I am back

I haven't been able to access my Blogger for 2 years now because I have been in mainland China since early 2011. While I have still been writing posts and trying to keep my blogs going it has not been easy, since so many of the sites are blocked and the back-doors that are opened for offline writer programs like Windows live Writer are one by one being closed due to the ever tightening internet censorship in China. Anyway, nearly two years have passed since I moved to China and I am realizing more and more that there things I miss about living in Taiwan, and how I am actually starting to develop culture shock and homesickness. I'll start with the things that I miss about Taiwan first since that's where this blog was born. First I miss the clear blue skies of Taiwan, well Taichung at least. I know that everyday was not blue, and that there is pollution in the skies of Taiwan...you'll be hard pressed to find a place in the world that doesn't have pollution these days. However, compared to living in China the skies were azure blue everyday. There is nothing like being able to look up into the deep azure blue skies in the summer, seeing fluffy white clouds floating lazily through the sky, with a gentle warm breeze flowing over you while hearing the birds singing in the mountains behind your house, or watching the waves crash over the beach as fishing ships throw their nets to catch the bountiful harvest below them. The splendid beauty of Taiwan is so hard to describe that it can only be understood in person. The second thing that I miss, and actually should be the first but recently blue skies have been very high on my list of want to see things, is riding my scooter/motorcycle. I had a wonderful super tuned Kymco Racing, and Suszuki SV650-SF, my scooter was my daily truck and a great work horse that took me around town and even out into the mountains. My Suzuki was great for those long haul island trekking trips where I might not be home for a few days or a week. Most of my good memories were on the back of a good bike. When the weather was not on my side I had access to a friends Mitsubishi Virage i0 that was sleek pavement eating, asphalt melting, pink slip stealing machine. This car was tuned for the Le Mans series and styled to take grandma to the doctors. When you needed to get somewhere in a hurry and it was too cold to or to wet to be out on a bike this was the car do it in, airport runs, drop offs at the High speed rail station, weekend trips to the beach, this car could do it all. The final thing that I miss the most about Taiwan are the people. Taiwanese people have always shown me the ultimate in kindness. I know that internationally Americans have a reputation for being jerks but really at home we are fairly friendly and I had always found people to help me when I asked for it, however, Taiwanese were always the ones to offer help when it wasn't asked. They could see a situation and if they think they can help they will offer. For example my bike choked up because of water in the fuel line from riding too long in the rain the day before(this is why you should not take your bike out in a typhoon) and I was pushing it up a small hill to my friend's house to have him help me flush the lines and dry out the engine when out of the dark came a guy and girl on the bike and asked if I needed help, I was fine so I waved them on, but 5 minutes later an old man on a 4 wheeled scooter thing came rolling up next to me and asked if he could help push me along to my friends house. Again I didn't accept because it was just another 300-400 feet or so, but the idea that a man whose most likely sole method of transit is that 4 wheeled scooter offered to help me was touching. Another example was when I got lost in the mountains, I had a family take me in and offer me a meal while I was waiting for my friends to show up with gas for my motorbike, or maybe the time when an aboriginal couple in Hualian invited me over to eat wild mountain boar barbecue with them. I didn't know them, never said hello to them before that day, and they offered me food and drink just because I was walking by. I am not sure I have experienced this kind of behavior before I was living in Taiwan or not. So I will always be thankful and grateful to my Taiwanese friends, will always miss my home in Taiwan. My homesickness is not so much about actually missing my home, which I do, but its about the things that were so easy before, or that were expected. I lived in Taiwan for 6 years basically, and I never really felt homesick. That might be because I started to feel that Taiwan was my home, or because I would annually go back to the US once or twice when I had the free time, or maybe because I could find a lot of the creature comforts of the US in Taiwan. Whereas here in China I can't find them and if I can they are massively expensive or just in too short of supply, or just not quite the same as at home. The top three things that make me homesick from just this week alone, are food, medicine, and heating. Haha. I last year I lived in Guangzhou which is in the south of China so the weather is hot almost all year, and when it is cold I could get by with just a light jacket and some gloves and maybe a hat. However, now I am living in Xi'an which is in the north of China (about the same latitude as South Carolina but land locked) and the cold is getting really cold. For example this morning when I woke up it was only 2 degrees Celsius (about 36 degrees Fahrenheit) and when I got to work it was up to 4 degrees (39F) and at lunch it was up to 15 degrees (59F) but as I am writing this section it is down again to 4 degrees. So I am really really missing our homes and the fact that when it gets to like 60 public places start to turn the heating systems on, and when it is 4 they most certainly have heating systems running full blast. But not in China. Medicine is a multi-part story as to why it makes me homesick, but for the sake of not causing people (if anyone reads this) to yell at me, is because the ease of buying medicine specific for your illness and doctors who will tell you what you are taking even if you can't understand it. That way when you go home you can google the hell out of it and know ever molecule that went into making the medicine and all of the clinical data that was associated with it, if your into that kind of thing. In China however the medicine is usually given through and IV drip with your name and some unintelligible doctor scribblings and a number on the bottle. If your not taking that kind of medicine then you are mixing a bag of unknown powdered ground dried who knows what herbs into hot water to drink with various levels of usefulness in them. This comes from my own person experiences, and from seeing the inner workings of a Hong Kong Chinese medicine shop, being sold Chinese medicine for colds in Guangzhou and taking what should be antihistamines for my allergies here in Xi'an and from this week having to take medicine for a flu and end up taking medicine for a misdiagnosed stomach illness. Anyway this Chububobcat and this has been my random thought for the day. Have a good holiday season where ever you are, and be thankful for the things that you have... even if they are not what you are use to having.

Year Two in China

This is the second year that I have been living in China and I am still amazed and disgusted thrilled and shocked by the things I see here. I started my time in Guangzhou but now I am living in Xi'an, mostly because I missed seeing the seasons change. Although I still wildly prefer the endless summers of south China or Taiwan to the winters of anywhere. I have started a new job working in a kindergarten slash preschool a completely different style of work from anything I have ever done before. I actually like working in the school and I like playing with the kids and the Chinese teachers are all nice and fair. Usually when I go places people talk to me like a kid because my Chinese is not very ... Ok I'm not going to lie it sucks, however, one if the teachers is very kind to me and talks to me like an adult and friend. The school nurse also has scolded me for not being social enough so the school feels very comfortable. The neighborhood that I live in is not a place that I would probably ever have ventured into if I was just travelling around in China, and most definitely wouldn't have walked down a street that looks as ruff as mine in the US. However, the people who live here are nice, there is a lot of food choices and several convience stores on each corner that it makes life fairly easy. The only downside is that the street is Far from where I work. On an average day I need to get up at 5am to make sure that I leave the house at 6:15 to walk 10-15mins to the bus station ride the bus to the subway station another 10-20min ride and then ride the subway out of town to where my school is about 45mins. However it feels like the trains are speeding up so I think the trip is actually only 30-35 mins now. Still that leaves a another 10-15min walk to the school from the metro station. Coming home is worse because the bus back to my house is over crowded and I need to wait for at least 3 buses before there is enough space to get in one. When I have more money I am going to start riding taxis to and from the metro station, even though it will be really expensive. My house is a typical Chinese house, white walls, white tile floors, a bed made of two things that resembles a wide coffee that I then place a first layer blanket over followed by my sleeping bag and then consecutive layers to make it softer and warmer. The bathroom is a bleak looking room with nothing more than a squat toilet and two cold water pipes with hose fossetts attached to them. Not exactly luxury but they are functional to a degree. The living room is also my dinning room and part closet, here I have another bed that is converted to a couch, table and shelf. This is also where I keep the cooking supplies, food and clothes that are still a little wet from washing them, or my towels after taking a shower. There is a large metal ceiling fan that really doesn't do much to direct the air or smoke from cooking out of the house but it is good for cooling the room down. I have one window and it has bars on it so it feels a little like a prison cell. However this is where I call home, and thus far it has been a good home to me. I am Chububobcat and this has been my random thought... well actually this has been my life. I hope you enjoyed reading, please leave a comment if you visit. Google has been telling me there are people reading or at least landing on the page so if you happen to stick around to this part please say Hi. Have a good weekend.

My First Trip to Beijing

My first impressions of Beijing were good once I got over the idea that I didn't have any plans to visit BJ at anytime. The roads and buildings looked clean the traffic was orderly and the sky was blue with fluffy white clouds hanging around. My second impression however was not so good after exiting the train gates I realized no matter what city China is China and the people don't change. They are rude unhelpful and selfish no matter where they are. Combine this with the complete lack of directions of how to go anywhere logically and you have a recipe for me to get annoyed at anything I see. Once I finally figured out how to find the metro station for line 1 from the Beijing West Station, things started to improve I felt a warm but cool breeze on the air that had that crisp unmistakable autumn smell to it. Even when it was masked with heavy doses of cigarette smoke. Boarding the 21 Rd bus was not exactly fun but it was efficient, a man stands in the door taking money and making sure people board with some level of civility and order. Once on board I was able to get a seat but gave it to a woman with a baby which was rewarded with being crushed bashed and smashed by people's luggage as they fought each other to get in the bus. The ride was smooth and comfortable so I have nothing but good words for this bus. The metro on the other Hand sucks terribly, you need to pass through a security scan before entering the metro platforms, before that you need to buy a ticket if you don't have a BJ bus card. Now you would think this is easy as 1 line up 2 buy card if you have no bus card 3 pass security enter the train platforms. Well no that's not how it is, there is an unknown factor that plagues the people's minds here that says if there is a gate a door or a check point that you must pass through make sure you are absolutely the first to get thru it without concern for others or their property. The second downfall of the metro experience might be entirely my fault but I ended up going two stations in the wrong direction because the map was not clear and the trains don't have clear Going up line or down line indicators on them. Or at least the military museum station didn't. (Its all of the lines, only when you get in a train do you know which direction it is going) After completing half of what I set out to do on this trip to Beijing, and spending a long time riding the metro train which is crazy cheap with the except of line one I have only spent 2 RMB for any duration of ride that I took. I ate a decent meal although it was too quickly so it made my stomach upset, and got to walk around in what seems to be a really interesting place. A far cry from what I had envisioned Beijing to be like. I pictured police presence at an unconsciously oppressive level and red banner flags everywhere but surprisingly I have not seen so many police and few flags especially for being right after the National Day festivities. The greatest level of police presence is felt in security check point in the metro. My final thoughts of Beijing are pretty good. Thus far the city seems really well planned compared to a lot of other cities, the easy of getting around using either the Subway or buses (if you know where your going) is great. If I was into living in a bigger city Beijing might be the place that I would want to live. However I like the more relaxed less government concerned cities of China. This was Chububobcat and this was my first trip to Beijing. I hope you enjoyed reading my review of my trip. See you next time.