Friday 10 April 2009

Plans Plans Plans

A month or two ago I was extremely concerned with my long-term future. For no apparent reason, when I returned from England at the end of January I started to feel like I should be doing something different, that I am possibly wasting my time continuing at Web, and that my time in China could be coming to an end. On the other hand, I wanted to stay in China. I was completely torn, and with no idea what to do I began to worry about things.

Instead of thinking too far ahead into the vast unknown, I started to plan for the -- much more realistic -- foreseeable future. This is what the next few months should hold for me:
  1. My one year contract at Web is almost over, I do not want to stay there for another year working full-time (I'll save the reasons why for another blog post). I still enjoy the job sometimes, but it has lost its charm in recent months. Although I was wary to do such a thing, I have signed a new contract with them which was on the basis that I can take one month off at the end of May (see number 2), and that in September I will work on a part-time basis (or not at all if they go against their word).
  2. My sister, Sally is coming to China at the end of May for a few weeks. Now that I have a month off we can easily go travelling together. So far I have planned to take her to Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Wenzhou, and somewhere else (I haven't decided on that one yet any suggestions would be welcome).
  3. This one isn't guaranteed yet, but in September this year Kimi and I will hopefully be travelling to England together. We have been together for a year and a half and she still hasn't met my parents. Now we are starting the process of applying for the visa, and Kimi is trying to book time off work (which is ludicrously difficult as they only give her one day of paid holiday a year to start with).
  4. When we return to China in mid-October I will either be working part-time at Web and teaching privately; or I will be looking for new employment.
That's it, that's my plan for the next 6 months. I've got a few things to be happy about -- although it seems this poor dog I saw today isn't with me on that:

Turn that frown upside down

9 comments:

The Acolyte Tao said...

Haha, well, the dog sure is funny.
XD

mabelp said...

Hi Chris, I hope you can find a job which is really useful for your future soon.

As for the suggestion of Sally's trip, she and you're welcome to HK and I will try to show you guys round!

Anyway, who is that dog? He looks like a confused boy. Haha!

Sally said...

woo hoo i'm mentioned in the blog! I can't wait to come over I'm counting the days, sounds like it will be a jam packed holiday! Hope you enjoyed dr who, i flipping love david tennant i don't want him to leave but i'm with you....i think the boy Sim will be appearing again! Glad you are feeling more positive, i will bring that book with me too for you to read. x

Christopher said...

Mabel, I would love to bring Sally to Hong Kong. I'm thinking about it, if we have enough money then we definitely will. As for the dog, I have no idea who owns it, I just saw it on the street and had to take a picture of it.

Sally, I can't wait for you to come too. I did enjoy Doctor Who last night, it was great. John Simm has got to be returning after what was mentioned at the end. I definitely want to read that book, thank you!

大眼睛熊 said...

I'm looking forward to it as well!! I wish we had enough money and time so we could take Sally to Yunnan Lijiang which is one of the most popular tourist spots in china or Hainan Sanya to see the sea!! I'm sure Sally will enjoy her trip in China! :D

mabelp said...

Last year, my friends came to HK for holiday, they stayed in this hostel: http://www.yesinn.com/hk/eprice.htm
It's cheap, clean and the location is good.

Maybe it's one of the options if Sally and you come to HK.
There're too many sightseeing points to go here, have a look:
http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/
For sure you guys will enjoy it! Haha! Let me know if you guys come here.

Wayne said...

well,making a plan is always fun to do, a lot of things keep changing tho.:p

Christopher said...

Kimi, I would love to go to Lijiang, looks like we might not have enough time though :( We have to go sometime though.

Mabel, thank you for the link to the hostel, I will definitely let you know if we come. I hope we can!!

Wayne, I feel like planning is the only way I can make changes at the moment. But you're right, anything can change at any time really.

Anonymous said...

Worthy of top ten cities of China
1.Lijiang,yunnan
2.pingyao
3.Yan'an
4.fenghuang
5.xichang
6.tulufan
7.pinxiang
8.zedang
9.maduo
10.xingchen