Make No Mistake

Welcome back! It’s been quite some time since I’ve had the time to properly write up an update, but here we are. Today marks four months in China, and nearly six since I took off from San Francisco. As such, it’s as good a time as any.

It’s been crazy busy these past months. Since I arrived in Kunming, I’ve gotten work with GoKunming, the local news site, as well as two schools. As of last writing, the GoKunming work was centered social media and marketing development. Since then, it’s made a definite transition into the realm of content. That’s one reason for my lack of updates; I’m getting published elsewhere. You may have noticed the large number of postings I made last week. Those are a majority of the articles I’ve written for the site.

I absolutely love writing for them, the three owners are great people to work with, and I owe them much. The experience at the site has added a dimension to living here that I never expected. Unfortunately, they don’t pay, which has been the reason that teaching has remained in the fold. Ultimately, I’d love to make writing the full-time gig, but I’ve allowed a year of training and network-building in order to get to that point.

You may recall that I was working for Eemom Education, a contracting service with a local high school. Teaching public school, with 14 separate classes, was enlightening, to say the least. It really gave a new perspective to my memories of high school in Lafayette. We were little shits, without a doubt. Anyway, I stayed with Eemom until the end of October, when it became apparent that I needed a more stable, and higher paying, position. Nowadays, I work for Shane English School, which I started in early November. This place is the real deal. I get proper training, administrative support, a stable schedule, a reliable paycheck, and foreign (British) superiors. The latter is really crucial, as it eliminates the cross-cultural communication issues that plagued Eemom.

I have 10 classes, with students ranging from two (yes, two years old) to fourteen. The younger classes are alright, if not sort of rote, but the older classes are a joy to teach. In my oldest class, we discussed eastern vs western concepts of ownership, geocaching, climate change, literary nonsense (i.e. Alice in Wonderland),the MBA, and the pros and cons (mostly cons) of the Chinese public education system. They’re a bunch of surly teenagers, but I get an enormous kick out of it.

If you’ve taken the time out of your day to read this, then you’re likely familiar with the over three-year saga that led me from Washington DC to Kunming. As such, I think it’s worth saying how much I love this place. To quote my boss, Noel, “85% of Kunming, I love to bits. The other 15%, simply bewilders me”. I find this to be a reasonably accurate breakdown. I can bitch and moan about just about anything, but not a day goes by that I’m thrilled that I followed through on my plans. I’ve never once regretted coming here.

There’s also a certain thrill that comes from being over 8000 miles away from home. No one has ever heard of Yunnan province, let alone Kunming, and I prefer it that way. The vietnamese border is a 6 hour train ride away, and another 5 hour bus ride from there to Hanoi. Everyone has heard of Hanoi, but even the people there cannot place Kunming on a map. It’s a city of six million people, equal to the population of Laos, and its anonymous. Roughly .06% of the population (about 3500) are fellow expats. There’s a certain sort of human being that finds themselves in this corner of the world. No one ends in Kunming on accident. It’s not like you can have a failed layover to somewhere else. To get to any worthwhile destination from Kunming Changshui airport, one expects at least one layover, if not two. As such, we (as a community) have a surprisingly large amount in common with one another. We’re all relatively like-minded and, like a small village, everyone knows each others names, personalities, successes, and failures.

Then there’s the matter of lifestyle and standard of living. If I were to listen to my mother and come home, I could never possibly hope to live the way I do here. Rent is only 10% of my monthly salary, and its furnished, in a great location, and my bedroom looks out on the nearby river. Even with a active social schedule, I spend no more than 30% of my salary on food, drink, China mobile SIM payment, and any other expenses that come up. Think about it, where else in the world can a 22 year old keep 60% of his salary in pure profit, while also being financially independent? I’ll answer that for you. Certainly not in San Francisco, not in Santa Barbara, not in Los Angeles, and not in New York City. Becoming an expat (for the past three years, more or less) was the smartest thing I could have done for my future. It’s also been great for the present, as I’ve been able to continue my travels. Once again, you have likely not stumbled upon this blog by accident, so you’re likely aware of my trips to Vietnam and Myanmar. Going to Myanmar to check out the election activity was one of the highlights of living in Asia so far. It was incredible! I wrote an article about that for GoKunming, so go and check it out (shameless plug).

Moving on to the future now. Let me make one thing plain. There is absolutely no chance of my returning to the US in 2016, and I wouldn’t be surprised if 2017 was the same way. As it stands, I’m locked into my contract at Shane until November of next year. Beyond that, I’ve already scoped out the job market in Hanoi. When the time comes, I’ll have all the possibilities in the world, and I’m excited to see what comes. In the more near future, my parents will be visiting Kunming over the new year, I’ll be going to Bangladesh over Spring Festival (Chinese New Year), and there’s a Japan trip in the works for sometime in June. I’ll write more about the Bangladesh trip at a later point, but I wanted my 40th country to be someplace truly unique. It’s also my hope to check out more places in Yunnan province. I feel as though I only scratched the surface when I was here three years ago, and I’d welcome the opportunity to delve deeper.

That’s about it now for the updates. I think I’ve covered just about everything. Call it youthful enthusiasm, call it wanderlust, or whatever you please, but I wouldn’t trade my current circumstances for anything. In and of itself, that’s a rare enough thing. If anyone from the US wants to get in touch, check out all the various mediums of doing so in the ‘about me’ section. WeChat, in particular, is quite decent.

Today, Monday, is my day off. Now, I’m off to go get a bowl of noodle soup with the chopped up contents of an entire sheep, after spending the day sitting in Lotus park and writing this. Until next time.