Coming Home

I opened the door to my house at 2:00am after 18 hours of air time, 4 different cities, and a little over a full day of travel. I was pretty tired and smelled even worse. It was an interesting trip: in San Francisco I found out that the airline of the flight which I booked my ticket to Jacksonville no longer served Jacksonville…so that was interesting. To make a long story short, because they had me on all kinds of different flights, my bags didn’t make it to Jacksonville until I once again arrived at the Jax airport the same day to board a flight to Nashville (had to get to school). But all is well, and I’m home…or rather at school.

Just before we left I got a picture with Yinglian (Helen), Daniel, and Xiao Yan. Xiao Yan, who was the stay-in-home-maid, would always get up to let me in at night, even when I came home past midnight, and then she’d be awake again at 6am or earlier, chopping away at something in the kitchen. She would get me all taken care of with food, and even did some ironing and laundry one time when I was busy. She was so nice, and I did make sure to thank her often, but it probably wasn’t enough. Daniel, Yinglian’s son, had just gotten home the day before from a summer session at Exeter in Boston, so it was cool to get to hang out with him a bit.

During these last few days, for example during the lunch they treated me to with all of the family, including the super-busy Mr. Wang, I’ve realized how lucky I am to know this many people in China already, and pretty nice ones at that. From Kunming, to Mile, Nanjing, Shanghai and Beijing, I have friends in every city which would be willing to hang out with me or take me into their homes.

When I got back home, my mom asked me what the best part of the trip was. If I had to pinpoint one event, it would have to be the cultural camp in Mile. While some of the planning and communication wasn’t perfect, in the end it didn’t really matter. I got to meet a lot of really cool kids and experience teaching on steroids: I don’t think many teachers arrive at the school with no teaching experience and are told that they have to teach to a group of students the next day with no teaching materials and no guidelines on how to teach. Oh, and by the way, they don’t speak your language and the class includes a wide range of English speaking abilities. That was the challenging part—I made it interesting, and I think the kids had fun…even Oscar with his busted eye. But probably even better than the teaching was getting to know all the volunteers and hanging with them. In China, as a foreigner, you can be pretty stupid (see that night in Mile). Most Americans won’t hear about it and most Chinese will just write it off as “well, they’re foreigners”. I think I made some good friends at the camp, and I sincerely intend on annoying Jes by dropping by on her in Orlando unsuspectingly.

This time in Beijing, on top of my previous two, raises some real questions as I head to Vandy. I gotta figure out what I’m going to do my life. Will I start out in China or in the US? Will it be in consulting, banking, or non-profit? I hope that by doing some more research and applying for jobs, I’ll figure this out, but if anyone knows the answer, please tell me.

Until my next China exodus, Rob.

The Chinglish Post

At the end of each trip I have made it a habit to post the best Chinglish I've found during my adventures. I don't feel like this year's is as good as last, but there's still some good finds. I kicked myself on several occasions because I didn't have a camera, but that's how it goes. Anyway, here they are:

These silver signs were found in an elevator, and yes, that says "The mulberry takes the workout center".

This sign was found in an outdoor sporting goods store. We could never figure out what it was trying to say.

This is by far the best one. Spicy crap soup with rice. Man. This menu was full of other ones too. I contemplating asking the server if we could buy the menu.

This landslide warning was found over the toilet in the hotel I was staying at in the countryside. Nice.

Apply jealous drink.

I think this was a knock off of Breyers, but the ice cream looked pretty good.

Day 2, From the Bird's Nest

After finishing my last day at McD and getting off early, I hit up a swim and then skipped dinner at the house to make sure I got to the National Stadium with plenty of time. Arriving at the stadium and knowing I was about to enter gave me this really crazy feeling—I guess I just felt extremely lucky to not only be going to the Olympics, but simply to just be an American college student over in China.

This time security moved much quicker and seemed better organized...or maybe it was just because I got there earlier—5:30 for a 7:00 event. Once getting inside the view of the stadium with the sun going down behind it was awesome. Since I hadn't eaten, I looked for an outpost. For pumping so much money into the stadium and the Olympics, you'd think they'd have some good food, but no. All they had was some crappy rice and what was supposed to be pork and veggies (it was hard to tell). After waiting in line for a while, I got to talking with a guy from England. He must have been smart—he'll be a freshman at Oxford next semester. After getting our crappy food, I got to meet his dad, and then started inquiring about preparations for the London Olympics four years from now. He said it's going fine, but don't expect anything on this scale. Apparently the Chinese have just poured in so much money (I think he said $20 billion) and of course they have so much more manpower.

Anyway, I got to my seat, which of course wasn't the best, but who cares, I was in the Bird's Nest. The view was still fine. The stadium was amazing. The huge TV displays were so clear and crisp, even from my seat. Things were really mechanized. Instead of rakes for the jumping pits, they used these mechanical things that smoothed it out (see pic). And for the discus, instead of having people run out and gather the discs, which would certainly slow things down and could also be dangerous, they had remote control cars that went out and collected the discs, bringing them back to the throwing area.

One of the first events was the first round of the 1500m, an event I was really looking forward to. It was pretty awesome. All US runners advanced, including Bernard Legat, the world champion, and I believe the American record holder. I also got to see Tyson Gay, our 100m hope to take on the two Jamaican favorites: Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell. Gay also advanced. I'll be watching these final races for sure. I was happy I got to see a medal ceremony. In the men's shot put, a US guy took second place to a Polish guy, so unfortunately instead of hearing our National Anthem, we had to hear Poland's. But the race of the night was definitely the last one: the women's 10,000 meter final. The people to my left who I'd befriended over our time together that night decided to leave—guess they weren't into distance races. Anyway, a US runner Flannagan was in 8^th place for the first half of the race behind a huge group of Africans. Slowly she move her way up, picking off one runner at a time. In the last few laps I was getting kind of nervous, but she ended pulling through and getting a bronze in a one of the fastest 10K's ever run.

That would have been a great way to end the night, except it wasn't over. I had to find a cab. Buses weren't running anymore and the subway was not convenient. I ended up waiting close to an hour to get a cab. I walked so far toward my house that the cab ride was actually almost not worth it. Well, it was still a good night. I give Beijing an A+ for facilities, volunteers, and organization, but a D- for transportation and concessions (there were more problems that weren't mentioned).

By the way, I freaking overslept this morning...my alarm went off at 6am (my ticket was for 9am), but I didn't wake up before it was too late.

Going Olympic

Last night was the first Olympic action of a three-day stint for me. Last night I got to see Japan take on Chinese Taipei. Japan is one of the favored teams in this thing, so I was pretty pumped. Not only was I excited about watching the game, but also being at an Olympic event. Because my leg’s been hurting lately, I hit up a swim after McD, and then really cut it close getting there. I would have made it in on time had the security check not been 200 people long (just for my queue…see the picture).

Once I was finished being fondled by the wanders and got through security, I got to see the whole complex. This was Wukesong, not the Bird’s Nest, so it was in a whole different part of town. But the facilities were still top notch. The place was crawling with volunteers, staff, and security. I finally found my seat, which was really good—right off the third base line—and only ended up missing the first half inning, in which nothing had happened anyway.

The game was good—slow as usual…it’s baseball—and it didn’t really pick up until about halfway through, when they knocked in a couple runs. But the fans kept it interesting. The Japanese were pretty nuts. They had their contingent all throughout the stands, but most concentrated on the 1^st base line (see pic). They had their flags going and were using these whistles relentlessly along with cheers. Nine innings and they never let up. Of course, the Chinese were saying the only cheer they know, “Jiayou Zhongguo!”…which means, “Let’s go China!” or more literally, “Add oil China!”. At every match I’ve ever seen (on TV), this is the only chant they’ve known. It has to stem from the stunting of creativity/individual thinking…that’s my only guess.

And on the topic of fans, it was pretty crazy the types of people sitting around me. I struck up a conversation with two guys to my right, who were from Dallas—one had actually graduated from UF. He was trying to get me to sell him my Track & Field ticket for Saturday—definitely no go on that one. To my left was a couple—the lady was Japanese and the guy was Canadian. And then directly in front of me was a group of four from Holland and the Netherlands, who was actually living in Beijing for work. They were an interesting bunch. One of the guys kept trying to get The Wave going, but I don’t know if that phenomenon has made it to the Orient yet. And then there were a few people I didn’t get a chance to talk to, like the Japanese group sitting at 9 o’clock, the Chinese guy sitting behind me, or the two Australians sitting in front of the Holland/Netherlands group. The Aussies were really decked out, with one guy wearing his flag as a cape. They made a couple trips for beer.

I got back really late, so because the door gets locked at 10pm, and since I didn’t want to wake anyone up, I tried sneaking through the side door, which I’d done before. Well, because it was locked I didn’t have much success getting in, but I was able to wake up the entire neighborhood when the enormous dog next door determined that I didn’t look or smell like a Chinese person and proceeded to have a bark-fest. He told all his friends too—soon the entire neighborhood was howling. In the end, I didn’t even have to call the stay-in-home nanny, because she woke up from all the commotion. How embarrassing. Tonight, however, is a new night, filled with track & field and without big dogs barking.

A Steady Diet of Mickey D's

Lately I've been volunteering/interning at the McDonald's office in downtown Beijing, and you'll be happy to know that they've been filling me with Spicy McChickens every chance they get. We actually probably eat at Mike D's every other day...pretty intense. I've been rotating between different departments, from HR to Operations to Marketing. So when I'm not eating their Corn Cup (you can swap the Corn Cup for French Fries...Chinese people really like corn), I've been learning quite a bit and getting to do some pretty cool stuff. When I got to help cheer at the torch relay, that was with McDonald's. It was amazing: over 200 employees who were selected as the city's best showed up on their days off to meet at McDonald's at 8am in the morning. And they were all nuts about McDonald's.

At one restaurant I got to meet the Chinese Ronald McDonald, who was making his rounds. He did some pretty cheesy magic tricks, but his English was really good. He looked nothing like the real, more authentic American Ronald McDonald...a lot shorter and a lot more Chinese. I should be getting these pictures soon.

I've also been taken to too many McD's to remember and talked to a countless number of managers. At a couple restaurants they gave me the grand tour and even let me make burgers. I failed miserably. Here I am, 21 years old about to graduate from a top 20 university, and I can't even flip a freaking burger. You can just see them laughing at me. The lengths the restaurant goes through for standardization is amazing. For example, when putting the burgers down on the grill, there is a certain way to place them so that when you take the burger flipper, the first patty down is the first patty up, ensuring the same cooking time. I felt I kind of bad for the customers who were getting my sandwiches, but the workers just laughed about it--they were pretty cool.

Everyone has been so nice--not just the employees at the office, but also the managers and workers at the restaurants. I've had gifts thrown at me like Christmas is coming early--from Olympic pens to restaurant group photos. There's something different about these McDonald's. Whenever you walk in, you feel good. It's kind of exciting. There's pumping Chinese pop music, the facilities are mostly new and always clean, and all the service counter workers are young, happy, thin Chinese girls. When I was talking to one of the managers we got on the topic of age, and I found out her age...it came about through asking how long she'd worked at McDonald's, so lay off. I thought she was about 22-25, but turns out she was 35. She explained that working at McD's "Makes you grow up to look young", because everyone is so happy to work there.

You can see in the pictures, all the girls have the stickers on their cheeks that say "I'm loving it when China wins!"...a promotional for the Olympics. But it's not just girls wearing these things--guys too. Trying pulling that in the States. You'd have employees walking out. I was taken up to the break room for employees, and found them relaxing over some chicken nuggets. Then I saw a framed song on the wall. After asking about it and reading it, I found out that one of the employees, who in fact was right there, had written the song about how working at McDonald's is awesome and how it brings people together. I was pretty blown away. Not only did he write it, but he recorded it with his friends, and the rock video was playing in the break room as we talked.

A lot of employees have asked why I'm here and want to know if I work at McD's in the States. I embarassingly reply that no, because I'm paying for a large part of college I went for a job that pays a little more. You don't want to say that working at McD's is a bad job, because it's not, but it is certainly not what you want to do between college semesters to vault yourself to a good post-graduate job. In China, though, working at McDonald's during college breaks is pretty normal, and being employed there is pretty respectable. A lot of people just keep on working there and move their way up, and now I know why--it's a really good culture.

Well, better go and rest up for Japan vs. Chinese Tapei in baseball tomorrow. I'm pumped.

Crazy Chinese Names and Things I Find Odd About 中国

Not saying that in the States we don't do our own stupid things that might go against common sense, or just weird little things that everyone does, but I figured I'd enlighten you about what I've seen in China (some of which give proof that China is still certainly a developing country):

Chinese ladies love to tell you what's good for your health, and why not, aren't Americans always trying to learn the secrets of the long-living Chinese? Well, I'm not buying in. For example, after a run I was digging into some lychees (a type of fruit, if you didn't know). Mrs. Yang basically threw up her arms in alarm, saying that I shouldn't eat on an empty stomach because it'll give me migraines. She also went bizerk on Jes too. We both have decided that this is not true. Or then there's just the whole thing with them telling me which foods to eat, and then they bust out a dish of straight "fei rou"...which is just the fat off of a pig. Chinese love to eat this stuff.

My favorite has to be when you drop food on the table and then reach to pick it up to eat it (who wants to wast food?). Well, that's not going to go over with a Chinese person too well. It's much too unsanitary. Then the next minute you'll see them offering you fruit that has just been washed (and grown in) in polluted water--you can just see the beads of water glistening on the peach. (I personally don't care about either one, I'm not too picky...then again, I've gotten sick twice this trip)

The bathrooms. The Chinese have not yet conquered the bathrooms. First off, they're still loving the squatters, which most be the most uncomfortable method of relieving yourself. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, they are rarely clean, especially the ones you find in internet bars and other areas that aren't frequented by foreigners. You know you're in China when you can smell that eerie bathroom smell from 50 feet away...it's the same in every bathroom...they all have this smell. I don't know if it has to do with not flushing the toilet paper down or what, but man. It seems to me that there's a misallocation of labor. Out on the streets there are so many people mindlessly sweeping streets that are already clean...sweeping up a few leaves here and there that have fallen in the last 20 minutes. Sometimes I just feel like no one wants to clean the bathrooms (you wouldn't either if you saw these things).

And on the topic of bathrooms, can we stop having the kids do their business in the streets? I've seen it 3 times this summer. To save money by not buying diapers, parents are cutting slits in the pants of their little ones, so all they have to do is take a squat when the need strikes them. This is not helping the problem.

Little chairs and tables. Many outdoor restaurants and a lot of homes love the doll-sized dinner tables. It still takes up about the same area, but it just lowers everything by about three feet. We're talking about chairs that are 6-8 inches high, and tables that are about a foot high. It's cool if you're 3 feet tall, but for a pretty tall guy like me it's a bit uncomfortable. I'll be going for a dumpling but I can't see over my knees--not good.

And then there are the interesting English names they give themselves...

--Innerson...a kid saw a poster of basketball star Allen Iverson, but it had a misspelling (like many fake Chinese goods), hence his name
--Saturday...she was a student in my class...must be her favorite day
--Purple Law...is this some form of government enforcement?
--Sunny...met two of these in one week. Wow.
--Cookiya...this is actually a friend of mine...never really figured it out
--Firey Princess...no comment
--Kitty...I'm surprised this is the closest name to that of a stripper...I feel like I've heard better
--Cinderella...at least it's pretty?
--Carmen...a guy in my class wanted this name, and he wanted it bad, but I just couldn't give it to him
--AND THE BEST FOR LAST: Tampon...I didn't actually meet this girl, Sam from camp did. All I have to say is that's ballsy

Like Cramming for a Final

With the Olympics just days away (I know it has started, I'm just trying to catch up), the preparations I've seen have been incredible. You've probably heard that nearby factories have been shut down. It's helped: in my first day here I saw a clear blue sky. Crazy. They've also instituted a policy where only cars with an even-numbered license plate can drive on even-numbered days of the month (and odd-numbered plates on odd days). This had helped some, but since taxis are exempt, it probably hasn't had the effect anticipated. The entire city is covered in Olympic banners—even places that don't seem to be frequented by foreigners, or even local Chinese for that matter. Every light pole proudly displays flags proclaiming "Beijing 2008: One World, One Dream". Shrubbery in parks has been molded into Olympic athletes and, as if that wasn't enough, people have started carving it into their hair. I saw this kid on the subway the other day, so I asked his parents if I could snap a picture of his hair. Pretty intense.

Running down the street I'll see people erecting even more Olympic propaganda in places I didn't think they could fit anymore. Taxis have rough translations in English, and sometimes the drivers can communicate too, even though I never really find out since I just speak Chinese, but that's word on the street. People have even started queuing up for the subway (most of the time)—I've never seen this before in my life. Usually it's survival of the fittest—this must be some sort of attempt to seem more civil or something. Sidewalks are incessantly swept, flowerbeds pruned, and what little grass there is in this city, cut. Volunteers are crawling the city in their white and blue shirts, ready to help anyone find anything.

In hindsight, I'm actually kind of happy I didn't get accepted to the volunteer position. I applied back in September, but in usual Chinese fashion, they never even responded to me telling me either way. Oh well. Recently, with my volunteer work with McDonald's, I've gotten to see some pretty cool stuff. I was able to see the torch relay the other day, which was pretty cool. They sure don't let them run very far—couldn't be more than 100 meters or so. My McDonald's crew and I got to cheer them on while sweating our behinds off in the ridiculous late-morning heat. Then there was the press conference with McDonald's China CEO Jeff Schwartz (who I met in Shanghai...see pic), Jim Skinner (CEO of all of McDonald's) and a couple other pretty important guys. I was allowed VIP access, and got to hear every question twice, since everything was in Chinese and English. The Chinese people love to ask multi-part questions—seemed like every one was "20 Questions" or something. Anyways, the energy's been pretty awesome, this place is ready to explode, and I think Beijing is preparerd. (Oh, and jeez are there a lot of foreigners here—sometimes I feel like I'm back in the States)