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LoPresto
Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 87
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 Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2009 3:54 pm Post subject: |
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Wonderful dude. I think I hear my pillow crying. I need to go take care of it now.
How I wish "my friend" didn't cry for expensive restaurants.
As everyone knows - all foreigners are rich! |
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Chris_Crossley
Joined: 26 Jun 2004
Posts: 1797
Location: Still in the centre of Furnace City, PRC, after eight years!!!
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| Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2009 3:56 pm Post subject: All foreigners are rich! |
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| Which is why I get pestered by old men with begging bowls! |
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LoPresto
Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 87
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| Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2009 4:04 pm Post subject: |
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| Thumbs Up. |
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mat chen
Joined: 01 Nov 2009
Posts: 494
Location: xiangtan hunan
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| Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2009 11:45 am Post subject: |
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| I too am glad to see you back Chris. So many of us here get banished for our honesty. Three years is a good sabaticle. What were the physical side affects of leaving the furnace of China? Can you now smell the coffee? |
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Chris_Crossley
Joined: 26 Jun 2004
Posts: 1797
Location: Still in the centre of Furnace City, PRC, after eight years!!!
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| Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2009 4:03 pm Post subject: Side-effects of leaving the furnace, albeit temporarily |
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| mat chen wrote: |
| I too am glad to see you back Chris. So many of us here get banished for our honesty. Three years is a good sabaticle (sic). What were the physical side affects of leaving the furnace of China? Can you now smell the coffee? |
Considering that I was only out of the furnace for a couple of months in the autumn of '03, the only side effect was that I suffered from the kind of aimless boredom that I had experienced before as an unemployed man since I did, after all, return to the exact same location as before.
Still, at least I was not back there for very long and realised, from the perspective of being outside China for the first time in two years, that, with a pregnant wife back in the country, it was utterly futile remaining in England if it meant continuing to be unemployed again.
I will confess that I got out of China simply because, after two years, I wanted to get away from it, yet I had to swallow the medicine (metaphorically speaking) that I needed to take in order to return to China and to my wife, since practicality had to be at the forefront of what I needed to do next with my life.
Six years after coming back to China after my temporary two-month stay away (which was meant to be "permanent" - what a joke!), I'm still here, although my wife doesn't want me to drink sugar-containing instant coffee any more! Yes, coffee has, indeed, always been a strong stimulant for me, such is the amount of caffeine that is put in it!
As it is, things have become better since my return as I am working for somebody else and earn far more than I ever did at that school where I worked for two years. Now it is looking as if I may even remain here until at least 2015 when my daughter is old enough to start high school and we will decide whether we return to the UK or stay here for more years.
Hence, my attitude towards staying in China is now markedly different than what it was all those years ago, although I also confess to having experienced those "I-just-want-to-get-out-of-here" moments even in the past year or so. However, I managed to get over them by undertaking three weeks of summer work in England just so I could be back in my own country amongst my own people temporarily again instead of being surrounded by Chinese, most of whom (usually girls or old women) indulge themselves in staring and tittering at me for reasons best known to themselves while young kids shout "waiguoren!" to their parents as if they couldn't see me.
Life's funny that way! |
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