Archive for June 26th, 2008
June 26th, 2008 | 
Author: Things are so incredibly busy, but its it’s a good busy. Infact, I like to be busy, it makes certainly makes time appear to go faster. I still feel I’m quite lucky I still have it in my head that that starting work at 9am is late! 
- I am used to starting 8am during the week.
Looking back I would say that (smug grin 
) I think was right in coming back when I did. There is no doubt whatsoever that staying in Changchun longer would mean that getting into any type of decent profession back in the UK would have been almost impossible. It is very competitive here, and being 25 was almost too late to enter the job market into something that I wanted to do. Life is not so interesting here, things are more predictable and boring but perhaps that is a good thing for a while. (?)
I am not that motivated by careers (which is partly why I stayed out there so long) but life is long and sometimes doing something that you don’t like for a while in order to get to a better position in a couple of years time, makes sense to me. Changchun is not a good place to get ahead (I will also argue that for a young foreigner like me, China also) after all - why not get trained/experience in the west when in China the prospects (for me at the moment) are considerably less.
I also feel that in somewhere like London there is a chance to get ahead in life, to develop. In Changchun (and China to an extent) this does not exist – unless you have serious guanxi or family ties or sleep with the boss etc…
I also believe (perhaps naively) that where I am now I can get places through hard-work, determination and going that extra-mile.
In China I did not feel this at all (It is not really a place where your work goes rewarded).
I believe that in work at least it is possible to progress for actually being good at what you do - even if you have no connections. Of course these help, don’t get me wrong, but there are other ways – In China there are very, very few indeed. Making relationships, influencing friends is crucial.
Strangely It is harder in other ways to get started in the UK, life is more expensive especially the important things such as food and petrol!
But people neglect to think that SO many other things are very cheap in the UK (relatively speaking) – entertainment, junk food, cars, electronics, cosmetics and many many other luxury goods.
I also think that many people here are spoilt and decedent (and the lifestyle to an extent is perpetuated by the whole tax/class system) beyond belief and really need a reality check - seeing how people who have nothing live their lives. Indeed people here have forgotten many of the values that I find quite important – and witnessed in China – such as being able to repair things, and not just throwing away things for no reason.
Life goes on
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