The Office

No! Not with Jim and Pam, MY office.

Some people have been asking me about where I work so I figured I would post some pictures. Xiamen ENRY Co. ltd is the name of the company. It is a manufacturing and export company that specializes in the production of luggage, back packs, and hand bags along with a few other assorted varieties. If you are interested or if by chance you should happen to need a whole lot of bags made have a look at our website.

Its nothing too exciting really, but there are some distinct and interesting differences.

Everything about this picture is what you would normally see when you first come into the office except that the person at the front desk usually has quite a bit more affiliation with the flag on the left then on the one on the right. (Though Chris gets told he "looks more Chinese" all the time. He has decided its a compliment.)



Then as you turn right you see a few things that you might not see in a normal American office. Note the Buddhist shrine located on the right. There is incense, fruit, and a statue of Buddha on the inside. There is also a Tea set that we use frequently when we meet with customers and the factory foremen.



Then there is the super exciting area where we spend out days. Everyone else is out too lunch, but Chris is still plugging away...



Then we arrive at my desk. Apparently some where along the line I became a Mac fanboy. Nothing to exciting here just some pictures of the folks and friend, a photo copy of my diploma (since I haven't been able to see the real one yet!), and my Tiger calendar haha! (In case you didn't put 2 and 2 together, 2010 is in fact the year of the Tiger)



And this is my lovely view of everyone in the office. The windowed room is of course Lindon's office.


And then there is the newbies desk. It still needs some character building.



And that is about it for the office. I was wary of taking photos in the factory... I am not sure Lindon would appreciate that, though there are a few on the website if you care to look.

Anyway, not the most exciting post but I thought it might be interesting to others who are working in offices to see what they are like in China!

More later.

My New Appartment! Part 2

Ok, time for a quick part two, but first a write up of my first real batch of culture shock.

The back story:

For those who don't know, the reason for moving is because my close friend and roommate from college, Chris Lombardozzi has moved out to Xiamen with me. (You can check out his blog here)

When the original plan for Chris to move out here was suggested, we mentioned it would probably be cheaper to live together. Lindon agreed and we left it at that with out elaborating.

About a week before Chris showed up, I got to talking to Lindon about living arrangements. My old apartment is quite small as any one who has followed the blog from the beginning knows and there was very little room for the two of us. My original plan was to turn the living room into a bedroom and try and swing it that way. It would be tight, but cheap, and Chris and I have lived together before, so we figured we could hack it.

Lindon however had other ideas...

When I mentioned getting another bed so that we could go forward with my plan Lindon looked perplexed. The conversation went something like this:

Me: "Is there anyway we can get another bed and turn the living room into a bed room."
Lindon: "Why do you need another bed?"
Me: "So Chris or I doesn't need to sleep on the couch."
Lindon: "Is Chris very big?"
Me: "About my size. Why?"
Lindon: "Won't he fit in the bed then?"
Me: "Yes, but then I must sleep on the couch."
Lindon: "How come?"
Me: "Because, Chris is in the bed."
Lindon: "You can't share?"

Long awkward pause...

Me: "ummmmm No, no we can't."

Apparently, it is quite common for 2 full grown men to share a bed in China! Lindon's 20 something year old brothers do it right now. Lindon could not for the life of him understand why we couldn't, and I could not for the life of me explain it. In the end we had to chalk it up to cultural difference and we started contemplating new options.

He was also extremely surprised that Dan (my brother) and I only shared a room until about the age of 11 and that we never shared a bed. He told me how him and his 3 brothers share a bed most of their life and always shared a room. When he asked why we did it, I could really one think of "because that is what is common in the US." Which is not an answer I particularly like giving, but at the moment (and still really) I couldn't come up with a good reason.

While this was quite a shock at first, once I sat and thought about the economic conditions and the complete lack of space and resources, it actually makes a lot more sense.

Fortunately Lindon is a great guy and very understanding. (He also gets things done!) 2 days later, his wife (Susie) went out and found us this great new apartment and I was moved in Thursday.

Which brings us ack to the comparisons. I did 5 positive on the last post so I'll start with one of the draw backs this time.

A one true down side: The Building is much older.
The old apartment was only 3 years old. It was fresh, clean, and new. Most things were just put in, if not still being put in, and it just gave a very clean modern appearance. This one, not so much. It is however, much more like what I THOUGHT living in China would be like. This picture is taken from out kitchen.


The whole complex is the kind of odd round building where you can look out of your kitchen and just see what everyone else is doing. Something oddly communist about it to me.

Another positive: Bathroom.
Just about everything about it. There are cupboards for putting things in (especially nice with 2 people living there), running hot water in the sink, and a DOOR ON THE SHOWER! so that when I shower the whole bathroom doesn't get soaked like it did in the old apartment.


A down side for practicality, A plus for my health: Floor number
As you may have noticed from the picture of the building, this apartment is on the 6th floor. There is no elevator. Moving in was brutal! But now I am starting to get used to it. A good climb after sitting in the office all day isn't such a bad thing. This is the gate, the 602 is painted over and just barely visible.


Another positive: The kitchen.
The kitchen is about 3 times the size of my old kitchen. Aside from the fact that it has a table, cabinets, and is larger, it also has TWO gas stove top burners (still no oven) AND about 5 times the counters space (really 5 times as much, no exaggeration) That means that I no longer have to take the hot plate off the counter, put it on the floor, prep all my food, put it on top of the fridge, turn the hot plate on, make the rice, finish that and cover it and hope it stays warm, change plans, and then, hopefully, cook the rest of the meal in one plan. Rather, I can make rice in a steam cooker, have a pot and a pan hot at once and still have room to cut vegetables!

For comparison, this is my WHOLE kitchen in the old place.


And here is the new one again.


Here also, are the funky lights over the dinning part of the kitchen.


And finally a mixed difference: Cheap wooden stuff/Mini Bar
Because the apartment is old and we are in China everything that is "wooden" is actually really cheap plywood with cheep vinyl looking wood over it. The bag part about this is that from any closer than 3 feet away everything looks super cheap and cheesy. The good part is that the old owners at least used it to make a super cool mini bar thing in the living room! (complete with mini bridge, shelves, and spinny stools!)


There are also some smaller thing I have noticed after a few days that I like. I like the lighting much better, it is less harsh. I also like the marble floor and tables for ease of cleaning. I still can't get over how much more ROOM there is and how great it is.

In all, this place just has more character, and that is what I like in a living space. The other apartment was clean and nice and new, but it was also sterile and boring.

With a little cleaning up and a few Brad and Chris finishing touches (we already have a picture of Charles Darwin on the fridge (thanks Sara!) and my Nat. Geo. Dino poster behind the door) I have no doubt that this place will start to feel much more like home very soon!

The 'Hood

Talking to Rach (from back home) the other day, it was mentioned that I only ever take pictures of the really cool/beautiful/unique things I do. That is all fine and good I think, but my original purpose of the blog was to really be able to show what daily life in Xiamen is like and to provide a little bit of information for people that would consider coming here.

From now on, I am going to try and start doing more short, daily life related posts and then when something interesting comes along I will do a longer one.

So, to kick this format off, I thought I'd just do a quick post about my Neighborhood so people can get a better sense of where it is exactly that I am living.

First some info. My apartment is in the Huli area of Xiamen. You can look at a map here


It is pretty small, just 1 bathroom, 1 bed room, a living room and a TINY kitchen. My rent is about 1300RMB a month (Approximately $180). Its nothing fancy, but it suits my needs just fine.

Here is the entrance to the apartment complex that I only ever see if I walk there. Its kind of like how everyone has a front door that looks nice and is always decorated, yet for what ever reason it only opens when special people come visit.


This is my apartment complex. I live in the last one on the left, 8th floor.


Some of the buildings are apartments and some of them are "houses" I guess? A good comparison would be, If you live in the Bronx and you have one of those sort of "Classic" houses with the stoop and what not. That considered a house not a large apartment right? (Jim McMahmon if you're reading I am specifically thinking of your house." Anyway...


This is standing a little ways out from the entrance to my building at sun set.


Across the street there are a variety of shops, markets, and food vendors.

Occasionally I'll pick up some fresh fruit at this little stand before work.


These are dinner carts where workers or passersbyers can grab a quick bite on the fly.


Here is the market where I get most of my produce. Sorry for the blurry picture, I didn't have flash on so as not to attract even MORE attention then I already do as a foreigner ,with a camera, in a market.


More photos of the market. A table full of spices. (Can you name them in their not ground up and bottle forms?)


Some fresh veg. Again sorry for the blur...


These two are the view from my apartment at night.


The market is right behind this hotel.


And finally, for my own enjoy and if there are any TSLers reading, there was a SAAB outside my building today! By the look of it, an 06-07 Aero! I'd love to find out who's it is. Its only the second one I have seen in Xiamen so far!

Well, that's all for now. Hope that paints a decent picture for people!

Rip Off: Loneliness

This post is a rip off/my own take of a web comic I came across the other day. It struck close to home. It's a little emo ill admit, but it documents some left out parts of my trip and sums up a lot of my current thoughts on my experiences thus far.

While not all of the pictures are from China, and it doesn't match the comic PERFECTLY, each picture definitely represents I critical point along the way. Most of them I had already taken anyway (ok I stole one of FB, see if you can guess).

For instance the first picture is in Australia, when I split from the group and took a snorkeling trip on my own. It was the day that solidified my want to travel after college (Also to go along with the comic, pre Australia was kind of a dark time in my life.) The picture on the deck is the day before I left. One picture is part of my motivation to get away, while others are of people and places I miss now and again. Still others are just part of day to day life here that I haven't posted anywhere else or that I have been promising that show a bit of where I live. All this will make much more sense paired with the writing and comic. So here goes...

You can see the original comic here http://saraholeksyk.com/loneliness.html It will make 100x more sense if you do.

Loneliness

I've been having these dearms where I am swimming underwater very deep below the surface. Its dark, night time, and as far as I can see there is nothing. Just water and the ocean floor...


It's winter. To0 cold and wet for me to wander outside and my phone is broken (ok not really just super expensive to call anyone)


I don't leave my house much, its the same every day.

Work


Home


Sleep


Work


I live alone. I come home to a dark hallway every night and


wake up on the same side of my bed, in my grove.

Half my pay check (ok a Quarter) goes to rent because I have no roommate. This was a sacrifice I HAD to make for this.

It seems to me that to many people are afraid of being alone, or relatively alone. I can think of a few people who like it as much as I do.

Isolation isn't always loneliness.

Alright, You'll think I am crazy... but I enjoy my own company as much as I enjoy another's. It never seems like I am alone when I am by my self.

There is a constant dialogue as if there is Me and "someone with me".



I don't know if you feel this way or if anyone else does.

And I guess it doesn't matter as long as its their only when I am alone.



I have no idea if this is true, but it seems like most people feel secure when they attach them selves to others. I feel this way too.

But where others feel lost by them selves, I feel secure.



Its a time when I don't worry, I don't lie, I don't regret.

Not always, but I usually like it. A lot.

I've put a lot of thought and work into making my self someone I respect. (and so have others)


And of course I like to be with others and go out and party...




...But when I am alone...


Its a good thing, and I am Happy.

Yes I know that posting this on a blog for people to read is moderately ironic but that's not REALLY the point.

Pizza Night

Tonight was one of the strangest nights I have had so far.

It started with a craving for pizza, which may be the death of me. It is the only thing that when I get a bad craving for I know is in at least a 2 or 3 mile radius and I have a hard time satisfying with something else.

So I went on google maps, found a place that serves pizza just a mile and a half from my house and decided I would take the walk.

This all started around 7:30pm and I didn't get out the door till around 8. It gets dark here around 6:00 now. From my experiences and from what people say the streets are pretty safe at night as long as you don't go certain places or hang around past 12ish.

The map said I had to walk straight down my street cross the road, down another street and across a park and it would be a mile or I could take the road around the park and go 1.5.

So I started walking down my street and I got to a second hand store that I had gone in a week earlier. While there the first time I had bought a folding table for about $5 to put on my roof where I am currently trying to put together a little hang out spot. Here is an early picture right after I put up X-mas lights (which where being sold at wal-mart for the holidays)



I also have 2 chairs in my apartment that I can bring up and sit up there and read a book, drink a beer, or look at the stars (about once a week when the starts are actually visible)

Unfortunately I made the mistake of leaving the table up there, and I discovered only yesterday that it had been stolen.

As I walked into the shop to look around for a possible replacement, there it was! Someone had stolen my table and sold it back to the very shop I bought it from. I was not pleased! I tried explaining to the man in the shop what had happened but no amount of translator or me being annoyed was going to make this any easier to understand or get my table back. Eventually I left in a huff and decided maybe I would go back, buy it again, and write in big letters THIS IS BRAD SWAIN'S TABLE, I WILL KNOW IF YOU STEAL AND SELL IT BACK THIS TIME on the top. Maybe I'll get someone to write it in Chinese for me.

So as I walked towards the pizza place I was hoping I could find, I was slightly bitter. Eventually I neared the end of the street and out of no where a small hill and a MIDEVIL CASTLE appeared where this park was supposed to be. Pictures will come in the future, I didn't think I was going to need my camera for a quick walk to the pizza shop. I am learning now I should bring it everywhere.

I quickly discovered that the castle was part of a theme park. I took a side street that I thought would be the quickest way around and found it to be an entrance to the park section of the theme park that I apparently saw on the map.

The only other parks I have been to in Xiamen have been small, flat, well lit, very pretty parks. Parks where you can see very well and also see the other side of the park while standing on one side. Those of course I had all visited with people.

I am now of course by my self, and after about going 100 meters in, I quickly realized that this was neither anywhere near flat nor was it well lit. There where however, plenty of people around to scare the hell out of me. From what I have gathered, all forms of gambling are illegal in China. There is no lottery, or natives with casinos, or horse races for people to take out their urges. This means that the average 20 something year old male likes to go to a high dark place with his friend and play some kind of card or dice game far away from police watch. (this was true when we went on the hike at Xiamen University as well)

Maybe its because I am a suburban white kid. Or maybe its because the only time I ever see this happen is in movies about the 1920's in a back ally and right after the game, little Georgey gets his teeth kicked in because he won to much money from the big kids. Or maybe its because I was alone in the dark in a foreign country with roving packs of 20 something years old's, but this was moderately unsettling to me. Call me a chicken, whatever, you'd be scared too.

The paths in this particular park make 0 sense, I didn't know where this pizza place was, and I was starting to get a little nervous because either 3 dudes where following me or happen to be going EXACTLY where I am going (which is every which way because I don't know which way I am going. This compounds the unsettled feeling) At one point I even stopped and they came up and stood next to me. I figured if they where going to rob or whatever me, they would do it now, but they didn't. So I kept on walking and they kept on following, and I was still freaked out.

To make this all the more exciting, this is a theme park, so there are HUGE CREEPY CHINESE CARTOON CHARACTERS around every corner.

But eventually I went around a corner and took a side path, they took the other and I felt slightly better.

Eventually I emerged in the middle of what I can only describe (to all you camp people out there) as a Jungle 80's aerobics work out on the Chinese equivalent of the sun prod stage in the middle of a park on a Saturday night in China. I was really hoping Jen Kramberg would jump out of a bush, stand up on a chair, and start singing "When You Call My Name" to make it all seem a little more realistic. But no such luck.

After this bazaar scene I walked a little further through the woods and I next arrived at an arcade. (in the middle of the woods) The arcade had a bunch of basketball shooting booths, a make the duckies swim by shooting water at the target booth, and a big sign that said pizza, steak, and french fries.

I noted this a possible place to eat if I didn't find the real pizza place (since the map had indicated that the Pizza place was not in-fact inside the park, but on a street near it)

I then proceed to walk around the arcade and found that it was only actually half arcade half BEAUTIFUL RESTAURANT ON A LAKE?! Leave it to the Chinese. (the distinction between luxury and tacky, at least by American standards, is still a very gray line here) At this point I was really wondering if the bout of food poisoning I had had 3 days ago was making me have hallucination now, and really wanted to get back into the streets of Xiamen where I belonged.

Eventually I did, and when I did, I immediately saw a giant Billboard that basically said EUROPEAN JAZZ PIZZA back the way you just freakin came. The pizza place I found online was called EJ's, so I put two and two together and headed back for the arcade/4 star restaurant.

Beside the arcade outside, I was the only person in the whole place. After some butchered attempts at ordering in Chinese (to the great amusement of all 3 waitresses working) and a fair amount of pointing I eventually got a pretty decent peppers and onions Bi Sa (the i makes a hard E sound, say it out loud) and a pi jiu (beer).

I sat in the super nice part of the restaurant over looking the lake and the people taking paddle boats out in it. I sat and enjoyed the fact that I was no longer wandering threw some horrible drug trip gone wrong.

Of course, the really smart part of me said, "Hell, I know my way back now and all I have to do is look for the giant lit up castle. So I'll just head back the way I came". So I did.

It was relatively uneventful and the castle was in sight when all of the sudden the all too familiar chorus of "hellos" started.

The "Hello" chorus is a phenomenon that, 95% of the time involves 15 - 30 year old males who are with their friends. One in Chinese says "Oh look a Foreigner!" And then As I walk by he says "Hello!" and all of the others race to catch up and say "Hello!" as well. Then the 2 that know the most English attempt to impress each other (not me so much, I am just the catalyst) by how many random questions they can ask me in English. Sort of like a verbal pissing contest.

Typically I put up with this for about 3 of such questions and then make up I place I have to be. To be honest, I think my answers are a little bit of a disappointment anyway, since they are never typical American responses they learned in School. For example, "What sports do you like to do on your free time." is usually answered with "Lacrosse, Running, and Skiing" which are not "Football, baseball, and basketball" which according to text books, should be the answer.

But not this time, this time the "Hello chorus" was followed by a different question (from a guy who spoke English pretty well). "Which kind do you like?" followed by a wave of the finger. This made me worried because it was pretty dark and his finger wave was pretty ambiguous. It could have meant anything from "we can find you heroin or crack" to "older men or younger men".

It turns out, after about 3 minutes of conversation I figured out it was the latter!

This became apparent after he apologized. His English was rusty because the last person he had spoken English with was his "63 year old Canadian boy friend who had died visiting Malaysia last year". Seconds later I found out that he was 26 and just had a thing for older men.

Thankfully the next question was "How old are you?" and the answer "23" (in China the birthdays are celebrated differently) apparently got me off the hook of being any interest to him. I next made it quite clear that I was a fan of women, no offense to them. This was received by 4 or 5 disappointed aw's from the back up singers in the Hello chorus, the group of guys I was supposed to "choose which one I liked" from a few minutes earlier.

Not wanting to be rude, I hung around for a few more minutes and talked. But by this time it was about 9:25 and I "had to meet a friend at 9:30" so I said "Zai Jian" and was on my way.

Nothing much but odd recollections of the absurdity of the last 2 hours worth of experiences happened on the way home. I was happy to get home and be some where that didn't make me feel like I was lost in wonderland.

I wish I was creative enough to make this kind of stuff up.

power failure

Today's blog post about the super market was half written when the power, in what would appear to only be a few floors, went out.

So instead since I can't post that, I will simply post that I now know how to set up VPN's on other people's wifi via my iPhone. The world is now my free wifi hotspot :)

There is positive for every negative! Though the negative side, having no dinner, is considerable. Temporarily the positives still out weigh the negative but we will see by breakfast tomorrow if I still feel the same way.

Brad's List of 8 Inferred Guide Line for driving in China.

One of the things I am having the hardest time adjusting to is the absolute insanity that happens every day on Chinese roads.

I have however, been compiling a list of inferred guide line that I thought was worth sharing. First some information on ownership, roads, and cars in Xiamen.

Personal car ownership has increase an average of 40% every year in the past 4 years.

90% of these people got their license for the first time when they bought these cars. (today's inspiration for this post came from Su, Lindon's wife, who picked me up to go to the grocery story today. She has been driving one day a month for 2 years for a grand total of 24 days of driving experience)

To put this driving culture and mentality in perspective, Imagine a city the size of Boston where the vast majority of people drive like they are between the ages of 16-20 in brand new cars.

Most roads where built 20+ years ago and where meant to handle government vehicles, some taxis, and buses. Personal car ownership at this time was essentially 0. This means that the biggest roads around where intended to accommodate the traffic of a residential culdesac)

Bicycles and hybrid motorized bicycles have been the primary mode of transpiration here for decades and used the roads for much of this time because there where so few cars. They where, for the most part, the largest and fastest moving things on the street. Because the spike in car ownership has only occurred recently, this mentality has not really changed. (Even though they clearly no longer are.)

All Chinese roads have large side walks. It is as common to see cars on side walks as it is to see bikers.

Ok, that does it for outlines. Now...

Brad's List of 8 Inferred Guide Line for Driving in China.

1) There was a little joke I used to tell friends when we where first learning to drive. It went "All stop signs with white boarders are optional." For all of you who have not heard this joke, all stop signs have white boarders. In China it is not a joke.

2)You do not have the right of way.

3)At all costs, stay away from buses. Usually this means just don't drive, since buses are EVERYWHERE. If you must drive, assume that these lunatics will drive their 2 ton lump of steal and glass full of 39027430948 Chinese people like it can handle and accelerate like it is a Formula One car and is equally as long.

4) All lines, signs, and lights are for purely atheistic purposes. I am not really sure why they waste the paint and electricity. It would be easier to understand Chinese driving if the pavement was blank and there where no lights. This would at least remove the confusing illusion that you are following some kind of logical system. That way you could focus on not getting run over instead of putting all of your energy into yelling "WTF IS THIS GUY DOING! ITS A RED LIGHT AND HE IS IN 2 LANES WITH PEOPLE CROSSING THE ROAD!"

4a) All lines that are painted are dotted. This includes main streets, narrow avenues, alleys, and one way roads. Keep in mind these are NOT straight-aways on unpopulated New England back roads, this is like putting a dotted yellow line in the middle of Time Square.

5)Do not use your blinker. Most likely you will get pulled over for having unnecessary lights that distract other drivers.

6)J walking is not only legal but necessary as there are no cross functional walks. People standing on the dotted lines on a 4 lane highway are not uncommon. This is again misleading because all 4 lane highways are actually 6 lanes and the dotted lines serve as almost not protection.

7)Using your Horn or flashing your lights usually means "You WILL loose this game of chicken because I am not backing down, even though I am on the wrong side of the road" or "I am driving twice your speed behind you and will plow your car into on-coming traffic if you do not pull on to the side walk and let me pass".

8) All of these guidelines will be rendered useless in a matter of a week. As a rule of thumb I throw out all of my establish a guidelines once as week because usually I see 3 or 4 examples of them being rendered useless in this time.

Getting my license within a month!

Runing Tally of Things I Really Miss

I thought it would be mildly therapeutic if I made a running tally of things I miss now after two weeks (besides family and friends). Most of these things are currently food items, though it may change in time. Not sure why, but here goes.

Iced Coffee - Actually any coffee that isn't just a front for caffeinated tar in general is greatly missed. (I am very thankful I took a lb from home but I only have that much so I am saving it for days I really need motivation in the office) But its 78-84 degree F here and I would probably pay up words of 5 or 6 times what I'd pay at home for a cup of Java Madness or Brewed Awakenings Iced Coffee.

Baked Goods - I have no stove and the Chinese aren't big on baking. I had some bananas going brown today and got really excited to make Banana bread. I popped them in the freezer turned around and took them out again because I forgot I don't have an oven. Banana Bread could probably be its on category.

Maple Syrup - This might as well come from the moon. I can't even get "syrup" let alone grandpa's grad A homemade maple syrup. Pancakes and French Toast are both make-able, but no substitute for topping has yet been found.

Dark Beer - I have had one Sam Adams since I left. While beer is never in short supply, the color and taste range from about the equivalent of Stella to Bud Light. It does not seem to get much worse than bud light though. I have not so far found a Chinese equivalent to say, PBR or Naddy. This makes beer drinking very easy but also extremely uninteresting. The easy part does not bode well with the fact that it is considered in bad taste if a guest has an empty cup. Fortunately the beer ranges from about 3.1% to about 3.8% so its not to hard to keep to keep it together.

Pizza - This one is not as much of a nagging persistent missing like the other but more of an unsatisfiable craving that hits out of the blue. The interesting bit is that there is an Italian restaurant not TOO far away where you can get kind of a traditional Italian style pizza (and even then its not really that great) but this is not the kind of pizza that will satisfy this urge. If anyone gets to Pepe's or Sallys in the next year and has some left overs, I'd probably still eat it even if you sent it regular 5-7 business days shipping.

Interesting Discussion - There are plenty of interesting things to do, see, eat and try. Unfortunately my Chinese isn't good enough, and none can speak English well enough to have discussion beyond the point of what we like to do, what we study in school, what we like to eat, and what is different about China. This is all well and good because I can talk about all of them to just about everyone. But for someone who likes to dig a bit deeper every once and a while I may need to start finding a new outlet.

That is the major ones at the moment. There are probably a few more but they aren't to persistent if I can't think of them off the top of my head like these ones so they aren't making the list. I am sure I will add more as time goes on.

Funny the way it is.

It has become apparent to me that, when choosing the next step in my life, I always seem to choose the thing that I deemed useless in the previous step. In middle school i deemed trumpet a chore, but studied music in high school. In high school I asked "When am I ever going to need geometry and calculus?" and then majored in Economics in college. In college I couldn't see the point of going to school for TMD, now I sell bags for a living and have to add Textiles 101 to the long list of things I need to learn here in China. Funny the way it is.

Socialized Health Care (my visit to the Chinse Hospital)

I can't believe I forgot to write about this!

I think it is probably because my brain was trying to shut it self down for first 10 minutes.

2 days ago I went to the Hospital for a health check. I am sorry in advance for not bringing my camera and having a field day. The amount of entertaining and bewildering pictures I would have been able to take still makes me a little upset.

So, contrary to what fox might tell you, going to the Dr. in China really isn't that bad. It was clean enough, I didn't have to wait in any lines, and one of the Dr's even spoke Chinglish enough that I could understand what he was saying.

It is however different (and still mildly traumatic for me due to my irrational fear of needles)

First off, you don't just go into one little room with one guy who checks you out. I was shuffled in and out of 8 rooms with 8 different people doing 8 different things in every room.

I would like to imagine that each of these people is specialized in each of the things they are doing. This may or may not be true, but it seemed to make sense.

Of course the first room was blood work which as many of you know is probably the thing I hate more than anything in the world. Fight a bear? if I must, jump out of a plane? ok, Get poked in the arm with a painless little piece of metal? I've got a bear to fight. Add to that the general uncertainty of my first encounter with foreign medical facilities and the pressure of 10 people looking at me as always and not being able to verbalize my fear to any of them and you can imagine what kind of state I was in for the next 10 minutes. Fortunately they had a little bed for me to lay down in. My colleague who came with me then proceeded to add another 2 minutes to me laying in the bed when she said " chi more!" trying to explain that there where seven more rooms, I interpreted it as 7 more shots and laid back down.

Thankfully it was not.

From there on out it was more entertaining than traumatic. The next room I laid down on a bed and had some big clips clipped to my hands and feet while the popped some suction cups on my chest.

After that I went into a big room that was empty except for a machine in the middle that had a sign over head. It lit up when on and read "in working". I was then instructed to stand on the machine, turn my head, and touch it with my shoulders (which basically is nice way of saying mush your face against it while standing up straight). I then road the machine in 3 laps around the room. I couldn't even begin to guess what this accomplished.

Next I went into a room with a table in the middle with what looked like a single steal candle snuffer on it. Turns out this is how you take your eye exam. Cover one eye with the "snuffer" and read the numbers on the wall. This part has become moderately depressing in the past 2 years in that I used to be able to read the very last line with both eyes and now can only do it with my right.

The next 3 rooms where pretty standard. One room for weight and height (now I don't have to do a rough conversion when the 290780974899734th person asks me how tall I am and then responds with a blank stare when I tell them in feet and in.) another for poking me in the stomach and the last peeing in a cup. (still done in a bathroom in China)

The last room was the best though. The room was dimly lit, as I walked in and I was greeted by none other than the spitting imagine of Mr. Miyagi. I was invited to take off my shoes, lay down on the table, and relax (all in super calming Mr Miyagi style English). He hooked me up to a funky machine, scanned my chest with a funky plastic thing, and asked if I had any questions. My better judgment kicked in right before I asked which hand the wax went on with.

Bonus material for writing this a few days after: When we went back and picked up the results there was a girl waiting in the room with me. Tt turns out the she was there at the same time as me and goes to school to study English and speaks perfectly. She understood just about everything I was saying while I was getting the blood taken (since talking and looking away is my strategy for coping, but since I didn't think anyone understood I just talked to the wall and swore a bit). Turns out shes super nice and going to study in the US in 2 years. On a related note, if anyone can tell me anything about Benedictine University, Idaho State College, or Rockford College it would be appreciated since I said I'd ask if anyone I know knew anything about them.

So yeah, Socialized health care - not so bad so far. I'll let you know how I feel about it after I inevitably get hit by a car here. To say Chinese rules of the road are not enforced is misleading since it implies that there are actually rules.

Tomorrow we are going car shopping and apparently to some kind of park. It's supposed to be very beautiful. Plenty of pictures will be taken and uploaded if it is.

TTFN.

First solo shopping excursion

While I am waiting for my more fun photos from my weekend to finish uploading, I thought I’d write up a quick post on cost of living hear in Xiamen.

Today I went on my first solo-shopping excursion to buy some stuff I need around the apartment (I have been doing dishes with hand soap for about 3 days. Google said it was safe enough, I have too much faith in the Internet.)

The trip was largely successful. I got all the essential things I needed plus even a little bit of Chinese honey. To top it off I learned how to say sugar as well. But the most interesting part is the translation of price. Below is a picture of every thing I bought.



Not a whole lot, but plenty of useful things windex, dish soap, sponges, sugar, Tupperware, honey and broom . My guess in the US it would have run me anywhere from 25-35 dollars depending on how much a broom like that costs and the quality of the honey. Either way, it all ran me exactly 50 RMB. For those of you with out a calculator handy or that don’t know the exchange rate, that’s a whopping $7.35.

Not a bad.

More interesting post coming of sight seeing as soon as all the pictures are done!