Make Your Summer Break Count

There may be a few things that China and North America have in common and one is Type-A workaholic people who slave at the office during summer holidays. Good for them, but I've about had it up to here with the nagging bullshit or other jealous comments from these ppl pointing out the fact that I'm on summer holidays and not working like they are. Even retired people have a hard time with this reality. My father is in this category and made a smart move by skedaddling out of the city for a break on a remote island.

For a similar reason I'm off to Thailand pronto where the culture works against workaholics and it is considered normal to enjoy a holiday there at any time of day or year.

Regretably I had little choice but to take of a bunch of tasks and do courses over the summer and also join the stupid rat race on both continents for a brief period of time. But now I've gotten everything done and will be on summer holiday mode at last.

For all teachers who may be reading this, pay no attention to the comments from the ignoramuses who may jab away at your well earned 2 months off. At the same time, it helps to schedule your break in a laid back situation where others are also on holiday. Going back home, ie to Vancouver etc. is not necessarily the best choice for summer even though most teachers do this. If you want extra work during summer, OK that's an option. If you want to travel I highly recommend it.

Keeping with this whole theme I will be taking a monthly blog break. See you all in September.

How Cell Phones and Gym Memberships Work

In China that is.

Following up on an earlier post where I discussed the frustrations involved in the nature of contracts and locked in agreements for these things in North America, let's now look at how the Chinese do it.

Put simply there are no contracts for both cell phones and gym memberships and everything operates on a pay-as-you-go system. The catch (if you can call it that) is you first pay the whole lump sum up front.

For example if you want a one year gym membership you pay the cash up front. In this way it doesn't matter if you "break the contract" because you've already put out the cash.

The North American system works on credit where you use first and pay later, on a monthly basis. The Chinese system is the antithesis of credit where you pay up front first then use the services.

No wonder the Chinese are used to the idea of buying everything in cash because that's how things work. The concept of consumer credit is something I'm rather opposed to. Even though I use a credit card, I pay back in full right away and it`s only for convenience and necessity for some things that I have it.

The western cultural CONCEPT of loans and credit and borrowing money is something I am opposed to viscerally.

You See Cheng Guan, You Run

Cheng guan is Chinese for urban management officer. These are the nemesis of any Shanghainese street vendor, of which there are many selling anything from food to DVDs to watches. Personally I can't stand the ruthless cheng guan and would side with the vendors any time. Cheng guan have a terrible reputation from the newspapers. Their sole job, it seems, is to shut the vendors down and confiscate their products.

The vendors have a system where they can pack up their stuff in a flash, run, and hide in a matter of SECONDS!

Here's how it works based on what I saw while buying DVDs from them. The lead seller has a point person or a watchman contact who sees the cheng guan coming from a distance and gives the signal. "Lai le" here they come.

The seller then folds the product in a portable suitcase, closes it, then ducks into a crowded store. The cheng guan walks by and sees nothing. 15 seconds has elapsed in the process.

While this happened I played right along, stashed my DVD in a laptop case, followed the seller inside the store, gave her the money, got some change, and was on my merry way.

Then I looked back a minute later and found it was back to business as usual.

It's Hot!

With a temperature of already 34 degrees at only 9:30 in the morning, I'm making the call that it's gonna top 40 degrees for the high today.  There's no question about that.  Actually I don't mind the heat here in Shangers, thanks to air conditioning.  This week has been rather relaxing and the best one of the summer.  Ironically I've been doing housework and maintaining the new house I've moved into on the south side of the city.

 

Actually I love this house and the neighorhood!!  It's far enough away from downtown so as to be cheaper and less crowded, yet it only takes 30 minutes tops to reach the downtown part of the city on a very convenient subway line.  That, or the motorcycle.  Within walking distance there is a Starbucks, McDs, many Chinese restaurants, and an air-conditioned shopping mall.  Around that, which is typical for Asia, you will find many other small shops and vendors, etc.   The apartment itself is in a cozy little compound with a garden and it feels homey, and the security guards are not arrogant like at my last place.

 

Given the fondness for the house and neighborhood I'm putting a lot of effort into maintaining it and keeping the place clean.  Unfortunately that means a ton of work, but the free time now allows me to do all the tasks at a reasonable pace.  The Blackberry is helping with the organization.  The latest thing has been to install ADSL (a delay on that, argh!!) and figure out how to work a Chinese washing machine with Chinese laundry detergent. 

 

It's easy enough to get the hang of, literally, as I hang my clothes outside like the locals do.  It's more efficient than using a dryer.  Frankly, who needs a dryer when it's 40 degrees out.

 

Meanwhile, there are a zillion more things to do with the unpacking and sorting out all the junk that was moved over on a motorcycle last month.

Steep Leisure

Frankly that's how I'd sum up Vancouver in two words.

In keeping with the theme here, it became apparent during a conversation with a friend while in Vancouver that the city may appear to be laid-back and entice visitors with its wonderful livability and natural scenery. But let me tell you something, the residents pay a price for their Vancouver leisure and it is extremely steep.

With all the work that goes into maintaining a lifestyle to have access to this leisure, the residents are really in a rat race and the city is actually quite frantic and stressful. In my opinion, for a working person it`s a terrible place to live and the comparison with Los Angeles is somewhat apt.

Nearly everyone I connected with over the past few weeks was working multiple jobs or otherwise busy as hell during the summer months. Mind you so was I in a bid to get as much done as possible before heading for the exits.

Actually the trip cost me an entire months salary in total, including course tuitions, now that I've finished my accounting. My boss is graciously going to reimburse $1000 for the AP Calculus workshop and he already reimbursed my return air tickets from Shangers so I shouldn't complain too much.

Nonetheless Thailand is still a go as I just found out my employer promised a completion bonus for last year`s contract which was finished successfully. This will in effect be a one month's salary and I'm obviously grateful.

But this all just makes me wonder that the ordinary working Joe who doesn't get these bonuses and reimbursements somehow manages to scrape by in Vancouver while doing his job at Tim Hortons serving coffee or working at some other menial service job. How the hell does he survive like that? I would honestly rather not care to know.

The Vancouver Trip Killed My Finances

Today's weather:  High = 35  Low = 28

Sunny

 

Maybe it's the world's most livable city for the rich, but Vancouver surely has to be one of the most expensive places in the world to live.  I honestly don't know how ordinary people can make it there.  If they are like me, they would head for the exits and join the brain drain.

 

Right now I'm doing some accounting of how much the recent Vancouver trip set me back financially and I'm having a hard time digesting my breakfast as a result of what I'm seeing.  To say this trip was expensive is an understatement.  Consequently, the proposed trip to Tibet that I had for the second half of the summer will have to be put on hold, and I may even have to cancel Thailand as well (which was the back up plan).  Hanging around in Shanghai for another month wouldn't be so bad, actually.

 

The shocking part was that I was doing everything I could to cut back on costs in Vancouver, knowing in advance that the trip would be expensive.  Thanks to the help of friends and family, I was able to crash at various peoples' houses and thus save on the biggest cost of all:  accomodation.  I didn't drive much at all, and mainly relied on bicycles and public transit to get around the whole 3 weeks.  But even with these measures, the trip still broke the bank.

 

Friends, family, and I had ample discussions during the trip about the high cost of living in Vancouver.  Everyone I talked to agreed that it was an expensive place to live.  But despite that, there was no indication in any of the conversations that people wanted to move out of Vancouver or seek a more affordable place to live. 

 

This attitude by residents of 'suck it up, we live in such a beautiful place, so we pay for it' is in direct contrast to what the newspapers are reporting about the brain drain.  That is to say, salaries cannot keep up with the cost of living, and so companies are losing talent, by their employees moving out of Vancouver to other locations that are more affordable.  In one example, a guy commutes to Calgary weekly for his job that pays moe salary with less taxes.  He then flies back to Vancouver on the weekend to live in a rental apartment where he has arranged a deal.

 

It is rather similar to the arrangement I had 3 years ago where I lived in Shanghai for the weekends and worked in a neighboring province. 

 

More to the point, it wouldn't be all that different from a guy who works in the USA and commutes back to the Vancouver area on a daily basis.  Or the guy who has a house on Bowen Island where it's cheaper and commutes into downtown Vancovuer on a water taxi that only takes 40 minutes and costs a good deal for the month.

 

So if guys like this are willing to come back to Vancouver for leisure (including the guy who flies back from Calgary every weekend and still saves money by doing this), then there must be something about the Vancouver lifestyle that he doesn't want to give up, despite the crazy costs.  Maybe it's the outdoor recreation, the coffee culture, the friends, the restaurants, the beautiful scenery, the bicycle lanes, Commerical Drive, or any other number of factors that make the city being #1 in terms of livability.

 

It's not all that different from me flying back every summer from Shanghai.

 

Blackberry to the Rescue

It looks like Blackberry holds the secret to living a more organized life. If only I had got a hold of this device earlier and used it as it`s very powerful. It combines the functions of the conventional personal organizers (paper-based calendar, daytimer, and to-do list) into a more flexible interface that goes along with you as you carry it.

Blackberry has many more features than just personal organizers but I want to focus on 3 features that I've been able to make use of.

First is the calendar and daybook combined. You can flip through the days and view highlights as you would a regular calendar. You can also schedule detailed appointments within a day, timed to the half-hour, and programmed with alarms that let you know when the appointment has arrived.

Next is the task or the to-do list. These are not time-specific like appointments but you can schedule a due date for the tasks if you want and it will warn you when the time is up. You can also "check off" or defer the tasks as you like.

The last part is the idea pad as mentioned earlier. This is basically a scratch pad using the memo feature on the Blackberry where I can write down some idea that comes to mind. Later I can see at a glance what has gone in there and decide what to do with it. For example that idea could turn into an appointment or task as above.

One thing I'm also looking into is how to do `quick lesson plans` on the Blackberry and make it function like a teacher`s daybook. That way if the boss ever asks to see my daybook it would be shown electronically.

With all this in mind, if I ever lost my Blackberry I'd be screwed. No wonder they nickname this thing the Crackberry.