| Your most missed home land service/item/something | |
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| Oct 15, 2007 04:27 |   |
 | Hey whats up, While browsing this forum of its older posts, it looks like there are quite a lot of expats living in China. Since you are working there for a contracted amount of time, what are some of your most missed "anything" from home? |
| Oct 15, 2007 17:23 | #1 |
| My home town is Calgary Canada, which is located right on the edge of the Rocky Mountains. I truly miss owning a car and being only 45 minutes away from hiking and climbing. While I can get away here in Xi'An on occasion, the hills are not as big, there is no trail network, and any trails that you might find are paved and generally packed with people. I miss peace and quiet. China is surely one of the noisiest places on earth haha. General construction and / or home renovation goes on at all hours of the day or night. I suppose you could say that I miss civic bylaws. Or at least, respect for any such laws that may exist. The Chinese have been inocculated for ( or is against? )complaining and so no one says a word when the neighbours pull out the cement drill at midnight, or when scaffolding is erected or dismanted at 2 AM. I also miss the western concept of work time / free time. I am sure that all of us teachers here have been handed a work schedule, and we then proceed to pencil in time for lesson planning, time with friends, banking, going to the gym, shopping etc...Then, you hear: since you have no classes this afternoon, we have arranged for you to... But, I love it here. I don't foresee going "home" anytime soon. . |
| Oct 16, 2007 04:13 | #2 |
| Sounds hella pimp there in Xi'An |
| Oct 16, 2007 05:53 | #3 |
| Well I too miss having a car and getting out of town, but what I really miss the most is going swimming and surfing in the ocean and sailing sometimes. I miss the really quiet times and like WCTMAN I have to say that getting some peace and quiet is sometimes very hard to come by. Just today I have had to contact my building management about a neighbour who plays a flute anything up to twelve hours a day (he must have rubber lips) but it is the volume and pitch of his instrument which is the most disturbing. It would seem that I am the only resident to make any complaints although I am sure that I am not the only one who would prefer him to quite playing or at least turn it down a lot. No one else in our community makes that much noise, that consistently and that loudly and gets away with it but he has been about this for more than one year (that I know of) despite my complaints every few months or so, usually at 10.30pm or 11.00pm in the evening after he has played almost non-stop for three to five hours. He and his wife also have three very yappy little dogs that also contribute more than their share to the noise pollution in the neighbourhood. I have been fortunate to have lived in buildings where management bans, and monitors construction noise on weekends and between 6.00pm and 6.00am affording most residents some quiet leisure time. But................for everyone else.......there is little consideration.........a sad indictment on society and the argument that China's collectivist style society is more caring and considerate than the western individual society. We at least have more respect for the local bylaws that govern our individualistic lifestyles........... |
| Oct 16, 2007 07:34 | #4 |
| Yo! I've been back in China for only a little more than two weeks now, but there are already a few things that I miss from Canada. Aside from family and friends, #1 is my mountain bike; my freakin' chinese (one speed) bike is less than 2 weeks old and I expect that I will soon fall appart. I know that that I acnnot ask too much from a 20$ bike, but still..it was the third time today that I stopped at the corner of a street to thighten my handlebars...#2 is my broadband internet connection; I have "high speed internet" here; so they say, but I have yet to find a live streaming TV or radio site that doesn't skip or need to buffer every 15 seconds or so...even the Chinese CCTV9 stream is skipping a gear once in a while. And my #3 would be found; but so far, I don't miss it that much since I like Chinese food; this afternoon I biked by a KFC; I'm usually not a big fan, but the temptation of french fries was there...but I did not fall for it...ask me again in a couple of weeks and it might be a different story...lol |
| Oct 16, 2007 07:37 | #5 |
| #3 was food..if you did not guess...sorry..I should start reading my posts before I submit them...sorry again |
| Oct 19, 2007 04:23 | #6 |
| Amazingly, I miss very little about England. 1. Gotta agree. Peace and quiet. I spend my travelling time searching out the quiet places... but it's not easy. 2. English books. Delivery costs and weight in my suitcase means I have very few English books here. A small foregin community means pretty much no chance for swaps.... boooohoooo :( 3. Blue sky & fluffy white clouds. There's quite a bit of it here.... but even so... pollution levels are pretty high in most places and blue skies are hard to come by. 4. Car, yes, OK. The freedom of just getting in it and driving wherever I want. Still, you wouldn't get me driving here in China - it's mental!! Public transport is pretty good here. |
| Oct 21, 2007 05:12 | #7 |
| Non smoking restaurants. No smoking signs that are obeyed. Traffic lights which when they are red mean stop, and flashing green men that mean it is safe to cross the road. Otherwise - there is little more to add. I too miss having a car and really being able to get out to see and do things, I miss the Aussie surf and barbies like Jabaroo says. Yes, I miss civic order, even though on my last visit back to Sydney it seemed that on Friday and Saturday evenings the young (bloody noisy bastards!) have less cultural differnce with the Chinese than perhaps I do. But Lemoncactus, I am not at all amazed that you miss very little about England. I left over 20 years ago and have never missed it - why would you miss it? Most people spend their working life planning and thinking about their next overseas holiday. What amazes me is that there are not 50 million people queing up to come to Oz!! All in all... I am not a Sinofile like some of our contributors and I might stay here one more academic year after this one, but after that the beaches and non smoking options in Oz is where I think you'll find me.....UNLESS some lady insists I stay here.............. but I'm not actively working on that one as I am enjoying a quiet peaceful life at the moment!! |
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