Countdown to departure: ~28 days.
Countdown to culture shock: ~213 days.
If all goes as planned, today is the day I buy the ticket. Once I have spent all my (paltry) savings and today's paycheck on a plane ticket, I'm going to China, job or no job. Fortunately, the job opportunity seems very sound, and no more than a perfunctory sort of paranoia is probably warranted.
As my weekly Chinese practice sessions with Tong have now resumed in the form of daily Chinese crash review sessions, I am reminded that the experience of assimilation, even when voluntary, is not ostensibly pleasurable. It's a feeling of constant ignorance, no matter how much progress you make.
Well, it's not like I'm going into this experience with any illusions that it won't be humbling.
More thoughts when the deed is done. Later, comrades.
So... Will you be able to continue to post on a Google website from your destination?
ReplyDeleteForfreakingsooth, I assumed that wouldn't be an issue, since most Google services apart from the search engine itself are still working. However, it seems like Blogger/Blogspot have been super unreliable in China going all the way back to 2007. A quick test shows that my blog is blocked already. I guess I'll have to switch to a new blogging service before I leave.
ReplyDelete