Still no Chinese friends... But Rae is coming in less than two weeks, so I don't know if I will even bother. Maybe I am just too set in my ways, maybe I have been here to long for it to have any novelty value.
I went to a good party on friday. My Chinese-Bangladeshi neighbour, David, convinced his Korean girlfriend, Christin, to have a party. It was cool because it was the usual people from my class along with the Bangladeshi crew and a bunch of Turks and other random people who are friends with the Christin's roommate. To my surprise, only about half of my class was invited. Despite being Korean, Christin did not invite most of the Koreans or any of the Japanese or Indonesians. I guess this reflects the social structure of the class. The party consisted of lots of drinking, dancing and general merry-making. Marco, my Italian classmate got terribly drunk and spent much of his time acting the part of a drunk.
David is a very smooth guy. His style of speaking is sometimes a bit off-putting, but when it comes down to negotiations or making you feel comfortable, he is a natural. At 9pm the security guards came to tell us to turn down the music. David talked to them and they went a way for a while. When they came back a half hour later David told them that we had just graduated from university and this was our way of celebrating. When they came back for a third time David went and bought them beer. Throughout this whole period, the music never went off, or even down. I know that I would not have had the guts, or the skills of persuation to pull it off the way he did. Throughout the whole night despite his girlfriend being the host, he was definately the mack of the party. He was dancing with all of the pretty girls and the was general centre of everything.
At 11;30 David rounded us up to go clubbing. After much consideration and deliberation, we decided to go to the cheaper and closer S-Club rather than the further and more expensive, although much more lively Vicks. In the event, there were no people at S-club when we showed up. This was ok because we were a big enough group and made our own fun. After several hours of dancing, talking and drinking, we called it a night at about 3:30 and went home.
Yesterday was nothing special. I studied a bit, watched some Chinese TV, some CNN and tried to read the Chinese paper. At night, I went out for dinner with Chris and Karin, an Israeli girl. We had a good time talking about the differences between Chinese and Western culture (an old standby converstation here) and then went back to Karin's place where we all watched "Million Dollar Baby". The movie was good and I would reccomend it to anyone who likes movies with happy endings.
Aside from all of this, I am applying for two jobs. The first is an internship at the Canadian embassy in Beijing. It pays ok and the work looks interesting, but it is in Beijing, which is not so great for my relationship with Rae. The other job is based in Vancouver and is a research position with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. Right now this is my prefered choice because the work should also be good and I would be able to live in Vancouver near Rae. Of course, I would also have the much higher standard of living associated with living in Canada. I handed in the APFC application on friday before the party and I will send out the embassy one tonight. The way I see it, I am fairly well qualified for either job and should hopefully have a decent shot at getting at least one. These jobs are also exactly the kinds of jobs that I want right now and are the only things that can save me from English teaching or a menial job in Canada.
Tonight I am meeting Max for dinner. It has been one week since I have seen him and I think my Chinese level might have actually deteriorated. Either way, he will want to speak English most of the time and that is ok with me.
I guess I should get by to my application...
I went to a good party on friday. My Chinese-Bangladeshi neighbour, David, convinced his Korean girlfriend, Christin, to have a party. It was cool because it was the usual people from my class along with the Bangladeshi crew and a bunch of Turks and other random people who are friends with the Christin's roommate. To my surprise, only about half of my class was invited. Despite being Korean, Christin did not invite most of the Koreans or any of the Japanese or Indonesians. I guess this reflects the social structure of the class. The party consisted of lots of drinking, dancing and general merry-making. Marco, my Italian classmate got terribly drunk and spent much of his time acting the part of a drunk.
David is a very smooth guy. His style of speaking is sometimes a bit off-putting, but when it comes down to negotiations or making you feel comfortable, he is a natural. At 9pm the security guards came to tell us to turn down the music. David talked to them and they went a way for a while. When they came back a half hour later David told them that we had just graduated from university and this was our way of celebrating. When they came back for a third time David went and bought them beer. Throughout this whole period, the music never went off, or even down. I know that I would not have had the guts, or the skills of persuation to pull it off the way he did. Throughout the whole night despite his girlfriend being the host, he was definately the mack of the party. He was dancing with all of the pretty girls and the was general centre of everything.
At 11;30 David rounded us up to go clubbing. After much consideration and deliberation, we decided to go to the cheaper and closer S-Club rather than the further and more expensive, although much more lively Vicks. In the event, there were no people at S-club when we showed up. This was ok because we were a big enough group and made our own fun. After several hours of dancing, talking and drinking, we called it a night at about 3:30 and went home.
Yesterday was nothing special. I studied a bit, watched some Chinese TV, some CNN and tried to read the Chinese paper. At night, I went out for dinner with Chris and Karin, an Israeli girl. We had a good time talking about the differences between Chinese and Western culture (an old standby converstation here) and then went back to Karin's place where we all watched "Million Dollar Baby". The movie was good and I would reccomend it to anyone who likes movies with happy endings.
Aside from all of this, I am applying for two jobs. The first is an internship at the Canadian embassy in Beijing. It pays ok and the work looks interesting, but it is in Beijing, which is not so great for my relationship with Rae. The other job is based in Vancouver and is a research position with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. Right now this is my prefered choice because the work should also be good and I would be able to live in Vancouver near Rae. Of course, I would also have the much higher standard of living associated with living in Canada. I handed in the APFC application on friday before the party and I will send out the embassy one tonight. The way I see it, I am fairly well qualified for either job and should hopefully have a decent shot at getting at least one. These jobs are also exactly the kinds of jobs that I want right now and are the only things that can save me from English teaching or a menial job in Canada.
Tonight I am meeting Max for dinner. It has been one week since I have seen him and I think my Chinese level might have actually deteriorated. Either way, he will want to speak English most of the time and that is ok with me.
I guess I should get by to my application...
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