60th Day in China

Monday August 8^th 2011. The 60^th day of my 3 months in China. I cannot believe how quick 2 months have passed. Knowing it is two months here, I was triggered by a flashback of everything that happened from the day I left UAE to the moment I reached my room, to when I went to the first day of work and all other incidents. I like how the journey changed from being a totally distinct part of the world, and how now I got accustomed to life here and things seem to be familiar and easy. Communication is not yet easy thought!

Today and yesterday we had a rainy storm. Although it is inconvenience, it's just fun to have rain in summer!

Two days ago, 6^th of August, my brother Ali had his master’s degree ceremony in Illinois, USA. My family and I were supposed to be there celebrating altogether a big leap in our life as a family. But no, visas to the US are something sacred and cannot be given to everyone. Although I got my visa to the US after waiting 5 months, my family did not until now receive any reply. I remember when we applied for the visas they put me on a separate file and all my family on a different file. The interviewer at the counter asked me what is your major? So I said Chemical Engineering. He showed a surprised face expression, with his eyebrows reaching his hair along with a loud and long “hmmm!” which is still stuck in my head, then he added “what are your plans for the future?” I just told him I am interested in renewable energy and recycling. Nothing that has to do with nuclear issues..so not a big deal. At that point I thought that I was put on a separate file because they kind of rejected my visa in advance and would accept my family’s visas. It worked the other way. But still, I wasn’t to go without them, so I continued my stay in China.

Last week the summer semester ended at AUS. It is my first summer that I do not take courses. It is relieving. But still, we felt the ever-lasting stress on everybody!

Six weeks ago on the 30^th of June, Saeed, a colleague from college for whoever doesn’t know, joined me in the same company for internship. Although he got with him a breeze of heat from UAE, he also got with him a feel of home. I was here away from anybody I know and away from any news related to the other side of the world, and as soon as he came I synchronized all the updates going around in UAE. We sat and set plans of how to get use of our time. We actually started seriously learning Chinese by then. Gladly we turned out to be in the same office so we hang around when we are bored. And I think that if I would have stayed alone I would have missed fasting many days of Ramadan. One single person to second you on such issues is more than enough. We are having Iftar at Chief Abdo’s place mostly. It is an Islamic restaurant and the food is so similar to our Arabic home-made food. So fulfilling.

Around five weeks ago I created this blog to stay in touch and connect with family and friends and share the priceless experience of China. Skype and Facebook are great, yet the blog is way better in conveying details and saving memories. I am really glad to hear that the content is of worth. I would also like to hear more if anybody would want to know specifics so I would share. Comment on the blog not on facebook! It would be nice to collect everything related together here.

Next week I will be giving a presentation about myself and my country. I will be talking about both UAE and Lebanon because both are major in my life. Saeed already did his presentation 2 weeks ago and our Chinese colleagues were extremely interested in knowing more about other countries and cultures. Saeed presented for 10 minutes and the attendees asked for around one and a half whole hours! I feel that they want to know more not because of jealousy of others being better than them, but because they want to compare with what they have and know where they stand in life and how to progress. Sometime I might post separately about things that they like to compare since it is a long list.

Now, my family is preparing their documents and visas to come to China, visas can be obtained in 1 day. I hope they make it. We would still be incomplete since Ali cannot make it because of the short period left. Hopefully we’ll meet up all together in Lebanon before we start our universities.

Now, although I am starting to have the feeling of getting back, I can say that I got used to China, it is a nice place to live in even for long, and I would definitely want to return in the future for a visit. We have more things to do, a couple of more trips to go. The internship is now moving steadily and my team is depending more on my work. Yet there is no expected great progress and the job is starting to feel like a routine daily 8-hours job. Still I am trying my best to get involved and do more.

So, there is around a month more to go, almost a third of the stay but it seems so close!