New yeaaaaaarrrgh!
IT'S NEW YEAR, TAKE COVER!
/Alex
Beijing bing!
I've now been back in Beijing for about a week and a half. I changed location, gave up the good ol' Shijia hutong, and are now residing at Lotus hostel in Xicheng district. I decided that, even though I truly do love my old hoods in Dongcheng district, I want to give my friends and family a better impression of Beijing than what the staff at my old hostel Saga can offer.
Now we (that is: me, my mum, kid brother, Mads and Johan) are living in a typical old hutong courtyard (siheyuan). This is by far the coolest lodging I've ever had. The atmosphere at Lotus is relaxed and comfortable, and the staff is as friendly as you can wish for. Creds to Ben, the manager (and also former manager at Saga).
So, me and my tiny confused Swedish tourist group are roaming about, making the streets in the northern capital unsteady. Mads don't like the Chinese food. Johan thinks that everything from cigarett packages to tea bags are so well-designed. Mum have to go to the toilet all the time. My brother just want to know how much things he can buy before he goes home again.
It's a quite heavy job, I must admit, to get four people around in a city where no one speaks English. Most difficult of all is that I have to change my bad habits, can't sleep too long in the mornings, can't sit and roll my thumbs and examine my belly-button whenever I wish, can't sit in front of the computer all night long. I have to eat food that I usually wouldn't care about. I have to go into Tourist-mode and re-visit places I've already been, or visit places I didn't get around to visit before. I have to remember to not speak Swedish in front of other foreigners and not speak Chinese in front of my Swedes. It's been a while since I really had to compromise my life-style for this long, I'm used to kind of just go with the flow, take things as they come. Planning is bad for the skin, but it seems like my lazy days are over.
It's also a quite grateful job, showing them around. Showing them this strange wonder-land in which I live. Taking them to places they never expected to see, and have the pleassure of sharing their first-time experiences and sursprises. I feel proud sometimes, when I can show off the oddities and curiosities in Chinas bigger cities. And being used to all of this as I am, it feels good to hear someone else telling me what's amazing and different with this country. I have forgotten what it was that used to surprise me. Most of all, of curse, it feel so good to see my family again.
The pursuit for coffee continues! Away, Silver!
/Alex
When I grow up...
I am a university rat. One of them who don't know how real life works, because I have spend 3/4 of my life studying. Sure, I had an extra job, working weekends and part-time during summer, but that hardly makes me qualified for any other kind of jobs except those including cash registers and cranky customers.
The question "What do you want to be when you grow up?", have been a re-appearing thing since kindergarden. When I was a little kid, I wanted to be come an artist, a rugby-player or a pilot. Then I wanted to be a tattooist, a marine geologist or a university teacher. Then I started studying Chinese, because that was what I wanted to do, but I had no idea what to do with it.
And now I do know what I want to be when I grow up. Something that gives me use of my Chinese, something that feels important, and additionally something that includes writing, which is my main passion in life. Journalism.
So in order to put my plan in action, I have realized that I need a job, something press-related. Having no experience, no qualifications and no contacts, made me decide to find a job, one that will probalby not be very interesting, but at least something to put on a resume. So that I later can apply for a journalism program (and actually be accepted) or find another job getting me closer to the real thing. In other words, I'm looking for a job that can give me some qualification.
And except for that, I want to do it in Hong Kong. There have been two places that I have been to, where I felt that this, this is where I want to be. One is Beijing, but at the moment I would prefer to not stay in mainland China after this summer, and the other one is Hong Kong. It was love at first sight, it was... If I can't live here for a while my life will not be as it should be. Hong Kong is the next step. Hong Kong is neccessary.
But, as I said, I'm a school rat, and I don't know how real life works. I don't know how to start looking for a real job, how to apply for a job, how to be so convincing that I can get a job that will be valuable for me, even though I have no experience. All I have is a pretty-good-but-not-even-close-to-fluent English, and a crappy Chinese. But it must work, because it is neccessary.
Of course, the idea of a long-term internship has crossed my mind, but I can't survive in a city like Hong Kong without an income, and to find the right internship that would include a salary is too much to hope for. The idea is not abandonned though, it is just not my main scheme.
What I'm doing now is to collect tips from my friends. Everything from Mads telling me: "I heard the (small Swedish) magazine Gringo is looking for writers, you should contact them", to California telling me: "Download articles from the net and study their style", or suggestions of different companies that might be able to give me the kind of job I need, everything gets written down in a book, more closely examinated, considered and duely followed. (Moreover, I sometimes write down some sentences that one or another person has told me to encourage me in my pursuit. It's like a kind of emergency pep-talk collection, something I can take a look at when everything feels too difficult and hopeless.)
So. I want a press-related job in Hong Kong, starting this summer/fall, so that I can start doing what I want to do when I grow up. Give me a tip.
/Alex
(Click on "Kommentarer" below to leave a comment.)