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Montana Summer & China Plans

// August 21st, 2010 // No Comments » // China, Chinese, Dancing, Travel, Uncategorized

Wow the summer is going by fast! I cannot believe that I took my big road trip to Montreal 2 months ago! I guess I’ve just been having such a good summer I never realized that it is almost over. Since returning from my road trip to Montreal, I have spent the majority of my time working near Livingston, Montana, as an off-road driving instructor driving and working on H1 Hummers. It is not the job I would have ever guessed I would be working after graduation, but it has been the most fun and well-paying job I have had. The job itself is already pretty great – I’m outside all day, I work with people, and I drive Hummers on the side of a mountain.  But the best part by far is that I have been living in the northern Rockies all summer!On my days off I go hiking, camping, fishing, shooting – if it’s outdoors, you name it and I’ve probably done it this summer. Since I have never been out west, it’s been an invaluable opportunity to experience some of the best the western US has to offer.

Another great feature of my job in Montana is that every month I get a week off and my company flies me anywhere I want to go in the US, so I have been able to attend a couple dance events here and there as well.  The first I attended was “Hot Mess” in Philadelphia on July 9-11, 2010.  True to the name, Hot Mess was one of the hottest weekends of the summer in Philly and the focus of the event was all fast dancing, accentuating the messiness.  Nonetheless, it was one of the most fun events I have attended in a long time and it was a good to finally work on my fast dancing, which has always been a week point for me.  The second event I attended was “Southern Belle Swing Bash” in Atlanta on August 13-15, 2010.  Another fantastic event by Michael and Jaya of Asheville, NC, SBSB was an event made specifically for follows.  All of the workshops were for follows only, and as a result leads were invited to join for free as long as we volunteered to help with the workshops.  I felt guilty for not having to pay for the event because it was so much fun for leads!  Besides the wonderful company I enjoyed staying with all weekend and the countless dances, I also competed in the open Jack & Jill and actually made it to the finals (check out my videos page to see the finals warm up dance).  While I did not place in the top 3,  it was my first time in a finals competition for a lindy hop J&J and I learned a lot from it.  Hopefully there will be more to come in the future!

Since the summer is coming closer to an end, I have already begun planning my next trip to China.  I will be flying out on October 12 to Shanghai to attend the first ever international swing dancing event there called “Swing Out Shanghai.”  When I lived there two years ago, the ideas for the event started to emerge, and now in the middle of the Shanghai World Expo the event will finally be held.  One of the best parts about it is we will actually perform on stage at the World Expo, making history for the whole world to see. After a few weeks in Shanghai, I will move to Taipei in Taiwan to begin a long and concentrated study of Mandarin.  All of my previous trips to China limited me to only 3 months of study at a time – just enough to get somewhere and then forget it.  This time, with the help of a 3 month scholarship by Taiwan’s Ministry of Education, I will spend 6 months studying, giving me the much needed time to hopefully make some large strides with the language.  I will return home May 24, 2011.  It will be a long adventure, but I am confident that the investment I will make in Taiwan will be well worth it later in life, if not for the language skills, then for the life experiences I will encounter.

Work and Life

// September 12th, 2008 // No Comments » // China, Shanghai

I have now been officially working for 4 days, although Monday was orientation and it took the entire day, so it does not really count.  Monday was also the only day that I was able to leave the office before 9 pm because of conference calls in America.  As of now, I will have to spend every Wednesday and Thursday night at the office so I can participate in team meetings.  Working on an international team requires some sacrifices, but I feel it is worth it because the work is pretty awesome and the experience is invaluable.  I cannot disclose what I am working on, but I can say that I am on GE’s Wind Turbine Conceptual Design Advanced Technology Operations (Wind ATO) team and that I am working with some really smart people.  I am pretty excited about it and also pretty anxious to see how I can help and what I can learn.

On the life side of things, my body is finally settling down and adjusting to the time zone swap.  This time it was a little bit rougher than before when I went to Dalian.  I think this is partially due to the fact that I was only home for 3 weeks before I came back to China, and also due to the fact that I had to spend my first 4 nights here on a rock-hard bed in a cheap hotel until I found my house.  For one of these reasons or others, I did develop a small fever and was plagued with headaches for the first 4 or 5 days, making the entire house searching process previously described particularly uncomfortable to endure.  Now that I am in my apartment and finally sleeping well, everything is back to normal and I feel much better.  GE has a huge cafeteria, so for the most part I have been eating there 3 meals a day.  This weekend I am going to go shopping and exploring though, so maybe I can find some variety out in the city.  So far I have actually been living alone.  My housemates move in tomorrow, so I am pretty excited to get to know them better.  Once I get some time, I will take some pictures and post them up so everyone can see where and how I am living.  It is a little strange living here because it feels like I am just down the block from Time Square in New York City.  All the famous skyscrapers that are in all the pictures of Shanghai are literally just a few blocks down the road.  The only differences are outside everyone is speaking Chinese and my rent is a fraction of what it would cost to live in downtown NYC.  Well, I suppose that is all for now.  Next Monday is the Mid-Autumn Festival, so I get the day off.  Yay for 3-day weekends!