Made in China

I've been in China for two months now, but I haven't been doing much shopping for Chinese goods so far. It's getting down to crunch time and I have 7 weeks to get a ton of stuff before I head home. So far, I've gotten a few cool things for myself, nothing big. I've got a big Christmas gift for someone, and a few small gifts for a few of you too. The longer I'm out here however, I find my list of things to buy growing ever larger. I still have a lot to get myself, such as a suit, a business trench, some custom tailored shirts, and other stuff. Today, I finally purchased my first big item. A custom tailored, cashmere, peacoat. It fits like a glove and I'm pretty sure I've never been this excited about a piece of clothing. What can I say? It looks sharp. I guess that means not all things made in China are that bad after all. In between all the classes and having fun, I'm getting a little stressed out. My number one goal is to not leave China without a suitcase full of awesome stuff and the way it’s looking that suitcase is empty.

Recently, I put an ad on TheBeijinger.com advertising myself to tutor English. Well, what do you know, English tutors are in huge demand out here. I got instant replies from multiple people but the one that caught my interest was one specific program. I went in for an interview last Friday and I began tutoring on Sunday. So far I've tutored twice and I love it. Besides the fact that I have to say I'm 27 years old, pretend I've already graduated, conceal the fact that I'm currently in school here, and avoid talking about my personal life, the job is well-paying, close to school, and very entertaining. I get paid phenomenally well and get to speak my native tongue. The people I'm tutoring are extraordinary business people too.

The first woman I tutored was crazy. She wanted help with her confidential PowerPoint presentation that she had to present this Thursday. First of all, she is presenting to some retired board of directors from Pricewaterhouse Coopers. Second, her company is being audited by Ernst & Young. Last, I was talking to her, helping her speak, and learning about their transition to comply with Sox 404 tax regulations. Absolutely absurd, if you ask me. I'm 20 years old. I'm green and inexperienced in the world of business, teaching English and pronunciation to this well experienced business woman.

The second woman I taught was leaving to Singapore the very next day. During the middle of our tutoring session she has a very important phone call. She apologized for having to take it. Turns out, she said it was her distributor. Her company is working on a huge deal with Airbus because they provide the painters air filtration masks. The distributer called her and told her that they needed a price quote for their air filters. I understood the need for the interruption and we continued our lesson. Then, again, the phone rang and this time we absolutely had to take a break. She was asking me if I knew the exchange rate from Germany to RMB and of course I didn't know! Turns out, her company has multiple divisions around the world. They supply masks to distributors and her division just built a factory in Tianjin, not too far from Beijing. (Remember, Jimmy and I went to the soccer game there) From what she told me, her distributor told her that Airbus wanted to purchase the masks from the German side. The only problem is, that the masks are produced in China. Therefore, they should be a Chinese export. If Airbus purchases the masks from the German office, they avoid paying the 17% tax on the masks but in doing so, they are giving Germany millions of dollars in exports to count toward the German GDP. My student was very upset, saying to me, "I don't care about the money or the commission. I just want what is right for my company and for everyone. Those products belong to us [China] and that is why I don't want them to buy them from Germany." It was so crazy. She doesn't care about losing the commission on this deal, but she wants the money to contribute to the Chinese GDP, as it should. It was a very very nat-onalist-c ideology. I think it is amazing. I don't know what to make of it, but it is very interesting. I can't wait until the next time I tutor. Who do you think I'll run into next? Other than the "would-be-legal-if-I-was-in-the-US" issues, I have high expectations for this program.

This week is a big week for travel too. Devon, Jim and I received our visas and now we’re working on booking a trip to Tokyo. I don't think I'll be able to go to both Hong Kong and Tokyo, but we are for sure going to Tokyo. I also went back to the Forbidden City with my art class today. The second time around was great. My art teacher explained a lot of things and took us to some quieter parts of the Forbidden City. We saw some foreign diplomats being escorted by a ring of plain-clothes police. Also, I must have been looking very American today because believe it or not, I was asked to take a picture with someone and this time I didn't have an American flag on my back to give myself away. I felt pretty cool.

In other news, Jimmy was talking with a ex-TBC student at Fordham who was in China last semester. He's continuing his Chinese language studies in New York and Fordham is paying for his classes since they don’t offer any more than the four semesters I've already taken. Jim and I are jumping on that deal as soon as possible. Both of us really want to continue to learn Chinese, so wish us luck when we approach our dean about it.

I think that is all folks. Check back later.

Making Plans

Well, this morning I woke up a little bit sick. I don't really know if I'm sick yet, but the head is pretty congested and I'm pretty sore. The gym that we all signed up for is phenomenal. Brand new equipment, tons of top of the line treadmills and machines, and a good amount of free weights. I especially love it because, not being a very big guy myself, the Chinese are typically smaller than I am. So this basically means that I can walk around the gym feeling a little confident that I'm not curling 5 lbs or benching the bar alone. I have been going to the gym nearly every day and I had to take yesterday easy. I'm still pretty sore today so it makes me think I might be getting sick.

How is life in the US? From what I'm hearing, the stocks are in shambles, the financial crises has taken a turn for the worst, the presidential debates are heating up and people are running around like Chicken Little screaming the sky is falling! I can't help but say that I feel totally disconnected from my country right now. The slowing economy never really showed while I was in the States, but now I feel like everyone is feeling it. Jimmy is pretty up to date on things but I personally haven't had time to really sit down and get the big picture. I'm pretty sure that my plans are definitely going to have to change in response to what is happening. I am currently a Finance major, about to graduate in a year and a half and when all is said and done, I'm most likely not going to have an easy time finding a career. I do have a possible lead with an accounting firm, but if that falls through I'll be swimming up a terrible stream. I've been considering my options and right now, China isn't looking too bad in terms of business opportunities. I've already been thinking about coming out here next summer with said accounting firm but now I'm seriously weighing my options. I can either stay in New York City this summer, try and find a financial job, try and make money in one of the most expensive cities, and try and make do. Or...I can try and come out here with my accounting firm, if that doesn't work, come to China working for another financial or accounting firm, or come to China to tutor English. Either way, it seems more logical to spend a summer abroad than stay in the US. Especially because I'm an international business major. We'll see what happens.

I've already started my weekend because I don't have classes on Friday so I plan on taking it easy this weekend. Catching up on sleep, enjoying the decently warm days of Autumn and doing homework are in the forecast. I've bought a badminton racket and I have gotten to play with some of my friends. We can't really play as well as the Chinese but it's at least time outdoors.

Of course, I can't keep everyone waiting forever for the pictures of my National Holiday trip, so here they are:

Shanghai

Hangzhou

Suzhou

My First Chinese Adventure

Beach Volleyball was awesome today. Besides the fact that CCI makes us meet up two hours before the event starts, Devon and I had a great great time. I didn't know it at the time, but the events are really close to our apartment, so getting to them doesn't take two hours. Regardless, waking up at 4:45AM wasn't fun. When we got there, the gates hadn't even opened and we were stuck outside in the humid morning air. When we did get in, it was empty. I slept for a few hours before the games started and woke up just in time to see that the Chaoyang Beach Volleyball stadium had started to fill. We were pretty close to the court as well. The US men's team started the day off with a victory over Argentina, and that was only the beginning. We saw team Georgia beat Russia in the country's first Olympic Beach Volleyball Match ever. Georgia has never had an Olympic team for beach volleyball. After that game things really got good when China played against Norway. The China team won and the crowd was going wild. "Zhong guo jia you!" was all you could hear (Go China!). It was awesome. The next game we saw was Brazil and Australia. This was an intense game and Australia barely got a victory. Everyone moved on from these games as they were prelims. By the time the Australia/Brazil game finished the heat and humidity were making me irritable. We decided to leave early and enjoy the rest of the day. We headed back to the apartment where I took a nap and woke up just in time to get a few things done.

Beach Volleyball--August 13, 2008

I was sitting at my laptop and just hanging out when Jimmy came home from his daily activities. First thing in the door, he asks me what I was doing. Well, I was thoroughly enjoying doing nothing online (the afternoons are killer because it is the middle of the night in the US). But, I wanted to entertain the thought of doing something so I asked whats up. Jimmy had gone looking for scalped tickets earlier in the day and got football tickets. I was kinda tired but after the World Cup in Germany (2006) I knew how much fun it could be. I said I would like to go but I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Right away Jimmy tells me that the tickets are for a game in a nearby city Tianjin and we have to catch a bullet train there immediately. Well, you only live life once and the train isn't going to wait. We got a cab and headed over to the Beijing South Station.

Here, it was a mess. Tons of people everywhere. The Chinese don't queue

in lines and neither Jimmy nor I had any idea where to go or what to do. Luckily, there are tons of Chinese volunteers around the city that speak decent English. We asked one of them what to do and the girl was phenomenal. She told us that all of the trains are sold out until 6:00, and the game started at 5:00 PM. I figured it would be like this but she said don't worry I'll get you a ticket. She went up to the counter, squeezed to the front, spoke some Chinese, and there we go. Two standing tickets on the next train that leaves in 15 minutes. We'll get there are 5:00 PM which was in 30 minutes and by the time we get to the stadium we shouldn't have missed much. The fun part was getting on the train. They don't form lines, making it every man for himself to mob the train for a good spot. Jim and I got a place by the door and we sat down for the train ride. The bullet train is awesome. It's a wonder that they don't have it in America. 240 MPH Beijing to Tianjin in 30 minutes. While on the train we were talking...well trying to talk with the guy next to us. Turns out he is the Director of International Trade in China (or something like that). From what we could talk about, it sounds like he imports oil and "chemicals" from other countries. He said mostly from Africa and the Middle East but also from Canada, USA, and South America. I was awed while talking with him. What are the chances of meeting someone who does something along the lines of what I want my career to be. He gave us his card and invited us to visit him at his Beijing office. We got to Tianjin and thought we would kinda plan ahead and get return tickets before the insane crowds got out from the game. While waiting in line there was an Australian, Brian, who also was buying a return ticket to Beijing. We got to talking and found out we were both going to the soccer match. And we also found out that there were two games that night. Italy vs Camaroon and Ivory Coast vs Australia. We decided to adopt Australia as our home team for the night. On the cab ride over however, our little adventure received a fun little twist. We asked Brian the Aussie where he was seated. 1 seat away from us in fact. Small world or coincidence we all thought that was pretty hilarious. When Jim described the guy he purchased the tickets from they weren't even sure it was the same person. After getting to the stadium, we still had to walk around to get to our entrance gate. On the walk over we met fellow Australians and one of them claimed to be the father of #16 on the Australia National Team. I haven't had time to check who it is but we wished him the best of luck.

Alright, to wrap this one up, we had a great time watching the games. The Italy and Camaroon game ended up as a stalemate and the Ivory Coast beat Australia 1-0. We had a few beers, of course met tons of new people, including the little girl next to us, and wrapped ourselves in American flags that we had purchased earlier. We got back home around 12am and crashed. It was a great day.

What an adventure.

Tianjin Soccer Games