection letter or an acceptance letter if you have an interview. But in the past several years, if the news is bad, you don't hear anything at all. This is of course worse, because you can be waiting around for something which does not happen.
So that's the story. I was very excited after the interview, and I've been chilling out for a few hours. So now I'm going to get some rest. I think I will be heading back to Shanghai very soon, because I've done what I came to Beijing for. Whether I get the job or not, I have to be back in Shanghai because all my stuff is there and my apartment is there.
More updates in 3-4 days!
-J
2007-07-03
Changes
This is a bit different from the usual entries. I had been dating my dance partner, Chris, for a long time. We were together in Shanghai for about a year and a half, then when I returned to the US I broke it off after a few months.
When I got back to Shanghai, I realized I still had feelings for her. At the time, she said she had moved on, which I took as a bit of a small shock, but I decided that it would be best to accept it. I had, in fact, been the one to break it off.
In time, however, we did get back together again. But after a few months, the problems which had been there before were there again. It is a bit sad, in its way, because I would have really liked a different ending to this. I broke it off with her again, and I think this time is different. She is not happy with this, of course, and I can't blame her. I feel guilty for asking her out again, then dropping it, again.
In the long run, I think it is the right thing to do, but it does not feel very good. She's quite upset with me. We are going to stay out of contact for a while. Not too hard, since I am in Beijing and she in Shanghai. The sad thing of it all, is she is my stongest supporter in many ways. Up until now, she's probably the person I could count on for just about anything. Our problems instead stemmed from a difference of personality, or several differences. It really is too bad.
FYI, I am in Beijing and I did arrange to get the on-site interview with the company I was trying to contact. I think the interview went well, and now I am waiting for a follow-up phone interview. I hope I get the position, of course. If I do, I will move to Beijing as soon as can be arranged. If I don't, it's pretty likely I'll be back in the States. Right now in my career I need to find a position which broadens my skill base. And so on, and so on.
Sometimes I think about it. I'm 37 now and not married. Most of my friends are married with kids already. And there's a certain practical nature. You don't want to be the 60 year old with the 20 year old kid, but that's what I'm in line for if I ever to get married. Sometimes I think I am not the marrying type. I am, by some descriptions, a difficult person to get close to. I'd say this is true. Sometimes I think I'd be better off a lifelong bachelor. I do respect my other friends who are married with kids, but I don't envy any of their situations. I don't visit them and see their lives and say, "Hey, that's what I want."
Breaking off with Chris is a dissapointment in many ways, but it has me thinking. I suppose right now it is just as well to continue to focus on work. I do need to get a stable job going. The swing dancing thing was fun (mostly), and it did get me to a new place in life, but I am really ready for the next stage. What that is exactly, I'm not sure. But I am sure ready to get back to work. From then, I will have options and can make some choices.
All for now. Hope you are all well out there (all two of you!)
Last note, regarding swing. I have pretty much stopped all of my involvement in the swing group. I had a falling out of sorts with the woman who I appointed to manage it. I intended to remain in charge, with her managing all day to day activities and me overseeing it. As such, she was not happy with the arrangement. I did consider trying to wrest control back. I thought about this quite a lot. Emotionally, it's what I wanted to do. But practically, it was not feasible. It's not a money making enterprise. It *does* take a great deal of time. And most of all, I have no guarantee I will be able to remain in Shanghai to oversee it if I did take over. All I would be doing is disrupting the society and possibly causing it to break down. But now, especially with the break with my former dance partner, I really don't see myself being able to go at all.
In the end, I think there are good things to come of this. I am happy the society is continuing. This means what I put in place has made a mark on society. In its own small way, perhaps making the world a better place. I also can be proud that the systems, training, and methods I put in place were reliable. So reliable, in fact... well you know.
In the end, I think a great deal about the help my former assistant manager gave to me. She was a volunteer for two and a half years. My most reliable person, and about the seventh regular student we ever had. She was also a confidant; I told her many stories and personal things. An ear to listen, if you will. And, she is continuing my work, so there is some comfort in that. We are presently on cordial terms, and I'm not even in Shanghai anymore, so things will all work out fine.
Perhaps you are wondering about Beijing. How is it different than Shanghai? Well, it, too, has a swing dance club. As a matter of fact, right now I am staying in the apartment of the founder of Swing Beijing. He's off to Herrang, Sweden, for a five-week swing dance camp. i'm here, in his apartment, waiting for my next interview and looking around Beijing in the meanwhile. I think I could be perfectly happy here, provided I have the job of course.
That is all for now. Again, hope you are all well.
Peace out,
-J
2007-06-30
Today
Today I did my first signficant-potential interview. It was in Beijing with a well-known American company. I think it is a good fit in the position. I interviewed with three people at the same time. It lasted just short of two hours. To me, it seemed like 15 minutes.
I hope it was well received. I am optimistic, but there's a lot running on this working out. It would be right in many ways. First, it is in my specialty. Second, it is with a good company. And third, it is in China, which gives me a chance to remain her and advance my career at the same time.
A telephone interview with staff in the US was scheduled for Saturday morning, but it has since been rescheduled. I am telling myself that is because my Saturday morning is their Friday afternoon, so it's quite likely a person could be busy. But when it is important, you can't help but care about it.
Wish me luck!
-J
2007-06-24
Second day in Beijing
Hello Folks-
I am in my second day in Beijing. I have a very nice apartment that my friend is letting me stay at. There is a pool and a workout gym in the basement. Yesterday we went to the Summer Palace, which is an enourmous park and bridge and palace combination. It took about an hour to walk around the entire circle. It was quite interesting. Apparently, this massive lake there was not natural. It was dug because the emperor wanted a lotus pond. I cant imagine digging the whole thing by hand, but I guess you can say that is the power of many hands at work, yes?
Beijing has proved not to be the friendliest place. My initial impression is not a winner. The taxi driver I first dealt with first could not understand the street name I was saying to him. Possibly an honest miscomunication. Then, once he figured it out, he looked over at me and said, 50 kuai (a slang term for RMB, like saying 'bucks' for American currency.) I knew the place was very closeby, and at most if he used the meter it would be 15rmb. So, I told him to *&^& you and got out and slammed the door. After that the other drivers didn't want to work with me, so I had to walk around the block to find a new taxi group.
After this, I did find Jouni, my friend, and he's been good so far. Very nice, and he will let me stay in his place indefinitely. He said another friend of his stayed there a week and a half, so that's my schedule.
Beijing is filled with foreigners. I could especially feel it after beijing in Nanjing where there were almost none. It's a bit dissapointing to see so many foreigners. It's like bejing in New York or something. Plus, the people here look younger, somehow, than the foreigners in Shanghai. I think there are a lot of college kids out here.
Last night I met up with a friend of mine from the Beijing swing dance group. He brought with him his cousin and a friend of his, both 18. I could not help but feel old. I'm 19 years older than them, and they are 18 years old!! We had a nice dinner, though, then went out to see the bar streets in Beijing. They are OK, but again filled with so many young foreigners. I did find a nice shop selling canes and walkers, though, so it was not a total loss. I turned in a bit early, having just arrived that day on the sleeper train, gone swimming, seen the summer palace, then dinner and a night out. I was a bit tuckered out by midnight, because, as you can see on the list of activites, I did not take my afternoon nap... That will get to the old folks like me...
The good news is that everyone in China thinks I am in my 20's. Apparently, I am outwardly well preserved. Thats'a'nice.
Today I got up and went to the internet cafe, were I am now. I am not 'feeling' beijing. If I get the job offer, I will stay here, but otherwise I'm not going to spend too much more time here. The good news is that I found a good 'next' place to go. Dailan, which is near the Korean border. It has a beach, there are not too many foreigners, and the people there speak standard Mandarin (not a local dialext or heavily accented version of the lanaguge.) I found I liked being in places without a massive amount of foreigners. If I wanted to be in such a place, I'd go back to Shanghai, where I know people and places and can get along a little easier.
On to the long term plans. I am thinking now, more and more, that if this current job offer does not take place or is not good enough, it is almost definitely a return to America after about 30 days from now. I am going to think on it, but this return would almost surely be without a plan to return to Shanghai. There's just not any great opportunities here. Granted, it is more fun, but lacking the swing group responsibility and any other sort of real job, I think its time to move on.
I am outlining a book right now on my Shanghai Swing adventures. Yesterday I met a woman who works at a publishing house. They only publish in China, but it could prove useful. Who knows? The tricky part now is actually writing it, completing it. I'm going to make is short in length so that I have some hope of getting it to the end.
All for now,
-J
2007-06-23
Saturday in Beijing
Hello Folks-
On Wednesday I had a feeling I should leave Nanjing. That's what I like about impulse traveling; as soon as you feel like going, you get on a train and go. It's the best freedom. BUT, for some reason I hesitated. I thought it would be a good idea to stay one more day in Nanjing. It wasn't really. I did not do much during the day. But in the night, I took a train to Beijing. This was pretty cool.
From Nanjing to Beijing is over 8 hours by train. I took the 'sleeper' car, which is four bunks to a room. Two bunks on the floor, two above (bunkbead style). They've got a pretty nice setup on the train. I had dinner in the dinner car. Actually, it was quite good. I just had nui rou mien (beef noodles), but it was very tasty. Then I went back to the bunk. It turns out that at the foot of each bunk is your own TV set, plus earphones you can use to listen to it. Nice. I didn't want to watch TV, but in case I go again I'll try it.
The train hummed along at a pretty good speed. It had a hypnotic affect, and I was soon asleep. I woke up the next morning, and I was in Beijing, and the sun was up. The beds were not too hard or too soft, and I actually slept better there than I have in the hotels I've stayed in. The only downside of the sleeper train is that is is relatively expensive by China standards. 400rmb Nanjing to Beijing, which is about $50. That does not sound like much for such a deal in the US, but you can stay at a near-luxury hotel for 400rmb per night (if you know where to look).
Today I walked out of the train station and had breakfast. I've been to Beijing before. Took the train in once before as well. I knew the area and felt comfortable enough. Last time I came here was with the swing dance crew, over 2 years ago for the Shanghai-Beijing swing dance exchange.
So, now its time to talk about work. I am taking this trip for a few reasons, but one of them is that there is a potential interview here. That does not make much sense, really -- to take a train to Beijing for a *potential* interview, but I did want to travel anyhow. I also thought it might "push" the process along to say, "I'm in Beijing just this one week. Can we meet now for a quick interview?" It's a large corporation and they tend to move like molasses. Gotta poke 'em with a stick from time to time.
Erstwhile, I am getting almost daily offers for work back in the US. Short-term EDI contracts in different cities. Boca Rotan (sp?) Florida. Los Angeles. Some in Chicago. I don't think I'd go back to Chicago this time, not specifically. If I can arrange a job offer, I think I'd go back to California, or to the East Coast. Some place interesting. Chicago was OK, and it was great to see my family again, but blah blah blah. It was boring. I could not help but get the "Here we are again" feeling coming back to where I started from.
I don't know what Beijing will be like. I am sampling the life here. There is an existing swing dance group, which I could participate in if I decide to get back into that. I don't think I'd teach or organize, just go and have fun. It's about time for that, no? Maybe hold a party once a year or something.
But I want to see what day to day life is like. Are the people friendly? Is the nightlife good? How to the taxi drivers treat you? Do people try to cheat you, and in what ways? How much is housing, and can a person enjoy themselves here?
I noticed in Nanjing that because of the very few foreigners in the city, I was treated especially different. Just to talk to a foreigner (me) who speaks English is an event. Plus, very few people spoke English, and those who did spoke it poorly. My Chinese was better than their English, and that is the crucial ingredient for learning. I could stay there, and every day everyone I met would speak Chinese with me. There are some major merits in that as opposed to staying in Shanghai. I also understand the rents are very low. If I were spending unemployed time, it would be much cheaper to do so in Najing than in Shanghai, and I would be improving my language. Let's see what happens on that one. Not saying anything now.
So if there is a job offer with a somewhat reasonable salary from this company in Beijing, I'm almost positively going to take it. If the job offer does not come, or the salary is ridiculous, I'm going to cherry-pick the offers from the States and take the one that makes the most sense, based upon salary, potential to learn new skills, and location. Every now and then, when I think of it, I'm in a great position. Really.
So I'm going to visit with my friend Jouni. He's letting me stay in his guest room. Jouni is Finnish. I met him in my first month in Shanghai during my apartment search. Back in those days, you ran into anyone who spoke English, they were your best new friend. But Jouni has lasted the test of time, and I have seen him even though he's moved back and forth to Shanghai, Tokyo, Beijing, and I think India for a while. Jouni was the archetypical "mobile" foreigner. I remembered looking upon his life with envy, seeing new cities while I remained here in Shanghai, doing the same swing dancing club promotion every week. Such as it is, now I am mobile, and I think this suits me.
Not too long ago, someone asked me, can you be happy with a life like that? Would you want to be moving from one city to another every several months, then returning to Shanghai just on occasion to rest? Damn straight I'd be happy with that. I've noticed that I like to 'change' people very often. Even in the short-term. If I have hung out with one person for 24 hours, at that point I like to say, "Hey, that was fun. See you next week, ok?" Even if it was a good time, even if they are the greatest person in the world. I just like to change often. It doesn't mean we won't stay long-term friends, but I like a variety of things. I also very much like the idea of keeping an apartment in Shanghai while I am on my job assignments in America. I have for a very long time felt like I had no 'home'. I don't, either. But I could rent a place in Shanghai, or even buy one. I could work 50% of the time in America, and still probably afford the mortgage in Shanghai (or Beijing, or wherever). I like the prospect of that. That is an acceptable future for me.
All for now. I am at a coffee shop. Drinking coffee. After I will drop off my bag at my friend Jouni's place then take a trip to the Forbidden City, or Summer Palace, or something.
Peace out,
Jimbo
2007-06-21
After some long silence, here's whats up
Obviously, I have not been keeping up this blog very often. When I came to China the first time, the blog was a survival technique. No matter what happened, I could at least write about it and people back home would know about it. Know that I'm used to China, I guess you could say I dont need it so much. And I dont think it's all quite as interestng as it was in the beginning, but lately there's some good stuff to tell.
I have had a long term girlfriend out here for a long time. We broke up when I last went to the States. At that time I had returned to Chicago and I had no idea if and when I'd ever be back in Shanghai. Add to this the problems a normal relationship would have, and there it is.
However, upon returning, I met up with her again, and realized I had many feelings still for her. We broke up while I was in the US and she out in China. But to see her again in person was surprisingly difficult. I didn't think I'd make any problems of it, but I eventually did tell her I still had feelings for her. At first, she was pretty much past it. She said, We tried, but it didn't work. And she had 'sort of' begun to date someone else by this point. I figured it was something to let go of, so I did what I could to put it past me. But you know...
About two weeks later we ended up getting back together again. And it's been good in many ways and difficult in others. The problems we had in our relationship are still there, though a little more defined and acknowledged by both parties. But it's hard to relax. That's a big problem. On the other had, there's so much to be appreciated. That's the big complication.
All of this is pretty much a moot point, since my #1 problem now is finding some sort of a job which would keep me gainfully employed in China, with a good future. Many people ask, what does that mean, a Good Future? For me it's simple: One in which I buy a house. I want property. Not too complex or outlandish and idea, but a harder thing to do today than for any generation previously. Be that as it may...
My first few interviews in China did not go so well. Everyone told me about the same thing: we have no need for your paricular speciality (B2B E-commerce), and your Chinese -- though decent -- is not 'fluent'. It was variations on a theme, but in the end everyone said more or less the same phrase: We like your resume but we dont have any positions for which you qualify right now.
It did get to me, I must admit. Not because I'm a quitter (well, maybe...), but mostly because the challenge of finding a job in the US for me is nil. I am approached several times each week by recruiters. It's just a matter of picking the city, picking the assignment, and negotiating a price. And relative to a China payscale, I could work four months in America, then move to China and do absolutely nothing for eight, and I still would be better off than working full time in China.
This is the dilema which has been the center of my issues since I moved back to the US about a year ago. China = fun and no money. US = money and no fun. The only practical realistic solution would be to find some sort of *marginally* acceptable salary in China, but in a job position which allows me to develop my skills and make myself more marketable.
My specialty of EDI has been a boon overall. I cannot complain. It has provided me with financial independence and given me many choices I would not otherwise have. There is still an enormous market in the US for it, and jobs are a-plenty. But I did feel the lack of interest in it in the China market. I also have heard that internationally, there is not much use of or call for EDI. No matter how you look at it, I have 10 years in to EDI without too much experience in anything else too deeply (unless you count swing dancing).
There is but one position which sounded interesting enough to pursue. I'm not going to say too much about it, but it is with a big name company, and it is located in Beijing.
Over the last several weeks in Shanghai, I have been feeling a bit down about the job search. I've been going through it, but I felt a lack of energy and drive that is necessary to pull off getting a job. No one's going to hire a bloke who can't get enthusiastic about the interview process.
I looked at my chances overall, and I decided that there is a very real chance I won't be finding any good jobs in China. I decided it would be better to pursue some sort of work which offers good pay AND lets me expand my skill set. And the only place to do that, realistically, is in the US.
SO...
I am currently taking some time "off" from Shanghai and traveling around China. It's amazing, since I only left on Tuesday (today being Thursday). Yet it feels like I've been living an entire month of experiences. I am meeting people every day, and my Chinese is now good enough to do entire introductions, conversations, and essentially make friends with people who can speak no English at all. It's also a great boon for my Chinese studying skills.
I am currently in Nanjing. I am on my way up to Beijing, and I have not decided exactly when I'm going to arrive there. I have two friends in Beijing who have offered the use of their homes there. I figure I'll spend 2-3 days with each of them.
About Nanjing. First of all, you may notice the names Beijing and Nanjing both end with 'Jing". Yes, that's a deep observation, I can tell you. But furthermore, "Nan" means "South", and "Bei" means "North". And, "Jing" means "Capitol". So, indeed the names Beijing and Nanjing mean "North Capitol" and "South Capitol" respectively.
The Chinese don't really "name" their cities like English-speakers do. They very frequently just "describe" them, as in the case above. Even the name the Chinese use to refer to their own country is like this: They call it "Zhongguo". Zhong means "Center", or "Central". "Guo" means "Country."
Once you get past some certain difficulties in the language, it becomes much easier to learn Chinese. Eventually someone tells you a new two-syllable word, and you know the meanings of both the first and second syllable. You can sometimes guess the entire meaning, but even if you can't guess its meaning, it is easier to remember.
So, I am on my tour of China. I don't remember how much I talked about the swing dance group in China, but I'm still quite upset about the state of affairs there. I left the group still under my management in the hands of my old assistant. Who proceeded to declare herself the leader of the group and told me to go pound sand. This was just two months after I left Shanghai.
Were there any good reason to try to re-establish control over the group, I would do so. But in the end, the only reason to try to do this would be because of my emotions. I feel robbed, cheated, and lied to, etc. But the group does not make significant money, and it requires a great deal of time (often) to run. And, futhermore, if I did re-establish control over it, I may need to again leave Shanghai again, at which point the future would be quite uncertain. In the better interest of Swing in general, I decided to let the coup go on unopposed, but I can't say I feel good about it. I stopped going to the events entirely, after soem time. I kept feeling very bad after every dance. I could not see the reason to go to a social function and feel bad afterwards, so I just stopped going.
So, without a definite job, and poor prospects for getting a good-paying job, and no responsibility or even association with the swing group anymore, I was idling in Shanghai. Nothing to do but visit some friends, see the nightlife. But Shanghai nightlife is not new to me. It's fun, for sure, but nightlife alone does not a life make. I was wasting too much time, no studying effectively, and not feeling too well. So I decided I would do one of the things I always wish I had time for before: travel around China.
During my 2.5 years running swing, I never took a vacation. This does not mean I worked every day of every week. But I never left Shanghai. Not even for a weekend, because weekends were the time we taught and did dance parties. As a result, I didn't see anything else of China but Shanghai.
Now, I'm making the most of my situation and traveling around. I got some blogs of other travelers and got ideas and suggestions of where to go and where to stay. But pretty much I just pick up, decide on a city, go to the train station, and I'm off. I'm not exactly 'backpacking". I always laugh at people walking down the street in Shanghai wearing a backpack. That would be like backpacking to New York City. I mean, really, take the subway already.
But I have a small bag with two changes of clothes. I'm mini-packing.
The thing which has been most remarkable is that I have been able to meet people and make friends right off the bat. Granted, these are usually girls, but I suppose that's the way it's going to be. Very few Chinese guys would approach a foreigner who is sitting around looking bored and say, hey how are you?
Nanjing is different from Shanghai. I have not seen but a handfull of foreigners here. I'm not counting the day I went to the tourist site, where there we several dozen. But on the street, walking around in the daytime, and the one time I went to the 'bar' street, there were no foreigners at all.
I get more surprised, and different looks from people here. They are not expecting to see me, and they are a little taken aback. I have heard you can get a strange reaction if you go to a small town. But I have definitely felt the difference here. I can imagine what a small town will feel like. More on that later.
The first night, I took a boat to visit a small island. A girl was on the boat, and I said something to her in Chinese. At which point she was impressed that I could speak Chinese and we ended up talking the entire afternoon, looking at the island and such. It was a bit hard, though, because she spoke at a frenzied pace. I could only get a few words out each sentence, and despite my repeated requests to slow down, she just would go back to full speed a few minutes later.
The next day I met another girl, with whom I visitited some of the tourist sites and walked around town. I must admit I do like the attention. And I do like the opportunity to speak Chinese and practice.
Next stop is probably going to be Beijing, even though I'm going to have to take an 8-hour train to get there. They have 'soft sleeper' trains here, which means I'd take the 930pm train and arrive the next day, being able to sleep on the train all night. As a swing dance group, we once took a train from Shanghai to Beijing with regular seats. This, I must tell you, was a very unplesant experience. The seats do not recline in the least, and they have you up at an almost 90 degree angle. Not a single one of us could sleep. Plus, to add insult to injury, the train had a big LED clock in the front of the cabin. It displayed, constantly, minute-by-minute, the time. Wow. So this I'm I'm getting the sleeper. I hear its fun to take the sleeper with a group of folks. Bring along a bottle of wine, some cards, tell ghost stories. Then wake up in Beijing. Nice.
All for now. I'm off to dinner. Tomorrow evening I take the train to Beijing. WIll update then.
Peace,
Jimbo
2007-02-02
Its a Friday in Shanghai
Today is Friday night. I went out late last night, and I am going to an early-morning Mandarin lesson, so tonight I'm taking it easy.
I'm still feeling a little sensitive about the ex-. It's still just sinking in the implications of our separation. I think that in the back of my head, I had actually hoped she would have wanted to get together again when I came back. As stupid as this sounds, I was a bit surprised. I think that's the crux of it.
While I am seeing a lot of friends here, and I do have my job search to keep me occupied, it's much colder without her in my life, I feel. I'm not going to dwell on this any further, but to say that there were reasons we broke up in the first place, and I should trust my judgement at that time which told me to get out.
Today I went shopping. This sounds trivial, of course, but I went shopping in Chinese (the language, that is.) I was pleased to find that I actually have improved quite a bit. I can hold a decent conversation with people now, and also I'm much better at learning new words just through conversation and asking people questions. Today's words are:
pi3 dai4 (belt). Measure word: gan4.
Interestingly enough, the word "pi" (pronouced 'pee') is the same word used to say 'skin' or pifu.
The other word of the day is hong2 lu4 deng1. Traffic light.
Literally, this means "red green light". Cool, huh?
I had dinner with the operator of a local expat website. The website is known by just about everyone in the Shanghai community. Its used to find events, personals, sell things, and so forth. The operator is the guy who helped me find my Shanghai apartment. I took him and his wife to dinner as thanks for that. Because of him, when I landed I had an awesome apartment waiting for me. Talk about cool.
In our dinner discussion, I talked to him a lot about how much things have changed in just six months. People are different, almost every interpersonal dating relationship is different. The swing dance locations are different, and the people are *mostly* different. He said, 'why dont you write up that as an article? We'll post it on the website. You can even put in at the end, 'if anyone needs and EDI coordinator please call Jimbo.' " Of course, I accepted. I haven't written anything yet, but I'm not going to turn that down.
Ah yes, lonely. I was not lonely when *she* was in my life. Crazy, maybe. Frustrated, maybe. But not lonely. I felt there was someone there, specifically for ME. Someone who cared a great deal, and, well, I said I would not dwell on that, didn't I?
Tomorrow I get up early in the morning and go to a Chinese bookstore. I meet with one of my tutors, and we pick out a book. Tonight I watched a DVD. Did you know you can watch Apocoypto with Russian language subtitles, and you still understand the entire story? Its true. You can even understand the meaning of the dialog in most every part. Of course, that movie was pretty straightforward. The typical story of boy meets girl, boy has baby with girl. Boy has another baby soon about to come out of girl. Boy hides baby and girl in bottom of pit. Boy is carried away to be sacrificed on a Mayan pyramid. Boy is saved by a total eclipse of the sun, and boy runs-runs-runs-runs all the way home to girl and baby and new baby. Oh, and then the Westernerns come. Hope I didn't ruin it for you. Still worth seeing.
Trying to sleep now. Should be easy enough.
Peace,
Jim
I'm still feeling a little sensitive about the ex-. It's still just sinking in the implications of our separation. I think that in the back of my head, I had actually hoped she would have wanted to get together again when I came back. As stupid as this sounds, I was a bit surprised. I think that's the crux of it.
While I am seeing a lot of friends here, and I do have my job search to keep me occupied, it's much colder without her in my life, I feel. I'm not going to dwell on this any further, but to say that there were reasons we broke up in the first place, and I should trust my judgement at that time which told me to get out.
Today I went shopping. This sounds trivial, of course, but I went shopping in Chinese (the language, that is.) I was pleased to find that I actually have improved quite a bit. I can hold a decent conversation with people now, and also I'm much better at learning new words just through conversation and asking people questions. Today's words are:
pi3 dai4 (belt). Measure word: gan4.
Interestingly enough, the word "pi" (pronouced 'pee') is the same word used to say 'skin' or pifu.
The other word of the day is hong2 lu4 deng1. Traffic light.
Literally, this means "red green light". Cool, huh?
I had dinner with the operator of a local expat website. The website is known by just about everyone in the Shanghai community. Its used to find events, personals, sell things, and so forth. The operator is the guy who helped me find my Shanghai apartment. I took him and his wife to dinner as thanks for that. Because of him, when I landed I had an awesome apartment waiting for me. Talk about cool.
In our dinner discussion, I talked to him a lot about how much things have changed in just six months. People are different, almost every interpersonal dating relationship is different. The swing dance locations are different, and the people are *mostly* different. He said, 'why dont you write up that as an article? We'll post it on the website. You can even put in at the end, 'if anyone needs and EDI coordinator please call Jimbo.' " Of course, I accepted. I haven't written anything yet, but I'm not going to turn that down.
Ah yes, lonely. I was not lonely when *she* was in my life. Crazy, maybe. Frustrated, maybe. But not lonely. I felt there was someone there, specifically for ME. Someone who cared a great deal, and, well, I said I would not dwell on that, didn't I?
Tomorrow I get up early in the morning and go to a Chinese bookstore. I meet with one of my tutors, and we pick out a book. Tonight I watched a DVD. Did you know you can watch Apocoypto with Russian language subtitles, and you still understand the entire story? Its true. You can even understand the meaning of the dialog in most every part. Of course, that movie was pretty straightforward. The typical story of boy meets girl, boy has baby with girl. Boy has another baby soon about to come out of girl. Boy hides baby and girl in bottom of pit. Boy is carried away to be sacrificed on a Mayan pyramid. Boy is saved by a total eclipse of the sun, and boy runs-runs-runs-runs all the way home to girl and baby and new baby. Oh, and then the Westernerns come. Hope I didn't ruin it for you. Still worth seeing.
Trying to sleep now. Should be easy enough.
Peace,
Jim
2006-09-18
Hello, Hello again.
These days I'm simply Jim again. I have gone back to computer consulting. It's different. The one vital difference, of course, is that now I actually am making a living. The other vital difference, is , of course, that I am now the guy-who-used-to-be-the-guy-from-Shanghai-Swings.
It has been a very difficult adjustment coming back to America. As I said before, I was living in my mom's basement for about one month. I didn't know at the time how long I'd be there. I had just arrived, and my cash was down so low that I could not afford to buy a car, or even to put down a payment on an apartment. That's pretty low. I got a high-speed modem installed at my mom's, and I spend most every day searching for jobs back in the e-commerce field. I kept on thinking, How did I get back here again?
But there have been benefits to coming back. By lucky coincidence, my sister and her husband and their daughter were in town. I spent about two weeks with them. I also got to spend a decent amount of time with my mom and stepdad. But eventually, I knew it was about getting that first job. It was a trick, too, since the last two years of resume read: Swing Dancing in Shanghai. Please hire this guy, he has a wicked swingout...
But no. It's true, there was a lot of resistance when people ran into that line. They said, "Huh?" "Does this guy still remember it?"
Here's the highlights of job search: First weeks - feel out the market, try to judge the current demands. Figure out what the new technology is. Has anything changed since you left (answer = YES!) Update resume. Take phone calls. Take more phone calls. They ask for more information on the resume. Update resume again. Do you know UNIX? No? Do you know GIS? No? Update resume again. Contact old bosses. Add them to reference list. Update resume again. Fly to New Jersey for an interview. Get job offer new Ohare airport. Suddenly, everything falls through. Back to zero. Get job offer in south suburbs of Chicago. Less pay than you wanted! Three months contract. Take it.
That's how it went. Now those three months are up. I estimate I have two weeks left until I solve all of the problems they needed solving. In the process, I have remembered everything I used to know, plus I have learned much more.
I have also gained a huge amount of weight! America is filled with crap food! Fat, fat, protien, and sugar. That's the diet here. Plus, I went from King of Swing to Desk Jockey. Very little exercise.
And here's what is different about America since I left:
* TV: Everything is a reality show. (But, if you are an American, you already now this). The TV is filled with dozens of competition-type shows, where people compete with irrelevant or professional skills to win the PRIZE, which is something like money or fame.
* Food: It's actually the same, but I see it for the first time now. So much garbage in the food here! Fat and sugar. Available everywhere. Seen an Arby's commercial? If I ate what they are listing, I'd go into diabetic shock.
* People: One thing, though, I feel much older than I did when I was in Shanghai. Part of it is that I have not been in the Chicago area for a long time. Ten years. And when I was last here, I was a college student / recent grad. Now when I look at the college students, they seem like, well, they are not old enough to be in college, you know?
* Money: Everything is more expensive now. It seems like everyone in-the-know things the American economy is going to collapse, so they are charging as much as possible and selling homes for as much as possible so they can get their cash before the bubble bursts. Homes in my own town cost almost half a million dollars. I saw prices like this when I was in California, but I did not expect to see them in the reasonably far-away suburbs.
* And, dating.
New topic.
For the past one and a half years, my steady girlfriend and best friend has been Chris, my dance partner. Actually, this part is a little sad. We had our problems when we were together in Shanghai. But of course everyone does. There was enough to hold the relationship together, but I think I felt my doubts even then. Since coming back to America, we have kept in contact through weekly internet phone calls. Usually its on Saturday morning my time, which is Saturday night her time. And she's been staying home every Saturday night to take the calls.
It has been personally very frustrating to have to return to America, even though I am fortunate enough to be well employed. But I was beginning to feel more and more the differences in basic personality between Chris and I. There's many things I do not question, including her affection, her purity of purpose, and her motivations. However, we always kept butting heads over control issues. And I mean, every time we talked. It's hard to describe without being disrepectful, so I won't go into much detail. But the end of it is that I told her I felt we would not work together as a couple in the long run. The catalyst for this was, ironically, this very blog. I was going through it while talking to her online. I had been so long inbetween blog entries that I had almost fogotten I even had a blog. Anyhow, I read one part more-or-less at random, and she asked to read about some entries with her. And I found some, but in them I heard myself complaining about the very same things that I was complaining about now.
It was very sad, but I believed, and do believe, that even though I love her (and I do), we are not suited for spending all of our time together. We are too different in basic personality, and somehow we are not each able to change enough to meet in the middle.
I was very sad when I talked this through with her. There's so much which is good about our relationship. Of course, as she pointed out, even if our relationship were perfect, we would still be very hard-pressed to make it work now. It looks to me like I am going to be in America for a long time. I am probably going to be in Chicago, but maybe I'll go somewhere else. And I may be in one place, or I may move around a lot. Taking a full-time job is not a feasible option, because it pays so much less than consulting.
Meanwhile, she's taking her TEFL (sp?) tests to qualify for schools, to do a graduate school study here. But she won't even know if she is accepted for over one year. And then, there's no knowing what school she will be going to.
We are the two of us right now both moving targets. We could do some options which would guarantee us to stay together. One would be I take a job (any job) in Shanghai. Two would be we get married and she follows me around the country whereever I go. But neither of these options are practical. There are no high-paying corporate jobs in Shanghai anymore. The companies have adjusted their thinking, and instead of hiring one foreigner, they are hiring three locals. Plus, I don't currently speak Chinese well enough to do business in it. With regards to the other idea, of getting married, we discussed it. It's just too big a step for either of us, and it does not solve some basic problems, such as Where will be live, What will she do? If she comes here, will she sit at home all day? Get any job which she can? What kind of a life can we form with me moving around the country? Or, even if I stayed in one place, what would she do with her life if she got here?
In the end, I would just say that we are too different in outlook, and perhaps we are both to strong-headed. I don't like arguing, and we do it a lot. I don't like fighting for control, and we do that a lot, too. So I said we are just not going to work, and I do, unfortunately, think that is true. Not all marriages work out. A friend of mine said that of those marriages which do not work out, these types of problems are already present before the people get married. Each person thinks, "Oh well, they are not going to be like this after we get married," or "Oh, they will change after we have children" but both of these things are not true. People don't change. What's in their basic nature is in their basic nature, and it takes an enormous effort and motivation to change one's basic nature. I didn't see it happening.
So, by some ways of thinking, I posessed foresight, and I prevented a much larger, much more complicated problem from arising. But on the human level, I have lost my best friend, and I have lost the only person who was a witness to my life for the last 1.5 years. That's an important part of any relationship. I never thought about it before, but she mentioned it. Your singificant other, amoungst other things, serves as a witness to the events of your life. No matter what you do, if no one is there to see it, in a way its like it never happened. Its the same reason why going on a trip alone seems so much more hollow than taking the same trip with another person. It's kind of like it's not real unless somone else sees it, too.
Chris was very gracious and noble, though sad. I had talked to her about this problem before, and although we have been trying to 'bring it together' since then, she had thought that if such a problem existed, it would not go away. Eventually, we'd be right back to facing the problem again.
In the end, I was quite exhausted and tired, and quite sad. We must have been on the phone five or more hours. I don't think either of us really liked the outcome. I think both of us would like to have another answer than this. Stories are not supposed to end this way. But perhaps this is not a story, and real life does end this way. And perhaps everything I think I forsee is actually right, and we would end up not getting along together in the long run. In that case I have done the right thing, but it does not feel very invigorating.
SCENE
The other major topic since coming back to America is relations with my own family. I have been a traveller, for a long time. I have somewhat reconnected with my mom. It was good to see my sister & extened family there. I even got to sit down at the same table with my dad and have a cordial lunch. I am still working on my relationship with my brother.
For the last 10 years, the most I've seen of him has been occasional weekend visits, either me coming back or him traveling out so see me in California. This is the longest time we've been together in, well, a long time. Now that Mom has gone to Montana for the summer-and-fall, it's just he and I left here, as family.
We both agree that our family, as such, is not a very cohesive unit. It's spread out all over the world right now. At the moment, individuals are in all different states and countries. Were I not here right now, he would be the only one here in Chicago.
This sort of brings about an entirely new line of thinking. Is it time, perhaps, to set up some sort of base here in Chicago. Is it time to re-integrate with my family and develop some family ties? One cannot expect fast progress on such a thing. It will take time. 10 years past have not developed much. It may take some large amount of time for it to develop now.
And then I think of the interractions I have with my brother. There's a lot of arguing there, too. Whereas everyone on earth is a unique individual, one may say my bro is 'unique-er'. Quirks, quirky. Worry about him. Perhaps its a good idea to be here. Dont know yet.
As I've said before, I am not a religious man per se, but I do like to think of things as of God were there, and 'serving the will of God' can be used as a very good allegory for what to do to be a good person. In that vein, I felt that when I began the swing club in Shanghai, it was in line with the will of God. Or, to put it more colloquially, one might say God would be pleased with what I was doing. Perhaps towards the end I lost my focus in what I was trying to do, but I did accomplish the initial goal of getting swing dancing going.
Now I'm at a bit of a loss of focus. I am between worlds, and I am between people. I don't know if I should stay or go (as they say). I don't know if I should resign myself to a life of computer work, or if I should try again to do something more personally fulfilling. But, as many people claim, pursing just your own personal interests is not the path to a calm spirit. Looking to the collective good instead of yourself is the only way you can find happiness, as they say.
But let's be honest. We're just men, humans. We're not prophets and we're not divine. We may not even be spiritual, be may just be material, and spiritual goals are merely good ways of creating a better way of living for all beings while they are alive.
Yikes! Sorry, I realize I'm getting far off field here. But the point is, what is my purpose now? I must take care of my own requirements, of course. But what are my other priorities? Should I de-prioritize my own personal desires to try to become more of a 'in-the-family" type of person? Stop wandering? Give up on being a world traveler to become a suburbanite?
I'm not sure, I'm really not. But I must make up my mind in about two weeks when this job ends:
1) Do I make a visit back to Shanghai, for a week or so? It's the Fall holiday, and everyone will have one week off.
2) Do I limit my job search to the Chicago area?
3) Do I try to work towards buying real estate, and if so, share a home with my family?
I must admit this time of my life is not nearly as exciting, but these decisions are very imporant and they will affect a lot of things in the future. Hopefully I will keep this updated and submti a new chapter soon.
Peas,
-J
These days I'm simply Jim again. I have gone back to computer consulting. It's different. The one vital difference, of course, is that now I actually am making a living. The other vital difference, is , of course, that I am now the guy-who-used-to-be-the-guy-from-Shanghai-Swings.
It has been a very difficult adjustment coming back to America. As I said before, I was living in my mom's basement for about one month. I didn't know at the time how long I'd be there. I had just arrived, and my cash was down so low that I could not afford to buy a car, or even to put down a payment on an apartment. That's pretty low. I got a high-speed modem installed at my mom's, and I spend most every day searching for jobs back in the e-commerce field. I kept on thinking, How did I get back here again?
But there have been benefits to coming back. By lucky coincidence, my sister and her husband and their daughter were in town. I spent about two weeks with them. I also got to spend a decent amount of time with my mom and stepdad. But eventually, I knew it was about getting that first job. It was a trick, too, since the last two years of resume read: Swing Dancing in Shanghai. Please hire this guy, he has a wicked swingout...
But no. It's true, there was a lot of resistance when people ran into that line. They said, "Huh?" "Does this guy still remember it?"
Here's the highlights of job search: First weeks - feel out the market, try to judge the current demands. Figure out what the new technology is. Has anything changed since you left (answer = YES!) Update resume. Take phone calls. Take more phone calls. They ask for more information on the resume. Update resume again. Do you know UNIX? No? Do you know GIS? No? Update resume again. Contact old bosses. Add them to reference list. Update resume again. Fly to New Jersey for an interview. Get job offer new Ohare airport. Suddenly, everything falls through. Back to zero. Get job offer in south suburbs of Chicago. Less pay than you wanted! Three months contract. Take it.
That's how it went. Now those three months are up. I estimate I have two weeks left until I solve all of the problems they needed solving. In the process, I have remembered everything I used to know, plus I have learned much more.
I have also gained a huge amount of weight! America is filled with crap food! Fat, fat, protien, and sugar. That's the diet here. Plus, I went from King of Swing to Desk Jockey. Very little exercise.
And here's what is different about America since I left:
* TV: Everything is a reality show. (But, if you are an American, you already now this). The TV is filled with dozens of competition-type shows, where people compete with irrelevant or professional skills to win the PRIZE, which is something like money or fame.
* Food: It's actually the same, but I see it for the first time now. So much garbage in the food here! Fat and sugar. Available everywhere. Seen an Arby's commercial? If I ate what they are listing, I'd go into diabetic shock.
* People: One thing, though, I feel much older than I did when I was in Shanghai. Part of it is that I have not been in the Chicago area for a long time. Ten years. And when I was last here, I was a college student / recent grad. Now when I look at the college students, they seem like, well, they are not old enough to be in college, you know?
* Money: Everything is more expensive now. It seems like everyone in-the-know things the American economy is going to collapse, so they are charging as much as possible and selling homes for as much as possible so they can get their cash before the bubble bursts. Homes in my own town cost almost half a million dollars. I saw prices like this when I was in California, but I did not expect to see them in the reasonably far-away suburbs.
* And, dating.
New topic.
For the past one and a half years, my steady girlfriend and best friend has been Chris, my dance partner. Actually, this part is a little sad. We had our problems when we were together in Shanghai. But of course everyone does. There was enough to hold the relationship together, but I think I felt my doubts even then. Since coming back to America, we have kept in contact through weekly internet phone calls. Usually its on Saturday morning my time, which is Saturday night her time. And she's been staying home every Saturday night to take the calls.
It has been personally very frustrating to have to return to America, even though I am fortunate enough to be well employed. But I was beginning to feel more and more the differences in basic personality between Chris and I. There's many things I do not question, including her affection, her purity of purpose, and her motivations. However, we always kept butting heads over control issues. And I mean, every time we talked. It's hard to describe without being disrepectful, so I won't go into much detail. But the end of it is that I told her I felt we would not work together as a couple in the long run. The catalyst for this was, ironically, this very blog. I was going through it while talking to her online. I had been so long inbetween blog entries that I had almost fogotten I even had a blog. Anyhow, I read one part more-or-less at random, and she asked to read about some entries with her. And I found some, but in them I heard myself complaining about the very same things that I was complaining about now.
It was very sad, but I believed, and do believe, that even though I love her (and I do), we are not suited for spending all of our time together. We are too different in basic personality, and somehow we are not each able to change enough to meet in the middle.
I was very sad when I talked this through with her. There's so much which is good about our relationship. Of course, as she pointed out, even if our relationship were perfect, we would still be very hard-pressed to make it work now. It looks to me like I am going to be in America for a long time. I am probably going to be in Chicago, but maybe I'll go somewhere else. And I may be in one place, or I may move around a lot. Taking a full-time job is not a feasible option, because it pays so much less than consulting.
Meanwhile, she's taking her TEFL (sp?) tests to qualify for schools, to do a graduate school study here. But she won't even know if she is accepted for over one year. And then, there's no knowing what school she will be going to.
We are the two of us right now both moving targets. We could do some options which would guarantee us to stay together. One would be I take a job (any job) in Shanghai. Two would be we get married and she follows me around the country whereever I go. But neither of these options are practical. There are no high-paying corporate jobs in Shanghai anymore. The companies have adjusted their thinking, and instead of hiring one foreigner, they are hiring three locals. Plus, I don't currently speak Chinese well enough to do business in it. With regards to the other idea, of getting married, we discussed it. It's just too big a step for either of us, and it does not solve some basic problems, such as Where will be live, What will she do? If she comes here, will she sit at home all day? Get any job which she can? What kind of a life can we form with me moving around the country? Or, even if I stayed in one place, what would she do with her life if she got here?
In the end, I would just say that we are too different in outlook, and perhaps we are both to strong-headed. I don't like arguing, and we do it a lot. I don't like fighting for control, and we do that a lot, too. So I said we are just not going to work, and I do, unfortunately, think that is true. Not all marriages work out. A friend of mine said that of those marriages which do not work out, these types of problems are already present before the people get married. Each person thinks, "Oh well, they are not going to be like this after we get married," or "Oh, they will change after we have children" but both of these things are not true. People don't change. What's in their basic nature is in their basic nature, and it takes an enormous effort and motivation to change one's basic nature. I didn't see it happening.
So, by some ways of thinking, I posessed foresight, and I prevented a much larger, much more complicated problem from arising. But on the human level, I have lost my best friend, and I have lost the only person who was a witness to my life for the last 1.5 years. That's an important part of any relationship. I never thought about it before, but she mentioned it. Your singificant other, amoungst other things, serves as a witness to the events of your life. No matter what you do, if no one is there to see it, in a way its like it never happened. Its the same reason why going on a trip alone seems so much more hollow than taking the same trip with another person. It's kind of like it's not real unless somone else sees it, too.
Chris was very gracious and noble, though sad. I had talked to her about this problem before, and although we have been trying to 'bring it together' since then, she had thought that if such a problem existed, it would not go away. Eventually, we'd be right back to facing the problem again.
In the end, I was quite exhausted and tired, and quite sad. We must have been on the phone five or more hours. I don't think either of us really liked the outcome. I think both of us would like to have another answer than this. Stories are not supposed to end this way. But perhaps this is not a story, and real life does end this way. And perhaps everything I think I forsee is actually right, and we would end up not getting along together in the long run. In that case I have done the right thing, but it does not feel very invigorating.
SCENE
The other major topic since coming back to America is relations with my own family. I have been a traveller, for a long time. I have somewhat reconnected with my mom. It was good to see my sister & extened family there. I even got to sit down at the same table with my dad and have a cordial lunch. I am still working on my relationship with my brother.
For the last 10 years, the most I've seen of him has been occasional weekend visits, either me coming back or him traveling out so see me in California. This is the longest time we've been together in, well, a long time. Now that Mom has gone to Montana for the summer-and-fall, it's just he and I left here, as family.
We both agree that our family, as such, is not a very cohesive unit. It's spread out all over the world right now. At the moment, individuals are in all different states and countries. Were I not here right now, he would be the only one here in Chicago.
This sort of brings about an entirely new line of thinking. Is it time, perhaps, to set up some sort of base here in Chicago. Is it time to re-integrate with my family and develop some family ties? One cannot expect fast progress on such a thing. It will take time. 10 years past have not developed much. It may take some large amount of time for it to develop now.
And then I think of the interractions I have with my brother. There's a lot of arguing there, too. Whereas everyone on earth is a unique individual, one may say my bro is 'unique-er'. Quirks, quirky. Worry about him. Perhaps its a good idea to be here. Dont know yet.
As I've said before, I am not a religious man per se, but I do like to think of things as of God were there, and 'serving the will of God' can be used as a very good allegory for what to do to be a good person. In that vein, I felt that when I began the swing club in Shanghai, it was in line with the will of God. Or, to put it more colloquially, one might say God would be pleased with what I was doing. Perhaps towards the end I lost my focus in what I was trying to do, but I did accomplish the initial goal of getting swing dancing going.
Now I'm at a bit of a loss of focus. I am between worlds, and I am between people. I don't know if I should stay or go (as they say). I don't know if I should resign myself to a life of computer work, or if I should try again to do something more personally fulfilling. But, as many people claim, pursing just your own personal interests is not the path to a calm spirit. Looking to the collective good instead of yourself is the only way you can find happiness, as they say.
But let's be honest. We're just men, humans. We're not prophets and we're not divine. We may not even be spiritual, be may just be material, and spiritual goals are merely good ways of creating a better way of living for all beings while they are alive.
Yikes! Sorry, I realize I'm getting far off field here. But the point is, what is my purpose now? I must take care of my own requirements, of course. But what are my other priorities? Should I de-prioritize my own personal desires to try to become more of a 'in-the-family" type of person? Stop wandering? Give up on being a world traveler to become a suburbanite?
I'm not sure, I'm really not. But I must make up my mind in about two weeks when this job ends:
1) Do I make a visit back to Shanghai, for a week or so? It's the Fall holiday, and everyone will have one week off.
2) Do I limit my job search to the Chicago area?
3) Do I try to work towards buying real estate, and if so, share a home with my family?
I must admit this time of my life is not nearly as exciting, but these decisions are very imporant and they will affect a lot of things in the future. Hopefully I will keep this updated and submti a new chapter soon.
Peas,
-J
