In the cell phone store today:
Cell phone store guy: you look like an artist or something. What do you do?
Me: ( trying to be low-key about it) well, I’m actually,… a diplomat.
(I prepare myself for the gushing “oh gosh, that must be so interesting! What an exciting career!”)
Cell phone store guy: (sounding a little disappointed that I’m not an artist or something) oh.
I enjoy living in Asia, but my white face, big nose and facial hair make me stand out. I’m used to getting stared at in China, and it doesn’t bother me anymore, but the knowledge that someone is probably always looking at me can be inconvenient. If my nose itches, for example, can I safely scratch it without some stranger thinking that I’m picking my nose? When I have to buy toilet paper, will people notice what brand I buy and speculate about my hygiene habits? How much will people read into the fact that I buy this brand of cola instead of that brand? It gets a little tedious.
Back in the U.S., though, I blend right in. My wife and I went grocery shopping the other day, and the only reason that we received some second glances was probably because we were talking to each other in Chinese. I selected my fresh blueberries, browsed the wine selection, loaded my purchases into the car, and didn’t get stared at once. Bliss!
How celebrities and public figures deal with the lack of privacy every day is a mystery to me. If I couldn’t enjoy a little anonymity in the U.S., I’d probably go crazy.
One of the benefits of serving overseas is R&R. The purpose of R&R is to ease the stress of living in a foreign country. I am currently taking an R&R.
The benefit isn’t very big. The benefit really only consists of a plane ticket to a specific R&R location. For people serving in China, the location is Sydney, Australia. I chose to go home instead. I have to use my vacation time to cover time away from the office. Luckily for me, there are several holidays within the two weeks that I am on vacation.
So I am home for Christmas. Being back together with my family is a wonderful feeling.
My to-do list for this time back in America largely consists of food that I want to eat. My wife made her marvelous lasagne for my first dinner home. We’re off to a great start.
Crossing the Pacific ocean in an airplane is a time-consuming journey. I’ve made the trip too many times to count, but every time I prepare to get on an airplane for 12 hours, I have to make a big list of things to bring on the plane to help get me through the trip: food, books, movies, etc. Smart phones are a wonderful invention: they can carry a lot of things to keep you amused while sitting in a tin can flying a mile above the ocean.
On Saturday morning, I will get on an airplane and travel east back to America. It has been seven months since I left for China, and I am really looking forward to the trip. It will be very nice to spend Christmas at home with my family.
I have fully charged my Kindle, packed my iPhone with TV shows and movies, and bought a lot of snacks to eat on the plane. With luck, the trip will be uneventful. I may even be able to sleep on the plane.
I’m looking forward to seeing everybody back home.
The other day, I was feeling very discouraged about my Chinese. I felt that I wasn’t going anywhere, that I wasn’t improving. I have been learning Chinese for 27 years, and felt like my language skills were nowhere near where I wanted them to be. Disheartening, depressing, discouraging, take your pick of words to describe my frustration.
But then a coworker lent me a local news magazine, and I was thrilled to find that I could read it without having to look up more than a few words. I noticed many words that I had learned since starting language lessons here in China. I realized that I was actually learning a lot.
So what was the cause of my discouragement? If I was actually improving, why did I feel like I wasn’t? I wondered about this for several days, then I had an epiphany: it was because my notebook was full.
I usually carry a Moleskine notebook to write down new words and phrases in Chinese. However, I bought another notebook a few months ago, and recently used it up. I leafed through it to review what I had written down over the last few months, and was surprised at how many words I didn’t remember. Maybe that is what triggered the feeling that I wasn’t making progress? I was writing down words, then immediately forgetting them?
Well, my new notebook is a Moleskine, and I see now what my problem is. The Moleskine has many more pages than that other notebook. If I don’t review the notebook until I fill it up, and my notebook has so many pages in it that it takes me six months to fill it, then by the time I review the notebook, enough time will have passed that I actually will have made more progress by the time I review it.
The lesson that I learned from this experience is: use notebooks with more pages.
Here’s the notebook that I use
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The Consulate gets many invitations to participate in educational and cultural events. Yesterday I was a judge in the provincial English speech contest for high school and college students.
The Stage
Chinese take things like this seriously. The event was in a studio, the stage was professionally lit, and the hosts were oily and plastic like variety show hosts (but they were very nice, I swear).
The contest consisted of three events. First, the contestants gave a one-minute self-introduction, then they had to read a passage in Chinese and translate it into English. Third, they look at a picture and gave a three-minute impromptu speech about it. The judges could then ask a question to elicit some more from the contestant.
There were eight or nine judges, some Chinese and some foreign teachers. We rated each contestant like Olympic judges, by writing our scores on a little whiteboard and holding it up after the performance.
Contestant
One contestant broke my heart. In her self-introduction, a 16-year-old high school student said that 8 days ago, her parents were in a car accident. Her father was killed, and her mother was in the hospital. They didn’t know if she would live or not. The student said that she decided to compete, despite her family situation, because her parents always encouraged her to do her best.
Randomness can be inhumane. The translation passage that she got was about Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. When she read the section about wearing a carnation on Mother’s Day, and the color of the flower depends on whether your mother is alive or not, she almost broke down. The hostess on the stage was crying. The student made it through the event, though. Brave kid.
Randomness wasn’t done being cruel to this kid, though. The impromptu speech was about how your parents help you decide on which college to choose. The student was as incredulous as I was. She said: “family, again?” But she got through it.
When it came to giving the score, I am proud to say that I was impartial, and didn’t take her situation into account when I judged her performance. I treated her just the same as every other contestant.
Yeah, right.
The presentation of the awards was also very formal. I got to present some of the awards.
We were given the prizes by assistants, then we presented the prizes to the winners.
Presenting the prizes.
The judges also received a thank-you gift: A copy of the president’s book “Governance of China.” I can’t wait to read it cover to cover. I actually received a Chinese version of the book last week at another event, so now I have an English version, too. Hooray.
Hey, we get a prize, too!
Curtain call
Me and Host
Me and Host
The day was loooooooong. I originally expected it to be a morning event, but it lasted from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. I was really tired afterwards. But it was another interesting day in Shenyang. Every one of them is, it seems.
We are encouraged to get the flu shot every year. I never had gotten it before, partly because of my love deathly fear of needles. But I figure that the State Department knows more about this than I do, and the nurse had some of the nasal spray version, so I got the inoculation.
The point of getting an inoculation is so that you won’t get sick. That’s what I was told, anyway. So imagine my unhappy surprise to get flu symptoms two days after getting the up-your-nose-with-a-rubber-hose flu “shot.” Three days after, I’m sneezing and blowing snot at visa applicants.
I suspect that among the local applicant pool, I’m already one of the less popular visa officers. I can’t imagine that infecting them with my diseases is improving my reputation.
I love Thursdays. Thursday is Ayi Day.
What is Ayi Day, you ask? Why, Ayi Day is the day that my Ayi comes to my house, of course!.
What is an Ayi? It literally means “aunt” (阿姨). It’s the local word for someone who cleans your house and does your laundry. There are different kinds of Ayis. Some are full-time caregivers for children, some are live-in help. My Ayi is a once-a-week, part-time Ayi.
Li Ayi comes on Thursdays. I gave her a key to my apartment, and she comes after I have left for work. When I come home at night, my house is cleaned, my clothes are washed, my shirts are ironed. My Ayi even waters my plants!
I love Ayi Day. Every Thursday morning when I go to the office, I wish everyone that I see “Happy Ayi Day!” Sure, they look at me like I have lost my mind, but I don’t care, because I have the spirit of Ayi Day in my heart. My footsteps are light, a serene smile is on my face, because I know that as I work in the office, Li Ayi is making my apartment a heartwarmingly great place to live.
I didn’t have an Ayi for the first month that I was here. I thought that since I was living by myself, I didn’t need an Ayi. But then some coworkers told me that Li Ayi was looking for more work, and that she cleaned for the person who lived in my apartment before me. They told me that having an Ayi was like a jobs program for the local economy. So I thought what the heck, I’ll give her a try.
My eyes were opened to the gloriousness of Ayi Day. Now I know the truth: Everyone should have an Ayi.
Happy Ayi Day to everyone, and to everyone a good week!
The CG (Consul General) invited the “orphans” to his house for a Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday. The table was beautiful: a picture-perfect Thanksgiving scene.
It was one year ago today that I received an offer to join the Foreign Service. It has been an incredible experience so far, just as interesting, life-altering, challenging and rewarding as I had hoped it would be. Every day, from my first day in this job, has been a different experience. I can honestly say that this job hasn’t bored me once yet.
I really wanted this job. I can remember the feeling of anticipation as I was waiting to get the job offer.  I was in a job that was nice, but not challenging or rewarding. I couldn’t wait to get started on my new career. Some days, the wait was agonizing. Now that I’m here, I cherish this opportunity to use my skills and knowledge, to learn, to serve, to experience.
I’ve done so much, met so many new amazing and inspiring people, seen and heard so many things that I never would have in another career path. I’ve covered a lot of ground and traveled far (figuratively and literally), but the time seems to have passed so quickly.
The initial training in DC was an eye-opening experience. Living in our country’s capital city for several months was thrilling. And now I’m in China, my first choice for my first post. The past six months has been another educational journey.
Remember how you felt on Christmas morning, sitting on the floor by the tree, surrounded by all of the goodies that Santa brought you? I have had that feeling every day for a year now.
Life is good.