(Update)
Hey there's some stuff I forgot to mention in my original post, that I figured I should mention.
I forgot that Julie took offense at the Kung Fu show due to the prominent theme of Woman as Temptress. I didnt mind so much, but it just goes to show 'Different strokes, Different folks'.
"I definately believe that our Shanghai group has been more engrossed in work than our Beijing counterparts. - John"
Wow John that hurt both me and Julie a lot, so I figured I should refute some of those claims. First and foremost Julie works at least two hours a day filling out forms/making copies, so maybe you should check your sources, OK?
Second I didnt mention it, but this morning I entered myself in the Doritos: Unlock your Xbox competion, an extremely competitive online competition that I would say rivals any ordinary, service work done in the place you call Shanghai. I have been busy researching the history of the Doritos corporation to develop a snack themed video game - if that doesnt count as exhaustive work Im not sure what does.
Thats about it for now - Julie and I will be gone this weekend on a company retreat to reward productive workers, so any blogging for us over the weekend will go up on monday. Thanks -Ben
Friday, June 22, 2007
TGIF!
First off, I'm not dead yet. It's Day 9 of the Internship, our seventh day working, and Mark and I are pretty satisfied by our time in Shanghai. Thus far, we've worked 53 hours at Tekelec (Offical at the end of the day) and we are preparing for our 2nd week and last week at the company. For next week, Mark will be switching into the EMS department, while I will stay in Hardware Design. Mark and I have asked about ten different employees here at Tekelec what EMS stands for, and no one knows. Go figure. I guess it's some sort of secret society that works in the basement. When Mark and I first arrive, we both saw that acronym and instantly thought "Emergency Medical Services." Some how, we didn't think that would pan out. I'm not sure it's safe for Mark to even try to drive an ambulance through Shanghai. Drivers are really...um...aggressive? I guess that word works. There is no real way to describe the drivers in Shanghai; you will just have to visit to find out. However, my host Helen continually tells me that "Shanghai drivers are very skilled, especially the taxi drivers." If some has to continue tell me they are good driver, I'm eventually not going to trust them about it.
At work, things are interesting. I definately believe that our Shanghai group has been more engrossed in work than our Beijing counterparts. In hardware design, I've gone from assisting with testing prototype boards to learning the programming language used to program the boards to running simulations with the programmed code. Basically, I always have something to do. And, if I ever felt bored, I have been told to talk to either Jo, the head of Human Resources, or Helen, my host and the Buisness Operations Manager; both have many tasks that could keep us occupied for days. Mark is finishing up some testing for a new operating system that the company might switch to for programming. He'll tell you more about it when he blogs.
In case no one has mentioned it yet, Tuesday, June 19th was Duanwujie, or the Dragon Boat Festival. This is a very popular holiday at the office, but no one is give time off and no one takes time off from work. Occuring on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, Duanwujie is a holiday that commemates the death of Chu Yuan, a poet/patriot that commited suicide after his country was invade and destroyed by another country. Typically, dragon boats used for racing down rivers. Even though Shanghai has many rivers, I did not see a dragon boat. Also, it is tradition for people to eat zong zi on this day. This item was thrown into the river after Chu Yuan drowned himself, in order to keep the fish and spirits away from his body. Today, zong zi is made from sticky-rice wrapped inside bamboo leaves. Typcially, zong zi has a filling that can either be meat like pork or something sweet like a date. I had sweet zong zi while in Zhengzhou, but on this day, I only had ones that had pork inside. These zong zi were fine, but I still prefer the sweet ones. I had two at breakfast and two while at the office. Helen even saved some of the extra ones for breakfast the next day.
Overall, the week has been filled with work, and not much else. One big note: I am finally over my cold. Two days after arriving in Shanghai, I began to fall victim to many of the same symptoms that our classmate Colin had earlier in the trip. This weekend, I will go with my host family to Wuxi on Saturday while Mark goes to Qi Bao. On Sunday, Mark and I both will go to Hangzhou. Mark will give you an update of how the weekend went when he blogs on Sunday.
Until next time,
- John.
At work, things are interesting. I definately believe that our Shanghai group has been more engrossed in work than our Beijing counterparts. In hardware design, I've gone from assisting with testing prototype boards to learning the programming language used to program the boards to running simulations with the programmed code. Basically, I always have something to do. And, if I ever felt bored, I have been told to talk to either Jo, the head of Human Resources, or Helen, my host and the Buisness Operations Manager; both have many tasks that could keep us occupied for days. Mark is finishing up some testing for a new operating system that the company might switch to for programming. He'll tell you more about it when he blogs.
In case no one has mentioned it yet, Tuesday, June 19th was Duanwujie, or the Dragon Boat Festival. This is a very popular holiday at the office, but no one is give time off and no one takes time off from work. Occuring on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, Duanwujie is a holiday that commemates the death of Chu Yuan, a poet/patriot that commited suicide after his country was invade and destroyed by another country. Typically, dragon boats used for racing down rivers. Even though Shanghai has many rivers, I did not see a dragon boat. Also, it is tradition for people to eat zong zi on this day. This item was thrown into the river after Chu Yuan drowned himself, in order to keep the fish and spirits away from his body. Today, zong zi is made from sticky-rice wrapped inside bamboo leaves. Typcially, zong zi has a filling that can either be meat like pork or something sweet like a date. I had sweet zong zi while in Zhengzhou, but on this day, I only had ones that had pork inside. These zong zi were fine, but I still prefer the sweet ones. I had two at breakfast and two while at the office. Helen even saved some of the extra ones for breakfast the next day.
Overall, the week has been filled with work, and not much else. One big note: I am finally over my cold. Two days after arriving in Shanghai, I began to fall victim to many of the same symptoms that our classmate Colin had earlier in the trip. This weekend, I will go with my host family to Wuxi on Saturday while Mark goes to Qi Bao. On Sunday, Mark and I both will go to Hangzhou. Mark will give you an update of how the weekend went when he blogs on Sunday.
Until next time,
- John.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting
I wonder if chickens will ever evolve the ability to fly.
I also wonder what happened to the Drew Carrey show.
Finally I wonder if there really is such a thing as a TPS report.
Finally I wonder if there really is such a thing as a TPS report.
As you might have surmised from the above, I have had a lot time to … think. I have been at this office for about 45 hours now and I have yet to receive an assignment. To be honest it is pretty hilarious. I’ve just been doing some extreme web surfing. I am pretty sure I have read every article on MSNBC.com, all of the recent publications from the Brookings institute, and clicked on all the links from the blog Clicked. Luckily I was promised at the beginning of the week some work either today or tomorrow, so here’s to holding out for tomorrow! Oh yah I also made a haiku –
Cute bear sticker there,
Who put you on the laptop,
Not work related.
Who put you on the laptop,
Not work related.
Just try and puzzle out the hidden meaning in that one (hint. There is a sticker on my laptop that says cute bear). Haikus are fun.
So after that productive day in the office I was ready to enjoy the cultural experience that is Beijing. I was not to be disappointed as Coleman had booked tickets to go see Chun Yi: The Legend of Kungfu. It was being performed at the Red Theatre, and Coleman, Julie, and I headed into ‘downtown’ Beijing to see it. It was a 7:30 showing, so we had time to go eat dinner at a classy restaurant: Pizza Hut. That probably sounded like sarcasm for all, those people reading back in America, but here in China the Pizza Hut chain actually has a very Ruby Tuesday’s air to it. That’s right, it was Ruby Tuesdays good. Anyways the food was delicious. It makes me miss American food. After the delicious dinner we found our seats and also found out that the audience was mostly foreigners. This was good because it meant the dialogue was in English as well as Chinese. Right after we sat down the lights went down and the show began.
It was awesome. They had multi-colored lights, a fog machine, complicated sets, and oh yah, like twenty-five kung fu actors! It was a great performance. It revolved around the story of a warrior monk named Chun Yi, following his progression from novice child to full fledged master. The play itself was a frame story, as an elder monk was telling the story to a new inductee. Throughout the play we got to see examples of different styles of kung fu, like mantis kung fu and leopard kung fu, as well as kung fu ‘tricks’. One such trick was Chun Yi laying atop three swords with a bed of nails pushing down on him while another monk layed on top of the nails. And then the really impressive part happened, when a third monk placed a huge slab of stone on the second monk, waited a few seconds, and then used a sledgehammer to break the stone. Chun Yi did not have a scratch on him. Ridiculous. To sum up then, the Kung Fu performance was great.
That’s about all that happened on Thursday, though I do want to mention one thing from Wednesday. Coleman and Janet are rather religious, and on Wednesday night they brought me along to their bible study group. It was quite an experience, attending for the first time a bible study and to have it all be in Chinese. Apparently being Jewish is quite exotic here, and so that was pretty funny. Suffice to say I did not exactly follow all that was said, but it was great being able to meet some of the other people in their congregation and seeing the apartment where their church was located. That’s about it – I am having a great time here in China and I look forward to writing again soon - Ben Goldhaber
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Tekelec 6-20-07
Salutations,
Oh man Shanghai is one crazy place! The more I stay in this city, the more I love it. This really is the economic and neo-cultural trendsetting center of China. I liken it to NYC, it's the "big apple" of this part of the world. Everything is pretty new and modern and the city is growing at an astounding pace. It's nothing like the other cities in China. Everyone plays with their expensive cell phones while wearing their fashionable clothes as they pass fashion advertisements showing scantily clad western women. This is not the China I expected before I came here. There are more construction cranes here then I have ever seen in my whole life, I read somewhere that Shanghai supports a significantly large percentage of the world's heavy duty construction cranes. It's getting to the level of any western city or major modern Asian cities (Tokyo, Hong kong, etc.). Give it 10 or 20 more years and this place will definetly be a powerhouse in Asia.
Well I guess you'd like to know about my job. I'm working in the IT Department (Information Technology). My first project was to improve the efficiency of the IT website in finding the correct ethernet cable switches in the building and matching it with the correct slot on their router. Basically I took a map of the floor plans they had of the building and made a website that allowed them to click the seat of the ethernet port that they were looking at and give the slot and port information in a very handy way. I finished that 3 day project in 1 and a half and now I am playing with the Sun Solaris 10 operating system. I'm just doing preliminary testing seeing the advantages and disadvantages of the OS. It is a popular OS with a lot of programmers because it is open source and a free download, so it's a good way to stick it to Bill Gates and not use Windows. Its also more programmer oriented (uses Unix) as opposed to the more idiot proof but sometimes less functional (i guess) Windows. Windows is also attacked by hackers more often then Solaris because it is the most popular OS so the most damage occurs and also young hackers like to try to defeat Bill Gates, so Solaris is a bit safer. Solaris 10 is supposedly the most advanced operating system on the planet (which i sort of agree with because it is a b#$% to install and figure out, but I'm getting there slowly). Next week I switch to another dept., I'm not sure what I'll be doing there yet, but I'll keep you posted.
As far as my accomodations, I stayed the first week with the family of one of the senior managers here at Tekelec. They live in a three story house not too far from work (a fifteen minute taxi ride without traffic is considered pretty close, John has to commute an hour or more per day). They have two kids (a ten year old son, and a 4 year old daughter who is the cutest little girl I have ever seen). Luckily, my host family used to live in Texas so they all could speak fluent english except for the little girl. On the weekend, they brought John and I to SuZhou, a weekend vacation spot for the Shanghaiese that is famous for its traditional private gardens. They took us out for our first Pizza Hut in China, and let me tell you that after 3+ weeks without pizza, it was the best pizza me and John ever had. It tasted just like home. Plus, Pizza Hut was extremely clean and nice, just like a nice sit down resturant, and not like the more fast food versions we have back home. I love America. John keeps counting down the days until we get back. Being a world traveler is exciting and intense but there really is no place like home. We had a lot of fun in SuZhou, and on Sunday John's host family took us to a traditional Chinese banquet in celebration of John's host dad's boss's daughter's first birthday (well that's a mouthful). The boss lived in a country club outside of town, that was very similar to prestonwood except the houses were smaller and started at 3 million dollars each. The food at the party was very good. My host family took me to see some local stuff around Shanghai but mostly hung out at home and enjoyed the family life. I really love staying with them. I take a private taxi to work everyday. Next week I move to another engineer's residence, who is married with no kids. He lives on the other side of town (near where John lives) and I'll get to commute by subway, which will be an experience during rush hour.
Well that's about it for now,
Mark
Oh man Shanghai is one crazy place! The more I stay in this city, the more I love it. This really is the economic and neo-cultural trendsetting center of China. I liken it to NYC, it's the "big apple" of this part of the world. Everything is pretty new and modern and the city is growing at an astounding pace. It's nothing like the other cities in China. Everyone plays with their expensive cell phones while wearing their fashionable clothes as they pass fashion advertisements showing scantily clad western women. This is not the China I expected before I came here. There are more construction cranes here then I have ever seen in my whole life, I read somewhere that Shanghai supports a significantly large percentage of the world's heavy duty construction cranes. It's getting to the level of any western city or major modern Asian cities (Tokyo, Hong kong, etc.). Give it 10 or 20 more years and this place will definetly be a powerhouse in Asia.
Well I guess you'd like to know about my job. I'm working in the IT Department (Information Technology). My first project was to improve the efficiency of the IT website in finding the correct ethernet cable switches in the building and matching it with the correct slot on their router. Basically I took a map of the floor plans they had of the building and made a website that allowed them to click the seat of the ethernet port that they were looking at and give the slot and port information in a very handy way. I finished that 3 day project in 1 and a half and now I am playing with the Sun Solaris 10 operating system. I'm just doing preliminary testing seeing the advantages and disadvantages of the OS. It is a popular OS with a lot of programmers because it is open source and a free download, so it's a good way to stick it to Bill Gates and not use Windows. Its also more programmer oriented (uses Unix) as opposed to the more idiot proof but sometimes less functional (i guess) Windows. Windows is also attacked by hackers more often then Solaris because it is the most popular OS so the most damage occurs and also young hackers like to try to defeat Bill Gates, so Solaris is a bit safer. Solaris 10 is supposedly the most advanced operating system on the planet (which i sort of agree with because it is a b#$% to install and figure out, but I'm getting there slowly). Next week I switch to another dept., I'm not sure what I'll be doing there yet, but I'll keep you posted.
As far as my accomodations, I stayed the first week with the family of one of the senior managers here at Tekelec. They live in a three story house not too far from work (a fifteen minute taxi ride without traffic is considered pretty close, John has to commute an hour or more per day). They have two kids (a ten year old son, and a 4 year old daughter who is the cutest little girl I have ever seen). Luckily, my host family used to live in Texas so they all could speak fluent english except for the little girl. On the weekend, they brought John and I to SuZhou, a weekend vacation spot for the Shanghaiese that is famous for its traditional private gardens. They took us out for our first Pizza Hut in China, and let me tell you that after 3+ weeks without pizza, it was the best pizza me and John ever had. It tasted just like home. Plus, Pizza Hut was extremely clean and nice, just like a nice sit down resturant, and not like the more fast food versions we have back home. I love America. John keeps counting down the days until we get back. Being a world traveler is exciting and intense but there really is no place like home. We had a lot of fun in SuZhou, and on Sunday John's host family took us to a traditional Chinese banquet in celebration of John's host dad's boss's daughter's first birthday (well that's a mouthful). The boss lived in a country club outside of town, that was very similar to prestonwood except the houses were smaller and started at 3 million dollars each. The food at the party was very good. My host family took me to see some local stuff around Shanghai but mostly hung out at home and enjoyed the family life. I really love staying with them. I take a private taxi to work everyday. Next week I move to another engineer's residence, who is married with no kids. He lives on the other side of town (near where John lives) and I'll get to commute by subway, which will be an experience during rush hour.
Well that's about it for now,
Mark
Monday, June 18, 2007
Office Space!
Today Ben and I start our fourth day of work at NCR. So far, Beijing has proved to be a very interesting and very busy place. Our work day starts at 8:30 and ends at 5:00. Most employees work overtime too! My host mom explained that the boss buys everyone dinner if they have to work overtime, so it's a pretty good deal. The last few days I've taken the company shuttle bus to work. There are roughly ten shuttles that drive employees to and from work every day for free. Although I have to walk 20 minutes to get to the bus stop (through crazy China traffic!), it is very convenient. As Ben mentioned in his last post, it is the end of the quarter here, so everyone is extremely busy and caught up in projects. As such, they don't have alot of "intern-friendly" jobs for us to do. So far I have mostly been working in the finance department; my job is to fill out tax invoice forms, a job that is about as exciting as it sounds. Although the work is tedious, it's interesting to see how financing works (at least to some degree). My "mentor" employee, Eric, also gave me an interesting assignment the other day. I checked summaries he had written in English for a comprehensive list of various company expenditures. It was really interesting to see where the company spent it's money with regard to it's employees. Eric has informed me that I will mostly be recieving data input jobs for the remainder of my internship; hopefully I will be able to learn more about how the finance team operates.
My host family has been extremely kind to me; they have done their best to give me Western food on a regular basis (don't worry, I'm still eating a ton of Chinese food!). They do not speak a great deal of english, so I have had to practice my Chinese in order to communicate. I really believe that being completely immersed has improved my chinese. I am starting to understand more of what people say, and can usually respond (even if it is in chin-glish). Last night my host mom's old college friend stopped by to visit on her way back from a vacation in Singapore. She had an adorable eight year old daughter, who was very stunned to hear a strange American girl speak Chinese to her. We all went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner, and had a great time! I was a little apprehensive when my host mom used the Disney movie "The Little Mermaid" to explain one of the dishes on the table (Ursala- to describe octopus tentacles), but the meal was pretty good. Another interesting thing I've noticed about my host family is their apparent fixation with Chairman Mao. Two nights ago, they proudly served me Hong Shao Rou, Chairman Mao's favorite food. Yesterday, my host mom gave me a lengthy explanation as to why Chairman Mao was reffered to as the "son of China" (he brought 'warmth' to China). I was aware that Chairman Mao was still reverred in China, but I had no idea it was to such a large degree.
Hopefully Ben and I will continue to learn more about how the company operates, as well as enjoy our time with our host families.
I am assigned to do the blog on Saturday, but Ben and I will be out of town with my host parents for the weekend and we probably won't have computer access. I may have to update the blog on Friday or Monday. Thank you for your patience! Wish us luck
-Julie
My host family has been extremely kind to me; they have done their best to give me Western food on a regular basis (don't worry, I'm still eating a ton of Chinese food!). They do not speak a great deal of english, so I have had to practice my Chinese in order to communicate. I really believe that being completely immersed has improved my chinese. I am starting to understand more of what people say, and can usually respond (even if it is in chin-glish). Last night my host mom's old college friend stopped by to visit on her way back from a vacation in Singapore. She had an adorable eight year old daughter, who was very stunned to hear a strange American girl speak Chinese to her. We all went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner, and had a great time! I was a little apprehensive when my host mom used the Disney movie "The Little Mermaid" to explain one of the dishes on the table (Ursala- to describe octopus tentacles), but the meal was pretty good. Another interesting thing I've noticed about my host family is their apparent fixation with Chairman Mao. Two nights ago, they proudly served me Hong Shao Rou, Chairman Mao's favorite food. Yesterday, my host mom gave me a lengthy explanation as to why Chairman Mao was reffered to as the "son of China" (he brought 'warmth' to China). I was aware that Chairman Mao was still reverred in China, but I had no idea it was to such a large degree.
Hopefully Ben and I will continue to learn more about how the company operates, as well as enjoy our time with our host families.
I am assigned to do the blog on Saturday, but Ben and I will be out of town with my host parents for the weekend and we probably won't have computer access. I may have to update the blog on Friday or Monday. Thank you for your patience! Wish us luck
-Julie
Greetings from Tekelec Shanghai
Hey Everyone -
After a couple of days at our new jobs in Shanghai, Mark and I are settling in well. Tekelec, a Morrisville, NC-based corporation, operates a research and development location in Shanghai. I'm just going introduce you to where Mark and I are calling home for the next two weeks. Shanghai is the largest city in China, with a population of 18 million people. Thats about 10 million more people than in the entire state of North Carolina. Tekelec is located in Pudong district. Since Pudong is the most undeveloped of all of Shanghai's 18 districts, it reminds me most of North Carolina. You can actually see trees and grass not located in a park, in addition to the numerous new buildings in the Area. Mark's host lives in the Pudong district as well. I, on the other hand, live in Puxi, on the other side of Shanghai, specifically in the Jing'an district. My area is a nice, very urbanized. The train station is only five minutes from the apartment. However, living on the other side of Shanghai means my commute everyday is about an hour long.
Upon first arriving at Tekelec, Mark and I were immediately assigned our jobs. Mark is currently working in the IT department, while I am in Hardware Design. I'll let Mark tell y'all about his job when he blogs. For the first 6 hours at the company, I really didn't have a specific job assignment. I mainly just assisted with server rack modifications. However, now I am learning a new programming language and am charged with programming one of the boards Tekelec uses in it's multimedia solutions. Needless to say, it's a bit overwhelming. I'm having a fun time though, and am learning a lot.
While in China, Mark and I have been shown a lot of interesting sides of the country by our host families. We went with one family on a typical Saturday outting to SuZhou. SuZhou features three amazingly beautiful gardens, as well as a series of canals that lend a more Venisian feel to the city. On Sunday, my host took us to a corporate party for her husband's company. Mark and I got a quick look at life in a Chinese version of Preston, except the starting price for homes is 3 million USD. Not cool. There was also a good-ol'-boy presence at the soiree, where if you were on the boss' good side, you sat at one set of tables and you hung out with a certain crowd, while if you weren't on the boss' good side, you sat in the back of the room, with minimal interaction with other people. Corporate politics, it seems, is universal.
Since there are about two weeks left to go before the end of the quarter, my department is currently having a meeting to organize tasks that need to be complete ASAP. Unfortunately, the meeting is entirely in Chinese, and basically, I won't understand what their saying. First, because they are speaking Shanghai-ese, a dialect of Chinese that sounds like Mandarin, but with a Japanese pronuciation. Second, because they are using highly specialized terms that I haven't learned yet. So as for now, I'm continuing to chug along with my projects. We'll have to waiting see how the projects change and if the pressure increase as Mark and I get closer to the conclusion of our internship.
Best Wishes!
-John
After a couple of days at our new jobs in Shanghai, Mark and I are settling in well. Tekelec, a Morrisville, NC-based corporation, operates a research and development location in Shanghai. I'm just going introduce you to where Mark and I are calling home for the next two weeks. Shanghai is the largest city in China, with a population of 18 million people. Thats about 10 million more people than in the entire state of North Carolina. Tekelec is located in Pudong district. Since Pudong is the most undeveloped of all of Shanghai's 18 districts, it reminds me most of North Carolina. You can actually see trees and grass not located in a park, in addition to the numerous new buildings in the Area. Mark's host lives in the Pudong district as well. I, on the other hand, live in Puxi, on the other side of Shanghai, specifically in the Jing'an district. My area is a nice, very urbanized. The train station is only five minutes from the apartment. However, living on the other side of Shanghai means my commute everyday is about an hour long.
Upon first arriving at Tekelec, Mark and I were immediately assigned our jobs. Mark is currently working in the IT department, while I am in Hardware Design. I'll let Mark tell y'all about his job when he blogs. For the first 6 hours at the company, I really didn't have a specific job assignment. I mainly just assisted with server rack modifications. However, now I am learning a new programming language and am charged with programming one of the boards Tekelec uses in it's multimedia solutions. Needless to say, it's a bit overwhelming. I'm having a fun time though, and am learning a lot.
While in China, Mark and I have been shown a lot of interesting sides of the country by our host families. We went with one family on a typical Saturday outting to SuZhou. SuZhou features three amazingly beautiful gardens, as well as a series of canals that lend a more Venisian feel to the city. On Sunday, my host took us to a corporate party for her husband's company. Mark and I got a quick look at life in a Chinese version of Preston, except the starting price for homes is 3 million USD. Not cool. There was also a good-ol'-boy presence at the soiree, where if you were on the boss' good side, you sat at one set of tables and you hung out with a certain crowd, while if you weren't on the boss' good side, you sat in the back of the room, with minimal interaction with other people. Corporate politics, it seems, is universal.
Since there are about two weeks left to go before the end of the quarter, my department is currently having a meeting to organize tasks that need to be complete ASAP. Unfortunately, the meeting is entirely in Chinese, and basically, I won't understand what their saying. First, because they are speaking Shanghai-ese, a dialect of Chinese that sounds like Mandarin, but with a Japanese pronuciation. Second, because they are using highly specialized terms that I haven't learned yet. So as for now, I'm continuing to chug along with my projects. We'll have to waiting see how the projects change and if the pressure increase as Mark and I get closer to the conclusion of our internship.
Best Wishes!
-John
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Still Chillin' in China
(ed. This was supposed to come out on Sunday, but due to lack of a computer was posted late)
So its been a couple of days since the last post, right before our awesome exchange group split up, and I can only hope we haven’t lost too many readers. Contrary to what the Cary Academy home page says, the foreign exchange trips are not over for all of us, as at least four students are still overseas. Mark, John, Julie, and I are all now interns at Chinese branches of American corporations, with Mark and John in Shanghai and me and Julie in Beijing. I figure I should just continue the story from where it left off, Wednesday night, and describe what happened next.
Setting – Jade Palace Hotel
Time – ~ 7:30 P.M. Wednesday night
Main Character – Me
All of us had just finished up a rather emotional final dinner together, and we were back at the hotel. Getting ready to leave at 8:30, I was surprised to find that my host parent was already at the hotel ready to go. Some quick packing was in order, and also unfortunately some very quick goodbyes. I have got to agree with Camryn’s post that you know you have had an awesome time when you are sad to leave a group of people you had to put up with for many four hour bus rides. Also smoking is not cool. Where was I? Oh right - I got into a taxi to go to the final residence I would be staying at for my time in China. Coleman (Host) and his wife Janet are both incredibly nice, and live in a pretty spacious apartment in Beijing. Its about 25 minutes from Tiananmen square, so its kind of far from Beijing proper. That’s about it for Wednesday night – I was a little nervous about my first day of work so I went to bed early to get prepped for NCR.
Setting – National Cash Register, Beijing Office
Time – Thursday
Main Character – Me Again
I really was nervous for no reason. Coleman and I got on an NCR shuttle at about 7:45, and I soon found out that everyone at NCR was very nice. I got a desk in the Order Management team and a mentor named Jason Liu. Unfortunately it’s the end of quarter here and the office is also involved in a major procurement, so there is not much work for a new intern. Downside = not much to do, Upside = finally get to surf the internet and find out what’s going on in the world. Crazy how much you miss in three weeks. Lunch was great due to the fact that it was Subway, about the only sandwich place I have seen in all of China. Not much to report about work, except that I did get to learn a bunch of shipping and ordering terms. That will undoubtedly come in handy back at school. For dinner the host family treated me to Beijing duck, which is incredibly good. The second time I have had it (first being with the school group) and I have to say that it is definitely one of my favorite Chinese foods.
Setting – See above
Time – Friday
Main Character – Hey, Me Again!
I cannot really report anything new from work today, it kind of followed Thursday. I kept myself entertained by imagining myself in scenes from Office Space, which really is not that hard with the generic cubicle farm setting. Also I have a coffee cup (filled with water) that I just carry around to help get myself into character. Lunch was also Subway again, and it was still good. For dinner we went straight from work to a fancy restaurant in Beijing to celebrate Coleman’s church leader’s anniversary. I got to meet many people in the small circle, and it was a great opportunity to practice some Chinese. Its funny how using one word instantly impresses people. For dinner we had Beijing duck. Third time now in about a week, and it is really delicious. One thing I did not try though was the well cooked duck hearts that was also an entrée. I am not that adventurous.
Setting – Beijing
Time – Saturday
Main Character – This line really is not necessary
I have got to start out by writing about a pretty embarrassing story. See last night the dinner party ended at about 10:00, and everyone was planning to go to the Minister’s house after that. Coleman suggested, and I wholeheartedly agreed, that since he did not know when it would end I catch a cab back to the apartment. Another fun opportunity to try out Chinese, and with a good amount of luck I found the residence. Now I had never used a Chinese lock before, and so once I managed to get into the apartment I assumed that I had to turn the bottom handle to actually lock the door. Well it did lock, but it was actually a deadbolt that could not be opened from the outside…yah, I really could not have foreseen what happened next. After a great, long sleep I woke up to find no one else in the house. I thought they had just stepped out, but when they arrived back about a half an hour later I found out they never came back. They could not get back into the apartment, and since I was sound a sleep I couldn’t hear them to open the door. In the end they just laughed about it, because they went back to the ministers house and had a very good chat with him before they slept in the guest room. My host family did not care, but I felt pretty embarrassed. Ah well, whatcha going to do? After that unfortunate start we picked up Julie and went out to lunch. Following lunch was a tour in a rickshaw of a Chinese hutong. A hutong is the traditional architecture style of Beijing, with many small walled off courtyards forming a kind of maze. With recent development in Beijing destroying the hutongs in favor of office buildings, I am glad that we got to see a still functional one. After the hutongs was a quick stop at a Chinese garden, and then back to the apartment to relax.
Setting – Beijing
Time – Sunday
So finally here is the day that I was planning to blog about. Since my host family are religious Christians, every Sunday they go to services. However, due to local government ordinances, foreigners must attend a separate church. Both Julie and I got to attend this foreigner only service, and I have to say it was quite an experience to have your passport checked before you entered. Only foreigners were allowed in. The service itself was very nice and was also non-denominational. For lunch Coleman and Janet picked us up and took us to a popular western style mall. Before Li Laoshi marks us down though we still had only Chinese food, at a great Chinese tea restaurant. The funniest thing that happened though was that after lunch Julie and I went to see Pirates of the Carribean 3 at a Chinese movie theater that plays movies in English with Chinese subtitles. I had already seen the movie in America, so I noticed when they cut out about 35 minutes of the movie. The entire beginning was altered, replaced by a scrolling, Star Wars-esque page describing what had happened. I honestly don’t know why the censors did it – it wasn’t that violent/anti – proletariat. That’s one of the weirdest things I have noticed in China.
I have kind of ran longer than I expected to, but I have got a good amount of free time to type. Anyways I think that's what I will leave all of you readers at home with – Ben G.
So its been a couple of days since the last post, right before our awesome exchange group split up, and I can only hope we haven’t lost too many readers. Contrary to what the Cary Academy home page says, the foreign exchange trips are not over for all of us, as at least four students are still overseas. Mark, John, Julie, and I are all now interns at Chinese branches of American corporations, with Mark and John in Shanghai and me and Julie in Beijing. I figure I should just continue the story from where it left off, Wednesday night, and describe what happened next.
Setting – Jade Palace Hotel
Time – ~ 7:30 P.M. Wednesday night
Main Character – Me
All of us had just finished up a rather emotional final dinner together, and we were back at the hotel. Getting ready to leave at 8:30, I was surprised to find that my host parent was already at the hotel ready to go. Some quick packing was in order, and also unfortunately some very quick goodbyes. I have got to agree with Camryn’s post that you know you have had an awesome time when you are sad to leave a group of people you had to put up with for many four hour bus rides. Also smoking is not cool. Where was I? Oh right - I got into a taxi to go to the final residence I would be staying at for my time in China. Coleman (Host) and his wife Janet are both incredibly nice, and live in a pretty spacious apartment in Beijing. Its about 25 minutes from Tiananmen square, so its kind of far from Beijing proper. That’s about it for Wednesday night – I was a little nervous about my first day of work so I went to bed early to get prepped for NCR.
Setting – National Cash Register, Beijing Office
Time – Thursday
Main Character – Me Again
I really was nervous for no reason. Coleman and I got on an NCR shuttle at about 7:45, and I soon found out that everyone at NCR was very nice. I got a desk in the Order Management team and a mentor named Jason Liu. Unfortunately it’s the end of quarter here and the office is also involved in a major procurement, so there is not much work for a new intern. Downside = not much to do, Upside = finally get to surf the internet and find out what’s going on in the world. Crazy how much you miss in three weeks. Lunch was great due to the fact that it was Subway, about the only sandwich place I have seen in all of China. Not much to report about work, except that I did get to learn a bunch of shipping and ordering terms. That will undoubtedly come in handy back at school. For dinner the host family treated me to Beijing duck, which is incredibly good. The second time I have had it (first being with the school group) and I have to say that it is definitely one of my favorite Chinese foods.
Setting – See above
Time – Friday
Main Character – Hey, Me Again!
I cannot really report anything new from work today, it kind of followed Thursday. I kept myself entertained by imagining myself in scenes from Office Space, which really is not that hard with the generic cubicle farm setting. Also I have a coffee cup (filled with water) that I just carry around to help get myself into character. Lunch was also Subway again, and it was still good. For dinner we went straight from work to a fancy restaurant in Beijing to celebrate Coleman’s church leader’s anniversary. I got to meet many people in the small circle, and it was a great opportunity to practice some Chinese. Its funny how using one word instantly impresses people. For dinner we had Beijing duck. Third time now in about a week, and it is really delicious. One thing I did not try though was the well cooked duck hearts that was also an entrée. I am not that adventurous.
Setting – Beijing
Time – Saturday
Main Character – This line really is not necessary
I have got to start out by writing about a pretty embarrassing story. See last night the dinner party ended at about 10:00, and everyone was planning to go to the Minister’s house after that. Coleman suggested, and I wholeheartedly agreed, that since he did not know when it would end I catch a cab back to the apartment. Another fun opportunity to try out Chinese, and with a good amount of luck I found the residence. Now I had never used a Chinese lock before, and so once I managed to get into the apartment I assumed that I had to turn the bottom handle to actually lock the door. Well it did lock, but it was actually a deadbolt that could not be opened from the outside…yah, I really could not have foreseen what happened next. After a great, long sleep I woke up to find no one else in the house. I thought they had just stepped out, but when they arrived back about a half an hour later I found out they never came back. They could not get back into the apartment, and since I was sound a sleep I couldn’t hear them to open the door. In the end they just laughed about it, because they went back to the ministers house and had a very good chat with him before they slept in the guest room. My host family did not care, but I felt pretty embarrassed. Ah well, whatcha going to do? After that unfortunate start we picked up Julie and went out to lunch. Following lunch was a tour in a rickshaw of a Chinese hutong. A hutong is the traditional architecture style of Beijing, with many small walled off courtyards forming a kind of maze. With recent development in Beijing destroying the hutongs in favor of office buildings, I am glad that we got to see a still functional one. After the hutongs was a quick stop at a Chinese garden, and then back to the apartment to relax.
Setting – Beijing
Time – Sunday
So finally here is the day that I was planning to blog about. Since my host family are religious Christians, every Sunday they go to services. However, due to local government ordinances, foreigners must attend a separate church. Both Julie and I got to attend this foreigner only service, and I have to say it was quite an experience to have your passport checked before you entered. Only foreigners were allowed in. The service itself was very nice and was also non-denominational. For lunch Coleman and Janet picked us up and took us to a popular western style mall. Before Li Laoshi marks us down though we still had only Chinese food, at a great Chinese tea restaurant. The funniest thing that happened though was that after lunch Julie and I went to see Pirates of the Carribean 3 at a Chinese movie theater that plays movies in English with Chinese subtitles. I had already seen the movie in America, so I noticed when they cut out about 35 minutes of the movie. The entire beginning was altered, replaced by a scrolling, Star Wars-esque page describing what had happened. I honestly don’t know why the censors did it – it wasn’t that violent/anti – proletariat. That’s one of the weirdest things I have noticed in China.
I have kind of ran longer than I expected to, but I have got a good amount of free time to type. Anyways I think that's what I will leave all of you readers at home with – Ben G.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)