So it's now less than one week before my move across the world. It's difficult to tell whether the gravity of the situation hasn't sunk in or if I'm just a cool cat. There's a lot to be missed. Driving, decent breakfasts, sunshine, American girls (even if I don't have game they're still nice to look at!). But the last four months has provided me a hard earned lesson, one which is thankfully coming to an end: plan ahead. Applications take time to be written, read, approved, scores take time to be delivered, letters of reference take time to be penned and sent off. Because of this harsh fact the last 1/3 of a year was spent dormant, waiting. To be frank the most exciting aspect of this move isn't as much living in another culture but rather getting to become a productive citizen again and no longer have to live with family. So from herein my next moves and triple redundant contingency plans will be worked on months in advance.
That said, as of next week one thing which is finally coming to fruition is my deep held desires from life in college. “There's a wide world out there... and it ain't in Tallahassee”, I used to say. Watching certain movies, reading certain publications (any 007 flick, the Atlantic) would make me feel like I was not living life to it's fullest potential. While I utilized Tallahassee nearly to it's full potential, to utilize the world to that end required living somewhere else. Pieces of that world are in south Florida, but not for recent BS grads. South Fla is for the established or the exceedingly well connected. Dalian, China though, that is out there. That's living life.
A former roommate of one of my friends once told me he wanted to live “near the fire”. This was his reason for residing in New York, possibly moving to LA. China is the fire. This isn't necessarily because some people think China will continue a meteoric rise unabated and overtake the US. I've made no secret of my doubts regarding their economy. Rather, when in China you can tell that something big is happening there. The transition of their society is palpable. You can practically taste it in the air (between gasps of industrial exhaust). My term for China is the “Wild, Wild East”. Whatever the future holds, China has 1.3 billion people, and worldwide there are something like 1.1 billion speakers of standard Mandarin. The US needs speakers of their language and citizens who are adept at dealings within China. While Tallahassee was a security bubble for tens of thousands of college kids from South Florida, China is a bed of pulsatingly glowing embers, vociferously consuming what may come it's way. Step back everyone, Nylon's tossing in a Christmas tree.
That said, as of next week one thing which is finally coming to fruition is my deep held desires from life in college. “There's a wide world out there... and it ain't in Tallahassee”, I used to say. Watching certain movies, reading certain publications (any 007 flick, the Atlantic) would make me feel like I was not living life to it's fullest potential. While I utilized Tallahassee nearly to it's full potential, to utilize the world to that end required living somewhere else. Pieces of that world are in south Florida, but not for recent BS grads. South Fla is for the established or the exceedingly well connected. Dalian, China though, that is out there. That's living life.
A former roommate of one of my friends once told me he wanted to live “near the fire”. This was his reason for residing in New York, possibly moving to LA. China is the fire. This isn't necessarily because some people think China will continue a meteoric rise unabated and overtake the US. I've made no secret of my doubts regarding their economy. Rather, when in China you can tell that something big is happening there. The transition of their society is palpable. You can practically taste it in the air (between gasps of industrial exhaust). My term for China is the “Wild, Wild East”. Whatever the future holds, China has 1.3 billion people, and worldwide there are something like 1.1 billion speakers of standard Mandarin. The US needs speakers of their language and citizens who are adept at dealings within China. While Tallahassee was a security bubble for tens of thousands of college kids from South Florida, China is a bed of pulsatingly glowing embers, vociferously consuming what may come it's way. Step back everyone, Nylon's tossing in a Christmas tree.
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