Arrival in Jilin, China

This picture is taken from the top floor of the high school I teach art at.

My apartment in Jilin.

View of the seasons from my window.

Winter

September 2009- Onwards
Round 2: The culture shock I faced was no less than before. My life style was being re-established again. When I arrived I got an extra 2 weeks off due to the H1N1 scare. This time was spent learning about my new neighbourhood, later on way in the future I will realize how much I will miss this era of my life and all that was associated with it.

Culture shock after lasted about 3-4 months. Life was becoming ummm...simpler. I was making new friends finding out what there was to do in this foreign city. Learning to take the bus, the language and where to eat. You might think that these things were easy to incorporate into daily life but it takes time to become adjusted.

I have now I have a soft spot in my heart for Jilin.

Last of Vancouver

On our way to Wreck Beach during the treasure hunt.

Kits beach.

Oh more sunsets.

One month after Shambhala things were in order. I treasure hunted with some strangers to meet some new faces, explored the beaches and just caught up on some rest and relaxation. Work visa....check. Bags packed....check. Money....check.
There was no looking back now.

ROUND 2 FIGHT!

Shambhala, Salmo Canada

Beach stage.

Break dancing competition.

The Village.

This was my way to say good-bye to my life back home. I embraced the mountain air on my face, cold glacier water rushing through my toes and the deep music hugging my soul one last time. I soaked in every last moment of it before returning to Vancouver.

Oh my 3rd and probably last Shambhala for awhile, one of the things I know I will miss the most about Canada is the music scene.

http://www.shambhalamusicfestival.com/

Edmonton Again

Returning to Edmonton was somewhat a realization that I hadn't made it all that far. When I finally sat down with my beloved friends I noticed that I had more than one story to tell and even they thought they were quite riveting. Living in Vancouver had taught me that my love for the beach isn't something I can ever ignore, the beaches in Vancouver are beautiful.

Downtown Edmonton

Good ol' pink sunsets.

I did however learned that if I ever was to return home for a long time that my beautiful friends will still reside here waiting to make more memories with. There is always going to be a place in my heart for my home town no matter how much I say that I dispize it. (mostly when it is winter here) I had a great time making my full circle to China and back, luckily I was only going to be here for a week before taking off to Shambhala. From there I will be returning to the lovely Vancouver to get my working visa for China for ROUND 2.

Vancouver, Canada

At the skate park

Kits beach

Sunset in Vancouver

Wreck beach, a nude beach!

The return from Canada felt almost lie defeat but now that I think about it, it was more about taking a breather. You have to be persistent to accomplish the things that you want in life and there is nothing wrong with seeing new sites and reorganizing your thoughts to plan our the next chapter taking what you have learnt into account. While living in Vancouver I had very little funds, I had a temporary position through a friend of a friend of mine folding clothes. Yay Assembly line work. It wasn't enough money to fund my trip back to China so I had to dip into my savings form there I did get a job working at a bakery making tarts for a short duration of time. The boss and I didn't really click and I didn't personally like packing tarts into boxes all that much.

After I quit the bakery job I headed home to Edmonton, it will be nice to see friendly faces once again.

Guangzhou, China

Biggest and Best German beer.

1920咖啡厅

183号 Yanjiang Middle Road, Yuexiu, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Got to hit up happy hour for the large beers at half price! The food here was amazing and yes it is on the pricey side but you got to give yourself a treat. We had a wonderful Gegrillte Gǎnseschenkel nach Bouernart mit Kartoffelgroesti Country Style Grilled Goose Leg with Hash Brown 香草烤鹅腿配土豆饼 it is about 100元 and up but it is well worth it.

By this point I had quit my very first teaching position job due to a lack of better words 'sketchy' and not in a good way. I remember distictly my TESOL teacher telling me that if I don't like the job I have no real obligations to stay and stick it out till the end of the contract. You have to be happy where you are working especially when you are abroad.

Staying with family this time around was nothing like the last time in 2007. Since I was influenced by someone that I can fairly say with an outside prospective, was just dragging me down. Two and a half weeks later I was moving to a new city to try again.  Due to the lack of success in finding a new teaching job in China fast enough we were on the move. I hadn't given up just yet on teaching abroad it was something that I had always wanted to do. I just got a sour taste and not enough prep time to know all the working details of life abroad. I wish I had done more homework on this but even then knowing others stories and experiences are never the same as your own.

The Passport Heist of Changchun

I figured that since this whole blog is filled to the tits about all my awesome experiences and situations that I have encountered during my travels that I should share one of the more horrid stories with everyone.

There were many warning signs that I should have noticed right away but was too naive and inexperienced to know better. Now with that under my belt I can now heed to the warning signs before the situation become detrimental leading to facing immigration or even worst the authorities. Not saying I have mastered this skill as of yet.

When I had first given the teaching position to fly to Changchun to teach, they told me to just fly to China on a tourist visa. Readers out there who know what I am talking about are most likely shaking their heads right about now. Blindly, I entered the country to work illegally on a promise that they would provide sufficient paper work including a working visa upon arrival.

Strange Book Self

Ugly couches

Two tiny gas stoves

The kitchen sink

Hall way

Spare room

The Room I resided in

The foreign liaison picked me up at the airport and brought me to my new tiny apartment.  

From there they took my passport in exchange for the keys to the apartment, apparently 48 hours after you make contact with your company they have to register you and file for all sorts of papers. FEC (foreign expert certificate) these papers state the school you work for and your job title and then your residency permit which gives you the right to live for 'X' amount of time, usually for a year. FYI: You need your working visa to get the residency permit.

While waiting for all these paper the school that I was working for expected the teachers in the same situation to work. Paying us by the hour when the contract that we signed states that we should be paid salary, including that they would pay/handle/apply for all the paper work and living expenses.

After about two weeks of hounding them for our passport/paperwork I found out that there are so many others in this predicament. So united together to get this problem solved, some of them were working illegally and were avoiding confrontation at all costs. So a small group of foreigners banded together to obtain our documents back giving us the right to take matters into our own hands.

Before they would do anything it took some threats, a written proposal and some phones calls to a couple consulates.

Finally, they decided to tell us that our passports were at police station that we must go down there to pick them up. Not to worry that we would get them back, so we waited at the office for someone to bring us there. A long wait later a couple taxi loads of teachers we all were waiting at a lobby of a very fancy hotel, wondering why we were all there. Soon enough we were going to find out. One by one we get called into a room with two 'immigration' officers [I have to note that they didn't wear uniforms nor did they show us badges, to be honest they looked like Chinese gangsters!] they proceeded to ask us questions about what was happening between each of us individually translated by the foreign liaison. I don't think she told them exactly what we were saying verbatim.

In the end most of us had our passports returned to us, they didn't register us, or fill out any paper work to have us legally working in China. Huh, what were they doing?

Well, here is the down low. What this company does is they tell people from all over the world mostly from the Philippines to come on a tourist visa and promising them living, work and ect. With decreased salaries from their original offer (People from Asian countries made about $600CAD a month for full time work-the western foreigners made more but none of us were earning the same salary) after they release their passports to the 'school' in hopes the employee will  forget about their passports. I assume this the companies goal. So they have illegal workers for cheap and they can't leave the country without getting in some serious trouble, some would say this is sly but in this case I say it is just plain evil. I guess when put in this predicament people tend to subdue to inevitability or they fight to leave.

After fighting for my passport I did a midnight run within 24 hours never looking back. Taking the next step forward. Off to Gunagzhou.

Changchun, China

I love squid!

May 2009- June 2009:

When I had first arrived I felt that everything was hard. New and excited as it all may have been at the time. I had a hard time facing the fact that I spoke Cantonese and not Mandarin with my Chinese face working against me at the time. Facing a huge language barrier and cultural differences. After two months of bull shit it was time to find a new place to be.

Leaving Edmonton

May 2009:

It was time to say good-bye to my dear loved ones and the place I called home. I was ready to take that large step forward into the unknown. Walking  the new paths not knowing where they were leading me. I didn't realize this then but I do now, I had to let go of my past. I was very much attached to the person I believed was going to be in my future.

I know that I have done some traveling before mostly in the west of Canada on road trips. China on a tour and seeing family every year...even Hong Kong, China and Thailand  with my best friend.

I think this is going to be my self test, my Everest to become an independent traveler....see the world in my own eyes with no outside influences.