I got a really cheap air ticket to go Thursday night after classes so that I could make it to my 9:30 AM interview on Friday. Everything went fine except I thought it would probably be a good idea to book a hotel before travelling. I only had the address in Chinese to show to a taxi driver, so I didn't know what area of the massive city of Shenyang to look for a hotel. Plus, my card, and my internet are hit and miss so I'd probably look for something for an hour, find a good place and have my card refused. This has happened before. Besides, Gord told me there are two perfectly good hotels right across the street from the school. Surely there'd be a room!
As I said, the trip went off without too much trouble. The only problem was that I couldn't use WeChat. It's really frustrating here in China technologically because you need wifi for things that don't use wifi to work. It's techno-illogical if you ask me. My 4G data doesn't work unless there is functioning wifi nearby. It doesn't have to be mine; I don't have to have a username or password; I don't even need to have my wifi on, I don't think, but if there's no wifi, my data doesn't work. Am I cray cray, or is data something we all get thinking that it will come in handy in times of no wifi? Isn't that one of the whole points of it? Well mine needs to be in a wifi hot zone or it won't work.
Same with WeChat. And it's even worse. I have to be able to read the wifi with my phone and log in I think. Like in the airport in Seoul. I got there one time and couldn't get ahold of Amber for this reason. I'm NOT the only one with this problem either. So anyway, I'm usually good all over the city of Taiyuan. It rarely comes up. In fact it's only come up in the two least convenient places it could: my apartment and the Taiyuan Airport. The Taiyuan Airport for the love of Peet! Why would anyone need to communicate with other people at an AIRPORT?!?! Highly illogical, captain. We haven't yet finished with this point.
The trip was fine, though I would have liked to message Gord to make sure he knew I was on the plane safely. I wasn't going to be staying at his place, but he was concerned. Also, it would have been nice to find out if he was going to meet me at the airport and have a beer or not. Usually Amber does this and it's always nice. I got to the Taiyuan Airport WAAAAY early. I forgot I didn't have to go through the time consuming customs and immigration. MAN that's nice!!! I don't know if I'll ever be able to stand in front of an immigration officer without looking, AND FEELING, like I've got a few Kees of heroine taped to me. It always makes me nervous even though I've never done anything wrong. I guess I always think maybe it's possible I've overstayed or my visa has been cancelled or a fumpee warrant for my arrest has been put out. I dunno. I have no reason for a guilty conscience, but I always have one. See? That word is cool, isn't it? hee hee I'll be using it again to be sure. I'm thinking of possibly OVERusing it. We'll see...
Before we get back to the trip, and the interview, I would like to complain about technology a bit more to give you a better idea of mein tekno kampf. First of all, I bought my computer in Canada, a generally law-abiding nation where copyright infringement is a thing. So it didn't come with Windows Office, Adobe Acrobat, or any other programs, (or copies of them), already on the hard drive. I use Apache Open Office because it's free and I don't have to buy a fake copy of it three every three months. I did that for Microsoft Office a couple of times. How can you tell if you are getting it forever or just a three month trial? I don't know how. And Acrobat was the exact same thing. Only you can't keep using the Acrobat when the trial runs out. It's done. With the Microsoft Office you just get a red warning every time you use it. It's just a couple extra clicks to remove that but I don't like it. So I use Open Office. Sometimes Open Office dox don't go through a Google email without being messed up slightly. Just slightly, but they get messed up all the same. So I've started using the "export as PDF" function. This is something I only learned through my usual arduous process. I ran a Google search on how to convert a doc to PDF on Open Office. I got into some lengthy download sessions of programs that SAY you can do it using "PDF Pal" or "Perfecto PDF" or "Transfile" or whatever. Usually the installations come with other unwanted programs and they change default homepages, media players, picture readers or whatever and when you finally get them, they don't work anyways so you THEN have to try to find all the crap that has been added or changed by that download and fix it. This can take hours and it very often leads to plenty of salty language.
I've recently had to do two things that required this process: 1. Affix a signature to a document and 2. Save only part of a PDF file. I won't tell you the document I had to sign but I figured this one out on my own AFTER going through all the fumpee sales and gobbledygook answers. Don't you just love when you get these computer geeks, who always start their advice with, "Oh it couldn't be easier," then go on to make you feel like this machine you're looking at is a frigging space-time continuum bender? "You just go into the registry and swap the common franctoid phrases with current cross-proxy protocols. Of course you'll want to back up your soft-bank structures with a secure failsafe peekaboo program. But once you've recalibrated the stereopixels into reducibly stringent chiplets, you're basically home free! Couldn't be easier!" Eat a Klingon dick!
I didn't want the frustration of searching so I tried a few things that I reckoned would work, and one DID! I just scanned my signature and then added it to the document. Of COURSE it couldn't possibly be THAT easy! I tried that a couple times and it didn't work. So I just thought I'd try saving the signature as a PNG file rather than a JPG and that worked. Are you kidding me? Why? I have no choice but to believe it's that way simply to make things difficult for the world. To give computer geeks more job security they can't have this process that billions will want to do, WORK with the most commonly used scan file type. No! They have to add difficulty so that ordinary people can't do it. Well, once again, eat a Klingon dick you nerds cuz I figured it out on my own! YEAH! In yer faces! I haven't played sports in a while but this might be just as good as the feeling you get when you score a goal or touchdown or win a game of whatever you're playing. Then I added it to the document and sent it. As an Open Office document. So the signature moved outside the box where I wanted it. So I'll probably have to save the document as a PDF and resend it. Sigh.
As for the PDF separation, it wasn't as smooth. I've had to do this before too but usually it's for work and I have time constraints so I just give up. No less frustration or salty language, it's just under my breath so students or fellow teachers don't hear. I can print out selections of a PDF I just don't know how to save them. So that was my mission. See, I have all these files in which there are the worksheets and then there are the answers. I have huge classes here and don't do the copying. I send lessons to my class reps so they can make copies for everyone. But I can't very well send them the worksheets AND the answers now can I? So I had a project.
I can't tell you how many programs I used to open the two-page file and try to save just page one. I selected just page one and saved. It saved both pages. On several different programs that could read PDF's. Then I noticed I have a "one page" option on a couple of them. I used that and the doc was reduced to just the first page. I then clicked save and it saved both pages. I did a search and the first answer was, "It couldn't be easier! Just go into your Adobe Acrobat PDF reader and..." Nope. And by the way, eat a dick. I actually downloaded a program called PDF24 and it allowed me to open up my PDF in it. I was able to select the second page and delete it. Then I saved. This took me over an hour. I am positive there is a simpler way to do this, it's just hidden by the nerds from us.
With net neutrality quickly disappearing and the things we all want to do getting harder and harder to do, I think soon the only REAL freedom I feel in this world, computer freedom, is coming to an end. It won't be long now before email will require local and federal clearance and an expensive course at some fumpee, for profit computer "school." But I'm taking advantage of it while it lasts. I streamed a couple of hockey games this morning. Both Vancouver and Calgary lost but they were good games. Anyhoo, back to the trip.
The trip was a short one and for the first time in a long, long time, the plane food was crap. I guess I can't complain because the ticket was so cheap, but too late, I already did. I WAS delayed about an hour so I ended up getting to Shenyang at around 9:30 Thursday night. And WeChat was working! So I sent a message to Gord saying I had arrived. Gord was talking in code. He said, "She's changed the meeting to 3 o'clock." I thought the teachers had a meeting. So I said, "Sure, no problem. I can go to my interview and then after your meeting we can go out for beers." He just repeated that the meeting was changed to 3. Stupidly, I didn't think he meant my interview. I just said, "Am I supposed to be going to this meeting?" I just looked around the airport for a short time in case I saw him but I was getting accosted by the taxi harassers so didn't want to stay too long. So I got into a taxi and went to the uni. Gord sent a message like, "Dude, dude, she's changed the meeting. Just go with it, man. Where are you now. If you wanna..." I thought he was gonna suggest drinks but it was 10 o'clock and I was up at 5:30 that morning. I was still an hour away from the uni and then had to book a hotel. I didn't wanna stay out too late or drink too much before an interview anyways. I sent several messages that I was in a taxi going to the school but got no answer.
Then it hit me. My interview was changed to 3 so I could go out for beers. I still am not sure if Gord was at the airport or not. I didn't see him if he was.
I reached the school at 10:30. I tried both the hotels across from the school, but to my surprise, there was no room at the JingJiang or the Home Inn. I checked two more and they were both full. Or would not give me a room for whatever reason. I messaged Gord and told him this but didn't get an answer. So I wandered around for another hour in the frigid Shenyang air. It sounds like I'm complaining but I was happy to check out the hood, and it was like -8 or something. Not that cold. A good night for a walk.
I checked about 8 or 9 hotels. One Home Inn Plus showed me a sign that read, "We don't give service to foreigners." I guess that's the plus. Then I started wondering if this was the reason I'd been refused at other places. No way to know really. Well it was now 11:30 and things were getting pretty dead even though this neighbourhood where the university is has a few other schools so it's pretty lively. But it was only Thursday night so mostly it was just taxis cruising around. And me. I finally went down a road that was a dead end and flagged a cab. He took me to the fourth Home Inn I'd been to and FINALLY there was room at the inn! I got into the room and messaged Gord to let him know I'd found a place and he messaged back that he was about to go out looking for me. It's good to have a friend in town. I was starting to get a bit worried.
We finally established that the interview had been changed to 3PM next day and I hadn't received Donna's email. I just didn't check. And, at that time I didn't yet have Donna's WeChat so she'd sent the message to Gord to tell me the time was changed. So I tried to sleep. New town, interview tomorrow, 2-hour walk in the cold, I had a hard time getting to sleep. But just as I did, I got a new message from Gordon. I think he woke up and thought about me and sent a message before he was fully awake. "You hoteld?" was the message. lol It was at about 2:30. But I sent him a message back reassuring him I was. It's nice that he was concerned.
Next morning just before 7 AM it was snowing and Gord sent another message to me trying to find out what hotel I was at and get me booked somewhere for the weekend. So as to avoid a repeat of the night before. He had Jo Jo busy trying to book me somewhere but I didn't know where that was and I decided to go down and see if I could book the same place for another two nights. It turned out I could and it was cheaper than Jo Jo's price so I did. I told Gord I was about 20 minute walk from the uni. He had a hard time believing that but since I was up already and since I'd seen a Burger King in my travels, I showered, walked to the BK and had a bacon and egg croissant. It took me 15 minutes to get there and, sure enough, 5 minutes from BK to the uni. 20 minutes. So I decided to wander around the uni and take some pics. It was a beautiful day although a bit colder and windy. About -12 Celsius.
Here's the main gate. It is actually called Liaoning University. On the campus of Liaoning is Victoria U. of China. So they call the place "L.U." Which is nice cuz my alma mater is Lakehead University. We called THAT L.U. too.
The pic below is probably my fave that I took. It's a building seen through the arches of another building. It is not the most elegant of construction at L.U. but I really liked some of the buildings and some of the landscaping. A common theme in the pictures I took though is the total lack of people in this wide open, spread out campus. At times I felt like I might have been visiting the University of Pyeongyang. Or even Chernobyl! It was deserted compared to anywhere else I've been since coming to China. A little eerie. But in a good way.
Just look at this! If I'm a dog who needs to poo, this gives me a red rocket! And I didn't see any dog poo that I can recall. Maybe they're not allowed. But once again, where are all the people? I am not complaining at all! I will love the total absence of crowds at this place! Okay, I am talking in the future tense now so I might as well let the cat out the bag, I was officially offered a position at L.U. I'll be teaching at this school by March of next year!!! And I think I'm going to like it. The job offer was the document that needed my signature affixed to it. So now all I have to do is get a ton of paperwork done, some of it done in Canada, then get some documents from Huashyte that I know they are not going to give me. But there's a will here and where there's a will, there's a way. If I have to wait till my current work visa expires, I will. If I have to stretch the truth or fracture a Chinese law or two, I have been told that the law and what happens are only a well-placed payment apart. I remember in Korea in the early days going to Immigration with a supervisor who had an envelope full of money. That was the only time I was able to get a new visa in Korea without leaving the country. China reminds me a lot of the Korea of yesteryear. So I have no doubt that nothing will stop me from working at L.U. I am really looking forward to it!
And as if to give me a sign, things at TUST, the university where I work now, have been really crappy since coming back from Shenyang. ANOTHER episode where I thought I'd be sleeping on the streets of China! Ridiculous "school" happenings and the requisite Huashit being Huashit story. I will also continue with my techno-illogically bellyaching next post. You have no idea what chaos a power outage can cause in a place where even at the best of times technology is fumpee! Had to say it one more time. lol But I'm going to save all that for another post.
I am happy, and in the spirit of American Thanksgiving, thankful, that I will soon have a job that I believe will make this whole Chinese venture worthwhile. It was looking pretty sketchy but now it looks good. I am also thankful for my friends without who, (I know there should be an m there but I am off the word "whom"), I would be in a back alley bar wearing a headband and playing Russian Roulette right now. "Ditti mao! MAO! MAO!" I am listing these people in alphabetical order so as not to intimate that any has helped me more than another, Amber, DB, Gord, Heather, Jo Jo, Mike, Ty, you guys have all kept a few of my marbles from falling out my ears over the years. I love you all! Friends and work. Now all I need is family. Well, maybe in the future. I am thankful they're still all back in Canada doing okay. And this new job gives me plane tickets once in a while so I'll probably be able to visit more often. It's only taken me 50 years but life might finally be getting to a point where I am comfy and secure. But I may need a dog to get the full effect.
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