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…
We’re Being Deported
I have bad news everyone.
Due to my constant jokes about Mao’s ghost and tenacious anarchist views the benevolent and loving Party has decided to deport us.
McCoy thinks he might be able to stay since he married his Chinese girlfriend over the weekend. (Surprise everyone!) But I’m definitely fucked.
I have 24 hours to leave the country otherwise I’ll be put in a work camp and forced to sew the bindings of Little Red Books for the next 30 years.
I’m actually considering that option since I’ve seen Batman Begins. Bruce Wayne went from American kid to Chinese prisoner to ninja badass to super hero. Pretty sure I can take the same route.
Oh, and if you didn’t already realize…
What’s Been Going On…
I wanted to write a quick update about the last couple weeks. As of Sunday, McCoy and I have been here for a full month, and it has flown by.
After buying some extra furniture and making a few runs to Carrefour our apartment is finally — what I would call — settled. There were some interesting moments of communication failure with the delivery people. They never showed up at the times we previously agreed to, sometimes not even at the right place.
One truck dropped off our new coffee table at my school instead of the apartment. I had to convince a taxi driver to let me shove the huge glass table into his back seat and take it to our place. I finally got it there and with the help of some strangers managed to get it into my building.
We’ve also settled into the routines at our jobs. Between teaching and lessoning planning and dealing with the politics of working in a school the weeks have gone by super fast. And the weekends go even faster.
Most weekends we have spent hanging out with other teachers and usually the main focus is go out eating and drinking and don’t think about how soon Monday will come. We’re making a few good Chinese friends too, in addition to the crowd of Western teachers. I’ll let McCoy talk more about that in his next post.
(Oh by the way, one of our Chinese friends got me a free VIP haircut at Toni & Guy. So yes, I’m officially gay now. Just kidding radies! *flexes muscles* *applies eyeliner*)
My biggest regret is that I still haven’t seen a lot of the tourist sites around Beijing. I keep telling myself, “This weekend you will go to Tiananmen Square and take pictures and then make a great post on Chinarchy that includes jokes about Mao’s ghost.” Unfortunately, it hasn’t happened yet. But I do have a whole year. And once we get paid (our first real paycheck is April 15) it’ll be a lot easier to see the sites.
I promise that posts about Tiananmen and the Great Wall and all of that stuff will happen eventually. And I’ll try to include a lot of pretty pictures so you don’t have to read a Great Wall of Text. [Groan. The jokes won't ever improve.]
Besides the touristy stuff, we also have a lot of posts planned about cultural stuff. We’re not sure how to dig into it yet, but we know the differences and similarities between Chinese culture and Western culture would make for interesting stories. We just have to figure out the best way to handle that stuff. [Did I really say 'stuff' three times in that paragraph?]
And, as always, I have a queue of maybe six or seven posts related to teaching. I just need the time to flesh them out.
Alright, well that’s it. Expect more in the next few days. Oh, and we’ll announce the winner of the caption contest soon too, so if you haven’t posted go do it now.
And to everyone reading and commenting and following us on Facebook and Twitter, we love you!
150 Fans on Facebook!
Today we hit 150 fans on Facebook. Thanks so much those of you who read, comment, share, and retweet our posts. We love you guys.
Let us know what types of posts you want to see. More photo posts? More stories about China being crazy? More teaching stories? We haven’t even started on psych and philosophy stuff but we can do that too, especially with reference to the culture over here.
So tell us what you find most interesting and we’ll try to oblige.
And if you feel like it, please suggest others to become a fan or follow us on Twitter.
Thanks so much,
- Anderson and McCoy
Quick Update
More posts are coming soon we promise! We’ve been moving into a new apartment and still don’t have internet (or hot water). Once we get that stuff sorted out you can expect a flurry of new content. We’ve got some good stuff about food (with pictures), the crazy Chinese obsession with fireworks, and a lot of teaching-related thoughts.
Keep checking back!
