Everyday I'm humblin'

I'm no Rick Ross, but that's neither here nor there.

VPN is (sort of) working at the moment, so let's get this up before it decides to shut itself down again.

Not everyday out here is difficult, in fact many aren't. As the three of us prepared ourselves for the transition into China, I wanted to keep everyone's ambitions grounded, and maintain a realist tone in our group of eager and ambitious go-getters. I warned that the trip would test the limits of our friendship, our bank accounts, and our patience, and that of these, none were guaranteed to hold up. Having said that, in the back of my mind, I was as ambitious as the others, and secretly imagined things would be ok.

It is certainly not easy, and while many days are smooth, the ones that are not good link together, forming arduous rough patches that test all three aforementioned issues we were worried about. I always write about payday here, and perhaps with too much hubris, or to tell myself things are going well. In fact, things are not horrible, we are all still friends, and my patience has matured over the last year, but it has been as difficult as I warned myself it would be. Every aspect of our business(es) has faced hurdles, and left us frustrated at some point in time, and every time we seem to devise a solution to either fix the issue, or at the very least, offset the damages. It is making us stronger, smarter, and for some of us, a bit more grounded in the reality of this kind of life. It is not all victories, as I had predicted, but the losses, the frustrations, as much as you can prepare for them in your head, are still just that.... frustrating.

Originally we planned for a 6-month minimum time slot out here, that has since been extended and tomorrow marks my completion of one full year here. It is looking like that will be extended another year, and how I feel about that is irrelevant really, as we have a duty to fulfill out here, and a responsibility to remain and see this through. It is not all bad, far from it, but it wears on a person, and I believe makes them stronger. Learning your weaknesses is important, overcoming them or correcting them is the true, and most difficult goal.

I miss Boston, America, and everyone I've had the honor of calling my friend in the last few years. I hope to return again in May for a couple weeks.

VPN Issues

My free VPN has decided to be rather fussy as of late and as a result my unfettered access to the interwebs has been limited to China-approved content. While this very humble little blog does not incite direct wrath of the censors, it is under the umbrage of .blogspot.com which is completely shut down on the mainland.

It's a good thing I've got a multiple entry visa into Hong Kong.

The last few weeks have been rather busy, hectic, and draining. Our bank accounts are on the Nicole Ritchie diet, and we've been pulling some long hours. Our first students have arrived, and we've been busy managing that as well, while also dealing with the frustrations of young, ambitious students, and recent grads who are trying to squeeze everything they can out of our internship program.

It is frustrating work, but I guess with any program where large numbers of students apply and only a few actually show, this is to be expected. We have been working very hard to find these applicants good spots, and perhaps it is time for us to look at what we offer, as maybe we have made some critical mistakes that are keeping students at bay.



On the slightly brighter side, I have moved in to my nice little apartment, and it is refreshing to live alone for a little while, although it can get rather quiet at times. I'll be posting pictures of it on Monday (which is when I'll be back in Hong Kong for some hopefully positive banking work).

Good afternoon from Hong Kong

Afternoon folks, The New Year holiday has come and past, as has the Lantern Festival which marks the end of the new year holiday (pretty neat huh?). Our province only reported a measly 19 deaths this holiday due to Fireworks-related accidents, and was considered an overall success.

Work on our end continues as normal, with some sparks of hope in the form of potential clients that disappeared and then suddenly reappeared. Always nice knowing we're being considered without our knowledge.

On a personal note I have just moved into a new apartment (solo this time) as I've realized that I need my own space out here. Things are going quite well with the partnership given that half of us are no longer in Shenzhen at this point, and it is merely a decision I made some time ago. I look forward to having my own little (45sq meters) place, and testing it out for a few months.


I'm also planning a weekend trip up to Shanghai, if anyone has contacts/recommendations/advice they'd like to send me way, I'd love it.

Sweatin' to the Oldies

Chinese New Year/Spring Festival is over, and in proper form, the weather has followed suit and begun to warm up a bit. in fact it's been 75 for the last three days! This sounds delightful right? Well sort of. Having temperatures at night about 41 is always nice, but the turn in weather has reminded us once again why there are palm trees about: humidity. Much like southern Florida, the humidity is now in the upper 80's. This is all fine and good except for the curious matter of physics occurring in many apartments around the city. We had been told legends of the "sweat out" but had never laid witness to it. The concrete-heavy nature of construction here has left buildings' interiors cool, and relatively dry after 2 weeks straight of 40-50 degree, somewhat dry weather. The sudden increase of temperature and humidity has the buildings literally sweating out this temperature adjustment, and the results for all those inside are rather annoying. One: Nothing will dry, and if it was already dry, it feels like it needs another 20 in the dryer. So that's kind of gross, and the floors are quite slippery as they are covered in a light mist, and the mirrors and windows? well I've posted a picture below for reference. Complaining you say? Sure why not, but it's pretty damn interesting as well. I cannot decry the shoddy construction methods, or curse the Chinese like many an expat do out here, because I am neither engineer nor meteorologist, and do not understand how construction works in these kinds of climates. Cool? sure Annoying? you betcha



PS: I've gained some movement back in my little finger, but mostly because it's the knuckle that was affected the most. black and blue pics are coming soon. sweeeet.

Kung fu

Sadly I am not taking any martial arts lessons these days, but I was recently introduced to a nice judo chop between my ring and pinky finger whilst on the gaelic football pitch. An accident of course, and one that adrenaline kept at bay until arriving home to see my left hand look, quite literally, ham-fisted. I doubt it's broken but its swelled up nicely, and I'm told tomorrow is when the real fun starts.

I'll be sure to post pictures if I get some sweet black & blue on this guy. So until next time folks.

Chinese New Year Cold spell

There's nothing quite like waking up... fully clothed... at noon. And no, it's not because I'm hungover, it is because the cocoon I have built is far too warm and I am lazy to get up and go about my day while being cold. I was supposed to go into Hong Kong for lunch and to run some errands, but alas, that window is now much smaller due to my late rise.

The New Year holiday is finally beginning to dwindle down and people are alleged to begin returning to the Seattle-like weather of Shenzhen. Nothing special to post here today other than some quick photos of our apartment and the hotel lobby all decked out for the holiday, and a glimpse into the mysterious underbelly of China.... bowling alleys. Actually, they're neither mysterious nor nefarious, and are exactly what you'd expect a bowling alley in China to be like. Exactly the same, only a whole lot more Chinese.

Enjoy for now, I'll post something half-insightful/interesting at some point, I don't think I have to date on this blog, but I'm still trying.

A Belated Valentine

I've been known to cross state borders just to hang with people who are also single for Valentine's Day, so it should come as no surprise that I would troll the interwebs for sarcastic and dry Valentines. Well the internet has an abundance of snarky V-day e-cards, but they're mostly lame. Then I came across tacky Star Wars Valentine's cards and was impressed with both their dorkiness and hilarity. I felt compelled to post a couple here. Others may end up in various inboxes, a few days late.

The business facet of my life is interesting. Our summer program now has over 20 applicants, and our first student arrives in a few weeks. We are expanding our offering to Shanghai, where TPBJR will be settling shortly, and are generally optimistic about the program and it's potential to generate income and lasting student interest in Shenzhen. I'm a big fan of "tech blogs" specifically one called Engadget. I mention this because I frequently come across articles about cellphones or tech that have some relation to Shenzhen, and that makes me feel kind of cool knowing almost exactly where all those wares are sold (illegally) and manufactured (not so illegally). I would hope that some nerdy dorky college types want to come out here to try and be part of the action as well.

The consulting side is interesting and multi-faceted to put it lightly. We are expanding and refocusing and are perhaps running out of fingers to put into pots. This is fine though at the moment because we are lining up to wrap up a few clients this month and that of course means rent becomes a little bit easier to handle. I cannot post much about this as most of it is confidential and/or ongoing and/or I'm just not on the same page at the moment. But things are good.

I need to get organized, and start jotting down things to post about here, I'm currently waiting for a sunny day to record a video of a taxi-trip downtown, and perhaps one of the electronics city Hua Xian Bei, because these are two things/places that really need to be seen to be understood. The electronics city is shut because of Chinese New Year which was on the 14th but continues for the remainder of the week, and the weather is just miserable settling in nicely at 45F with overcast/fog/drizzle. It may not sound bad, but our buildings do not have heat, and China isn't quite sure what insulation is yet. It is often colder inside because of the concrete nature of our domiciles. Tea and Oatmeal, and the one sweater I didn't forget in the states.

I'm off to lunch, but will leave you with another Star Wars V-day card. Hope everyone's met or exceeded their expectations.

Up in the Air

People have been telling me to check that movie out, and I'll probably do so this week. While I've never been a fan of George Clooney the person, I'm a fan of some of the stuff he's been in, and this movie looks kind of cool.

Anyway, I've been putting off a post for a while, and continued efforts to sound smart, have a well thought out post, and generally avoid all my usual syntactical pitfalls have fallen short. I will thus rage blindly forward, write as I go, and post without any regard for life, rules, or proofreading.

I am by no means a well traveled person compared to the friends I have back in the states, and the unbelievable characters I have met out here. Many have lived out in Asia since I was watching Animaniacs after school with a fervor that bordered on the religious. And while that may have only been a couple years ago, they permanently set up shop over here. Olivier and I do not consider ourselves to be of that variety of expat, we both have lives firmly rooted in the States, and plan on a swift return at some point in the foreseeable future.

While the foreigners living out here are content with staying out here, we are not. They do not regard trips home the way I do. I will leave OPJ out of this since I am not keen on his take about this, and will not put words into his mouth. It has come to be that I have two lives, separated completely with the exception of two friends and a plane ticket. If I was lucky enough to have lucid dreams I would imagine it to be something like being awake, and then being lucid. Two things that help these two worlds remain separate: The flight, and separate cultures/languages.

The Flight
It is not the longest flight anyone has taken, and it is not the most harrowing/dangerous, or even very interesting, but done enough times it transforms into something else. I am not fortunate enough to have a body/mind that sleeps well on planes, and as a result, I spend 14 out of the 15+ hours awake. I laud Continental for their phenomenal movie collection, and the occasional cartoon or 30 Rock episode doesn't hurt either. But watching these 4 times a year for that many hours, I've seen several movies on more than one occasion. I'm rambling. The flight takes a ton out of you, and the travel time door to door measures somewhere between 22-28 hours depending on how other legs of the journey play out. You exist in a fog for much of it, albeit a pleasant, un-obstructive, "good passenger" fog. You do not make yourself a point of contention because you'll either be stuck with them for 15 hours in a small space, or pulled aside for "special screening".

This fog I speak of makes the whole journey seem like a bit of a dream, enhanced by a full 12-13 hour time difference, and exacerbated by the 4 days it takes to fully adjust to your new location.

The Culture
I'll be frank [thank God right?] China and the US are very different. The language, the climate, the smells, the sights, everything really. Yes yes, I've gone on about similarities, but outside of the apartment, you know you're in China.

Other elements that add to the double life are the separate groups of friends, watering holes, and daily routines. I am without family in China, but there is a familial network here of close friends fills the gap to a degree.

Anyway, it was something that I had mentioned to a few close friends, and I have never heard anyone else mention it. While I am far from unique in my experiences, I thought it was odd to have never heard it from someone else. It's an odd world where one lives out two lives, separated by a dream. I will ultimately have to decide which life to chose, and am confident that I will return stateside, but I was always awful at Chose Your Own Adventure books.