China Update Part 2

Back in March, before I went to interview at the international school, I looked up my teaching credentials.  I knew my California credential was current because I had renewed it when we were living in Sacramento.  I had assumed that my Nevada credential had expired so I was very surprised to find out that it was still current and was set to expire on my birthday in May.  I looked up what I needed to renew and I needed 6 units (which I could do online) and also I needed to be fingerprinted. Not so easily done in China.  I figured, "Oh well, I guess it's going to expire."

After a month of working in Xian,  I started thinking, "I'm pretty sure that I am not going to be able to make it through a full school year."  Some days were good and I would start thinking, "Maybe I can do this."  Then there would be a bad day and I would start thinking, "There is no effing way that I am going to be able to do this!"  On those days, Matt and I would usually go to the bar at the top of the hotel and eat hamburgers and drink wine (or beer) and say, "What the hell were we thinking?" (For the record, Matt wasn't exactly loving Xian either.)

By the time May rolled around, I had been in Xian 2 months.  The weather had changed from really cold to pretty warm.  I had about a month before my Nevada credential expired.  By this time I had looked into it and found that if I let it expire, I would have to start out all over again as a new teacher and it would take much longer than if I just renewed.  Because we were planning to go to Beijing on May 15th for the weekend anyway we decided that I should go home after the Great Wall Marathon and renew my credential and then come back,  just to keep my options open.  So I signed up for online courses to get my 6 units and then booked a one-way flight from Beijing to LAX on the 18th.  (I had to travel on the 18th because we would already be in Beijing.)  

It was very interesting timing because the day after I booked the flight, the principal called me into his office to discuss how things were going at the school.  He offered me a year one position for the following school year.  I had to turn it down because I just couldn't see myself making it through the full year.  (I came at the end of winter and I'm pretty sure that's a good thing as I am not a winter gal.) He said he had a feeling that was going to be the case, but he thought he would offer anyway.  So I told him about my plans to go home and renew my credential and I said I would need at least a week off and after that there would only be about a month left of school.  He said that was fine, and to do what I needed to do.  I told him I would let him know as soon as I booked my return flight.  

So after much discussion with Matt, we came to the conclusion that neither one of us felt all that great about Xian.  The difference was that he had signed a two year contract and I hadn't.  We finally decided that I would go home for a week, then come back, finish out the school year and then stay for the Summer. I would probably go home in the Fall when the new school year starts.  With this decided, I attempted to book my return flight but the internet wasn't working.  Next day, same thing.  It was super slow and all the return flights were around $1,800.  (Sadly, thats around what I would make working through the end of the school year so this wasn't making a lot of financial sense.)

The next day at work I received a text from Matt saying to call him ASAP, which I did.  Now, before we moved to Xian we did realize that it was a risk and we went over several possible scenarios of how bad stuff could happen.  Apparently we missed one.  The whole thing is very complicated involving 2 different owners and when I have tried to explain it in person, people still get confused.  Also, it is really not my tale to tell.  So let's just leave it at, a really crappy unstable situation arose.  Matt still had a job, just not the one he originally signed up for.   

So now everything was really weird and uncomfortable.  The man who owned the hotel building, also owned the apartment building that we lived in so therefore, if you lose your job, you also lose your apartment.  This was it for me.  UNCLE!  I simply can't live like that.  There is enough uncertainty just living in a foreign country, I don't need to add the uncertainty of not knowing if you will have a job and apartment as well.  So thank God I didn't book a return flight.  We decided that I would just go home on the 18th and Matt would stay and see how things panned out.  He still had a contract after all.  So I told my work that I would not be returning and my last day would be the 10th of May.  After the Great Wall Marathon in Beijing, Matt went back to Xian and I just went home. 

Matt had about a month of a really crappy situation.  (I would not have handled it at all well.) It did come to the point where he had 2 days to get out of the apartment but luckily he already had a new (temporary) apartment lined up and a new job situation as well.  The new apartment was much nicer and quieter so that was good for him.  It was about three miles farther away from my school though, so had I stayed it would have been a ridiculous commute for me where I could no longer walk home in the afternoon.  I probably would have had to quit anyway.  The situation seems to be working out well for Matt though, because he is getting a promotion and he will be opening a new hotel.  So sometime next month he will be moving AGAIN! Now he will be closer to Beijing in Jinan, so this move requires a flight.  It all worked out for the best I suppose.  Because I decided to leave, he was free to take the job in Jinan. 

I have since gone home.  Neekole Peekole got a summer internship doing computer coding so we got to go shopping for new work clothes. That was really nice and I'm glad I didn't miss that.  Yay Nicole! Also, because I went back early, I also got a job as an early hire for the school year! Yay me! Matt is still in Xian but he should be starting his new job in Jinan sometime in July.  Hopefully he can come for a visit this summer.  Also, my job is at a year round school so it should make it easier to visit while Matt is away.  Would I leave the country again in the future if the opportunity arises? Of course! Will I go back to China? I would not say never, but I would say that is highly unlikely.  I need a break for a couple of years at least.  

One last thing.  We had a huge problem trying to get Sammy from Riyadh to China.  The guy who was helping us was ridiculous and always finding some excuse why he couldn't send the dog.  It was was very frustrating for us and for our Riyadh neighbors who were taking care of him for so long! Thanks neighbors! Had he ended up in China, there is no way Matt would have been able to keep moving him around.  They have some pretty strict quarantine laws there and it doesn't sound like they take very good care of the dogs when they do quarantine them.  So Sammy is now back in Vegas.  This was probably his last trip as he is looking pretty old these days.  I really don't think he would have liked China all that much either! 

The situation isn't exactly ideal, but it is what it is.  We just do the best that we can with the situations that present themselves.  For now, if Matt can manage to tough it out in China, then the payoff is big for him and worth staying.  For me, I could tough it out but I am almost certain I would resent it.  I'm much better off in the states for now.  

As for China, I think I would have lasted a lot longer in Beijing or Shanghai but regardless, it is still China.  I prefer staying in a 5 star hotel than a typical Chinese apartment.  So the saying is true for me.  It's a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there!

China Update Part One

Well it's been just over a month since my last blog post and A LOT has happened since then.  Actually, a lot happened before the last blog post but I pretty much had to keep it to myself.

I think it's been clear from the blog that I don't exactly love China.  When Matt and I would discuss things here, my response to how I felt about China was pretty much the same every time.  "I don't hate it here, but I don't love it here either and truth be told, I wouldn't even say that I like it." For a while, I felt a little bad about that.  It helped a bit when I started working at the international school because I realized that I was not the only one who didn't exactly love Xian.  Most people didn't exactly love it.  Many said that they would go home (or go somewhere else) if given the opportunity.  This made me feel a bit better but it still didn't change my feelings regarding Xian.

I thought about this a lot.  I liked my job well enough.  I met some truly lovely people there.  I did not, however, like trying to get to my job.  It stressed me out every single morning.  And if I woke up and it was raining, it was truly depressing.  Going home was a bit easier because I could take a tuk tuk part of the way and then walk the rest.  (Again, depressing in the rain.)

One thing that I did not like about my job was the hours.  (8AM to 5PM)  Add in having to be on the street by 7:10 to make sure I got there on time and not getting home until 6:15 and that is pretty much and 11 hour day.  I realize that there are plenty of people who work 12-14 hour days and that's fine.  One of the perks of teaching (in America anyway) is that you don't have to practically live at work.  Also,  I was making about half of what I would in the states because I was considered a local hire.  Regardless, it was better than staying home because my apartment drove me nuts due to NOISE, lack of consistent  electricity, vile smells, dust, a really crappy washing machine (no dryer), a teeny tiny kitchen (so tiny that the teeny tiny refrigerator had to be kept in the dining room) with two oddly shaped burners that pretty much burned everything.

So after working all day, I would come home to horn honking and fire crackers as well as a really vile smell emanating from the drains in the bathrooms.  China doesn't use U pipes in their plumbing so in a high rise apartment, the smells travel up through the pipes.  It wasn't a constant smell, but you never knew when you walked into the bathroom whether or not you would be hit by an overwhelming wall of stench.  The point is, that after a long day of work, it was not at all relaxing to come home.

Several years ago, (I think it was 2007) I went to an "I Can Do It!" conference in Las Vegas.  It's put on by Hay House Publishing and it's basically a "new age" type conference.  It's a 2 or 3 day conference where they have different speakers.  You can pay for one day, two, or the whole weekend.  It's a rather expensive conference and I only really wanted to see 2 of speakers so I purchased a 1 day pass.  I went with my mom and my sister.  The day was broken into time slots.  There were several "talks" going on at the same time and you just go to the one that you want to see at the time it's presented. I wanted to see Denise Linn and Sonia Choquette, which left us with one empty time slot in between those two.  We decided to fill that slot with "The Hicks."

I had heard of the Hicks before but I can't say that I was all that interested in them.  They were a husband and wife team.  Basically, she goes into a meditation and channels "Abraham."  Then, her husband  asks Abraham questions while she is channeling him and records the answers.  They have bunches of books out called "The Teachings of Abraham."  We needed to fill a time slot and we had heard of them, so we went.  The room was pretty full but we found three seats towards the back.  Eventually the Hicks came out and started talking.  They started off talking about how Esther came to channel Abraham.  I remember being rather bored until they said, "Let's see if Abraham is willing to talk to us right now."  So Esther started to meditate and eventually her husband asked, "Abraham, are you here with us?"  Then Esther/Abraham started speaking in a much lower voice saying that, "Yes, he was here."  (I may have been rolling my eyes at this point.)  Regardless, the only thing at all that I remember from the whole spiel with "Abraham" went something like this:

Jerry Hicks: Abraham, sometimes I have people coming to me with problems like, "I bought this house, and I thought it was my dream house, but it doesn't have enough closets. Why did I make a wrong choice?"

Abraham/Esther: You didn't make a mistake. Sometimes you need to live in a house with not enough closets to know that you want to live in a house with plentiful closets.  Until you have the experience of living without enough closets, you can't necessarily know that you want a lot of closets.

I'm sure there were a lot more questions but the whole channeling thing seemed really weird so after about 5 to 10 minutes of that we decided to duck out and go have an early and extra long lunch.  Still, I have always remembered that reply.  It fits in nicely with my philosophy that a mistake is only a mistake if you don't learn from it.

Which brings me back to Xian.  I felt like the reason I was in Xian was to "live in a house without enough closets."  So I thought about that a lot.  I came to the conclusion that it is extremely important to me that I live in a place that is quiet and calming.  Xian is neither quiet nor calming.

Now we could have moved.  I talked to several people and it was very clear that there are definitely quieter places with nicer bathrooms and kitchens.  It's kind of hard to get all three but it can be done.  Still, I wasn't quite ready to start my new apartment search, so I had to ask myself why that was.  It came down to this.  I really don't like living in China all that much.  And how long does one need to live in a house without enough closets once they realize that they want more closets???

The apartment, while annoying, was really convenient for Matt.  While my commute involved taxis, tuk tuks, and a lot of walking, Matt's commute took about one minute and involved 2 elevators.  He never even had to go outside.  So why would I insist on moving when I wasn't even certain that I wanted to stay?

When it came right down to it, the simple things in life that make me happy were becoming more and more difficult to do.  Take running for instance.  I usually tried to run on Tuesdays and Thursdays because on those 2 days we were allowed to take the school bus most of the way home.  I usually got home around 5:15 so if went straight home and changed and went out the door I was able to run while it was still light out.  However, often times I was exhausted.  If I so much as sat down first, chances were that I wouldn't be getting back up again.  Also, being sick so much when I first started working didn't help much either.  Add to that the AQI (Air Quality Index) score and running just became a bit difficult.  The AQI was constantly changing.  Basically 50 or below is considered Excellent.  Under 100 is Good.  Under 150 is Lightly Polluted.  Under 200 Moderately Polluted.  Over 200 was Heavily Polluted.  The index went up to 500 and after that it was considered off the charts.  There were a few times when the index was over 500.  It didn't necessarily last all day but you could definitely feel a burning in the throat and lungs.  It was often over 200 and when it was, running outdoors was not exactly a good idea.  It would probably have effects similar to smoking.  Not the healthiest way to live.

Another thing I like to do is cook and bake.  (More the latter.)  We even bought an oven because Chinese kitchens don't  have ovens.  Just cook tops.  But I had a really difficult time finding basic things.  Just a few examples, my two closest grocery stores (both 1 mile away) had no butter.  I also never found flour and I had a really difficult time finding peanut butter.  I think I found it, but I am not completely certain that it was made from peanuts and it certainly wasn't like any peanut butter we have in the states.  Also, there really wasn't any cheese.  There may have been some nasty "singles" type cheese but I have no idea what was in it.  It tasted yucky.  There were some specialty markets, but going to one of those involved getting a driver and having him wait while we shopped.  The last time we did this we went to Ole Market.  It's freaking fabulous.  They have everything.  When we left however, we had two large bags of groceries that cost us 1600 RMB or $257.00 US.  (If you ask me it was totally worth it! I got brie dammit!  BRIE!)

Anyway, one day my bananas over ripened. This rarely happens because we eat bananas all the time, but there is nothing I love more than an overripe banana because there are so many things that you can make with them.  Frosted banana cake is my favorite, but at the time, having no flour or butter, that clearly wasn't going to happen. (Not to mention that because China has no ovens, there is no reason for bakeware, so even if I had the ingredients, I have no baking pans of any sort.)  So I turned to Pinterest.  And I came up with 2 ingredient cookies. (The oven we bought came with a baking tray.) The two ingredients are bananas and oats. (For some reason oats are everywhere, even in the little convenience stores.)  So having the 2 ingredients, I made my attempt.

 Rotten bananas, Check!

 This is Chinese peanut butter.  (I think) I enlarged the pic and those don't

look like peanuts.  It kinda tastes like peanut butter though and I have no idea

what to do with it so I decided to add it in.

 Also, I'm pretty sure peanut butter isn't supposed to just pour out like that. 

I bought two different brands and they both poured out like that.  I guess the Chinese 

like their peanut butter kind of soupy.  

 There are my oats and I also added some sugar because Chinese bananas just aren't very good.

 So here is my mixture with two kinds of sugar added.

 Ready to bake.

And done.  Did I mention that I forgot to grease the pan?

That's what happens when there isn't any butter!

I think this is what they call a Pinterest Fail. 

Anyway, they were not very good.  They were edible, but that is not saying much because in China, I often find myself eating things that I wouldn't otherwise eat.  Not because the food is bad, but because I get tired of having to walk a freaking kilometer to the nearest restaurant or convenience store.  And its a mile if you want to go somewhere good.  And if you walk the mile + there, well you have to walk it back so sometimes I find myself eating crappy things because I just don't want to have to go anywhere.  After shopping at Ole Market, we knew we wouldn't feel like cooking or going anywhere, so we got something called a toasted cheese and pork floss sandwich.  It was not good.  It was basically a toasted cheese sandwich with added pork flavored cotton candy.  I kept seeing "meat floss" in all kinds of buns and I wondered what it was.  It's meat colored and has the texture of cotton candy.  It tastes like sugared meat and it kinda dissolves in your mouth. It wasn't good, but it was edible.  I kind of just ate the middle part and then I had basically a thick crust with some cheese and meat floss on it leftover.  And even though I really didn't like it,  I wrapped it back up and put it into the fridge and believe it or not, the very next day I did eat that because I just didn't feel like going anywhere.  

So basically, the point of this is that the simple things that make me happy at home (and in Riyadh for that matter) just aren't so simple in China.  I think you can probably see where I am going with this, but it's getting a bit long so I think I will finish this tomorrow.  (And I will try not to go off on so many tangents.)