Traveling the World

We arrived at the Beijing train station and grabbed taxis to the hostel because we didn’t know how to get there. From looking at the map, I was absolutely sure the driver was taking us in the opposite direction, yet after calling the hostel, they confirmed he was correct so I shut up. 50rmb and almost an hour later, we hopped out and checked in. We found out quickly that the owners are real pieces of work, so I highly recommend not staying there if you want to enjoy your experience.

Starved and bored, we crossed the street and found a Turkish restaurant. I have to admit the food was quite expensive, but I didn’t mind eating there because the food was so damn delicious! The average meal was about 50rmb, but we can’t eat this kind of food in Wuhan, so it was a treat!*

Forbidden City Entrance

I’m getting off topic, so let’s get back to it. I originally planned to meet up with my friend Landy who was the first Chinese friend I made RIGHT before I got onto the first plane to China over a year ago, but she was at her parent’s village celebrating her mom’s birthday. She told me about a bar that holds Salsa nights, so I just HAD to go. Upon arriving, I found that they weren’t playing Latin music at all, and there were a bunch of guys drinking and a bunch of girls doing nothing. It was completely boring and a waste of time, yet on the bright side Melba was given a piece of paper worth 4 free drinks (anything from the menu). She ordered two drinks and we pounded them and left. A bit tipsy, we stumbled into a little store that happened to have a huge candy selection. I was in heaven and couldn’t decide what to buy, so I spent about $15 buying one of almost everything there. It lasted less than a day, but I was so happy anyways! For more about my trip, you can read abut my experience at the Great Wall.

*Turkish Mum: 010-85323979 (Tian Jie Hu Zhan, Line 10). Gong Ti Bei Lu 1-2 北京朝阳区工体北路1-2.

Typical Aussie

Overall I found that customer service was quite terrible, yet sadly still better than China’s. In some sense, they want to make you happy like in the States, but at the same time they don’t really care either way. Americans ask, “What would you like,” while Australians ask “What are you after?” like it’s a desire.

The country seems to be run by unions, and as a result things get done much slower, and it takes a lot more money to get it done. The minimum wage is about $18 and they get mandatory breaks (which even in the eyes of some Australians are far too often). I guess it’s a product of our generation who only cares about mucking around and not having any ambitions in life, and I think that’s something you’ll find in every country within our generation.

Another thing was that many people have tattoos and piercings and show them in public without hesitation, whereas in America one would do well to conceal these things from their workmates and bosses. I found many people to be either particularly overweight, or way too skinny. Most young people had their hair dyed and walked around with an attitude, but I doubt that’s who they really are (unless they’re just white trash like I believe them to be).

I hate to generalize or speculate, but this post is based on my experience in Queensland, Australia. Your experience may differ, so don’t hold my words to be true to the T.

• July 1: Fly from Wuhan to Shanghai, Shanghai to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Miami
• August 6-9: Fly from Fort Lauderdale to Chicago to see my friend Ish
• August 14: Fly from Fort Lauderdale to Seattle to see the Twins and Maddy
• August 15: Skydive in Seattle
• August 17: Fly to San Francisco
• August 21: Rent a car and hit the road south to Monterrey
• August 22: Drive to LA
• August 26: Fly from Los Angeles to Shanghai
• August 26: Fly from Shanghai to Wuhan

As I mentioned above, I’ll be coming home with $7000, $2200 of which will be going to pay back my credit card bills (flights and pre-existing charges), thus leaving me with about $4800. My roundtrip tickets (WH-SH,SH-LAX,LAX-FLL,LAX-SH,SH-WH) cost $1800, which I know is a lot, but considering I used only one website to book them all in a row without any hassles, it’s a good deal.

My intent is to spend no more than $2000, and I should be able to stick to that budget since my friend Ish generously offered to cover my expenses (need to look for a cheapppppp flight, anyone?). During the times not specified, I’m free to do whatever I want, and will be seeing as many people in Florida (Miami, Pines, Weston, Davie, Coral Springs, Orlando, Gainesville) as I can. It’s already proving to be a crazy trip.

It’s been 2 very long, trying years that have also been very fruitful and educational. 1 more year to go!

What’s funny about life, and especially that life is just so different here, is that time doesn’t run the same. What I mean is, two years seems like a long time to those not here, but two years seems like an instant for those of us who do remain. Something might happen unexpectedly in one day that changes your entire outlook on life, and your future intentions.

In February of this year, I was so depressed and wanted to leave China. In March, I began working really hard to the point where I had no social life but wasn’t bothered by it because I was earning “insane” amounts of money (if $1800 a month could ever be considered insane in the eyes of an American). I worked this way from March until now, averaging $1800 each month. Now I’m at a point where, even though it’s only weeks away until I make my return trip to the US for the summer, I can’t think about anything else but the future past this summer.

I’ve been speaking to my family seriously over the last week. My idea right now is to go home for the summer, come back and earn as much money as I can, and then doing an all-out Asia trip starting January 27th, 2011 (purchased my tickets to Vietnam already). Who knows what will happen after?

During the last May Day, it was my original intention to spend 5 days traveling around Nanjing, Wuxi, and Suzhou (located near Shanghai). I waited too long to buy tickets and so lost out on that trip. Then I tried to get people to go to a local hot spring with me, which also failed due to people’s indecisiveness. I resigned myself to once again not being able to leave Wuhan and sulked. Then came the free time, and it was extremely nice to just have a break from work. Since the holiday came and went, my part-time job hasn’t increased my hours, so I’m a bit angry with them. Last month I worked 60 hours for them, which is about 1 month’s salary from my other job, thus allowing me to earn 13,000 RMB in April (this is about $1900 USD).

Life goes on.