Friday the 13th
Just a quick update about what’s going on here.
This weekend I’m heading to Qingdao for their international beer festival. So expect a post about that when I get back, hopefully with a lot of photos.
Then next week the company that hired me is bringing in about 90 new foreign English teachers and they asked me to help train them. I’m hoping to meet some cool new people and I’m sure I’ll have some thoughts about the experience, which you’ll get to hear in a tangent-filled podcast.
And then the following weekend, I’ll be studying and taking a test to receive my TEFL certification.
I’m going to be pretty busy so if you don’t get any updates for the next week or so, that’s why. But once it calms down I’ll have a bunch of good stuff to post.
And by the way, it’s Friday the 13th! I don’t really remember what’s supposed to happen on Friday the 13th…you have to be careful or there’s bad luck or something something superstition? Whatever it is, watch out.
And one more thing, remember to visit www.chinarchy.com/helpout and you can enter to win a $25 Amazon gift card. Do it…
Happy Conception Day!
Hey everybody, today is the day that Chinarchy was conceived.
August 8, 2009 I was sitting in my apartment and thinking about the possibility of going to China and came up with the idea for this website. It would be another 6 months before I actually ended up in Beijing and began writing (which I guess would be considered Chinarchy’s birthday).
In order to celebrate this glorious day of conception I’m giving away a $25 Amazon gift card to whoever helps me introduce the most new people to the blog. To find out more head over to http://www.chinarchy.com/helpout/.
And also, I just want to thank everybody who has been reading for the past six months. If it wasn’t for you guys I would have quit this blog a long time ago. Thank you.
Update: I figured I’d throw in some nerd proof. “Record created on 2009-08-09 21:40:06.”
We’re FAIL Blog Approved
My picture of the Ass Hair Salon has appeared on FAIL Blog!
Thanks to everybody to pointed this out. You can see it here.
Also, I still swear that we will award a winner for the best caption at some point in our lives.
Would You Listen To An Audio Post?
I’ve been considering doing some recorded audio posts the past couple weeks and I’m wondering if you guys would listen — or even prefer that to my written posts.
There is a couple of reasons why I’ve been thinking about this.
For one, writing a post — especially if it’s one of the longer, article-type posts — takes a long time. I usually spend a week or two thinking about it and working it out in my head. Then I break it down into sections and finally write it. And even after doing that I still go back and reread them to find them sloppier or less coherent than I intended.
I’m always struggling with that balance between formality and structure and spontaneity in my writing.
When I’m speaking, I typically feel much more comfortable. I am better at keeping that balance between “serious/intelligent” and “funny/personal.” Plus, in an audio post I would be okay with rambling or not having fully formed thoughts; it’d be more conversational.
Basically, I think I’m better at speaking than writing. But what matters is what you guys would prefer, so let me know in the comments.
Thanks!
Also as a preview, here is a short list of posts I’ve been working on:
- From Childhood to Statism: Superhuman Authority
- Against Group Learning
- China’s Culture of Lies
- From Childhood to Statism: Passing the Buck
Two-Month Recap
Last week marked the end of our second month in China. I thought it would a good idea to write a post summarizing what has happened. Be forewarned, this might be somewhat of a long ramble.
McCoy and I posted a lot during the first week about some of the crazy stuff going on, but I don’t think it painted a very clear picture, so let’s begin there.
The First Week
The first night we arrived at the airport and were greeted by our contact here. She would later become McCoy’s girlfriend — yes, it was literally the first girl he met in China, go ahead and settle those bets now. We had a 30 minute ride from the airport into the city, and it was pretty uneventful.
The highway seemed a little crazy with everyone speeding and swerving, but it wasn’t too jarring. And as we approached the city is looked like every other city: a lot of bright lights and buildings.
Our contact checked us into a hotel — where we would stay for the next 5 days — and pointed us in the direction of an ATM, a restaurant, and the subway. She told us another employee would meet us at a hospital the next day and asked if we needed help navigating the subway. We told her we didn’t, we hoped we didn’t.
After that we took out some yuan and had our first Chinese meal. We pretty much just pointed at pictures (while the waitress laughed at us) and hoped for the best. It wasn’t bad but we did end up getting some duck feet which McCoy ate. After that we succumbed to the jet-lag and 13 hour time difference and passed out.
In the morning we made our trip to the hospital. The subway ride spawned this post.
There wasn’t much cultural shock happening. Beijing was crowded and nobody really spoke English. But besides that it seemed fine. For sure, Chinese culture is different in many ways than Western culture and I’ll explore that more in later posts.
In any case, we weren’t really given much time to be shocked. From the first day we were being rushed around different places for our jobs. First the hospital, then the main office, then to different schools. By our third day there I had already visited 3 schools and been offered a job by one of them.
Do you know the feeling of starting a new job? You’re starting right in the middle of things and there’s so much going on, you just have to try to learn as fast as possible and get up to speed. It’s stressful but exciting. So imagine that, and then add in being in a new city with a language you don’t speak and 13 million people.
Some of the other teachers didn’t like it so much. One girl quit after being in China for only one day. And most others were stressed and nervous wrecks.
I like to tell myself that I’m really great in those types of situations. The kind where you’re under a lot of pressure but you still keep your head clear and just roll with the punches. It doesn’t matter how fast things are happening and how little explanations I’m getting, I can handle it. Right?
It was definitely easier having someone you can trust with you, but even with that, it was a pretty unsettling few days. I remember having problems effectively accessing and sorting my thoughts and emotions for the first two or three weeks after being here. And I’m sure it was because those first few days drove me into a “survival mode” where I couldn’t really feel relaxed and comfortable. It wasn’t until I started journaling again frequently that I really felt like I was back to normal.
So the first week of being shuffled around ended with us being placed at schools and finding an apartment. Over the next couple weeks we found a third roommate, bought furniture and kitchen stuff, and settled into our routines.
The Routine
The routine since then has pretty much been teaching during the week and hanging out with the other teachers on the weekend. We haven’t been able to see many touristy sites outside of Beijing because the weekends are too short for any real traveling.
And since the first week, the stress has found a new source: teaching. I won’t go to too much into it here, but constantly dealing with aggressive assistants, overbearing administrators, and great kids that you want to protect from everything really leaves me ragged by the end of the day.
Of course, teaching isn’t all bad. It’s actually really great and I love it. But I love it because of the kids and hate it because of pretty much everything else.
Besides working, we did meet a lot of other people that were cool. And a lot that weren’t that great.
I had this misconception before we left. I thought that most foreigners we met in China would be awesome. Just think about it, these are people who have left everything they knew behind to travel to the other side of the world. They must be adventurous and individualistic. They bailed on their countries and cultures and all of that other bullshit to go experience something totally new and to teach kids while they’re doing it. They must be awesome.
Wrong. For sure, there are some really cool people we’ve met. Those are the ones I continue to hang out with. But besides that, you pretty much have the same spectrum you have anywhere. The range from socially awkward and creepy types to annoying douchebag types. It’s inescapable.
So What’s Next?
Not sure. McCoy has a relationship developing. Hopefully he’ll post about that at some point.
And I’m just hanging out. I teach, I blog, I do self-work, I design shit, and I socialize on the weekends. It’s actually pretty fantastic and I really like living here. My Chinese still sucks, but I’m not working on it too much, I just absorb things here and there.
I promised myself I wouldn’t think about what to do after China until I had been here at least 6 months, and I’m sticking to that rule.
As for this website, I’m not sure. I still haven’t figured out the balance between touristy stuff with pictures and humorous anecdotes, the (sometimes heavy) teaching stuff, and the philosophical and psychological ideas and thoughts. It’s something that I’m constantly thinking about and trying to improve. All three are really important to me, and they are related in different ways. If you have feedback on this subject please let me know.
I know I’m going to keep posting a lot of teaching stuff, I have a few more From Childhood To Statism posts planned. And eventually I’ll be motivated to get into some straight philosophy. I also have posts about Chinese culture, including one called “The Cult of the Chairman”, in the works.
If you’re looking for some more picture posts get excited, I am visiting the Great Wall this weekend and will (hopefully) get some great shots.
For the rest I’m just being patient and working on things as they come up.
Alright, I think that’s pretty much it. I hope you enjoyed your stay in Ramble City and some of this was interesting. If not, I’m sure my next post will have some really bad and immature jokes. Everything will be right with the world!
Until then…
