So I've decided that after having ignored blogging and recording my time in China for the past five months, now would be a good time to get the ball rolling again. And as is pretty apparent by my heavy reliance on cheesy cliches, the English is not so "proficient." You don't even want to know how many red squiggly lines are on the screen.
So I've just wrapped up my semester of advanced Chinsese language intensive. What a mouthful. The plan was always to work at Simplot doing a combo of teaching English and research about agriculture in China, but that failed for numerous reasons. So after about a day of AHHA:LKJVL what I am going to do this summer??!?!? I found the dream internship. And so I've decided that now, with my first working in a office experience in front of me, I should pick up the blogging again.
The posting for my internship went up about ten minutes before I found it and sent in resume, so I was really really lucky with the timing of the whole thing. Normally the website that I used doesn't have anything good. That was a Saturday. The boss lady called me and I interviewed in Chinese and said I would get back to her on Monday after I got back from my whirlwind trip to Hong Kong/Shenzhen. Then today, Tuesday I went to the office to have another interview. AND I'M HIRED!
The details are thus:
The company is brand new. They design games and software for Ipad apps. (could it be anymore in the moment?) I'm in charge of running their social media promotion. ( I will tweet and write Facebook updates) I will also call program developers in the states and sell them the company's software. This is where the big bucks come in---commission! But I also get paid, and its a decent salary for an internship in China, so I'm pleased. I will be working in both English and Chinese, which is also good. ALSO, I get my own desk which is terribly exciting because I've never had a job with a desk. I also get a new laptop and phone! I'm hoping they are both apple products, but I'll be happy with whatever they are because I'll have a Work Computer and a Computer for Personal Use and a Work Phone and a Phone for Personal Use. So many fun toys, plus I get to pretend to be someone important. I couldn't be more thrilled.
And so where is this company? Its just north of where I am currently living, near where there are a lot of software company things. It very convenient for me, only four stops (with a transfer) on the subway. I have a commute! Its forty five minutes including walking time and I get to do it with my boyfriend's sister. She is still living at home, which is where I will be staying for the summer. Zhu's older brother is off away studying in America, so we switched places. Zhu will be in and out, filming and stuff. I was initially really really hesitant to live here for a lot of obvious reasons, but after some serious thought I decided here would be the best place. Safe, good location, not smelly, not sketchy. No weird meeting roommates on the internet, no stuffy hostel, so scary landlord. Plus, my Chinese should continue to improve by a lot and if I lived somewhere else with foreigners, I'd miss out on funny looks. For example, the air conditioner guys just came over, and I wish I could have a photo of the looks on their faces when a blonde girl answered the door. HAHAHAHA.
Also, a pro about living here is Zhu's mom. She is awesome and always has great stories to tell that I don't always understand. She has a pretty thick Wenzhou accept and sometimes I can't tell if she is speaking in Wenzhounese or Putonghua. She uses a lot of adjectives and onomotepia when she talks, which sounds easy to understand but its not. The general pattern of her speech (I think???) is Subject+verb (repeated) then adjective phrase (ABAB or AABB). There is a lot of repeated, so when she talks its really quite sing song like. She probably has a great onomotopedia based adjective phrase for the way she talks. I need to figure out a way to figure that out.
I think sometimes her people under-appreciate her, but I try not to. Sometimes she talks and talks about how when she was our age, or how things are in her hometown, or about how she used to sing and I feel like no one listens except me. But we bonded a few times, over cheap clothes made in sweatshops in Southern China and the one time that I taught her how to use Safari on her ipad. She also is always giving Zhu strange things to drink that are supposed to fix any of his numerous problems and I get to watch what happens. One it was a thick green slushy concoction of milkshake consistency, once it was a sticky carmelly colored hot potion. Today (just minutes ago) it was innocent looking tea. I tried the carmel drink, sweet and delicious. The green thing did not pass my lips. I gave the tea a shot. The best part about this whole ordeal is Zhu's mom will ask him, "Do you want to drink xxxx?" He'll say no way, absolutely not. After about a half and hour the drink will appear and Zhu's reaction will be, "What is this? I don't want this!" and his mom will ignore him and tell him to drink it. Then he turns to me and says "She's always giving my these crazy things to drink." Then he'll pick it up and sniff at it, then put it down and repeat, whine for a bit that its too bitter and then finally take a sip at say that its not bad. Then his moms is just thrilled and will say something about the drinks benefits of history. Then Zhu will willingly finished the drink, and probably like it. The tea that just happened was some special kind of green tea. When dranken, its first mild and green tea like, then very bitter and ultimately leaves a sweet aftertaste. How is that even possible??
So why does the title of this post about Walmart? Well, you see, my new office is in the same complex as what I think must be the biggest Walmart in Beijing. I've seen minibuses that you can take for free from various locales around the city for free that take you there. Its crazy. Anyway I was so excited to go after my interview for so many reasons 1. I had a couple of things I needed to buy: sunscreen and conditioner and originally I was planning to go to the Carrefour near my old school, but that would mean taking the subway in the opposite direction of home, which was kind of a hassel and I would have to pay twice as much in public transportation fees 2. I had only been to Walmart twice before, once in the winter of 2006 with my dear friend B in Telluride, and it was an amazing experience because it was my first time, and one in Qingdao, China, looking for Tsingdao beer peanuts (which we couldn't find but it was okay because Zhu took us out for ice cream at the attached Mcdonalds after. 3. I was so excited about the endless possilblities that Walmart held for me. What kind of products would they have? Would the have different things than my very familiar standby, Carrefour? Would it be cheaper? What kind of deals could I get?
It was very dissappointing. Yes, huge. More expensive than Carrefour AND no bath products section that I could find, so I had to go to Carrefour anyway. So far everyday since moved out of my old neighborhood I've been back. Yesterday to play monopoly with Zhu and his sister, her boyfriend, Zhu's [god] brother ZXY and his wife XL at my old favorite coffee shop after Duan Wu JIe (Dragon Boat Festival) lunch with his mom and today to go back to my good old trusty Carrefour. I was really scared I woud never go back, but it doesn't look like its going to be that way. My most concrete playtime plans are too go shopping at the shopping place over there (I used to live on top of the largest clothing market in Beijing) with XL and to go swimming at a nearby aquarium. So I guess my old neighborhood is still mine.
No comments:
Post a Comment