Blogs from Central Business district , Chaoyang district, Beijing, China, Asia - page 2

So yesterday I went in to an English school that a friend works at for an interview. It turned out to be less of an interview, and more of a hiring. I walked in and filled out an application, then the lady told me to hold on just a minute. She leaves the room and comes back like 2 minutes later with a contract for me to sign. She let me look over it for a while and ask questions, then I signed it. Today I am going to go to the actual campus I will be teaching at to find out how much I will be working and everything. Yesterday's thing was at their Beijing main office. The school is called Hampson English, and they have 3 locations in Beijing, and 30 others throughout China. ... read more

I have to do biweekly journals for my internship seminar class, so I wanted to share it as a blog post. Enjoy! First Journal at China Supplier As I walked in to work the first day with Obi and Alyssa, I had a few expectations that seemed to drive what I hoped to experience, and what I actually experienced. China Supplier is a web based state owner corporation that specializes in connecting Chinese suppliers with international buyers, most specifically the US. My work at China Supplier has been broken down into 3 parts, correcting English grammar on the www.china.cn website, attending conference, and doing surveys that relate to how the average American buyer views a product. At China Supplier, I understand that the American face has added value because of the strong target of America, but ... read more

It has been a whirl wind over the past two days. I have seen Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, Hutong, the Thirteen Tombs, the Great Wall, and even slept through a Kung Fu show. It is wonderful to get to see so much of the ancient culture and in between to get to see so much of the modern culture. Our tour guide, Forest, is absolutely wonderful - except when he is not. His knowledge of China is expansive and impressive. He is kind, generous, and helpful. Lastly, he is paying me all sorts of money to say these nice things. Can't beat that. Aside from running all day and pushing my aging body to it's physical limit, it is a good time. I am getting to know several great families and one not so great ... read more

So it's now day 2. Yesterday I got out and bought a phone and phone number. Got a Nokia C3-00, fully unlocked, tri-band, useable anywhere where you can put a sim card in it, for the equivalent of $150, which is awesome. Loving it so far. Other than that, didn't do a whole lot, did a lot of emailing and reading. I did have some really good food, ate at Yoshinoya, which is a Japanese chain I used to eat at in Taiwan, and it was exactly like I remembered it, then went to a little hole-in-the-wall dumpling shop and had some good pork dumplings for dinner. I crashed at around 10:30 or so. Woke up this morning and again did a bunch of emailing and stuff. I then went over to a little English school ... read more

Two quiet weeks of orientation in Beijing to get me accustomed to living in China. This is what I envisioned. How very, very silly of me. I was still recovering from Thailand and after a good nights sleep at KL Airport I rugged up to brace myself for a ridiculous temperature change. Now accustomed to airports and boarding international flights I waited as long as I could before alighting onto the plane. As I walked down the aisle I caused a commotion bumping into a young male passenger. I offered my apologies( 'oops, sorry' )and was bombarded with calls from his large group buddies 'no worries mate! Throw a shrimp on the barbie!' I couldn't help but laugh as I got to the my seat and an Australian couple sitting behind me enquired as to what ... read more