January 25th Post

I feel that my best ideas come early in the morning and late at night. I believe this is because I am in solitude at these times.

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Here's a fun one for those of you who enjoy fun language stuffs, and especially if you know a bit of Mandarin, and very especially if you know anything about Sichuan.

朋友=Chinese friend who is a girl from Sichuan, about my age with a relatively low level of English.

朋友: 吉娃娃英语怎么说？

: How does one say "jiwawa" in English?

Pause for explanation: 吉娃娃= jiwawa is the combination of Chinese characters which means "Chihuahua". However, it's made up of 吉 and 娃娃, and 娃娃 means "baby" or "small child". End Pause for explanation.

Me : "Chihuahua."

朋友: 真的吗？我以为应该叫他什么...“吉baby”，这样。

: Really? I thought it should be called, like, "Ji-baby" or something.

Me : Mmmmmm.

And no, my friend's name isn't actually “朋友”。

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Here's another good story: but first! Let me just say that I have had tons of great experiences like these in China, it's just that this time around, you get to hear about them because I'm actually keeping this blog.

I asked a Chinese friend the other day: "Which Chinese dish has the most animal meat in it?" So he gave me the names of two dishes to try. (东坡肘子，梅菜扣肉) A couple of days ago I went to a restaurant and ordered 东坡肘子(Dong Po Pork Shoulder). It was basically a huge pork pot roast over lettuce. It looked pretty much the same as my mom's pot roast, just pork. With the skin. The meat was exceedingly tender; when I would pick it up with my chopsticks, it seriously wouldn't stay together for longer than 2 seconds. So, anyway, it was really good. I will admit that it was kind of absurd for me to be sitting there, alone, eating pig shoulder by myself as animal protein is normally used somewhat sparingly in most Chinese dishes.

The funny part is that, when I got home and told my friends about finding, ordering, and eating the 东坡肘子, the first question out of each of their mouths was "Did you eat the skin?", after which I would be mildly and playfully scolded for having not done so.

Mmmmmm pig skin... next time.

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And now on to more serious things... BAAAAAAAAAH just kidding. But seriously... I'll do my best to keep this short.

I interviewed for and was offered a position in a Chinese company to be an International Sales Rep a few days after I arrived here. I got hooked up with the interview through a Chinese friend (of a couple of other friends). Let me preface by saying that I have never wanted to get into business. I believe that the only way one will get me happily and willingly into a cubicle or doing sales or doing any sort of typical suit-and-tie job is if I wholeheartedly and passionately agree with the vision toward which the company is striving, i.e. it's not very likely going to happen too soon, if I have anything to say about it.

Anyway, this job offer lands in my lap, and it sounds cool. And it is cool. I'd be the only foreigner working in their office, the standards of the company seem to be uniquely high, I'd get to wear a suit (which, I'll admit, seems kind of cool for this 23-year-old). But I'd be working from 9am-5:30pm every day, I'd be sitting in a cubicle, I'd be answering phones, staring at a computer, I'd be looking out the window (or more likely looking for a window to look out of). And then I'd be working overtime without pay. And about that all-so-important company vision? Molybdenum. I'd be selling molybdenum, a chemical metal alloy or whatever. Blegh.

In any case, after a few days of deliberation, seeking advice from friends (Chinese and Western), I turned it down. And then received a re-offer. And thought about it again. And then turned it down again. And I feel very confident in my decision.

The job I am headed toward now is much more appealing to me. If I accept it, I will be teaching English to kids ages 3-12, Monday-Friday from 5pm-8pm, earning around the same salary as I would have been if I'd taken the business gig. This will leave me with plenty of free time to: seek out other teaching jobs, seek out translating and interpreting jobs, and seek out opportunities to help those around me.

That sounds a lot more like what I'd like to be doing.

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As soon as I feel pretty certain about the job, I'll start looking for my own place.

Slow and Steady

I mentioned this to a couple of friends the other day: I get so tired of stat-dropping about China, because guess what?- in a country with 1.3 billion people, any stat you drop is going to seem big.

For example: "5 million people are reported to have picked their noses in China just today!"

According to my calculations, 5 million people is approximately 0.4% of the entire population. Don't get me wrong, 5 million people... that's a lot of people. But yeah... it gets boring after a while.

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I wish I could post a picture of my Chinese friend's face when she discovered that my Mandarin accent had taken a "turn for the worse" and now has a Taiwan flavor to it. Her expression screamed: "OH NO! SAVE US! CHRIS' ACCENT SOUNDS LIKE THAT OF THOSE PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN TAIWAN!" He doesn't sound like a communist anymore! Laugh. Out. Loud.

Yeah, I laughed.

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Speaking of being reacquainted with old Chinese friends, statistically speaking, about 75% of my old Chinese friends who are girls have, upon seeing me, noted that I've "变帅了" literally "become handsome (with a possible emphasis on having changed from a previous state)".

Thanks.

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On the same note...

We Americans have the word "consumer" associated with our culture, with our society: "A consumer culture", it's said. Well, let me just say: as far as consumer culture goes, well, China is winning that race, in my opinion. Living in the city, it's hard to ignore the emphasis on fashion. I see more BMWs, Audis, and Mercedes Benz' daily than I have ever seen in Scottsdale, AZ. Advertisements plague the sides of buildings and sidewalks. Buy, buy, buy.

It's not that I didn't realize this the last time I was here, it's just more obvious this time around, I guess. I write that this is "on the same note" as the Chinese girls saying that I've become handsome because they are related, in my mind.

An overwhelming emphasis on that which the eyes are able to see.

An overwhelming lack of emphasis on the intangibles.

It's like eating only rice and thinking that's all there is to eating food.

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News about jobs the next time that I post...

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It's snowing.

三个女的，一个男的

Hi!

I'm back in China. Thus begins the process of finding a job, moving into a place of my own, and beginning to live life without the word "homework" resounding in my head day and night. I'm sure that some new word will replace "homework", but I'm young and into positive thinking, so we'll skip that for now.

Chengdu is how I remember it, and much better.

I'll do my best to keep you people informed about my life here, but I refuse to make promises; there's something exceedingly healthy about not posting everything about one's life on the internet, I find. Actually, I ought to say that there is something extremely healthy about posting nothing about one's life on the internet, from time to time, just like the old days. I'll do my best to write about the good stuff, though, as usual.

For now, things will most likely happen slowly, surely, and, somehow simultaneously absurdly quickly and without warning, so don't expect anything, and yet, look forward to everything!

Bookmark this if you want, otherwise you just have to get lucky and get on Facebook soon after I've posted a new post.

:)