Everything is different. You're suddenly illiterate. There's no Amazon, only the alien Taobao. The school you teach at isn't at all like American schools and you're being forced into participating in crushing kids' spirits. Your ping times suck. You're 13 hours behind America so it's impossible to keep a social schedule with your friends. The food is weird, there's no moo goo gai pan or General Tso's chicken, only an endless parade of off-tasting brown dishes. You saw one of the cooks sneeze into the cooking pot and when you went over there and tried to insist that it be poured out, everyone laughed at you. The other foreigners, your only source of comfort, are a bunch of weirdos who are either panda huggers, sexpats, or on the run from child support payments. That one white guy who speaks Chinese makes you feel like shit whenever he comes around without even meaning to by his effortless, fluent banter with the staff and kids. After a honeymoon period where everything was awesome because it was new, it's really grating on you and you are thinking about just taking off in the middle of the night and flying home where things make sense. One day, that one white guy casually remarks, "Starting to get to you, eh? I bet you don't last long just like all the others," which just makes it worse.
I mean half of this just sounds like being in a foreign country normally. Also I'm pretty sure everybody here who went to China would count as a "Panda Hugger", since that's essentially just an insult directed at people who think that the Communist Party of China is good.
Everything is different. You're suddenly illiterate. There's no Amazon, only the alien Taobao. The school you teach at isn't at all like American schools and you're being forced into participating in crushing kids' spirits. Your ping times suck. You're 13 hours behind America so it's impossible to keep a social schedule with your friends. The food is weird, there's no moo goo gai pan or General Tso's chicken, only an endless parade of off-tasting brown dishes. You saw one of the cooks sneeze into the cooking pot and when you went over there and tried to insist that it be poured out, everyone laughed at you. The other foreigners, your only source of comfort, are a bunch of weirdos who are either panda huggers, sexpats, or on the run from child support payments. That one white guy who speaks Chinese makes you feel like shit whenever he comes around without even meaning to by his effortless, fluent banter with the staff and kids. After a honeymoon period where everything was awesome because it was new, it's really grating on you and you are thinking about just taking off in the middle of the night and flying home where things make sense. One day, that one white guy casually remarks, "Starting to get to you, eh? I bet you don't last long just like all the others," which just makes it worse.
I mean half of this just sounds like being in a foreign country normally. Also I'm pretty sure everybody here who went to China would count as a "Panda Hugger", since that's essentially just an insult directed at people who think that the Communist Party of China is good.