Before China

Before I came to China, I was very hesitant. It was a pretty scary thought about going half-way across the world. It was also a last minute decision. For the past year and a half before I came to China, I was actually supposed to go to South Korea to teach English. However, things did not turn out as planned due to various documents not being processed in time for me to be accepted. So, becuase of the unplanned events, I started learning Mandarin again. It was too hard to get back into it because I had only studied for a year in college. My Chinese teacher, from Beijing, was very happy to hear that I was going to China instead of Korea :P  

 

I was still a little bummed out about not being about to go to south Korea. I had become a hard core K-POP (Korean pop music) fan and I had studied Korean for a year. All I was thinking at that time was, "man, all that work and time is going down the drain."

 

 

Coming to China

Now, I am very happy to say that coming to China has to be the best choice I could have made, but let's back track a bit. When I first arrived in Beijing, I was excited and nervous about being in China. Then........I saw a Korean Airlines plane right next to me. All I was thinking was, "why has the universe foresaken me!!!!" Then, I met a nice guy from Beijing named Tony. He helped me around the airport and get to my bags. What happned after that? Well, 3 months before I came to China, I was a camp counselor at Northwestern University. One of my students was from Beijing and his mom, Flora, said that I could crash at her place for a night when I got to China. So, (fast forward back to the present) after Tom helped me to my bags, I was met by Flora and taken to a nice Beijing Duck dinner. It was delicious. Then I stayed at her place for a night, met the family and had a horrible sleep. JETLAG SSUUUUCCKKKKSSS!!!!!  Ahem......anywho, the next day, Flora took me to the Beijing Airport and I was able to catch my flight to my current city of residency, Daqing, China. Daqing is the oil city of China in the north, near Russia, and this city is the reason why China doesn't have to depend so much of foriegn oil anymore. 

 

Now In China

Now that I have been in China for 4 months, I have fallen in love with this country. The people of Daqing are so nice, caring, and helpful, Even if there is a language barrier, (most people in Daqing don't speak English) they are still willing to help you. Quick tip, Daqing is a great place to learn Chinese. I've seen some cool stuff such as the night clubs, bath houses, spas, and massage parlors. No, they are not like Rush hour 2, but again, they were in Hong Kong for that movie, so it might be like that in HK.  Chinese Spring Festival is near. 

 

For the Spring Festival, I will be in Shanghai, so be looking out for a special blog post about that!