erIt's been a crazy week. It's hard to believe that exactly 7 days ago i was in NY at Zitomer buying candles and umbrellas to bring to Beijing. Since i've been here we've been out to LAN, Suzies, The Opposite House, Aqua, Red Moon, the Commune (with an excursion to the wall at like 1am)... I saw the Opening Ceremony and the Mens China v USA Basketball... I spent two days at 798, ran through the PLACE, worked slept played and who knows what else. All i can say is that literally the party HAS NOT stopped and i am EXHAUSTED.
THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES BEIJING. Till i return in 10 days...
Dee,
I am SO envious. Beijing is one of the few places I would have loved to have gone to see the Olympics in person. I have been fascinated with China for just about all of my life and it is great to see your country having a "coming out" party of sorts... not that the most venerable country in the world really needs one.
To get to the heart of the reason why I have been trying to contact you here on your blog (besides the fact that I actually enjoy quite a lot of the stuff you write and post here!)... well, I'm FINALLY about to finish up my bachelor's degree. It took me quite some time to figure out what to focus on... I ended up going with Organizational Leadership. After I have my degree, I am strongly considering teaching English in China for a few years. I have a multitude of personal and future career reasons for wanting to do so.
I know a few people whom live in China, but they are mostly familiar with the areas in which they were born. What I was hoping was that you or someone you know might be familiar with some of the major parts of the country and could perhaps advise me regarding places to consider teaching. I also thought it would be a good idea to find someone in advance that I could turn to if something awful and unexpected happened to me while I was there. I realize that is quite a bit to ask considering that we barely know each other but I was hoping you could at least point me to someone else if it were a problem for you. I guess I decided to ask you because I have always considered you to be a rather cool person with several shades of awesomeness (hey, flattery never hurts, right?). ;)
At any rate, I hope you will consider helping me out. If not, there are no hard feelings. I only ask because I learned a while back that it is essential to seize opportunities when they present themselves, as failure in doing so invariably leads to deep regrets...
Ciao for now. :)
Posted by: Matt Swall | August 12, 2008 at 11:34 AM