Chinese and Numbers

A few days was May 20, 2014 or 05/20/2014 or 2014/5/20. While is just an ordinary day in May or a month after 4/20, it's an unofficial holiday here in China. 

The Chinese have numeric sayings like calling someone 2, to express that they are stupid or goofy. That has something to with a historical reference, but I’m not 100 percent sure on that. Other number sayings usually have to deal phonetic sounds like 56, wu liao, meaning boring, or 517 wo yao chi, I want to eat. So what makes today so special? 2014/5/20 is “I love you” day. 520 (wu er ling) roughly sounds like我爱你, I love you. 2014 is particular special because 2014 (er ling yi si) comes out to sound like 爱你一世， Love you my whole life, or some variation of love you a lot. Today is I love you day in the Love you forever year.

It was basically like another Valentines day. So if my math is correct, there are four Valentines in China: the 15th day of new lunar year, one on the traditional 2/14, one on 5/20, and one on the seventh month on the seventh day in the lunar calendar ("qixi", Chinese Valentines Day). Flower industry must love China, to think of it, every Friday on the subway I see at least one person receiving or giving a bouquet of flower. I didn't think the Chinese were very open with express their feelings towards one another, guess I was wrong. It is after all China in the 21st century. 

While I'm on the subject of dates and numbers play on words. There was another "holiday" a month earlier. 4/19 or 4-1-9, this one made me laugh a little. My coworkers told me about this one. 4-1-9, "for one night", the unofficial one night stand holiday. A lot of hooking up on that day I suppose.

Numbers, and you thought they were only good for math.

-MC

Yum Cha/Dim Sum Life

It will be a sad day when I have to leave Shenzhen/Guangdong Province. Why? Dim sum. 

For those unfamiliar with the term, dim sum is basically a Chinese version of brunch, served in the traditional family style. Dim sum is all about variety and quantity, when ordering dim sum, you'll see a table filled with tons of small dishes of different foods. If you YouTube dim sum, you know what I mean. 

Dim sum is probably one of my all time favorite things to do. Not only do you get to nom on some delicious food, its a great bonding opportunity. I know when my mom and I fight, normally things muddle over after some dim sum. Since I've been in Shenzhen, I go on average about once a week, sometimes twice if the boss is taking the team out to lunch. 

Some people ask me how good my Chinese is, this is how I reply, semi-native Shanghai-er, learning Mandarin, dim sum Cantonese. I'm that comfortable with dim sum dish, now that I can read Chinese I'm that much more comfortable. I take a very aggressive role when ordering dim sum when I'm with friends and family. I know what I like and I will get it. 

Here is a list of go to's, so if you ever are getting dim sum these are nooby-proof guarantee loves. 

Ha Gaw/Shrimp Steam Dumpling: Probably the most popular item in dim sum, its light and delicious. You can judge whether the dim sum place is good by having the ha gaw, its a must have for an dim sum restaurant. 

Shew Mai/Shrimp Pork Steam Dumpling: Similar to the ha gaw, but a much more meatier dumpling, and probably the second most order dish. Sometimes there is some type of roe on top making it more luxurious but with or without still delicious choice.

Cha Shew Bao/Steamed BBQ Pork Bun: Something very familiar to non-Chinese food eaters. Its like wonderbread filled with delicious, succulent BBQ meat. I don't always order it cause I can always just order the meat straight up, but if you're drunk then is the perfect drunk food.   

There are many, many more but talking about this makes me hungry so I'll leave it at that.

My weekly dim sum dates with my girlfriend is always the highlight of my week. I have a new favorite. It has a whole wall showcasing all the live, fresh seafood. Ranging from Alaska King crab to geoduck (gooey duck). 

Its very traditional with taste and menu, which I love. I wouldn't say I'm a purist, but this place is amazing. I can't wait to go back this weekend for more. I'll order something new and maybe post something about it if I take a picture before I eat it all.

-MC

176

That’s how many credits I estimate I’ll end my IU careers with. Just to put that number into perspective. The minimum amount of credits to graduate from Kelley is 128, the minimum amount of credits to take the CPA exam, 150 (granted I have not taken all the required courses). I don’t want to brag, but I give meaning to the term victory lap.

It might be a bit of overkill, but I’ve spent the last four years of my life relearning my culture, heritage, and most important becoming super Chinese. Learning Chinese is where a lot of the excess credit hours come from, if I was to optimize graduate date with course selection, I would have graduated last year, instead I chose to continue with improving my language skills and to seize a unique opportunity to study abroad for a complete year. While it might seem like I really enjoyed learning Chinese from the get go, it really wasn’t like that. At first I took Chinese because I would like more “marketable,” meaning $$$. It wasn’t until the summer of my freshmen year until I really started to put an effort into learning the language. Also side note, taking Chinese allowed me to not take any Gen-Ed classes. J

Having this many credit does have its benefits. Waitlists doesn’t exist in my vocabulary. Super senior status is the golden ticket to getting into any class you want. No more praying and waiting, directly pass go and collect 200 dollars. I have a huge gradepoint base, which means that a C here or there won’t have a huge, huge impact, but neither will all A’s :\.

After carefully selecting classes for my real senior year and reevaluating my major, I managed to pick up another major, so I’ll technically have a major in three different departments from Kelley if all goes according to plan. Hopefully that will make employer take a second look at me.

-MC

Spring in Shenzhen A.K.A Pre-Summer

Hello Hello,

It's better a pretty hectic week since my last posting.  I was doing a lot prep work for the event that my company was hosting last week. I got to break in the new suit so that was a plus. I looked pretty damn good in a suit, although I look pretty good in my birthday suit as well :).

There's something that I want to vent about for a minute or two. What gives a person the right to tell me what I can and can't do. For instance, my co-worker asked me what I wanted to do after this internship. I naturally said graduate and get a job in the states or China. He literally said you won't be able to get a job here, one because of companies wanting a "foreigner" presence, and second if I were to find a job here in China, I would be basically paid minimum wage. No it wasn't an misinterpretation of language, he said all of this in English, which is another issue I have with him. It's difficult to put into words, how I feel about this. It literally has bothered me all weekend. Since in college, I never have told someone you can't do this or that intentionally. Everyone has dreams and aspirations, while some are far-fetched or unrealistic it always important to be supportive. You may believe it's impossible, it's someone's dream, and I'm no dream destroyer.

I've been approached by two people wanting business advice from me since I've been here in China. While one was a typical business idea with a plan and idea, the other was something that went against my ethics, but I never told his person what he was doing was wrong, rather advised him to go a more positive/legal/ethical way of doing business. Point is being someone who I work with, someone I should be looking up to, learning from, someone who should be supportive of what I do, you are setting a poor example and a poor reflection of the company. Regardly whether it's during work or not, it not your place to tell me it not possible or "not you're not good enough"-like crap.

Alright enough of my rant to good stuff. So went on a business trip to Shanghai this past week, got to meet up with my running buddy, Maddie, had dinner and delicious double chocolate beer. The week before that I finished the LiNing 10k, I didn't finished as good as I hoped, but I finished. Dim Sum post-race refuel, with my new girlfriend (yes, it's a official now) and a coworker (different from the abovementioned).

Besides the trouble with the one co-worker, everything is really great. Dim Sum once a week at least, wonderful new girlfriend. And nasty, hot weather.

Until next time.

MC

Race Countdown: T-Minus 6 days

For all you basketball junkies out there, I just finished my bracket. I have a Big Ten team going all the way, but mainly picked teams advancing by gut feeling. It’s sad not to see my Hoosiers in this year’s tournament, but we always have next year.

 

Less than a week away from my first race of the year, I’m actually more nervous about this race than the marathon in Shanghai. Preparation has been… lacking. Granted it’s a 10k, but I want to have a killer time. My last 5k race was just under 23 minutes and my goal this time is sub 45 for a 10k. Looking at a 21/24 split, so let’s pray I can stick to that plan. I lost my watch back in Nanjing when I was swimming in the nasty pool, so time keeping has been non-existent during runs. I’ll just have to look extra sexy during the race, if you can’t beat’em, look good trying.

 

Speaking of looking good, I recently picked up my suit that I had made. I was hoping to get the old man with a tape measure hanging from his neck service, but instead I get a cute, little Asian girl, disappointed and happy at the same time.

 

I’m two months into the internship now, only 2 more months to go, then a little small vacation, and then finally back to America.

 

Have a safe spring break everyone.

 

-MC

 

Looks like I’m a single man again

In previous postings, I may or may not have forgotten to mention I started dating a Chinese girl. Well I was. That’s about it…. Just kidding. It was short lived, granted I shouldn’t have dove into the relationship in the first place. Feel like an international stud (kidding again), I realized women are about the same. The only difference is the level of a particular aspect. For instance attention, girls love that crap regardless of what you may say. Girls love it.

But, Chinese women or Chinese society is much more practical about love and dating. There’s a saying in Chinese which roughly applies to this 门当对户，basically means the man/woman are equal on your economic and social status. Wait, there’s more, they also believe in 缘 (destiny), so I find this as a contradiction in Chinese culture. You want to be happy but the “right one” has to be in the right social class and make enough money. What?!

Dating isn’t easy in China unless you got money, then I think it a bit easier because of the above mentioned. Remember money=happiness to some people. So back to the story, when I decide to date this girl, I made sure she’s understood that I had no moneys and I was leaving in 6 months. Let’s look at the equation. ME=no money + no 缘分, yet still she was willing to date me. Apparently I’m just a nice guy, and nice guys don’t finish last in China. A win for the nice guys.

There’s something else I think about when looking dating here; I often worry that some girls just like me because I’m an ABC (American Born Chinese), a fast pass to a green card. Oh, green card = money, and money = happiness, so green card = happiness; transitive property.

If you have been keeping up with my Blogs, when I first got here I entered into an arranged relationship. At first it was a joke, but apparently she might be serious. Recently she said that she was coming to the city I’m interning at, and that if things are right, 缘分，then we should do a Las Vegas style marriage. Here’s some background in easy terms, Me= no money + American + 缘分 (?), Her=money +缘分, so I might work?

Thing is… I started to see someone else here, but that’s another blog.

Until next time

-MC

Shenzhen Update

Hello everyone,

First and most important, for those of you who have seen the news about the Kunming train station incident. I am not located in Kunming but I do have three friends interning there. The three of them are safe and unharmed.  Thoughts go out to the families effected by this tragic event.

I've been in Shenzhen for three weeks now, and slowly getting used to work life and the new environment I'm in. I can see why a lot of graduates working now, envy us college kids. Working is not fun. I often take for granted that I'm not constrained to a work schedule and that I haven't "officially" grown up yet.  Taxes, overtime, mid-crisis these are the thing I have to look forward to when I graduate next year.

About the internship, I'm a marketing intern at Morningstar. Basically I hang out with marketing and do things that doesn't disturb the normal workflow, I try to add efficiencies by doing translation work and simple research reports. Later in March I'll be going to Shanghai for an awards conference, that I helped assist in organizing. One less fun sides of working here is that I don't have much to do, and I feel weird asking, so I do a lot of researching and stock studying. But, I consider that a plus most days. Overall, it's not a bad gig, clean office, bathrooms that smell like mangos, and cute girls. I can't complain too much.

(A little bit of home at the office)

I recently registered for the LiNing 10k in Shenzhen. LiNing is the Chinese Nike. I'm really hoping to challenge myself by running a sub 45, and finish in the top 10%. Training has not been the best cause of working during the day, and by the time I get home its dark and not having set routes it's a bit on the risky side to run randomly. I really don't want to get into the mentality of "oh you ran a marathon, 10k is a walk in the park." I really miss my running buddy Maddie, she's the person you love to hate when it comes to training :).

Not much other news from this side, besides getting a custom suit made. I'm gonna be looking so sharp when I get back to the states.

Until next time

-Michael

Funeral Service new investment bubble in China?

Kind of a dark title, I know.

Recently my grandmother passed away, and the person who is arranging everything mentioned that this past year was the highest amounts of death in Shanghai in the last 10 years. So it got me thinking is this the next housing bubble for China, Funeral services? It makes sense with China's ever growing elderly population it just makes sense.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are more and more funeral service providers pop up in the next 5 years, and after attending my grandmother's funeral, I have to hand it to the Chinese, they really know how to streamline. Even with it being the end year festival week, there was plenty of funeral services going on at the particular establishment.

In America we have basically a church or a funeral home. Keyword home, you wouldn't except more than a few rooms at most to hold a service. Well in China it's a funeral mall, for a lack of a better word. I didn't exactly how many room there were but I can well assure you there were at least 20-30 rooms.

I been to a couple of funeral services in the States and had to help plan for two, this was the first Chinese death I've experienced. I am neither happy or sad about my grandmother's death. She was 91 and it was her time I understand that. With that being said, it was a very interesting experience, to experience this part of my culture.

There are so many customs and traditions to when a person dies, and many people don't know all the rules anymore, at least in Shanghai. So what do you do? You hire someone. The benefits of hiring someone to help you with carrying out the customs and traditions is: 1. It's really comforting with someone who know all the rules 2. They do all the arranging so you don't have to. When my grandmother passed, we have to keep an incense burning at all time, this meant rotation sleeping. Another thing is that we need to fold foil paper in the shape of ancient Chinese gold ingots. These are just a few things that you have to do. I'm not even completely sure of what you supposed to do.

I'm happy to know that my grandmother went peacefully, and I hope that I folded her enough foil papers to make her happy.

Well that about it, so until next time.

-MC

The Chinese Air Travel Standards

Greetings Everyone,

I recently went to Yunnan, probably one of the my favorite places to visit in mainland China. The air is clean, the scenery is beautiful and it you just get a different feel for China.

But unfortunately this time I want to vent about the airline services in China.  Before I praised China for their mass public transportation system meaning their railroad infrastructure, not this time.

So I decided to fly to Yunnan over railroad for the sake of time; a flight to Kunming is around 3 hours while a train to Kunming is 26 hours. Time was the limiting factor this trip, and plane > train.  I leave for Kunming from Shanghai, I was supposed to leave at 10pm and arrive at 1am the next time, only to find out that its delayed (remember this term for later). Delayed until when? I don't know.  This is actually works better, then if I could get to Kunming at like 4am or 5am then that saves me a night stay.

The flight eventually starts boarding at 12ish, and take off around 1. I pass out on the plane, and wake up 4 hours later, only to find out that I'm not in Kunming rather Chengdu. We couldn't land in Kunming because of foggy conditions. Again I'm not too angry cause they get us a hotel room and I get to see another city in China sorta. I end up getting to Kunming around 11-12. Destination Arrived 12 hours later.

Biggest problem comes when I have to go back to Shanghai. Yet another "delay." Except when I ask about the delay, the plane is only a little "late." So I ask what's the difference about "late" and "delay," aren't they the same thing? Apparently they aren't the same, late is just a subcategory of on time. Being slightly late is expected for flights in China.

Point of the story. When traveling in China, make sure you have delay time accounted for cause it will happen.

Until next time,

-MC

Reflections on 2013

Happy New Year to everyone back home. 

Last year was an eventful year for me, I'm going to devote this post to reflect on major events that happened to me this year. Let's begin.

First off, I was accepted to Chinese Flagship Capstone year, that why I'm here in China now. I'm actually about to finish the first portion in about a week, just have some loose ends to tie up now. I've made a lot new friends during my stay in China, people who have made a big impact in my life.  I'm a bit sad that I might not see them again until Las Vegas! (Haha, a little inside joke). It was honestly an accident of how I met them. I half-heartedly applied to be in a club and had a horrible interview, but somehow I managed to get picked.  A very happy accident that turned out to be :). 

I guess the second biggest thing that happened was starting a bucket list and actually going through with it.  I ran a marathon, bungie jumped, ate some delicious food. There are still so much more I want to do, I wonder how much more of my bucket list I can scratch off before this year ends.  I'm going to Yunnan on the 13th, so there's another thing I can cross that off. (Oh, also I got back in shape and lost some weight and kept it off. haha)

I would say that I may not be the brightest student at Kelley, but I can say that I've seen more of the world than most students at any university.  I've seen more this past 4 months than I have seen in the past 4 years. I'm very fortunate to have this year to travel and learn from seeing and doing.  You can only learn so much from textbooks.  I only hope that I can see more of the world in this new year.  

I wish everyone a safe and healthy new year.  

Until next time,

MC