It occurred to me that I’ve now been in Guangzhou for six months. It crept up on me
somehow; sure went fast.
That means I’m a quarter of the way done with my first post.
That’s some kind of accomplishment, I guess, although I can’t really quantify
it.
Early on, I started on language classes, but they got cut
due to funding. I muddled through to now, and now we’ve been green-lighted to
start the beginner class again. Only at this point, a quarter done, I feel like
if I’ve muddled through I can continue to do so. I’m not entirely sure about
that, though.
But I don’t see mastering it, or even becoming proficient.
I’m just not sure if it’s a valuable use of time from here on out.
The timeline with State is a bit different than the real world.
Even though I have a year and a half to go at this post, in just six more
months (give or take), I will already know the site of my next. It should be
something like January when I “bid,” or make my preferences known. As I
understand it, I will get a list – like last time – and be able to rank however
many are on there and my preferences will be taken into consideration, but not
guaranteed.
Like my first post, though, I still don’t really care. It’s
two years; I figure I can do whatever in wherever for two years at a time.
After the second post, I’ll have more say in where I go, but it’ll still be one
to three years, mostly two, at a time. Maybe by then I’ll care.
It’s sort of weird. You’re hired as a career candidate,
hopefully get tenured, but still have to apply for jobs every other year or so.
Between this posting and the next, though, I will get not
only “home leave” but also (inchallah) some more training. That could include
language for up to six months, but I won’t know until bidding if that is even
possible. But it is feasible that I spend the winter of 2016 in Washington. Go Caps.
And I’m still plugging away here. Honestly, I’ve no idea how
some of these people made it without me.
There’s still not much of a social life. Unless I am out of
town, I don’t do much on weekends. We had a crew of three hit a popular
breakfast place on Saturday and watched a movie in the apartment’s theater
today. Someone got “Catching Fire” through Netflix and we set a time to watch
that.
This week has been rainy and the pipes outside my kitchen
make the kitchen smell like it’s been flooded with swamp gas. This has happened
twice, but I am still not sure what is causing it. Both times, it’s been during
rain, but right now it’s raining and it smells fine. I think it’s the giant
pipe outside, but I can’t be sure. And I am not sure how to convey the stink to
maintenance.
The apartment overall is still awesome. Granted, my kitchen
is tiny, but if I’m going to be stunk out, I’m fine with small.
Weird things continue to happen. My air filters have this
little digital magnet on it, telling me how many days I have left to change the filter
and I learned that at 14 days it starts to blink blue. It’s annoying, but I
have so many lights flashing into my apartment I only notice if I’m looking in
that direction.
Walking into the bathroom yesterday, I saw more flashing
lights. Green ones, on my ceiling. And not where there were normal lights. Now,
I have odd lighting at times. The gorgeous Canton Tower
sometimes shoots lights into my apartment, but that’s into the bedroom, not the
bathroom. This was the bathroom.
I went to the window and looked down at the mini-golf
course, and someone had laid out a red carpet, little tables and spotlights,
which were the culprits invading my bathroom.
It was a wedding, and lucky for the bride and groom the
storms predicted for the weekend didn’t hit them. They’ve come before and
after, but it appeared that the wedding went off without a hitch.
I can’t remember having spotlights at a wedding before,
though, but I guess it worked for the happy couple.
Happy birthday, Daddy and happy Mother’s Day Zippy.
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