Return to the Fragrant Harbor

Short post today to let you know what's happening this week. I'm doing something unwise with my money. Again. A couple of friends and I are heading to Hong Kong this weekend. We all have some time off and we'll be heading down Friday evening. We're going to share a hotel room to defray the cost, and go on the cheap. Meg and Emma are both from northern England and want to see Hong Kong. Meg has been once before, but only for one night (she was there to catch a flight) and Emma hasn't been at all. I'm to be their tour guide around the city, which delights me to no end. I love tour guiding.

Hopefully, that means that next week's post will have plenty of pictures. Also, look to my G+ account to see our trip as we go. This will be the first time I'll be going with the benefit of a phone and social networking accounts, so I'll try and post some of the action as I go.

Rebecca's last night

Rebecca Darling, the first foreigner that I met in China, will be leaving with me to seek a new adventure in next year. We'll probably end up in China, though I don't know if we'll stay in this part of the country. We've been looking at the northeast coast. The cities of Qingdao and Dalian are both enticitng possibilities. Both have cold winters, but also have beaches right in town for summer as well as mountains nearby. Both have interesting colonial pasts that have left some beautiful architecture and both have ferries to Korea and Japan. They're both a few hours away from Beijing and Qingdao is midway between Beijing and Shanghai.

But we haven't ruled anything out. I've also been looking at jobs in Taiwan and we'd both like going someplace tropical, so there are many possibilities. In any case, her contract here is already up, and next school year doesn't start until September so she arranged to go back to England for the summer (also she missed family and friends). 

Rebecca and Vikki at Mustache, the go-to bar for expats in town

Preparing to leave

I'm in 'goodbye Chenzhou'  mode. My job search is in full swing, I've had two interviews and people are sending me links to new sites. My friend Rebecca has decided that she wants to go with me to one of the bigger cities, so I won't be going somewhere new alone. I spent yesterday with my Italian friend, who'll be leaving for Edinburgh to start a master's degree shortly after my contract is up. I won't see him again for at least a year and am feeling pretty guilty for not making more time for him while we were here. But, of course, time always flies faster than you expect and it always seems like you could have done more in retrospect. On the upside, you always remember the past as being better than it was, which is the magic of nostalgia.

One of the things we did yesterday was to go to a movie in the evening. It's one of the more normal seeming things you can do while in China. For two hours you can sit and watch people speaking English and temporarily forget that you're not in your native country anymore (perhaps less so for Angelo). But the experience isn't entirely like being back in the states. For one thing, people talk all through the movie. At first I just thought that Chinese people were extremely rude moviegoers, but then I realized that none of them can understand what's being said. They're just reading, not listening. But more amazing, we negotiated our ticket price. I think we might could have gotten a lower price, but we paid a little more than half price, so not too bad. They originally wanted 90 Renminbi per person, but we talked them into 130 for both of us, including two cokes and two popcorns. Keep in mind this wasn't an old theater outside town running classic movies. We were going to watch Warcraft, a new release, in a multiplex at a major mall in town.

The original plan for yesterday was to go to Dongjiang Lake, which is supposed to be a beautiful place about an hour outside of town. Everyone I've met in town has asked if I have been and advises that I go, but I haven't been able to make it out there yet. It rains a lot in Chenzhou and other people's time off rarely coincides with mine. And, of course, I had to wait for warm weather anyway. On Sunday, Angelo and I were finally going to get everything together and get out there, but then the rain started and we decided that it wouldn't be worth the trip. So I may have to return to Chenzhou at some later date if I'm going to see the lake, but Angelo and I got to make our way around the city and see some other things, like Wuling Pavillion, a pretty cool looking structure that overlooks Wuling Square, which is one of the ritzier areas of town (and also where the only Wal-Mart is located).

Me in front of Wuling Pavillion

I guess all the traveling around town is because I'm getting ready to say goodbye to Chenzhou. My time here has been nice and, as always, part of me wants to stay, but there's more money to be made in the bigger cities and there's much more of the world to be seen. Chenzhou may very well be a nice place to settle down, but not for me. There's too much more of the world to explore. In my search for jobs, I've seen ads posted all over China where the culture is much different than here, as well as Taiwan and I'm also aware that there are jobs in places all over the world as well. There's too much to see and this is an opportunity to see it that I never thought I'd come by, so off I go.

To discuss the place that I'll be going next would be a bit premature, since I haven't gotten any firm offers, but I've got an interview in just a few minutes with a company based in Beijing. This company has an opening in Qingdao, Shandong Province. Qingdao has an interesting history, being the only place in China that I know of which was occupied by Germans at one point. The Germans brought breweries to the city and now the beer made there is the most famous in China. The city also has a pub culture, which is a rarity in China, combined with city beaches and nearby mountains.

Wish me luck!

A relaxing night out

Tonight we're it at a local bar that has opened recently. It's unusual for bars in this town because it features live music, serves both beer and cocktails, and has reasonable prices. And the lead singer has great pecs.

Even better, the bar is located right on Beihu park, so when the temperature gets too hot inside, you can walk out to the lake and, if you're lucky, get a cool breeze. It really makes for a nice, low key evening.

Bars in Chenzhou tend to be lacing in one thing or the other. Lots of places have a single live singer, basically doing a one-person karaoke show.This is the first place that has had a full band play, and they're pretty good. A local celebrity also stopped by. He had apparently made it to the final round of one of China's amateur singing shows (like American Idol). And he is a Chenzhou local, so he came in to sing a few songs. 

Overall the evening was really nice and chill and my friend Rebecca even got her flight booked to go back to England this month, which was something that she had been worried about.We're all getting to that place where we need to make plans for summer. Some people will go back home, while others will stay in China for the summer. Some people will continue working in Chenzhou next year while others will seek higher pay in the bigger cities. I hope to be the latter,  but I'm still hunting. 

A lavish dinner.

Yesterday I was invited to a school play performed by one of the private schools in town. The kids were adorable and, as always, there was a lavish dinner at a fancy restaurant planned for after.

Chinese restaurants often have large rooms like this to reserve for large parties. I thing there were about twenty people seated around the table.The food kept coming as did the beer.

Eva, the owner of the school, also brought along a huge amount of liquor. We went to KTV (Chinese karaoke) afterwards and drank ourselves silly. A good time was had by all.

These sorts of dinners usually follow any big event or for someone's birthday (I attended one of those last week). The restaurants are very interesting. Most table service restaurants have these rooms off to the side, but some, like this one, are composed entirely of them. There is no 'main floor' where the majority of people come in to eat. There are now tables for just two people. If you're not dining with a party of at least a half dozen, there's no place for you here.