IThe really slow pace of things here has led me to shirk my blog writing duties, that is for sure. In many ways this is because, as mentioned previously, I have alot of down time, and fill that downtime with sleep and streaming video from the USA.
I believe I have made it through a couple of stages in being an ex-patriot. First there was the honeymoon period full of wonderment at all the strangeness of a new culture and place. That lasted for about 6 weeks.
After 6 weeks, I sort of hit an awkward patch. I had a great time going to Hainan, but during the period from mid-december until the past couple of weeks, I think I have honestly been battling an overwhelming feeling of anxiety and depression. I kind of have had a hard time doing more than feeding myself and doing my laundry.
It is different than merely being depressed. I think you reach a point when moving to a foreign culture when you sort of recoil in the face of so much that is different and cling onto anything that reminds you of your native country.
In the past, I am sure that is why immigrants tended to stick around each other. When you are surrounded by a foreign culture, it is surprising the degree to which you will go to hear your language spoken to you or to eat food approximating what you are used to.
I think that I have been coming out of this phase over the past couple of weeks. As proof of this, I am back writing on this blog!
The experience of living here in China has given me a new respect for my ancestors who immigrated to the USA. It must have been so tremendously frightening to have immigrated to a foreign land, especially with no help from anyone.
By comparison, I am coddled like a baby. I have been treated very very nicely by people I have met at the agency I work for and the schools where I work. My ancestors probably did not have benefit of that.
The chinese do not rely on their government to help them in the way that you think socialists would. In fact, I have seen that the complex web of relationships that Chinese people have is a way for them to ensure that they have a safety net. Because life is very difficult here, and people earn less money, they need to rely on their friends and relatives a lot. It just seems to me that people try harder to cultivate relationships because without them people's chances of survival are diminished.
This would certainly make for an interesting sociological or ethnographic investigation. The degree to which people's concept of society is really a way of creating a safety net.
I can only suppose that the ethnic neighborhoods of my ancestors were places where people really did have each others back. I can see now how living in a place where your next meal really might just depend on who you know.
China is a place that I am still understanding. It sounds cliche, but all those cliches about china and chinese being difficult to understand is pretty apt. There are very different social and cultural ideas that guide people. I see alot of the good, because I am surrounded by well educated and polite people who treat foreigners like guests.
When I say that I am treated like a guest by chinese people I work with, I really literally mean that I am being treated like a guest.
Anyway, just to update folks about my work, I am currently working on Saturday and Sunday from 8:45 to 6:00 PM at the private school run by the teacher at the foreign language school. Then I work on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 5:30 to 6:15 giving lectures to students at the school where I live.
The topics of lectures I have given so far have mostly revolved around holidays. I gave lectures about Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukah, January Holidays, and my home town of Boston.
In a lecture I did about January holds, I talked aboiut what New Year's Resolutions are. I gave personal examples of what New Year's resolutions are by making some, like "I need to lose weight" and "I need to find a new job this year." When I made the comment about a new job, one of the students said, "but if you find a new job you won't be our teacher anymore." How sweet!
There are days where I feel like I am just here on a mission of survival. My tasks those days usually revolve around getting myself fed, getting bottled drinking water, getting cigarettes, and watching as much streaming video as possible.
There honestly isn't much to do here in Wuhan. I shouldn't say that though. The truth is that I am just as reclusive and aloof here as I was back in Boston.
I think here though, I tend to get cloistered a little more tightly. It gets to the point where it just becomes easier and more calming to avoid the annoyances of dealing with the language barrier by avoiding situations where you have to use language.
My new years resolutions are to work on learning more chinese, going out more and quitting smoking.
I believe I have made it through a couple of stages in being an ex-patriot. First there was the honeymoon period full of wonderment at all the strangeness of a new culture and place. That lasted for about 6 weeks.
After 6 weeks, I sort of hit an awkward patch. I had a great time going to Hainan, but during the period from mid-december until the past couple of weeks, I think I have honestly been battling an overwhelming feeling of anxiety and depression. I kind of have had a hard time doing more than feeding myself and doing my laundry.
It is different than merely being depressed. I think you reach a point when moving to a foreign culture when you sort of recoil in the face of so much that is different and cling onto anything that reminds you of your native country.
In the past, I am sure that is why immigrants tended to stick around each other. When you are surrounded by a foreign culture, it is surprising the degree to which you will go to hear your language spoken to you or to eat food approximating what you are used to.
I think that I have been coming out of this phase over the past couple of weeks. As proof of this, I am back writing on this blog!
The experience of living here in China has given me a new respect for my ancestors who immigrated to the USA. It must have been so tremendously frightening to have immigrated to a foreign land, especially with no help from anyone.
By comparison, I am coddled like a baby. I have been treated very very nicely by people I have met at the agency I work for and the schools where I work. My ancestors probably did not have benefit of that.
The chinese do not rely on their government to help them in the way that you think socialists would. In fact, I have seen that the complex web of relationships that Chinese people have is a way for them to ensure that they have a safety net. Because life is very difficult here, and people earn less money, they need to rely on their friends and relatives a lot. It just seems to me that people try harder to cultivate relationships because without them people's chances of survival are diminished.
This would certainly make for an interesting sociological or ethnographic investigation. The degree to which people's concept of society is really a way of creating a safety net.
I can only suppose that the ethnic neighborhoods of my ancestors were places where people really did have each others back. I can see now how living in a place where your next meal really might just depend on who you know.
China is a place that I am still understanding. It sounds cliche, but all those cliches about china and chinese being difficult to understand is pretty apt. There are very different social and cultural ideas that guide people. I see alot of the good, because I am surrounded by well educated and polite people who treat foreigners like guests.
When I say that I am treated like a guest by chinese people I work with, I really literally mean that I am being treated like a guest.
Anyway, just to update folks about my work, I am currently working on Saturday and Sunday from 8:45 to 6:00 PM at the private school run by the teacher at the foreign language school. Then I work on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 5:30 to 6:15 giving lectures to students at the school where I live.
The topics of lectures I have given so far have mostly revolved around holidays. I gave lectures about Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukah, January Holidays, and my home town of Boston.
In a lecture I did about January holds, I talked aboiut what New Year's Resolutions are. I gave personal examples of what New Year's resolutions are by making some, like "I need to lose weight" and "I need to find a new job this year." When I made the comment about a new job, one of the students said, "but if you find a new job you won't be our teacher anymore." How sweet!
There are days where I feel like I am just here on a mission of survival. My tasks those days usually revolve around getting myself fed, getting bottled drinking water, getting cigarettes, and watching as much streaming video as possible.
There honestly isn't much to do here in Wuhan. I shouldn't say that though. The truth is that I am just as reclusive and aloof here as I was back in Boston.
I think here though, I tend to get cloistered a little more tightly. It gets to the point where it just becomes easier and more calming to avoid the annoyances of dealing with the language barrier by avoiding situations where you have to use language.
My new years resolutions are to work on learning more chinese, going out more and quitting smoking.
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