Off to Harbin!

For the New Year I'm going to China's coldest city--Harbin! Why go somewhere so cold in the winter? Because I love the winter! Though really I'm going for the Ice and Snow Festival. It looks spectacular, just Google image it! I'll be meeting up with my good friend Kate there. She's one of my friends from study abroad, and the one with whom I visited Inner Mongolia. I'm pretty excited! This'll be my first time traveling alone anywhere, so that's got me a little nervous, but it'll be a new experience!

Information Asymmetry: Come on, give me a hint!

Attempting to find (decent) work in China has been an exercise in information asymmetry. This has been true from the beginning but it is only recently that I have fit the term to it.

Take for example the phone call I just made:
The call was a follow-up after over a week of no response. I had achieved first contact with the lister but their response answered none of my questions and after emailing them again and waiting I did not receive a second email. So I call, reach some sort of office, am redirected to Lily's mobile. She picks up, seems to have no idea who I am. No shock. These recruiters are surprisingly poorly organized. I often feel that I could do better myself just with Google Translate and a spreadsheet! But that's beside the point. I explain to her that we'd emailed some and I was calling because she didn't email back. She asks what position I'm calling for. Hah! Here's where the information asymmetry comes in.

I wish I had the posting copied so I could show you, but all that I have now are my notes. Allow me to summarize them for you:
Position: ?
Location: ?
Hours: ?
Start date: ?
Salary: 'well paid hour rate'
Kind of hard for me to tell her the position in which I am interested when I myself know so little, huh? This--THIS is with what I have been dealing. These people post listings for jobs with hardly any information. Having hints like 'kids', 'full time', any location, is a miracle! You want to know the salary or hours? Keep dreaming!

What's the point of telling possible candidates nothing? Maybe it's a bad job and they figure that way they'll still get candidates? What, you think I'd say yes in person to a job I'd pass by online? As if! I've become much more comfortable telling people, to their faces, that their job sucks and I don't want it. I'm more polite than that, but not much less honest. The many interviews I've had are starting to pay off. I can recognize BS much faster and, frankly, am done putting up with it. I not the naiive new arrival I was even a month ago, and they're not pulling my strings.

Avatar

Note: I know this movie doesn't relate specifically to China. But you know what? I'm going to write about it anyway, because I want to.


Avatar was, to put it simply, incredible.

I went there expecting to see something amazing. The best movie of the year, or perhaps even my life. I thought it would have gorgeous graphics and be overall amazing. And you know what? It blew me away. It was beyond my highest expectations.

I don't even know how to describe my feelings about it. The story, the setting, the characters, the graphics... All incredible.

Now if you've spent a lot of time with me you know that I get really into stories, books and movies alike. It's not hard for me to care for a character and feel for them. But Avatar... I lived and died with these characters. I loved them even more than I do most movie characters.

The movie was intense, yet not in the way I had expected. I suppose I was expecting more violence with less depth and meaning. More flash. Instead I saw a film in which much of the violence held more meaning and importance than I am used to. It was beautiful and exciting and engagingly intense.

I could go on and on, and I'd like to, but at least for now I won't.

Gotta have pictures

This is how I look when I'm outside, though usually with gloves and my hair more tucked in. This must've been on a warmer day.

Chronology-is it really that important?

As you may know, I like to organize things. A lot. And sometimes this desire for order gets in the way of actually doing things. Part of what's put off my blogging has been my desire to tell the happenings chronologically. Really, I'm much more interested in writing about what I'm doing now rather than what I was doing before, but I felt like I should write what happened before, well, before. But enough of that silliness! The present is now!

Today, I had Korean food for dinner. It's been a bit since I went out, and much longer since I went out by myself, but I was feeling tired of the food I have here. I like cooking, but it takes time and tastes like food I cooked. Plus China makes it so easy to eat out, what with the many delicious options all nearby and relatively cheap. The Korean place is just across the street and a little bit down-less than 5 minutes walk. And they have this delicious noodle dish that's only 12RMB ($1.76)!

Tomorrow I need to catch up on my emails. After days of working on job-related emails and making good progress there, I found I'm way behind on personal emails. Whoops! I feel like a bad friend when I'm slow to respond, so I really want to get caught up on that front.

Look, it's a blog!

Wow, finally getting this thing going! It's been a little less than a month and a week since I arrived in Beijing.

Five weeks seem like too short a time for everything I've experienced here. I've been cold, tired, confused, sick, deceived, frustrated, distraught, despairing, angry, afraid, and stressed. But I've also been warm, happy, elated, amazed, relieved, comfortable, amused, entertained, interested, accomplished, exuberant, and cared for.

I'm heading to bed now, will try to get some details up here tomorrow.