Holiday Letter 2005-06

路遙 知 馬 力﹐日 久 見 人 心                   

Lù Yáo Zhī Mă Lì, Rì Jĭu Jiàn Rén Xīn

 

“When there is a lot of distance to cover, you'll know how good your horse is.

The heart of others will be revealed over a long period of time.”

 

 

Dear Friends, Family & Colleagues,

 

The past year has been rather eventful!  As I began to wind-down a four-month internship at the Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington, DC, and part-time job-search in the area, two possibilities came my way in November 2004.  The first was a guaranteed university-level, English language lectureship for a year in northeastern China that required an immediate response and the second as an entry-level administrator for a stem cell advocacy group, but required an interview process.  While I was absolutely elated about the latter opportunity, I just couldn’t pass up a chance to work and live abroad at this point in my life.  As time was of the essence, especially for the Chinese university that was anxious for my decision so that they could begin my long and involved visa process, my travel-prone genes set me towards “dong bei” [dong-bay] China.  A sigh of relief came when my visa arrived about a week before my departure… cutting a little too close for comfort.

 

Since February 2005, I have been working as a Foreign Expert at Norman Bethune Medical College of Jilin University in Changchun [chang-choon], Jilin [gee-lin], China, located in former Manchuria and directly adjacent to North Korea.  “Jida” [gee-da], as the locals call it, has been ranked in the top twenty of Chinese universities for a number of years and moves up in rank from time to time.  I teach an advanced oral English class entitled, “Emerging Scientific and Medical Technologies.”  My students are enrolled in a seven-year clinical medicine program; they essentially cram a bachelors and MD into seven years of training.  As Foreign Experts are given certain publishing rights by the government and the university owns a publishing house, I have in the early works a course text to hopefully be published by the time that I leave in June 2006.

 

Thanks to a former professor of mine who was here prior to my arrival and essential in getting me here, I have spacious living arrangements.  It certainly exceeded my expectations.  The university treats their teachers well with their quality of life.  I have collected some Chinese décor to make the apartment look more like home, as well as, some western creature comforts that have been handed down during apartment clean-outs from departing foreigners, which includes one highly-coveted portable oven (it’s already been claimed by a friend for upon my departure).

 

I have been able to travel on three separate occasions, thus far, and plan on two others in the near future.  I have spent an October weekend in Dalian with goods friends, a major port and beach city in the northeast; visited Beijing twice this past summer (my Mom came over and visited for a week); and two weeks in a western province called Yunnan [you-nan] to see Kunming [koon-ming], Lijiang [lee-jang], Tiger-leaping Gorge, and Zhongdian [jong-dee-an] (a.k.a. “Shangri-la” [shang-gri-la]).  I will be heading north to Harbin [har-bin] with some friends for New Years to see a nationally-renown ice festival and over Spring Festival (mid-January to early March) down to south China and Thailand.  While in south China, we will visit Guangzhou [gwang-jo] and Guilin [goo-we-lin] and then head down to Thailand for two weeks, spending some time in the north on the coast outside of Bangkok and in the south in Phuket [pooh-ket].

 

As for holiday festivities, the universities from around the city came together the week of Christmas and held a foreign expert “Christmas” party.  Because the Chinese people think that most, if not all, foreigners are Christian, they say always say “Merry Christmas” this time of the year and not “Happy Holidays,” which of course recognizes the celebrations of other people’s faiths around this time of year and New Years.  Actually, I’ve found that many young Chinese, even non-Christians, celebrate Christmas not necessarily as a religious occasion but merely because it is a “western” holiday and they desire to be more western. 

 

The Christmas weekend is full of lunch and dinner get-togethers.  The ex-pat community in my part of town is particularly wonderful.  Soon after I arrived, I was introduced to a local western restaurant called the Paradise Fondue (a.k.a. “The Dice” or “La Paradise”) where about fifty or more local ex-pats come together on any given Friday night for an event we like to call TGIF, “Thank Goodness It’s Friday.”  Ex-pats from the States, Canada, France, Germany, Scotland, England, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Italy, Brazil, Korea, Uzbekistan, Russia, and a few Chinese hoping to listen and learn, gather here… quite the international gathering.  The restaurant is located about five blocks from my apartment, about a ten-minute walk, or five-kuai (kuai [quai] = yuan [you-an] = renminbi [ren-men-be], RMB) taxi ride.  It’s located on a street that the city has re-named “Korean Street” in honor of the large Korean business influence in the center-city section of this road.  The clientele mostly consist of wealthy Koreans and foreign teachers.  Besides Friday nights, many also gather here for holiday meals.  It’s truly a “Cheers” atmosphere where other ex-pats and owners/wait staff know you by name.  I have made many fond memories there.

 

My Chinese language study has additions from time to time but remains at the “advanced survival” level, having only touched the “pin yin” system and nothing close to learning characters quite yet.

 

Happy holidays,

Richard