What's Up?: October 2007

This is a new blog that I've started just for us!
It'll include photos and news from you and from me. I've been really happy to hear how many of you are going. Most of you are working very hard and very long days, but I know that you are all doing a great job. You can do it!!!

I have started working again - teaching English to employees of an oil company. I will also be teaching English to children. So I'm going to have a lot of fun.

I was starting to teach English at a University, but the salary was not very good so I stopped. So my life is once again full and I'm still loving China!

Here are some of the latest comments from you all:

Hi P-J
I am Hunter. I have been in singapore for 1 week,it is a beautiful country and everything is great. Now I do not have work passport but travel passport,so I do not have a phone yet, and I do not have computer in my office. Work is a little hard and the weather here is too hot, but I can get used to it. I miss you and James' English, I can understand what people saying here:)

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Dear sir
Write now wish you better and enjoy yourself very much in your previous holiday.
We arrived at Singapore on 9 th Oct. 5:45am. Then, we went to our PR department to have a medical test. At 12:00 we had a short meeting with our PR manager ,after that, we were picked up by drivers from different projects. Dick and me on the same project ,which was 4 blocks of 23 story apartments , also the second largest project of our company in Singapore under-construction.
Our accommodation is not too bad , with air-conditioner and automatic washing machine. The weather is a little hot, but the rainy season will come soon, may be last from November to December.
Through our PM. My work to be something relate to meeting report ,design, and so on . Yesterday morning ,I had a meeting together with my PM and a local consultant. Oh my god ,this guy spoke singlish . One do tree??? One two three.!!!
For we still wait for the work permit ion in Singapore. Maybe one week latter, we can get it, and then , I can buy cellular phone card to have a new phone number, at that time , I will send you E-mail or text message to you .
FROM ARON

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Dear P.J.
We have been in Singapore for several days .Everything is not bad .Now everyone is working in different project sites except Robert, Nicholas and I .We three are working in the office, not very far from the sea: Both of them are in the Tender Dept. and I’m in CCB.
Singapore is as beautiful as I’ve thought before .There trees and flowers everywhere, which make the climate comfortable. Unfortunately, Nicholas doesn’t think so.
The most difficult thing for us is the language because Singlish is too strange. Last week I attended a meeting. They have argued for nearly 2 hours and I didn’t catch anything! Oh my god! My confidence totally disappeared!
And the funniest thing we think is, when people are talking, they like to use a “compound”, which is made up of English words and Chinese words. For example, when they want to say “do you feel hungry”, they will say,” ni shi bu shi feel hungry la”. That’s crazy, isn’t it?
Maybe you have known that everyday we have to work until 7:00pm.so we all feel tired. And we really miss the time we shared with you and James in Beijing very much. The football match, the basketball match, the volleyball match, the ice creams……have become our best memories.
Are you still teaching in Beijing? Riding your bicycle to work? Are your parents having good time in China? It will be colder and colder in Beijing, please take care of yourself and “Michanghai”.
Best wishes.Yours,
Nicole

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Hi PJ,how are ya?How is your holiday?
It is nearly one to be in singapore,and I finally find a computer to send this email.
It is a really beautiful country.You can see trees and grasses everywhere and the air is much cleaner than in Beijing.However, it is too hot here and peole say English in a very strange way so I have to learn a new kind of English.SINGLISH!!
Yesterday we have a big party for the new engineers.The food is great and I have eaten a lot of nice crabs which are much bigger than I had tried before.
We live in a big box without window.It is totally dark when close the door,so watch is really nessecery.But it is very comfortable.
I will buy a camera after getting my first salary and then I can send you some pictures of my life here.
Wish you happy,
Yours, Joey 14.10.2007, class B

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P-J:
How are you ?
Singapore is a good place, you see, it is a garden city with different cultures, it's very beautiful. Sometimes we can't catch what they say ,especially Singlish! It is terrible for us to understand what they said!
All of us are seperated to different sitea . I am with Aron. A little lucky. haha!
I missed those days in Beijing! We were in the same class. So happy!
We can see English words everywhere but we can't understand what they say. What a pity! But what we said in English is very easy for them to understand!hehe
Do you miss us?hahaha
Usually!!!!!
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Dick
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Hi P-J
How are you? I am in Singapore, and I have been working since I arrived in Singapore.

Singapore is a very beautiful city, it is very clean in the street, and the people are very polite.I like it very much. Now I am living on site with Kevin. Every day we need to work from 8:00AM till 7:00PM. Moreover, I need to be familiar with the Singapore English and study a lot of documents. Right now I have no time to take photoes, maybe some time later I will send you some beautiful photoes about Singapore.

Ivan
12 October 2007
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P-J,
I have downloaded the photos from your album, thank you for keeping them together. I have been in singapore for three days, but I just feel a little excited. The island is really very small, and hot. The weather in Beijing now is very cool or even cold. I just love that kind of weather. I will miss the family soon, but the actual fact is that I need at least one and a half year to live here before I go back.

One thing that makes me happy is that I can speak English without difficulity, though not good. I can say it as long as I want to say, which really makes me feel excited, maybe the enviroment is good, everyone can speak English, no matter bad or good, no matter much or little. I think this is due to that two monthes' trainning. So thank you very much.
I hope you and your wife can enjoy the life in Beijing. China is developing fast. I will expect to go back, I love China, I miss my hometown more than ever before.
Yours sincerely
Clark
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hello P-J:
In the past mid-autumn day ,we also have the party ,maybe not rout as beijing ,but we still very happy because we had met so many friends who had been separated after we arrived Dubai, and the most important thing was ,the company gave all of us 1000 RMB for the festival. haha~~~~gorgeous!!! The days now in Dubai no hot as before, a little like the spring in China , so it is comfortable to live at the moment, but the time here is a little boring ,because we don't have car, so we can go no where people living here alwaya drive the car average at 100km/h in city, amazing isn't it !!! That a unbelieveable speed in China , maybe in Australia also. Leo (Joey) Class C

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Dear PJ ,How are you? I reach Dubai for nearly one week. These days I am very busy.Dubai is not very hot at this time, so I think we are so lucky. I was assigned to a new project - my new job is project planning, It is very hard to me, but I think I will try my best to do it better.Lance and I are not in the same place to work, and are not live in the same place, I was with Emma together. There has so many beautiful villas and now ,my work place is near the sea and Arab Tower, I can see beautiful sea and villas. I think I will love it here
Vivian
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Right now I have moved to the office in the middle of the desert.It seems not as hard as I had imaged though outside of the office there ie nothing but sand.I enjoy the food here because the chefs are Chinese and I think I'm getting fat for the deliscious food.
Emma.
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FROM ME:

Since I said goodbye to you all in late September, Michelle my wife was able to get some time off, and we had a holiday with my parents. After about a week in Beijing, and seeing the Great Wall, we went with my parents to Xian - famous for the Terracotta Warriors.

We also climbed up Mt Huashan, one of the 5 sacred mountains in China, and also the most dangerous...but stunning, if you're not afraid of heights and long cable cars.

In Xian we also rode bikes around the city wall. It took us about 1.5 hrs to complete a full circuit of the city wall. We were very tired when we finished.

We also visited a park at night, and watch a water-screen movie. It was excellent.

We really enjoyed ourselves there.
Last weekend I went to Hong Kong to renew my Visa. It was my first time to Hong Kong. I also meet my parents there. It was a short trip but a good one! HK is very interesting - quite different from China.