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!

1st Day, 1st Trip, 1st Week

Since I have to speed up publishing posts to synchronize with real-time, I will write about the 1^st Day, 1^st Week and 1^st Trip in China here all together.

When I landed in Yantai Airport, Mr. Liu RuiYang, my direct teammate, who has a Masters in Chemical Engineering, was waiting for me holding a poster that said ‘Chehade’. I felt like a VIP when I saw it! Here, family names are written before given names as I noticed in almost all situations, and the labels are at the end. If written in Chinese you would say RuiYang Liu Mr (but I will be writing their given names first as we are used to). I did not know if I had to call him Mr. or not, but he looked so young like less than 22 years, but turned out to be 28! So I just started calling him Liu without the Mr and it flowed with everyone who appeared to me to be young. Also, the Chinese like to give themselves western names when dealing with foreigners as to ease it on us when we want to call them. Liu named himself Jerry but I told him that I would prefer calling him in his Chinese name. Liu and everyone else have been always helpful anytime, anyhow and anywhere. People here are all selfless and would offer help eagerly. Throughout my coming posts I will be including more about the Chinese people and their lifestyle, habits and so.

On our way from Yantai Airport to the dorm, which took around 40 minutes, I felt like I have landed in Beirut airport and I am going to my village, Insarriyeh, in the South. That was because the weather, nature, scenery and even the taxi felt all so similar. On our way, the sky was cloudy and the temperature was 22C. It was drizzling rain and the breeze coming from the windows of the taxi was so refreshing. There is good deal of greenery and there is a river. The taxi car was old like the taxi’s in Lebanon, but had a counter like the ones in UAE. Instantly, besides recalling Lebanon’s weather, I said to myself “at last I am away from the grilling weather in UAE!! (I thought it in Arabic though :P).” We reached to the dorms and had an hour of napping and went to check out the company where I met our team leader Dr. Chen Haibo who is an organic chemist. In the adjacent lab, I met Lauren (from Scotland) who came two weeks before me also through IAESTE, and works in the same building but with a different team. Later I’ll post more about my work and team, and also about the accommodation.

At LaoHu Shan (Tiger Mountain)

My team had invited me to a trip that had happened the next day, Saturday 11^th June, and I definitely went with them. Our company, Wanhua, takes its employees every 2 months for trips free of charge, so I was lucky to reach exactly on one of those trips, and I would also be joining them in the next one.

This 1^st trip was to LǎoHǔ Shān (Tiger Mountain), which is famous for two things, its history as it was a battlefield in the 1920’s between the Japanese and the Chinese, and more importantly it is known for the plenty Cherries! We picked up lots of juicy red fresh cherries directly from their trees. Moreover, related to the war history, I realized the hatred between China and Japan from the plays they showed and from what the people told me. The plays were surely in Chinese but they were understandable. The outdoors play had real houses and some horses. They actually used fireworks to imitate rockets, mines, and fire. It was so lively and vivid.

Cherries!

Some friends. Liu is directly beside me. Guo is another teammate (Middle, white t-shirt with no hat).

I had my first Chinese lunch during this trip. The food was different but nice. It was all sweet. The tomatoes had sugar on them not salt! It is delicious..try it! It was the first serious time I try eating with chopsticks (the few passive times in UAE do not count, and chopsticks are actually used for ALL the kinds of food you have in a meal like rice, peanuts, noodles, chopped vegetables and even the tiniest beans, and sometimes you pick them peice-by-peice!). It was tough for me. They were teaching me how to hold it and