Yesterday evening at around 6pm I was getting ready, and excited, about watching my first Cheerleader Competition. Yes, it is exactly as you think.. I really do not have any cultural or other reason to be excited other than to look at girls dancing around. I went with my mate here in Shanghai and arrived at the stadium just before the show was about to start.
Once we arrived, we realized the mistake we had made. We were in the wrong stadium. You see there are two stadiums in exactly the same area in Shanghai. We got unlucky. So instead of a myriad of girls shaking their asses and spelling out various words, we got a song and dance ensemble. We were comfortably sat in the VIP section of some Chinese song and dance performance that had a version of 'Riverdance', an operatic recital of 'Memories' by Andrew Lloyd Webber and a bunch of Chinese men dressed up as black people performing a tribal dance (complete with spears!).
Admittedly it was hilarious, a complete contrast of what we were expecting. It was also very entertaining, but since I was meant to be watching a new friend performing U-G-L-Y (the only cheerleading thing I can give as an example) I kinda felt bad!
.....
I don't know how it happened but my friend and I got to talking about university in the UK and the education system. We're like sophisticated and shit, n'am sayin? That and solo singing performances are real boring to watch. The theme is dominant in all of my friends' lives, and my own, because we are the forgotten ones. We are 'Gordon's Graduates'. For anyone not familiar with the term, it does not mean we are the Scottish and uncharismatic version of Charlie's Angels. No, we are the generation which got bitchslapped by New Labour policies and the credit crunch. Hundreds of thousands of students who cannot find work after graduating.
There are two aspects to 'unemployment' among the graduate community. There are the government stats which say "One in five graduates is unemployed!". Yes, one in every five graduates does not have a job whatsoever. The problem with this reading of unemployment is that it is deliberately missing the point. It classes graduates as 'any old member of the population'. This is the other aspect I talk about when I'm discussing graduate employment, that having a part-time, minimum wage job in McDonalds is NOT employment! Ok it technically is, but it's not suitable employment.
You do not go to university so you can flip burgers. You do not invest 3-4 years of your life, and an average of £25,000 (280,000 RMB) to perform something a monkey could do with an hour's training. So this 1/5 unemployed stat is grossly misleading, it's not like unemployed graduates are going to just sit at home and wait for a graduate scheme. They're going to find any employment so they can pay the bills.
My conclusion to everything so far is that the situation for graduates is much, much worse than many people think. One strong reason in my mind is that the education system has failed our generation.
.....
When we were in 'the golden age' (the period before the crunch), it seemed like the education system in the UK was really good. Everyone was getting into university and getting degrees. The whole workforce was classed as 'highly skilled' and Britain's youth was turning into a cosmopolitan and tolerant generation. It was universal university education. I'm gonna call it 'Universalty'.
"What's wrong with that?" you might ask. Well there is a lot wrong with it. Firstly, there is nothing wrong with a workforce that is highly educated. Education is a necessity and I think if everyone in the UK was super smart it would be a great thing for us and future generations. However, a university degree is not just an education. Why do people go to university? To gain a skill, define a career and to use university training to impress employers at job interviews. The only way you can get a job is to be better than the other applicants. Therefore the government must be careful when improving the education of its people. It's great to have an increasingly intelligent population, but university is also a way for companies to distinguish between the hundreds of thousands of graduates that finish every year. When everyone can overcome the 'hurdle' of university, then the system fails.
This is what has happened in my graduate year. Now the economy sucks, firms are not just employing tons of graduates every year. They cannot afford it. Now they have to pick and choose. But the problem is that universalty has forced firms to find other means to distinguish between candidates. Back in the day a degree meant you were pretty awesome. Everyone has one now, and what this does is create another level of 'education'
In the UK you have primary school, secondary school, college and university. Each level of education requires a certain level of intelligence or skill in order to advance. But now university education is so universal, that the 'cream of the crop' are surrounded by less creamy competition. Firms find it hard to find the cream. The cream finds it hard to stand out. This means that there is now another level of education on top of university;
Primary school > Secondary school > College > University > Masters/Internship
In order to prove yourself to companies, you have to pass your degree and then invest more time and more money in completing a masters or getting work experience. This is a problem, especially in this economic climate.
The more time you spend in the education system, the less time you spend working
People who leave college and start working at 18 are therefore earning and contributing to GDP 3/4 more years than university graduates. If another level is added, that time increases. The argument for university is that you are 'reimbursed' for your initial investment by a more lucrative salary when you finally enter the job market. If you take longer to enter the job market, you have less time to be earning that high salary (and the non-university students have more time to be earning their low salary).
The more time you spend in the education system, the more money you spend
This is the big one. Internships are usually unpaid. The recession means people have less money. How are poorer people who just managed to pay for university going to be able to afford unpaid internship expenditure and masters courses? They can't. This breeds inequality in the education system.
The more levels added to education, the quicker previous generations become obsolete
The generations prior to ours often find it hard to stay competitive with the youth who enter the job market. 20 years ago, people mostly finished school with O-Levels. Now if someone who has O-Levels looks for a job, they are often told they are under-skilled because they don't have degrees. People who graduated in the last 10 years might have undergraduate degrees, but they might find themselves needing to re-enter education in order to earn a masters and stay 'up-to-date'.
.....
How did we get to this point in our society? It's very simple. Things were great, so why change them? When the economy is strong and graduates are employed then people are all for Universalty. The university system in the UK has been diluted by the popularity of degrees in (frankly) retarded subjects, by low quality institutions and the relative ease of entrance into aforementioned institutions. Degrees have turned from a highly desirable and challenging goal into the minimum requirements to become employed. Every student is just a faceless, grey clone of every other. Thousands of graduates with sociology, media and sports degrees which they've been lead to believe are substantially beneficial for their career prospects.
What is to be done? Well the government sure as hell can't put "We want to exclude kids from university" as their election pledge. Of course they can window dress it, but no-one will vote for what looks like a step back from where we are now. It's a shame because if you look at the system now, it's completely broken. There are so many universities that resources are spread wafer thin. Top-up fees are crippling families and for what? So that the 'University' of Milton Keynes can add a few more professors to teach David Beckham studies?
And the ultimate result of more students in higher education? Huge debt, cash-strapped universities and delayed employment.
It's definitely not increasing their career prospects. Just look at the stats.
Tuesday 6 October 2009
Monday 5 October 2009
Premiums and discounts in Shanghai
I'm not really sure how applicable this is to all emerging markets, but there is definitely a distinctive character to consumerism in Shanghai which could very well be similar in other rapidly growing economies. Prices are easy to take notice of in Shanghai, every day you will notice how strange things are compared to the western world. Take today for example...
I went to a bar called Big Bamboo to watch Arsenal destroy Blackburn (6-2, oh yeah!). It's aimed at westerners so it is not the greatest example, but there's way more impact using a current affair! Anyway, the cheapest pint of beer costs 40RMB (£3.70 or so). This isn't cheap. The place is not swanky at all, it's not like drinking at a fine restaurant! The expat audience makes sense, but still... £3.70 for a pint of beer is not cheap by any means. As I walk home, I walk past a ton of different shops. Clothes shops are criminally expensive here. It's probably the expat label they've stuck on every item in the mall... but expats aren't stupid. It's more expensive to buy decent clothes in Shanghai than it is in London.
It is highly annoying, because the choice is so good here. There are brands I have never heard of here, that seem to be pretty big abroad. Every big name is concentrated in the area I live, so it's really cool to walk around and pretend you're rich. At least you can keep up to date with any fashion trends (not that I really dress according to trends, I'm totally unfashionable!). But the prices are just insane. Lacoste, a standard low-end luxury/high-end highstreet brand, is a great example. The price of a Lacoste polo shirt is around 500RMB in England (£47-50 or so). In China it's usually bordering the 900RMB mark. The clothes are made in China! You'd think moving to the source would reduce your expenses, but China has such a huge obsession with wasting money that it is more expensive to shop here!
What I mean by this "wasting money" is that there seems to be no concept of 'value for money' over here. The rich people can shop in the expensive places. But the types of people that are rich in China seem to have so much money that they don't care if they're paying 100% more for their items. It's like the staff can just choose a ridiculously high price for things and it will not effect demand one bit. Demand is very low, that's obvious to anyone who's walked around these derelict malls for more than 5 minutes, but I guess the demand they do have is completely inelastic.
So you can buy a designer shirt for 5000RMB (£500) or pay 2 month's rent in an area the equivalent of Oxford Street. You can a delicious meal at a reasonable chain restaurant (something like Wagamama's or Pizza Express) or you can buy an ice-cream sundae. It's weird!
It's also kind of sad. When you're in China as a western man, things seem pretty easy. At least compared to the UK. People automatically thing you're rich, you're educated, you have good manners, you're generous and attractive. Doesn't matter how horrific you are, if you have white skin you're going to attract some attention from the local Chinese girls. While it sounds like paradise, if you get to thinking about it.. it's thoroughly depressing. If you manage to actually charm a girl, something which I find to be challenging to say the least, you're going to constantly have the idea that maybe she doesn't actually like you. Maybe she's just attracted (or feigning attraction) because of the aforementioned reasons. In England you know where you stand, but in China everyone seems to have predetermined judgements about you. It's like positive racism. Of course there is negative racism, like people acting amazed when you speak the tiniest amount of Chinese (God it's patronizing). That's not exactly having to deal with the KKK or anything.
Going deep into the Chinese psyche is something that will probably take numerous blog posts. It really is an interesting culture in Shanghai, especially how it parallels with some English cultures. But for this short summary, there is definitely a positive/negative, ying/yang, premium/discount when living here. You might be spending more, but you generally don't have to earn a penny to impress people when you're from the west.
I went to a bar called Big Bamboo to watch Arsenal destroy Blackburn (6-2, oh yeah!). It's aimed at westerners so it is not the greatest example, but there's way more impact using a current affair! Anyway, the cheapest pint of beer costs 40RMB (£3.70 or so). This isn't cheap. The place is not swanky at all, it's not like drinking at a fine restaurant! The expat audience makes sense, but still... £3.70 for a pint of beer is not cheap by any means. As I walk home, I walk past a ton of different shops. Clothes shops are criminally expensive here. It's probably the expat label they've stuck on every item in the mall... but expats aren't stupid. It's more expensive to buy decent clothes in Shanghai than it is in London.
It is highly annoying, because the choice is so good here. There are brands I have never heard of here, that seem to be pretty big abroad. Every big name is concentrated in the area I live, so it's really cool to walk around and pretend you're rich. At least you can keep up to date with any fashion trends (not that I really dress according to trends, I'm totally unfashionable!). But the prices are just insane. Lacoste, a standard low-end luxury/high-end highstreet brand, is a great example. The price of a Lacoste polo shirt is around 500RMB in England (£47-50 or so). In China it's usually bordering the 900RMB mark. The clothes are made in China! You'd think moving to the source would reduce your expenses, but China has such a huge obsession with wasting money that it is more expensive to shop here!
What I mean by this "wasting money" is that there seems to be no concept of 'value for money' over here. The rich people can shop in the expensive places. But the types of people that are rich in China seem to have so much money that they don't care if they're paying 100% more for their items. It's like the staff can just choose a ridiculously high price for things and it will not effect demand one bit. Demand is very low, that's obvious to anyone who's walked around these derelict malls for more than 5 minutes, but I guess the demand they do have is completely inelastic.
So you can buy a designer shirt for 5000RMB (£500) or pay 2 month's rent in an area the equivalent of Oxford Street. You can a delicious meal at a reasonable chain restaurant (something like Wagamama's or Pizza Express) or you can buy an ice-cream sundae. It's weird!
It's also kind of sad. When you're in China as a western man, things seem pretty easy. At least compared to the UK. People automatically thing you're rich, you're educated, you have good manners, you're generous and attractive. Doesn't matter how horrific you are, if you have white skin you're going to attract some attention from the local Chinese girls. While it sounds like paradise, if you get to thinking about it.. it's thoroughly depressing. If you manage to actually charm a girl, something which I find to be challenging to say the least, you're going to constantly have the idea that maybe she doesn't actually like you. Maybe she's just attracted (or feigning attraction) because of the aforementioned reasons. In England you know where you stand, but in China everyone seems to have predetermined judgements about you. It's like positive racism. Of course there is negative racism, like people acting amazed when you speak the tiniest amount of Chinese (God it's patronizing). That's not exactly having to deal with the KKK or anything.
Going deep into the Chinese psyche is something that will probably take numerous blog posts. It really is an interesting culture in Shanghai, especially how it parallels with some English cultures. But for this short summary, there is definitely a positive/negative, ying/yang, premium/discount when living here. You might be spending more, but you generally don't have to earn a penny to impress people when you're from the west.
Friday 25 September 2009
Blog about blogging
When I first arrived here, I wrote my blog pretty much every day. I was like "Oooh blogging is soooo easy, I'm gonna be able to do a daily blog if I want to!"
And here we are, with my posts averaging probably twice a month.
The problem with blogging you see is that you can come up with nice ideas for blogs or think of interesting stuff to say... but you're not at your computer (or you don't have time to write). Once you get home, the idea isn't fresh in your mind and you're tired from being out all day. Therefore a lot of 'blogs' I create, aren't actually typed out and published. If only we could control blogs with our brainwaves!
A few of my friends on Facebook enjoy reading my rants that I post once every few months (on average anyway, sometimes I'm in a ranting mood and post a few in a month.. other times I'm not pissed off for a long time!). The thing with rants is that I'm often writing as I'm thinking, I'm pretty passionate about the subject and it's actually enjoyable to write. At university this was possible, because I had unlimited free time and a lot of that was spent in front of a computer. Now I'm supposed to be working, nothing exciting is worth blogging about at work.. and when I get home I want to just chill out and watch TV.
So while I'd love to write some more blogs, I can't give a guarantee that it will happen. Being realistic here!
Wednesday 16 September 2009
Instant noodles, instant visas and instant realizations
So on Wednesday at 00:01AM, I became an illegal immigrant in China. Yes my visa had run out but thankfully I was already on a train to Hong Kong to sort out my new one. Since I cannot get the F-visa I need to do my internship in China, I have to leave the country to do it. Here's what really bugs me, and the American dude in the waiting room at the visa agent was also of a similar opinion; I cannot get an F visa in China, even if I supply all the required documentation which confirms that I am legitimate and that a company is taking responsibility for me. But I can go to Hong Kong and they do not even require me to submit an invitation letter, let alone copies of the company business license and registration information. It's ridiculous! I just have to pay someone to do it for me, even if I'm just planning to piss about in the country and do nothing for a year.
They've started restricting F-visas recently, not handing them out like candy. I've heard the reason is because too many people are coming here as tourists and just enjoy the 3 month permission to hang around China. Also, people are using them to work proper jobs.. which is technically illegal. I'm sure that if they cracked down on HK visa agents and let people who can provide all the evidence that their application is bonafide, then they would benefit from less visa abuse. It would also save hundreds, if not thousands, of legitimate F-visa applicants the 20 hour train journey from Shanghai-Hong Kong. It makes no sense... unless the tri-monthly train fare is some form of government tax.
It annoys me so much because I am on an intern's budget. I'm living on peanuts at the moment and I cannot really afford the 1000RMB return trip, the 1700RMB visa charge and then the more expensive food and accommodation that entering a developed country brings. And while I went to watch a movie today, and had a Thai curry for dinner... I will be living on instant noodles for the next 48 hours. I predict that I will spend around 3700RMB on this trip... which is an ENTIRE month's salary for me. I think I might have a word with my boss and see if I can get some of that reimbursed, because I am really going out on a limb to intern for these guys.
So as I eat my instant ramen and wait for my instant visa (I applied at like 3pm and I can collect it tomorrow... insane!), I am thinking about Hong Kong and whether I like it or not. Last year I came here with my friend while we were traveling around China. There was the worst rainfall for 140 years, the humidity was intolerable and the nightlife was bar focused. One day I will write a huge rant about the reason for this, but that will take some time. I'd heard so many great things about HK but I could definitely skip living here for any period longer than a week. One thing you realize the second you arrive here, is that this is possibly the most consumerist city on earth. There are nothing but shops here. It's great if you're rich and can go shopping, but it's hell for an intern. You instantly understand that your entire stay will be gazing dreamily through shop windows and thinking twice before making any purchases.
Coming to HK alone is also really crappy. The problem with these glitzy places with 10 Gucci stores and hotel entrances that appear to compete with each other purely by building huge water fountains, is that you realize what a nobody you are! Hah, that sounds pretty depressing but run with me for a sec. It's not that you're worthless, it's just that you cannot get into the Hong Kong culture and life without having the minimum requirement of a fat wallet. In Shanghai you can go to places like this, where you feel people disapprove of you as soon as you set foot in the door. In fact, Shanghai is often worse for this.. sometimes it does feel incredibly elitist. Hong Kong has a similar feeling. The malls aren't empty here, some people can afford this stuff... or the people who can't are sick of peering in through the glass. It's nice to see that. But still you feel you're missing out on 'The best of HK'. I can imagine coming here when I'm super rich and really enjoying the place. As there is nothing else to do but shop, HK is kinda lost on me. Hong Kong feels like a place where money does buy happiness. It could be just that I'm a bit lonely here by myself, but it does seem like fame and fortune would be a LOT of fun out here.
It gives me something to aspire to. Although it's pretty low on my list of priorities. I think anyone whose goal is to be able to buy expensive clothes in HK needs to rethink their lives a bit!
Hmmm.. my ultimate goal in life is to get one of these watches though:
Platinum Les Cabinotiers watch by Vacheron Constantin
I think an exception can be made for that.
Thursday 27 August 2009
Wanderlust and post-Shanghai
I've been here nearly 6 weeks now and I'm having a pretty good time. Should be starting work next week which will keep me occupied. There are only so many TV shows you can watch all day while waiting for dinner time. That's kinda what I'm experiencing at the moment in Shanghai. I don't have the money to go out drinking all the time. Furthermore, I'm trying to get a bit more healthy so I've reduced my alcohol intake. All there is to do in Shanghai is drink, so this leaves me with something of a predicament regarding 'fun'. Of course that is bound to change once the football season starts, since I won't have to get up on Saturday mornings without a hangover. Once the season starts my football training is effectively halved. At the moment, due to training, I can only go out on a Saturday night. This is rather limiting and I guess I'll have to get used to drinking the night before work, something which I'm sure every adult has to learn as a rite of passage from studenthood.
Shanghai is a rather shallow city. Unlike the more historical cities of China (Beijing and Xi'an the first to pop into my head) there is little culture at first glance. There aren't many museums, galleries, theatres or anything which most cities have. I'm sure there are some around but unlike London they aren't immediately apparent. And Shanghai lacks any real quality tourist attractions, unless you like tall buildings. Yesterday I watched a movie called 'Genova' with Colin Firth. It was mildly entertaining, one of those new breeds of films without any conclusion and therefore no real point to them. Urgh, I'm sure I'll branch out into movie complaints when I run out of stuff to say about China. It's about a family who move to Genoa, Italy after Colin's wife (and the kids' mother) dies in a car accident. There are some beautiful sets. Compared to the dull metropolis of Shanghai, the scenery and style of everything in that movie really appealed to me. It gave me an idea.
Wanderlust has grabbed me once again. I've always enjoyed traveling around, leaving what I call home and finding something new and exciting. That's what this trip to China is, as well as the language learning and work experience. I feel I've got to do all this globe-trotting before I settle down into a proper career and think about the future.
The proper career project is on a very specific schedule. September 2010 signifies the start of another year of the graduate recruitment cycle. During this month I will be writing probably around 20+ job applications hoping to find a graduate scheme to land me £20k+/year for the next 2 years (2013 is when it would finish). Applications can be done online, I have no need to go home to send in forms through the internet. When it comes to January, the second phase of recruitment begins; interviews and assessment centres. These require me to be in the UK. So my trip to China is from July 2009 until January 2011 for this exact reason. There is a problem with this plan however. While I will apply for lots of positions, it is likely I won't get to phase 2 for a number of them. Lets be prudent and say that I will get to phase 2 for half my applications, lets say 10. So there are 10 positions for which I'll have interviews. If I pass the interview, lets say I do so for 5, then I will have 5 positions which will require second interviews/assessment centres. I am in the UK from January 2011 and I will hopefully have my final graduate scheme job offer by May 2011.
So in 5 months I will have approximately:
- 10 first interviews
- 5 final interviews/assessment centres
That isn't a lot to keep me occupied. I am going to have to do something else during this time to avoid losing my sanity. At first glance this appeared to be a very depressing situation. Due to my need to randomly run off and have interviews, I can only really get a part-time job... or a generally low skilled job. After my 16 months of working as a management trainee in Shanghai, this will be a big 'demotion'. I might get paid more but money isn't my objective right now, lets save that objective for when I have a real job. This means that I am due for a very, VERY dull 5 months before I finish interviews... and then most graduate schemes do not start until September, so add another 3 months to that. 8 months of working in a shop, getting paid minimum wage, and living in Surrey... which is not exactly the most exciting place for a young adult in the UK. I still do not have my driving license, so that was always a plan for something to do. But there's only so much you can learn in a day.
So where am I going with this post, what alternative have I concocted? Here is my initial idea...
The L'italia Life: Version 1.0
I'd been thinking about living in mainland Europe for a while after my return from China. This idea was birthed from my frustration at the Chinese language and my anger (and subconscious envy) of all the "I speak 5 languages" Europeans I met in Sweden. When I was on my Erasmus exchange, there was a small minority of people who just loved to tell you how many languages they knew. It was annoying, mainly because I wish I knew more languages! After studying Chinese alone for the past 2 years (although I took a year off last year), I realised how bloody easy European languages are. These polyglots were so proud of the fact they spoke so many languages, and their stereotypical view of the English as anti-European bigots, which led to it being a common 'insult' to project at anyone who spoke the Queen's tongue as a native. Seriously, one guy wanted to start a fight with me in my own kitchen because he knew 7 languages. What a prick! What's worse is that I've heard many, many stories of people living in France or Spain for 6 months and becoming fluent at the language... at least at a conversational level.
Since I learnt French for 5 years at school (I got an A at GCSE, woo!) I thought that maybe I could spend the January-September 2011 period in France. Due to the wonders of the EU, I wouldn't need any stupid visas or anything. When I had one of my 15 interviews, I would fly back to the UK on a cheap flight and come back to France a week later. Could see the family, my friends and impress some potential employers. Yesterday I checked flights on EasyJet and Ryanair, and they're still cheap despite the recession. So it is a viable idea.
But I don't really like France. And while I'll know French colloquially, I do know people spend years studying it properly. A number of my friends have studied it along with their majors, so there is depth to the language which I will not pick up. I couldn't return from 8 months in France and pass a French degree! France was the option I analysed first because of my previous language training, but I thought about how little I remembered and I'm asked myself "is it really a stepping stone anymore?". I currently know more Chinese than I do French, so I'm thinking the answer to that question is "no".
As I mentioned earlier in this post, I watched that movie 'Genova'. It looked like such an awesome place to live. So much culture, so much history and an absolutely jaw-dropping aesthetic. It's the complete opposite of Shanghai. I've also just finished watching the TV series 'Rome', which was bloody incredible and completely rekindled my interest in Roman history (which I used to have as a child with the 'Horrible History' books). I'd love to experience Italian culture for an extended period. My mother is half Italian (Italian father) and therefore I've got some Italian blood running through my veins. Recently I've had an underlying desire to see Italy, not to exactly "visit my roots" but I would like to maybe check out this country where my grandfather came from. Being a little bit Italian is something I'd like to celebrate, there's such an awesome history and culture to learn about. I always feel like a fraud saying I'm 1/4 Italian though, because I've never really embraced it except on a couple of holidays as a child.
So screw French, why not learn Italian? I've read that it's a very easy language to learn, it sounds wicked and it gives me an excuse to live in Italy for 8 months. I love the EU! Until I got this wanderlust I never really appreciated the Union, but the whole idea that I can just decide "Actually, I don't want to live in France, I want to live in Italy" is incredible. Think about the opportunities. If you ever feel you're stuck in a rut, just go and live in Europe for a while... there are so many cultures and exciting places to choose from. It's like being a fat kid in an all-you-can-eat buffet of culture. I've never been that cosmopolitan regarding Europe (it doesn't help that Europeans traditionally hate English people) but after briefly thinking about this plan I can't help but wonder how much fun it would be to just choose a European country and live there for a while.
This gives me an opportunity to add another skill to my CV, another experience to learn from and to discover a bit about some of my roots. In addition to that, Italy seems like a great place to pick up some more interests. I've left University and I still only have a real interest in football and drinking... it's not exactly the palette of hobbies I want to have when I 'become a man'. I'm not saying I'm going to start going to tons of operas, museums and art galleries, but it's nice to have the option to live in a place so filled with exciting things to do that don't involve drinking copious amounts of alcohol.
I've realised how huge this blogpost has become, so I'll stop here for now. Hopefully I'll blog a bit more about potential plans for the L'italia Life 2011 in the future... I'm sure this isn't a fad but you never know! I'm thinking the next few blogs will be more China orientated, since that's what you read this for I'm sure!
Shanghai is a rather shallow city. Unlike the more historical cities of China (Beijing and Xi'an the first to pop into my head) there is little culture at first glance. There aren't many museums, galleries, theatres or anything which most cities have. I'm sure there are some around but unlike London they aren't immediately apparent. And Shanghai lacks any real quality tourist attractions, unless you like tall buildings. Yesterday I watched a movie called 'Genova' with Colin Firth. It was mildly entertaining, one of those new breeds of films without any conclusion and therefore no real point to them. Urgh, I'm sure I'll branch out into movie complaints when I run out of stuff to say about China. It's about a family who move to Genoa, Italy after Colin's wife (and the kids' mother) dies in a car accident. There are some beautiful sets. Compared to the dull metropolis of Shanghai, the scenery and style of everything in that movie really appealed to me. It gave me an idea.
Wanderlust has grabbed me once again. I've always enjoyed traveling around, leaving what I call home and finding something new and exciting. That's what this trip to China is, as well as the language learning and work experience. I feel I've got to do all this globe-trotting before I settle down into a proper career and think about the future.
The proper career project is on a very specific schedule. September 2010 signifies the start of another year of the graduate recruitment cycle. During this month I will be writing probably around 20+ job applications hoping to find a graduate scheme to land me £20k+/year for the next 2 years (2013 is when it would finish). Applications can be done online, I have no need to go home to send in forms through the internet. When it comes to January, the second phase of recruitment begins; interviews and assessment centres. These require me to be in the UK. So my trip to China is from July 2009 until January 2011 for this exact reason. There is a problem with this plan however. While I will apply for lots of positions, it is likely I won't get to phase 2 for a number of them. Lets be prudent and say that I will get to phase 2 for half my applications, lets say 10. So there are 10 positions for which I'll have interviews. If I pass the interview, lets say I do so for 5, then I will have 5 positions which will require second interviews/assessment centres. I am in the UK from January 2011 and I will hopefully have my final graduate scheme job offer by May 2011.
So in 5 months I will have approximately:
- 10 first interviews
- 5 final interviews/assessment centres
That isn't a lot to keep me occupied. I am going to have to do something else during this time to avoid losing my sanity. At first glance this appeared to be a very depressing situation. Due to my need to randomly run off and have interviews, I can only really get a part-time job... or a generally low skilled job. After my 16 months of working as a management trainee in Shanghai, this will be a big 'demotion'. I might get paid more but money isn't my objective right now, lets save that objective for when I have a real job. This means that I am due for a very, VERY dull 5 months before I finish interviews... and then most graduate schemes do not start until September, so add another 3 months to that. 8 months of working in a shop, getting paid minimum wage, and living in Surrey... which is not exactly the most exciting place for a young adult in the UK. I still do not have my driving license, so that was always a plan for something to do. But there's only so much you can learn in a day.
So where am I going with this post, what alternative have I concocted? Here is my initial idea...
The L'italia Life: Version 1.0
I'd been thinking about living in mainland Europe for a while after my return from China. This idea was birthed from my frustration at the Chinese language and my anger (and subconscious envy) of all the "I speak 5 languages" Europeans I met in Sweden. When I was on my Erasmus exchange, there was a small minority of people who just loved to tell you how many languages they knew. It was annoying, mainly because I wish I knew more languages! After studying Chinese alone for the past 2 years (although I took a year off last year), I realised how bloody easy European languages are. These polyglots were so proud of the fact they spoke so many languages, and their stereotypical view of the English as anti-European bigots, which led to it being a common 'insult' to project at anyone who spoke the Queen's tongue as a native. Seriously, one guy wanted to start a fight with me in my own kitchen because he knew 7 languages. What a prick! What's worse is that I've heard many, many stories of people living in France or Spain for 6 months and becoming fluent at the language... at least at a conversational level.
Since I learnt French for 5 years at school (I got an A at GCSE, woo!) I thought that maybe I could spend the January-September 2011 period in France. Due to the wonders of the EU, I wouldn't need any stupid visas or anything. When I had one of my 15 interviews, I would fly back to the UK on a cheap flight and come back to France a week later. Could see the family, my friends and impress some potential employers. Yesterday I checked flights on EasyJet and Ryanair, and they're still cheap despite the recession. So it is a viable idea.
But I don't really like France. And while I'll know French colloquially, I do know people spend years studying it properly. A number of my friends have studied it along with their majors, so there is depth to the language which I will not pick up. I couldn't return from 8 months in France and pass a French degree! France was the option I analysed first because of my previous language training, but I thought about how little I remembered and I'm asked myself "is it really a stepping stone anymore?". I currently know more Chinese than I do French, so I'm thinking the answer to that question is "no".
As I mentioned earlier in this post, I watched that movie 'Genova'. It looked like such an awesome place to live. So much culture, so much history and an absolutely jaw-dropping aesthetic. It's the complete opposite of Shanghai. I've also just finished watching the TV series 'Rome', which was bloody incredible and completely rekindled my interest in Roman history (which I used to have as a child with the 'Horrible History' books). I'd love to experience Italian culture for an extended period. My mother is half Italian (Italian father) and therefore I've got some Italian blood running through my veins. Recently I've had an underlying desire to see Italy, not to exactly "visit my roots" but I would like to maybe check out this country where my grandfather came from. Being a little bit Italian is something I'd like to celebrate, there's such an awesome history and culture to learn about. I always feel like a fraud saying I'm 1/4 Italian though, because I've never really embraced it except on a couple of holidays as a child.
So screw French, why not learn Italian? I've read that it's a very easy language to learn, it sounds wicked and it gives me an excuse to live in Italy for 8 months. I love the EU! Until I got this wanderlust I never really appreciated the Union, but the whole idea that I can just decide "Actually, I don't want to live in France, I want to live in Italy" is incredible. Think about the opportunities. If you ever feel you're stuck in a rut, just go and live in Europe for a while... there are so many cultures and exciting places to choose from. It's like being a fat kid in an all-you-can-eat buffet of culture. I've never been that cosmopolitan regarding Europe (it doesn't help that Europeans traditionally hate English people) but after briefly thinking about this plan I can't help but wonder how much fun it would be to just choose a European country and live there for a while.
This gives me an opportunity to add another skill to my CV, another experience to learn from and to discover a bit about some of my roots. In addition to that, Italy seems like a great place to pick up some more interests. I've left University and I still only have a real interest in football and drinking... it's not exactly the palette of hobbies I want to have when I 'become a man'. I'm not saying I'm going to start going to tons of operas, museums and art galleries, but it's nice to have the option to live in a place so filled with exciting things to do that don't involve drinking copious amounts of alcohol.
I've realised how huge this blogpost has become, so I'll stop here for now. Hopefully I'll blog a bit more about potential plans for the L'italia Life 2011 in the future... I'm sure this isn't a fad but you never know! I'm thinking the next few blogs will be more China orientated, since that's what you read this for I'm sure!
Thursday 20 August 2009
Am I experiencing 'culture shock'?
I've been in Shanghai for just over a month now, which is the longest time I have been in China or any other country (apart from Sweden, but that's a rather tame escape from the UK). At university I was taught on many occassions about 'culture shock' and how it is the number one cause of expatriate failure rates (when firms send their boys abroad for an extended period). Since I've travelled around so much over the last 3 years I've experienced a number of cultures and I like to think I'm pretty immune to culture shock. Firstly, I'm pretty anti-social.. so not only am I perfectly comfortable moving to a new place with no friends, I'm also not the type of person who needs to visit home all the time to give themselves a top-up. Secondly, since I've met an absolute ton of people from different nationalities (must thank the Erasmus scheme for that) I feel like I'm pretty quick to empathize with various people and learn what makes them tick.
Wikipedia has this to say about the phases of culture shock:
Honeymoon Phase - During this period the differences between the old and new culture are seen in a romantic light, wonderful and new. For example, in moving to a new country, an individual might love the new foods, the pace of the life, the people's habits, the buildings and so on.
Negotiation Phase - After some time (usually weeks), differences between the old and new culture become apparent and may create anxiety. One may long for food the way it is prepared in one's native country, may find the pace of life too fast or slow, may find the people's habits annoying, disgusting, and irritating etc. This phase is often marked by mood swings caused by minor issues or without apparent reason. Depression is not uncommon.
Adjustment Phase - Again, after some time (usually 6 – 12 months), one grows accustomed to the new culture and develops routines. One knows what to expect in most situations and the host country no longer feels all that new. One becomes concerned with basic living again, and things become more "normal".
Technically I'm in the 'Negotiation Phase' at the moment. I've been here for 5 weeks and the glitz and glamour has degenerated. To be honest, I've not experienced the 'Honeymoon Phase' this time because I've been to China twice before. Maybe I'm 5 weeks into this 'Negotiation Phase'. But there are key differences between how I feel and how this phase is defined.
I don't feel anxiety. Not at all. I'm not worried about anything. One thing that does hold some truth is that bit about people's habits. But is that really culture shock?
Today I was waiting to cross the road, as was a guy on the other side. Suddenly a guy on a moped drives INTO the person waiting to cross. Not at full speed of course, but like how you'd tap someone if you need to get past in a club... but imagine this time you were tapping someone with a motorized vehicle. It was appalling, absolutely no consideration or manners.
Now, because I find this disgusting behaviour does that mean I have culture shock? My disgust is not from misunderstanding their culture, it's not because it causes me anxiety. No, I am disgusted because in my personal opinion it's downright appalling behaviour and not something that ANY human being should conduct. In England, if someone pushes in front of you in a queue you will feel disgusted right? Maybe you wouldn't use such a strong word but it would cause you to be a little bit pissed off. That isn't 'culture shock'... so just because I'm in China it doesn't mean that disliking the habits of certain people is a symptom of culture shock.
Habits of the Chinese are probably going to be a large part of the content on this blog, mainly because there are a lot of differences between here and the UK. Some of it will be culture shock, some of it may be as explained about. Maybe I should name this kind of shock....
Ok, next-time on 'Asshole Shock' I can fill you in on the Shanghai Succubus
Wikipedia has this to say about the phases of culture shock:
Honeymoon Phase - During this period the differences between the old and new culture are seen in a romantic light, wonderful and new. For example, in moving to a new country, an individual might love the new foods, the pace of the life, the people's habits, the buildings and so on.
Negotiation Phase - After some time (usually weeks), differences between the old and new culture become apparent and may create anxiety. One may long for food the way it is prepared in one's native country, may find the pace of life too fast or slow, may find the people's habits annoying, disgusting, and irritating etc. This phase is often marked by mood swings caused by minor issues or without apparent reason. Depression is not uncommon.
Adjustment Phase - Again, after some time (usually 6 – 12 months), one grows accustomed to the new culture and develops routines. One knows what to expect in most situations and the host country no longer feels all that new. One becomes concerned with basic living again, and things become more "normal".
Technically I'm in the 'Negotiation Phase' at the moment. I've been here for 5 weeks and the glitz and glamour has degenerated. To be honest, I've not experienced the 'Honeymoon Phase' this time because I've been to China twice before. Maybe I'm 5 weeks into this 'Negotiation Phase'. But there are key differences between how I feel and how this phase is defined.
I don't feel anxiety. Not at all. I'm not worried about anything. One thing that does hold some truth is that bit about people's habits. But is that really culture shock?
Today I was waiting to cross the road, as was a guy on the other side. Suddenly a guy on a moped drives INTO the person waiting to cross. Not at full speed of course, but like how you'd tap someone if you need to get past in a club... but imagine this time you were tapping someone with a motorized vehicle. It was appalling, absolutely no consideration or manners.
Now, because I find this disgusting behaviour does that mean I have culture shock? My disgust is not from misunderstanding their culture, it's not because it causes me anxiety. No, I am disgusted because in my personal opinion it's downright appalling behaviour and not something that ANY human being should conduct. In England, if someone pushes in front of you in a queue you will feel disgusted right? Maybe you wouldn't use such a strong word but it would cause you to be a little bit pissed off. That isn't 'culture shock'... so just because I'm in China it doesn't mean that disliking the habits of certain people is a symptom of culture shock.
Habits of the Chinese are probably going to be a large part of the content on this blog, mainly because there are a lot of differences between here and the UK. Some of it will be culture shock, some of it may be as explained about. Maybe I should name this kind of shock....
Ok, next-time on 'Asshole Shock' I can fill you in on the Shanghai Succubus
Tuesday 11 August 2009
Apparently 2009 is also the Year of the Rat...
...at Carrefour!
Yes the popular French supermarket chain was caught today, by yours truly, as having possibly the most unpopular animal on the planet scurrying around the shopfloor. While I doubt it was plague-ridden, I don't doubt that the place would fail English standards of health and safety. Shopping today was a labourous task.
Since I decided to be healthy I developed a need to cook my own food for a change, eating out every day is not too helpful when trying to calculate calories. My previous shop was to a local Chinese supermarket which was also a challenge. Chinese supermarkets are rubbish, they're nothing like those awesome Chinese supermarkets back home. I haven't been able to find a good Chinese sauce (you know.. like out of a jar) until today, and my search has spanned at least 4 shops which should have some. The selection of sauces at Carrefour was appalling, unless you like Chili sauce or Black Bean sauce... that's all you can get. Compared to the UK where you can get at least 5 varieties of 10 different 'Chinese' sauces, in China itself you can only get Chili or Black Bean. I've got a feeling real Chinese people tend to just buy Soy sauce, fish sauce and a bunch of spices and make the sauces themselves. Bad news for me, guess I'll have to pick up a Chinese cooking book.
Another thing you notice about the Chinese is that they LOVE junk food. Half the store is pretty much dedicated to Cup Noodles, crisps and confectionary. There doesn't appear to be any of this western "people don't eat right so we choose" mentality in China. You'd never see a ruling that Pocky have to reduce the size of their boxes, or junk food advertising bans. It's amazing there are so few fat people in China, I guess this is a new thing and it will catch up... but the nutritional value of food in Chinese supermarkets is next to nothing.
Moving away from Chinese food is a deeply depressing and pointless task also. Pasta sauces cost a minimum of about £4 for a big jar (about double the UK price). That's all they have too, if you want any other foreign food you've got to eat out. They had an Old El Paso Fajita Kit but those things suck.
One thing that did impress me about Carrefour in China was the fresh meat/fish section. They have a very large butchers. I'm very dubious about the quality of meat, I think the next week shall help me make up my mind. I bought a pack of pre-diced beef and some Chicken fillets. To my dismay, Chinese chickens are scrawny bastards. My student practice of cutting the meat off extremely cheap chicken drumsticks & thighs is over. Chinese chickens seem to be completely made of breast meat, the wings and thighs are shockingly bony. Thankfully a pack of 2 large breasts cost me about £1.40 which is just shy of the UK price (which I've always argued is too much). It's ok, but makes me wish I could just eat out and get chicken, vegetables, a sauce and my carbs for £1... without any hassle of cooking.
The best thing about the fish section was the price of scallops. I'm gonna learn how to cook these babies like they do at the Teppanyaki because you can get each scallop for like 35p. Ten scallops for £3.50 has got to be a good deal compared to western standards. To be honest, I've never seen a scallop in a Sainsbury's but it's gotta be more than 35p/piece... they're meant to be a delicacy!
Until next time... if I haven't died of the Bubonic Plague.
Yes the popular French supermarket chain was caught today, by yours truly, as having possibly the most unpopular animal on the planet scurrying around the shopfloor. While I doubt it was plague-ridden, I don't doubt that the place would fail English standards of health and safety. Shopping today was a labourous task.
Since I decided to be healthy I developed a need to cook my own food for a change, eating out every day is not too helpful when trying to calculate calories. My previous shop was to a local Chinese supermarket which was also a challenge. Chinese supermarkets are rubbish, they're nothing like those awesome Chinese supermarkets back home. I haven't been able to find a good Chinese sauce (you know.. like out of a jar) until today, and my search has spanned at least 4 shops which should have some. The selection of sauces at Carrefour was appalling, unless you like Chili sauce or Black Bean sauce... that's all you can get. Compared to the UK where you can get at least 5 varieties of 10 different 'Chinese' sauces, in China itself you can only get Chili or Black Bean. I've got a feeling real Chinese people tend to just buy Soy sauce, fish sauce and a bunch of spices and make the sauces themselves. Bad news for me, guess I'll have to pick up a Chinese cooking book.
Another thing you notice about the Chinese is that they LOVE junk food. Half the store is pretty much dedicated to Cup Noodles, crisps and confectionary. There doesn't appear to be any of this western "people don't eat right so we choose" mentality in China. You'd never see a ruling that Pocky have to reduce the size of their boxes, or junk food advertising bans. It's amazing there are so few fat people in China, I guess this is a new thing and it will catch up... but the nutritional value of food in Chinese supermarkets is next to nothing.
Moving away from Chinese food is a deeply depressing and pointless task also. Pasta sauces cost a minimum of about £4 for a big jar (about double the UK price). That's all they have too, if you want any other foreign food you've got to eat out. They had an Old El Paso Fajita Kit but those things suck.
One thing that did impress me about Carrefour in China was the fresh meat/fish section. They have a very large butchers. I'm very dubious about the quality of meat, I think the next week shall help me make up my mind. I bought a pack of pre-diced beef and some Chicken fillets. To my dismay, Chinese chickens are scrawny bastards. My student practice of cutting the meat off extremely cheap chicken drumsticks & thighs is over. Chinese chickens seem to be completely made of breast meat, the wings and thighs are shockingly bony. Thankfully a pack of 2 large breasts cost me about £1.40 which is just shy of the UK price (which I've always argued is too much). It's ok, but makes me wish I could just eat out and get chicken, vegetables, a sauce and my carbs for £1... without any hassle of cooking.
The best thing about the fish section was the price of scallops. I'm gonna learn how to cook these babies like they do at the Teppanyaki because you can get each scallop for like 35p. Ten scallops for £3.50 has got to be a good deal compared to western standards. To be honest, I've never seen a scallop in a Sainsbury's but it's gotta be more than 35p/piece... they're meant to be a delicacy!
Until next time... if I haven't died of the Bubonic Plague.
Wednesday 5 August 2009
The Mission
If you've been reading this you might remember that I had a plan. Well everything has pretty much gone to that plan.. kinda.
I found an apartment. It's a 6 bedroom 6th floor apartment on Xinzha Lu. That doesn't mean much to anyone who isn't Shanghainese (or an expat) but in layman's terms it means that I live in a pretty sweet location near to the main shopping district, close to pretty much all the nightlife too. So that's good. I'm living with a French guy, 2 American girls, a German girl and a Belgian guy at the moment, although I found out that the personnel change quite a lot around here so once the Belgian guy leaves a Swiss dude is coming back from holidays. The German girl is only staying for another month or so I think, but she's on holiday at the moment. An awesome Korean lad is staying at the moment (visiting the French guy) but he leaves tomorrow. Everyone works, I don't. Therefore I feel pretty guilty for sitting around watching House all day... well I would feel bad if it wasn't such damn good television.
The job front is looking pretty unimpressive thus far. Sent out a ton of CVs the other day so I'm waiting for the inevitable rejections. However one thing I have done is train with the Shanghai Shooters, a local expat football team.
Now I'm not good at football. I'm unfit, my passing is pretty poor, my shooting is worse. I'm pretty decent at tackling and heading (I think) but my miniscule height doesn't help with the latter. But I just want to play some bloody football, I missed playing regularly in Sweden and I was looking forward to playing on grass again. Training was absolutely knackering. There wasn't a patch of my Arsenal shirt (come on you lads!) that wasn't drenched in sweat. We had to run around a track for 12 minutes (I only reached a measly 6 laps... 8 was the 'good' amount), we did a ton of these drills too.. but the 12 minute run destroyed me enough so that my lungs were on fire. I used to have Asthma as a kid, I lost it as a teenager. After watching so much medical drama on TV I've got a feeling that the symptom of Asthma stopped when the cause of exercise stopped. I don't think it's gone away, it's still there and it means my lungs feel like the size of 2 apples rattling around struggling to do their jobs.
Tomorrow I gotta go get some drugs for it.
What tonight's training session showed was that all my previous goals in life are definitely not comparatively emasculating if I fail. I can live with being unemployed, bad at Chinese, weightlifting at a level lower than I did 18 months ago and being horrendously unsuccessful in the romance department... but I am seriously depressed with my cardiovascular capacity after tonight's session. I know I'm not great at football, but if I want to break into a team I can't have my fitness making it worse. Plus when you're with 13 other dudes who, while obviously knackered, can still finish all the drills and then play 30 minutes of football... well it's not a good feeling.
SO I have a mission! This isn't a plan, this is a militaristic operation which cannot fail.
Objective 1
I have to be able to run at least 8 laps of the track in 12 minutes
Objective 2
Not only do I have to take part in every drill (there are about 10 or so). I have to be able to do them all to a good level, as in no half-arsed attempts like today.
Objective 3
I have to get better at football. OK, that's a hard one but I can play 2 times a week. I think I'm going to choose to be a right back because:
a) There isn't as much running involved
b) I get to tackle
c) I can see myself being a decent defender (I like the whole tactical side)
Deadline
Bar objective 3 (which I can't really test), I want to reach my objectives within 3 weeks. This is when the first matches start to be played. Apparently there are 30 people in the team, and that needs to be cut down to 20. Based on todays performance, I'm first for the cut. Although it's incredibly 'high school American sports movie', I don't think getting into the team is a realistic goal.. seeing as I suck at football. Just the fitness goals at the moment!
Strategy
The first is that I gotta start cooking at home. It's cheaper to eat out but you can't regulate your diet and diet is half of getting fit. Also I'm gonna stop drinking. After tomorrow night (the Korean dude's last night) that's it. Teetotal. Back like when I was sober before turning 19. The booze screws up any sort of gym regime, makes me fat and it's expensive. With the money I save I can get better food that I can cook at home. Maybe I'll still go out and have soft drinks, but everyone knows that sucks.
Reward
I'm rubbish without incentives. Usually I can go with the non-material kind but this time I've got a nice little coincidence that can work to my favour. Today I went to the Nike store to get some football socks and shin-pads. Today I saw that you can use NikeID to make custom football boots. Today I discovered that I want some custom football boots. Today I designed some boots:
Check out the
Nike Mercurial Talaria V iD Boot
I designed at NIKEiD.com
I kinda had the colour scheme I use here in mind (well the Orange, White and Sky Blue). I can stick a little Tiger image on the heel and I'm gonna stick either my surname or my initials on one side, and my team number (if I get into the team), 09 (to commemorate this year) or my birth year on the other. How do they look? I think they're pretty cool
In 3 weeks I will buy these boots if I reach my goals. If I don't, then I won't. In the end, how am I gonna use them if I'm not fit enough to play football? So it works quite well.
And so ends my blog drought. I'd like to say I will have more regular posts but I've just had writers block for 8 days so I'm not making any promises.
One thing I will promise though... see you in 3 weeks (hopefully with warmer feet).
I found an apartment. It's a 6 bedroom 6th floor apartment on Xinzha Lu. That doesn't mean much to anyone who isn't Shanghainese (or an expat) but in layman's terms it means that I live in a pretty sweet location near to the main shopping district, close to pretty much all the nightlife too. So that's good. I'm living with a French guy, 2 American girls, a German girl and a Belgian guy at the moment, although I found out that the personnel change quite a lot around here so once the Belgian guy leaves a Swiss dude is coming back from holidays. The German girl is only staying for another month or so I think, but she's on holiday at the moment. An awesome Korean lad is staying at the moment (visiting the French guy) but he leaves tomorrow. Everyone works, I don't. Therefore I feel pretty guilty for sitting around watching House all day... well I would feel bad if it wasn't such damn good television.
The job front is looking pretty unimpressive thus far. Sent out a ton of CVs the other day so I'm waiting for the inevitable rejections. However one thing I have done is train with the Shanghai Shooters, a local expat football team.
Now I'm not good at football. I'm unfit, my passing is pretty poor, my shooting is worse. I'm pretty decent at tackling and heading (I think) but my miniscule height doesn't help with the latter. But I just want to play some bloody football, I missed playing regularly in Sweden and I was looking forward to playing on grass again. Training was absolutely knackering. There wasn't a patch of my Arsenal shirt (come on you lads!) that wasn't drenched in sweat. We had to run around a track for 12 minutes (I only reached a measly 6 laps... 8 was the 'good' amount), we did a ton of these drills too.. but the 12 minute run destroyed me enough so that my lungs were on fire. I used to have Asthma as a kid, I lost it as a teenager. After watching so much medical drama on TV I've got a feeling that the symptom of Asthma stopped when the cause of exercise stopped. I don't think it's gone away, it's still there and it means my lungs feel like the size of 2 apples rattling around struggling to do their jobs.
Tomorrow I gotta go get some drugs for it.
What tonight's training session showed was that all my previous goals in life are definitely not comparatively emasculating if I fail. I can live with being unemployed, bad at Chinese, weightlifting at a level lower than I did 18 months ago and being horrendously unsuccessful in the romance department... but I am seriously depressed with my cardiovascular capacity after tonight's session. I know I'm not great at football, but if I want to break into a team I can't have my fitness making it worse. Plus when you're with 13 other dudes who, while obviously knackered, can still finish all the drills and then play 30 minutes of football... well it's not a good feeling.
SO I have a mission! This isn't a plan, this is a militaristic operation which cannot fail.
Objective 1
I have to be able to run at least 8 laps of the track in 12 minutes
Objective 2
Not only do I have to take part in every drill (there are about 10 or so). I have to be able to do them all to a good level, as in no half-arsed attempts like today.
Objective 3
I have to get better at football. OK, that's a hard one but I can play 2 times a week. I think I'm going to choose to be a right back because:
a) There isn't as much running involved
b) I get to tackle
c) I can see myself being a decent defender (I like the whole tactical side)
Deadline
Bar objective 3 (which I can't really test), I want to reach my objectives within 3 weeks. This is when the first matches start to be played. Apparently there are 30 people in the team, and that needs to be cut down to 20. Based on todays performance, I'm first for the cut. Although it's incredibly 'high school American sports movie', I don't think getting into the team is a realistic goal.. seeing as I suck at football. Just the fitness goals at the moment!
Strategy
The first is that I gotta start cooking at home. It's cheaper to eat out but you can't regulate your diet and diet is half of getting fit. Also I'm gonna stop drinking. After tomorrow night (the Korean dude's last night) that's it. Teetotal. Back like when I was sober before turning 19. The booze screws up any sort of gym regime, makes me fat and it's expensive. With the money I save I can get better food that I can cook at home. Maybe I'll still go out and have soft drinks, but everyone knows that sucks.
Reward
I'm rubbish without incentives. Usually I can go with the non-material kind but this time I've got a nice little coincidence that can work to my favour. Today I went to the Nike store to get some football socks and shin-pads. Today I saw that you can use NikeID to make custom football boots. Today I discovered that I want some custom football boots. Today I designed some boots:
Check out the
Nike Mercurial Talaria V iD Boot
I designed at NIKEiD.com
I kinda had the colour scheme I use here in mind (well the Orange, White and Sky Blue). I can stick a little Tiger image on the heel and I'm gonna stick either my surname or my initials on one side, and my team number (if I get into the team), 09 (to commemorate this year) or my birth year on the other. How do they look? I think they're pretty cool
In 3 weeks I will buy these boots if I reach my goals. If I don't, then I won't. In the end, how am I gonna use them if I'm not fit enough to play football? So it works quite well.
And so ends my blog drought. I'd like to say I will have more regular posts but I've just had writers block for 8 days so I'm not making any promises.
One thing I will promise though... see you in 3 weeks (hopefully with warmer feet).
Monday 27 July 2009
Never again
In the past 48 hours I have eaten at McDonalds, Burger King and KFC. Last night it caught up with me. The day before yesterday I had a McDonalds for lunch because I was visiting my apartment to hand over deposits and such, then I was in a strange new place and hungover. You can't blame me! I had a 'Big and Beefy' burger which was basically a Quarter Pounder with Cheese but with cucumber in it. How does it compare to back home? Surprisingly good. I've never been a fan of McDonalds burgers, they are completely rubbish. Poor quality meat, not enough meat and they're just not big enough. This burger was of ample size, the meat wasn't good quality but there was enough... plus the cucumber was pretty good! Before I left the UK I had a 'Miami Melt', a limited edition burger that was actually a pretty high standard for fast food. Big 'n' Beefy wasn't as good as that, but it was ok. Definitely worth 15RMB (about £1.40)
That evening I really fancied some dumplings, but that obviously isn't a big enough dinner. So I thought I might as well compare BK to Maccy Ds so I can report back on the blog! Did it all for you guys! One thing about BK is that it SUCKS compared to its UK counterpart. The selection is rubbish, you get no Angus burgers (the 3-pepper Angus is one of mankind's greatest creations), no Bacon Double Cheeses either. Since the Big and Beefy was the biggest burger on McD's menu, I felt I should get the biggest burger on the BK menu to make the test fair. I got the Whopper with Bacon and Cheese. Sounds pretty standard right? I guess it might be. I never have Whoppers back home, I always prefer the Bacon Double Cheese or Angus burgers. It was pretty tasty. Much better than McDonalds, but that was to be expected... because BK shits on McD back home too. I inadvertantly got 8 dumplings instead of the 6 I was going for too, my bowels were starting to get pissed.
Last night I really wanted a Thai curry. I looked up some places in Shanghai and chose one on a road called Fulu Lu. I got completely lost. It sucked, I was walking around for an hour trying to find a Thai place but the problem with Shanghai is that if you're looking for something specific you're NEVER going to find it without help. I should have asked some white people (I was around Plaza 66 aka. New York in Shangers) but I couldn't be arsed. You never know if the white people you meet are staying or visiting, so you could end up asking someone as clueless as yourself. Furthermore I thought I could find something! I'm in the bloody Orient and I can't find a Thai restaurant?! There are more in the UK :(
So I got a KFC. Since I wanted to spend a decent amount on dinner I ended up splashing out on this Mega Bucket thing for 69RMB. The good thing about KFC here is that it still comes in a bucket! When buckets were forsaken in the UK it was a sad day. I got a medley of heart clogging poultry. I got 3x Original chicken, 3x Hot wings, 4x BBQ wings, 3x Fish Finger things, a box of Popcorn Chicken and a 1.5lt bottle of Pepsi. Now BBQ wings and the Fish Finger things are alien to the UK (if I recall correctly), they're pretty good.. give a nice break from all the southern fried flavour. KFC over here has a much better selection regarding plain old eat-with-your-fingers battered animal. Last year I saw this absolutely appalling looking burger in the window. My friend Nick dared me to get it. It looked like a chicken fillet burger, which was cross sectioned... with prawns inside the chicken. Prawns in chicken?! I was intrigued, disgusted and worried that this stage of evolution would disprove natural selection... unless the prawns gave the chicken the ability to breathe underwater I highly doubt it was a 'strongest survive' move by the chicken. Fortunately it wasn't prawns in chicken, but prawns in a seafood patty thing. It was good, but I kinda wanted to sample the freak of nature that lured me inside.
After finishing all but half the Pepsi, 2 of the fish fingers and a hot wing... I went to bed. I was bloated and had killer indigestion. Woke up 3 times during the night because I felt so rubbish. It wasn't pleasant. It's a shame that my last night in Le Tour was so rough! After this experience I am banning myself from fast food. Not sure how long yet, hopefully for my entire stay in China. Once I move into my flat I'm gonna join the gym and make use of all this free time (while I search for work).
See you tomorrow, from my new home
That evening I really fancied some dumplings, but that obviously isn't a big enough dinner. So I thought I might as well compare BK to Maccy Ds so I can report back on the blog! Did it all for you guys! One thing about BK is that it SUCKS compared to its UK counterpart. The selection is rubbish, you get no Angus burgers (the 3-pepper Angus is one of mankind's greatest creations), no Bacon Double Cheeses either. Since the Big and Beefy was the biggest burger on McD's menu, I felt I should get the biggest burger on the BK menu to make the test fair. I got the Whopper with Bacon and Cheese. Sounds pretty standard right? I guess it might be. I never have Whoppers back home, I always prefer the Bacon Double Cheese or Angus burgers. It was pretty tasty. Much better than McDonalds, but that was to be expected... because BK shits on McD back home too. I inadvertantly got 8 dumplings instead of the 6 I was going for too, my bowels were starting to get pissed.
Last night I really wanted a Thai curry. I looked up some places in Shanghai and chose one on a road called Fulu Lu. I got completely lost. It sucked, I was walking around for an hour trying to find a Thai place but the problem with Shanghai is that if you're looking for something specific you're NEVER going to find it without help. I should have asked some white people (I was around Plaza 66 aka. New York in Shangers) but I couldn't be arsed. You never know if the white people you meet are staying or visiting, so you could end up asking someone as clueless as yourself. Furthermore I thought I could find something! I'm in the bloody Orient and I can't find a Thai restaurant?! There are more in the UK :(
So I got a KFC. Since I wanted to spend a decent amount on dinner I ended up splashing out on this Mega Bucket thing for 69RMB. The good thing about KFC here is that it still comes in a bucket! When buckets were forsaken in the UK it was a sad day. I got a medley of heart clogging poultry. I got 3x Original chicken, 3x Hot wings, 4x BBQ wings, 3x Fish Finger things, a box of Popcorn Chicken and a 1.5lt bottle of Pepsi. Now BBQ wings and the Fish Finger things are alien to the UK (if I recall correctly), they're pretty good.. give a nice break from all the southern fried flavour. KFC over here has a much better selection regarding plain old eat-with-your-fingers battered animal. Last year I saw this absolutely appalling looking burger in the window. My friend Nick dared me to get it. It looked like a chicken fillet burger, which was cross sectioned... with prawns inside the chicken. Prawns in chicken?! I was intrigued, disgusted and worried that this stage of evolution would disprove natural selection... unless the prawns gave the chicken the ability to breathe underwater I highly doubt it was a 'strongest survive' move by the chicken. Fortunately it wasn't prawns in chicken, but prawns in a seafood patty thing. It was good, but I kinda wanted to sample the freak of nature that lured me inside.
After finishing all but half the Pepsi, 2 of the fish fingers and a hot wing... I went to bed. I was bloated and had killer indigestion. Woke up 3 times during the night because I felt so rubbish. It wasn't pleasant. It's a shame that my last night in Le Tour was so rough! After this experience I am banning myself from fast food. Not sure how long yet, hopefully for my entire stay in China. Once I move into my flat I'm gonna join the gym and make use of all this free time (while I search for work).
See you tomorrow, from my new home
Friday 24 July 2009
All about the Maos
So I got my first good sleep since I arrived last night. I've been napping a lot, might be the heat or really long jetlag but I've felt the need to have a few hours in the middle of the day. Then I wake up at 6am the next day and the cycle repeats. Indeed, last night I went to bed at 9:30pm because I'd been running around town looking for apartments. 6 hours and I found one I kinda liked, but it only had 3 bedrooms (and therefore only 2 people). Fortunately I was waiting on a response from a 6 bedroom flat I saw the other day and I got the greenlight to move in! So that's cool, gonna be out of this hostel in 3 days. That's just a little update on the housing situation. Now onto the main subject of this blog.
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The amount stuff costs in Shanghai is really warped compared to the UK. I was speaking to an estate agent yesterday and she said that everything is quite affordable, except housing. I think it's the complete opposite. For example, in Manchester my 3 bedroom student flat in a decent location was £480 a month (around 4900RMB). In Shanghai my maximum budget (which I'm hitting) is around £240 a month (2500RMB). That is hella cheap if you've ever rented property in the UK. If I actually had a real job, I could live somewhere absolutely incredible... maybe something for the future ;)
After deciding to go out for lunch (as in, spend more than 4RMB on street food) I was in the main shopping area of Shanghai (well one of them anyway); Nanjing Xi Lu. This area has so many designer brands and podgy white people that you would think you were in New York if it wasn't for the humidity. Since I'm here on my own, and haven't got anyone to hang around with, I've just been leisurely exploring malls and seeing what there is. My primary goal is to find an arcade with a Drummania game, so I can get my percussion fix.. but alas I've come up short every time. Secondly I've been trying to work out what sort of stuff I can afford over here. In Shanghai I can get a very decent sized meal for about 50RMB (£5 now, £3.50 back then). On the other hand, if I wanted to get a Chocolate Sundae at some American chain it would cost about the same. So you can have a banquet or an ice-cream for the same price. Weird huh?
Things are a lot different now than they used to be. As a result of Gordon Brown dumping my UK-Chinese savings onto a slab and cutting a fat third off of the amount, things are expensive over here. Despite the fact that the majority of the higher end brands are made in China, it's often more expensive to buy clothes here than in the UK! Take Lacoste for example, in the UK a Lacoste polo shirt is likely to cost about £65ish? I think.. I don't actually own one but that price rings a bell when I was looking pre-departure. In Shanghai a Lacoste polo shirt costs around 900RMB (£85)... and that's a cheap one. Before the credit crunch 900RMB was only about £65, but now it's £20 more. In another shop I saw a Lacoste shirt (I think, it had the same logo) for 1100RMB reduced from 3300RMB.... reduced from 6600RMB!!! That's like £640 for a polo shirt. Even before the credit crunch that is absolutely ridiculous. If you compare that to my rent, I could get a house for 2.5 months (6250RMB) or I could get a polo shirt (6600RMB). Drinks are also way too pricey. Now £10 is only 100RMB, those bottles of beer for 50RMB are not so appealing anymore. £5 for a bottle of beer... you really do not realize how expensive things are until you convert them and think of where in England would you pay £5 for a bottle of beer.
What does the typical Chinese executive earn these days? It's absolutely ludicrous how high these things are priced. No-one can afford it! The mall (Plaza 66) is rather empty, at least all the shops inside, so it's obvious that these stores are just there to keep up appearances. Even if I earnt a decent salary, the price of even the lower range of luxury brands are unaffordable (affordability of course includes value for money, even if I could buy it I wouldn't). So I just browsed... from outside the stores. Some of it was the shame of walking into a place that expensive wearing messy Vans with shorts and a t-shirt that has seen better days. There are other problems with Chinese shops that I gotsta tell you about but that can be saved for later.
After a thoroughly depressing afternoon, realizing that my idea of coming to China and living like a pimp, I went to a more regular store; the Puma store near Nanjing Xi Lu Subway. I found a pair of trainers that I really liked, for 419RMB with 30% off. That's what I'm talking about! But they didn't have my size. Seriously, anyone who says that the 'All Asian men have small penises' theory is a myth needs to try and get a pair of shoes in Shanghai. They didn't have US11? Come on! I might go back and ask them to order in a pair, if they can.
My worries were confirmed when I left the subway heading back to the hostel. I walked off the train and saw a white guy, about 24ish, wearing a t-shirt with a huge hole over the left sleeve. Got a feeling that's going to be me by the time I leave Shanghai.
-----
The amount stuff costs in Shanghai is really warped compared to the UK. I was speaking to an estate agent yesterday and she said that everything is quite affordable, except housing. I think it's the complete opposite. For example, in Manchester my 3 bedroom student flat in a decent location was £480 a month (around 4900RMB). In Shanghai my maximum budget (which I'm hitting) is around £240 a month (2500RMB). That is hella cheap if you've ever rented property in the UK. If I actually had a real job, I could live somewhere absolutely incredible... maybe something for the future ;)
After deciding to go out for lunch (as in, spend more than 4RMB on street food) I was in the main shopping area of Shanghai (well one of them anyway); Nanjing Xi Lu. This area has so many designer brands and podgy white people that you would think you were in New York if it wasn't for the humidity. Since I'm here on my own, and haven't got anyone to hang around with, I've just been leisurely exploring malls and seeing what there is. My primary goal is to find an arcade with a Drummania game, so I can get my percussion fix.. but alas I've come up short every time. Secondly I've been trying to work out what sort of stuff I can afford over here. In Shanghai I can get a very decent sized meal for about 50RMB (£5 now, £3.50 back then). On the other hand, if I wanted to get a Chocolate Sundae at some American chain it would cost about the same. So you can have a banquet or an ice-cream for the same price. Weird huh?
Things are a lot different now than they used to be. As a result of Gordon Brown dumping my UK-Chinese savings onto a slab and cutting a fat third off of the amount, things are expensive over here. Despite the fact that the majority of the higher end brands are made in China, it's often more expensive to buy clothes here than in the UK! Take Lacoste for example, in the UK a Lacoste polo shirt is likely to cost about £65ish? I think.. I don't actually own one but that price rings a bell when I was looking pre-departure. In Shanghai a Lacoste polo shirt costs around 900RMB (£85)... and that's a cheap one. Before the credit crunch 900RMB was only about £65, but now it's £20 more. In another shop I saw a Lacoste shirt (I think, it had the same logo) for 1100RMB reduced from 3300RMB.... reduced from 6600RMB!!! That's like £640 for a polo shirt. Even before the credit crunch that is absolutely ridiculous. If you compare that to my rent, I could get a house for 2.5 months (6250RMB) or I could get a polo shirt (6600RMB). Drinks are also way too pricey. Now £10 is only 100RMB, those bottles of beer for 50RMB are not so appealing anymore. £5 for a bottle of beer... you really do not realize how expensive things are until you convert them and think of where in England would you pay £5 for a bottle of beer.
What does the typical Chinese executive earn these days? It's absolutely ludicrous how high these things are priced. No-one can afford it! The mall (Plaza 66) is rather empty, at least all the shops inside, so it's obvious that these stores are just there to keep up appearances. Even if I earnt a decent salary, the price of even the lower range of luxury brands are unaffordable (affordability of course includes value for money, even if I could buy it I wouldn't). So I just browsed... from outside the stores. Some of it was the shame of walking into a place that expensive wearing messy Vans with shorts and a t-shirt that has seen better days. There are other problems with Chinese shops that I gotsta tell you about but that can be saved for later.
After a thoroughly depressing afternoon, realizing that my idea of coming to China and living like a pimp, I went to a more regular store; the Puma store near Nanjing Xi Lu Subway. I found a pair of trainers that I really liked, for 419RMB with 30% off. That's what I'm talking about! But they didn't have my size. Seriously, anyone who says that the 'All Asian men have small penises' theory is a myth needs to try and get a pair of shoes in Shanghai. They didn't have US11? Come on! I might go back and ask them to order in a pair, if they can.
My worries were confirmed when I left the subway heading back to the hostel. I walked off the train and saw a white guy, about 24ish, wearing a t-shirt with a huge hole over the left sleeve. Got a feeling that's going to be me by the time I leave Shanghai.
Monday 20 July 2009
The Plan
It's the fifth day I've been here and I'm starting to feel like I should probably have some sort of plan. I mean, I'm currently staying in a youth hostel, eating out every night (although I'm not sure if this will change) with about £50 left in my wallet. Not exactly an ideal situation for someone who intends to make Shanghai his new home. I've also got really lazy and boring! Yesterday I had breakfast with a friend I met on Friday night in the Bund area. I checked out the stores and walked about for a few hours then I came back to the hostel and just crashed. I woke up at 5pm and just sat around on my laptop until about 12:30. I know I'm living here for a long time, but I do feel a bit embarrassed sitting around all day. It looks like I'm just the worst tourist ever.
So here's the plan:
1. Find an apartment
Definitely the first thing I've got to do. I'm a big fan of Le Tour (my hostel) but I should really get my own place, my own housemates (this is the main reason) and make this city my own. I've been emailing enquiries about rooms all morning, but it is only 8am so I'm not expecting replies for a while.
I'd like to live in the Jing'an area I think. It's a great location for entertainment and work, so I'm setting my sights on there. The great thing about Shanghai is that taxis are really cheap, so is the subway.. so no matter where I am it's not a big deal getting to work.
2. Get my money
This probably could take precedence over the apartment hunt due to a rubbish catch 22 situation. I need money to pay the apartment deposit and first month's rent. I can't get my money until I have a bank account. I don't think I can get a bank account without a residence permit.
My solution is to take out as much as I can from ATM machines. I think I get charged about £2 for every £200 I take out. I guess I'll withdraw enough for a deposit and month of rent, then I'll wire over the rest of my money when I receive it in England (people owe me a shit load). That should work.
3. Set up a bank account
Apparently it's quite easy. I need to choose a bank though. I like the sound of the China Construction Bank because it's a badass name, but I'll probably just go with the Bank of China because it's the biggest. Once I set that up, hopefully I can transfer all my savings to Shangers.
4. Find an internship
It's what I came here for. As I said in a previous post, I didn't get the uberjob I was hoping for. However I've just sent a CV in to a software development company for a position in 'Marketing & Business Development'. I've heard they need 6 trainees for 3 positions, so they're pretty good odds. My CV isn't as rubbish as it looks (I did get to the interview phase for uberjob) so hopefully I'll hear back within the next couple of days. I'll get paid about 4000RMB a month I think, which pays for rent and I'll still have spending money. It's a relief, because money worries were kinda getting to me.
5. Have the best 18 months of my life
OK I've probably jinxed it now, but I really do need to make the most of this. I think the next blog post I do, I'll come up with a list of all the ideas and opportunities I will look into while I'm here. After that, and an update on the items on this list... that's it! I'll be settled and will have to come up with something more imaginative that what is effectively my diary... online.
So here's the plan:
1. Find an apartment
Definitely the first thing I've got to do. I'm a big fan of Le Tour (my hostel) but I should really get my own place, my own housemates (this is the main reason) and make this city my own. I've been emailing enquiries about rooms all morning, but it is only 8am so I'm not expecting replies for a while.
I'd like to live in the Jing'an area I think. It's a great location for entertainment and work, so I'm setting my sights on there. The great thing about Shanghai is that taxis are really cheap, so is the subway.. so no matter where I am it's not a big deal getting to work.
2. Get my money
This probably could take precedence over the apartment hunt due to a rubbish catch 22 situation. I need money to pay the apartment deposit and first month's rent. I can't get my money until I have a bank account. I don't think I can get a bank account without a residence permit.
My solution is to take out as much as I can from ATM machines. I think I get charged about £2 for every £200 I take out. I guess I'll withdraw enough for a deposit and month of rent, then I'll wire over the rest of my money when I receive it in England (people owe me a shit load). That should work.
3. Set up a bank account
Apparently it's quite easy. I need to choose a bank though. I like the sound of the China Construction Bank because it's a badass name, but I'll probably just go with the Bank of China because it's the biggest. Once I set that up, hopefully I can transfer all my savings to Shangers.
4. Find an internship
It's what I came here for. As I said in a previous post, I didn't get the uberjob I was hoping for. However I've just sent a CV in to a software development company for a position in 'Marketing & Business Development'. I've heard they need 6 trainees for 3 positions, so they're pretty good odds. My CV isn't as rubbish as it looks (I did get to the interview phase for uberjob) so hopefully I'll hear back within the next couple of days. I'll get paid about 4000RMB a month I think, which pays for rent and I'll still have spending money. It's a relief, because money worries were kinda getting to me.
5. Have the best 18 months of my life
OK I've probably jinxed it now, but I really do need to make the most of this. I think the next blog post I do, I'll come up with a list of all the ideas and opportunities I will look into while I'm here. After that, and an update on the items on this list... that's it! I'll be settled and will have to come up with something more imaginative that what is effectively my diary... online.
Sunday 19 July 2009
New in town
While I didn't have someone to take me out last night, I still went anyway!
My first night out in Shanghai since this time last year and my third night out solo. Going out on your own is usually absolutely rubbish when you're someone like me. I'm not really that outgoing, talkative or even interested in meeting new people (sound like such a grouchy old man), so when I go out alone it usually ends up with me drinking alone at the bar for an hour, walking circuits around the facilities a few times, finding some seating and then going home early. It started a bit like that.
I went to The Shelter to the 'micro 4th Birthday', a minimal techno night featuring a few European DJs and a guy called B6. This guy I knew, well knew of. He is one half of the Shanghainese Synthpop/Electro band IGO and I'm a massive fan. Check out a tune here
Since I have done next to nothing whilst in Shanghai thus far, I thought I'd at least go and see what it was like... treating it more like a gig than a night out. I got to The Shelter at about 11:45ish and paid the 40RMB to get in (about £4). You're greeted with a very claustrophobic but totally awesome tunnel into the main club area. As you could probably guess from the name, The Shelter used to be a bomb shelter. This gives it a pretty unique look and it's underground styling and decor make it one of the most badass clubs I've ever been to. Loved everything about it. Drinks were pretty cheap too, bottles of Tiger Beer were only 15RMB so I stuck to them... it would have been pretty expensive if I went for spirits. So I spent the first hour standing around near the bar, sipping my Tiger and people watching.
It wasn't that busy. I was kinda just standing against a pillar for a while, watching this bald DJ guy play some pretty dull techno. I don't really like techno, it's too samey and there is a severe lack of imagination (well the stuff I've heard anyway). I went to the bar to get another drink and then started talking to this guy standing next to me. It turned out he ran the night! So that was cool, had a word with him and said that I came mainly to see B6. I asked him when he was playing and he pointed him out to me, this B6 guy was standing like a metre from me. He was obviously not as big of a star as I thought, he was just chilling with the crowd. I got the host to introduce me and I just went all fan-like and said how much I loved his work. I'd had a few Tigers by then so I decided I'd give him some marketing advice!
If you've listened to the song above you might pick up the sort of 80s synth vibe. Since Le Roux is doing so well in the UK charts right now, I thought I'd tell B6 that he should think about exporting his music to the west. He told me that in China the scene wasn't very big and that it was difficult to gain a lot of success in Shanghai. Maybe that's why he seemed like such an ordinary guy. He was described by someone ages ago as one of the pioneers of the alternative Shanghai music scene, so it really shows how small the scene is when he's so normal.
After that I had a few more beers and bumped into a guy I recognized from the hostel. We had a chat about shit, home, work, interests.. the usual. I was really feeling the alcohol at this time and when he went to get a drink I moved to the edge of the dance floor and waited for things to kick off. I don't remember how it happened but I got chatting with this photographer for SmartShanghai. He was wicked, he introduced me to loads of people nearby (whose names I forgot the second they told me, remember I was pretty lashed). He took some pictures and I joked around with him a bit, then B6 came on and the party got started. Had a dance which was fun, he was pretty awesome. Had a trumpeteer with him, overlaying some brass melodies. It was sweet.
I had lost complete track of time by now, the club didn't have a closing time so it kinda went on and on. I don't remember how I got home, I think I might have walked.. wasn't too far. When I got back to the hostel I saw a Chinese girl in the TV room and thought I'd say hello. I tried to talk my appalling Mandarin and she was very accommodating. I think I kept saying "Cao ni!" which means "fuck you", and trying to work out how to say things were shit. I shouted the merits of the Beijing dialect and she taught me lots of stuff (which I've already forgotten). After a couple of hours it was 7am! I told her to be my tutor but I can't remember if she accepted, I got an email address but I can't read it! So that's a bit annoying.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening which started from nothing. So glad I went. It's definitely improved my mood here, I've been very worried about having things to do and making friends but last night really helped me settle down. Haven't had so much fun for a long time!
My first night out in Shanghai since this time last year and my third night out solo. Going out on your own is usually absolutely rubbish when you're someone like me. I'm not really that outgoing, talkative or even interested in meeting new people (sound like such a grouchy old man), so when I go out alone it usually ends up with me drinking alone at the bar for an hour, walking circuits around the facilities a few times, finding some seating and then going home early. It started a bit like that.
I went to The Shelter to the 'micro 4th Birthday', a minimal techno night featuring a few European DJs and a guy called B6. This guy I knew, well knew of. He is one half of the Shanghainese Synthpop/Electro band IGO and I'm a massive fan. Check out a tune here
Since I have done next to nothing whilst in Shanghai thus far, I thought I'd at least go and see what it was like... treating it more like a gig than a night out. I got to The Shelter at about 11:45ish and paid the 40RMB to get in (about £4). You're greeted with a very claustrophobic but totally awesome tunnel into the main club area. As you could probably guess from the name, The Shelter used to be a bomb shelter. This gives it a pretty unique look and it's underground styling and decor make it one of the most badass clubs I've ever been to. Loved everything about it. Drinks were pretty cheap too, bottles of Tiger Beer were only 15RMB so I stuck to them... it would have been pretty expensive if I went for spirits. So I spent the first hour standing around near the bar, sipping my Tiger and people watching.
It wasn't that busy. I was kinda just standing against a pillar for a while, watching this bald DJ guy play some pretty dull techno. I don't really like techno, it's too samey and there is a severe lack of imagination (well the stuff I've heard anyway). I went to the bar to get another drink and then started talking to this guy standing next to me. It turned out he ran the night! So that was cool, had a word with him and said that I came mainly to see B6. I asked him when he was playing and he pointed him out to me, this B6 guy was standing like a metre from me. He was obviously not as big of a star as I thought, he was just chilling with the crowd. I got the host to introduce me and I just went all fan-like and said how much I loved his work. I'd had a few Tigers by then so I decided I'd give him some marketing advice!
If you've listened to the song above you might pick up the sort of 80s synth vibe. Since Le Roux is doing so well in the UK charts right now, I thought I'd tell B6 that he should think about exporting his music to the west. He told me that in China the scene wasn't very big and that it was difficult to gain a lot of success in Shanghai. Maybe that's why he seemed like such an ordinary guy. He was described by someone ages ago as one of the pioneers of the alternative Shanghai music scene, so it really shows how small the scene is when he's so normal.
After that I had a few more beers and bumped into a guy I recognized from the hostel. We had a chat about shit, home, work, interests.. the usual. I was really feeling the alcohol at this time and when he went to get a drink I moved to the edge of the dance floor and waited for things to kick off. I don't remember how it happened but I got chatting with this photographer for SmartShanghai. He was wicked, he introduced me to loads of people nearby (whose names I forgot the second they told me, remember I was pretty lashed). He took some pictures and I joked around with him a bit, then B6 came on and the party got started. Had a dance which was fun, he was pretty awesome. Had a trumpeteer with him, overlaying some brass melodies. It was sweet.
I had lost complete track of time by now, the club didn't have a closing time so it kinda went on and on. I don't remember how I got home, I think I might have walked.. wasn't too far. When I got back to the hostel I saw a Chinese girl in the TV room and thought I'd say hello. I tried to talk my appalling Mandarin and she was very accommodating. I think I kept saying "Cao ni!" which means "fuck you", and trying to work out how to say things were shit. I shouted the merits of the Beijing dialect and she taught me lots of stuff (which I've already forgotten). After a couple of hours it was 7am! I told her to be my tutor but I can't remember if she accepted, I got an email address but I can't read it! So that's a bit annoying.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening which started from nothing. So glad I went. It's definitely improved my mood here, I've been very worried about having things to do and making friends but last night really helped me settle down. Haven't had so much fun for a long time!
Friday 17 July 2009
Getting settled
After I landed in Shanghai and the bus arrived at Longyang Lu (Lu = Road) I jumped into a taxi and made my way to Captain Hostel, a nautically themed youth lodgings in the Bund area of town. When I learn more about the city I'm living in then I'll probably take you through a geography lesson. I use Hostelworld for my hostelling needs, it's a quality site that has tons of reviews for hostels all over the place and you can book through there instead of just showing up and praying they have space. I'd booked a good week or so in advance so all was meant to be good...
Once I lugged my suitcase out of the back of the taxi, the handle snapped. This bad boy had 2 handles, one on the top for holding vertically and one on the side for horizontal. Back in 2008 during my second trip to China, the vertical handle was busted as me and Nick (my bud from Manchester) rampaged through Beijing West Train Station attempting to catch a train that was obviously long gone. And now in 2009, the horizontal one has gone. To be honest, it probably couldn't have gone at a better time. It lasted the plane journey and I was 10 metres from the hostel door so I guess it was good that it went then and not when I was dragging it through the metro.
I got into the Captain Hostel and I'd heard from a number of reviews on Hostelworld that the staff were rude. Now I didn't really get that impression. They were terrible at English and they seemed to be the most unenthusiastic workers I'd ever met. If a lack of enthusiasm = rudeness then I must be really rude! I'm not gonna bust their balls on that. However, the overall stay was just pfft...
pfffffffffffft
That's all I can say about it, it was utter guff (ok that's something else... it was also shite). The room at first seemed alright, it was an 8 bed dormitory with comfortable mattresses and a nice little seating area in the middle. The room was full of stuff, but there wasn't anyone there. The main reason I chose the Captain Hostel over more positively reviewed hostels is that it apparently had an awesome rooftop bar. Now one thing was awesome, this view....
It's pretty baller. It's like having a bar on the riverside of Hong Kong (although HK's view is far superior to Shanghai's). I was pleasantly surprised as to how nice it actually was. I ordered a beer and a pepperoni pizza which came to 90RMB. Now that is like £9. Stupidly I ordered the beer without checking the price, and pizzas are always pretty expensive. Now my pizza was 45RMB, understandable. But how on earth a pint of Tsingtao (a shitty Chinese beer) costs 45RMB is a question only God could answer. That's like £4.50 for a pint of shit beer. And I thought Sweden was expensive...
So I ate my pizza, an atrocity that cause any Italian to probably keel over and die. It was rubbish, like a freezer pizza but not even the same sort of quality as a Ristourante. Thankfully I'm only a quarter Italian so I just died a little inside, a quarter of the amount of a real Italian I'm sure. The bar wasn't really that good to be honest. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I was expecting like a proper bustling pub/club style affair. It had the potential but it wasn't very busy. It was reputedly extremely cheap too. Pfft.
With the bar being a bit of an anti-climax I head to my room to have a little read and then go to sleep. That was when I noticed the Air Con wasn't working. What was a nice chilled room before was now pretty hot. Imagine when the 7 other people returned home. Furthermore, there was what appeared to be a closed window onto the street. It was closed...ish. That means a ton of mosquitos were flooding in and eating me alive. I must have got about 10 bites in an hour. In addition to that, the room was on the street level next to the road. You could hear EVERYTHING. Every car, every pedestrian... everything. And Chinese drivers looooove to use their horn.
I lasted an hour. As I tried to sleep, I was sweating from rage, desperation and heat. I arrived in a new country, for the rest of my life and I felt like I was sleeping on the street. It was probably worse as it was so freakin hot.
I went to reception to talk to the softly spoken dude who checked me in. He probably wasn't naturally softly spoken, he was just so unenthusiastic that he probably didn't want to waste the effort of putting some volume into his voice. I asked if they had any other beds in any other rooms. He said "no". That's it. Of course I take his lack of English into account but there was no "sorry" and no sympathy whatsoever. I can see why no-one ever showed up in the room, because they wanted to get away from it. It was exactly like when I was in Hong Kong with Nick (but that's a story for another day). So I thought fuck it, and left.
I found another hostel on Hostelworld, one with a nice 90% approval and remembered how to say the name. It was the Le Tour Traveller's Rest Hostel. If the taxi driver didn't know where it was then I'd have been screwed, also if they had no room. Thankfully the taxi driver was pretty awesome and took me right to the doorstep, just had to keep repeating the name of the street and number. Doubly good was that they had room.. and the hostel is just awesome. Here's the front:
Doesn't look like much but the air conditioning works, they have free WiFi (Captain charged 20RMB an hour!), they have a table tennis table, they have a pool table, they have 24 hour DVD and TV rooms. And the staff were friendly! I usually don't care but after flying for so long, dealing with the shit in the other hostel and getting a taxi in the middle of the night. It helped. This place was like heaven after what I'd experienced in the nautical farce 20 minutes ago. So at around 1am, an hour after I left Captain's I dropped off to sleep in a silent, air-conditioned room.
.....
That was two nights ago.
Since then I've done pretty much nothing. For the first time ever I've started to experience jetlag. The tiredness at silly hours, the general apathy to anything at all times. I was hoping when I arrived at the Captain's to get a bit tipsy that night and talk to some people in a buzzing bar environment. I can't be arsed to talk to anyone! I must look like the weirdest traveller ever right now. I've just been sitting around reading, surfing the net and watching Wire in the Blood (awesome show). Of course they don't know I'm here for a year and a half. There is no urgency for me to do anything. In fact, it's probably better I just sit around waiting for jetlag to wear off and then I'll have stuff to do when I'm lively and eager for shit to happen.
I think I'm going to set out my plan tomorrow. I didn't get the uber-job I applied for, which was very disheartening. I had a plan for when this happens, but it involves waiting for lots of stuff to happen. I hate being in this limbo. Going to work out everything that's got to get done tomorrow. For tonight, I might go out to some techno night. This DJ is playing that I slightly know, so I'll prob have a few drinks and maybe have a chat with some people.
See you tomorrow, if I get home that is.
Once I lugged my suitcase out of the back of the taxi, the handle snapped. This bad boy had 2 handles, one on the top for holding vertically and one on the side for horizontal. Back in 2008 during my second trip to China, the vertical handle was busted as me and Nick (my bud from Manchester) rampaged through Beijing West Train Station attempting to catch a train that was obviously long gone. And now in 2009, the horizontal one has gone. To be honest, it probably couldn't have gone at a better time. It lasted the plane journey and I was 10 metres from the hostel door so I guess it was good that it went then and not when I was dragging it through the metro.
I got into the Captain Hostel and I'd heard from a number of reviews on Hostelworld that the staff were rude. Now I didn't really get that impression. They were terrible at English and they seemed to be the most unenthusiastic workers I'd ever met. If a lack of enthusiasm = rudeness then I must be really rude! I'm not gonna bust their balls on that. However, the overall stay was just pfft...
pfffffffffffft
That's all I can say about it, it was utter guff (ok that's something else... it was also shite). The room at first seemed alright, it was an 8 bed dormitory with comfortable mattresses and a nice little seating area in the middle. The room was full of stuff, but there wasn't anyone there. The main reason I chose the Captain Hostel over more positively reviewed hostels is that it apparently had an awesome rooftop bar. Now one thing was awesome, this view....
It's pretty baller. It's like having a bar on the riverside of Hong Kong (although HK's view is far superior to Shanghai's). I was pleasantly surprised as to how nice it actually was. I ordered a beer and a pepperoni pizza which came to 90RMB. Now that is like £9. Stupidly I ordered the beer without checking the price, and pizzas are always pretty expensive. Now my pizza was 45RMB, understandable. But how on earth a pint of Tsingtao (a shitty Chinese beer) costs 45RMB is a question only God could answer. That's like £4.50 for a pint of shit beer. And I thought Sweden was expensive...
So I ate my pizza, an atrocity that cause any Italian to probably keel over and die. It was rubbish, like a freezer pizza but not even the same sort of quality as a Ristourante. Thankfully I'm only a quarter Italian so I just died a little inside, a quarter of the amount of a real Italian I'm sure. The bar wasn't really that good to be honest. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I was expecting like a proper bustling pub/club style affair. It had the potential but it wasn't very busy. It was reputedly extremely cheap too. Pfft.
With the bar being a bit of an anti-climax I head to my room to have a little read and then go to sleep. That was when I noticed the Air Con wasn't working. What was a nice chilled room before was now pretty hot. Imagine when the 7 other people returned home. Furthermore, there was what appeared to be a closed window onto the street. It was closed...ish. That means a ton of mosquitos were flooding in and eating me alive. I must have got about 10 bites in an hour. In addition to that, the room was on the street level next to the road. You could hear EVERYTHING. Every car, every pedestrian... everything. And Chinese drivers looooove to use their horn.
I lasted an hour. As I tried to sleep, I was sweating from rage, desperation and heat. I arrived in a new country, for the rest of my life and I felt like I was sleeping on the street. It was probably worse as it was so freakin hot.
I went to reception to talk to the softly spoken dude who checked me in. He probably wasn't naturally softly spoken, he was just so unenthusiastic that he probably didn't want to waste the effort of putting some volume into his voice. I asked if they had any other beds in any other rooms. He said "no". That's it. Of course I take his lack of English into account but there was no "sorry" and no sympathy whatsoever. I can see why no-one ever showed up in the room, because they wanted to get away from it. It was exactly like when I was in Hong Kong with Nick (but that's a story for another day). So I thought fuck it, and left.
I found another hostel on Hostelworld, one with a nice 90% approval and remembered how to say the name. It was the Le Tour Traveller's Rest Hostel. If the taxi driver didn't know where it was then I'd have been screwed, also if they had no room. Thankfully the taxi driver was pretty awesome and took me right to the doorstep, just had to keep repeating the name of the street and number. Doubly good was that they had room.. and the hostel is just awesome. Here's the front:
Doesn't look like much but the air conditioning works, they have free WiFi (Captain charged 20RMB an hour!), they have a table tennis table, they have a pool table, they have 24 hour DVD and TV rooms. And the staff were friendly! I usually don't care but after flying for so long, dealing with the shit in the other hostel and getting a taxi in the middle of the night. It helped. This place was like heaven after what I'd experienced in the nautical farce 20 minutes ago. So at around 1am, an hour after I left Captain's I dropped off to sleep in a silent, air-conditioned room.
.....
That was two nights ago.
Since then I've done pretty much nothing. For the first time ever I've started to experience jetlag. The tiredness at silly hours, the general apathy to anything at all times. I was hoping when I arrived at the Captain's to get a bit tipsy that night and talk to some people in a buzzing bar environment. I can't be arsed to talk to anyone! I must look like the weirdest traveller ever right now. I've just been sitting around reading, surfing the net and watching Wire in the Blood (awesome show). Of course they don't know I'm here for a year and a half. There is no urgency for me to do anything. In fact, it's probably better I just sit around waiting for jetlag to wear off and then I'll have stuff to do when I'm lively and eager for shit to happen.
I think I'm going to set out my plan tomorrow. I didn't get the uber-job I applied for, which was very disheartening. I had a plan for when this happens, but it involves waiting for lots of stuff to happen. I hate being in this limbo. Going to work out everything that's got to get done tomorrow. For tonight, I might go out to some techno night. This DJ is playing that I slightly know, so I'll prob have a few drinks and maybe have a chat with some people.
See you tomorrow, if I get home that is.
Thursday 16 July 2009
Entering the Dragon
I've arrived in Shanghai, got here yesterday afternoon after a reasonable but at the same time ridiculous journey. The flight was alright I guess, 10 hours after Frankfurt so I just read for a couple, ate my 'Beef Goulash' and slept for 7 hours. But some things pissed me off about Lufthansa and because I love holding a grudge I'm never going to fly with them again.
So I was over the baggage limit... yeah yeah I know we're all allocated a certain amount so the plane doesn't fall out of the sky but come on! I was 5KG over... now 5KG isn't much when you pick it up, you could probably pick up a 5KG weight with your little finger/tongue/penis/whatever body part that's meant to be too weak to pick things up. Had to pay excess baggage... I was predicting it, I mean I've got to live out here for 18 months so I knew I was gonna go over. I'd put all my Xbox stuff, Laptop, Hard drives.. anything heavy that could fit was in my hand luggage (probably weighed about 15KG itself). Thought I could take the hit, how much could it possibly be?!
£140
Yes you read that right
£140
£25.70 per kilo.
Of course I had no choice and had to pay, putting my reasonable £449 flight up to £589. For Lufthansa.
Apparently it's the biggest airline in the world, I can see why. It's kinda cheap (although with my baggage it was more than Emirates) and it doesn't do stuff too badly. The meal was shite, but all plane meals are (except this one I had with Air France once). But they counterbalanced that by giving you a Toblerone with it, and everyone knows that Toblerone is the best sweet out there. The attendants were alright, they seemed pretty pissed off most of the time but I guess they did shit if you asked.
What bugged me was that I was in a seat without a seat in front of me, so no TV in the back of the seat. I had a shared TV with a lovely woman from the Phillipines (she was going to Shanghai to live with her expat husband for 4 years). We couldn't change the channel, those with shared TVs just had to watch the plane slowly crawl across the map towards our destination. Now I slept most of the journey and didn't even feel the need to watch TV, but since I'd paid £140 extra for fucking baggage I felt I should at least get the same service as everyone else.
Oh yeah and what's that about? That everyone gets the same baggage capacity despite the fact I weigh under 11 stone and they let on a bunch of porkers. If I'd been wearing a harness I could have strapped 5 kilos to my stomach and said I was fat. That's an idea for next time.
In the end, I arrived in Shanghai on time. Went to the Airport shuttle buses so I could get into town and find a taxi and that's when it hit me... I'm really rusty at Chinese. Now I thought I was just a bit off my old heyday, thought maybe I'd just forgotten a few words. But when you're faced with a Chinese bus lady determined to get moving ASAP and you don't even pick out "Where are you going?" (which was like the first thing I learnt) then you know you're doomed. Fortunately there was a Chinese dude who spoke decent English who explained, but I still felt like a douchebag.
Got on the bus, which was pretty packed.. people sitting on double seats alone with bags on the other seat. I was the only white guy on there and remember, I had that 15KG of hand luggage on my back. I found a spot with a guy sitting in the aisle seat, a free spot near the window which was nice. So I said "excuse me" (I remembered that in Chinese) and he kinda just turned his legs into the aisle so I could squeeze past. Oh and he gave me a death glare too. I realized that I wasn't gonna be able to get by with this bag on, so I had to kinda launch my bag over him because he wouldn't accommodate a lady in obvious distress. Then I had to sort of climb over him, then pick my bag up so I could get in the seat, and then half decapitate him when I swung it round to my front (it wouldn't fit under the seat). You'd think this whole thing would have been much easier if he'd have just fucking stood up. Wanker.
So as I said to the Filipino woman on the plane when she asked "So what are the Chinese people like?";
"They're nice if you're paying them. Hospitality in hotels and restaurants is second to none, they seem like they actually enjoy helping you. But when you're not paying them, they're rude, inconsiderate and haven't heard of courtesy."
I'd was hoping I'd be wrong, and I was in some way. The bus lady was patient with me (but I'd paid her), the English speaking guy was nice. I was typing this up in a sort of rage thinking about that prick on the bus, but I guess out of the 2 people I'd met (and not paid) one was good and one was not.
Now I'm in Shanghai, without a job and alone for at least 6 weeks. I'll talk about hostel shit tomorrow or something, need to spread out my fun through the days.. at least until I make some friends.
Until tomorrow
PS: Facebook is blocked in China for now, probably related to the riots in the north west and wanker hippies making "Unite and protest the Chinese Government" groups on it. Keeping in contact is gonna be much harder than I thought. My blog is also blocked, so I've got to post to it through email... so if it looks naff then I apologize
So I was over the baggage limit... yeah yeah I know we're all allocated a certain amount so the plane doesn't fall out of the sky but come on! I was 5KG over... now 5KG isn't much when you pick it up, you could probably pick up a 5KG weight with your little finger/tongue/penis/whatever body part that's meant to be too weak to pick things up. Had to pay excess baggage... I was predicting it, I mean I've got to live out here for 18 months so I knew I was gonna go over. I'd put all my Xbox stuff, Laptop, Hard drives.. anything heavy that could fit was in my hand luggage (probably weighed about 15KG itself). Thought I could take the hit, how much could it possibly be?!
£140
Yes you read that right
£140
£25.70 per kilo.
Of course I had no choice and had to pay, putting my reasonable £449 flight up to £589. For Lufthansa.
Apparently it's the biggest airline in the world, I can see why. It's kinda cheap (although with my baggage it was more than Emirates) and it doesn't do stuff too badly. The meal was shite, but all plane meals are (except this one I had with Air France once). But they counterbalanced that by giving you a Toblerone with it, and everyone knows that Toblerone is the best sweet out there. The attendants were alright, they seemed pretty pissed off most of the time but I guess they did shit if you asked.
What bugged me was that I was in a seat without a seat in front of me, so no TV in the back of the seat. I had a shared TV with a lovely woman from the Phillipines (she was going to Shanghai to live with her expat husband for 4 years). We couldn't change the channel, those with shared TVs just had to watch the plane slowly crawl across the map towards our destination. Now I slept most of the journey and didn't even feel the need to watch TV, but since I'd paid £140 extra for fucking baggage I felt I should at least get the same service as everyone else.
Oh yeah and what's that about? That everyone gets the same baggage capacity despite the fact I weigh under 11 stone and they let on a bunch of porkers. If I'd been wearing a harness I could have strapped 5 kilos to my stomach and said I was fat. That's an idea for next time.
In the end, I arrived in Shanghai on time. Went to the Airport shuttle buses so I could get into town and find a taxi and that's when it hit me... I'm really rusty at Chinese. Now I thought I was just a bit off my old heyday, thought maybe I'd just forgotten a few words. But when you're faced with a Chinese bus lady determined to get moving ASAP and you don't even pick out "Where are you going?" (which was like the first thing I learnt) then you know you're doomed. Fortunately there was a Chinese dude who spoke decent English who explained, but I still felt like a douchebag.
Got on the bus, which was pretty packed.. people sitting on double seats alone with bags on the other seat. I was the only white guy on there and remember, I had that 15KG of hand luggage on my back. I found a spot with a guy sitting in the aisle seat, a free spot near the window which was nice. So I said "excuse me" (I remembered that in Chinese) and he kinda just turned his legs into the aisle so I could squeeze past. Oh and he gave me a death glare too. I realized that I wasn't gonna be able to get by with this bag on, so I had to kinda launch my bag over him because he wouldn't accommodate a lady in obvious distress. Then I had to sort of climb over him, then pick my bag up so I could get in the seat, and then half decapitate him when I swung it round to my front (it wouldn't fit under the seat). You'd think this whole thing would have been much easier if he'd have just fucking stood up. Wanker.
So as I said to the Filipino woman on the plane when she asked "So what are the Chinese people like?";
"They're nice if you're paying them. Hospitality in hotels and restaurants is second to none, they seem like they actually enjoy helping you. But when you're not paying them, they're rude, inconsiderate and haven't heard of courtesy."
I'd was hoping I'd be wrong, and I was in some way. The bus lady was patient with me (but I'd paid her), the English speaking guy was nice. I was typing this up in a sort of rage thinking about that prick on the bus, but I guess out of the 2 people I'd met (and not paid) one was good and one was not.
Now I'm in Shanghai, without a job and alone for at least 6 weeks. I'll talk about hostel shit tomorrow or something, need to spread out my fun through the days.. at least until I make some friends.
Until tomorrow
PS: Facebook is blocked in China for now, probably related to the riots in the north west and wanker hippies making "Unite and protest the Chinese Government" groups on it. Keeping in contact is gonna be much harder than I thought. My blog is also blocked, so I've got to post to it through email... so if it looks naff then I apologize
Tuesday 14 July 2009
See you on the other side
Just a quick one today because I've got lots of shit to get did.
1. Collect my visa... the day I fly
2. Get a haircut - They usually screw it up when you speak their language so I'm just minimizing risk
3. Watch Bruno
4. Get supplies
5. Get money
So once I've done all that I'm heading to Heathrow and flying out. I think Blogger might be banned in China so I won't be able to read my own blog, but I can post to it through this email-post thing so it's all good really.
Speak to you from Shanghai!
1. Collect my visa... the day I fly
2. Get a haircut - They usually screw it up when you speak their language so I'm just minimizing risk
3. Watch Bruno
4. Get supplies
5. Get money
So once I've done all that I'm heading to Heathrow and flying out. I think Blogger might be banned in China so I won't be able to read my own blog, but I can post to it through this email-post thing so it's all good really.
Speak to you from Shanghai!
Monday 13 July 2009
Today you will feel great sadness...
Well I thought it would be super awesome to start this post with what some astrologist predicted and have it relevant to what I feel tonight... but astrology is bullshit and it didn't work. So while I do feel a bit down, the title of this post isn't related to what some crackpot sensed when they looked at the sky last night.
But it is relevant! The title of my blog is TigerFishGoat and I thought I should explain it for anyone who doesn't get what I'm going with...
I was born on the 8th January 1987, which makes me born in the Chinese Year of the Tiger. My astrological star sign is Capricorn (a fishy goat). So that explains the Tiger,the Fish and the Goat. Why it's the name of a blog about my exploits in the East? Well I combined the Chinese (Tiger) with the Western (FishGoat) to create a half Tiger, half Fish, half Goat (or should I say half Tiger, half FishGoat?).
In summary it attempts to explain my ultimate goal for these 18 months; to be a whiteboy who can speak Chinese and understand how shit gets done over there. A TigerFishGoat...
.
.
.
...Or I just thought making a blog called "Sam's Shanghai Blog" would be hella dull.
But it is relevant! The title of my blog is TigerFishGoat and I thought I should explain it for anyone who doesn't get what I'm going with...
I was born on the 8th January 1987, which makes me born in the Chinese Year of the Tiger. My astrological star sign is Capricorn (a fishy goat). So that explains the Tiger,the Fish and the Goat. Why it's the name of a blog about my exploits in the East? Well I combined the Chinese (Tiger) with the Western (FishGoat) to create a half Tiger, half Fish, half Goat (or should I say half Tiger, half FishGoat?).
In summary it attempts to explain my ultimate goal for these 18 months; to be a whiteboy who can speak Chinese and understand how shit gets done over there. A TigerFishGoat...
.
.
.
...Or I just thought making a blog called "Sam's Shanghai Blog" would be hella dull.
......
So I was talking to a matey of mine who shared their opinion that my first post was utterly pointless. Of course she is completely wrong but the conversation did highlight another thing I've gotsta talk about before I leave.
I'm gonna miss a lot of people.
Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm not exactly a bubbly, outgoing, bundle of joy who makes a ton of friends all over the place. But I have kinda realized that I do care about a lot of dudes (and dudettes) and I'm not sure if I'll be able to stay all cold hearted and anti-social this time. It's pretty depressing knowing that it's unlikely that I'm going to see anyone I've met in the past 22 years over the next year and a half. And of course, when you don't see someone for that long a time it's pretty difficult to keep relations intact. Out of sight, out of mind...
But I'm gonna try. Through this blog (if anyone reads it), Facebook, email and Skype I will attempt to stay in contact with the outside world. I'm not sure how regularly I'll be posting, depends on whether I have a job or not. I'm not sure what sort of things I'll talk about, although I'd like to have some sort of features so that this blog is more than just a page of rants. However, I am sure that anyone who is in the area, the region or the continent can and should visit or get in touch. If anyone wants somewhere to stay in Shanghai within the next 18 months then my place is open to y'all.
And on that note I will now sleep in the bed I have commandeered from my grandparents before I fly out.
I'm gonna miss a lot of people.
Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm not exactly a bubbly, outgoing, bundle of joy who makes a ton of friends all over the place. But I have kinda realized that I do care about a lot of dudes (and dudettes) and I'm not sure if I'll be able to stay all cold hearted and anti-social this time. It's pretty depressing knowing that it's unlikely that I'm going to see anyone I've met in the past 22 years over the next year and a half. And of course, when you don't see someone for that long a time it's pretty difficult to keep relations intact. Out of sight, out of mind...
But I'm gonna try. Through this blog (if anyone reads it), Facebook, email and Skype I will attempt to stay in contact with the outside world. I'm not sure how regularly I'll be posting, depends on whether I have a job or not. I'm not sure what sort of things I'll talk about, although I'd like to have some sort of features so that this blog is more than just a page of rants. However, I am sure that anyone who is in the area, the region or the continent can and should visit or get in touch. If anyone wants somewhere to stay in Shanghai within the next 18 months then my place is open to y'all.
And on that note I will now sleep in the bed I have commandeered from my grandparents before I fly out.
Saturday 11 July 2009
Huan ying guang lin!
Welcome!
That's what the title means in English. Above is the Mandarin Chinese way to welcome you to my blog, although the proper characters are 欢迎光临. As you can probably guess, I just typed the pinyin (a sort of romanized phonetic alphabet for Westerners) into Google and quickly found someone who could write/type proper Chinese. Then it was just a case of CTRL+C and CTRL+V.
I thought for my first post I should explain who I am and what I hope to do with this blog over the next couple of years. The first thing you'll realize is that my Chinese sucks. I'm in Shanghai for the next 18 months and while I can speak enough to get by (e.g. Being able to fulfil my basic human rights) I can't read or write. My vocabulary is rather limited also. So this is most probably not going to be an educational blog in regards to learning the Chinese language. However I might talk about it every now and again as it's the secondary reason I'm in China.
The primary reason is that I need work experience! I just graduated in International Management and didn't really fancy entering the real job market back home due to the current recession. I've never really done anything exciting in my spare time. I never did summer placements or internships, never did Camp America or anything like that. Therefore I have no real experience and nothing I can really offer employers other than enthusiasm and a willingness to learn. So my plan for when I get to Shanghai is to find an internship, learn lots of new things and then hopefully regurgitate my experiences to a graduate employer 18 months from now!
Why China? Well I was initially thinking of calling this blog 'Shanghaied'. The obvious link to Shanghai put aside, it's apparently some old school navel term for when sailors are forced (through drugs or physical influences) to join someone's ship against their will. These people have been commandeered by a ship's crewman and then spend months sailing across the seven seas! Lovely!
How this links to me? Well, while I'm not really forced to get on a ship (well a plane) and spend a year and a half in a faraway land, the current situation for UK graduates in the job market is rather dire. Every year there are more and more graduates and less and less jobs. Due to aformentioned laziness, I can't distinguish myself from other grads and due to the aformentioned recession there is a very high probability that I'd be unemployed for a year. Or stuck in a dead end job. So not only have I decided to do an internship (aka. Get paid slave wages so someone decent will employ you), but I have decided to do it in China. Why?
1. I want to learn Chinese
2. It's cheap, so I can get paid £500/month and actually survive
3. It's a fuckin awesome country
4. Look at that....
Badass.
I've been before, twice, and I absolutely love the place. The food, the entertainment, the culture, the standard of living, the cheap booze... it's all good in Zhong guo (China). Plus doing an internship in a country as weird and distant as China sure as hell looks better than doing one in England.
This post has gone on long enough. Next post I'll probably explain the actual name of my blog and then say farewell to England!
So.. until Monday, have a good one.
That's what the title means in English. Above is the Mandarin Chinese way to welcome you to my blog, although the proper characters are 欢迎光临. As you can probably guess, I just typed the pinyin (a sort of romanized phonetic alphabet for Westerners) into Google and quickly found someone who could write/type proper Chinese. Then it was just a case of CTRL+C and CTRL+V.
I thought for my first post I should explain who I am and what I hope to do with this blog over the next couple of years. The first thing you'll realize is that my Chinese sucks. I'm in Shanghai for the next 18 months and while I can speak enough to get by (e.g. Being able to fulfil my basic human rights) I can't read or write. My vocabulary is rather limited also. So this is most probably not going to be an educational blog in regards to learning the Chinese language. However I might talk about it every now and again as it's the secondary reason I'm in China.
The primary reason is that I need work experience! I just graduated in International Management and didn't really fancy entering the real job market back home due to the current recession. I've never really done anything exciting in my spare time. I never did summer placements or internships, never did Camp America or anything like that. Therefore I have no real experience and nothing I can really offer employers other than enthusiasm and a willingness to learn. So my plan for when I get to Shanghai is to find an internship, learn lots of new things and then hopefully regurgitate my experiences to a graduate employer 18 months from now!
Why China? Well I was initially thinking of calling this blog 'Shanghaied'. The obvious link to Shanghai put aside, it's apparently some old school navel term for when sailors are forced (through drugs or physical influences) to join someone's ship against their will. These people have been commandeered by a ship's crewman and then spend months sailing across the seven seas! Lovely!
How this links to me? Well, while I'm not really forced to get on a ship (well a plane) and spend a year and a half in a faraway land, the current situation for UK graduates in the job market is rather dire. Every year there are more and more graduates and less and less jobs. Due to aformentioned laziness, I can't distinguish myself from other grads and due to the aformentioned recession there is a very high probability that I'd be unemployed for a year. Or stuck in a dead end job. So not only have I decided to do an internship (aka. Get paid slave wages so someone decent will employ you), but I have decided to do it in China. Why?
1. I want to learn Chinese
2. It's cheap, so I can get paid £500/month and actually survive
3. It's a fuckin awesome country
4. Look at that....
Badass.
I've been before, twice, and I absolutely love the place. The food, the entertainment, the culture, the standard of living, the cheap booze... it's all good in Zhong guo (China). Plus doing an internship in a country as weird and distant as China sure as hell looks better than doing one in England.
This post has gone on long enough. Next post I'll probably explain the actual name of my blog and then say farewell to England!
So.. until Monday, have a good one.
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