Monday, January 23, 2012
Here I am.
5:40 PM | 
Posted by
Eric |
I have to admit that one of the first things I thought after being dropped off at my apartment was, "What the heck am I doing here? I need to go home." It's partly because of the cold, the crazy taxi ride from the airport, and the empty space in the apartment which signifies the start of something new.
The feeling didn't last long though as I went outside and started to walk around the neighborhood. It's not that there was anything that jumped out and made me think, "Oh, I'm so glad to be here." I guess it was just the normalcy of it all. Being in the city is just like...being in the city, only everything is in Chinese.
I've done quite a bit of exploring in my couple of days here so far. I've found a couple of shopping malls. One is just like a modern mall in the US, the other looked more like an indoor swapmart. Both malls though are based around a supermarket. I guess that a "supermarket" here is more literally that than just a grocery store like it is back home. The supermarket is best described, (for my friends in AZ), as a Food City meets K-Mart. They sell everything from eggs to vacuums. You want to go buy a pillowcase, a blender, a donut, and a pineapple? Go to the supermarket.
The one thing I couldn't find at the supermarket...an adapter to let me plug my dead laptop into an outlet. I needed my laptop to get online to figure out how to ask for such a thing, and I needed the thing to get my laptop to power on. I was stuck. I went around and around searching every inch of every store in the mall. I ran into a girl at a department store that said she spoke a little English. She spoke a little English like I spoke a little Chinese, so that didn't help. She did however help to kickstart my brain into thinking that I could draw the thing I was looking for on a piece of paper. So, armed with my new drawing, I returned to the supermarket to ask where they were hiding the plug adapters. "Blah blah blah blah blah meiyou blah blah blah meiyou." That is what I was told. Luckily, the one word that I understood is the key word here. "Meiyou," means, "Don't have." So, I still didn't have my adapter, but atleast I knew I could move on to another location.
At the second mall's supermarket I just happened to walk right up to an endcap that was loaded with travel adapters. I grabbed the one that looked like it should work, and just hoped that it didn't blow up my power supply. I was so happy to have found this thing. Not having access to the internet was making figuring things out pretty much impossible. Anyways, I took the adapter out of the package and it fell apart. I just had to laugh because people always say "Cheap, Made in China crap." Well, I think you should feel lucky that it doesn't say "Made for China." The stuff that leaves the country is the good stuff. I didn't have any tape or glue around so I had to wrap a cord around the thing to hold it together. As you can tell, it is working just fine so far.
Well, it's been pretty fun walking around finding new places. There is an endless supply of new things to discover. Behind every door is a mystery. I have no idea what any of these shop signs say, so the only way to find out would be to go in and ask what they do. Maybe when I learn to speak a little, I can start to figure out what's going on behind these mystery doors. Until then I am sticking to the malls and supermarkets.
Well I will leave you with a few photos from around the neighborhood. It's really too cold to be taking photos...so I don't have much. Once it starts to warm up a bit I can get this blog format a little better with photos relevant to the story.
The feeling didn't last long though as I went outside and started to walk around the neighborhood. It's not that there was anything that jumped out and made me think, "Oh, I'm so glad to be here." I guess it was just the normalcy of it all. Being in the city is just like...being in the city, only everything is in Chinese.
I've done quite a bit of exploring in my couple of days here so far. I've found a couple of shopping malls. One is just like a modern mall in the US, the other looked more like an indoor swapmart. Both malls though are based around a supermarket. I guess that a "supermarket" here is more literally that than just a grocery store like it is back home. The supermarket is best described, (for my friends in AZ), as a Food City meets K-Mart. They sell everything from eggs to vacuums. You want to go buy a pillowcase, a blender, a donut, and a pineapple? Go to the supermarket.
The one thing I couldn't find at the supermarket...an adapter to let me plug my dead laptop into an outlet. I needed my laptop to get online to figure out how to ask for such a thing, and I needed the thing to get my laptop to power on. I was stuck. I went around and around searching every inch of every store in the mall. I ran into a girl at a department store that said she spoke a little English. She spoke a little English like I spoke a little Chinese, so that didn't help. She did however help to kickstart my brain into thinking that I could draw the thing I was looking for on a piece of paper. So, armed with my new drawing, I returned to the supermarket to ask where they were hiding the plug adapters. "Blah blah blah blah blah meiyou blah blah blah meiyou." That is what I was told. Luckily, the one word that I understood is the key word here. "Meiyou," means, "Don't have." So, I still didn't have my adapter, but atleast I knew I could move on to another location.
At the second mall's supermarket I just happened to walk right up to an endcap that was loaded with travel adapters. I grabbed the one that looked like it should work, and just hoped that it didn't blow up my power supply. I was so happy to have found this thing. Not having access to the internet was making figuring things out pretty much impossible. Anyways, I took the adapter out of the package and it fell apart. I just had to laugh because people always say "Cheap, Made in China crap." Well, I think you should feel lucky that it doesn't say "Made for China." The stuff that leaves the country is the good stuff. I didn't have any tape or glue around so I had to wrap a cord around the thing to hold it together. As you can tell, it is working just fine so far.
Well, it's been pretty fun walking around finding new places. There is an endless supply of new things to discover. Behind every door is a mystery. I have no idea what any of these shop signs say, so the only way to find out would be to go in and ask what they do. Maybe when I learn to speak a little, I can start to figure out what's going on behind these mystery doors. Until then I am sticking to the malls and supermarkets.
Well I will leave you with a few photos from around the neighborhood. It's really too cold to be taking photos...so I don't have much. Once it starts to warm up a bit I can get this blog format a little better with photos relevant to the story.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
My bags are packed. I'm ready to go.
Here we go. I have my plane ticket now. I am set to fly out January 19th, landing in Harbin on the 21st. It's a total of 19 hours of flying including one super long 14.5 hour flight. Hopefully my upgrade to "Premium Economy" pays off.
I'm so glad that I ended up being able to go a week before my training starts. I really wanted to be able to have a chance to get used to the time difference (15 hours). I'm also hoping to get at least a little bit used to the crazy cold weather (-20F). What makes it even better, I'll be getting to China just in time for the start of the Chinese New Year celebration! I feel so lucky to be in Harbin during the Ice Festival and Chinese New Year. Besides the freezing cold, this is the best time of year to be in Harbin!
Well, it's all real now. Just over a week to go. Next time I post here, it will be from China. Here goes nothin'!
I'm so glad that I ended up being able to go a week before my training starts. I really wanted to be able to have a chance to get used to the time difference (15 hours). I'm also hoping to get at least a little bit used to the crazy cold weather (-20F). What makes it even better, I'll be getting to China just in time for the start of the Chinese New Year celebration! I feel so lucky to be in Harbin during the Ice Festival and Chinese New Year. Besides the freezing cold, this is the best time of year to be in Harbin!
Well, it's all real now. Just over a week to go. Next time I post here, it will be from China. Here goes nothin'!
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Offer Accepted
So, I've accepted an offer for a job teaching in Harbin for 6 months. The school is the major partner of the place that I will be getting my certification training done at. It is not my ideal situation, but I have convinced myself that it is the best thing for me to do.
Being so close to my trainers, I feel like I will have more access to the help and support needed to get started right in my new position. I also feel that getting 6 months of experience will help me figure out some of the little things to look for in a school when it comes time to finding a job in the city that I really want to settle in at, Kunming. Also, I have read that it is much easier/better to find a job if you're already in the country. This first 6 months of teaching in Harbin should allow me to get through the growing pains of the new job without souring my overall outlook on this new journey. I am looking at this as if it were 6 months of paid training. If I don't like the school, the city, or any other aspect of living/working in China, it will not effect me as much because I will know that it is still just training. I can still convince myself that things will be different when I move on to my more permanent situation.
Whether it's true or not, it doesn't matter. It's all about convincing myself to not let any of the initial pains get me down. Having the mindset that my first 6 months is really just an extended training period will help me brush off any bad feelings I have as just a temporary thing. Then, if I end up experiencing the same problems in the future, they wont have as much of an effect on me anyways because I'll have already been there, done that.
Besides all of that, the main reason why I didn't want to stay in Harbin is because it's just too damn cold! This contract period isn't so bad though. I have to be there for all of February anyways for my certification training. So, I will be teaching March through August. At least I will be there for the end of winter and through summer. The weather wont really be that bad. After that I can get the heck out of there before the next winter hits!
Plus, I'm just happy to have a job already set up. I don't have to go through any hassle of trying to get a job lined up from here in the USA. And if i get really lazy about finding another job, I can always renew my contract in Harbin and continue working there in the cold until I do find a new job in another city.
Who knows, I might end up loving Harbin too. From what I read, it's a beautiful city with wonderfully friendly and helpful people. It's also known as one of the best places in China to learn Mandarin due to them having the most traditional dialect and accent.
Holy crap! I looked down at the bottom corner of my screen here and saw 11/1/2011. I have less than 3 months to go. All of the sudden it feels like I don't have enough time to get ready. Wow, this is coming up quick.
PS. Sorry, I have no picture for this post.
Being so close to my trainers, I feel like I will have more access to the help and support needed to get started right in my new position. I also feel that getting 6 months of experience will help me figure out some of the little things to look for in a school when it comes time to finding a job in the city that I really want to settle in at, Kunming. Also, I have read that it is much easier/better to find a job if you're already in the country. This first 6 months of teaching in Harbin should allow me to get through the growing pains of the new job without souring my overall outlook on this new journey. I am looking at this as if it were 6 months of paid training. If I don't like the school, the city, or any other aspect of living/working in China, it will not effect me as much because I will know that it is still just training. I can still convince myself that things will be different when I move on to my more permanent situation.
Whether it's true or not, it doesn't matter. It's all about convincing myself to not let any of the initial pains get me down. Having the mindset that my first 6 months is really just an extended training period will help me brush off any bad feelings I have as just a temporary thing. Then, if I end up experiencing the same problems in the future, they wont have as much of an effect on me anyways because I'll have already been there, done that.
Besides all of that, the main reason why I didn't want to stay in Harbin is because it's just too damn cold! This contract period isn't so bad though. I have to be there for all of February anyways for my certification training. So, I will be teaching March through August. At least I will be there for the end of winter and through summer. The weather wont really be that bad. After that I can get the heck out of there before the next winter hits!
Plus, I'm just happy to have a job already set up. I don't have to go through any hassle of trying to get a job lined up from here in the USA. And if i get really lazy about finding another job, I can always renew my contract in Harbin and continue working there in the cold until I do find a new job in another city.
Who knows, I might end up loving Harbin too. From what I read, it's a beautiful city with wonderfully friendly and helpful people. It's also known as one of the best places in China to learn Mandarin due to them having the most traditional dialect and accent.
Holy crap! I looked down at the bottom corner of my screen here and saw 11/1/2011. I have less than 3 months to go. All of the sudden it feels like I don't have enough time to get ready. Wow, this is coming up quick.
PS. Sorry, I have no picture for this post.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
One Step Closer
My passport is here! I decided to make a post because it's sort of a milestone for me in this whole journey. It's one more major step completed.
There are little things completed too which seem funny, but mean something to me...a serious winter coat and boots to deal with Harbin in Jan/Feb, and a new bank account with free international ATM usage and fee reimbursement. Getting these little things done just proves to myself that I am serious this time and it's actually going to happen. Six more months to go.
PS. I'm also doing very well in my "Fluenz" Mandarin lessons. One lesson a day for almost two months now. I feel like I am learning quite a bit and can form pretty useful sentences. I definitely don't feel comfortable having a conversation or anything, but I do think I could get around a restaurant or tell a cab driver where to go. =)
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
First Post/Testing
If you don't know, I'm moving to China in January 2012. I'm hoping to use this blog to help share my experience with friends, family, and anyone else that might just be interested. I am not a writer so my text may be lame, but I am a photographer so at least you will have some great sights to see. That's all for now. I will update as I come up with anything new. =)
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