We talked to an Australian who's teaching science in a private school here. He confirmed that anyone but east Asian looking people can easily find a lucrative teaching job here. When he was teaching in Beijing, he had this Uzbek girl and a Russian teaching English, with very bad accent. An other African man claimed he's African American and got a good teaching job. He was caught after a while because someone who was smart caught him teaching the wrong thing. I confirmed with another American who's teaching international school here that the Korean and Japanese parents don't want their kids to have English tutors who are Asians.
We also learned that Americans who returned home after living in Beijing for a few years were told by doctors to quit smoking. They said but we don't smoke! It's from the polluted air.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Thursday, July 26, 2007
June 26, 2007 - White skin won and Chinese Mermaid
I didn't type that wrong. Brent didn't win a Chinese Mermaid.
There's a Starbucks downstairs in our building (yes, they have it every few blocks here too) that had been renovating and looked like opening today. We saw some people there and went in to the front room where there were chairs and speakers. Brent was aggressively walking ahead of me as I thought it was staff only. A young woman came out smiling and said "hello" to Brent. Brent of course asked what is going on and she said it's "friends and family" day, and it'll open tomorrow. She then asked Brent what he wanted and she could bring it out to him for free. Brent shamelessly pointed to the Mango smoothie on the poster and said he'd like to try that. She came out and said they didn't have Mango today so she made him a banana chocolate mocha. I can swear that if I had walked in by myself no one would have come out and offered me free drinks.
P.S. Brent met a Linux "friend" he met on-line here last night and this guy is teaching English here. He said a lot of girls would want to be his girlfriend if Brent is teaching!
We also saw a kite that is a Chinese mermaid - global concept localized!
There's a Starbucks downstairs in our building (yes, they have it every few blocks here too) that had been renovating and looked like opening today. We saw some people there and went in to the front room where there were chairs and speakers. Brent was aggressively walking ahead of me as I thought it was staff only. A young woman came out smiling and said "hello" to Brent. Brent of course asked what is going on and she said it's "friends and family" day, and it'll open tomorrow. She then asked Brent what he wanted and she could bring it out to him for free. Brent shamelessly pointed to the Mango smoothie on the poster and said he'd like to try that. She came out and said they didn't have Mango today so she made him a banana chocolate mocha. I can swear that if I had walked in by myself no one would have come out and offered me free drinks.
P.S. Brent met a Linux "friend" he met on-line here last night and this guy is teaching English here. He said a lot of girls would want to be his girlfriend if Brent is teaching!
We also saw a kite that is a Chinese mermaid - global concept localized!
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
2007-07-25 almost feeling like home
We came to Qingdao last week and found it to be a much more comfortable city to be in - it's a mid sized city by the ocean, so it's more relaxed and much cooler than Shanghai. We stayed in a dump the first night. I booked it over the internet - it looked nice. But only when we got there, we knew we couldn't stay there for long. It's in a nice looking commercial building but the hallway stunk. Then the bathroom is a little bigger than 1 sqm with the shower head right above the toilet. When I showered, the drain didn't go down much so it flooded, with water going between the door slit into the room.
We gave in to a conventional hotel the next day. We spent three days looking for an apartment. It turned out it's very hard to find a furnished place for short term. Some places are spacious and nice inside, but in market areas that smell like rotten vegetables. We finally narrowed down to two places, both near the beach and has ocean view. One is much bigger than the other but less clean and more expensive. It took us another day of contemplating to decide to take the studio, the smaller of the two, in a cleaner building.
We went back to Shanghai to pick up the remainder of our luggage (Brent's books and hardware etc). They only allow 20kg per person within China, so we got a hefty fine. Shanghai was so hot that we didn't go anywhere. Brent tried to get money out of a Chinese bank but it ate his card for a while then eventually spit it out. We then took a bus to this large mall where there is Citibank and HSBC. Citibank gave him an error and then we went to HSBC machine in Carrefore, it ate his card! We called the number and they said our bank indicated something was wrong with his card and they couldn't return it to him! We were going to go to Bar Rouge which a friend recommended to see the night view of Bund, but we were worried that we would have trouble getting cash in the future so we'd better budget ourselves. In any bank that allows foreign cards to get money, the max for the day is 3000RMB - about $420. And we can't necessarily find a bank that takes foreign cards everyday.
We flew back to Qingdao last Saturday and moved into our apt smoothly. We spent the next few days cleaning. The landlords didn't clean much even though it's a nice apartment.
We enjoy the sea breeze occasionally in our apt and we take walks often to the boardwalk (actually cement walk and no beach). Loads of tourists come here everyday as this is the escape for summer for many Chinese. We can see the harbor where the Olympics sailing competition will be held next year from our window. I bet the rent is even worse next year.
We tried to extend our visa while in Shanghai. We had to go to the "ENTRY-EXIT bureau". After we spent money to take the visa photos, and filled out the forms, and waited in line, we were told that we had to have a temporary residence permit from the local police station. We had never heard of such a thing before but the lady said it's required for all foreigners. I asked a woman who had a Singapore passport what this was - she said it is required if you stay in private residences. If you stay in a hotel, they have already registered you and the police do checkups.
So after we moved in, we called the police station but the person who's in charge wasn't in till Monday. She turned out to be very nice and reasonable. We got that done smoothly and she kindly introduced us to the police who's in charge of our area, so that if we are in any sort of trouble in the future, we talk to him. Hopefully not.
We gave in to a conventional hotel the next day. We spent three days looking for an apartment. It turned out it's very hard to find a furnished place for short term. Some places are spacious and nice inside, but in market areas that smell like rotten vegetables. We finally narrowed down to two places, both near the beach and has ocean view. One is much bigger than the other but less clean and more expensive. It took us another day of contemplating to decide to take the studio, the smaller of the two, in a cleaner building.
We went back to Shanghai to pick up the remainder of our luggage (Brent's books and hardware etc). They only allow 20kg per person within China, so we got a hefty fine. Shanghai was so hot that we didn't go anywhere. Brent tried to get money out of a Chinese bank but it ate his card for a while then eventually spit it out. We then took a bus to this large mall where there is Citibank and HSBC. Citibank gave him an error and then we went to HSBC machine in Carrefore, it ate his card! We called the number and they said our bank indicated something was wrong with his card and they couldn't return it to him! We were going to go to Bar Rouge which a friend recommended to see the night view of Bund, but we were worried that we would have trouble getting cash in the future so we'd better budget ourselves. In any bank that allows foreign cards to get money, the max for the day is 3000RMB - about $420. And we can't necessarily find a bank that takes foreign cards everyday.
We flew back to Qingdao last Saturday and moved into our apt smoothly. We spent the next few days cleaning. The landlords didn't clean much even though it's a nice apartment.
We enjoy the sea breeze occasionally in our apt and we take walks often to the boardwalk (actually cement walk and no beach). Loads of tourists come here everyday as this is the escape for summer for many Chinese. We can see the harbor where the Olympics sailing competition will be held next year from our window. I bet the rent is even worse next year.
We tried to extend our visa while in Shanghai. We had to go to the "ENTRY-EXIT bureau". After we spent money to take the visa photos, and filled out the forms, and waited in line, we were told that we had to have a temporary residence permit from the local police station. We had never heard of such a thing before but the lady said it's required for all foreigners. I asked a woman who had a Singapore passport what this was - she said it is required if you stay in private residences. If you stay in a hotel, they have already registered you and the police do checkups.
So after we moved in, we called the police station but the person who's in charge wasn't in till Monday. She turned out to be very nice and reasonable. We got that done smoothly and she kindly introduced us to the police who's in charge of our area, so that if we are in any sort of trouble in the future, we talk to him. Hopefully not.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
home coming and the dilemma of white skin
July 17, 2007
We've found a short term apartment in Qingdao. It took a lot of work. We arrived late Saturday night and the first night in an apartment I found on the web was horrible. We looked at a few more on Sunday and it was discouraging. Well, it's just normal local living - small bathroom with a water heater and a shower head above the toilet. When you shower, it splatters everywhere. Then we found one very nice studio and a pretty nice two-bedroom. Of course the 2BR is more expensive. It took us a lot of negotiation and relooking at the places to make a decision. We are going with the studio.
We went to Tianjin, my home town last Wednesday. I totally couldn't recognize the place. My college friends told me to stay in our university inn and it's pretty cheap and clean. When we got there at 11pm at night, they took a look at Brent and said they don't take foreigners! They said the rooms are not up to foreign standards. We were so shocked but there's nothing we could do. They told us to go to Expert Hotel (hotel for foreign teachers and professionals). We got there and there was no vacancy! The receptionist told us to try another hotel outside the university. He was so kind to call for us and found they have vacancy.
We met a real estate agent in Qingdao who also is a head hunter to arrange foreign teachers to teach English. I told him I'm interested in teaching. He said no parents would want me to teach because I look Chinese. It doesn't matter what people's skill levels are, the parents believe in white skin. He knows an Australian guy who was a pizza deliverer who's a high school grad, but when he gets to Qingdao he's so welcomed by parents and makes so much money and has different girlfriends every month that he doesn't want to leave. There were some Philipino teachers had a hard time finding a job because they look Asian. It took them a long time to prove how good they are.
We've found a short term apartment in Qingdao. It took a lot of work. We arrived late Saturday night and the first night in an apartment I found on the web was horrible. We looked at a few more on Sunday and it was discouraging. Well, it's just normal local living - small bathroom with a water heater and a shower head above the toilet. When you shower, it splatters everywhere. Then we found one very nice studio and a pretty nice two-bedroom. Of course the 2BR is more expensive. It took us a lot of negotiation and relooking at the places to make a decision. We are going with the studio.
We went to Tianjin, my home town last Wednesday. I totally couldn't recognize the place. My college friends told me to stay in our university inn and it's pretty cheap and clean. When we got there at 11pm at night, they took a look at Brent and said they don't take foreigners! They said the rooms are not up to foreign standards. We were so shocked but there's nothing we could do. They told us to go to Expert Hotel (hotel for foreign teachers and professionals). We got there and there was no vacancy! The receptionist told us to try another hotel outside the university. He was so kind to call for us and found they have vacancy.
We met a real estate agent in Qingdao who also is a head hunter to arrange foreign teachers to teach English. I told him I'm interested in teaching. He said no parents would want me to teach because I look Chinese. It doesn't matter what people's skill levels are, the parents believe in white skin. He knows an Australian guy who was a pizza deliverer who's a high school grad, but when he gets to Qingdao he's so welcomed by parents and makes so much money and has different girlfriends every month that he doesn't want to leave. There were some Philipino teachers had a hard time finding a job because they look Asian. It took them a long time to prove how good they are.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
3rd grade math exam and fake eggs
My high school friend's son is going to third grade (yes he is 9 years old), in one of the best schools in Beijing. Not only you need to pay to get in this public school, you also need to know someone. If you don't bribe the teacher who is in charge of your class, when your kid has a fight with another kid, the other kid wins. But despite that, they get a superb education. He's in the Olympics math class (like American AP), and these are two of the 16 questions in his final exam. I can't solve them:
1) given a sequence of numbers in which ith is the sum of i-1 and i-2, and where first 2 numbers are 1 and 3 (which makes it different from fibonacci, where 1 & 1 are first two)
1, 3, 4, 7, 11, 18, ...
what is the remainder of the 40th number in the sequence when divided by 5?
2) consider the number whose digits are the sequence of the squares of the natural numbers:
1, 4, 9, 16, 25, ... --> 1491625...
what is the 100th digit of this number?
Also, some smart #%#@% want to make a profit at the cost of the health of others - they make fake eggs - they look real, except they are plaster. My college friend bought some eggs from Walmart (yes they have Walmart here) and at least one of them is fake. Walmart apologized and said this is only from one of the suppliers and it's not common, so they sent a whole case of eggs to her and asked her not to publicize it.
We are happy to retour Forbidden City at our own pace this time, with much less people.
Friday, July 6, 2007
A few pix to start
we fell in love with LiJiang, Yunnan province. It's over 2000 m above sea level, clean air and blue sky. The old towns and minority people are really charming.
Sticky hot Shanghai
If you haven't taken a public bus in China, you haven't experienced it. It's hot and sticky to begin with - 34 c and 99% humidity, and the bus is packed to the very last step that the driver let people on from the back door. Today Brent had the ultimate China experience - getting on a bus during rush hour, with millions of other Chinese. It was painful for him, but this is everyday life for most Chinese.
Oh, my aunt's maid's son got into the best high school in the county! Very happy for her. He got such a good score that she doesn't need to pay Y30,000. Another girl she knows has to pay Y66,000 to get in because her score wasn't good enough. Her family can't afford it, but they will borrow money to get her into this high school.
Oh, my aunt's maid's son got into the best high school in the county! Very happy for her. He got such a good score that she doesn't need to pay Y30,000. Another girl she knows has to pay Y66,000 to get in because her score wasn't good enough. Her family can't afford it, but they will borrow money to get her into this high school.
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