Schell of a Man

I finally got around to throwing out all the boxes in my house and cleaning it up a bit. I was told that I had to keep all boxes the appliances came in. If any of them broke I needed the box in order to return it. I think it's a prank they play on all the new foreigners. They were taking up half my living room so I decided to throw caution to the wind (and the boxes, too). Besides, I have a few tricks up my sleeve, the most useful of all being the "Foreigner Temper-Tantrum," where I get angry and start yelling in English until someone fixes the situation. It's a last resort but useful at key moments. The point of all this is that I'm ready to show the world (or at least the few people who read this blog) my apartment. It's a charming little one bedroom with (as I just recently discovered) hot water in both the kitchen and bathroom.

I just recently went to the plant market and got a couple new friends. I'm hoping in a couple of weeks to get some more plants for my bedroom. One note about the bedding, you may have noticed the odd color choices. All I can say for that is that the choices (especially within my budget) were incredibly limited. Pink is the only color in the bedding aisle at the store. And I've been searching for the past month for a sheet large enough to not only cover the top of the mattress but also leave enough slack that it can be tucked in. Every morning I wake in a ball of sheets and quilt on a bare mattress. Another note about the mattress: it's hard. Really hard. But I'm told it's good for my health.

One other high point of this apartment is the location. Close to the river, close to my office, and extremely close to the building across the road that is being gutted. The jackhammers and saws start at 6 am, seven days a week. I'm slowly getting used to the noise but I have the strangest dreams right before waking up...

So this is my apartment, I'll be posting pictures of the office soon. Feel free to send house warming presents. Bottles of wine, scented candles and fitted sheets are all welcomed. Cheers!

You know it’s getting close to typhoon season when you’re walking in the rain with your umbrella in front of you instead of above. I’m sitting in my apartment listening to the thunder set off car alarms across the city. I’ve just returned from a meeting and lunch, and now I’m settling in the wait out the storm. Tropical storm Kalmaegi is working its way up the coast and I just found out that more than 232,000 people have been evacuated from four cities, including Ningbo (my city). But I’m not too worried about it. My building is only a year old and I’m only on the 7^th floor. So now I’m just going to take it easy and watch the amazing show.

As you probably already know, I am no longer teaching in China but instead am now here on business. While my title is the China Logistics General Manager my primary task is sourcing. That means finding factories that produce products we are looking for, making contact with them, getting samples, preparing contracts and eventually purchasing products from them. It’s a different world than teaching. A friend who picked me up at the airport shared a saying that I guess is common here. “When you’re a teacher in China you’re like the Panda: laughed at but protected.” She then continued with her own saying, “When you’re a businessman in China you’re like a Pangolin: a scaly anteater that is killed and ground up for medicinal purposes.” Not the best encouragement I’ve ever received.

So far things are going well. Today marks three full weeks that I’ve been in Ningbo. I have a small but comfortable apartment with a living room/kitchenette, bathroom and bedroom. I have a view of a parking lot and more apartment buildings. I have also rented out an office about two blocks away. Fortunately the view from there (on the 16^th floor) is much more impressive. The furniture for the office should arrive next week and it will finally hit me that I am working in China.

I hope to do a better job keeping up the blog this time than I did the last year I was here. So feel free to check for the occasional updates.