Glorified Dog House

Well…what the hell am I doing back here again? For some masochistic reason I decided to send myself back to China this summer but rather than traveling I’ll be working for China AgriCorp - a company that principally distributes semen (from bulls FYI) for ALTA genetics in the US, as well as other dairy farm services. I didn’t realize it until today, but they are quite a major player in the dairy industry here in China, so the breadth of experience should be quite good. This is the first time they have had a student work for them since I approached them about the opportunity of creating a “veterinary student internship” - which, by the way, is a CV friendly way of saying “volunteer” but makes you sound less tree hugging and community oriented. I have really no idea what I’ll be doing. I’ll just go with the flow (or possibly roll with the punches??? - we’ll see).

After a less than eventful, and quite comfortable flight, from Toronto direct to Beijing, I touched down after just 13hrs in the air. Typical Air Canada flight attendants (air whores) with their great attitudes and “always happy to serve you” look on their faces made it a bit challenging, but I got to watch, quite possibly the worst action movie of all time (if you can even call it an action movie with its predictable plot and romantic and very predictable subplot) - National Treasure II with Nicholas Cage (should have been turned off by the Nicholas Cage part, but I thought what the hell, I would live dangerously today and have hope for the future of quality thespians that maybe - just maybe - he would one day make a good movie. National Treasure II was, as it turns out, not that movie). I also watched Juno - pretty funny and surprisingly legally unrealistic - but perhaps they lived in Utah with the polygamists and then it is likely possible. Anyway, those were the highlights from the flight. Sorry for wasting the last 45sec of your life.

Robert Watson picked me up at the airport amidst a mass of Chinese people (go figure) holding signs with a UN-worthy sea of names. Luckily, he was one of the only white people in the crowd and he recognized me (as we had only met once previously, in December of last year). After normal Western-style greetings and an uncomfortable 10s of staring at one another deciding of we had anything more to say before heading off to the car, we did just that - headed for the car. Robert drives in China which is relatively rare for a lao wie (more for fear of imminent death than anything else driving on Chinese highways) but he seems to hold his own. We made it unscathed to a very Scandinavian inspired office. I felt like I walked in to an Ikea catalogue and we would be designing avant garde web pages and graphics rather than sitting around discussing how best to knock up a cow and produce more milk. Regardless, it is nice for Chinese standards. I met all the people in the office (about 8) in about 0.1s and I was given their Chinese and “engrish” names - none of which I remember. Robert than handed me off to Tina who then took me along with some guy who works in the office (who will remain nameless for now and possibly forever).

Tina has a university degree in Chinese Medicine which she said she never wanted to do anyway and was not very good at it so she perused studies in English - another area of skill she clearly did not excel at regardless of what she might have been told. I remember last summer meeting a girl from Xi’an who was just completing high school and spoke better English than I did and Tina has the vocabulary of your typical Spadina shop keeper. I worry for the future of our language here in China ladies and gentlemen. Anyway, she took me to her apartment where I am staying (she lives with a couple in a small building). As we were driving towards the place, I saw many nice apartments and thought that I was in luck. However, as it is typical in China to have crap amongst glamorous,…guess which building we pulled in to. Yup - crap-o-la city. But they are young and it is (and I use this loosely) “adequate”. Like the title states, my “room” is a glorified dog house by the looks of it. I it approximately 7x7 (feet that is) and has one light that works sometimes. The bed is also too short. No blame there - they are a nation of people maxing out around 5’5”. My biggest concern though, before identifying its location was the washroom. By previous experience, bathing does not appear to be a major priority to most Chinese and showers are not a typical commodity to be had in many apartments. I was pleased to find a shower and western style shitter here in the apartment - but Tina informed me the shower only works sometimes and hot water tends to be limited. We’ll see how that works out. Luckily there is a balcony in the apartment which is now doubling as my closet. I hope that they are comfortable with that - but really, I don’t care.

After throwing my stuff down in the dog house and grabbing a t-shirt (because for some bizarre reason I thought it was a good idea to wear a shirt and cashmere sweater off the plane in 27C weather), we hopped back in the car and went off to grab some Sichuan food for supper. It was quite good - spicey and all - but hopefully it was not the wrong choice as spicy explosive diarrhea is never a good way to get acquainted with someone (as was my Sichuanese food experience last year). So far so good. I’m giving it 24hrs until I call it safe though. Post-satiation, we drove around the 3rd ring road to see the new CCTV building which was quite something to see. It looks like a leaving rectangle that some one has pushed the top corner inwards (so I suppose it looks more like a twisted rectangle). It is quite an architectural wonder and I don’t really know how it will stay standing! We also headed down to Tianamen and the Forbidden city just to drive around it and see all the lights at night. It was quite nice. I noticed that they have a more youthful picture of Chairman Mao up this year in front of the Palace - likely for the Olympics. As we were driving away from Tianamen, police were pulling random cars off the road and checking them. Apparently they have enacted a new law that anyone can be searched at anytime regardless of the reason within 500m of the Square due to safety concerns. Luckily we were not pulled over since I had forgotten to bring my passport and visa with me. The driver (who works at Agricorp, but I forget his name) told me that foreigners are being targeted for random searches lately after all the pro-Tibet movements around the world.

We finally got back to the adequate apartment and I fell asleep (by the way - I wrote some of this entry last night, and some at 4:30 am). I only woke up at 1:30 and then again at 4:30. I am hungry as hell though - and have nothing to eat nor do I have a key to leave the dog house (or at least unable to get back in) so I’ll have to wait until everyone else gets up. First day of work should be interesting….

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