Hello Goodbye

I am writing this from my hotel room on the 7th floor with a view of the hills surrounding Beijing. Admittedly, I do have a room mate, a Dutch guy called Wout, but he's pretty chill and he's got a shift right now so I have the room to myself. Moved in, unpacked, borrowed a suit from the hotel because I've been too stingy to buy one so far. Finally having settled in here, with at least a reduced degree of uncertainty of the future, is very nice. I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into this job and learning a lot. I've already had a week of shifts, but I've mostly been getting to know the hotel and the staff. I am a Management Trainee, along with the two other foreign staff here, Wout and Nicole. But I'll be working in the front desk department, mainly doing checking in and out, and handling questions and complains. My mentor, Shaun, says shift managers are nicknamed toilet paper by the hotel staff: because we clean up the shit. For example, when someone is accidentally booked into a smoking instead of a non-smoking room (like last week), and you want to make sure they're not too pissed off at the same time as not automatically giving them a free upgrade. The staff are great, really friendly and mostly speaking to me in Chinese. It's wonderful how not being an English teacher helps with that. Nanni, my supervisor, even offered to take me clubbing some time, and Simon from the concierge desk gave me the card of a nice bar he goes to. My project for the duration of my stay here will be to improve the Guest Experience Index (GEI). People give us feedback according to a survey, and we get a number for satisfaction relating to different areas of the hotel. At the moment, we're 0.5 lower than target, and it will be my job to produce a report recommending changes and hopefully improving that statistic. Sounds like I might get to tell people what to do, and yell at them if they don't. Fun!

I got sick at the end of the week, because I didn't get enough sleep, and I went out on Wednesday night until far later than I should have. I blame Rupert and Annie coming to visit, and forcing me to take them out to all-you-can-eat-and-drink teppanyaki and then stay out until 4am clubbing (pictured). Completely not my fault. On the plus side, it was awesome having a total of 8 Adelaideians together in one place, I don't think I will see that again until I get back. Speaking of which, I have a more-or-less confirmed date: February 6th. I might need to get my visa extended until then, but 14th of January would be the earliest return date. Their normal management trainee program is for one full year, so I had to stay here for as long as possible for it to be worth their while. Unfortunately I'll miss Christmas at home, but this is really going to be a valuable experience, so I may as well make the most of it.

Being here is a big change from Tsinghua, though. One constant over the past month and a half has been goodbyes. I made far more truly good friends there than I realised I did until it came time for people to leave. One of the awesome things about going overseas like this is that you meet great people, and become great friends, until it becomes one of the crap things about going overseas like this: you have to say goodbye so soon. I fully intend to visit North America and Europe in the near future to see all the great friends that I have accumulated after having lived overseas for over a year in total. Miss you guys.

Wrestling with the steering wheel

Lobby of Four Points by Sheraton

It's been a heck of a long time coming, but I finally found an internship. It's been a long road to get here. I noticed that almost no one else was doing the same thing as me, going to China without a plan and hoping something would turn up, and I gradually realised that was for a reason.

There are two things: business visas to China are like hen's teeth, and since most companies aren't used to employing foreigners they don't know the situation with the labour laws, which just makes them totally unwilling to take a gamble. I discovered the first part thanks to HTHY, and the second part thanks to 中旅，the second company to accept me and then reconsider. That's CTS, China Travel Service, the largest travel agency in China. I got an interview thanks to Rena, one of my few local friends. I met her once ages ago, then heard through a mutual friend that she was returning to Beijing from her hometown to look for work. Initially I was supposed to help her, but of course she ended up helping me much more. She got an interview at CTS, and told them she had a foreign friend who spoke Chinese, and they had us both for an interview on a Thursday, and they said start on Monday. I thought it was incredibly lucky, working in a Chinese workplace where almost no one spoke English, it really would have been great for my Chinese. Unfortunately, I knew my Chinese really wasn't up to the level they required, they did a lot of work over the phone to their clients. Sure enough, after working there for one day and two hours, they said I should probably look elsewhere.

Rena was really helpful, and tried to give me some more advice, but I realised I was rapidly running out of time, as I needed a visa. Finally, I caved into using an agency to help me find an internship. The finder's fee was pretty steep, at about $600, but I took an interview anyway to see if it would be worth my while. And so I found myself at the Four Points by Sheraton: http://www.starwoodhotels.com/fourpoints/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=3017&EM=VTY_FP_3017_BEIJINGHAIDIAN_PROP_OVERVIEW. Next, seeing where the dive takes me.

Summer break

It's strange how apathy breeds more apathy, so once you don't have anything to do, you don't feel like starting anything. This has been how I've been feeling since my exams finished, which by the way, went quite well, I've only got 4 out of 5 results back but basically got one 90%, one 80, and two 70's. Solid. Although I probably could have taken all my courses at a higher level, and stuggled through but still passed. At least this way the marks on my degree look more impressive. But I am quite glad that my degree is over, the end of another chapter of my life.

It really makes me want to get on and do something with it. Unfortunately, due to a company that I was originally planning on interning with basically just changing their mind, I haven't been able to! I found this really interesting internship at a marketing/branding firm called HTHY, who work for companies like LiNing, Adidas and Nike. But they usually only provide short-term internships, but I met the manager and he offered me an an internship at the end of my first interview. But then after waiting for about 3 weeks, including some email contact, he finally said they couldn't offer me a visa, and even if I could they wouldn't be ready to take on an intern for another couple of months. This was news to me, I've even already turned down some other potential roles on the expectation that I would work there. I've already wasted a month sitting around and/or getting drunk, which is actually a lot more boring than it sounds. I really hope that I can use the next six months to get some real work experience, which is something that I am sorely lacking. I'm kicking myself that I didn't organise something for the summer, or even properly look into getting a visa independently. This is why it would just be simpler to study law, or medicine, say, and have a career set for you as soon as you walk out of uni with a degree. That is a perspective that my current degree has given me, and I guess I'm very glad for that, because I know that when I come across the right path, and things just unfold, I am going to absolutely love it and get right stuck into it.

I know I'm complaining a lot for a 21-year-old Australian living in Beijing, for example, yes that photo is of me on the Great Wall of China in front of the sunset with a glass of red wine in my hand. I have also met a whole lot of kick-ass people this semester, and I'm going to miss them. In fact, I already do, because a lot of people have already left for their home countries because they were only staying here for the first semester of this year. And even of those staying for two semesters, just about everyone has gone home for the summer or are travelling. So it's been a great time, but it's about time it came to an end, I'm even looking forward to coming home!