T-One Month

By this time next month, I'll be in Shenzhen. It's kind of an intimidating thought, and yet I feel stuck in a weird state of limbo. My visa paperwork hasn't arrived yet, the tickets are bought, a subletter has been found for my apartment, so all I have left to do now is pack. It feels a little premature though, to pack when I'm not leaving for a month yet. I know that's just a mental fiction- between visiting family and friends one last time and general procrastination and laziness, that month will evaporate like so much fog off of a Southern Chinese harbor.

Even so, these past few months since I decided to leave have been great for getting things checked off of my personal "to do" list. I've tried more restaurants and seen more friends in the last month than I had in the three months before I announced my move. Everything is suffused with a pre-nostalgic aura of "I better do this before I leave and can never do it again", even if that's a complete lie. A year isn't that long, after all. And yet, it feels like it's forever.

This is not what I'm going to return home to.

I've bought everything I need to spend a year in one of the world's biggest economies, in one of their most industrialized cities. I've bought shoes to fit my huge American feet, I've bought clothes to fit my huge American body (and oh boy, expect posts about that once I get there!). I've been told to bring deodorant more times than I can count (though I don't think it's a poke at any personal hygiene habits). I've eaten the foods I think I'll miss from the States, though of course, I won't know if there's anything else I'll miss until I get there. Now, it's just the waiting. Well, waiting and packing.

To Do, China Edition

Visa Paperwork
1) The most recent version of your CV DONE!
2) A 2” digital color photo (passport size and preferably with a blue background)
3) A clear scan of the photo page of your passport DONE
4) A clear scan of your degree (you will need to bring the original certificate with you to China) Diploma is on its way
5) A reference letter (signed, scanned, on letterhead)
6) A clear scan of your current Chinese visa (if applicable) Not needed, thankfully
7) A list of two contactable professional references
8) The completed Work Permit Application form (see attached)
9) A signed copy of the "Shenzhen Visa Contract" **(see attached)
10) Background check (see below)
11) Doctor's Note--Please see the attached example.
12) For American Candidates Only: In addition to the background check, the Shenzhen government requires that you provide a Local Police Check. For more information, please visit the US State Department’s link: http://travel.state.gov/travel/tips/emergencies/emergencies_1201.html

China Prep
Put up ad for subletter Done! Need to renew every so often.
Call landlord about subletting Done!
Weed out stuff
Get storage unit
Decide what to keep
See about deferring student loans for my year away / figure out financials (how am I paying for the storage unit?)
Set up internet proxies so I can still watch Hulu and Youtube
Freak out on a regular basis DONE AND DONE

Questions, part 1

- Why are you going to China?

In short, I'm going because I can. In length, I'm going for a host of reasons. One is to learn Chinese. As an ABC, the fact that I essentially knew no Chinese bothered me for as long as I've cared about it (which is an admittedly short period of time). I'm currently taking a beginner's Chinese class at the local community college, which is helping my ability to speak and understand immensely, but I know that it's very easy to lose what I've gained, much less continue my learning. When it comes to personal things like that, I'm not very self-motivated.

Secondly, because I want to learn more about my culture. My parents, unlike many Chinese emigres, assimilated enthusiastically into American culture, and passed that on to me. All of my friends until college were non-Asian, and most were white. Even in college, the vast majority of my friends and acquaintances were non-Asian, and mostly white. It wasn't until I moved to Boston after graduation and started making an effort to meet more Asian people that I started having Asian and Chinese friends. While I've always been Asian, it's been a personal effort to start identifying more as Taiwanese/Chinese and in some small way, going to China is part of that.

Thirdly, and I'm gonna be blunt here, the economy sucks, and there's really no time like the present. I have a Master's in Library Science which in this economy doesn't really do a whole lot. Every single librarian job is flooded with applicants, all the way from recent graduates to those with many years under their belt who got laid off due to budget cuts. Picking up new skills and stories to tell in China will not only be useful in an interview, but the intangible value is immense compared to staying in the States and trying to eke out another month's living from temping or part-time work.

If you have any questions for me, please ask! I'd love to answer anything I can.

Welcome and Goodbye

Welcome to An ABC Abroad, my China blog. You all probably already know me, but in case you don't, let me introduce myself and what this blog is all about. 

My name's Diana, or on these wild wide internets, Dromeda does fine. I'm an ABC (American Born Chinese), and I'm moving to Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China in a little under four months to teach English there. Because I hate monopolizing my conversations with friends with nothing but "OMG CHINA", and because I'm enough of a persnicket to want to keep everything in the same place, this blog was born. I'm inspired in no small part by my friend Koba's blog, Adventures in the 4077th. I highly recommend checking her blog out- for one, you can tell she's a Creative Writing major so it's actually interesting to read from a writing standpoint. While I can BS with reasonable ease, my skills lie in academic BSery and less with wordsmithing. 

A few things to get out of the way, before the actual content can begin. 1. There will be swearing. There will be a shitton of swearing. I don't have Tarantino-level mouth, but I don't shy away from the Carlin 7, either. 2. Occasionally politics will creep in. I'm an avowed lefty (though I tend to prefer the phrase "Pinko Commie Scum") and moving to a country that has such a large role in global politics is going to mean that it's going to influence my posting. 3. I'm a nerd. I like really random things, like yelling about prepositions and trains and knitting. So please forgive the scattered nature of the topics. 

Now that I've thoroughly bored you all, on with the content!