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.