How not to introduce a topic...

In 2006 China graduated 4.13 million college graduates. 1.24 million never found work. That was with GDP growth rate three times higher than America's (10.1% to 3.4%)With the current economy the way it is, a lot of people are worried that number might increase substantially.

The government has been trying to convince students to not expect jobs out of college and to instead think about being entrepreneurs instead. I think it's a wonderful idea. I decided to have groups of four students design and start a fictitious business. Hopefully I can stretch it out over several weeks. Today was the first week.

My first two classes study h0tel management. I get them warmed up by talking about what, exactly, it is they study. "Cooking," says one student. "Mixing cocktails," says another with her head popping out of the dictionary. "Management," says another. Sounds like an interesting major. The first class got really rolling when I drew on the board a vertical arrow with "resort" on the top and "guesthouse/hostel" at the bottom and described the best characteristics of each. I had hotel as an offshoot in the middle with various star rankings lined up. Their task was to list three business ideas, like "A five star hotel in Italy" or "A motel in Xili." They got really into it. Their homework was to have a name, logo, and motto in a small powerpoint by next week.

My second class, not so well. After a little start up, I asked, "What's the #1 problem in China right now?"

Silence.

"No one?"

"Pollution," says one girl.

"Well, yes... but I'm thinking of something else..."

I started on the wrong foot. Ooops...

"You are!" I said. Shock. "I mean there's just not enough jobs for you guys, right? Too many college students, too few jobs... right?"

Silence. The foot in my mouth was beginning to twitch.

"I mean... what do you think? Am I right? Why won't you talk?," I asked

"This is a very serious problem. We think about it all the time," one of my girl students said.

"Well, we're going to fix it today! We're going to be entrepreneurs," I said as I lodged my foot deeper into my throats, "in English class!"


Yes. Trey is going to fix the problem of college graduate unemployment. In English class.

Now I know how not to start this subject off, at least.

First off, some goodbyes

Our school-provided apartment is named Yashi Lou which means elegant poetry building. But like how most of us usually doubt the Chinese sense of aesthetics, one can only be confused in trying to find the elegance or the poetry in our Yashi Lou apartment. Nevertheless, the white bathroom tiles that cover the building facade, the stained and peeling walls and the pipes lining the bathroom have actually been home to Trey and me for the past two semesters in Shenzhen Polytech. The calm lake outside our building, contrasting the hustle and bustle of student life within the campus is not something that anyone gets even in tall, gleaming high-end apartments in Shenzhen.

But endearing as campus life is, Trey and I have to live the life of a married adult couple with a real home. Tomorrow we will be moving to Baishizhou--a neighborhood that displays China as raw as it is, with narrow roads cramped with noodle shops, Chinese fastfood, children's toys, hardware stores and brothels all in one strip. Men in suits spit on the street and mothers let their babies take a dump in the public thrash bins. And this is the real China that we've come to know, accept and love during our first year in this country. And tomorrow we go back to this neighborhood, but this time, we live in the white, gleaming apartment that towers the entire neighborhood. A 75 sqm two-bedroom place on the 29th floor will be our new home. Our small balcony overlooks a golf course, an amusement park and all the other apartments in Baishizhou lined along a main highway.

Maybe next time I'll talk about color swatches, curtains, couch pillows or the inconveniences of having no hot water in the sink. Or maybe help my husband deconstruct my being a narrow pit, whatever that means.

First Light

I always liked the term "first light." I borrowed it from my long dead astronomy hobby. It's how you describe the first time you use a telescope - the "first light" that hits the mirrors and lenses.

Hera and I, a Filipino and American just married, will be running this blog. It will be a running commentary or our life in China. Going back to that astronomy hobby, it's kind of like using g
Hopefully you'll get to see us disagree often. There's truth in those sparks, no?

For the record, I'm going to avoid the stories and long posts of my old blog Treyopia. The Daily Dish is the model I'm after. I don't know what Hera intends, as this is more my idea than hers.

For the record, Deep Ditch is the direct translation of Shenzhen, the city we live in. "Narrow pit" comes from the poetry of one King David in Proverbs 23:27, "For a harlot is a deep ditch; and a foreign woman is a narrow pit." Shenzhen is, no doubt, the Harlot of Middle Kingdom. I don't know if my foreign woman is a narrow pit, because I have no idea what that means, but it sounds cool, right? Like that Samuel L. Jackson "path of righteousness" line in Pulp Fiction. Maybe as a last post I can get all reflective and deconstruct the meaning of my wife being a narrow pit :-)