Company FUN

Another day, another post.

Yesterday my whole division went to Ramada (FIVE STAR ooooooo) and had a meeting then dinner then fun. Let me start at the beginning. The Dishwasher division of Midea took four buses to the local Ramada (that's why I said FIVE Star... because EVERYONE kept telling me that it is) to talk about our progress and growth over the last six months. The speeches were so boring, especially because they were in Chinese. The most boring one was the speech by the VP of the division, because it lasted more than two hours. It was kind of funny when he began calling people out for going in and out of the room. That woke up everyone who was dozing off (I couldn't close my eyes because I was too scared that everyone would notice... that's the negative thing about having big eyes... bahahahahhaha that was pretty funny, I must admit. joke.) If this post seems weirdly written it's because it's almost 4PM and I am still drunk from last night! That's what a work celebration does to poor little foreigners.

Anyway, after the talking we ate and of course, DRANK. And boy, did we drink. The red wine was endless and so of course I was toasting with everyone and drinking with everyone. Not such a good idea, looking back. It was interesting that EVERYONE (each department) went up to the VP and those at his table and shared a toast with him! Some people even came to me and toasted with ME! So nice. I remember taking pictures with my department but after that, my memory gets fuzzy. I vaguely remember the VP trying to effing make out with me, but I told Ross (my Irish friend) and I escaped (many times though). No thanks, don't want to kiss my biggest boss first of all, and second, he's old. I woke up in my room but had nothing with me from the night before... no purse, no camera, no keys. Funny... how did I get inside my place you ask? Well thank God for Ross who filled me in as soon as I got to work. Seems he carried me home AFTER we went to KTV (with the boss)...literally carried, which was not an easy task considering he was wasted himself. He mentioned he is in a lot of trouble because he saved me from that boss... hahhahaha! (xie xie Ross)-- to put it bluntly. So I do not remember KTV at all but thankfully I had some friends there. So Ross carried me home, but since I didn't have my keys, I guess I just laid in front of my door. As for how I got inside, I have no idea... I think the security guards had a key and let me in. Don't worry all, my purse is safe and sound at a coworkers house... which is good actually because that means I didn't leave it at the KTV (which was inside the hotel). Tonight we are supposed to have another department dinner, but I'm not going since I have to go to Guangzhou early tonight for my vacation tomorrow.

I will be going to Beihai for almost a week, but since this is China, something has to go wrong... and one of our reservations was cancelled for a hotel on a small island, so for two days we have nowhere to sleep. Should be F.U.N.

Thanks for reading, and until next time!

Snufalafogus

I miss my family sometimes... sometimes I miss my friends.

But for the most part, I just miss my Baby Booski.

Love-- Wild T.

a post about love

"If you love someone, let them go. If they return to you, it was meant to be. If they don't, their love was never yours to begin with"

Now, I am not an expert on love, but I do know a few things that I would like to write about. I have been thinking about this for a few days and love, or being in love, signifies a major culture difference between Americans and Chinese.

The reason why I am writing this post is because a new friend of mine just broke up with his girlfriend, and based on what he told me, and consequently I told him, Chinese think VERY differently than Americans when it comes to being in a relationship and being in love (a little writer's note: obviously no one feels the same about this subject, but the point of this post is to show how many young Chinese couples, or men specifically, feel about being in relationships and what kind of inner battle they sometimes deal with).

Let's call my friend Ben, because I don't want to write his real name, even if no one from China reads this... I'd still feel better using another name. Anyway, Ben and his girlfriend dated for three years. It started when he went to college and his girlfriend of the time broke up with him because of the distance between them and "she had many new possible suitors in her new school", so he said. This was a girl that he assured me time and time again, he loved. After they broke up, he was heart broken and sad and every other emotion that comes with a broken heart. He started talking to another girl (literally talking to, not "talking to") who attended his middle school and she had also just broken up with her boyfriend. The two started becoming closer and being better friends and eventually became boyfriend and girlfriend. I asked him whether he loved this new girl as much as he loved the old one at their all time high in the relationship and he said no. I also told him about something we call a "rebound". Nevertheless, the two dated for three years, up until now, when he finally decided to break things off with her. I get the sense that they were together just to be together, but didn't really feel that passionate, burning loving feeling a few of us have been lucky enough to feel in out life so far.

He explained that lately they have been fighting over nothing, and that she wanted him to change, to become the guy she wanted. His and my personality are very similar, and he told her he would not change for her. This was the point when I explained that if he really loved her and cared about her, changing would not be a task, but would be something he would just naturally and freely do to make her happy, because when you are in love, you want to be a better person for that person, and that significant other also makes you a better person (so nothing is a forced task). If everything goes well...

The beginning of the downhill part of the break up was the worst. Every time he talked about breaking up with her, it was as if he wanted to do it so badly, but if he did, he would be selfish because this girl gave him three years of her life. I could see the pain in his face when he mentioned breaking up with her and how much it would hurt her. He was obligated to stay with her because of the time she sacrificed for him. Now I don't know about you, but at first I didn't understand this at all. How could some girl be selfish enough to make a man stay with her if he doesn't love her? How could a girl want to be with a guy in the first place, who is not the best person he can be when he is with her? How could a girl want to be in a relationship that seems to be out of obligation? "This is China" is how he responded. Naturally I started asking him many, many questions and he tried to explain the best way he could (he is one of the only people who has a semi-Western mindset on things. He uses some Western slang and actually understands when I say somethings that I would say only to native speakers). Because this girl sacrificed so much of her time to stay in the relationship, he could not break up with her because now it was his duty to stay together, even if he wasn't completely happy. I told him that first he needed to be happy with himself, THEN he could be in a happy relationship. It pained him so much to first think about breaking up with her, but eventually it pained him EVEN MORE to stay with her because both people were semi-miserable.

After some talking, he told me that I should make my most recent class, the one for recent graduates, centered on advice about love. It's as if when we had this talk after he broke up with the girl, he had a revelation. As if I was telling him things that would solve world hunger or something, things he had never heard and thought about before, because his mind-set was so incredibly different. He felt a great relief to be free of that relationship, but he also felt really sad for her. Another tiny reason they broke up was because he would be working in Midea for three years, and she also just got a new job in his hometown, pretty far away from here, so they could not be together for a long time.
(Side note: His roommate and his girlfriend started dating two months ago and will most likely not see each other for a year, but are still staying together. They talk on the phone and on QQ [semi Chinese Skype/messenger] everyday, and this is their relationship. It seems that when you start a relationship or find a "suitor" you stay with that person then eventually marry them)

Equally important is the mindset that if someone loves you so much, you should stay with them because you might not find anyone else who loves you as much. Ben told me, "The lifelong question is do you choose the person you love so much, or do you choose the one who loves you so much?" Ummm hmm let me think, why not choose the person who you love and who loves you back? Simple answer. I told him he did not HAVE to choose the girl who loved him if he didn't think he loved her. In my opinion, he was doing her an injustice by staying with her, but he did not think so (and she probably didn't either). And so many women in China are expected to only have one boyfriend, and then stay with that guy for the rest of their lives.

So let's take a look. I am dating a guy for three years, but he is not fully there for me emotionally and physically, because we are apart from each other most of the time. I am still a great girlfriend though because this is the guy I want to tie down and so I stick by him, do things for him, am a great person, etc... even though HE doesn't do THAT much for me (compared to other guys in love). My boyfriend should still stay with me even though he isn't 100% happy and I am not the ideal woman he wants to be with, because I gave him all I could. I was a good Chinese girl, somehow gained the approval of my boyfriend's parents, and I gave him three years of my life. How could HE be so ungrateful and leave me after all this time? Because I gave him so much, he should owe me everything. And that is life in China... at least in this situation. There is this, somewhat, race to find a boyfriend and girlfriend. If you find someone suitable then you do not break up with them here. I just think, don't lead someone on. Do not waste time with a person whom you know you do not love and the relationship will not lead to anywhere.

Audre said that while in some way, this mindset DOES make some sense, in like manner it DOES NOT (and I think in almost every way it does not). "Debt only grows and one can never repay it, because there's no true feeling there". Now I see how insecure people here are about not being with someone, because if you don't have someone, then there is something wrong with you. (Conversely if you want to work for a Chinese company and get promoted, when they ask you in your interview if you have a boyfriend you should only answer yes if they will come to wherever your company is with you, because if you say yes and they are far away, you will most likely leave the company sooner or later to be with wherever your boyfriend works. Then the company will not hire you). These types of questions are VERY common in China when applying for a job, although they are ILLEGAL in the US. Thus, couples stick to whatever they have and seem to to be that picky. The way I see it, if you stay with someone you really are unhappy with then you will never find someone else whom you CAN be happy with, and then you will suffer forever. If you look for someone else while you are in a relationship that's even worse and incredibly selfish, "Oh, let me stay with you for the time being, but I will look for someone else right now, because I don't love you" WTF?

Bottom line, a stroke of what you think is bad luck, could really be a blessing in disguise. I told Ben it was not the end of the world and that he made a good decision. And this is how I am opening the minds and influencing Chinese people... tee hee hee. Some would say I am not the best person for this, but even though sometimes I cannot take my OWN advice, I do GIVE good advice. :)

Finally... Why are Chinese People Skinnier than Us?

I have been meaning to write about this for a while now, and I finally compiled my thoughts and have time to explain and theorize why Chinese people are skinnier than us. Perfect example... my sister and I lost weight in the time we have spent in China... so it IS China and it's food that is the reason for this glory (not JUST, or even at all, genetics).

First let me begin by saying that in the US, I was NOT eating healthy or exercising at all. I would attempt to exercise but since I cannot sit still for too long and get bored easily, I worked out for about 30 minutes at a time. I also loved to eat Spicy Cheetos, guac with tortilla chips, sometimes Ramen noodles (guilty!), etc. Now if that if that is not a bad habit, then I don't know what is. Since I have a car in the US, I was also driving to places where I could have walked to (it didn't help that Madison is freezing almost all the time, so a car WAS convenient). People just get lazy when it comes to food and exercise, which is a problem that I notice now, I had. I'm not saying I was super unhealthy, but I was definitely NOT healthy. With that brief background provided, let me get into life in China.

Everyday I wake up and I almost always get 8 hours of sleep (and I have a schedule). I usually lay in my bed for a bit and read the news (even if it's my favorite Urban site... it's still some kind of news), peep RihannaDaily.com, listen to music and get ready for work. I mentioned that I am beginning to work out before work now, only if I am not too tired and/or lazy. I have to admit I do NOT eat breakfast or lunch usually, because I miss breakfast time since I wake up at 11AM, and when I get to work I START working, so I miss my lunch. Oops, that is not a good habit to develop. I realize this, so I will now buy fruit in the market next to my house and eat that for breakfast. Sometimes I eat red bean sweet bread from a bakery, but I have to go downtown to get it and that rarely happens. I also bought milk recently because I have noticed some changes with my body which I am not happy with, so I need to make sure my nutrients are UP.

Next, I walk to work for 30 minutes, which is already some exercise right there! At work I don't walk around, and I sit at a desk, but this keeps me from foolishly eating random things when I'm bored, which I did in the US. If we ever have snacks at work, it's usually some kind of cookies which are NOT as sweet as in the US (side note: OREOs were sold in China the same way they are in the US, and the business almost had to stop selling them here because no one liked them since they were TOO sweet. Then OREO developed a much less sweet version of the black and white cookie, and that is what people eat here now), fruit, some kind of crackers, or meat with the bone... or chicken feet. At work I always drink tea and have recently began to drink coffee (we do not have coffee here, so I bought my own, over priced, coffee in the grocery store). If I have to teach after work I walk to another building (more exercise). I either eat a little somethin somethin before class (which I must admit is not healthy...it's a greasy, salty, spicy pancake), or I eat a big dinner after class. Like I mentioned, I like to cook for myself and when I do, I cook only vegetables or tofu (I'm a little nervous to cook and buy meat here myself because of one thing: germs). If I eat at a restaurant I usually over eat because the food is so delicious. I also always eat rice and almost always drink beer with my dinners. After dinner I eat my favorite ice cream which is vanilla with some kind of purple fruit and caramel or some kind of sweet liquid balls (sounds gross now that I write it, but it's so good) with a chocolate shell (and I typically DO NOT enjoy chocolate).

So as you can see, there are many differences with food and eating habits in just that one paragraph alone. It seems like I never eat processed foods, but actually after Joanna came to visit and brought me so much American junk food, that is not the case anymore. When I eat food here I feel differently than when I eat food in the US. The food here just FEELS healthier... more real, more nutritious. I also add lots of soy sauce and spices to my dishes, but I need some zing in my food or else I would look like a stick from not eating anything! Oh yea, and I love fish here... so that is very healthy. To demonstrate the less sweet desserts in China thing (if they ARE even considered desserts) is a situation when I gave my friend Kobe some chocolate that I absolutely adore from Poland, bought in the US. Actually it is more like fudge with caramel... not chocolaty at all. This candy is called KROWKI. He tasted it and said, "This is SO SWEET!" Well of course it's sweet, but isn't that the point? It's crazy how sweet he thought it was. So the Chinese eat less sugar, AND less salt than Americans...

In light of these new observations, let me make a clear list of the differences.

The Chinese...

eat MUCH less sugar and less salt.

do not eat nearly as much processed food as we do.

eat much more fish and vegetables.

use lots of flavorful spices that could potentially fight off disease.

have a much more active lifestyle (walk everywhere, take the subway, and most do not own cars).

do not finish the food on their plate if they are full.

ALWAYS leave food on the table after a meal.

do not eat fattening snacks as much as Americans (vanilla lattes, candy, chips) and instead eat dried meat, peanuts, SUNFLOWER SEEDS.

do not really eat dessert, and instead eat orange slices or WATERMELON (for example at KTV, we ate a ton of fruit like: watermelon, cantaloupe, star fruit, dragon fruit, cherry tomatoes [yes, cherry tomatoes are considered a fruit here which is why they decorate birthday cakes frequently]).

eat meals at regular times and go to bed before they are hungry again.

(women) do not drink beer and always drink tea or hot water instead of alcohol (and the Chinese choose to drink coconut milk and orange juice instead of soft drinks any day).

do not eat a BIG lunch AND a BIG dinner, but eat either or.

do not eat dairy at all, almost.

tell each other they are fat. Yes, the do. When I lost weight here, it was a trending topic (lil mama number number sign [whoever gets this is my soul mate bahahahha]) amongst my students, and they were not too afraid to tell me. They also tell each other when they have gained weight, "You look fat".

And that is why Chinese are skinnier than people in the US: LIFESTYLE! They don't WANT to be fat, and CAN avoid it, unlike many Americans.

DaJiaoWan

This weekend was an interesting one. As some people noticed on my facebook status, I was supposed to come up with an "American dance" for my colleagues and I to dance to. Why? Because every year some of us in my division go on a mini weekend vacation and at that vacation we have playful performances and competitions with the finance department and with whomever else goes. Supposedly every year the finance department out-dos HR and Operations, so this year they wanted ME to come up with a performance, mainly a dance. I was told that I am "very special" here and that's why they would like ME to make something up. Weezy would have been great, but too bad... his genre isn't really "dance", so I came up with a dance for a Korean song I like which is popular in China called "Sorry, Sorry". Disappointingly, we did not get to perform because it was storming outside when we were all supposed to have a barbecue and dance. Instead some of us went to KTV! I like KTV more and more. You can drink, sing, play games, whatever! The rooms for karaoke were right next to the club, so of course we went there too and danced and played drinking games. I think I had a little TOO much fun.

Pirate Ship ;)

Anyway let me start at the beginning. On Saturday we left around 12PM and got to the "resort" at about 6PM! The bus ride was only supposed to be 3 hours. The air conditioner from the ceiling was dripping on one of my friends from work so I told myself not to sit in that spot on the bus ride home! When we got to DaJiaoWan (the name of the beach) we went swimming. The water was super salty but not too cold, nor crowded! What a surprise. Our hotel was nice, supposedly the nicest one in the area. Then we all went to dinner and ate seafood. Some things I tried were crab, shrimp, fish, and crab soup? After dinner we were supposed to have a barbecue outside and show off our

performances, but the rain killed our joy and so we decided on KTV. Almost everyone was tired, so only about 10 of us went to KTV and we had a blast. We drank, sang, danced, got to know each other better, etc etc.

The next day Jessica, my roommate in the hotel, woke me up before 8 and we got ready to go to breakfast. Breakfast was rice soup (nasty... I don't like this stuff and don't get how people do like it so much), vegetables and noodles, and maybe some seafood, I can't really recall, I had a big headache to say the least. A boat ride followed and that was fun. We were supposed to be fishing but instead we just threw a net in the water and caught some random sea animals... squid, octopi (I think the plural for octopus is octopus, but I like OCTOPI and since it's MY blog, I'm gonna use THIS word) crab, mini-crabs that people use as pets (oh yea, they're called HERMIT crabs), and random others. Later we went to the beach again and swam. The waves were HUGE on Sunday, much bigger than on Saturday, and I swam out really far... once again no girls crossed the first warning rope, so I was like, "I'm a badass, that's right". Oh yea and I was badass because of my bikini. No girls there wore one.

On the bus ride back, I sat on the second of the two buses and guess what? It was raining so heavily that the air conditioning started to drip on ME. I was the only one who sat under it, boy am I lucky or what?. So Jessica complained for me and since she is a semi-lawyer (she studied law or something like that in Hong Konf and does lawyer-sy stuff at MIDEA and she offers me advice about work) she did a good job. I told the tour guide if she didn't make it stop I would sit in her seat in the front, and she could sit under the drippage (also a new word for all ya'll out there). Of course the stupid cloth she placed over the air conditioner (which was more like a lace fabric) didn't hold the water and so I took her seat. She warned me that seat did not have insurance but who gives a shit? That nasty acid water probably could hurt my legs (point taken, I'm being dramatic here, but sometimes you need drama in China to get your way). I was thinking that it would be kind of funny and ironic if we got into an accident while I was in the front, uncomfortable (dry though) seat, and guess what? The bus started swerving because we got a flat tire... and this happened RIGHT after my thoughts... I think I'm magical or something. Nevertheless I quickly switched seats and we had to wait an hour before the tire got fixed and THEREFORE we were on the road for six hours. Nice end to a nice vacation. Oh right, and I should mention that I prefer not to take Chinese tours for a few reasons (my division rented out a tour guide and therefore we took a tourist agency to this place). One reason being that tour guides don't really care about you because they already have your money, so if you don't want to do something or you want to go somewhere else, it's really up to the driver to decide whether or not he will drive you there (this happened with us after fishing. We wanted to go swimming and the driver wouldn't take us at the time). Also, on the way home, we stopped at a stupid touristy site to buy authentic Guangdong food which was entirely overpriced. What a waste of 45 minutes that could have been spent driving. The best part is that these tourist agencies get money if they bring their tours through here!!!

I had dinner that night with my new friend Kobe who is making me speak Chinese, at least at restaurants, so this is good for my language practice!!! Soon I'll be able to say a FEW sentences! YES!

I am trying to improve my life style and prepare myself for the REAL, real world, by waking up a little earlier than normal to work out. Today was Day 1. I jogged by the river and did lunges and random things like that. I'm going to incorporate Tai Chi into this and maybe Kung Fu, and ta-da, I will be in shape in NO TIME. I realized that when you are displaced, somewhere that is not where you are used to, it is MUCH easier to change around your lifestyle and habits... because you are somewhere NEW and somewhere EXCITING. So I fool myself into thinking, you can ONLY do this in China (exercise, eat healthier) and I only have six more months, so I plan to lead a much healthier life from now on (sorry, this does not mean I'm stopping drinking) bahahahha.

Lastly, an update on the baby across from me. I wrote a nasty, NASTY letter in English and asked Kobe to translate it for me, making sure to preserve the bitch tone. I asked someone at work to make sure it still sounded mean and they said it did. Then Kobe advised me that I should just talk to the family first (and if that didn't work, we could give them the letter AND complain to the management) and he would obviously help me and translate for me. He told me that maybe the letter would lead to an embarrassing situation between me and the family, and they ARE my neighbors and this IS China... and so I took his advice (with much hesitation) and the mom and dad were totally cool, apologizing and saying they felt sorry for me, that their child wouldn't play in the hallway anymore in front of my place, and that they would try their best. The baby is so cute and chubby that I couldn't be angry, and I love old people, so I couldn't get mad at the grandma either (who actually is the loud one with her friends who are blabbing outside my door in the morning). So they were all smiling at me and being nice and supportive... The next day there was no noise, but then yesterday the grandma was being super loud with her friend, so I just asked them to be quiet. Surprisingly I didn't yell even though I was angry, because the grandma was smiling at me and looked so guilty, like a little kid who forgot that they were messing up! Soooooo as Kobe said, "You cannot punch someone smiling at you" and I couldn't yell at someone smiling at me! So, I'm going to try smiling more and maybe that will get me EVERYTHING I want (tee hee hee). Attitude is everything. (If you can't beat them, join them?)

Another famous Chinese quote: "There are no ugly women. There are only ladies who are lazy".

Tomorrow-- my first Chinese (Cantonese) wedding reception (this should be interesting although most people say to not get my hopes up, but I have!)

待在中国六个月

I feel as if I need to do something on my blog for my six month anniversary in China, so here goes.

Today is the halfway point of my Chinese adventure. I cannot believe I made it and how fast it has gone by. I've done so much here, yet so little if you know what I mean. I have visited many cities in China that Chinese people have not even seen, but I still have others I am planning on traveling to, one being Tibet (not a city, but Tibet in general) and Macau. Moreover, I can't believe my sister visited me here for almost a month and we got to travel together. If you told me that I could travel through China alone with my sister, a year ago I would have been skeptical (shit, I was skeptical a month ago!) but I did it. My supervisor told me she was jealous that I could just travel like that by myself... not that I could necessarily, but had the courage to do that. Now when I think about it, that was pretty damn cool and brave considering this is China (language, writing, culture, EVERYTHING barrier), but we did it!

Secondly I am disappointed with myself with the lack of language skills I have acquired here! I picked up Spanish, Italian, Russian, and English (bahahahah, when I was six) in the blink of an eye, but with Chinese, it's been much harder for me. Probably because I don't really practice, but when I DO try to speak it and pronounce words, people are telling me how impressed they are, so this should be motivation for me! I was saying some students' names in Chinese and everyone was pretty impressed, so I guess I am getting SOMEWHERE and probably just don't notice it! I do, however, know how to could to 1,000 and play two Chinese drinking games... that must count for something! I have also acquired Chinese cooking skills, which is a major accomplishment for me (no, I'm not Lily, but I can still cook SOME things!) This reminds me that I need to make that list of things I want to accomplish before I leave China ASAP.

Also, anyone who eats with me for the first time comments on my 筷子 skills. They usually say that I am better with chopsticks than them!!! I have noticed that my originally good chopstick skills have become exceptionally GOOD, BUT I still have my bad days. I'm amazed with how Chinese people sometimes hold them and it looks soooooo cool, but so difficult. When I'm drunk I practice eating with my chopsticks because then if I can do it well, I know I'm good (hahahhahahahah I'm only semi-kidding)

Enough of me praising myself though. I want to really thank the people that have supported me and gotten me through the hard times that I had here (and I had a few of those days). Thanks to Ali and her awesome note she wrote me before I left for China which I have hanging on my wall, thanks to mi prima for ALWAYS commenting on my facebook posts and letting me know I'm part of her life even though I'm not physically there, thanks to Wifey for letting me complain about EVERYTHING to her, thanks to my sister for doing so much for me while I am here and she is in the US, thanks to everyone HERE that has complained with me when the times were tough especially Serena, Audre, Katia, and thanks to my friends who send me little facebook messages and posts and e-mails telling me how much they miss me, because I miss you guys too! And thanks to my 姐姐 who's done more than I can even write about for me. So thank you everyone, and I'm looking forward to another six months!!!

"This too shall pass"

Chicago will always be there for me, China will not

So as you can see I am incredibly slacking on my blog posts about my vacation, but I HAVE to write those next week. Today is Thursday and I am almost finished with my work day... I wanted to write about a few things though, including how Chinese people eat (next post though). The structure for this post will be as such:

Cooking

Work Censorship

Diligence of some people at work

Manners pertaining to those of a higher work position than you

Over my vacation I did not cook once. Joanna and I ate Sichuan food almost EVERY day, but at different restaurants. We ate things such as Sichuan fried green beans (our FAVORITE), oven baked spicy fish (we almost tried turtles...gross), fried thin potatoes, cucumber salad, spicy pork with black fungus mushrooms, dumplings, and more to come once I look at pictures. We discovered the secret ingredient to Sichuan food: the mouth numbing Sichuan peppercorn, a delicious but dangerous additive to Sichuan food. Basically this little sucker numbs a part of your mouth after you bite into it. It is sold in Chinese shops in the US, but everywhere around here. I have not tried cooking with it by myself yet, but Lily and I have used it in a few of our dishes. You either like the feeling of biting into this, or you don't. I think Joanna liked it, I sure did.

This weekend I am going, once again, to cook at Lily's. The plan is to make some more spicy food and I am going to try to cook 鱼香茄子, which is an Eggplant dish... I guess something like sweet and sour eggplant and the thin mushrooms that I like. Lately I have been creating random dishes based on what I feel like eating (and recently I have been eating lots of mushrooms because they are super healthy and good for you and because we don't have these variations in the US). So in the next post I will inform you all how the cooking went. I realized yesterday that I have been making it my goal to become a master (in my own eyes at least) of cooking food that I like to eat from here. I have a feeling I will not be able to eat all these great dishes in the US the way they are made here, so why not try to make them myself? This will also allow me to keep up my "healthy" eating habits (which now include Nutella and peanut butter and lots of Spicy Cheetos and chocolate thanks to my sister who brought me junk food from the US). I can't say how much I love Chinese food and Joanna can vouch for me on how amazing it is.

Work Censorship

I would briefly like to mention that Midea has blocked all personal e-mail addresses from being used at work because supposedly it is a "safety breach". The way I get around this is by using a VPN I recently received from a friend. A week ago MY usual VPN stopped working and I thought that was going to be the end of facebook and youtube for me, but then I got another one and all is well. Because how else would I be able to write blog posts and gchat at work?

Work Diligence

I believe that I have covered how diligent and into their work Chinese people are (of course that's just an assumption, but from what I've seen at work, it's true), but I want to talk about their "duties" to their job. Let's take my friend Lily for example. She became sick a week ago and ended up having to go to the hospital to figure out what was wrong with her. The first time, the doctor told her she just had a bad cold. Then she was told, in another hospital and 3 visits after, that she had pneumonia. Now I'm not sure about you guys but I know if I had pneumonia I would not go to work for about a week, AT LEAST until I got better... well guess what? She went to work the day after she was diagnosed and just went to the hospital for an I.V. in the mornings... and she did this for about 5 days! I asked her why in the world she didn't stay home and she told me it was because her boss thinks no one can do as good of a job as she can!!! Or that no one CAN do her job (she's the only one who deals with these specific suppliers, so if she is gone, our company won't get their supplies...) Oh come on, anyone can order products. After talking with Audre I realized maybe SHE is the one who wants to be indispensable to her boss. Better yet, Lily was not able to go on her annual vacation because August was so busy for her (if you don't go on vacation when the company takes one you get an extra 1000Yuan in addition to the 1000 you get for your annual time off) Audre and I agreed we would STILL rather go on a week or two long vacation rather than make extra money. Pool Lily. Oh and here is the kicker, everyday she has to dance after work. Dance? Yes dance! In short, our headquarters is moving to a new building, a really nice one, so that calls for a grand celebration! Every division will perform something and get tested to see if they make it to the final show. Of course it's cool that this show will be live on CCTV (a program like ABC, for example, in China if I understand correctly), but everyday? She works from 8 30AM until 5 30 PM and then dances until 9 or 10PM. Furthermore she has to practice dancing every weekend (after work until 9PM on Saturday and from 2 until 9PM on Sunday) Imagine, dancing all day every day and not having ANY time for your personal activities of choice. Although Lily told me she really does not want to dance, her boss told her "he would like her to" (notice the passive aggressiveness in this statement, if that's the correct word. He didn't say "You have to dance", but what he did say implies "I want you to dance in this performance and if you do not you are letting me down and letting the company down. Worse, it shows that you are not committed to this job and don't value my requests.") And so Lily has to dance. I did go watch a practice of the dancers in my division (mostly recent graduates who JUST started working for the company. This is similar to their "initiation" and duty to the company, because my supervisor told me her first year at Midea, she ALSO had to dance in a show) and the dance was cool. There were a lot of partner moves, jumps, ballet moves, falls to the ground... I thought it was well choreographed, and it should be considering each division brings a choreographer and a "dance director" to make their dance the "best". Thus this is the buzz at work. Today is the day everyone finds out which division makes it into the final performance (the tests are actually going on right now) and if my division gets a spot, I'm pretty sure I'm going to celebrate after work with these young-ins (which are all my age actually).

...4 DAYS LATER

So I slacked off and did not finish this blog before the weekend like I wanted to, oops! Sorry! I have a ton of things to write about again (now that the weekend has passed) but I have to teach tonight and have a ton of work to prepare, so this will be semi-quick.

I decided on this title after talking to a friend who told me "Chicago will always be there" after I told him how much I missed my city (he just came to China a week ago and is also from the suburbs). He's right, so I tweaked the quote a little and made it into this title! Sometimes I really do miss the US, but for the most part I do not think about it that much. I do miss some friends though and am a little jealous that I'm missing out on certain things... but then again how many people have been to China and are seeing and doing what I am doing? Not too many. So let me continue where I left off...

Work Hierarchy and drinking in general

I went to dinner with a manager from work (not my manager) and I noticed that everyone at the table did not drink any of their beer until the manager made a toast. The first one is designated to the guest of honor (in this case the person of higher work status than anyone else). Then everyone toasted to him. A Chinese traditional toast is holding the cup of whatever drink you have (not even necessarily alcoholic) with two hands, and directing the toast to them "干杯" which means "cheers" or "bottoms up". Then when you clink glasses yours should be lower to show respect. Sometimes people don't want you to be so formal or believe they are of the same status as you, so they try to make theirs lower...and for fun the two people cheers-ing go all the way to the ground! I saw this at dinner between two co-workers. I think this is a pretty cool tradition because it shows how much honor and respect you have towards someone. But damn, sometimes I just want to chug my beer!!! If one person drinks their whole cup, then the other ALSO has to drink their whole cup... It's like "Muahahahha who can drink it ALL and who can drink the most?!" Furthermore, drinking is actually a skill here. I feel as if a lot of people in the US can drink...some girls don't like beer, but they still drink it if it's given to them. In China, you have to accept the drink for your own benefit and for that of the person who offered it to you. The women do not drink beer here, so when there is a toast around the table they barely touch the drink to their lips, but at least they accept it and make somewhat of an effort. If someone wants to make a toast with you and you do not want to drink, you still toast and go through all those aforementioned formalities, but you do not clink their glass, instead you put your fingers around the glass and your fingers block the glasses from clinking... this shows no disrespect, but shows that you just can't drink anymore.

When I went to KTV on Friday night with Lily (my 姐姐

) and her colleagues, we played drinking games (and we all know I drank a lot since I can't gather the courage to sing without being tipsy!!! This pertains even more to China and I'll say why later) and at the end of the night I had to drink 4 glasses in a row. To me this was not a big deal at ALL, but everyone was staring at me after like, "WOW". I have heard the phrase "good at drinking" many times here, but I have finally come to understand that it means you can drink a lot, and keep going when most others cannot. I heard my supervisor describing someone like this at dinner, then I heard it a lot at KTV, and then I heard it the next day too! So it's safe to say, I'm good at drinking! Bahahahahahhahaha! That just sounds funny to me, as if it were a sport and something to be super proud of!

KTV

So this weekend I was invited to go to KTV (as I already mentioned) with Lily and the people she dances with. It was really fun, I must admit, mostly because I got to drink and listen to REALLY good singers. I can't believe how ALMOST everyone (EVEN THE GUYS) here are amazing singers. It's really a pleasure to hear some of these people sing older Chinese songs. This is why my facebook status says, "

I ♥ 中文歌曲 and I'm not even joking!" Therefore it is so hard for me to sing in front of these great singers.... Especially Lily! She is so good! I kept asking her to sing more and more Chinese songs with the 笛子

(a type of a Chinese flute). I really love traditional Chinese music with a little bit of contemporary edge to it. Two favorite songs of mine are titled 爱情买卖 and 不想长大 . I basically have been listening to about 12 Chinese songs on repeat at home. I think before I leave I will make it my goal to sing a song in Chinese at KTV.

The next day (Saturday) I went to a wonderful lunch with Lily, her two suppliers and Audre. After lunch they drove us to Daliang (a bigger city next to Beijiao where I live) so I could buy a new phone since I drunkenly lost mine two weeks before... Lily, Kobe (a new student and new friend of mine) and I shopped around then went home. I picked up Monika at the bus stop (she came to Beijiao!!!!!) and then we went to KTV again with Lily's suppliers! (I say suppliers because as I think I've mentioned, Lily works for Midea's distribution center so she has a few suppliers which she orders things from and one of them was from Shanghai visiting our area) It was so much fun! We went to a new FIVE STAR hotel that has a KTV inside. Ok, if we did this in the US I think it would cost about $5,000. We had our own waitress, our own huge room (bigger than my whole apartment), velvet couches, endless beer (we took the leftovers home after we left) and tons of food. Kobe and Lily sang lots of songs, I sang about three because my voice didn't even come close to anyone's in the room!!! Oh, and Monika and I sang every song together because we both think we relatively suck at singing. Interestingly enough, the manager of the KTV came and drank with us and she only gave Monika and I her business card. "Umm lady, give it to the guys who are paying" is what we were thinking, but she only gave it to the foreigners in the room (as if we can afford going to this place by ourselves... yea right) The night was a really fun and drunk-filled! Everyone had a great time and as the days go on, I'm so grateful for my

姐姐. She always invites me to these things without hesitation, but she says she is only this nice to her family, which I am now a part of. And this time I got to bring along two friends of mine! Monika and I were curious just how much the bill was, but we were too drunk to look at it considering we weren't paying.

The next day Kobe, Monika and I went to Lily's to cook (and I did some of my laundry there because I have no washing machine). I made 鱼香茄子 and it turned out really good (I followed a recipe I found online) and I also made mushrooms with soy sauce and green medium sized peppers (which are similar to jalapeños) and a day after Lily said, "嘎妹，记着下次做菜少放盐！" which means try to use less salt in your cooking next time. Bahahahahha! But I love salt and soy sauce so to me it tasted delicious, to Kobe and Lily it was toooooooo salty!

That is all for now, on Friday I will do MY BEST to finally finish my posts from my vacation with my sister and upload new pics on this thing!

Lastly, tomorrow is my six MONTH anniversary of being in China. Holy SHIT, time goes by too quickly.

One more thing, just now I found out that our department is going on a trip this weekend to some beach or place on the coast of China! We are going to be doing things such as swimming, fishing, surfing, watching the sunset, etc... I'm pretty excited but now I had to cancel my weekend plans of going to the water park (I don't have to go on this trip with my company, but I should because I probably won't get to go to this place otherwise) and I should meet and bond with more coworkers!