Hi all
After some positive feedback from my previous comments, I am gettinga bit carried away (Will I end up still writing about China in 60years time like Alistair Cook in USA with the BBC, I wonder?). Ifeel like I can continue to let you all know a bit more about Chinamore frequently, and not just what I have been doing.
Briefly, I have done the Shanghai conference, upgraded my hard seatto hard sleeper (thus ensuring I have tried all 4 classes on ChineseTrains), created a CSR Learning Network (oooooh) bought some shirtsfor £2 each (from a proper shop, not a market) and started gettingrid of my (SARS-like) illness. I also heard it is 27 degrees in theplace I am heading to in 3 weeks, yippeee
anyway, back to business! What is China?
This is an interesting question. It struck me (not for the firsttime, but most recently) walking over the footbridge across the roadwhere a poor lady was holding her child, and both were not moving -it was only about 2 degrees. Although this is not a very common site(you will see it several times a day, but I imagine it is worseelsewhere in China and the rest of the World), it reminded me ofChrisi (another AIESECer working with us) who gave 2 RMB to a beggaroutside the train station because she felt like there is no socialnet in China, whereas in Germany, she would not so readily give, asthere is one of the best in the World.
So although not an expert at all in politics, philosophy or history;I think the following deductions can be drawn:
1) China is not democratic as there is no voting generally
2) China is not free, as you are supposed to apply for permission tohold a gathering of anyone more than a very small number of people,like 20! And of course, they censor the media -in regards theinternet, particularly heavily
3) China is pretty autocratic, as what the government says goes, butthere are a lot of 'leaders' -not just 1 'dictator', and stillcontrols things (eg. you have to register when you move location, in(some) hostels they show a list to the police of who are theresidents that night)
4) China is not particularly socialist, as there is no real socialsecurity as far as I know (or can visibly see), yet there is aminimum wage sometimes, but no limits on working hours, or stronglabour law
5) China is very competitive -the average graduate salary has halved(apparently) due to competition for places, China would generallyput its economic wellbeing over its environmental and social, andwill certainly only do what is best for itself.
6) China is very capitalist -the few who make money live very verywell
7) China cannot be communist because it now has pretty much a marketdemand economy
8) China is not religious -religions are certainly not encouraged,and indeed the Vatican still recognises Taiwan as 'China', ratherthan China.
9) China is very friendly and close-knit. All the students put theirparents as their role-models and leaders who they aspire to be, andChinese people are always more than willing to help, even at theirown expense.
10) China is very selfish -pushing and shoving are natural, as wellas are grabbing, and although crime seems rare, I know 3 people whohave been pickpocketed on the bus. The rules of the road arenot 'give way', but 'you give way to me no matter what' leading tomany frequent accidents -I saw a body lying in front of an accident2 weeks ago and although some people were staring (The chinese dostare a lot) traffic was as normal, going around the body, thepolice were just looking, thinking and wondering what to do...
11) Chinese youth are VERY hard working, determined and ambitious.The elderly don't seem (and I don't know them that well at all) likethat -just frequently sit around
12) China is not hygienic with food or bodily functions, yet willcover your jacket when it is on your chair to keep it clean (andstop it getting stolen) or in Shanghai, every taxi has bright whitecovers on its seats
13) China is cheap, but only essential things. Anything electronic(and not copied) or luxurious is expensive -Due to marketing I amsure.
14) China is very proud of its heritage and culture, yet everyonewants to study abroad, marry a rich foreigner and work for a foreignmultinational.
15) There is no transparency in China whatsoever, yet there isdetermined effort to stamp our corruption. The effort may never beenough due to the cultural aspect of guanxi...where does a favourturn into a bribe?
Of course, these are just brief ramblings and personal observations,but if anyone knows what China is, please tell me! In the future Iwill talk more about what China calls itself (politically etc) -eventhough this is mostly rubbish (a taster being the 1 country, 2systems model, despite there (for me anyway) evidently being HK,Mainland and Taiwan equalling 3 at the least)
I mention this, because as you may have noticed, some of the abovewere slightly contradictory and by the time I had finished eachsentence was a paradox in itself. I have touched upon before Chinais the biggest paradox of all, and I remain that way.
Lastly, have a browse of this, that I just found:http://www.asianjoke.com/oneline/50_myths_about_china.htm. Itconfused me greatly!
good morning (its 3am...)
Adam
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Thursday, November 25, 2004
politics....
i realised although i covered most of everything in a wordy post afew hours, before, i neglected politics, so here goes....
a meeting today with a University in Shanghai (one of the best inChina)...In Universities, there is the university structure and thecommunist party structure..they work alongside each other, probablydoing the same things, but the party is more powerful, so we metsomeone at the top of the party in this uni.
he is typically chinese -ambitious! What he says, goes. What hewants, happens. So we are happy he wants to support AIESEC; ofcourse, what makes this interesting reading is he is typicallychinese in that he wants to use AIESEC to his own ends (that is thedefinition on china) -not a bad thing of course. So AIESEC will dowhat he wants, to ensure we can get what we want.
his solution to AIESEC's polical issues (we are in taiwan too -its aloooong story) was that a few AIESEC people at the uni should jointhe communist party, that way they will never hard China, and favourTaiwan. I was assured by the AIESECers that this can be done in amatter of minutes...so by being a token communist, the whole bigproblem gets solved..and who says being communist doesnt open doors?
also chinese was the impact I had, the foreigner, white guy, givingadvice, a global perspective ...kinda useless, as mostly they spoekin chinese, but a big impact. I felt weird cause he was thanking mefor my time more than i was thanking him for his; he obviouslythinks iam more powerful/older/respected than I am, but hey... andpeople wonder why I want to stay in China?
the other interesting stuff is our preparation for the meeting was:
-say yes, never say no...then worry about what you committed tolater, or bend what you committed to
-be careful about what you say.
the last one was particular with AIESEC, as a youth movement,international and about leadership (3 words that are not the best touse often in a communist country) -but of course china is not verycommunist, so you can often get away with things (just never talkabout Taiwan!)
right thats the political stuff covered briefly, until next time...
Adam
a meeting today with a University in Shanghai (one of the best inChina)...In Universities, there is the university structure and thecommunist party structure..they work alongside each other, probablydoing the same things, but the party is more powerful, so we metsomeone at the top of the party in this uni.
he is typically chinese -ambitious! What he says, goes. What hewants, happens. So we are happy he wants to support AIESEC; ofcourse, what makes this interesting reading is he is typicallychinese in that he wants to use AIESEC to his own ends (that is thedefinition on china) -not a bad thing of course. So AIESEC will dowhat he wants, to ensure we can get what we want.
his solution to AIESEC's polical issues (we are in taiwan too -its aloooong story) was that a few AIESEC people at the uni should jointhe communist party, that way they will never hard China, and favourTaiwan. I was assured by the AIESECers that this can be done in amatter of minutes...so by being a token communist, the whole bigproblem gets solved..and who says being communist doesnt open doors?
also chinese was the impact I had, the foreigner, white guy, givingadvice, a global perspective ...kinda useless, as mostly they spoekin chinese, but a big impact. I felt weird cause he was thanking mefor my time more than i was thanking him for his; he obviouslythinks iam more powerful/older/respected than I am, but hey... andpeople wonder why I want to stay in China?
the other interesting stuff is our preparation for the meeting was:
-say yes, never say no...then worry about what you committed tolater, or bend what you committed to
-be careful about what you say.
the last one was particular with AIESEC, as a youth movement,international and about leadership (3 words that are not the best touse often in a communist country) -but of course china is not verycommunist, so you can often get away with things (just never talkabout Taiwan!)
right thats the political stuff covered briefly, until next time...
Adam
Parties and Conferences...
Hello everyone, from warm Shanghai
The heating is on! We had our First Appartment party before it did,so we had to reply on people's bodies warming the place up -it did,along with smashing bottles of beer and mine/Flic's little plasticchair -it was a disaster, but it did get me washing the floor thenext day (a rare sight!)
I had blagged my way into a couple of nice, swanky, importantconferences last week -one involving the WTO, and the other with theWorld Business Council for Sustainable Development. My networkingdiary has dried up a bit, but its ok, because its a busy couple ofweeks. It was a tough comparison of these conference -5 star hotels,lots of free food, alcohol and translation devices (even a USB flashdisks!), compared to the AIESEC Beijing conference last weekend in akind of an army camp 90 minutes from town.
It was fun, an insight into Chinese 'parties' -still very littledrinking and very little unplanned dances (although this is anAIESEC-specific problem), but scarily, the amount of effort thatwent into the sex-change party: most of the chinese men look likegirls already, so with some effort it was scary. Not me though; iwas one hairy woman! Also an insight into how spoiled chinesestudents are -they were complaining about the quality of the food -which i know in the UK we'd do, but then we don't have 200millionpeople living in poverty...
Which brings me to how little many chinese people know about theircountry (and the World), partly due to their education system (theyprobably spent 5 solid years just learning their own language! hehe) and partly due to the size of the country. I think they learn alot once they get to University. There is a huge problem in Chinawith getting poor students into Universities -because most of Chinacannot afford to go to University, and it seems that their is hugediscrepancies in the level of edcuation given in different cities,as well as in the countryside, but bearing in mind 800 million on1.2 billion people still live in the countryside with poor educationand infrastructure, it really puts everything into perspective.
I went to the Ethnic Minority Culture Park as well; it showcasesaround 25 of China's 55(I think?) offical minorities in addition tothe 'Han' (Chinese). It was very impressive physically -lots ofbuildings that were designed as if you were in this or that part ofChina (by the minorities, using orgiginal materials too!), but Ifelt that it was not being used to its potential -the impression isof that it opened to much fanfare and expense 10 years ago and nownoone knows about it, although there is a timetable of 'events' atthe park. Maybe its busier on weekdays or during the Summer? So,lots of minorities exist in China; many speaking different dialectsand being small populations in comparison to Han (who are 95%, Ibelive), but that still gives you a million or 3 here and there inlittle pockets living different lives! There is a theory taught inthe West (according to some students I have met) about the Chinesegovernment's dealings with the Minorities (I'm interested in hearingmore about this theory).
Theory: Minorities tend to be in economically underdeveloped areas,so as part of the Policy to develop these areas, Han are shipped outto work there and help with development. They are the ones with thejobs, thus they are the ones that attract the women, marry the womenand thus breed mixed race kids, slowly reducing the numbers ofminorities -why? Because there are a lot of tensions betweenminorities and Han -Tibet is an extreme example, but note the 25deaths in riots in China about 3 weeks ago. (search for 'chinariots' on google and you'll find many examples, Note: I cannotaccess most of the pages that come up)
I also had a wonderfully interesting chat with one of the studentshere about what she knew about Tiananmen Square (she actually livednearby, and heard the gun shots) -she started by asking me about apicture she heard existed that was taken on that day in 1989. Ipresumed she meant the famous one of the boy standing in the square,with a tank about to run him over. She asked if I was sure it wasnot made up by the West. I was pretty sure it was not. Thediscussions went on, and were very interesting about what she doesand doesn't know about various things, but more about that someother time.
moving swiftly on (I'll have to come back to more history andculture another time), I'll just report that Work is going well,preparations are being made for an exciting fmaily holiday in theSouth of China for the end of December, I went clubbing for thefirst time with JUST chinese people (no germans or australians oramericans involved!), and that will be repeated, and its my birthdaycoming up soon, so more parties to be planned!
China is such an interesting place! Hope to hear more from you all!
hugs
Adam
The heating is on! We had our First Appartment party before it did,so we had to reply on people's bodies warming the place up -it did,along with smashing bottles of beer and mine/Flic's little plasticchair -it was a disaster, but it did get me washing the floor thenext day (a rare sight!)
I had blagged my way into a couple of nice, swanky, importantconferences last week -one involving the WTO, and the other with theWorld Business Council for Sustainable Development. My networkingdiary has dried up a bit, but its ok, because its a busy couple ofweeks. It was a tough comparison of these conference -5 star hotels,lots of free food, alcohol and translation devices (even a USB flashdisks!), compared to the AIESEC Beijing conference last weekend in akind of an army camp 90 minutes from town.
It was fun, an insight into Chinese 'parties' -still very littledrinking and very little unplanned dances (although this is anAIESEC-specific problem), but scarily, the amount of effort thatwent into the sex-change party: most of the chinese men look likegirls already, so with some effort it was scary. Not me though; iwas one hairy woman! Also an insight into how spoiled chinesestudents are -they were complaining about the quality of the food -which i know in the UK we'd do, but then we don't have 200millionpeople living in poverty...
Which brings me to how little many chinese people know about theircountry (and the World), partly due to their education system (theyprobably spent 5 solid years just learning their own language! hehe) and partly due to the size of the country. I think they learn alot once they get to University. There is a huge problem in Chinawith getting poor students into Universities -because most of Chinacannot afford to go to University, and it seems that their is hugediscrepancies in the level of edcuation given in different cities,as well as in the countryside, but bearing in mind 800 million on1.2 billion people still live in the countryside with poor educationand infrastructure, it really puts everything into perspective.
I went to the Ethnic Minority Culture Park as well; it showcasesaround 25 of China's 55(I think?) offical minorities in addition tothe 'Han' (Chinese). It was very impressive physically -lots ofbuildings that were designed as if you were in this or that part ofChina (by the minorities, using orgiginal materials too!), but Ifelt that it was not being used to its potential -the impression isof that it opened to much fanfare and expense 10 years ago and nownoone knows about it, although there is a timetable of 'events' atthe park. Maybe its busier on weekdays or during the Summer? So,lots of minorities exist in China; many speaking different dialectsand being small populations in comparison to Han (who are 95%, Ibelive), but that still gives you a million or 3 here and there inlittle pockets living different lives! There is a theory taught inthe West (according to some students I have met) about the Chinesegovernment's dealings with the Minorities (I'm interested in hearingmore about this theory).
Theory: Minorities tend to be in economically underdeveloped areas,so as part of the Policy to develop these areas, Han are shipped outto work there and help with development. They are the ones with thejobs, thus they are the ones that attract the women, marry the womenand thus breed mixed race kids, slowly reducing the numbers ofminorities -why? Because there are a lot of tensions betweenminorities and Han -Tibet is an extreme example, but note the 25deaths in riots in China about 3 weeks ago. (search for 'chinariots' on google and you'll find many examples, Note: I cannotaccess most of the pages that come up)
I also had a wonderfully interesting chat with one of the studentshere about what she knew about Tiananmen Square (she actually livednearby, and heard the gun shots) -she started by asking me about apicture she heard existed that was taken on that day in 1989. Ipresumed she meant the famous one of the boy standing in the square,with a tank about to run him over. She asked if I was sure it wasnot made up by the West. I was pretty sure it was not. Thediscussions went on, and were very interesting about what she doesand doesn't know about various things, but more about that someother time.
moving swiftly on (I'll have to come back to more history andculture another time), I'll just report that Work is going well,preparations are being made for an exciting fmaily holiday in theSouth of China for the end of December, I went clubbing for thefirst time with JUST chinese people (no germans or australians oramericans involved!), and that will be repeated, and its my birthdaycoming up soon, so more parties to be planned!
China is such an interesting place! Hope to hear more from you all!
hugs
Adam
Sunday, November 07, 2004
Photo viewing
I have found a better way of displaying photos online, so click onthis link (and bookmark it):
http://www.imagestation.com/member/?name=adamlane
From there you can see all the albums (I even compressed thepictures this time for easier viewing), and I'll mention in anyemails whenever I update them (probably weekly).
Unfortunately you have to join imagestaion (Sony), but its free, andthis is easier than other options which limit MB space online(imagestation does not), or mostly you have to send everyone aspecific link to a photo or album, and therefore have to resend thateverytime you upload a new photo or album etc. Thus I have gone forthis option, should only take you a sec to register :)
Adam
http://www.imagestation.com/member/?name=adamlane
From there you can see all the albums (I even compressed thepictures this time for easier viewing), and I'll mention in anyemails whenever I update them (probably weekly).
Unfortunately you have to join imagestaion (Sony), but its free, andthis is easier than other options which limit MB space online(imagestation does not), or mostly you have to send everyone aspecific link to a photo or album, and therefore have to resend thateverytime you upload a new photo or album etc. Thus I have gone forthis option, should only take you a sec to register :)
Adam
Saturday, November 06, 2004
cabbage and communism...
Another week has come and gone. The exciting news that Spurs'manager resigned was not welcomed, grr. This week's achievementsmostly fall into 2 categories: 1)shopping and 2) partying!
Shopping, me? Yes, well, after the expenditure of suits and all, Ididn't want to get too carried away, so yesterday I boughtsome.....gloves! oh yes, 2 pounds worht (they are v. nice!) Flic isgoing to buy some for about 30pence, but mine are obviously worthit! we found a small market nearby us that is kinda useful.Seriously though, I also bought a coat, cause its now around 3-10degrees outside, with a bit of a wind (more than 2 pounds though,unfortunately).
The latest excuse for a lack of exercise is that noone has trainersin any size bigger than UK 9, bummer. I'll keep looking whilst Icontinue to put on weight from the oily, fatty foods! However, thepartying (since the ball, been out 3 times and going out againtonight!!) normally requires a trek up the 14 flights of stairs aswe get home after the lift shuts down. The negative side is thatthings can be expensive. The positive side is we discovered someunbelievably nice places to go.
Once you venture through various roads being dug up, over and undera combination of alleyways, pipes, construction sites; I haverealised you can find some great places. I presume the land ischeap, but the 2 we went to this week were a bit like cafes, butwith gardens, traditional decorations, nice buildings, nice chilledout music (hey, the 1 even had beds in separate rooms, ha ha).
This weeks observations are around cabbage (for the full story seehttp://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-11/05/content_388874.htm), in short cabbages used to be THE staplediet for the Beijingers in Winter (now there is much more choice).Still the taste and history continues with people stacking cabbagesup on their bikes to take home, filling the lift with cabbages androlling them to their appartments. Its kinda funny, believe me,never have you seen so many cabbages!
Tez (ex AIESEC Australia, trainee in london) was in town this week,and at dinner we all launched into an interesting discussion withmany of the AIESEC students here, finding out what they thoughtabout reciting Mao at School, their views on brainwashing by thegovernment (is it just me, or are we brainwashed in the west too? Inwhich case, the chinese are way ahead of us by not beleiving halfthe stuff their government tells them. Having said that, who trustsour government in the UK any more?), and also their general views onthe goverment, power and the party. Kinda cool, and we hope to getinto those conversations again.
Its in the last few weeks that I have realised how much of a cultureyou miss out on by not speaking the language, and this isencouraging me to stay longer to learn some Chinese for a few monthsnext year whilst investigating any job opps here. I bought a 'learnchinese' book recently and will attempt to read it frequently.
Word of the day is 'lang' (I think) meaning 'cold'. Hell you can addin 'hen', meaning 'very' too!
Hope everyone is well studying, working, freezing or whatever youare doing...
Adam
Shopping, me? Yes, well, after the expenditure of suits and all, Ididn't want to get too carried away, so yesterday I boughtsome.....gloves! oh yes, 2 pounds worht (they are v. nice!) Flic isgoing to buy some for about 30pence, but mine are obviously worthit! we found a small market nearby us that is kinda useful.Seriously though, I also bought a coat, cause its now around 3-10degrees outside, with a bit of a wind (more than 2 pounds though,unfortunately).
The latest excuse for a lack of exercise is that noone has trainersin any size bigger than UK 9, bummer. I'll keep looking whilst Icontinue to put on weight from the oily, fatty foods! However, thepartying (since the ball, been out 3 times and going out againtonight!!) normally requires a trek up the 14 flights of stairs aswe get home after the lift shuts down. The negative side is thatthings can be expensive. The positive side is we discovered someunbelievably nice places to go.
Once you venture through various roads being dug up, over and undera combination of alleyways, pipes, construction sites; I haverealised you can find some great places. I presume the land ischeap, but the 2 we went to this week were a bit like cafes, butwith gardens, traditional decorations, nice buildings, nice chilledout music (hey, the 1 even had beds in separate rooms, ha ha).
This weeks observations are around cabbage (for the full story seehttp://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-11/05/content_388874.htm), in short cabbages used to be THE staplediet for the Beijingers in Winter (now there is much more choice).Still the taste and history continues with people stacking cabbagesup on their bikes to take home, filling the lift with cabbages androlling them to their appartments. Its kinda funny, believe me,never have you seen so many cabbages!
Tez (ex AIESEC Australia, trainee in london) was in town this week,and at dinner we all launched into an interesting discussion withmany of the AIESEC students here, finding out what they thoughtabout reciting Mao at School, their views on brainwashing by thegovernment (is it just me, or are we brainwashed in the west too? Inwhich case, the chinese are way ahead of us by not beleiving halfthe stuff their government tells them. Having said that, who trustsour government in the UK any more?), and also their general views onthe goverment, power and the party. Kinda cool, and we hope to getinto those conversations again.
Its in the last few weeks that I have realised how much of a cultureyou miss out on by not speaking the language, and this isencouraging me to stay longer to learn some Chinese for a few monthsnext year whilst investigating any job opps here. I bought a 'learnchinese' book recently and will attempt to read it frequently.
Word of the day is 'lang' (I think) meaning 'cold'. Hell you can addin 'hen', meaning 'very' too!
Hope everyone is well studying, working, freezing or whatever youare doing...
Adam
Monday, November 01, 2004
post-Ball....
Hi everyone
The Ball has come and gone; I didn't quite realise until it happenedthat All weekend we were running a mini-conference, so I was a bittired on the sunday when forced to wake 3 hours after getting backto then inspire new members; but actually i think the alcoholhelped :) They even had Baileys at the free bar! I met the LordMayor of London, so I could kindly thank him for his small donationto AIESEC China, which was news to him, not surprised!
Seeing 700 people, almost all british or white was a bit of a shockto the system; I don't know where they hide during the day! Ofcourse, almost all of them are here long-term and almost all of themspeak fluent Chinese.
I got all excited that Spurs actually won a game for the first timein a month or so, then they went and lost again, so back to reality.
I am EVEN more excited that we got a quilt (duvet in england) so nowI can sleep properly without getting cold (you remember thegovernment turn our heating on in 2 weeks). Wow only 2 weeks till weget heating! Right now I am planning my acquisitions of warmclothes, hats, jackets etc.
Thanks to Mel (was in China from AIESEC Canada before me), whoseCanadian paper rna a special on China, to forwarding the link (seehttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/generated/realtime/specialChina.html ).
Really interesting is: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20041022.wxchi-boom1023china/BNStory/specialChina/
and also more entertaining is: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20041023.wxchinaten23/BNStory/specialChina/
My comments on the latter are: yes, mobiles work on the subway andabsolutely everywhere, no idea how (the subway is not that deep, butstill!), the gyms i have mentioned before, the covers thatrestaurants put voer your chair, if your jacket is there, to protectfrom theft and spillage is cool and i experienced that for the firsttime a couple weeks back. The rest of the points are pretty dullyand hardly 'OIC' -only in china, maybe Canada is further behind thetimes that the UK, ey?
We have another flat mate, a girl from AIESEC Germany, yay :), sheis a bit of a fitness freak, so is off at the gym once a day..me, Iam still looking for cheap trainers, before i attempt any exercise -funny how I haven't bought any yet..
I picked up my suit that I had tailored, trousers and jacket costaround £40, which isn't bad! Next purchase will be a jacket, as itscold, not freezing yet, but you really realise its cold withoutheating in your appartment, especially when its your office too!Hence I am now sneezing lots, grr.
work wise, everything is going pretty well, I am developing a prettygood network of contacts out here, partly due to the CSR stuff I amdoing (Shell, BP, citigroup..everyone wants to get involved).language wise, hmm, not so well, need to try harder!!
I had my first hamburger since i left the UK last week, it tastedGOOD (not fast food of course); and at the Ball, it was steak etc; iforgot how much i missed some nice western food. Oh I also won 1 or2 prizes at the Ball, though not exactly sure what yet; apparentlythey might be chinese lessons. there were some prize tickets in someof the goody bags on each chair, and funnily enough our table wonquite a few, and I think Sam encouraged me to sit in a particularseat for a reason....Sam organised the event and stuffed the goodybags ;), now THAT is what they mean by having good connections inChina!
take care everyone.
Adam
The Ball has come and gone; I didn't quite realise until it happenedthat All weekend we were running a mini-conference, so I was a bittired on the sunday when forced to wake 3 hours after getting backto then inspire new members; but actually i think the alcoholhelped :) They even had Baileys at the free bar! I met the LordMayor of London, so I could kindly thank him for his small donationto AIESEC China, which was news to him, not surprised!
Seeing 700 people, almost all british or white was a bit of a shockto the system; I don't know where they hide during the day! Ofcourse, almost all of them are here long-term and almost all of themspeak fluent Chinese.
I got all excited that Spurs actually won a game for the first timein a month or so, then they went and lost again, so back to reality.
I am EVEN more excited that we got a quilt (duvet in england) so nowI can sleep properly without getting cold (you remember thegovernment turn our heating on in 2 weeks). Wow only 2 weeks till weget heating! Right now I am planning my acquisitions of warmclothes, hats, jackets etc.
Thanks to Mel (was in China from AIESEC Canada before me), whoseCanadian paper rna a special on China, to forwarding the link (seehttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/generated/realtime/specialChina.html ).
Really interesting is: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20041022.wxchi-boom1023china/BNStory/specialChina/
and also more entertaining is: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20041023.wxchinaten23/BNStory/specialChina/
My comments on the latter are: yes, mobiles work on the subway andabsolutely everywhere, no idea how (the subway is not that deep, butstill!), the gyms i have mentioned before, the covers thatrestaurants put voer your chair, if your jacket is there, to protectfrom theft and spillage is cool and i experienced that for the firsttime a couple weeks back. The rest of the points are pretty dullyand hardly 'OIC' -only in china, maybe Canada is further behind thetimes that the UK, ey?
We have another flat mate, a girl from AIESEC Germany, yay :), sheis a bit of a fitness freak, so is off at the gym once a day..me, Iam still looking for cheap trainers, before i attempt any exercise -funny how I haven't bought any yet..
I picked up my suit that I had tailored, trousers and jacket costaround £40, which isn't bad! Next purchase will be a jacket, as itscold, not freezing yet, but you really realise its cold withoutheating in your appartment, especially when its your office too!Hence I am now sneezing lots, grr.
work wise, everything is going pretty well, I am developing a prettygood network of contacts out here, partly due to the CSR stuff I amdoing (Shell, BP, citigroup..everyone wants to get involved).language wise, hmm, not so well, need to try harder!!
I had my first hamburger since i left the UK last week, it tastedGOOD (not fast food of course); and at the Ball, it was steak etc; iforgot how much i missed some nice western food. Oh I also won 1 or2 prizes at the Ball, though not exactly sure what yet; apparentlythey might be chinese lessons. there were some prize tickets in someof the goody bags on each chair, and funnily enough our table wonquite a few, and I think Sam encouraged me to sit in a particularseat for a reason....Sam organised the event and stuffed the goodybags ;), now THAT is what they mean by having good connections inChina!
take care everyone.
Adam
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