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So while my weekends are usually filled with visiting famous sites, wandering the fantastic hutongs (see my recent Beijing pics) and eating good food, my weekdays seem to be filled more and more with tedium and repetition. Why am I bored in such an amazing place? My friend Maria - boy, she gets more mentions on this blog than me - finally told me I need to snap out of it. I was complaining that my internship is pretty dull right now, which it is (it seems to be the slow time, people are off on vacation, I have a slightly tedious research project and nothing else much to do)... I also was telling her that I have gotten into the bad habit of coming home and hiding in my apartment cocoon. It's easy to do, because it's clean, it has A/C and the web (even though I'm on that at work all day), and a bed. My friend Therese posted on her blog that she can see how expats can come back from a foreign country with a skewed version of the place they live. I'm starting to see that too. The last time I lived in China, I had Chinese friends and roommates, which helped me to connect more to the "real China" (in quotes, because I'm sure it's still skewed with tall white guy involved, i.e. me). This time, I'm speaking more English (at work), eating less Chinese food and living in a much more modern area. Plus, I basically know no one. Augh. Frustrating. Easy to ignore the culture - in fact, I forget sometimes that I'm in China! My fellow intern is cool - we hang out a bit - but I need to do more. I finally signed up to take a Chinese class - starts tomorrow, so that's something. I think I need to start working out in my gym to get the body moving (and get rid of my gut - my metabolism is definitely slowing down). I can't keep coming home and staying cocooned. It's bad for me in so many ways - keeps me separated from the culture, depresses me, etc. Of course, I am also being cheap and trying not to spend money. Staying in does keep the kuai from flowing. I don't know about work yet. It's seems slow so I'm hoping it's just down time. I know things will get busier - and I have had some cool moments (meetings, a few nice assignments). But generally, I find it a little tedious. I am going to try to talk to my supervisor and see if I can vary my work a bit. I don't want to hate this job and I want to learn something - though it may just be that I don't like this kind of job! That would be learning something! Anyhow, I hadn't posted for a while, so I thought I'd do a little "blog therapy." Stay tuned for more! Post a comment in response: |
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