blog.marcwiesner.com

I’ve thrown photos from my trip through Guizhou province and Wuhan up on my Facebook. I’m going to be adding them into my photoblog an a daily or as available basis.

 teasers:

March 5th I took a late bus to Wuhan. It’s nice to have a home away from home. I’ve been working 免费 at the Wuhan Pathfinder International Youth Hostel I stayed at before; helping out whenever possible in whatever way I can. It’s nice to be able to help. A visa is in the works so I can stay longer and not have to worry about visa runs to Hongkong. I’ve been able to get a lot of practice with my hotel mandarin and learn more about the city as I give tours and advice to foreign travelers. One of the most useful things I’ve learned is that the taxi drivers know where to find everything.

Reactions from the Chinese guests to seing me behind the front desk are strange. Usually, they fall within the amused, endeared, and skeptical. I’ve actually had someone tell me it was imposable for me to be working here and ask in English what happens if a guest who doesn’t speak English comes in. She was fairly shocked when I replied in Mandarin, “not a problem, talk to them in Chinese.”

I’m hoping to stay here until the summer and spend the next few months improving my Mandarin while I help as much as I can. It’s nice to be able to hunker down in a place with so many good people and good food. I’m hoping to have photos up soon, but these days are very busy. People are flocking up from the south of China to see the Japanese Cherry blossoms (樱花) next to Wuhan’s famous East Lake (武汉东湖). Haven’t had time to see them myself yet, but the small garden next to the hostel is already impressive.

Well…I didn’t get a revised contract tomorrow. Didn’t sign anything. Got me worried. Then the teacher who’s managing my schedule told me that I’d be teaching four classes instead of three and working 24 hours, something the headmaster said was unreasonable and never practiced. Even more worried. The headmaster, who’s going to Canada in two days, is in the city and largely unavailable. Very worried. So I’m doing what I know I should do, taking my stuff to Nanchang city to meet him and if we don’t come to an agreement I’ll hit the road. I doubt he’ll have a contract or even a draft when we meet and I largly expect to piss off after about ten minutes. The situation isn’t helped by not having a kitchen to cook my own food and not being able to use the internet as I wish to manage my other business concerns. It gets frustrating when the computer they put in for me is the only one that cannot access foreign sites and google.com redirects to the Chinese baidu.com search engine.

The staff and students here are great, but if I can’t work with the boss I can’t work at the school. The boss apologized saying that he forgot foreigners put such an emphasis on time and punctuality. I wonder if he knows that packing up and leaving a place quickly when things don’t seem right is a backpacker’s habit?

On another note, I’m planning on putting pictures from my Guizhou adventure online in the next week or so, internet connection permitting.

Tomorrow I’m going to the campus I’ll be teaching at for the second time. A few days ago I got the grand tour and made some comments about the contract they offered me. Tomorrow I’m going to review and hopefully sign the revised contract I expect to be presented with. The apartment they’ve got me and another foreigner sharing is plenty big (astonishing would be a more accurate word to describe my first impression of it’s size compared to the size of most rooms and restaurants I’ve been in thus far) and the hours, pay, and class size seem very reasonable. Probably the biggest plus is that the staff I talked to were all very friendly. The largest draw back is that the campus manages to be quite removed from a major city center while not rural enough to be enjoyable for quaintness. I like to think of it as "save and secluded" though =P .

The timing of this post is really inspired by two things. First, I was searching through Google for other blogs from foreigners teaching in China. Networking and comparing situations and what not. Second and more impacting though is an article I came across tonight by Carola Von Hoffmannstahl-Solomonoff titled An American Teacher in China: The Unquiet Death of Darren Russell. Now I know this is going to drive my mother nuts to read, but I is something that I want to put out there. There are many horror storied about foreign teachers getting treated like dirt but this is the the most seedy I’ve come across. My heart truly goes out to Mrs. Russel (who runs http://whiterabbitsmom.org/). Any one who’s considering coming to China to teach should read this story as it so vividly underscores the importance of coming repaired and keeping escape plans ready in case the dream of teaching in a mysterious foreign land turns into such a nightmare. Know the city you’ll be in. Make friends outside the school who can help if you need it. When we can’t count on governments to keep us safe, we have to count on ourselves and each other.

Travel safe.

Written Jan 29:

I checked out of the place I was staying since arriving in Nanchang and checked myself into a nice, warmer place closer to downtown. Good to be able to shower without worrying about when the hot water will run out but I’ll miss the good food that I found so closely available.

Lunch was fun though. There are a few restaurants on the same block as this hotel. I picked one at random and two seconds after I was done ordering a couple children who saw me walk in were asking me if America had this or that animal, car, fruit, sport and so on while marveling at my sinister use of chopsticks.

Feb 1st I’ll leave for Guiyang and spend the Lunar New Year exploring waterfalls with friends. Looking forward to getting into a totally new place and trying some of the local specialties ^_^.

Written Mid-January:

Well…I needed a new jacket anyway. I don’t know how I got the idea in my head to collect locks from the cities I visit; I seem to be doing pretty well in under-dressing for the weather. Turns out Nanchang is colder than it seemed in the weather reports. I’ve bought a thick beanie and heavy jacket to protect myself from the cold. I should have worn my boots onto the plane; the cold bites through my canvas shoes. Vegan they may be but warm they aren’t.

After realizing a semester spent teaching here would pay about as much as a month painting in California I’m considering giving up the teaching stint to take up more lucrative; international business. Who ever needed a degree anyway?

For now, my kingdom for a hot bath.

Maybe I should hate that I do it, but I can’t stop thinking of omens while I travel. Last time I left SFO there were more unknowns, but I clearly remember monks in the terminal on their way to Taiwan. Zen retreats, I believe. This time, I know where I’m going, how I’m getting there, and the layout of most of the terminals I’ll be going between. For some reason though, the lack of monks in SFO strikes me.

Maybe I’m just looking for an excuse to justify the heavy-heart I’m traveling with. A strange thing in its own right. Maybe because I let myself get too comfortable at home this time. Not sure. I know I’ve got to go though, I started this journey and I intend on seeing it through. I’m sure once I get into China I’ll be able to relax a bit more. I won’t have to worry about a late plane or no train tickets.

My flight leaves SFO at a bit past midnight SFO local time and arrives in Taibei about 6 AM TPE local. Flight to Hongkong at 7:40, arrive before noon. An hour for the train into Shenzhen. About 12 more hours from Shenzhen into Nanchang and then to the apt I’ll be staying in. More than a day and a half? Maybe I should have packed some sleep aids

Boarding in 15. Back in the Silicon Valley before she knows it.

Leaving for China this Wednesday. I’ll arrive in Jiangxi province on the 13th and start work late February. Setting up should be fun but there’s the issue of not knowing where I’ll be living immediately. Not too much of a worry; there’re always places to stay

There’s a bit more anxiety in going this time. I’m not exactly sure why. Maybe because I still feel like I just got home and now I’m leaving again. Maybe because this will also be the start of my first real job.

I’ll be a good and fun experience though. I’m quite sure. I’ve got places I know I want to go and people I know I need to see. Focusing on those anchors is helpful.

Four days left.

I’ve been working on business cards for CollegeConfessional and realized with the New Year here, the cards could make a nice little marketing device. If anyone wants one tagged on his or her myspace , email confessitall@collegeconfessional.net

Happy and Healthy New Year!! 

A little over two weeks now until I’m back in China.

Awww…..I know…and the weather these last couple days has been so fun and windy and all that.

I was looking for something to keep me busy during the holiday break and found a couple good projects. TiffanyCollector.com and blog.tiffanycollector.com. I know they look like the same thing but that just means more time was spend coding the looks to they synced up.

My dear sweet mother’s been having a simply amazing time dealing with ebay who decided to suspend her account for selling fake Tiffany (which, of course, she wasn’t) and then place listing limits on it. Because of the suspension, ebay says she doesn’t stand a chance of getting those limits lifted until Febuary. Turns out she isn’t the only one. Sellers of designer items all over ebay are going through the same mess. The work around is to open a new account, which sellers of fakes don’t mind doing, but that isn’t really isn’t an option for sellers of legit pieces who make their living on their good name.

Well….instead of sitting on her hands and merchandise until Feb, I set her up with an online store and a blog so she can keep listing and moving product.

Now that building’s done, step two: Marketing