Hello everyone. Nathaniel here writing the last reflection. These past days in the office have been a mix of work and play. Some days we get work to do, but others, we have nothing at all. For example, right now, we're sitting in a cubicle with 3 computers. My two coworkers both have today off apparently, so, the 3 of us are just sitting around the computers pretty much doing nothing. But, just yesterday, they had us counting binders in the various storage rooms around the complex, including one hidden in the back of the cafeteria.
Work aside, by now we have all grown alot more familiar with our host families. After all, spending more than 2 weeks with each other means you do have to talk to each other every now and then. My host's son, Jack, calls me over to play Go with him every day after dinner, and the grandmother in my host family keeps commenting on how my Chinese has improved so much.
Actually, I think that we've just gotten more used to being in China in general. Just yesterday, Miguel caught me saying "shen me?" to him instead of "What?", and I noticed that I was accidentally slipping in Mandarin phrases while I talked to my parents in Cantonese. When I give taxi drivers directions, I'm no longer doubtful of my pronunciation. I think that all of us are feeling more confident just being here. China is a familiar place. Not quite home, but not quite foreign either.
Overall, we've had a lot of fun here, especially on weekends where we get to go out and do stuff on our own. Personally, I've experienced a lot more independence here than at home. And, though it's been fun here, it's time we came home. Good thing that's in two days.
Goodbye for now, but we'll be saying hello in person before you know it.
Nathaniel
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Day 14- Internship in Beijing
Greetings again from Beijing. The internship has been picking up recently as they seem to have gained more trust in us. On Tuesday we had Lucy, the HR representative, come to us in need of some urgent help. She told us that sales department needed our help immediately to help organize some paper work. Ting and I had to run up and down the office getting papers sign and organized throughout the day. They told us that because of the Olympics they needed to get all of the sale orders straightened out before Friday so they needed us to get everything done as fast as possible. It really is a lot of pressure but the change of pace is welcome.
Every morning we receive a brief introduction to a different department of NCR. Tuesday we had payment and order fulfillment come in to give presentations on how their departments are run and how they work in collaboration with the other departments to get the job done. On Wednesday morning we had a brief intro from the Software department and the sales department. The sales spokesperson really caught our attention. His presentation was very straight forward and told us that "without the sales department everyone would die." In the sales department there is a reward for the salesperson that sells the most. The prize that they get is a trip to Hawaii and other famous states throughout the United States. At one point during his presentation someone knocked on the door and called him out telling him that he had an important meeting he had to attended and he left the room and was back within the half hour. Upon his return he told us that the sales team were like the soldiers of the company and said that "real men do sales."
At home, life has been good as well. The little child i have come to know as "iveen" is slowly trying to get to know me better. He has been teaching me how to play piano the past few days and is always asking me what i think of the songs he plays.I have really enjoyed my time here in Beijing and i have learned so much during my stay. it has really been a great experience.
The end
Miguel
Every morning we receive a brief introduction to a different department of NCR. Tuesday we had payment and order fulfillment come in to give presentations on how their departments are run and how they work in collaboration with the other departments to get the job done. On Wednesday morning we had a brief intro from the Software department and the sales department. The sales spokesperson really caught our attention. His presentation was very straight forward and told us that "without the sales department everyone would die." In the sales department there is a reward for the salesperson that sells the most. The prize that they get is a trip to Hawaii and other famous states throughout the United States. At one point during his presentation someone knocked on the door and called him out telling him that he had an important meeting he had to attended and he left the room and was back within the half hour. Upon his return he told us that the sales team were like the soldiers of the company and said that "real men do sales."
At home, life has been good as well. The little child i have come to know as "iveen" is slowly trying to get to know me better. He has been teaching me how to play piano the past few days and is always asking me what i think of the songs he plays.I have really enjoyed my time here in Beijing and i have learned so much during my stay. it has really been a great experience.
The end
Miguel
Monday, June 23, 2008
Shanghai number three!
hey it's us from Shanghai again. Michael's going to start off with our one point of interest from the office as of last week, and then I'll tell you guys about our weekend.
Josh and I were just returning from our daily after-lunch walk last Wednesday when we realized that the office looked particularly dark. We walked in to find that the power had went out and all of the computers were powerless. After waiting for about fifteen minutes, the lights turned on and power was restored. Peter, the guy who fixes all of the computers for the employees, told me to turn my computer on and see if it worked. So I did as he instructed. As soon as I hit the power button there was a popping sound and my computer monitor started smoking. I turned it off right away, but the screen continued to release smoke. Everyone in the office rushed over to see the spectical of smoke and mutter to each other in Chinese. They were actually surprisingly nice about the whole thing. One of their monitors had been fried and people were laughing about how much smoke there was. About two minutes later, another computer started smoking and everyone rushed over there. At this point, we realized that turning on more computers would be a bad idea. The problem was eventually fixed. I got a brand new monitor for my computer and the day went on. It was our first bit of action we've had the entire internship and everything turned out okay.
ok so it's josh again. here's the weekend story:
I had quite the weekend. I would definitely not call it fun, but it wasn't bad either, and it definitely taught me how to appreciate my life. we left friday a bit confused about our weekend plans. Michael and I had been told that we were going to a place called Hang Zhou, which I knew nothing of, except for that it was a huge tourist site in China and that it involved a lake. we had heard that the guy we were staying with (who we had only met that day for about two seconds) had a house near the lake, but we were skeptical because the lake didn't allow swimming, or motor boats, or anything that usually goes along with a lakehouse. it sounded more like the lake we visited in Ji Nan, government owned and run, more of a tourist attraction for people who have lived in gross, smoggy cities their entire lives and find lakes novel. It's supposedly hugely attractive to Chinese people, but having never heard of it myself, I doubted it registered up on the American tourists going to see the highlights of China list. not that that is neccesarily bad, just definitely not the sound of a place with lake houses. no one who we know knew what we were doing at the lake except for "walking around and visting." we were told multiple times that "there were many places at the lake to visit" sounding more and more like a government owned tourist attraction, no? well the meeting with the guy we were staying with (I still don't know his name. he said it to us but we didn't catch it, and Xintian said it to me tonight but it's clearly not that catchy because it didn't stick. Michael and I called him either Hang Zhou [behind his back clearly, since that's the city he lives in, not his name] or greeny [when he wore this brilliantly colored green polo, three out of the four days we saw him, friday, saturday, and monday] when we spoke to his face we just said hey! or something like that) the meeting wasn't to reassuring is the point. it lasted about twelve seconds, and his english was so bad he couldn't even get out his first scentence comfortably. I told him to use Chinese, so he started jabbering away and I just nodded and agreed. At the end I thought we were going for dinner at 4 and leaving at five (turned out we left at five, but whatever I heard about si dian zhong was something else. that's good though because 4 isn't when I usually dine my evening meal) so yeah... nothing really productive there. Well we departed at five and by a mix of subway bus train and taxi made it all the way to his "lake house." we arrived at around 9:30, 4 and a half hour trip. so yeah see those quotations around lake house? I did that for a reason. lake house = this is guy is really poor. now when I complain about the housing situation, realize I'm not complaining, or being stuck up in any way, I'm just describing this how it was. It's clearly not how either Michael or I live at home, and not how I have ever lived in my life. that's why it was a learning experience though, and one that made me super grateful! seriously I'm not trying to sound whiny, so you have to read this as me being the most understanding affluent american who's ever stayed with a poor chinese family. I'm pretty sure he was commuter worker, meaning that he probably grew up in Hang Zhou, went to school in Hang Zhou, and now that he has akid wants to move to a better city with better opporunities for his son. To do this, he got a job in Shang Hai and lives there during the week, so he can support his family at home and (he didn't tell em this part but I'm guessing) hoepfully move the family into Shang Hai eventually. his family lives in the top apartment of a building on the edge of the city. family being his wife and absolutely adorable two year old. I'll talk about the kid later because he deserves his own paragraph. anyway, the top apartment, as far as what michael and I have seen dictates, is usually the fanciest in the building. this wasn't exactly fancy though. when you walked in there was a hallway heading straight ahead, with one turn off to the right. The turn led to a kind of kitchen/sink area that didn't really have four walls, kind of like a small hallway with large, glassless windows. the main hallway continued into what I'm going to call the living room, where the kids toys and table took up about 75 percent of the room. then there were two bedrooms, one for the family and one for Michael and me. there was no furniture except for the beds, which had been covered by multiple threadbare blankets to try and make up for the lack of mattresses. But I always say I can sleep on anything. including wooden floors, which is what this felt like. the bathroom, which had enough room for two people to stand shoulder and shoulder in front of the bath, toilet and sink, could at least be defended by saying it had running water. it was only cold water, of course, and there was no shower head, so the one time I attempted to clean myself all weekend I did it kind of elephant in the jungle style: just poring water over my head. The water I used to bathe was heated over the stove in a large jug and then poured into a basin that sat in the tub. oh and did I mention that there was no soap in the entire house, excluding a tiny sample size bottle of Johnson and Johnson baby oil? they call it baby "oil" for a reason, that stuff makes your hands slimy! so yeah I wasn't exactly the cleanest boy ever this weekend.
luckily our room had an air conditioning unit, because the rest of the house was always slightly hotter than the outdoor temperature, which stayed at around 93 for the duration of our visit. I felt bad about using it though, because they clearly weren't the richest people I know. oh and our room was also equipped with a large blue net that surrounded the bed to try and keep the various bugs from infesting our skins while sleeping. I still managed to some away with two bug bights, one on each shoulder, that are kind of... huge? oh and did I mention that they match! exact same place on each side, I'm symmetrical!
so yeah, enough whining right? seriously i'm not trying to sound stuck up, I was just describing my weekend living situation. but I'm clearly going to appreciate my shower more when I get home. Anyway, the eating situation was ok. we had two home made meals, which were not exactly the best meals I've ever had, but filled my stomach. and then we also went to this restaurant that I'd rather call an eatery. it was like a giant food court type thing that we ate at for all three meals. I personally believe that they have a vendetta against vegetarians. I mean hiding tiny shrimp in the cabbage? what's up with that. the waitress tried to convince me that if it was just a little bit of meat it didn't count, but hey, my convictions are strong. so I ate rice, edamame, and bamboo shoots. and lost some weight. and then the kid!! he was sooooo cute!! his name was qian sun I think, but anyway they called him sun sun. michael and I called him kobe though. His chinese was better than mine, which is a bit sad, but hey, he was smart! he would always talk to me in Chinese and his dad would have to translate and then I'd say some stuff back. Michael and I taught him to high five, and he loved that. oh and he had these toy trucks that he could ride and they had honkable horns!! he loved to honk them and then crash them right through the door into our room. my mommy always said that it's a good thing that they make babies so cute or else we'd kill them. I liked him =D
the lake was what I thought it would be, just with a bit less government. It was like one big park, and we spent sunday afternoon walking around it. Michael and I talked a lot. sun sun ran into a lot of people and had the time of his life. other than that I'd say we were actually bored sometimes, because there wasn't much to do around the place. we visited another temple/garden like place, basically the same as all the others we saw except this one had some caves.
so not a bad weekend again, and definitely an eye opening one. I'm learning plenty in China, though I don't think anyone planned on teaching me this lesson.
Josh and I were just returning from our daily after-lunch walk last Wednesday when we realized that the office looked particularly dark. We walked in to find that the power had went out and all of the computers were powerless. After waiting for about fifteen minutes, the lights turned on and power was restored. Peter, the guy who fixes all of the computers for the employees, told me to turn my computer on and see if it worked. So I did as he instructed. As soon as I hit the power button there was a popping sound and my computer monitor started smoking. I turned it off right away, but the screen continued to release smoke. Everyone in the office rushed over to see the spectical of smoke and mutter to each other in Chinese. They were actually surprisingly nice about the whole thing. One of their monitors had been fried and people were laughing about how much smoke there was. About two minutes later, another computer started smoking and everyone rushed over there. At this point, we realized that turning on more computers would be a bad idea. The problem was eventually fixed. I got a brand new monitor for my computer and the day went on. It was our first bit of action we've had the entire internship and everything turned out okay.
ok so it's josh again. here's the weekend story:
I had quite the weekend. I would definitely not call it fun, but it wasn't bad either, and it definitely taught me how to appreciate my life. we left friday a bit confused about our weekend plans. Michael and I had been told that we were going to a place called Hang Zhou, which I knew nothing of, except for that it was a huge tourist site in China and that it involved a lake. we had heard that the guy we were staying with (who we had only met that day for about two seconds) had a house near the lake, but we were skeptical because the lake didn't allow swimming, or motor boats, or anything that usually goes along with a lakehouse. it sounded more like the lake we visited in Ji Nan, government owned and run, more of a tourist attraction for people who have lived in gross, smoggy cities their entire lives and find lakes novel. It's supposedly hugely attractive to Chinese people, but having never heard of it myself, I doubted it registered up on the American tourists going to see the highlights of China list. not that that is neccesarily bad, just definitely not the sound of a place with lake houses. no one who we know knew what we were doing at the lake except for "walking around and visting." we were told multiple times that "there were many places at the lake to visit" sounding more and more like a government owned tourist attraction, no? well the meeting with the guy we were staying with (I still don't know his name. he said it to us but we didn't catch it, and Xintian said it to me tonight but it's clearly not that catchy because it didn't stick. Michael and I called him either Hang Zhou [behind his back clearly, since that's the city he lives in, not his name] or greeny [when he wore this brilliantly colored green polo, three out of the four days we saw him, friday, saturday, and monday] when we spoke to his face we just said hey! or something like that) the meeting wasn't to reassuring is the point. it lasted about twelve seconds, and his english was so bad he couldn't even get out his first scentence comfortably. I told him to use Chinese, so he started jabbering away and I just nodded and agreed. At the end I thought we were going for dinner at 4 and leaving at five (turned out we left at five, but whatever I heard about si dian zhong was something else. that's good though because 4 isn't when I usually dine my evening meal) so yeah... nothing really productive there. Well we departed at five and by a mix of subway bus train and taxi made it all the way to his "lake house." we arrived at around 9:30, 4 and a half hour trip. so yeah see those quotations around lake house? I did that for a reason. lake house = this is guy is really poor. now when I complain about the housing situation, realize I'm not complaining, or being stuck up in any way, I'm just describing this how it was. It's clearly not how either Michael or I live at home, and not how I have ever lived in my life. that's why it was a learning experience though, and one that made me super grateful! seriously I'm not trying to sound whiny, so you have to read this as me being the most understanding affluent american who's ever stayed with a poor chinese family. I'm pretty sure he was commuter worker, meaning that he probably grew up in Hang Zhou, went to school in Hang Zhou, and now that he has akid wants to move to a better city with better opporunities for his son. To do this, he got a job in Shang Hai and lives there during the week, so he can support his family at home and (he didn't tell em this part but I'm guessing) hoepfully move the family into Shang Hai eventually. his family lives in the top apartment of a building on the edge of the city. family being his wife and absolutely adorable two year old. I'll talk about the kid later because he deserves his own paragraph. anyway, the top apartment, as far as what michael and I have seen dictates, is usually the fanciest in the building. this wasn't exactly fancy though. when you walked in there was a hallway heading straight ahead, with one turn off to the right. The turn led to a kind of kitchen/sink area that didn't really have four walls, kind of like a small hallway with large, glassless windows. the main hallway continued into what I'm going to call the living room, where the kids toys and table took up about 75 percent of the room. then there were two bedrooms, one for the family and one for Michael and me. there was no furniture except for the beds, which had been covered by multiple threadbare blankets to try and make up for the lack of mattresses. But I always say I can sleep on anything. including wooden floors, which is what this felt like. the bathroom, which had enough room for two people to stand shoulder and shoulder in front of the bath, toilet and sink, could at least be defended by saying it had running water. it was only cold water, of course, and there was no shower head, so the one time I attempted to clean myself all weekend I did it kind of elephant in the jungle style: just poring water over my head. The water I used to bathe was heated over the stove in a large jug and then poured into a basin that sat in the tub. oh and did I mention that there was no soap in the entire house, excluding a tiny sample size bottle of Johnson and Johnson baby oil? they call it baby "oil" for a reason, that stuff makes your hands slimy! so yeah I wasn't exactly the cleanest boy ever this weekend.
luckily our room had an air conditioning unit, because the rest of the house was always slightly hotter than the outdoor temperature, which stayed at around 93 for the duration of our visit. I felt bad about using it though, because they clearly weren't the richest people I know. oh and our room was also equipped with a large blue net that surrounded the bed to try and keep the various bugs from infesting our skins while sleeping. I still managed to some away with two bug bights, one on each shoulder, that are kind of... huge? oh and did I mention that they match! exact same place on each side, I'm symmetrical!
so yeah, enough whining right? seriously i'm not trying to sound stuck up, I was just describing my weekend living situation. but I'm clearly going to appreciate my shower more when I get home. Anyway, the eating situation was ok. we had two home made meals, which were not exactly the best meals I've ever had, but filled my stomach. and then we also went to this restaurant that I'd rather call an eatery. it was like a giant food court type thing that we ate at for all three meals. I personally believe that they have a vendetta against vegetarians. I mean hiding tiny shrimp in the cabbage? what's up with that. the waitress tried to convince me that if it was just a little bit of meat it didn't count, but hey, my convictions are strong. so I ate rice, edamame, and bamboo shoots. and lost some weight. and then the kid!! he was sooooo cute!! his name was qian sun I think, but anyway they called him sun sun. michael and I called him kobe though. His chinese was better than mine, which is a bit sad, but hey, he was smart! he would always talk to me in Chinese and his dad would have to translate and then I'd say some stuff back. Michael and I taught him to high five, and he loved that. oh and he had these toy trucks that he could ride and they had honkable horns!! he loved to honk them and then crash them right through the door into our room. my mommy always said that it's a good thing that they make babies so cute or else we'd kill them. I liked him =D
the lake was what I thought it would be, just with a bit less government. It was like one big park, and we spent sunday afternoon walking around it. Michael and I talked a lot. sun sun ran into a lot of people and had the time of his life. other than that I'd say we were actually bored sometimes, because there wasn't much to do around the place. we visited another temple/garden like place, basically the same as all the others we saw except this one had some caves.
so not a bad weekend again, and definitely an eye opening one. I'm learning plenty in China, though I don't think anyone planned on teaching me this lesson.
Day 12- Internship in Beijing
Salutations from Beijing. I have been given the honor of writing the post about our weekend. and i begin by saying that we have been learning so much here in china and have been able to see a different side of Chinese culture.
The weekend started off like any other in that we had no idea what we were going to do until we actually got into the car. After a series of votes we decided that the first place we were going to visit was the Forbidden City. Again. Personally i was all for the second trip. The first time we went to the ancient home of the emperor i had felt as if i had missed out on some of it because we were only there for about 45 minutes. So upon arriving we took this opportunity to take pictures together and to gain a greater appreciation for the ancient city and its amazing architecture. Hunger struck us after our long and laborious rounds through the city of old and we decided that the only thing that could satisfy our hunger at that point was some real authentic Chinese KFC. Luckily for us there were two KFC's within a few blocks of each other in either direction. So after a hearty meal at KFC we decided that shopping was the next necessary task on the list.
We made our way back to the Pearl Market, which was the last market we had gone to while the rest of the class was here and started shopping. After 4 weeks in China i must say we have become quite good at bargaining. During our last transaction at the market the man selling us the items actually started buckling over in pain as we handed him the money and his parting words were "are you a woman?" Needless to say that to be called a woman in any situation, while being male, is not normally seen as a good thing we took it as a compliment toward our newly learned bargaining skills. The next stop on our list was a computer market that Ting had heard about from some fellow co-workers.
Looking out onto this new market we could tell it wouldn't not be the same as the ones we had been to before. Upon walking it we could see signs and for Apple products and for computers of every brands. Any part of a computer you can think of could be found in one of those small shops. But much to our dismay we were struck with the unfortunate truth that at this market you could not bargain for the products and to make matters worse the prices of the items were unnecessarily high considering that most of the products were made in china. Needles to say we did not stay at this market for very long and decided instead go see a movie.
This being our second weekend in Beijing we decided to do some research as to which movie we were going to see during the weekend. Must to our dismay we had learned early on in the week that the movie we were so eagerly anticipating would not be showing until June 26th which meant that we would have to wait until the following week to see the movie. So we had decided on a suitable substitute and went into the theaters hoping that we might it would be in English. While we were buying our tickets though we noticed a poster for the movie we had been dying to see while here in China, saying that it would start playing in the theater the 20th of June. We jumped for joy at this discovery and ran to get in line to buy three tickets and before we knew it we were waiting for the movie to begin. As we sat hoping and praying that it would be in English the movie started and we rejoiced to find that it was indeed in our native tongue. We sat with big grins on our faces and enjoyed the film we had been so eagerly awaiting: Kongfu Panda.
Once the movie ended up decided that some more food was necessary to continue on and made a stop to one of our favorite places to eat while here in China: KFC. After another hearty meal we made our way for a nice dessert at Dairy Queen and went to go play arcade games for a while. This concluded our hectic Saturday and upon getting our fill of arcade games we decided to call it a night and head home.
For our Sunday we all agreed upon going to church. We enjoyed last weeks service but we wanted to see what the English service was like. The sermon to our surprise was about the up coming Olympics and how the games are only here for 16 days and then in an instant they are gone and the Reverend asked us the question what do we do next? After the great service we headed out to get some lunch and afterwards get our head cut. With the help of one of Ting's family friends we were able to find a place that had a pizza buffet and a hair salon in the same building. Nathaniel and I were the only ones who ended up getting our haircut. Once our hair was cut and styled I remembered that i needed to buy a suitcase for the way back home but first we decided to go watch another movie.
At the mall we ran upstairs hoping to be able to catch a movie that was in English. Once in line we asked the cashier if there were anymore movies that were in English with Chinese subtitles. It turns out that we watched all three English movies while here in china. So instead of watching a movie again Ross and Ting decided to go play video games while i decided to go walk around the mall. After noticing that everything in china is just a tad bit too small for me i headed back to the arcade just in time to watch the guys beat the game. It was joyous moment for all and we ran out to see if we still had time to go buy my suitcase.
The market we decided to go to this time was the Xiu Shui Jie Market. Once inside we headed off to find a suitcase. Inside one of the shops I had a two female shopkeepers corner me and not let me leave. Ting had to help me get out of the situation and i was able to leave alive but still without a suit case. we wondered around the market looking for someone to sell me a suitcase for the price i wanted. We applied a new form of bargaining where we told the shopkeepers that we had already been in china for a long time and gave them our price and asked if they could sell it to us or not. It worked and i ended up getting a large suitcase for 125 yuan. We went looking around for more deals and wound up in a sunglasses shop. We had been to this shop before and they had refused to give us the price that we had asked for so we were hoping that this second time would go better for us. We were there for about an hour and in that time we got called several names ranging from "hard", "woman", "playboy", to "crazy." But in the end we got the goods for the price we wanted. In all it was a good day but rather tiring and so we parted ways and headed back to our homes.
THE END
Miguel Alecio
The weekend started off like any other in that we had no idea what we were going to do until we actually got into the car. After a series of votes we decided that the first place we were going to visit was the Forbidden City. Again. Personally i was all for the second trip. The first time we went to the ancient home of the emperor i had felt as if i had missed out on some of it because we were only there for about 45 minutes. So upon arriving we took this opportunity to take pictures together and to gain a greater appreciation for the ancient city and its amazing architecture. Hunger struck us after our long and laborious rounds through the city of old and we decided that the only thing that could satisfy our hunger at that point was some real authentic Chinese KFC. Luckily for us there were two KFC's within a few blocks of each other in either direction. So after a hearty meal at KFC we decided that shopping was the next necessary task on the list.
We made our way back to the Pearl Market, which was the last market we had gone to while the rest of the class was here and started shopping. After 4 weeks in China i must say we have become quite good at bargaining. During our last transaction at the market the man selling us the items actually started buckling over in pain as we handed him the money and his parting words were "are you a woman?" Needless to say that to be called a woman in any situation, while being male, is not normally seen as a good thing we took it as a compliment toward our newly learned bargaining skills. The next stop on our list was a computer market that Ting had heard about from some fellow co-workers.
Looking out onto this new market we could tell it wouldn't not be the same as the ones we had been to before. Upon walking it we could see signs and for Apple products and for computers of every brands. Any part of a computer you can think of could be found in one of those small shops. But much to our dismay we were struck with the unfortunate truth that at this market you could not bargain for the products and to make matters worse the prices of the items were unnecessarily high considering that most of the products were made in china. Needles to say we did not stay at this market for very long and decided instead go see a movie.
This being our second weekend in Beijing we decided to do some research as to which movie we were going to see during the weekend. Must to our dismay we had learned early on in the week that the movie we were so eagerly anticipating would not be showing until June 26th which meant that we would have to wait until the following week to see the movie. So we had decided on a suitable substitute and went into the theaters hoping that we might it would be in English. While we were buying our tickets though we noticed a poster for the movie we had been dying to see while here in China, saying that it would start playing in the theater the 20th of June. We jumped for joy at this discovery and ran to get in line to buy three tickets and before we knew it we were waiting for the movie to begin. As we sat hoping and praying that it would be in English the movie started and we rejoiced to find that it was indeed in our native tongue. We sat with big grins on our faces and enjoyed the film we had been so eagerly awaiting: Kongfu Panda.
Once the movie ended up decided that some more food was necessary to continue on and made a stop to one of our favorite places to eat while here in China: KFC. After another hearty meal we made our way for a nice dessert at Dairy Queen and went to go play arcade games for a while. This concluded our hectic Saturday and upon getting our fill of arcade games we decided to call it a night and head home.
For our Sunday we all agreed upon going to church. We enjoyed last weeks service but we wanted to see what the English service was like. The sermon to our surprise was about the up coming Olympics and how the games are only here for 16 days and then in an instant they are gone and the Reverend asked us the question what do we do next? After the great service we headed out to get some lunch and afterwards get our head cut. With the help of one of Ting's family friends we were able to find a place that had a pizza buffet and a hair salon in the same building. Nathaniel and I were the only ones who ended up getting our haircut. Once our hair was cut and styled I remembered that i needed to buy a suitcase for the way back home but first we decided to go watch another movie.
At the mall we ran upstairs hoping to be able to catch a movie that was in English. Once in line we asked the cashier if there were anymore movies that were in English with Chinese subtitles. It turns out that we watched all three English movies while here in china. So instead of watching a movie again Ross and Ting decided to go play video games while i decided to go walk around the mall. After noticing that everything in china is just a tad bit too small for me i headed back to the arcade just in time to watch the guys beat the game. It was joyous moment for all and we ran out to see if we still had time to go buy my suitcase.
The market we decided to go to this time was the Xiu Shui Jie Market. Once inside we headed off to find a suitcase. Inside one of the shops I had a two female shopkeepers corner me and not let me leave. Ting had to help me get out of the situation and i was able to leave alive but still without a suit case. we wondered around the market looking for someone to sell me a suitcase for the price i wanted. We applied a new form of bargaining where we told the shopkeepers that we had already been in china for a long time and gave them our price and asked if they could sell it to us or not. It worked and i ended up getting a large suitcase for 125 yuan. We went looking around for more deals and wound up in a sunglasses shop. We had been to this shop before and they had refused to give us the price that we had asked for so we were hoping that this second time would go better for us. We were there for about an hour and in that time we got called several names ranging from "hard", "woman", "playboy", to "crazy." But in the end we got the goods for the price we wanted. In all it was a good day but rather tiring and so we parted ways and headed back to our homes.
THE END
Miguel Alecio
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Day 8- Internship in Beijing
So, another two days have passed at work in Beijing at NCR. Everyday now we are getting presentations from two different departments in the morning, and then after being distributed for jobs. Yesterday was certainly the most eventful and interesting day thus far at NCR for Miguel and I.
After having our daily meeting, we went downstairs to the warehouse and met up with a few engineers who took us in a cab to their off-site factory. From there we witnessed first hand how to build an ATM cash dispenser, and then were charged with the task of building our own. A job which required both of us to be extremely meticulous in following construction instructions, after about an hour we were successful in building our part of the ATM cash dispenser. As great craftsman as we were, the NCR people still decided like every other machine they should put ours to the test. Luckily for them they got some free labor for a fully functioning dispenser. Now our ATM dispenser will be shipped somewhere and put into use somewhere in the world- who knows in a few weeks or months you could possibly be using our handywork to take money out of an ATM.
Another note worthy occurrence happened about one hour ago or so today. For the first time since arriving at NCR, all three of us ate together at location other than Subway (haha). Actually it was Nathaniel's host who took the extremely courteous initiative of whisking us away from mediocre American food establishments, and took us to have dumplings at a restaurant close to work.
Besides that the last few days have been pretty uneventful, considering with work we do not have much free time, (and the fact that neither I nor Miguel have had any trouble being on time to get on buses or navigating our way to work) and so, I must draw a conclusion to a very short blog.
Thanks
Ross
After having our daily meeting, we went downstairs to the warehouse and met up with a few engineers who took us in a cab to their off-site factory. From there we witnessed first hand how to build an ATM cash dispenser, and then were charged with the task of building our own. A job which required both of us to be extremely meticulous in following construction instructions, after about an hour we were successful in building our part of the ATM cash dispenser. As great craftsman as we were, the NCR people still decided like every other machine they should put ours to the test. Luckily for them they got some free labor for a fully functioning dispenser. Now our ATM dispenser will be shipped somewhere and put into use somewhere in the world- who knows in a few weeks or months you could possibly be using our handywork to take money out of an ATM.
Another note worthy occurrence happened about one hour ago or so today. For the first time since arriving at NCR, all three of us ate together at location other than Subway (haha). Actually it was Nathaniel's host who took the extremely courteous initiative of whisking us away from mediocre American food establishments, and took us to have dumplings at a restaurant close to work.
Besides that the last few days have been pretty uneventful, considering with work we do not have much free time, (and the fact that neither I nor Miguel have had any trouble being on time to get on buses or navigating our way to work) and so, I must draw a conclusion to a very short blog.
Thanks
Ross
Genband Shanghai Number 2
Hello again from Genband-Shanghai! Josh and I had an amazing weekend and we're here to tell you all about it. The excitement began Friday night when Josh came with my host family to spend the night. Our first stop was dinner at a local resturant which was very good after a long work week. (So much free time is surprisingly exhausting) After dinner we got in the car and drove to downtown Shanghai to visit the huge TV tower which apparently has an amazing view of the whole city. However when we arrived, we didn't have much time to spend at the tower and we decided that it wasn't worth paying to go up for only a few minutes. So we decided to walk along the river that divides the city into two parts. The view from the side of the water was breathtaking. The Shanghai skyline was gorgeous and the yachts in the river were all lit up in verious neon colors. Some of the buildings actually have TV screens along their sides which caused Josh and me to do a little double-take. One moment we would see the windows of an office building and a few seconds later there would be an advertisement. My host family didn't understand why we were so amused but we thought it was pretty neat. After spending about a half an hour by the river, we headed back home. We got home at about 9:00 and watched two episodes of "The Apprentice." (My host mom loves American TV shows, so she has a ton of shows on DVD) After watching the show and eating a few slices of watermelon, we went upstairs to get ready for bed. Josh and I were actually quite tired so we were pretty eager to get some rest. Afterall, we had a whole weekend ahead of us.
We woke up on Saturday at about 8:30. We took showers and headed downstairs for breakfast with my host family. They had put out quite the spread for us. Breakfast was comprised pancakes, papaya, pears, and a traditional Chinese pastry. After a very filling breakfast, we set out for the underground market to buy a few gifts for our friends and family. The underground market is essentially a mall, but instead of big stores there are just a bunch of small shops. (you can also bargain for everything in China, so going back home and not being able to do so for a pair of shoes is going to be tough. Actually, I'm not sure what the Footlocker salesman would say if I tried to cut a deal with him.) After about an hour and a half Josh and I were finished shopping and were ready to head out. Our next stop was Ohel Rachel Synagogue. Josh's grandmother is from Shanghai and she went there about sixty years ago. The government only allows visitors in the actual synagogue one day a year: the second Saturday in June. We'd say that we got pretty lucky there. We walked around inside the main building. They had an exhibition about the Jews who had used it over the past years. After visiting the Synagogue we were pretty hungry so we went to a noodle resurant in the area which ended up being very good. After lunch we went to see the General Electric office where my host dad works. The office is quite large and very nice. They have a gym and ping pong area where we played for about an hour. We went out for a quick dinner and went back home to watch more of "The Apprentice." After a few more episodes we went upstairs and crashed. Overall it was much more exciting than our average day at the office and it was really nice to get out and about for the day.
Sup? it's Josh I'm going to take over for the rest of the weekend. So yeah, we did what all teenagers do on sundays: slept in! Well comparitively at least, we awoke at nine thirty ish, not too bad (expecially considering the sun comes out between 4:30 and 5 here... still haven't figured that one out *shrug*). So yeah we showered and had another huge breakfast, consisting of some pretty delicious fried eggs, fruits of different sorts, toast, and cheese. Yes, I know I was surprised too. Cheese! See, they don't usually eat cheese in China. Bonnie bought a large block of Mozzarela and had to come to Michael and I for isntructions. We of course told her it was best on pizza, but she has assured herself that pizza is beyond any normal persons cooking skills (yeah, it's not that hard, I know =). So instead she cut it up and we put it on toast. Well Michael and I did, because as I said before, the average Chinese person wants nothing to do with cheese. Milk is cool. Just don't add any cheese cultures.
We hopped in the car and headed to Xintian's (my bachelor of a host) place. The first thing that came out of his mouth happened to be "I left the key in the apartment." Oh well! So what do you do when you don't have a key. Eat, apparently. So an hour and a half after that lovely feast we had for breakfast Michael and I found ourselves in front of seven more excellent tasting Chinese dishes that even our growing boy stomachs couldn't accept. But never fear, we got out of that perdicament. Right as we realized that we were way too full to swallow another bite of this amazing feast that our gracious host had just spent his own paycheck on nothing short of a miracle happened: I finally communicated the idea of take out! It's not that hard, I know. I even know how to say it in Chinese. But prior to this mindblowing moment, whenever I asked to take out leftover food from a resturaunt, no matter how many languages and scentence patterns I used, it didn't happen. One time I was told that you could only take out pizza. A couple other times my idea was accepted but never followed through on. Who knows why. The point is, it worked this time! We wasted not one morsel of that scrumtious feast, leaving the resturaunt with arms full of take out containers and our consciences assuaged.
But we still hadn't found a key, right? We asked Xintian how he managed to lock the door from the outside without the key, and he told us he didn't he just closed it. So we said ok lets go upstairs to the apartment then. And he said that we couldn't open the door. And we said "why not? Did you lock it?" Nope. He didn't lock it. I don't get it. Communication block. If only I had learned the words for break the door down.
Xintian, however, had an idea. He wouldn't tell us what was going on, so we followed him into a taxi that sped (on the wrong side of the road, stopping a good ten feet into every intersection we encountered a red light at) to an apartment complex that turned out to be his landlord's. The day was saved! yay!
Next we decided to head out and see the center of the cultural life of Shanghai, what some may call the downtown area. Nanjing street is actually more of a square with streets all around it, lined by the fanciest hotels known to mankind, smothered in a swarming mass of people going every which way. We encountered a public information and donation gathering effort for the earthquake, some exellent bubble tea, ferrari and porsche dealers, the normal handful of fake Rolex dealers, and more people than frequent New York's theater district on an average friday night. And that was only the start. Turn down Nanjing North street and you reach Nanjing Walk, completely closed off to all vehicles except for the large, trackless passenger trains that weave in and out of the masses of people shopping in some of the fanciest stores I've ever layed my eyes on. No cheap tricks here, or the dirt cheap prices that usually accompany them. Hagendaz, the only ice cream dealer in the area was selling their smallest size for 47 yuan; a normal cone at the local ice cream joint is three yuan. And they had business! My empty pockets and money concious mind wouldn't let me buy socks at one of these stores, let alone the fancy track suits and designer jeans that hung in store windows, so we just walked up and down gaping at this super modern and decidedely western economic monster of a street. When we got to the end we hopped on one of the formerly mentioned trains, painted bright blue with a goofy looking locomotive on the front. The picturesque wealth was broken by one thing that brought the world back into perspective - as the train was starting up, a crippled, ancient looking man came to the window and stared vacently in our direction, eyes pleading. Capitalism at it's finest, folks! *wan smile*
We then headed for a smoke filled bar where we played pool with Xintian and one of his friends for a couple hours, before we had our next shocking experience. The "vegetable market." Doesn't sound to horrid does it? If only they had named it properly: "the vegetable and animals-that-are-slaughtered-painfully-before-your-very-eyes-so-you-can-buy-them-cheaply-and-make-a-super-tasty-feast-with-their-organs market." More repulsive sounding? Because that was the reality. I'm going to go into detail here, so if you don't want to hear gross things, skip to the next paragraph. Seriously I write vividly. I do well in English class, ok? This is going to be gross. Anyway, first there were all the body part lying everywhere. Pig legs, every organ I know from I'm not sure what animal, lungs, kidneys, stomachs, livers, gross! And then there were the fish, swimming peacefully in their tanks, until, that is, a customer approached, and the shop keeper obligingly picked one up and chopped it's writhing body in two, spilling vicesera everywhere. The cooks in the fancy resutraunts in Maine where you get to pick your lobsters from a tank usually don't kill them on the table in front of you. Not that I eat lobster, it's not kosher ; ). So back to the grossness. The worst park hasn't come yet. The eels. Oh my, the eels. The eels were held in a shallow thank. The first thing I noticed was that they were all lying on top of each other, and they were lying in their own blood. But they were still alive. They were thrashing about trying to avoid the large pair of scinister looking scissors that kept decending from the sky to attempt to chop off their heads. If only the scissors had been true to their aim. Instead they just stabbed the eels, adding more to the pool of blood they swam in. And peopel just bought them and put them in a bag and went about their buisness. I meanwhile wanted to throw up when I smelled the place; forget my feelings after I saw that.
So yeah, if you just skipped to here, from above, know that we bought some meat and went on our way. We went home, where Xintian and friends cooked an amazing dinner (I was super happy I'm a veggie kid). We sat around a small table on big comfy couches and had a relaxing end to our weekend.
Now we're back at work, and the days over. I'm out of here. stay tuned for more. I miss you mommy and daddy!
We woke up on Saturday at about 8:30. We took showers and headed downstairs for breakfast with my host family. They had put out quite the spread for us. Breakfast was comprised pancakes, papaya, pears, and a traditional Chinese pastry. After a very filling breakfast, we set out for the underground market to buy a few gifts for our friends and family. The underground market is essentially a mall, but instead of big stores there are just a bunch of small shops. (you can also bargain for everything in China, so going back home and not being able to do so for a pair of shoes is going to be tough. Actually, I'm not sure what the Footlocker salesman would say if I tried to cut a deal with him.) After about an hour and a half Josh and I were finished shopping and were ready to head out. Our next stop was Ohel Rachel Synagogue. Josh's grandmother is from Shanghai and she went there about sixty years ago. The government only allows visitors in the actual synagogue one day a year: the second Saturday in June. We'd say that we got pretty lucky there. We walked around inside the main building. They had an exhibition about the Jews who had used it over the past years. After visiting the Synagogue we were pretty hungry so we went to a noodle resurant in the area which ended up being very good. After lunch we went to see the General Electric office where my host dad works. The office is quite large and very nice. They have a gym and ping pong area where we played for about an hour. We went out for a quick dinner and went back home to watch more of "The Apprentice." After a few more episodes we went upstairs and crashed. Overall it was much more exciting than our average day at the office and it was really nice to get out and about for the day.
Sup? it's Josh I'm going to take over for the rest of the weekend. So yeah, we did what all teenagers do on sundays: slept in! Well comparitively at least, we awoke at nine thirty ish, not too bad (expecially considering the sun comes out between 4:30 and 5 here... still haven't figured that one out *shrug*). So yeah we showered and had another huge breakfast, consisting of some pretty delicious fried eggs, fruits of different sorts, toast, and cheese. Yes, I know I was surprised too. Cheese! See, they don't usually eat cheese in China. Bonnie bought a large block of Mozzarela and had to come to Michael and I for isntructions. We of course told her it was best on pizza, but she has assured herself that pizza is beyond any normal persons cooking skills (yeah, it's not that hard, I know =). So instead she cut it up and we put it on toast. Well Michael and I did, because as I said before, the average Chinese person wants nothing to do with cheese. Milk is cool. Just don't add any cheese cultures.
We hopped in the car and headed to Xintian's (my bachelor of a host) place. The first thing that came out of his mouth happened to be "I left the key in the apartment." Oh well! So what do you do when you don't have a key. Eat, apparently. So an hour and a half after that lovely feast we had for breakfast Michael and I found ourselves in front of seven more excellent tasting Chinese dishes that even our growing boy stomachs couldn't accept. But never fear, we got out of that perdicament. Right as we realized that we were way too full to swallow another bite of this amazing feast that our gracious host had just spent his own paycheck on nothing short of a miracle happened: I finally communicated the idea of take out! It's not that hard, I know. I even know how to say it in Chinese. But prior to this mindblowing moment, whenever I asked to take out leftover food from a resturaunt, no matter how many languages and scentence patterns I used, it didn't happen. One time I was told that you could only take out pizza. A couple other times my idea was accepted but never followed through on. Who knows why. The point is, it worked this time! We wasted not one morsel of that scrumtious feast, leaving the resturaunt with arms full of take out containers and our consciences assuaged.
But we still hadn't found a key, right? We asked Xintian how he managed to lock the door from the outside without the key, and he told us he didn't he just closed it. So we said ok lets go upstairs to the apartment then. And he said that we couldn't open the door. And we said "why not? Did you lock it?" Nope. He didn't lock it. I don't get it. Communication block. If only I had learned the words for break the door down.
Xintian, however, had an idea. He wouldn't tell us what was going on, so we followed him into a taxi that sped (on the wrong side of the road, stopping a good ten feet into every intersection we encountered a red light at) to an apartment complex that turned out to be his landlord's. The day was saved! yay!
Next we decided to head out and see the center of the cultural life of Shanghai, what some may call the downtown area. Nanjing street is actually more of a square with streets all around it, lined by the fanciest hotels known to mankind, smothered in a swarming mass of people going every which way. We encountered a public information and donation gathering effort for the earthquake, some exellent bubble tea, ferrari and porsche dealers, the normal handful of fake Rolex dealers, and more people than frequent New York's theater district on an average friday night. And that was only the start. Turn down Nanjing North street and you reach Nanjing Walk, completely closed off to all vehicles except for the large, trackless passenger trains that weave in and out of the masses of people shopping in some of the fanciest stores I've ever layed my eyes on. No cheap tricks here, or the dirt cheap prices that usually accompany them. Hagendaz, the only ice cream dealer in the area was selling their smallest size for 47 yuan; a normal cone at the local ice cream joint is three yuan. And they had business! My empty pockets and money concious mind wouldn't let me buy socks at one of these stores, let alone the fancy track suits and designer jeans that hung in store windows, so we just walked up and down gaping at this super modern and decidedely western economic monster of a street. When we got to the end we hopped on one of the formerly mentioned trains, painted bright blue with a goofy looking locomotive on the front. The picturesque wealth was broken by one thing that brought the world back into perspective - as the train was starting up, a crippled, ancient looking man came to the window and stared vacently in our direction, eyes pleading. Capitalism at it's finest, folks! *wan smile*
We then headed for a smoke filled bar where we played pool with Xintian and one of his friends for a couple hours, before we had our next shocking experience. The "vegetable market." Doesn't sound to horrid does it? If only they had named it properly: "the vegetable and animals-that-are-slaughtered-painfully-before-your-very-eyes-so-you-can-buy-them-cheaply-and-make-a-super-tasty-feast-with-their-organs market." More repulsive sounding? Because that was the reality. I'm going to go into detail here, so if you don't want to hear gross things, skip to the next paragraph. Seriously I write vividly. I do well in English class, ok? This is going to be gross. Anyway, first there were all the body part lying everywhere. Pig legs, every organ I know from I'm not sure what animal, lungs, kidneys, stomachs, livers, gross! And then there were the fish, swimming peacefully in their tanks, until, that is, a customer approached, and the shop keeper obligingly picked one up and chopped it's writhing body in two, spilling vicesera everywhere. The cooks in the fancy resutraunts in Maine where you get to pick your lobsters from a tank usually don't kill them on the table in front of you. Not that I eat lobster, it's not kosher ; ). So back to the grossness. The worst park hasn't come yet. The eels. Oh my, the eels. The eels were held in a shallow thank. The first thing I noticed was that they were all lying on top of each other, and they were lying in their own blood. But they were still alive. They were thrashing about trying to avoid the large pair of scinister looking scissors that kept decending from the sky to attempt to chop off their heads. If only the scissors had been true to their aim. Instead they just stabbed the eels, adding more to the pool of blood they swam in. And peopel just bought them and put them in a bag and went about their buisness. I meanwhile wanted to throw up when I smelled the place; forget my feelings after I saw that.
So yeah, if you just skipped to here, from above, know that we bought some meat and went on our way. We went home, where Xintian and friends cooked an amazing dinner (I was super happy I'm a veggie kid). We sat around a small table on big comfy couches and had a relaxing end to our weekend.
Now we're back at work, and the days over. I'm out of here. stay tuned for more. I miss you mommy and daddy!
Genband Shanghai
Michael and I had some trouble with the blog sorry this has come so late. We'll keep updating on the internship from now on. So anyway, our first blog written about the first work week spent in Shanghai:
Ni hao from Genband-Shanghai!
So yeah. We’re working in China? How cool is that? Pretty, pretty cool! It took us a while to realize just how cool it was exactly. It’s been a long zen journey to realizing our happiness in this company, and we might as well start from the start (because that’s where you start… duh!)
So anyway. When we arrived here we were initially disappointed. There was a lot of change for a short period of time. First off, twenty-two people that we had lived with for the prior two and a half weeks just sort of disappeared from our lives. When we thought about them we realized they were nowhere. In the time that it took the rest of the class to reach RDU, we flew to Shanghai, met an unknown correspondent from the company (felt kind of spy like =), went to work for half a day, moved in with our host families, slept all night, and then came back to work. And the whole time the friends who we had been closest with for the past half a month were just… somewhere. Nowhere. We’re not really sure.
And on top of missing them, we were bored. The company didn’t really give us anything to do. The first day we set up some computers and then were told that we could do whatever we wanted with them. Well, after having Li Laoshi drive us like slaves from 6 in the morning to 10 at night every day for weeks (I really enjoyed the trip, I promise, that’s just hyperbole describing how exhausting our activities were), the lack of planning was unnerving. We were in a completely silent room filled with people working at identical computers in identical cubicles; the first thing Michael and I decided was that we needed a job that did not resemble this in ANY way. It felt like a waste of time. We wanted to be either working here, accomplishing something, or at home with our long lost friends and families. But don’t you worry too much, the story picks up form here.
After working (or not!) for about a day and half we both came to the same conclusion. It was an ancient Chinese zen woah everything is connected moment. Michael and I had the same epiphany at the same time. And it was a positive one. We thought about our situation and hey what do you know, we realize we liked it. We were in China. That alone is amazing. I mean how many people in the US get to live in China for a month? That’s a rhetorical question, but you should be thinking “not that many.” We realized not only were we in China, experiencing a completely different (and quite eye opening) culture, but we also had something we hadn’t had in a LONG time – free time! Yeah. We just finished junior year. Since August, all our lives have been is work work work work work. And now we get to relax. We can do ANYTHING. And where do we get to do it? China! That’s not such a bad situation after all, is it?
The homes we are both in are quite cool. I (Josh in case you didn’t figure that out yet) am staying with a complete bachelor, in his stereotypical apartment (sans roomie who’s in Texas on business, meaning I get my own room and computer!). He’s quite the cool guy. We go out to dinner with his friends, the food is excellent, and it’s a super relaxed environment.
I (Michael) am living in an apartment with a married couple. They are in their early thirties and are both extremely nice and fun to be around. The woman works at Genband in a cubical very close to mine and the husband works for General Electric. The two companies are very close to each other so every morning we all drive to work together. The husband drops us off at Genband and drives himself to GE and then at about 6:00 PM, he picks us up and takes us home. After work on Thursday, we went to GE so that I could see the office there. It was very cool. (Much larger than the Genband office and very high-tech) We went to a visitors’ area that showcased the progress of GE over the past thirty years. They then took me to a gym inside the office, which was very nice, and we played ping-pong for about an hour. I beat Bonnie (my host mom) three times, while she beat me eight times. I have yet to beat the husband, but I’m not coming home until I do. (Hopefully that’ll happen before the 29th) The apartment is very nice and I am lucky enough to have my own floor. It isn’t too big, but I have my own bed, TV, and bathroom which are all very nice.
So overall impression: this was definitely a good choice. After we got over our initial doubts both of us realized that living a normal life for a couple of weeks in Shanghai is a very cool thing to do, and we’re quite ecstatic to be here.
Happy Father’s Day for all of the dad’s out there.
- Michael and Josh
Ni hao from Genband-Shanghai!
So yeah. We’re working in China? How cool is that? Pretty, pretty cool! It took us a while to realize just how cool it was exactly. It’s been a long zen journey to realizing our happiness in this company, and we might as well start from the start (because that’s where you start… duh!)
So anyway. When we arrived here we were initially disappointed. There was a lot of change for a short period of time. First off, twenty-two people that we had lived with for the prior two and a half weeks just sort of disappeared from our lives. When we thought about them we realized they were nowhere. In the time that it took the rest of the class to reach RDU, we flew to Shanghai, met an unknown correspondent from the company (felt kind of spy like =), went to work for half a day, moved in with our host families, slept all night, and then came back to work. And the whole time the friends who we had been closest with for the past half a month were just… somewhere. Nowhere. We’re not really sure.
And on top of missing them, we were bored. The company didn’t really give us anything to do. The first day we set up some computers and then were told that we could do whatever we wanted with them. Well, after having Li Laoshi drive us like slaves from 6 in the morning to 10 at night every day for weeks (I really enjoyed the trip, I promise, that’s just hyperbole describing how exhausting our activities were), the lack of planning was unnerving. We were in a completely silent room filled with people working at identical computers in identical cubicles; the first thing Michael and I decided was that we needed a job that did not resemble this in ANY way. It felt like a waste of time. We wanted to be either working here, accomplishing something, or at home with our long lost friends and families. But don’t you worry too much, the story picks up form here.
After working (or not!) for about a day and half we both came to the same conclusion. It was an ancient Chinese zen woah everything is connected moment. Michael and I had the same epiphany at the same time. And it was a positive one. We thought about our situation and hey what do you know, we realize we liked it. We were in China. That alone is amazing. I mean how many people in the US get to live in China for a month? That’s a rhetorical question, but you should be thinking “not that many.” We realized not only were we in China, experiencing a completely different (and quite eye opening) culture, but we also had something we hadn’t had in a LONG time – free time! Yeah. We just finished junior year. Since August, all our lives have been is work work work work work. And now we get to relax. We can do ANYTHING. And where do we get to do it? China! That’s not such a bad situation after all, is it?
The homes we are both in are quite cool. I (Josh in case you didn’t figure that out yet) am staying with a complete bachelor, in his stereotypical apartment (sans roomie who’s in Texas on business, meaning I get my own room and computer!). He’s quite the cool guy. We go out to dinner with his friends, the food is excellent, and it’s a super relaxed environment.
I (Michael) am living in an apartment with a married couple. They are in their early thirties and are both extremely nice and fun to be around. The woman works at Genband in a cubical very close to mine and the husband works for General Electric. The two companies are very close to each other so every morning we all drive to work together. The husband drops us off at Genband and drives himself to GE and then at about 6:00 PM, he picks us up and takes us home. After work on Thursday, we went to GE so that I could see the office there. It was very cool. (Much larger than the Genband office and very high-tech) We went to a visitors’ area that showcased the progress of GE over the past thirty years. They then took me to a gym inside the office, which was very nice, and we played ping-pong for about an hour. I beat Bonnie (my host mom) three times, while she beat me eight times. I have yet to beat the husband, but I’m not coming home until I do. (Hopefully that’ll happen before the 29th) The apartment is very nice and I am lucky enough to have my own floor. It isn’t too big, but I have my own bed, TV, and bathroom which are all very nice.
So overall impression: this was definitely a good choice. After we got over our initial doubts both of us realized that living a normal life for a couple of weeks in Shanghai is a very cool thing to do, and we’re quite ecstatic to be here.
Happy Father’s Day for all of the dad’s out there.
- Michael and Josh
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Day 6- Internship in Beijing at NCR
So the joyous burden of writing has fallen into my hands (with some help coming from Miguel). I will first digress to say that we are in fact all alive and well...enough. But seriously, it appears as if everyone is having a lot of fun during our stay in Beijing. This weekend the group experienced many different interesting things, many of which happened for the first time, all the while attempting to improve our language skills while navigating the massive Chinese Capitol.
The weekend started off with a lazy Saturday morning, one of the few times I didn't have to get up before 7 since first coming to China. After rolling out of bed at around 11:30- I got ready to meet up with Miguel and Nathaniel at a hotel downtown. When we all arrived the company had a driver take us to probably the largest fake mall I had seen in all of China so far. 5 stories and 2 basements of knock off T-shirts, shoes, silk, pearls, dresses, purses, glasses, electronics, and DVDs all for prices that are ridiculously low. (Strange this is the best one and yet our tour guide never took us there...) Of course this is reflected in the quality of the actual product, but right now my 2.50 headphones are working just fine, so I can't complain.
After blowing a few hours in the mall, we took a cab over to a legit shopping mall over 10 stories high with a movie theater on the 10th floor. Miguel just reminded me the floors were labeled with funny English names such as happy, sexy, dating, and X-life (which turned out to be comprised of Ambercrombie and designer clothing- who knew?). Anyways, when we got to the theater the names of the movies were all in Chinese so it was pretty much a guessing game between the three movies they said were in English to which we would see. Luckily we managed to buy tickets to see the new Chronicles of Narnia which was an OK movie, but more importantly was a welcomed surprise to finally hear others speaking fluently in English.
When the movie was over we hoped in a cab and headed downtown to Hard Rock Cafe. This again was a welcomed slice of American culture, we all agree a hamburger and fries definitely hit the spot after being away from American food for so long. Ironically, while in China we would often get menus with pictures so we could just point to what we wanted, but when we got to Hard Rock, the waitress handed Miguel and I the pictureless menus, and must have mistaken Nathaniel to be a local and handed him a menu with pictures as if he didn't know how to read English, and didn't know what a hamburger looked like.
While in Hard Rock, Nathaniel made a quite astute observation that the live performer had an NC State shirt on, and Miguel pointed out how small a world it truly is. After paying monumental prices (or relatively monumental to the 3 dollar meals we were becoming accustomed to) for a hamburger, fries, and a sundae, we made our way home by cab alone. This was a first in China and certainly was a testing experience. Luckily, we all made it home safe and well- although Miguel told us the next day how his cab driver got 'lost'- we are skeptical as to how when his host drew him maps and well detailed directions, but in the end are just glad that everyone eventually made it home OK.
On Sunday, more of the same, however no sleeping in this morning. In fact, Nathaniel contacted a friend of his family in town who took us to an international church. Pretty fascinating, we needed passports or American ID to enter the place because Chinese citizens weren't allowed in due to the fact that the church wasn't observed by the Chinese government. After the service, Nathaniel's friends were kind enough to take us out for Cantonese style food. Something that certainly brightened all of our spirits, especially Nathaniel.
Once lunch was over, we headed back to the knock off market to do some more shopping, and then headed back to the movie theater. Now this experience was much luckier than the day before. With options running thin on movies in English we opted to see the action movie, "Aroma". When I heard the title i expected it to be some British or Australian cheesy love/action flick, however to our elated surprise "Aroma" turned out to be Iron Man, an excellent movie that I had already wanted to see but couldn't considering we were on our language trip. At the conclusion of the movie Miguel beseeched us to stay an extra 12 minutes or so to watch a 15 second clip at the end of the movie. However, Samuel L. Jackson was in it (like everything else) so it was well worth it.
While exchanging perhaps not the most pleasant language with Miguel about that ordeal, Nathaniel and I walked out of the Theater only to discover a gargantuan arcade. The tokens were 1/7 of a dollar each, so of course the three of us felt it would be a waste if we passed up the opportunity on such cheap electronic excitement. Tired after about an hour of hardcore gaming, the gang headed downstairs for an eloquent dinner at none other than the beautiful institution we know as KFC. Fun Fact-KFC has the most fast food restaurants in all of China, and although the menu was altered, the fried chicken still evoked memories of home.
The weekend started off with a lazy Saturday morning, one of the few times I didn't have to get up before 7 since first coming to China. After rolling out of bed at around 11:30- I got ready to meet up with Miguel and Nathaniel at a hotel downtown. When we all arrived the company had a driver take us to probably the largest fake mall I had seen in all of China so far. 5 stories and 2 basements of knock off T-shirts, shoes, silk, pearls, dresses, purses, glasses, electronics, and DVDs all for prices that are ridiculously low. (Strange this is the best one and yet our tour guide never took us there...) Of course this is reflected in the quality of the actual product, but right now my 2.50 headphones are working just fine, so I can't complain.
After blowing a few hours in the mall, we took a cab over to a legit shopping mall over 10 stories high with a movie theater on the 10th floor. Miguel just reminded me the floors were labeled with funny English names such as happy, sexy, dating, and X-life (which turned out to be comprised of Ambercrombie and designer clothing- who knew?). Anyways, when we got to the theater the names of the movies were all in Chinese so it was pretty much a guessing game between the three movies they said were in English to which we would see. Luckily we managed to buy tickets to see the new Chronicles of Narnia which was an OK movie, but more importantly was a welcomed surprise to finally hear others speaking fluently in English.
When the movie was over we hoped in a cab and headed downtown to Hard Rock Cafe. This again was a welcomed slice of American culture, we all agree a hamburger and fries definitely hit the spot after being away from American food for so long. Ironically, while in China we would often get menus with pictures so we could just point to what we wanted, but when we got to Hard Rock, the waitress handed Miguel and I the pictureless menus, and must have mistaken Nathaniel to be a local and handed him a menu with pictures as if he didn't know how to read English, and didn't know what a hamburger looked like.
While in Hard Rock, Nathaniel made a quite astute observation that the live performer had an NC State shirt on, and Miguel pointed out how small a world it truly is. After paying monumental prices (or relatively monumental to the 3 dollar meals we were becoming accustomed to) for a hamburger, fries, and a sundae, we made our way home by cab alone. This was a first in China and certainly was a testing experience. Luckily, we all made it home safe and well- although Miguel told us the next day how his cab driver got 'lost'- we are skeptical as to how when his host drew him maps and well detailed directions, but in the end are just glad that everyone eventually made it home OK.
On Sunday, more of the same, however no sleeping in this morning. In fact, Nathaniel contacted a friend of his family in town who took us to an international church. Pretty fascinating, we needed passports or American ID to enter the place because Chinese citizens weren't allowed in due to the fact that the church wasn't observed by the Chinese government. After the service, Nathaniel's friends were kind enough to take us out for Cantonese style food. Something that certainly brightened all of our spirits, especially Nathaniel.
Once lunch was over, we headed back to the knock off market to do some more shopping, and then headed back to the movie theater. Now this experience was much luckier than the day before. With options running thin on movies in English we opted to see the action movie, "Aroma". When I heard the title i expected it to be some British or Australian cheesy love/action flick, however to our elated surprise "Aroma" turned out to be Iron Man, an excellent movie that I had already wanted to see but couldn't considering we were on our language trip. At the conclusion of the movie Miguel beseeched us to stay an extra 12 minutes or so to watch a 15 second clip at the end of the movie. However, Samuel L. Jackson was in it (like everything else) so it was well worth it.
While exchanging perhaps not the most pleasant language with Miguel about that ordeal, Nathaniel and I walked out of the Theater only to discover a gargantuan arcade. The tokens were 1/7 of a dollar each, so of course the three of us felt it would be a waste if we passed up the opportunity on such cheap electronic excitement. Tired after about an hour of hardcore gaming, the gang headed downstairs for an eloquent dinner at none other than the beautiful institution we know as KFC. Fun Fact-KFC has the most fast food restaurants in all of China, and although the menu was altered, the fried chicken still evoked memories of home.
When dinner was over, we walked around the mall, I bought a cell phone charger, and we all got Quicksilver Beijing T-shirts which the guy at the shop told us were now being made in preparation for the Olympics. After a long day, the group parted ways by cab for some much needed rest and relaxation.
Now I am at work, where Miguel and I were lectured on how an ATM machine dispenser actually works and plan to build our own tomorrow.
Zai Jian for now
Ross
Thursday, June 12, 2008
NCR-Day3
Before I begin to describe my experience at NCR, allow me to share this story about my experience this morning.
My host family treats me pretty well. I live in an apartment in northwest Beijing with her husband, son, and parents. I get treated really well, especially by the grandparents. They do plenty of cooking and are always saying that I am too skinny and need to eat more. Life is definitely simpler compared to the excitement of the exchange trip, but I think it's more revealing about how Chinese live normally.
That's all for now. Sorry for the delayed post. There's apparently construction nearby that knocked our power out without warning. Half of this post was written yesterday. So, forgive the potential jumpiness. Will upload pictures if possible.
Nathaniel
Ok, so perhaps I should talk about how things have been going. Miguel, Ross, and I have been doing different jobs this whole time. Miguel's been working in the factory downstairs. Ross and I are upstairs. Ross has been doing alot of filing, while I'm working in the finance department, inputing data from invoices into computers and labeling documents. Work is pretty lax. I don't get work unless I ask for it, and when I do get work, it's usually pretty boring and brainless.(Don't tell them I said that though).
This is a story about missing the bus. Have you ever missed the bus for school before? What did you do? Skip school? Ask your parents to take you? hopefully the latter.
So, what do you do when you're all the way on the other side of the world from your parents, in the middle of a a city of 16 million people, in the middle of rush hour, and you miss the bus?
Let's start from the beginning. I'm here in Beijing doing an internship at NCR. I've already spent 3 weeks here now and i'm feeling fairly homesick and lonely now that the exchange portion of the trip is over. My host employee's name is Nancy. She takes the company bus to work every day, so, I take it as well. The bus leaves at 7:20 am every morning, and it's a 1 hour ride to NCR because Nancy lives in northwest beijing and NCR is in southwest beijing. That, and it's during rush hour. Oh, and the bus stop is still not close enough to her home to walk, so we actually have to take a taxi to and from the bus stop, which is inconveniently located in between 2 bridges with no distinctive landmarks to tell the drivers(But i'll get to that later). So, that's how I get to and from work every day.
Now, Nancy is a sales director, and she takes these short business trips out to different places in China. So, yesterday, she headed out to Shanghai and Nanjing, leaving me to go to work alone. Her husband took me to the bus stop in the morning, and then in the afternoon, I took a taxi home after the bus ride. A little scary yes, but manageable. So, this morning, I get up and her husband’s not there. I thought that Nancy got back last night, but I went to bed early, so I wasn’t sure. The grandmother is up, and I ask her if I’m supposed to go to the bus stop on my own. She starts asking me if I can, and I’m like, ….ok. So, I head out to take a taxi on my own to this nondescript bus stop.
So, I take off for the bus stop. And, on the way, the taxi driver takes a wrong turn.
when I got there, I called my person and apparently she was already on the bus she tells me to grab another taxi, so I wave one over. I’m gonna try and make it to the next stop before the bus, so I hand the phone to the taxi driver because I don’t know where the next stop is, and we head off. When we’re halfway there, she calls and, well, it's too late. My taxi driver is driving slow. Like, normal for Cary, but, slow for Beijing. So, we try again to make it to the next stop.
By this time, I’m starting to sweat and I’m getting pretty nervous. When we get off the ramp, we get stuck in this really jam packed traffic circle. It’s backed up real bad with cars and bikes. While we're stuck in that, she calls and asks where we are, and obviously we’re not there yet. She says that they'll wait for me, so, I think,” ok, phew. the bus is gonna wait”. Well, we finally get out of that traffic circle, which we took twice because the taxi driver didn't take the turn the first time, and finally reach our destination. Only, no bus.
But, Nancy was there. Apparently I heard her wrong. She was going to wait for me, not the bus. So, instead of me getting out of the taxi, she gets in, and we have to take it all the way to NCR. So, I never made the bus at all.
But, that’s not all. When she gets on, she asks how I was late. Apparently, I wasn't late at first. I was actually early. I left 5 minutes before she did, but I didn't know she was at home. I thought I was the one late because the grandmother was like, "can you go yourself?" and all the other doors were closed. Yeah.. So, this whole thing could have been avoided in the first place if I had just known
Ok, so, when I finally get to here, I find this out. You know the slow taxi driver? He's new. He got his license last month. Any other taxi driver could have made it to the bus stop in time. But, out of all the taxi drivers out there, I just happened to pick him. Man, it’s going to be a long 2 weeks.
My host family treats me pretty well. I live in an apartment in northwest Beijing with her husband, son, and parents. I get treated really well, especially by the grandparents. They do plenty of cooking and are always saying that I am too skinny and need to eat more. Life is definitely simpler compared to the excitement of the exchange trip, but I think it's more revealing about how Chinese live normally.
That's all for now. Sorry for the delayed post. There's apparently construction nearby that knocked our power out without warning. Half of this post was written yesterday. So, forgive the potential jumpiness. Will upload pictures if possible.
Nathaniel
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
The Last Day (For Some)
So today is the last "official" day of the trip. The haze of travel time between planes soon to come doesn't really count in my mind. No more mountains, no more palaces, no more temples. No more pick-pockets, street vendors, or crazed motorcyclists. No more unidentified meat, mysterious vegetables, or non-potable water. Well, for some at least. Tomorrow the group will fly every which way; two to Shanghai, three staying in Beijing, myself to Udon Thani, Thailand, and the rest get to enjoy the marathon that is returning to RDU International. But before all of that begins, we managed to squeeze in a final taste of China today. First on the list was the Summer Palace, the favorite vacation spot for Chinese royalty hundreds of years ago. We wandered through a maze of buildings and bridges for an hour or so. A group of kids from California approached us and chatted for a while, it was a welcome relief from the monotony of historical Chinese tourist attractions (Don't get me wrong, they're great, but they all blend together after two weeks). For the afternoon we visited NCR (National Cash Registry), touring both the production floor and the office complex. The three students that will stick around at NCR for an internship for the next few weeks were given an extended presentation. The company actually had quite a history, over a hundred years in fact. For a company that makes ATM machines, I am a little puzzled at how an ATM existed back then, much less a debit card...
The remainder of the afternoon was spent bickering over prices at another flea market. I must brag, I doubt anyone beat the Ipod I found for $10. It will be a few more weeks until I come back to find out if it works. I have maybe 3 suitcases worth of little things like that to pack tonight, and only one suitcase, so I think its best I wrap this up and begin to tackle that beast of an issue. Best of luck to eveyrone thats traveling home.
Cam Setzer
The remainder of the afternoon was spent bickering over prices at another flea market. I must brag, I doubt anyone beat the Ipod I found for $10. It will be a few more weeks until I come back to find out if it works. I have maybe 3 suitcases worth of little things like that to pack tonight, and only one suitcase, so I think its best I wrap this up and begin to tackle that beast of an issue. Best of luck to eveyrone thats traveling home.
Cam Setzer
Monday, June 9, 2008
Great Wall, Jade, Stores and Pizza
Total length commonly known as Chang Cheng = 4000 miles and 6000 km
+
Four sections complete it
+
Built in Ming Dynasty but it took 2000 years to complete
+
Over 300,000 soldiers and prisoners of war died making it
+
In 1998 Bill Clinton was a visitor
+
Highest point is 1050 meters
+
5 horsemen and 10 soldiers wide
EQUALS
THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA
It is common knowledge that the Great Wall is greatness. Since the 6th grade we have all strived to reach the Great Wall of China. This was our Great Adventure of today. The dream became a reality. We were so excited and it was all we expected. We had an hour and a half to explore and it really never ended. In groups of different sizes and diversity put stairmasters at Lifetime Fitness and Gold’s Gym to shame. Even though it has been rebuilt many times trying to keep the authenticity, the steps were of different sizes and stability. We each broke off into determined groups setting different goals and creating our own experience. We all shared the hot weather and beautiful greenery surrounding us. It was so long and winded on a huge mountain range. The great adventure was not as cliché as we expected it to be. The immense emotion of the ancient tourist attraction was definitely an experience that can be relieved. I (Jacyln) saw a man who was wearing a business suit and a girl in high heels, who knows how they could handle the wall. When it was time to go down most of us went down a slide, that was made of metal and we rode on a small sled. You could push forward or pull back and change your speed. We sped down the mountain and pretty much all experienced being slowed by the elder tourists of the wall.
Our tour guide has been taking us to a lot of friendship stores, including where we ate our lunch after going on the Great Wall. At the friendship store I (Catherine) ran into a family that was really exciting to meet because from all places they were from Cary, North Carolina. The world is so small sometimes! Friendship stores are places that are owned buy the government, which means no bargaining and expensive stuff. After lunch we went to a jade friendship store, where they showed us different types of jade. Jade is not as simple as I thought. There are different colors of jade including green of course and yellow and purple. Jade is the 2nd hardest stone, has a soft feel (so soft that concubines used to use it as a pillow) and the sound. Jade is known for bringing good health and wealth and a good lifestyle. We spent a good hour at the store looking at all the beautiful stuff. Most of us felt drained by the expensive prices and pointless soccer ball jade, but it was neat to see the continuation of pride that this country has for its resources.
After the jade factory we previewed the Olympic facilities. We saw the Crow’s Nest where most the stadiums are and we saw the bubble that expands around the pool. Our tour guide informed us about the 7 Star Hotel that was not complete, but would be in a month. The new apartments and updated landscaping put the Olympic countdowns and paraphernalia around China to shame. We did not get to go into anything, but hearing that 16 billion dollars was put into this city was enough to understand how important this is to China. We saw the grounds where there was nothing 15 years ago, but now holds the future homes of people in Beijing, after the Olympics.
From there we went to a market with fake designers and Chinese style clothing. I think just about everyone has a valuable story to tell from their experiences bargaining. That is really when you see the Chinese language blossom.
Dinner was an American buffet. Not as worthwhile to write about, but I will say that it was the equivalent of bad Chinese food in America. Dorian got to celeb rate his birthday with a start of pizza, and fried food galore. Fortunately I think the Great Wall was enough to compensate.
Two more days and some change and most of us will be on our way home
+
Four sections complete it
+
Built in Ming Dynasty but it took 2000 years to complete
+
Over 300,000 soldiers and prisoners of war died making it
+
In 1998 Bill Clinton was a visitor
+
Highest point is 1050 meters
+
5 horsemen and 10 soldiers wide
EQUALS
THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA
It is common knowledge that the Great Wall is greatness. Since the 6th grade we have all strived to reach the Great Wall of China. This was our Great Adventure of today. The dream became a reality. We were so excited and it was all we expected. We had an hour and a half to explore and it really never ended. In groups of different sizes and diversity put stairmasters at Lifetime Fitness and Gold’s Gym to shame. Even though it has been rebuilt many times trying to keep the authenticity, the steps were of different sizes and stability. We each broke off into determined groups setting different goals and creating our own experience. We all shared the hot weather and beautiful greenery surrounding us. It was so long and winded on a huge mountain range. The great adventure was not as cliché as we expected it to be. The immense emotion of the ancient tourist attraction was definitely an experience that can be relieved. I (Jacyln) saw a man who was wearing a business suit and a girl in high heels, who knows how they could handle the wall. When it was time to go down most of us went down a slide, that was made of metal and we rode on a small sled. You could push forward or pull back and change your speed. We sped down the mountain and pretty much all experienced being slowed by the elder tourists of the wall.
Our tour guide has been taking us to a lot of friendship stores, including where we ate our lunch after going on the Great Wall. At the friendship store I (Catherine) ran into a family that was really exciting to meet because from all places they were from Cary, North Carolina. The world is so small sometimes! Friendship stores are places that are owned buy the government, which means no bargaining and expensive stuff. After lunch we went to a jade friendship store, where they showed us different types of jade. Jade is not as simple as I thought. There are different colors of jade including green of course and yellow and purple. Jade is the 2nd hardest stone, has a soft feel (so soft that concubines used to use it as a pillow) and the sound. Jade is known for bringing good health and wealth and a good lifestyle. We spent a good hour at the store looking at all the beautiful stuff. Most of us felt drained by the expensive prices and pointless soccer ball jade, but it was neat to see the continuation of pride that this country has for its resources.
After the jade factory we previewed the Olympic facilities. We saw the Crow’s Nest where most the stadiums are and we saw the bubble that expands around the pool. Our tour guide informed us about the 7 Star Hotel that was not complete, but would be in a month. The new apartments and updated landscaping put the Olympic countdowns and paraphernalia around China to shame. We did not get to go into anything, but hearing that 16 billion dollars was put into this city was enough to understand how important this is to China. We saw the grounds where there was nothing 15 years ago, but now holds the future homes of people in Beijing, after the Olympics.
From there we went to a market with fake designers and Chinese style clothing. I think just about everyone has a valuable story to tell from their experiences bargaining. That is really when you see the Chinese language blossom.
Dinner was an American buffet. Not as worthwhile to write about, but I will say that it was the equivalent of bad Chinese food in America. Dorian got to celeb rate his birthday with a start of pizza, and fried food galore. Fortunately I think the Great Wall was enough to compensate.
Two more days and some change and most of us will be on our way home
With love,
Catherine and Jaclyn
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