Okay, lunch break and I have some exciting news!......... I ate egg!
lol, so maybe not that exciting, but it's Friday and it's a nice day outside (meaning the sun is shining, we can almost see real blue sky and the temp isn't bad. We no longer include "the air is fresh" or "look at this beautiful blue sky" when we determine whether it is a nice day.)
As for the egg, I'm pretty sure I accidentially had some chicken egg in a piece of candy, which made me feel pretty crawl-under-my-desk-and-die, lol but that episode passed and life was decent again.
Kyle and I went to lunch, at which the cafeteria was virtually empty compared to the massive amount of lines there usually are... another plus. And we had Chinese instead of Korean. That one could go either way. We're not particularly fond of either, but when the president stopped by and asked if we liked Korean or Chinese better (since he thought we were "trying" the Chinese instead of our "usual" Korean) we told him that we didn't much care for the Chinese. Then again, when we speak to the Chinese, we never care for the Korean. Funny how that works out...
Kyle and I had seperate dishes. I usually get my Chinese based on how many vegetables it has. He chose for some other reason, but his included duck egg. Or at least that's what we think it is/was. He asked if I wanted to try duck egg, which I've been meaning to try any other type of egg other than chicken, so I gave it a shot.
I had a very small bite to see if it would cause my tongue to react, which it normally would if it were chicken egg. It didn't set it off right away so I finished the bite. I waited until the end of lunch to eat the rest of it (only 1/8 of an egg) to see if I would react to a larger part. 30 mins in and so far so good. My sinus are a little irritated but that could also be from the sinus infection. Overall, looks promising! Granted, it could take up to a couple hours to react, but I usually react pretty quickly. Who knows, maybe I'll have to switch from chicken to duck egg... not sure how that would work out-small duck farm?-but we shall see.
I'll let you know how that turns out :) Off to the intern meeting.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Happy Halloween!!!!!
Happy Halloween! (to those of us in the world that celebrate it!)
I’m writing this at 7:30 a.m. after having finished two games of Spider Solitaire, one and one, while I wait for work to begin and the Internet to click on at 8:00 a.m. Every Friday, I take the bus in at 6:45 a.m., so my time there this morning is normal. I almost missed the bus this morning while I was talking to Genevieve. Not blaming her, I just always underestimate how much time it takes to get from the 16th floor-which is actually the 12th but they don’t have floor number 13 or 14-down to the bus. I’ve had to take the bus morning bus three out of five days this week. Usually it’s only Friday mornings with the director’s Audi at 9:20 a.m. every other day. However, this week was all kiddy-whompis (has any actually used that word in a written context? Lol, I never have. It seemed like a good word until I tried to spell it out!)
Monday started as usual, but Anna came along as well to watch Samuel’s basketball team play against the R&D Center. I was told to be downstairs by 9:20 so we wouldn’t have to worry about get stuck at the gate to the LG campus at break time, 10:00 a.m. We sat outside for 15 mins and still no driver. Because I managed to lose my cell phone sometime last week, no one could call me to tell me that the driver was sent on an errand and would be a few mins late. I used my cell phone from the states, which is able to call land phones and cells only on the first time, probably for emergency purposes. I got a hold of Vivian and by the time she called me back, the driver had pulled up. Since we were running 5 mins late, the driver tried to step it up and make up for lost time. However, when we got onto the main drag, we came across an accident and a bit of a traffic jam. From what we saw, it looked like someone had run into an ambulance. Anna and I chuckled about it briefly, then realized that the ambulance was there to pick someone up. As we passed the scene, which had no cops, no tape or flares, we saw that the van which we originally thought had hit the ambulance, had actually hit a tricyclist near a residential area. I don’t know if they actually lived in the area, but why they were on this major highway was beyond me. I’ve seen a number of people walking or riding their bikes on these roads, even at night and without any lights. Not safe. Obviously. The tricyclist was on a stretcher by this point, but moments before they had been up the hood and through the windshield before resting on the concrete. I’ve never seen anything like that before. We hadn’t actually seen the accident happen, but I’ve never seen anything here worse than a fender-bender, let alone an actual bloodied body. Not here, not in the States. It looked like an older person, and (of course) they didn’t look good. I’m a little surprised that it took over a month to see an accident like this. Supposedly, and I believe it watch people drive here, China will see as many as 1 million traffic related deaths by the year 2020, so says John Pamfret, the author of Chinese Lessons. That’s an intimidating thought! (Yes, I just did a citation, lol)
Anna and I arrived unscathed and late enough that the gate was open and the 10:00 break was over. Samuel arrived at the same time we did and as Anna went to watch Samuel warm up, I went upstairs to work.
More of the same number crunching data collecting, so nothing fun there, but I did decide to have Halloween all week! I put together a brief about the history of Halloween and then a bit about what we do now and some pictures of the most popular costume themes. My Intermediate class seemed to enjoy it. I didn’t get a chance to share it with my Advance class because I decided to stay home sick on Tuesday. Didn’t get too much accomplished, which includes not sleeping. I had just enough energy to putz, but not enough to actually go anywhere. I hate that limbo! I finally wore myself out at 4:15 p.m., so I laid down to rest for a bit. 5:00 p.m. I get a call from work saying they want me to present my survey results for the president and need to be at work early. Bleh! I was woken up for that?!
I got up and went to work the next day. Every asked how I was, if I was any better, a few pity looks. I must have looked worse than I thought! The director whisked me off to his office in front of the heater and told me to stay in there where it was warm. About 8:15, we get the call that the meeting is postponed until 10:30 a.m. Okay, no surprise there… I go back to my desk and putz around some more. I put up the daily idiom and slang, and had a co-worker correct me (not a student). Turns out I wrote “Sick as dog” for the example instead of the “Sick as a dog” like the first sentence said. Not a huge correction, but the fact someone had the guts to correct me was pretty neat.
I did some work, tried to look up the Youtube clips for Disney’s The Legend of Sleepy Hallow, a little Facebooking, and physically yo-yoed throughout the course of the day. Since it was the party/fun day for the intermediate class, I didn’t want to cancel class a second time this week. I started to feel better near the end of the day, so I put in a 12 hour work day and toughed it out. It also turned out that I would need to put in another 12 hour day Thursday. The president cancelled on us all together, moving his Wednesday 8:30 a.m. meeting to Thursday at 8:30 a.m. Oh, well…gives me a chance to make up some time.
I taught the class Bingo, which they REALLY had fun with, and they colored Halloween pictures, and did anagrams and crossword puzzles. Turns out that my students are actually learning something! Albeit, “Dracula is the King of Vampires” probably won’t get you far in life, but it gives me hope that they are taking in other things as well.
Thursday was pretty similar to Wednesday, but I was feeling leaps and bounds better thanks to my trusted friend antibiotics! I may have spent more time on Facebook trying to upgrade my H20pia realm than actually working, but I did get quite a lot accomplished on my report. Probably won’t be finished today, since I decided to add more details to it, but I should have it finished by early next week.
I did a little prepping for my advanced class, another Halloween party and a bit of Halloween info since I missed Tuesday. When it came time for class, I only had one student! We decided that I should try to catch the bus, but by the time I got downstairs (I was literally running through the halls and down the steps trying to catch the bus at the gates) the bus was across the parking lot, pulling through the gates. I climbed the steps back to the office and asked if LG would pay for a taxi home. Mr. Shin, my Korean manager said they would, but if I waited ‘til 6:30 a company car would take me home. I said that wasn’t a problem so I sat and tinked around on the internet…woot.
But… while I/we were waiting, I was invited to dinner with the group by the director. I figured I didn’t much else going on, and I’m always one for free food, so I accepted. It was with the Koreans and a few of the Support people. Looked like a fun crowd and it turned out to be a great dinner. We had Hot Pot, my favorite dish in China, which consists of a pot of boiling broth on a hot coil in the middle of the table and lots of fresh ingredients on the side, which you add, cook and eat a few at a time.
After the men (mostly the Koreans) had all gotten liquored up, I was asked by one of the managers if I was free on Saturday night for dinner with the rest of the managers at his house. A little strange… but I said I might be. Then he asked if I knew how to play cards. Ah! Got it. And yes, I can play cards. “What do you play?” “Poker.” “Good! What Kind” I listed off an assortment and he seemed thoroughly satisfied. “Good! Bring lots of money!” We’re playing 7 card stud, which is not my best game, but I think after a little refresher I should be fine. Supposedly a couple of the managers are “professionals”. Fine by me, but I said I would teach them Texas Hold ‘em and then we’ll see how the cards fall.
I may or may not take them up on the offer…still waiting to hear from Samuel and Anna to see if we’re going to Beijing this weekend. I’d love to go, but I’m still not feeling the best. It’s only 9:50 on Friday morning and I’m feeling worse than yesterday. Darn sinus infection! Then again, it could be the antibiotics starting to take their toll. Who knows.
Well, still have a lot of stuff to catch you up on. Maybe, hopefully, this weekend I’ll do something more than sleep. What a thought!
Pics and more blogs to come. Love you all!
I’m writing this at 7:30 a.m. after having finished two games of Spider Solitaire, one and one, while I wait for work to begin and the Internet to click on at 8:00 a.m. Every Friday, I take the bus in at 6:45 a.m., so my time there this morning is normal. I almost missed the bus this morning while I was talking to Genevieve. Not blaming her, I just always underestimate how much time it takes to get from the 16th floor-which is actually the 12th but they don’t have floor number 13 or 14-down to the bus. I’ve had to take the bus morning bus three out of five days this week. Usually it’s only Friday mornings with the director’s Audi at 9:20 a.m. every other day. However, this week was all kiddy-whompis (has any actually used that word in a written context? Lol, I never have. It seemed like a good word until I tried to spell it out!)
Monday started as usual, but Anna came along as well to watch Samuel’s basketball team play against the R&D Center. I was told to be downstairs by 9:20 so we wouldn’t have to worry about get stuck at the gate to the LG campus at break time, 10:00 a.m. We sat outside for 15 mins and still no driver. Because I managed to lose my cell phone sometime last week, no one could call me to tell me that the driver was sent on an errand and would be a few mins late. I used my cell phone from the states, which is able to call land phones and cells only on the first time, probably for emergency purposes. I got a hold of Vivian and by the time she called me back, the driver had pulled up. Since we were running 5 mins late, the driver tried to step it up and make up for lost time. However, when we got onto the main drag, we came across an accident and a bit of a traffic jam. From what we saw, it looked like someone had run into an ambulance. Anna and I chuckled about it briefly, then realized that the ambulance was there to pick someone up. As we passed the scene, which had no cops, no tape or flares, we saw that the van which we originally thought had hit the ambulance, had actually hit a tricyclist near a residential area. I don’t know if they actually lived in the area, but why they were on this major highway was beyond me. I’ve seen a number of people walking or riding their bikes on these roads, even at night and without any lights. Not safe. Obviously. The tricyclist was on a stretcher by this point, but moments before they had been up the hood and through the windshield before resting on the concrete. I’ve never seen anything like that before. We hadn’t actually seen the accident happen, but I’ve never seen anything here worse than a fender-bender, let alone an actual bloodied body. Not here, not in the States. It looked like an older person, and (of course) they didn’t look good. I’m a little surprised that it took over a month to see an accident like this. Supposedly, and I believe it watch people drive here, China will see as many as 1 million traffic related deaths by the year 2020, so says John Pamfret, the author of Chinese Lessons. That’s an intimidating thought! (Yes, I just did a citation, lol)
Anna and I arrived unscathed and late enough that the gate was open and the 10:00 break was over. Samuel arrived at the same time we did and as Anna went to watch Samuel warm up, I went upstairs to work.
More of the same number crunching data collecting, so nothing fun there, but I did decide to have Halloween all week! I put together a brief about the history of Halloween and then a bit about what we do now and some pictures of the most popular costume themes. My Intermediate class seemed to enjoy it. I didn’t get a chance to share it with my Advance class because I decided to stay home sick on Tuesday. Didn’t get too much accomplished, which includes not sleeping. I had just enough energy to putz, but not enough to actually go anywhere. I hate that limbo! I finally wore myself out at 4:15 p.m., so I laid down to rest for a bit. 5:00 p.m. I get a call from work saying they want me to present my survey results for the president and need to be at work early. Bleh! I was woken up for that?!
I got up and went to work the next day. Every asked how I was, if I was any better, a few pity looks. I must have looked worse than I thought! The director whisked me off to his office in front of the heater and told me to stay in there where it was warm. About 8:15, we get the call that the meeting is postponed until 10:30 a.m. Okay, no surprise there… I go back to my desk and putz around some more. I put up the daily idiom and slang, and had a co-worker correct me (not a student). Turns out I wrote “Sick as dog” for the example instead of the “Sick as a dog” like the first sentence said. Not a huge correction, but the fact someone had the guts to correct me was pretty neat.
I did some work, tried to look up the Youtube clips for Disney’s The Legend of Sleepy Hallow, a little Facebooking, and physically yo-yoed throughout the course of the day. Since it was the party/fun day for the intermediate class, I didn’t want to cancel class a second time this week. I started to feel better near the end of the day, so I put in a 12 hour work day and toughed it out. It also turned out that I would need to put in another 12 hour day Thursday. The president cancelled on us all together, moving his Wednesday 8:30 a.m. meeting to Thursday at 8:30 a.m. Oh, well…gives me a chance to make up some time.
I taught the class Bingo, which they REALLY had fun with, and they colored Halloween pictures, and did anagrams and crossword puzzles. Turns out that my students are actually learning something! Albeit, “Dracula is the King of Vampires” probably won’t get you far in life, but it gives me hope that they are taking in other things as well.
Thursday was pretty similar to Wednesday, but I was feeling leaps and bounds better thanks to my trusted friend antibiotics! I may have spent more time on Facebook trying to upgrade my H20pia realm than actually working, but I did get quite a lot accomplished on my report. Probably won’t be finished today, since I decided to add more details to it, but I should have it finished by early next week.
I did a little prepping for my advanced class, another Halloween party and a bit of Halloween info since I missed Tuesday. When it came time for class, I only had one student! We decided that I should try to catch the bus, but by the time I got downstairs (I was literally running through the halls and down the steps trying to catch the bus at the gates) the bus was across the parking lot, pulling through the gates. I climbed the steps back to the office and asked if LG would pay for a taxi home. Mr. Shin, my Korean manager said they would, but if I waited ‘til 6:30 a company car would take me home. I said that wasn’t a problem so I sat and tinked around on the internet…woot.
But… while I/we were waiting, I was invited to dinner with the group by the director. I figured I didn’t much else going on, and I’m always one for free food, so I accepted. It was with the Koreans and a few of the Support people. Looked like a fun crowd and it turned out to be a great dinner. We had Hot Pot, my favorite dish in China, which consists of a pot of boiling broth on a hot coil in the middle of the table and lots of fresh ingredients on the side, which you add, cook and eat a few at a time.
After the men (mostly the Koreans) had all gotten liquored up, I was asked by one of the managers if I was free on Saturday night for dinner with the rest of the managers at his house. A little strange… but I said I might be. Then he asked if I knew how to play cards. Ah! Got it. And yes, I can play cards. “What do you play?” “Poker.” “Good! What Kind” I listed off an assortment and he seemed thoroughly satisfied. “Good! Bring lots of money!” We’re playing 7 card stud, which is not my best game, but I think after a little refresher I should be fine. Supposedly a couple of the managers are “professionals”. Fine by me, but I said I would teach them Texas Hold ‘em and then we’ll see how the cards fall.
I may or may not take them up on the offer…still waiting to hear from Samuel and Anna to see if we’re going to Beijing this weekend. I’d love to go, but I’m still not feeling the best. It’s only 9:50 on Friday morning and I’m feeling worse than yesterday. Darn sinus infection! Then again, it could be the antibiotics starting to take their toll. Who knows.
Well, still have a lot of stuff to catch you up on. Maybe, hopefully, this weekend I’ll do something more than sleep. What a thought!
Pics and more blogs to come. Love you all!
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Gah! Two weeks since the last post?!
I've gotten VERY bad about blogging. Obviously. And I am very sorry to keep you waiting! I have a couple of blogs in the wings, which I have yet to finish. Let me give you a brief run down of life since Beijing (which has it's own special blog).
I arrived back from Beijing late Monday (Oct. 20th) night and went straight to bed. Yes, I was able to take Monday off under the condition that I made up the time, essentially by working the reminder of the week from 7:15 a.m clock in and 7:20 p.m. clock out. I'm not sure why the director wouldn't allow me to simply take a pay cut that week, but I agreed and this meant straight to bed for the 6:45 a.m. bus!
I made the bus and came into work only to sit for the first 30 mins of my day... as usual. Then, one of my Korean managers, Mr. Shin, told me that morning exercises were now held outside and that he was heading down if I wanted to join. Sure, I've got nothing better to do with my morning... After 114 steps we were down and outside with the other Koreans and a few brave Chinese, preforming the same morning routine I had done when I first arrived. To me, these aren't really exercises. The most aerobic thing we do is jumping jacks, and climb the 114 steps back to the office. If nothing else, it does get people up and moving.
I get back upstairs and start compiling more data for climate conditions. Since I can't seem to find any *free* sites that provide information on regional, seasonal, humidity and temps, I painstakingly average all 50 states, then find what region they belong to and average those together. Lots of number crunching, which I'm sure there was an easier way to do or a site that I didn't find, but I got it finished by the end of the week... or so I thought.
That Wednesday I was informed that my group would have a presentation for the director but that I didn't need to come. Well, I would need to come only if the director wanted me to present my survey findings, but I would get a call if I needed to come down. The meeting was at 2:00 p.m. and sure enough, come 2:15, I get a call: both on my cell phone from Mr. Shin, and from a nearby co-worker since I never pick up the land line.
I go and present my findings, which in my opinion are helpful but compiled poorly and lacking a proper sampling size from surveyors across the States, but the director was extremely pleased with all the information I gathered. He even clapped, lol. (Thank you to everyone who took the survey! As poorly put together as it was... THANK YOU!) After I finished I returned to my desk and continued with the data search. Not too long afterward Mr. Shin stopped by and to say that the director was very pleased with my findings. Then he added, almost as if an after thought, that the dirctor is always pleased with my projects. Again, I don't think this caliber of work would fly in the U.S., but because I am presenting completely new information, in this case directly from the consumer, I can't go wrong! Plus, I received a grade on my last project report on windows and walls (I guess they all get graded) and earned one of the highest grades of the reports (they also send all the scores together so we can see how everyone else did... mine happened to be the first of the attachment. Not sure what that means, if anything, but overall, good way to start off the week.
Nothing extremely exciting happened the rest of the week... Anna and Samuel came back from Hong Kong Tuesday night and had to wait to get all of their belongings out from my room since LG made them pack everything up and check out so LG didn't pay 300 yuan a night (for a week) for a room that wasn't being used. I felt kinda bad, but they didn't have to wait too long. Also found out that at some point during the internship we all started being charged for anything over 20 yuan worth of laundry. Originally laundry was free. Pants alone are 14 yuan so anything more than that we had to pay. We didn't find out we were being until Anna and Samuel checked out and had to pay 900 yuan for their laundry bill. Seems a little extravagant, but unless we send one item down everyday, instead of save up all of our laundry til the end of the week, like we normally do in the U.S. and also here, we all have some kind of bill coming. I have yet to see what mine is, but at least I know to expect one.
I don't remember what I taught for class on Monday and Tuesday, but on Wednesday I taught Business Etiquette. Needless to say they were all glad to learn it, but very overwhelmed at all of rules and behaviors. Wednesday night I thought Samuel would be taking the late bus home with me as we usually does, but he never showed. I kept my cell phone out just in case he would call to tell me he was on his way and I should hold the bus, but no such call came. Got back to the hotel, which is where he was, but when I went to look for my cell phone on Thursday, I no longer had it. I have never lost my cell phone so I figured I just left it in my pants pocket, and when it wasn't there, left it at the office, but I believe I have offically lost it. I still need to check with the desk, but I don't have a good feeling about it. Probably pawned off by now.
Anyways, I didn't fully realize that I had lost my phone until the following Monday morning. Backing up to Wednesday after the presentation, my co-worker Vivian told me that I may or may not get invited to dinner with the director and the group leaders for their monthly dinner out. Since I hadn't actually been invited, I didn't put too much energy into it. I didn't have much of that in me and what I had I needed to conserve for class and the rest of the week. I did however, think it strange that I, the intern, was being invited out with the group leaders-no Korean managers- the director and his secretary. He was interested in my education and how I was able to produce such good work so consistantly, but I wasn't sure that I had gained all my know-how through school. Regardless, I figured I'd wait to see what happened.
By the time I got home Wednesday night, I was beat. There would be no way that I would have the energy to teach class and do dinner Thursday. I decided that I would politely decline any possible invitation, which I was pretty sure was coming, saying I did not want to miss two classes in one week, and perhaps attend the next group leader meeting. When the invite was extended and the director heard my reply, I received his response (via secretary, to Vivian, to me) saying that the group wouldn't leave until 6:30 so it was still possible to have class and just cut it a little short. Since he seemed insistant that I go, I agreed to a shortened class and dinner. Not sure how I was going to hold up being exhausted, oh and I forgot to mention, sick since Monday on top of that, but I was going to try. I sent out an email to my advanced class saying it would be a shortened class period, without specifying a length, and low and behold, no one came. The one night no one shows up for my class I have to wait to go out to dinner.
We left for dinner around 6:30 p.m. and had a meal which I've been meaning to try called Hot Pot. Basically, boiling broth in the center of the table over an open flame, and you choose what to cook. Order however many items you like, add cook and eat them one or two at a time, then let the broth boil again and start the process over with a different batch of ingredients. It was really tasty! The first half of dinner was everyone speaking in Chinese about this that or the other thing, of course I could never tell if they were on this, that or the other thing, but the second half was spoken primarily in English and geared towards me. Not so much about my schooling, but what I did growing up? Did you sell anything when you were little? You are very strong. Moving to Malaysia?! What about this family business? What percentage of women don't work?
I'm still not completely sure what all these questions were geared towards, if more than finding out about me, but it was still a very relaxing, pleasant dinner nonetheless.
Again, home and crash, and Friday was spent completely brain dead and staring at my computer screen for far too many hours.
As for now, I'm going to take my cold and put it to rest... well bed. Me along with it. I decided to take the day off today to try to beat this thing since it started to move from my nose to my chest and maybe even create a little fever this morning. Probably a good thing I decided to take today off because I received a phone call from my group leader asking me how I was, if I was coming into work tomorrow, and that I would need to be at work by 8:00 because I was going to present my survey findings to the president tomorrow. Lol! Presenting with a cold. Sweet! I guess I should be honored to be presenting to the president again. I just wish I had a better presentation to give. Then again, maybe I have everything they are looking for and I just don't know it!
I'll try to get you more soon. Love you all!
I arrived back from Beijing late Monday (Oct. 20th) night and went straight to bed. Yes, I was able to take Monday off under the condition that I made up the time, essentially by working the reminder of the week from 7:15 a.m clock in and 7:20 p.m. clock out. I'm not sure why the director wouldn't allow me to simply take a pay cut that week, but I agreed and this meant straight to bed for the 6:45 a.m. bus!
I made the bus and came into work only to sit for the first 30 mins of my day... as usual. Then, one of my Korean managers, Mr. Shin, told me that morning exercises were now held outside and that he was heading down if I wanted to join. Sure, I've got nothing better to do with my morning... After 114 steps we were down and outside with the other Koreans and a few brave Chinese, preforming the same morning routine I had done when I first arrived. To me, these aren't really exercises. The most aerobic thing we do is jumping jacks, and climb the 114 steps back to the office. If nothing else, it does get people up and moving.
I get back upstairs and start compiling more data for climate conditions. Since I can't seem to find any *free* sites that provide information on regional, seasonal, humidity and temps, I painstakingly average all 50 states, then find what region they belong to and average those together. Lots of number crunching, which I'm sure there was an easier way to do or a site that I didn't find, but I got it finished by the end of the week... or so I thought.
That Wednesday I was informed that my group would have a presentation for the director but that I didn't need to come. Well, I would need to come only if the director wanted me to present my survey findings, but I would get a call if I needed to come down. The meeting was at 2:00 p.m. and sure enough, come 2:15, I get a call: both on my cell phone from Mr. Shin, and from a nearby co-worker since I never pick up the land line.
I go and present my findings, which in my opinion are helpful but compiled poorly and lacking a proper sampling size from surveyors across the States, but the director was extremely pleased with all the information I gathered. He even clapped, lol. (Thank you to everyone who took the survey! As poorly put together as it was... THANK YOU!) After I finished I returned to my desk and continued with the data search. Not too long afterward Mr. Shin stopped by and to say that the director was very pleased with my findings. Then he added, almost as if an after thought, that the dirctor is always pleased with my projects. Again, I don't think this caliber of work would fly in the U.S., but because I am presenting completely new information, in this case directly from the consumer, I can't go wrong! Plus, I received a grade on my last project report on windows and walls (I guess they all get graded) and earned one of the highest grades of the reports (they also send all the scores together so we can see how everyone else did... mine happened to be the first of the attachment. Not sure what that means, if anything, but overall, good way to start off the week.
Nothing extremely exciting happened the rest of the week... Anna and Samuel came back from Hong Kong Tuesday night and had to wait to get all of their belongings out from my room since LG made them pack everything up and check out so LG didn't pay 300 yuan a night (for a week) for a room that wasn't being used. I felt kinda bad, but they didn't have to wait too long. Also found out that at some point during the internship we all started being charged for anything over 20 yuan worth of laundry. Originally laundry was free. Pants alone are 14 yuan so anything more than that we had to pay. We didn't find out we were being until Anna and Samuel checked out and had to pay 900 yuan for their laundry bill. Seems a little extravagant, but unless we send one item down everyday, instead of save up all of our laundry til the end of the week, like we normally do in the U.S. and also here, we all have some kind of bill coming. I have yet to see what mine is, but at least I know to expect one.
I don't remember what I taught for class on Monday and Tuesday, but on Wednesday I taught Business Etiquette. Needless to say they were all glad to learn it, but very overwhelmed at all of rules and behaviors. Wednesday night I thought Samuel would be taking the late bus home with me as we usually does, but he never showed. I kept my cell phone out just in case he would call to tell me he was on his way and I should hold the bus, but no such call came. Got back to the hotel, which is where he was, but when I went to look for my cell phone on Thursday, I no longer had it. I have never lost my cell phone so I figured I just left it in my pants pocket, and when it wasn't there, left it at the office, but I believe I have offically lost it. I still need to check with the desk, but I don't have a good feeling about it. Probably pawned off by now.
Anyways, I didn't fully realize that I had lost my phone until the following Monday morning. Backing up to Wednesday after the presentation, my co-worker Vivian told me that I may or may not get invited to dinner with the director and the group leaders for their monthly dinner out. Since I hadn't actually been invited, I didn't put too much energy into it. I didn't have much of that in me and what I had I needed to conserve for class and the rest of the week. I did however, think it strange that I, the intern, was being invited out with the group leaders-no Korean managers- the director and his secretary. He was interested in my education and how I was able to produce such good work so consistantly, but I wasn't sure that I had gained all my know-how through school. Regardless, I figured I'd wait to see what happened.
By the time I got home Wednesday night, I was beat. There would be no way that I would have the energy to teach class and do dinner Thursday. I decided that I would politely decline any possible invitation, which I was pretty sure was coming, saying I did not want to miss two classes in one week, and perhaps attend the next group leader meeting. When the invite was extended and the director heard my reply, I received his response (via secretary, to Vivian, to me) saying that the group wouldn't leave until 6:30 so it was still possible to have class and just cut it a little short. Since he seemed insistant that I go, I agreed to a shortened class and dinner. Not sure how I was going to hold up being exhausted, oh and I forgot to mention, sick since Monday on top of that, but I was going to try. I sent out an email to my advanced class saying it would be a shortened class period, without specifying a length, and low and behold, no one came. The one night no one shows up for my class I have to wait to go out to dinner.
We left for dinner around 6:30 p.m. and had a meal which I've been meaning to try called Hot Pot. Basically, boiling broth in the center of the table over an open flame, and you choose what to cook. Order however many items you like, add cook and eat them one or two at a time, then let the broth boil again and start the process over with a different batch of ingredients. It was really tasty! The first half of dinner was everyone speaking in Chinese about this that or the other thing, of course I could never tell if they were on this, that or the other thing, but the second half was spoken primarily in English and geared towards me. Not so much about my schooling, but what I did growing up? Did you sell anything when you were little? You are very strong. Moving to Malaysia?! What about this family business? What percentage of women don't work?
I'm still not completely sure what all these questions were geared towards, if more than finding out about me, but it was still a very relaxing, pleasant dinner nonetheless.
Again, home and crash, and Friday was spent completely brain dead and staring at my computer screen for far too many hours.
As for now, I'm going to take my cold and put it to rest... well bed. Me along with it. I decided to take the day off today to try to beat this thing since it started to move from my nose to my chest and maybe even create a little fever this morning. Probably a good thing I decided to take today off because I received a phone call from my group leader asking me how I was, if I was coming into work tomorrow, and that I would need to be at work by 8:00 because I was going to present my survey findings to the president tomorrow. Lol! Presenting with a cold. Sweet! I guess I should be honored to be presenting to the president again. I just wish I had a better presentation to give. Then again, maybe I have everything they are looking for and I just don't know it!
I'll try to get you more soon. Love you all!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
And here's the week (it's a doosey!)
Today is Tuesday. I'm exhausted. I canceled class tonight because I'm worn out and I had also put in my allotted time for the day. I don't know why I've been so tired the past week, but I have been. Last week I finished up my report but never turned it in. I figured I could turn it in on Monday if I needed to, but no one asked me about it. Instead, I spent the entire day pumping out the results of the Dehumidifier survey, which after seeing again needed another proofing, lol. Oops!
At some point in my yesterday, I was approached by my manager who informed me that I would be presenting my first presentation on the Dehumidifier model (which I still haven't written about) to the President of LG at 8:00 a.m. Tuesday morning. Awesome... Actually, it was pretty cool to know that my first presentation was President worthy, but it through a little wrench into my schedule. I don't leave for work until 9:30 am. The company bus leaves at 6:40. A much needed three hour difference, even if I'm not sleeping, was and is something I don't like giving up.
Okay, come in on the bus. Once I got all the details figured out I went back to work on the survey. However, I could only work for half an hour at a time before one of my many leaders would stop and talk to me on their way to some other place of importance, to hint that I should start prepping and tell me to keep it "very short, little detail, only important things". I got it the first four times! All I wanted to do was get my survey results done so I could get ahead and pump out other things before taking next Monday off. Goodness gracious was it difficult to keep working! I know the President's arrival was a big deal, but I didn't need to freak out about it. If I messed up, what would happen? I'd get fired? Probably not. One of my mangers or the director might have a talking to about letting an intern give a report, but nothing of significance would happen to me. Everyone around me was noticeably a little uneasy with the idea of letting me do this. I told them I would prep Tuesday morning and they seemed surprised. I had given the report once already, I can do it again without too much prep time.
I was able to get most of the survey results written up, but this left me with no time to prep for class. Thankfully we were watching the second half of Transformers so I put that on and came up with a little filler for the end of class. Turned out my intermediate class wanted to discuss some observations about the movie, either theme, material goods, personal beliefs... I was impressed with some of the points they made. For example, one of my students brought up the point that in US film, anyone, such as the "average Joe" at the beginning of the movie, can become a hero and save life as we know it. With a little prodding, I didn't need any of that filler. And on top of that one of my students asked me to slow down. This sounds like a pretty common request, but here no one says anything "negative", either to correct or ask you to do something differently, in case it makes either party loose face. So, this was a pretty big request, even if it was said after everyone else had left.
I took the bus home, had dinner with Anna and Samuel, moved some of their gear over to my room since they were going to Hong Kong for a week and had to check out of their room, and then proceeded to go to bed. I had to prepare for "the big presentation".
Tuesday morning rolls around and I need to take the bus. I still beat my alarm and can't seem to allow myself that extra 15 mins of sleep. I flip on the light and begrudgingly sit up. After a failed attempt at sit-ups I figured it was time to get dressed and move on with my day.
I decide to try and wear something a little more professional for the "Presidential" presentation, but I didn't want to wear anything in my closet. So, I threw an outfit together, slammed some of my 60 Yuan granola and was out the door, by 6:35 a.m. to get a decent seat on the every increasingly Korean filled company bus.
I arrived at work at 7:15, two hours and forty-five minutes earlier than usual. Internet doesn't turn on until 8:00 so I sneakily (since I don't think games are allowed) play a quick game of Spider Solitaire and watch all the rest of my co-workers file in. When I get to work that early its only me and the Korean management, some of which roll in at 6:30. Little too early for me! Once more people showed up, and my manager started pacing the office, I decided to start looking like I was prepping for the presentation. I glanced over my previous presentation a few times, trying to look extra studious when any management went by, then I slipped off to the restroom to avoid the morning exercises shortly before 8:00. When I returned, I got the 5 mins heads up, and waited at my "cube-less cubical" for someone to tell me where to go and when. Within a matter of minutes, Vivian sits down and tells me that the president won't be arriving until 11:30 a.m. Great... I could have taken the car.
Since I had plenty of extra time, I sent off my window and wall report to be double checked, and proceeded to talk with the director about where my window and wall report was, and its importance, and that I need to finish it soon because I need to manufacture a wall with how many windows? and it take at least a month to manufacture the wall and he wants everything to be correct so I need to be here when they install the AC units, and how long will you be here? but you need to manufacture it. HOLY COW! lol! As fun as it would be to "manufacture" a wall, I don't think I'm going to get the chance. Pretty sure what just came at me was the director's nervous "the president is coming and the intern (among others) is presenting" energy, as I was trying in vane to finish the technical paperwork of the very report he was asking for. Not that he was bothering me or anything, but he was finally satisfied to move on when I told him I would include him on the email list when I sent it out. "As you wish". I get that a lot. To bad it isn't actually like that. And, true to the nervous atmosphere, he was back a few minutes later to remind me to keep the presentation short, only 5 mins. Yup. Got it. Thanks. I promise I won't mess up. Yes, I'm memorizing everything I'm going to say. No, I don't have anything else I need to do.
I get up and head to the "meeting area" near the entrance of our wing. Turns out the president is running five minutes late. Okay, whatever. I walked back to my desk at the other end of the wing and completed the paperwork to be sent along with my window and wall report. Now all I had to do was send the darn thing. I didn't know how long that would take so I left it for after the presentation. So, I rejoined the group, and waited.
Since I've completed all those projects I start compiling recipes and an ingredient list for traditional breakfast foods. Boy, did that make me miss eggs! Not so much for eggs themselves, but definitely french toast. I completed the breakfast menu and found out that I couldn't make breakfast for another two weeks. Turns out I would be making Chicken. Okay. I didn't have time for that since I had to prep for class, so I would do that Thursday.
Since I was thinking about food, I decided to do the next lesson on popular (Midwest) chain restaurants. I put together a slide show as I have used in the past, only this time it didn't work. I know there is a water wall here on our work computers to keep all of our "top secret" from leaving the premises, but I was able to move and view a slide show before I started the movie unit. Since I didn't have time to re save and figure out why this one didn't work, I printed a few copies off and used that instead. It's always so much harder to describe what a food is or how it is cooked when you can't see it's color. I tried to pick simple foods that my students may have heard of or that would be easy to describe, but even something like lettuce I had to explain. Good that they learned something, bad that I didn't have a slide of it to show them. This led to a game of verbal pictionary to try and visualize it.
Once I was done teaching, I asked them to describe/ tell me their favorite food. This way, I learn as well. Oh, and I've started teaching a word of the day which someone in the class must use in a sentence. Worked out well the first day. After class, same routine, I headed home.
The bus ride lately has been TERRIBLE! The pollution is so awful my lungs and eyes burn when I'm outside. Once the bus gets moving it isn't as bad for some odd reason, but that 20 min wait gets pretty rough.
Before I had left the hotel I took the hot plate over to Charise who had offered to make dinner for me. She said she and Kyle would go grab something on their own, but I insisted that they have some Spinach linguine with me since she was doing the cooking. She didn't argue about that! When I got home, I dropped off my bag and Charise had dinner ready for me. Granted, it was a little cold by the time I got there, but I didn't have to make it. I had that and tried a piece of Vangard's (supermarket) bread to see if it had egg. Pretty sure that it did so washed down an allergy med and proceeded to sleep until 6:30 the next morning. I sure was excited about that! I don't know how I did it, but I felt much better.
Thursday was the same as Wednesday, only I started my day off with Chicken recipes, instead of breakfast and ended my day with finishing Stomp the Yard in class. Everyone really liked it and I left work at 7:40 in a great mood! Charise and Kyle told me they were going out to the rib place we eat at occasionally and I asked them to pick up some sauteed broccoli for me. However, a package came from home and I spoiled my dinner on Halloween chocolate, Cracker Jacks, and granola, lol. Needless to say I didn't eat much in the line of broccoli.
Oh, I've also been chatting with Mom, my aunt Mary and Genevieve, who are in Boston at an Herbal exhibition for the business. It's been fun to live vicariously through them, even if I can't experience it in its full glory.
I've also been talking with Dad quite a bit. Turns out that I'm being looked at for Jury duty. He sent me the link to fill out the online questionnaire, which if didn't do I' would get a $500 fine. I've also managed to have my license suspended (temporarily) due to a speeding ticket I received before I left. I had everything figured out, but then papers got lost in the mails, I missed my court date, and now I have no license. Thankfully dad was on top of this and filed the appropriate paper work before the court decision had been processed. AND, I recently found out that there is a HUGE fine and amount of trouble for over staying your Visa. My flight originally left 12 hours after my visa expires... Needless to say I asked mom into getting my flight date changed. I should be all set on that end, but it looks like I may be stuck in San Fransisco for a couple of days because United Airlines doesn't have any available seats for me. At least I'm back on U.S., can speak the language, know the laws and have certain unalienable rights :)
As for Friday, well, I spent all morning (got here at 7:15 am) trying to find information on seasonal climate averages for the US. There is sooo much data out there that they don't have much in the way of generalized, averages. I think I'm going to take the averages of each capital over the past 5 years, and average those into regions. I hope that will be acceptable, and I think it will give the dehumidifier group enough information. I still have three hours left of work, and have spent the last hour blogging... oops! But, I am done blogging for this week. Later, I will go home, eat my broccoli, prep for Beijing this weekend with Becca Ganster who is on a Fulbright teaching English in Vietnam, maybe do another work set since dad sent me a whole bunch more (it was Turbo Jam this morning), and get everything squared away for next week.
Hopefully more later tonight! Sorry for it being such a long post, but consider this item # 4 that is no longer hanging over my head!
At some point in my yesterday, I was approached by my manager who informed me that I would be presenting my first presentation on the Dehumidifier model (which I still haven't written about) to the President of LG at 8:00 a.m. Tuesday morning. Awesome... Actually, it was pretty cool to know that my first presentation was President worthy, but it through a little wrench into my schedule. I don't leave for work until 9:30 am. The company bus leaves at 6:40. A much needed three hour difference, even if I'm not sleeping, was and is something I don't like giving up.
Okay, come in on the bus. Once I got all the details figured out I went back to work on the survey. However, I could only work for half an hour at a time before one of my many leaders would stop and talk to me on their way to some other place of importance, to hint that I should start prepping and tell me to keep it "very short, little detail, only important things". I got it the first four times! All I wanted to do was get my survey results done so I could get ahead and pump out other things before taking next Monday off. Goodness gracious was it difficult to keep working! I know the President's arrival was a big deal, but I didn't need to freak out about it. If I messed up, what would happen? I'd get fired? Probably not. One of my mangers or the director might have a talking to about letting an intern give a report, but nothing of significance would happen to me. Everyone around me was noticeably a little uneasy with the idea of letting me do this. I told them I would prep Tuesday morning and they seemed surprised. I had given the report once already, I can do it again without too much prep time.
I was able to get most of the survey results written up, but this left me with no time to prep for class. Thankfully we were watching the second half of Transformers so I put that on and came up with a little filler for the end of class. Turned out my intermediate class wanted to discuss some observations about the movie, either theme, material goods, personal beliefs... I was impressed with some of the points they made. For example, one of my students brought up the point that in US film, anyone, such as the "average Joe" at the beginning of the movie, can become a hero and save life as we know it. With a little prodding, I didn't need any of that filler. And on top of that one of my students asked me to slow down. This sounds like a pretty common request, but here no one says anything "negative", either to correct or ask you to do something differently, in case it makes either party loose face. So, this was a pretty big request, even if it was said after everyone else had left.
I took the bus home, had dinner with Anna and Samuel, moved some of their gear over to my room since they were going to Hong Kong for a week and had to check out of their room, and then proceeded to go to bed. I had to prepare for "the big presentation".
Tuesday morning rolls around and I need to take the bus. I still beat my alarm and can't seem to allow myself that extra 15 mins of sleep. I flip on the light and begrudgingly sit up. After a failed attempt at sit-ups I figured it was time to get dressed and move on with my day.
I decide to try and wear something a little more professional for the "Presidential" presentation, but I didn't want to wear anything in my closet. So, I threw an outfit together, slammed some of my 60 Yuan granola and was out the door, by 6:35 a.m. to get a decent seat on the every increasingly Korean filled company bus.
I arrived at work at 7:15, two hours and forty-five minutes earlier than usual. Internet doesn't turn on until 8:00 so I sneakily (since I don't think games are allowed) play a quick game of Spider Solitaire and watch all the rest of my co-workers file in. When I get to work that early its only me and the Korean management, some of which roll in at 6:30. Little too early for me! Once more people showed up, and my manager started pacing the office, I decided to start looking like I was prepping for the presentation. I glanced over my previous presentation a few times, trying to look extra studious when any management went by, then I slipped off to the restroom to avoid the morning exercises shortly before 8:00. When I returned, I got the 5 mins heads up, and waited at my "cube-less cubical" for someone to tell me where to go and when. Within a matter of minutes, Vivian sits down and tells me that the president won't be arriving until 11:30 a.m. Great... I could have taken the car.
Since I had plenty of extra time, I sent off my window and wall report to be double checked, and proceeded to talk with the director about where my window and wall report was, and its importance, and that I need to finish it soon because I need to manufacture a wall with how many windows? and it take at least a month to manufacture the wall and he wants everything to be correct so I need to be here when they install the AC units, and how long will you be here? but you need to manufacture it. HOLY COW! lol! As fun as it would be to "manufacture" a wall, I don't think I'm going to get the chance. Pretty sure what just came at me was the director's nervous "the president is coming and the intern (among others) is presenting" energy, as I was trying in vane to finish the technical paperwork of the very report he was asking for. Not that he was bothering me or anything, but he was finally satisfied to move on when I told him I would include him on the email list when I sent it out. "As you wish". I get that a lot. To bad it isn't actually like that. And, true to the nervous atmosphere, he was back a few minutes later to remind me to keep the presentation short, only 5 mins. Yup. Got it. Thanks. I promise I won't mess up. Yes, I'm memorizing everything I'm going to say. No, I don't have anything else I need to do.
I get up and head to the "meeting area" near the entrance of our wing. Turns out the president is running five minutes late. Okay, whatever. I walked back to my desk at the other end of the wing and completed the paperwork to be sent along with my window and wall report. Now all I had to do was send the darn thing. I didn't know how long that would take so I left it for after the presentation. So, I rejoined the group, and waited.
I know the president is an important man, and that all the Korean management had a lot riding on these presentations, but I couldn’t help but giggle on the inside. In true Asian fashion, a welcoming committee was in the hall awaiting the president’s arrival, and when we saw the head nod, everyone snapped to attention. I was expecting the president to arrive with an entourage and the protocol LG jacket and id badge that we wear if moving between departments. He had this the last time I saw him at the company Ping Pong tournament, but this time, it was him, one other person, and no jacket of any kind. I almost laughed out loud. He was completely causal, completely relaxed, and the rest of us, mostly management, were on edge. Complete juxtaposition.
The majority of the group forms a semicircle, and after a bow and standard chant (which I have yet to figure out what they’re saying), it was right down to business. I asked my group leader I when I would be presenting and he had no idea. I noticed the first item of business was the dehumidifier so I figured it was only a matter of time before someone would hand it over to me. Sure enough, both the dehumidifier and I were pointed at and I was handed the pointer stick for my power point.
I turned away the pointer and unconventionally used the dehumidifier mock-up itself. I didn't realize I was supposed to use the power point. Why would I want to do that when it's easy to follow along with the actual model? So I pulled out the model and went to work. I flew over "only the important pros" I flew over the "less detailed-cons" (one of which got a laugh out of him and the crowd-"Americans don't need graphics"), and when I was done, the president asked me if there was anything else. "Oh, yes. It needs to be movable up and downstairs by women. This is a little on the the heavy end." Okay, so this was a mock-up, which was pointed out to me by the president, so I simply replied that weight is something that needs to be taken account for. After this exchange he asked about prices ranges, and if an automatic-spring loaded cord retriever would be a good idea. I said it could work, but Americans can also wind the cord around some prongs... we aren't that lazy. In response, the president aimed the question at the director. The director wasn't too found of that idea. He looked really uncomfortable when responding. I guess it would add too much weight. Finally he asked me if I thought this product could sell in the US. I told him I thought it had a lot of potential and that I liked it very much. He smiled and told me I was the right person to be working on this project and that I could be the sales rep in the US. I politely declined. "I just want to be able to point to it in the store and tell everyone I worked on that!" I got the head nod, a good job, and I was on my way. In one day I completed three major projects that were hanging over my head: Window and wall report, Survey Results and the presentation. Boy did I feel better. For the next couple of hours I was wide awake and thinking I was up for teaching English. By class time I was wiped. I put in a full days work, and decided to go home and take a break. I had received congrats from all of the managers, my group lead and a couple of other employees. The director didn't congratulate me directly, but he quit hovering which I took as both a congrats and a relaxation. So I ended the stressful day on a high note and headed back to the hotel with Kyle on the early bus. We decided we didn't want to cook so we ran a few errands at the grocery store and ended the night with dinner at McDonald's. Yum, lol.
Wednesday morning was back to my normal routine, so I did Yoga, had some breakfast, and headed down to the car, albeit a little late. Being a few minutes late isn't a problem. By a few minutes late, I was still 2 mins early and the driver's clock I've discovered is also 2 mins fast. Getting to work before the gate closes for break-at which point no vehicles are allowed to more-is no problem. Some how my driver always manages to make up those minutes, even if it means driving on the wrong side of the road, into on coming traffic. (FYI, this is not uncommon.) It used to surprise/freak me out, now, as I maneuver the traffic from the back seat, I'm on the other side almost as much as he is! Through our combined driving skills, we make it to work a minute before the gate closes. Three mins in actual time.Since I've completed all those projects I start compiling recipes and an ingredient list for traditional breakfast foods. Boy, did that make me miss eggs! Not so much for eggs themselves, but definitely french toast. I completed the breakfast menu and found out that I couldn't make breakfast for another two weeks. Turns out I would be making Chicken. Okay. I didn't have time for that since I had to prep for class, so I would do that Thursday.
Since I was thinking about food, I decided to do the next lesson on popular (Midwest) chain restaurants. I put together a slide show as I have used in the past, only this time it didn't work. I know there is a water wall here on our work computers to keep all of our "top secret" from leaving the premises, but I was able to move and view a slide show before I started the movie unit. Since I didn't have time to re save and figure out why this one didn't work, I printed a few copies off and used that instead. It's always so much harder to describe what a food is or how it is cooked when you can't see it's color. I tried to pick simple foods that my students may have heard of or that would be easy to describe, but even something like lettuce I had to explain. Good that they learned something, bad that I didn't have a slide of it to show them. This led to a game of verbal pictionary to try and visualize it.
Once I was done teaching, I asked them to describe/ tell me their favorite food. This way, I learn as well. Oh, and I've started teaching a word of the day which someone in the class must use in a sentence. Worked out well the first day. After class, same routine, I headed home.
The bus ride lately has been TERRIBLE! The pollution is so awful my lungs and eyes burn when I'm outside. Once the bus gets moving it isn't as bad for some odd reason, but that 20 min wait gets pretty rough.
Before I had left the hotel I took the hot plate over to Charise who had offered to make dinner for me. She said she and Kyle would go grab something on their own, but I insisted that they have some Spinach linguine with me since she was doing the cooking. She didn't argue about that! When I got home, I dropped off my bag and Charise had dinner ready for me. Granted, it was a little cold by the time I got there, but I didn't have to make it. I had that and tried a piece of Vangard's (supermarket) bread to see if it had egg. Pretty sure that it did so washed down an allergy med and proceeded to sleep until 6:30 the next morning. I sure was excited about that! I don't know how I did it, but I felt much better.
Thursday was the same as Wednesday, only I started my day off with Chicken recipes, instead of breakfast and ended my day with finishing Stomp the Yard in class. Everyone really liked it and I left work at 7:40 in a great mood! Charise and Kyle told me they were going out to the rib place we eat at occasionally and I asked them to pick up some sauteed broccoli for me. However, a package came from home and I spoiled my dinner on Halloween chocolate, Cracker Jacks, and granola, lol. Needless to say I didn't eat much in the line of broccoli.
Oh, I've also been chatting with Mom, my aunt Mary and Genevieve, who are in Boston at an Herbal exhibition for the business. It's been fun to live vicariously through them, even if I can't experience it in its full glory.
I've also been talking with Dad quite a bit. Turns out that I'm being looked at for Jury duty. He sent me the link to fill out the online questionnaire, which if didn't do I' would get a $500 fine. I've also managed to have my license suspended (temporarily) due to a speeding ticket I received before I left. I had everything figured out, but then papers got lost in the mails, I missed my court date, and now I have no license. Thankfully dad was on top of this and filed the appropriate paper work before the court decision had been processed. AND, I recently found out that there is a HUGE fine and amount of trouble for over staying your Visa. My flight originally left 12 hours after my visa expires... Needless to say I asked mom into getting my flight date changed. I should be all set on that end, but it looks like I may be stuck in San Fransisco for a couple of days because United Airlines doesn't have any available seats for me. At least I'm back on U.S., can speak the language, know the laws and have certain unalienable rights :)
As for Friday, well, I spent all morning (got here at 7:15 am) trying to find information on seasonal climate averages for the US. There is sooo much data out there that they don't have much in the way of generalized, averages. I think I'm going to take the averages of each capital over the past 5 years, and average those into regions. I hope that will be acceptable, and I think it will give the dehumidifier group enough information. I still have three hours left of work, and have spent the last hour blogging... oops! But, I am done blogging for this week. Later, I will go home, eat my broccoli, prep for Beijing this weekend with Becca Ganster who is on a Fulbright teaching English in Vietnam, maybe do another work set since dad sent me a whole bunch more (it was Turbo Jam this morning), and get everything squared away for next week.
Hopefully more later tonight! Sorry for it being such a long post, but consider this item # 4 that is no longer hanging over my head!
Friday, October 10, 2008
It's been one month!
I have an hour before the group dinner, which in true Chinese fashion I only found out this morning, so I figured I try to get some stuff updated :)
Today (Friday when I started writing this) marks my one-month "anniversary" in China; it has been one of the craziest months of my life. I have gone through homesickness, death and loneliness only to be countered with exploration, contentment, and friendship. I have dealt with days of emotional extremes and days where everything feels routine. I still find myself wanting to be home, but unlike my Italian nannying job, I am counting weeks here, not days. This is good. My Chinese is only marginally better than when I first came, but I did notice I'm starting to think in Italian. Not that that will help me much, but my language center is starting to work again. I'm hoping that I will finally be able to get into a routine now that the holidays are over, and maybe start to focus on learning Chinese while I'm here. It would be a waste not to.
As with any experience I try to take from it as much as possible, including learning more about myself. I have found myself gravitating towards Yoga, Meditation, 'The Secret', as well as wanting to attend a (English or even Latin) Mass. I don't practice while at home but I have had a huge sense of spiritual unrest while being here. I can't say I've ever experienced anything like this before. I think that is part of the reason why I have been so homesick at times.
My room is plastered with sticky notes reminding me to think positively and be grateful at all times. This, along with Yoga, Meditation and reading if I can stay awake for it seems to help quite a bit. I also had a bowl of cereal last night, which I didn't need to help elevate my emotional state, but it didn't have a very profound calming effect. Maybe I just need to eat more cereal before bed?
In any situation, I think and feel like I have crossed a threshold of some kind. I believe that my time will pass more quickly than I realize and I won't need to have any type of formal count down. I am very grateful now that I've awknowledged this!
All this week at work I have been collecting and subsequently summerizing information about exterior wall depth, building material, "standard" window sizes, and presence of AC in homes across the U.S. Thank you U.S. Census Buerau! (and Mom for telling me to look there!). I think/ hope what I have come up with will be useful and is what they are looking for. It's really nice to be busy at work, but all this week I've had to fight with a computer that would crash multiple times a day. Today alone (this morning while I was hurring to finish the summary) it crashed three times in three hours. Needless to say I didn't get the summary in on time. It's not a too big of a deal. I will email it first thing on Monday, then start on summerizing the Dehumidifer Survey and collecting information on Regional climates in the U.S. Fascinating, right? Not quite my cup of tea, considering I don't like surfing the web, but I am learning a lot!
For my Advanced class I had a request to watch 'Stomp the Yard'. For those of you who don't know it, it is based in Georgia and focuses on the protaginists (a young African-American male) growth through college and his involvement in an intense dance competetion. I love the movie which is why it's here, but it isn't the easiest to understand, even for some Americans. Mostly this was more for a cultural experience than anything else.
Today (Friday when I started writing this) marks my one-month "anniversary" in China; it has been one of the craziest months of my life. I have gone through homesickness, death and loneliness only to be countered with exploration, contentment, and friendship. I have dealt with days of emotional extremes and days where everything feels routine. I still find myself wanting to be home, but unlike my Italian nannying job, I am counting weeks here, not days. This is good. My Chinese is only marginally better than when I first came, but I did notice I'm starting to think in Italian. Not that that will help me much, but my language center is starting to work again. I'm hoping that I will finally be able to get into a routine now that the holidays are over, and maybe start to focus on learning Chinese while I'm here. It would be a waste not to.
As with any experience I try to take from it as much as possible, including learning more about myself. I have found myself gravitating towards Yoga, Meditation, 'The Secret', as well as wanting to attend a (English or even Latin) Mass. I don't practice while at home but I have had a huge sense of spiritual unrest while being here. I can't say I've ever experienced anything like this before. I think that is part of the reason why I have been so homesick at times.
My room is plastered with sticky notes reminding me to think positively and be grateful at all times. This, along with Yoga, Meditation and reading if I can stay awake for it seems to help quite a bit. I also had a bowl of cereal last night, which I didn't need to help elevate my emotional state, but it didn't have a very profound calming effect. Maybe I just need to eat more cereal before bed?
In any situation, I think and feel like I have crossed a threshold of some kind. I believe that my time will pass more quickly than I realize and I won't need to have any type of formal count down. I am very grateful now that I've awknowledged this!
All this week at work I have been collecting and subsequently summerizing information about exterior wall depth, building material, "standard" window sizes, and presence of AC in homes across the U.S. Thank you U.S. Census Buerau! (and Mom for telling me to look there!). I think/ hope what I have come up with will be useful and is what they are looking for. It's really nice to be busy at work, but all this week I've had to fight with a computer that would crash multiple times a day. Today alone (this morning while I was hurring to finish the summary) it crashed three times in three hours. Needless to say I didn't get the summary in on time. It's not a too big of a deal. I will email it first thing on Monday, then start on summerizing the Dehumidifer Survey and collecting information on Regional climates in the U.S. Fascinating, right? Not quite my cup of tea, considering I don't like surfing the web, but I am learning a lot!
For my Advanced class I had a request to watch 'Stomp the Yard'. For those of you who don't know it, it is based in Georgia and focuses on the protaginists (a young African-American male) growth through college and his involvement in an intense dance competetion. I love the movie which is why it's here, but it isn't the easiest to understand, even for some Americans. Mostly this was more for a cultural experience than anything else.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Back on track!
Okay, after a few days of super soul pumping, positive thought, and a good night sleep, I'm ready to take on China and tell you all about it once again :).
Here are my most recent horoscopes. I found it pretty funny when mom sent them to me after I had my day.
Received on Wednesday:
You wake up feeling better about yourself today. Your positive attitude might come from just getting a good night of sleep, but whatever the reason, you have a feeling that something special is going to happen to you now. The longer you can hold on to your dream, the better your chances are for realizing it.
This one wasn't nearly as funny as the second one, but it pretty much how I started and ended my day. Lost it for a little bit in there, but I got it back
For Wednesday (saw Wed. night):
It's hard for you to remain upbeat today because everyone at work seems to be placing pressure on you to do things you would rather avoid. Unfortunately, you might have to grit your teeth and just do what's expected, for anything else could be seen as you ignoring your responsibilities. Don't forget that there are others who are available to assist you, but you must take the initiative and ask for what you need.
Wow! To a "T" when it came to figuring out wall width and window sizes. I sent off a couple of emails to a local contractor as well as Uncle Lee and my Cousin Tim. I really didn't want to do this assignment. Just had to grit the teeth, lol. After I told mom my day and she read this, she cracked up. Got a really good laugh out of it!
Today is Thursday morning and I'm sitting here eating tofu (love it!) and rice with veggies, listening to Mozart and enjoying the release from Yoga. So far, not a bad day. To tell you the truth, I haven't had a bad day yet. Just those that I am more tired from, and subsequently, more homesick. I haven't had any issues with my egg allergy all week, which is very exciting, and I continue to get new people in class on a regular basis. I must be doing something right!
The past two days at work have consisted of preparing lessons and researching wall width. Yes, home exterior walls. I can build walls of any kind: brick, stucco, vinyl, aluminum, wood, you name it, I'll build it! LG wants to build a mock-up with a few "standard" window sizes... as we all know, those don't exist, so it is my job to decide which window sizes and wall variances to go with. They want detail and I'll give it to them! I don't think I've spent so many hours of my life online before, lol! But, I told them I would have the summary done by Friday so it will be out of my hands soon.
As for class this week, we discussed what everyone did over the National Holiday and then I told them about the 4th of July-which most closely resembles their National Holiday-and a few other major holidays, both religious and secular. They seemed to enjoy it. For the second class this week I decided to give them something fun so I told them about popular movie genres and a few movies in those genres. For my advanced class tonight they will also have to tell me in detail which movie they like, in what genre and then tell me about the movie. To top off class, we watch the first part of Transformers for a bit of English work and American culture. They really liked that!
I also sent off a question to the American Embassy in Beijing about my travel arrangements and Visa expiration the day before I leave. It's either I change my ticket or possibly be subjected to fines and flight delay. I think I'm going to look into changing my ticket! No Visa altercations are being allowed at this time, which sucks for a number of reasons.
One, because I need to change my ticket, and two, because I'd like to go to Hong Kong to a beauty convention for the family business. Stuff is moving with that and I can't help much at all! Oh well, all in due time.
This was just a quick update to let you know I'm doing better. As I always say, I will get you updated on my bigger adventures...as if being in China weren't big enough!
Hope all is well!
Here are my most recent horoscopes. I found it pretty funny when mom sent them to me after I had my day.
Received on Wednesday:
You wake up feeling better about yourself today. Your positive attitude might come from just getting a good night of sleep, but whatever the reason, you have a feeling that something special is going to happen to you now. The longer you can hold on to your dream, the better your chances are for realizing it.
This one wasn't nearly as funny as the second one, but it pretty much how I started and ended my day. Lost it for a little bit in there, but I got it back
For Wednesday (saw Wed. night):
It's hard for you to remain upbeat today because everyone at work seems to be placing pressure on you to do things you would rather avoid. Unfortunately, you might have to grit your teeth and just do what's expected, for anything else could be seen as you ignoring your responsibilities. Don't forget that there are others who are available to assist you, but you must take the initiative and ask for what you need.
Wow! To a "T" when it came to figuring out wall width and window sizes. I sent off a couple of emails to a local contractor as well as Uncle Lee and my Cousin Tim. I really didn't want to do this assignment. Just had to grit the teeth, lol. After I told mom my day and she read this, she cracked up. Got a really good laugh out of it!
Today is Thursday morning and I'm sitting here eating tofu (love it!) and rice with veggies, listening to Mozart and enjoying the release from Yoga. So far, not a bad day. To tell you the truth, I haven't had a bad day yet. Just those that I am more tired from, and subsequently, more homesick. I haven't had any issues with my egg allergy all week, which is very exciting, and I continue to get new people in class on a regular basis. I must be doing something right!
The past two days at work have consisted of preparing lessons and researching wall width. Yes, home exterior walls. I can build walls of any kind: brick, stucco, vinyl, aluminum, wood, you name it, I'll build it! LG wants to build a mock-up with a few "standard" window sizes... as we all know, those don't exist, so it is my job to decide which window sizes and wall variances to go with. They want detail and I'll give it to them! I don't think I've spent so many hours of my life online before, lol! But, I told them I would have the summary done by Friday so it will be out of my hands soon.
As for class this week, we discussed what everyone did over the National Holiday and then I told them about the 4th of July-which most closely resembles their National Holiday-and a few other major holidays, both religious and secular. They seemed to enjoy it. For the second class this week I decided to give them something fun so I told them about popular movie genres and a few movies in those genres. For my advanced class tonight they will also have to tell me in detail which movie they like, in what genre and then tell me about the movie. To top off class, we watch the first part of Transformers for a bit of English work and American culture. They really liked that!
I also sent off a question to the American Embassy in Beijing about my travel arrangements and Visa expiration the day before I leave. It's either I change my ticket or possibly be subjected to fines and flight delay. I think I'm going to look into changing my ticket! No Visa altercations are being allowed at this time, which sucks for a number of reasons.
One, because I need to change my ticket, and two, because I'd like to go to Hong Kong to a beauty convention for the family business. Stuff is moving with that and I can't help much at all! Oh well, all in due time.
This was just a quick update to let you know I'm doing better. As I always say, I will get you updated on my bigger adventures...as if being in China weren't big enough!
Hope all is well!
Monday, October 6, 2008
Hmmm... just needed to get this off my chest!
Okay, so I'm jumping ahead a bit...
Today is Tuesday morning. The past two days I've woken up well before my alarm went off. Besides the fact that I still wanted to be asleep, it gave me plenty of time to exercise, chat, eat, cleanup (both the room and myself) and all that good stuff.
Yesterday went really well. I spent time checking out the Dehumidifier survey, looking at other info to summarize and getting ready for my intermediate english class. I'm always a little nervous about this class because up until yesterday I wasn't quite sure where they're level of English is at. Because it was just one of their biggest Holidays I showed them a bit of the 4th of July, supposedly the most similar to their National Holiday. And actually, I think class went really well. I got home last night at 8:20 p.m., had dinner with Anna and Samuel (cooked in the hotel on the hot plate!) and went to bed.
Woke up today at 4:30 a.m. I know I probably should stay up a little later at night, but I was hoping I was tired enough to make it through to 6:00. No good. So I did my same routine, but as I sat down to breakfast, which I now eat in my room while I cool down, I got majorly homesick. I wish I knew what sets me off and how to avoid it. I'm sick of being homesick! I'm sick of feeling alone! I know I'm not alone, I just don't have a roommate anymore. Guess I'm still trying to get used to that, being away from home, AND in a completely different part of the world.
Well, I will try to do another post when I get back from work tonight so this one isn't such a downer, lol.
Today is Tuesday morning. The past two days I've woken up well before my alarm went off. Besides the fact that I still wanted to be asleep, it gave me plenty of time to exercise, chat, eat, cleanup (both the room and myself) and all that good stuff.
Yesterday went really well. I spent time checking out the Dehumidifier survey, looking at other info to summarize and getting ready for my intermediate english class. I'm always a little nervous about this class because up until yesterday I wasn't quite sure where they're level of English is at. Because it was just one of their biggest Holidays I showed them a bit of the 4th of July, supposedly the most similar to their National Holiday. And actually, I think class went really well. I got home last night at 8:20 p.m., had dinner with Anna and Samuel (cooked in the hotel on the hot plate!) and went to bed.
Woke up today at 4:30 a.m. I know I probably should stay up a little later at night, but I was hoping I was tired enough to make it through to 6:00. No good. So I did my same routine, but as I sat down to breakfast, which I now eat in my room while I cool down, I got majorly homesick. I wish I knew what sets me off and how to avoid it. I'm sick of being homesick! I'm sick of feeling alone! I know I'm not alone, I just don't have a roommate anymore. Guess I'm still trying to get used to that, being away from home, AND in a completely different part of the world.
Well, I will try to do another post when I get back from work tonight so this one isn't such a downer, lol.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Wednesday, Oct. 1
Wednesday was the official kickoff for the National Holiday. Again, we did not do too much, but what we did seemed to wear us out anyways.
I putzed (spelling?) around until lunch then the five of us went down to Paris Baguette for lunch. I wasn't sure what I would be able to find for lunch since everything is either covered in Mayo, egg or both, but I figured I would be able to find something. At the very least I could have them make me a sandwich.
Samuel helped translate for me and asked the sandwich maker if their Chicken Vinaigrette had egg in the bread. He said all the bread has a little egg in it, but it was a very small amount. How about the sauce? Oh no, no egg in that. I had my doubts and sure enough, it had egg. The down side to that, obviously was that I didn't feel well. The positive side is now I'm starting to recognize what my allergy feels like. Thankfully it didn't last too long.
After our sandwiches, we moved over to Cold Stone Creamery for dessert. I figured I should visit the fruit place next door instead of risk eating more egg on top of lunch.
The first time I went to order fruit I was waited on by someone who did not speak an English. I attempted to ask her to wait then went and got Samuel to help. I hate being so dependent on others. Once he had ordered his ice cream he came over to help me. I don't remember what the other person had wanted when I pointed to the picture (thankfully everything has a picture to point at when ordering) but the second time we were greeted by a different individual... who spoke English. Oh well, guess I didn't need Samuel after all.
Turns out she had lived in Britain for six years doing some financial based work, so her English was really good. As was the fruit. I started feeling better after a few pieces, so that was good.
Before we left the food court there was one last stop at the doughnut shoppe then back home.
I think we vegged until dinner and then, come dinner, couldn't figure out what we wanted.
We had been talking over the past couple of days about getting a hot plate and possibly a rice cooker as well. We were only going to check out our options as to what we could make and if there were any sales going on. Of course there were! It was the National Holiday. Duh. As we checked everything out, we realized that the items that we wanted may not be there when we got back from our up coming trip to the mountains, and it just so happened that I brought enough money with me to purchase everything we needed. Done and done. Anna, Samuel and I are now the proud owners of two pots (with steamer), a rice cooker and a hot plate. And boy, those dumplings with rice were delicious!
I'm really glad we got those. Hopefully it will work out well for dinner while I'm at work. I don't get home until 2 hrs after the other two, but Anna said she would make enough for me as well. I'll let you know how it goes.
As for the vacation, we had a bit of trouble finding a hotel because we are foreigners. The Chinese government implemented a law saying some hotels could provide housing to foreigners over the Olympics. Because this rule is still in place, we couldn't stay in the same hotel as our tour group was. Jan, Samuel's friend, just needed to get our approval to spend a little extra for a different hotel. That was fine, we didn't really care. Thankfully we got it worked out that we actually got money back. That was just the first issue we had to deal with. Nothing was major, but enough to take note of.
More later!
I putzed (spelling?) around until lunch then the five of us went down to Paris Baguette for lunch. I wasn't sure what I would be able to find for lunch since everything is either covered in Mayo, egg or both, but I figured I would be able to find something. At the very least I could have them make me a sandwich.
Samuel helped translate for me and asked the sandwich maker if their Chicken Vinaigrette had egg in the bread. He said all the bread has a little egg in it, but it was a very small amount. How about the sauce? Oh no, no egg in that. I had my doubts and sure enough, it had egg. The down side to that, obviously was that I didn't feel well. The positive side is now I'm starting to recognize what my allergy feels like. Thankfully it didn't last too long.
After our sandwiches, we moved over to Cold Stone Creamery for dessert. I figured I should visit the fruit place next door instead of risk eating more egg on top of lunch.
The first time I went to order fruit I was waited on by someone who did not speak an English. I attempted to ask her to wait then went and got Samuel to help. I hate being so dependent on others. Once he had ordered his ice cream he came over to help me. I don't remember what the other person had wanted when I pointed to the picture (thankfully everything has a picture to point at when ordering) but the second time we were greeted by a different individual... who spoke English. Oh well, guess I didn't need Samuel after all.
Turns out she had lived in Britain for six years doing some financial based work, so her English was really good. As was the fruit. I started feeling better after a few pieces, so that was good.
Before we left the food court there was one last stop at the doughnut shoppe then back home.
I think we vegged until dinner and then, come dinner, couldn't figure out what we wanted.
We had been talking over the past couple of days about getting a hot plate and possibly a rice cooker as well. We were only going to check out our options as to what we could make and if there were any sales going on. Of course there were! It was the National Holiday. Duh. As we checked everything out, we realized that the items that we wanted may not be there when we got back from our up coming trip to the mountains, and it just so happened that I brought enough money with me to purchase everything we needed. Done and done. Anna, Samuel and I are now the proud owners of two pots (with steamer), a rice cooker and a hot plate. And boy, those dumplings with rice were delicious!
I'm really glad we got those. Hopefully it will work out well for dinner while I'm at work. I don't get home until 2 hrs after the other two, but Anna said she would make enough for me as well. I'll let you know how it goes.
As for the vacation, we had a bit of trouble finding a hotel because we are foreigners. The Chinese government implemented a law saying some hotels could provide housing to foreigners over the Olympics. Because this rule is still in place, we couldn't stay in the same hotel as our tour group was. Jan, Samuel's friend, just needed to get our approval to spend a little extra for a different hotel. That was fine, we didn't really care. Thankfully we got it worked out that we actually got money back. That was just the first issue we had to deal with. Nothing was major, but enough to take note of.
More later!
Tuesday, Sept. 30th
I had gotten in contact with my soon-to-be Chinese teacher and made plans to meet at 1:00 at the bus station near the hotel. I Skyped with dad when he got home from work and at 11:00 am here we all went to track down Papa John's. Anna, Samuel and I had tried locating it a week early and had not idea where it was. We were looking at night and didn't notice that we passed right by the building it was in. While most of the food places: Pizza Hut, McDonalds, KFC, Starbucks all have huge illuminated signs, Papa John's does not. We finally figured out that B1 means basement, i.e. food court. This time we called ahead only to find out that we had gotten off of the subway one stop too early. When we heard this we were completely confused! The next stop would take us way out of the way. Or so we thought...
We had Kyle and Charise with us this time Kyle suggested that we try the Exchange Mall across the street. Sure enough, written in characters with a Chinese translation of baba (papa) John's down in the basement, was Papa John's!
They have a window that you can watch them (an assembly line) make pizza. Struck me odd that they needed four people in an assembly line to make pizza, but why not. If it works for them.
I guess our order was too difficult to figure because the assembly line got it wrong, lol. We ordered two pizzas, one Pepperoni and one with Sausage and mushroom. Not only did they combine the two pizzas into one, but they also added bacon. A deliciously greasy pizza, but not right. When we told them what had happened, nothing was going to be done to fix it. Finally we decided it was just easier to eat it and order a second. However, it long us literally an hour to get the first pizza and nearly 45 mins for the second. I realized we weren't going to have food in time for my lesson, so I pushed it back to 2:30. My goodness!
When we finished up there, Kyle and Charise went back to the hotel to relax, and Anna, Samuel and I went over to Starbucks for a quick drink, then home.
I barely made it to the bus stop in time. I wasn't going to catch a bus, I just didn't want to be any later than I already had made everything. My instructor Zhang Jing Ming, who goes by the English name Amy, promptly turned me around and took me back to the same bookstore I was at that day before. We still couldn't manage to find a dictionary that would work for me, but Amy was able to find a little Chinese workbook to start teaching me from. After that we went over to the Foreign Bookstore to check if they had any dictionaries that would work for me.
Most of them had the exact format as the ones in the first store. Eventually we stumbled upon one that would work for me. As we did one last check for the other books I'm (still) trying to find, I noticed the store had an old edition of Princeton's Top 40 liberal art schools... I think that's the one they have. In any case, Knox was in it! So I showed her the little info page on Knox. She wasn't very interested but I thought it was pretty cool.
Once we left she took me a few stores down to try a popular drink here in China. All it consists of is Tea and Milk. Pretty tasty but I don't think I could drink many of them.
I didn't want to ride the bus back, and thinking the distance was less than what it was, decided to walk back. We had a nice conversation the whole way, but when we reached the hotel, it was Chinese time. I always forget that the Chinese are so polite that they will never enter your home unless invited in. Makes sense, I just need to remember to invite. Basically, I turned around and Zhang Jing Ming was still in the door way.
After we got settled in, I had 2 full hours of lessons. I couldn't believe how sore I was by the time I was finished! I was told that my inflections are good but my pronunciation needs quite a bit of work. Go figure. I'm trying to doing things I haven't been able to in either French or German in the past four years of voice lessons! Hopefully this will help :)
I made quite a bit of progress, considering I started with next to none, and by the end could barely function. I have no idea what I had for dinner, or if I even had it. All I know is that I was tired.
Speaking of which, it's pushing 10 pm and I have work tomorrow. Bleh. I haven't even started my lesson plans. This could be bad.... lol. Oh well, life will go on.
I'll try to get caught back up as soon as possible. Happy reading!
We had Kyle and Charise with us this time Kyle suggested that we try the Exchange Mall across the street. Sure enough, written in characters with a Chinese translation of baba (papa) John's down in the basement, was Papa John's!
They have a window that you can watch them (an assembly line) make pizza. Struck me odd that they needed four people in an assembly line to make pizza, but why not. If it works for them.
I guess our order was too difficult to figure because the assembly line got it wrong, lol. We ordered two pizzas, one Pepperoni and one with Sausage and mushroom. Not only did they combine the two pizzas into one, but they also added bacon. A deliciously greasy pizza, but not right. When we told them what had happened, nothing was going to be done to fix it. Finally we decided it was just easier to eat it and order a second. However, it long us literally an hour to get the first pizza and nearly 45 mins for the second. I realized we weren't going to have food in time for my lesson, so I pushed it back to 2:30. My goodness!
When we finished up there, Kyle and Charise went back to the hotel to relax, and Anna, Samuel and I went over to Starbucks for a quick drink, then home.
I barely made it to the bus stop in time. I wasn't going to catch a bus, I just didn't want to be any later than I already had made everything. My instructor Zhang Jing Ming, who goes by the English name Amy, promptly turned me around and took me back to the same bookstore I was at that day before. We still couldn't manage to find a dictionary that would work for me, but Amy was able to find a little Chinese workbook to start teaching me from. After that we went over to the Foreign Bookstore to check if they had any dictionaries that would work for me.
Most of them had the exact format as the ones in the first store. Eventually we stumbled upon one that would work for me. As we did one last check for the other books I'm (still) trying to find, I noticed the store had an old edition of Princeton's Top 40 liberal art schools... I think that's the one they have. In any case, Knox was in it! So I showed her the little info page on Knox. She wasn't very interested but I thought it was pretty cool.
Once we left she took me a few stores down to try a popular drink here in China. All it consists of is Tea and Milk. Pretty tasty but I don't think I could drink many of them.
I didn't want to ride the bus back, and thinking the distance was less than what it was, decided to walk back. We had a nice conversation the whole way, but when we reached the hotel, it was Chinese time. I always forget that the Chinese are so polite that they will never enter your home unless invited in. Makes sense, I just need to remember to invite. Basically, I turned around and Zhang Jing Ming was still in the door way.
After we got settled in, I had 2 full hours of lessons. I couldn't believe how sore I was by the time I was finished! I was told that my inflections are good but my pronunciation needs quite a bit of work. Go figure. I'm trying to doing things I haven't been able to in either French or German in the past four years of voice lessons! Hopefully this will help :)
I made quite a bit of progress, considering I started with next to none, and by the end could barely function. I have no idea what I had for dinner, or if I even had it. All I know is that I was tired.
Speaking of which, it's pushing 10 pm and I have work tomorrow. Bleh. I haven't even started my lesson plans. This could be bad.... lol. Oh well, life will go on.
I'll try to get caught back up as soon as possible. Happy reading!
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Monday, Sept 29th
It's been a week since I last put anything up. Wow, what a week and I'm sorry for how long and detail-less this one could be!
The first part of the week consisted of a few short trips with a lot of lounging around and intense amounts of sleeping! :) I don't remember EVER sleeping for 11 or 12 hours straight. AND, I did it multiple nights. I'm impressed with myself! (Eat your heart out Alex-he probably doesn't even read this)
Monday was a nice day for a stroll so we decided to walk down to the bookstore/library so I could try to find a dictionary for class and a few other requested books to take back to the U.S. We weren't expecting to see many people out on Monday, since the National Holiday didn't actually begin until Wednesday, but like the interns, others also chose to take the days leading up to the holiday off as well.
The walk to the bookstore took about 20 mins, which also including a brief picture stop: I just
thought this was a neat picture. Lots of men go fishing along the banks in the city. I don't know if they eat the fish, but I personally wouldn't recommend it!
The walk also included a 1 Yuan Egg Custard stop for Samuel and Kyle who wanted to see if the little bakery along the way was open again. It was, so Samuel had a nice breakfast of Egg Custard. Needless to say I'm a little jealous. Actually, as far as my allergy is concerned, I've only had one "egg craving" and that was at breakfast with an egg-on-toast Anna was eating. Everything else has been pretty easy to go without. It's amazing how easy it is to give something up when you don't really have a choice on the matter.
As we passed the Custard place, a verbal dispute was in action. I thought the Chinese always speak too loudly and sometimes mistake normal conversation for arguments because of speech patterns (or lack thereof?), but not anymore! I now know what a full on Chinese argument is. Let me tell you what! It's intense. Probably because I can't recognize anything with what or how they were speaking, but I still wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that one.
Just thought that this sign was funny. I think it's their "Don't Drink and Drive". It's a car sloshing in a broken wine glass.
We finally made it to the bookstore were we had to beat our way through a crowd of vendors pamphlet passing vendors. Okay, so we didn't beat our way through, but the "paths" they made for customers didn't work all that well. I was a little surprised at the number of people right inside the entrance. Once I figured out what was going on it made more sense. Just to the left of the entrance there is an entire section devoted to electronic dictionaries. That explained the mass of people. There may have been a sale going on, but it didn't concern me. 1.) I couldn't afford an electronic dictionary and 2.) I wouldn't be able to use it, lol. My Chinese isn't anywhere near the level where I might even be able to THINK of getting one. Samuel's Chinese is. He and Anna spent most of their time looking for and eventually purchasing a dictionary. I headed over to the English book section, which consists of the same titles over and over-mostly the Classics that I never read-and Dictionaries. However, all the English to Chinese dictionaries translate into characters and not PIN (Roman letters). So, instead of buying what I had gone there to buy, I purchased a 90 yuan book recommended to me by the Korean Director of the R&D department: Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong if you're interested.
After the book store, we all hopped into a couple of cabs and made our way to a small out door market called the Drum Tower.
We didn't go into the tower, but you can go up to the top and for a few yuan ring the bell. This market was more of a this' and thats' sort of place when compared to the market at Ancient
Culture street, but I was able to find some really fun stuff there for not much money (a good thing after dropping 90 yuan on a book). We through the various rows and came across a fun green box which we thought Samuel might be able to put his mom's necklace in. This box wasn't quite what we were all thinking and with a price tag of 180 yuan, it definitely wasn't. We put it down and walked away, and as we did the vendor started yelling prices, interspersed with Hello, at us. Within a matter of 30 seconds the price had fallen to 40. Wow. And that was most likely a generous price at 40, let alone 180!
We moved on to the next row and found a little figurine shoppe. I stopped and tried to communicate with the vendors, which I was doing fairly well without actually speaking, when a friendly Chinese customer started translating. She was wrong, lol. I gave the owner the cash she translated and he told me the price from earlier. I've noticed the Chinese always have advice, help or knowledge, but it isn't always right. Very seldom at that. Oh well. It was a nice gesture and it even made the blog!
We finished looking at all the vendors on that street and decided it was time for lunch. As we were leaving we passed a man selling furs. I'm pretty sure Kyle is sporting a fox, but more importantly is the skin in the far bottom right corner. The TIGER skin we were all aghast at. I don't know where this man got it, but I felt bad for even acknowledging that
he was selling an actual Tiger skin. Incredible.
We all got back to the hotel, had a bite to eat and Anna, Samuel and I realized we needed to go to the bank to transfer funds into the account of Samuel's friend Jan who was setting up our trip later on in the week. By this point we were absolutely wiped out. But, if we didn't do it then, at that moment, we weren't going to move. What we thought was going to be a quick trip to the bank ended up taking an hour. ONE HOUR. I now know why everything takes so long to do around here. No lines, sneaking up and in. And on top of that, the cashier knows they are the ones in power so they take their sweet time doing whatever they want. I kept flashing to pictures of wolves pacing the edge of their territory, waiting for their prey to make a move. Granted, no one was pacing, but that was the feel emanating in the room. Anna and I sat back and watched it all while Samuel worked his magic and got the help of the man in front of him before anyone else could move in. After that, I just went straight to bed. That was my 12 hr night, 6pm-6am. A good day and an even better night!
The first part of the week consisted of a few short trips with a lot of lounging around and intense amounts of sleeping! :) I don't remember EVER sleeping for 11 or 12 hours straight. AND, I did it multiple nights. I'm impressed with myself! (Eat your heart out Alex-he probably doesn't even read this)
Monday was a nice day for a stroll so we decided to walk down to the bookstore/library so I could try to find a dictionary for class and a few other requested books to take back to the U.S. We weren't expecting to see many people out on Monday, since the National Holiday didn't actually begin until Wednesday, but like the interns, others also chose to take the days leading up to the holiday off as well.
The walk to the bookstore took about 20 mins, which also including a brief picture stop: I just
thought this was a neat picture. Lots of men go fishing along the banks in the city. I don't know if they eat the fish, but I personally wouldn't recommend it!The walk also included a 1 Yuan Egg Custard stop for Samuel and Kyle who wanted to see if the little bakery along the way was open again. It was, so Samuel had a nice breakfast of Egg Custard. Needless to say I'm a little jealous. Actually, as far as my allergy is concerned, I've only had one "egg craving" and that was at breakfast with an egg-on-toast Anna was eating. Everything else has been pretty easy to go without. It's amazing how easy it is to give something up when you don't really have a choice on the matter.
As we passed the Custard place, a verbal dispute was in action. I thought the Chinese always speak too loudly and sometimes mistake normal conversation for arguments because of speech patterns (or lack thereof?), but not anymore! I now know what a full on Chinese argument is. Let me tell you what! It's intense. Probably because I can't recognize anything with what or how they were speaking, but I still wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that one.
Just thought that this sign was funny. I think it's their "Don't Drink and Drive". It's a car sloshing in a broken wine glass.
We finally made it to the bookstore were we had to beat our way through a crowd of vendors pamphlet passing vendors. Okay, so we didn't beat our way through, but the "paths" they made for customers didn't work all that well. I was a little surprised at the number of people right inside the entrance. Once I figured out what was going on it made more sense. Just to the left of the entrance there is an entire section devoted to electronic dictionaries. That explained the mass of people. There may have been a sale going on, but it didn't concern me. 1.) I couldn't afford an electronic dictionary and 2.) I wouldn't be able to use it, lol. My Chinese isn't anywhere near the level where I might even be able to THINK of getting one. Samuel's Chinese is. He and Anna spent most of their time looking for and eventually purchasing a dictionary. I headed over to the English book section, which consists of the same titles over and over-mostly the Classics that I never read-and Dictionaries. However, all the English to Chinese dictionaries translate into characters and not PIN (Roman letters). So, instead of buying what I had gone there to buy, I purchased a 90 yuan book recommended to me by the Korean Director of the R&D department: Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong if you're interested.
After the book store, we all hopped into a couple of cabs and made our way to a small out door market called the Drum Tower.
We didn't go into the tower, but you can go up to the top and for a few yuan ring the bell. This market was more of a this' and thats' sort of place when compared to the market at Ancient
Culture street, but I was able to find some really fun stuff there for not much money (a good thing after dropping 90 yuan on a book). We through the various rows and came across a fun green box which we thought Samuel might be able to put his mom's necklace in. This box wasn't quite what we were all thinking and with a price tag of 180 yuan, it definitely wasn't. We put it down and walked away, and as we did the vendor started yelling prices, interspersed with Hello, at us. Within a matter of 30 seconds the price had fallen to 40. Wow. And that was most likely a generous price at 40, let alone 180!We moved on to the next row and found a little figurine shoppe. I stopped and tried to communicate with the vendors, which I was doing fairly well without actually speaking, when a friendly Chinese customer started translating. She was wrong, lol. I gave the owner the cash she translated and he told me the price from earlier. I've noticed the Chinese always have advice, help or knowledge, but it isn't always right. Very seldom at that. Oh well. It was a nice gesture and it even made the blog!
We finished looking at all the vendors on that street and decided it was time for lunch. As we were leaving we passed a man selling furs. I'm pretty sure Kyle is sporting a fox, but more importantly is the skin in the far bottom right corner. The TIGER skin we were all aghast at. I don't know where this man got it, but I felt bad for even acknowledging that
he was selling an actual Tiger skin. Incredible.We all got back to the hotel, had a bite to eat and Anna, Samuel and I realized we needed to go to the bank to transfer funds into the account of Samuel's friend Jan who was setting up our trip later on in the week. By this point we were absolutely wiped out. But, if we didn't do it then, at that moment, we weren't going to move. What we thought was going to be a quick trip to the bank ended up taking an hour. ONE HOUR. I now know why everything takes so long to do around here. No lines, sneaking up and in. And on top of that, the cashier knows they are the ones in power so they take their sweet time doing whatever they want. I kept flashing to pictures of wolves pacing the edge of their territory, waiting for their prey to make a move. Granted, no one was pacing, but that was the feel emanating in the room. Anna and I sat back and watched it all while Samuel worked his magic and got the help of the man in front of him before anyone else could move in. After that, I just went straight to bed. That was my 12 hr night, 6pm-6am. A good day and an even better night!
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