Terrible Day

 We finished Arrested Development last night and I'm so broken hearted, hence my terrible day. The last season was pretty insane, but we just wanted more . . . Alas, it is not to be. On the bright side we did discover that our building has added a few new western channels since we last checked. We spent over an hour last night watching a show called something like "Most Xtreme Sports Accidents Ever" narrated by the guy who did the voice for "You Don't Know Jack" on AXN - it was awesome. I've missed lame TV so much.  

In other terrible news, my job is getting on my last damn nerve already. I'm so frustrated by the job situation in China - options are limited so you take what you can get. Actually, on paper the job I have is a really great opportunity - will probably look great on a resume . . . if I can last more than 5 months here. The office politics and the bureaucracy of some people is outrageous! I want to be above it all, but I feel like office politics drag everyone down, especially when the boss is one of the biggest purveyors of the politics. Aargh . . . But I'm trying to take the long (and the short) view of this and remember that I don't need to get too ensnared in all of it because I may only be here until the winter and at the most probably until next summer. I'm going to keep working on selling that to myself.

In good news, Min and I took an awesome trip to Inner Mongolia recently, and have several more trips planned. In September, we'll be visiting Huangshan mountain in Anhui province, and in October we'll travel to Tibet and Sichuan. Yay!

Currently Reading Body of Work: Meditations on Mortality from the Human Anatomy Lab By Christine Montross see related

Maybe he meant George Michael the singer/songwriter.

"he's a never nude"

"money's in the banana stand"

"who'd ever want to mess with us, huh?"

Hilarious! Thank God for DVDs. Especially thank God for them in China since TV is so bad. In addition to having these awesome DVDs, the weather has been better for the past few days. It actually feels a lot like Oklahoma - blue skies, very sunny, hot and dry. Also I think I'm finally on the mend from my 6 weeks of consecutive illness. I had some more Beijing stomach this weekend and was really worried I had another awful bacteria infection, but this one seems to have worked itself out of my system quickly with only one minor shitting of my pants episode. Mmmmm ........ tasty thought. I also saw my first ever movie theatre movie in China this weekend - Transformers. I was expecting to find it lame because I never liked the cartoon as a kid, but I actually really liked it. It was so nice to be at the movies, and the friends I went with were huge Transformers fans as kids so they were really into it. I was also disappointed because they only had sweet popcorn - no salt and butter - but the sweet popcorn turned out to be delicious and much less sickening than buttery popcorn. And my boss came back from vacation this week and has been acting very impressed with the work I'm doing today. And I've just started a new book and it's just as interesting as the book I just finished. My star is on the rise people! I think Jupiter has aligned with Mars! And I think maybe, just maybe, it's all thanks to the joy Arrested Development has brought into my life!

Currently Reading A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail (Official Guides to the Appalachian Trail) By Bill Bryson see related

I can use Xanga again!

I just realized that I can use Xanga at my new job - I think because the embassies and international companies here are allowed to have different internet capabilities than everyone else. I'm so excited that I'm back on, even though I know things have been slowish in the Xanga world for the past 6 months (or 1 year). Anyway, I'm back so you can all breathe a sigh of relief.

Unfortunately, I feel that I don't have too much to report from the past 6 months. I did get a new job at the Canadian Embassy in Beijing, which I started about 7 weeks ago. I'm supervising 3 units in the immigration section - registry, reception, and the interpreters. All in all I'm responsible for about 30-35 people. It's a pretty big job - I trained for 6 weeks and had my first official week as the bossman last week. It's a pretty good group I'm supervising - mostly Chinese and Filipino staff, with a few Africans and Canadians thrown in for good measure. It's a big job in a lot of ways and I have constant anxiety about screwing it up, but I'm starting to feel a little more comfortable in it. It's cool that I get to work pretty closely with some friends of mine here (people I became friends with before starting to work at the embassy). I think I'm going to become Newman though because, much like the mail, the work never stops. It's all about processing immigrant applications, and they them aplenty here in China. So it's always incoming. "Because the mail never stops! It just keeps coming and coming and coming, there's never a let up! It's relentless! Everyday it piles up more and more and more! And you gotta get it out but the more you get it out the more it keeps coming in! And then the bar code reader breaks and it's Publisher's Clearing House day!"

The book I'm reading right now is awesome. I highly recommend it to everyone. First of all the guy is hilarious. Secondly it's really strengthening my resolve to hike the Appalachian Trail as soon as possible. Depending on how things work out here, I'm hoping to do a year in this job (until June '08) and then go back to NY and hopefully hike the AT for 6-8 weeks before starting grad school in September. As is always the case, I suppose a million things could change between now and then, but that would be ideal. Sean may be available to do it with me since he's thinking of leaving his job next summer. That would be sweet. I really want to do it, but there's no way I'd do it alone. If I'm going to die by bear attack, I want to bring someone down with me (hopefully the bear, but I'd like a human back up too just in case).

I should really do some work, but I'm really excited to be back on Xanga! I hope you guys will still check my site so I can get some comments going!

Currently Reading The Jane Austen Book Club: A Novel By Karen Joy Fowler see related

Anger and South Koreans

I don't know what's haps lately with all the anger and all the Koreans, but the journey continues. Min and I spent 5 days in Seoul for Chinese New Year. It was a really nice and relaxing time. Lots of places were closed for the holiday and the city much emptier than usual, but we liked it that way. We spent an inordinate amount of time in some of Seoul's omnipresent fancy coffee shops, chillaxin' with coffee and (in my case) booze. We also ate tons of delicious food (including one trip to Outback!) and checked out some sites around Seoul. A highlight was our trip to the DMZ. As a Korean, Min can't go to the Joint Security Area without a special visa, but we visited other DMZ sites, like a tunnel that the North Koreans had dug almost all the way to South Korea before the South Koreans discovered it. The whole situation between North and South is just insane, and seems even more so when visiting in person. It really is a shame. I blame the Japanese :)

Somehow though our delightful trip was overshadowed by the crazy goings on at the airport on our way back. We arrived at the airport at about 4:30 on Wednesday afternoon for a 6:20 flight with Air China. We expected smooth sailing as the flight between Seoul and Beijing is only an hour and half. Upon arrival at the airport, we were told by the airline that all flights to Beijing were currently grounded because of heavy fog in Beijing. Fair enough. They told us to check back at the counter at 8pm, so we went to eat some food and kill some time. We checked back at 8 with the other passengers and were told we could check in a for a 10:30pm flight. I, being American and used to insane flight delays and poor airline customer service, didn't hold my breath but checked in with the others. They gave us some meal vouchers also, so of course Min and I ate again after going through security check-in. Then we waited at the gate. 10:30 came and went and no word. The crowd started getting restless, but I didn't notice much at this point because I was in the zone with "My Year of Meats" (thanks Amy!). 12:30 rolled around and Air China finally informed us there would be no flight tonight. The passengers surrounded the agent desk in a circle 20 deep and demanded hotel rooms for the night. One man, whom Min and I then referred to as WAB, demanded that the airline provide warm water and blankets to us while we waited, to which Min responded, "What are we, in Afghanistan?" I was suprised that the passengers managed to get hotel rooms because my experience in the US is that airlines won't provide hotel rooms for weather delays. The airline finally got buses to us at the airport around 1:30am and drove seemingly forever to a Korean "love hotel." We arrived at the love hotel around 2:30am and got to bed around 3:30.

At 9am, we were woken by a phone call from Air China telling us the bus would pick us up at 9:30. We scrambled to get ready and the bus took us back to the airport. It was 10:30am and the Air China staff told us they didn't know what was going on with our flight and to check back at the counter at 12:30. Annoying, but Min and I left to once again eat airport food. We came back to the check-in counter a little before 12:30 to find that most of the passengers had never left and were slowly forming an angry mob. It started with a few individuals screaming at a few airline employees, but soon escalated into a roiling mob. The leaders of the pack then proceeded to jump on the check-in counters to better rally the passengers and better threaten the airline employees. Fist fights were threatened, lighters were requested to burn the mother down, attempts to block every check-in counter for every airline were made, cries of "uppah" rang throughout the airport (uppah is apparently loosely quivalent to "turn this place upside down!"). I was certain that many arrests would be made any moment, after all the military police were called in (as well as a few news crews), but to my surprise the crowd kept roiling and no action was taken by the police. I guess Koreans have more control over their cops than Americans. Min and I stayed close to the roilers for couple of hours, but then decided to leave to eat again (the airline handed out more meal coupons in an attempt to disband the crowd - I think Min and I are the only ones who were lured away!)

When we returned from yet another meal, the crowd was still in the same state. The check-in counters were blocked, so people for Thursday flights were now being delayed because of our flight and were getting pissed and forming their own bands of discontent. Our flight was by this time demanding compensation for every further hour of delay (one man cried out that we should receive 1 million USD for each extra hour we were kept waiting), and demanding that Air China sign a passenger-drafted contract to this end. This deadlock continued for hours, followed by a storming of the Air China business office in the back annals of the airport by hundreds of passengers. Dozens of people crammed into the office and demanded 2 things: 1) monetary compensation for our delay, with a signed contract guaranteeing it, and 2) a 90 degree apology from the Air China manager (meaning an apology accompanied by a bow from the waist of 90 degrees). After literally screaming at the manager for over an hour, they managed to get a signed contract and a 90 degree apology. Everyone then returned to the check-in counter and finally checked in for a 10:30pm flight. I thought we'd never get our money from the airline, but in fact we did get it at the gate. The refund was $220 per passenger - and the entire round trip ticket was only about $300! Amazing, a bit frightening, a bit empowering, and completely true. Apparently Koreans have a history of this kind of behavior. They demand top-notch customer service at all times (perhaps even times when their demands are riduclous). It was kind of insane, and at times I thought the passengers were being completely ridiculous as our delays were mostly due to weather, but it was refreshing to be in a country where consumers have that level of power and won't be beaten by the cops for using it. Below are some pics of the fun:

One of the leaders of the passengers rallies the crowd in protest.

Some MPs guard one of the main targets - an Air China employee (in the end, he's the one who made sure we got our money, apologized profusely, gave every passenger his cell phone number, etc.).

Storming the Air China office.

Anger and North Korean Comrades

Now I have two sources of anger. First I wrote a very long post just now and then my computer froze up and it was lost, so I have to rewrite and probably lose some of my original passion. Second I only got one measly comment on my last post. One comment!? Am I talking to myself out here?! Am I going crazy and just conversing with myself here in blogworld?!

Now for the comrades. We went to a North Korean restaurant this weekend - the food was excellent, very similar to S. Korean but even better than a lot of S. Korean I've had. I don't know why this surprises me (maybe visions of food aid packages being dropped from planes), but it does. But the atmosphere is distinctly creepy. The restaurant is staffed with real live North Korean waitresses who are given permission to come here by the N. Korean government (they must be the elite and the charmed of society). This also means that they are constantly chaperoned when they're not at work, subject to curfews, probably reprogrammed regularly, etc. On their uniforms they wear pins with Kim Jong-Il's face (not the most appetizing of faces). They also call customers (in Korean) “female teacher” and “brother comrade.” During your meal, they loop these videos of N. Korean singers and dancers singing songs of the homeland - usually women in military uniforms who look extra cheerful about their lives. These videos look like they were done in the 70s, but I actually think they're quite new because a few of the dance moves look like they were harvested straight from some modern Western music videos (and the new moves are probably then credited to Kim Jong-Il as I'm sure the dancers aren't allowed to watch the videos necessary to cull these moves). On Saturday nights they have a live entertainment show which we were lucky enough to catch – it’s basically like the videos except you have to clap along and pretend your spine isn’t tingling with horror.

But the N. Koreans weren’t the only ones creeping me out – some of the S. Korean tourists were completely nuts. Lots of S. Koreans go to this restaurant I guess because they’re always super curious about N. Koreans (like Americans with Canadians, eh?). There were two tables of S. Korean men that night who were harassing the N. Korean waitresses like mad. They kept calling them over and grabbing their arms and putting their hands on the small of their backs (a little too familiar for a woman you don’t know, and also a little perverted paternalistic since these dudes were old and the women are young and famous for being chosen to work at this restaurant because they’re N. Korea’s most beautiful); repeatedly buying bouquets of fake flowers they sold onstage and presenting them to the singers on bended knee; taking tons of cheesy staged photos with the waitresses; shushing them by putting their fingers to their lips; whispering in their ears; etc, etc, etc. This went on and on, and I was so pissed but completely impotent to respond except with dirty looks. I felt bad for the waitresses, and I’m pretty sure the guys’ behavior caused them to be deprogrammed that very night. Maybe even deported back to their real paternal figure, Kim Jong-Il.

In spite of these offenses, Min and I are headed to the land of South Koreans this Saturday for a 5-day visit to Seoul. We may even hit up the DMZ for more interaction with our Northern brethren if we can swing it (Korean citizens can’t freely visit the DMZ – they can only go to certain parts or they need a special permit, so much for the Sunshine Policy). Chinese New Year is in full effect in Beijing. It’s as big as Christmas in the US so you can imagine the decorations and the humanity. I’ll send pics of Korea when we get back!

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