I'm still At Home in China
But not right now. I'm at home in Pittsburgh for the next three weeks.
In the second part of the At Home in China interview podcast I did, I talked quite a bit about my experience attending the Chinese Catholic Church for the first time, getting around Shenzhen, and about Myles speaking Dingdonghua. A lot of this won't be new to family and friends who keep up with us on the blog.
One of the things I've mentioned here and in the interview is that after that first Mass I bravely (in my opinion at that time) attended at the Nantou Catholic Church was that after the Mass a woman from the choir informed me that there was an English-language Catholic Mass in the gated community near the house. After almost three months of being in China, I had no idea what my options were for going to Mass, other than try to find a Chinese Church, and even that proved to be difficult. When I found out that there was an English-language Mass, and had been for years, I was surprised. I later learned that this bi-monthly Mass and the weekly non-denominational Protestant services were not a secret from those who lived in the right neighborhood or ran in the more exclusive expat circles. I was left in the dark at the time because I didn't live in the right place or know the right people. I wasn't a member of the foreign women's club yet, so I had no idea the worship schedules or any other activity for that matter that might interest me were posted on their website. Of late, this has become a source of increasing frustration for me. At Thanksgiving dinner (the one that was mostly expat men and Chinese wives and girlfriends), I was talking to one American man that has been in Shenzhen for a year and had no idea that there were any options for his attending Mass in any language here. Had he know, he said, he would have gone. When I mentioned this to one of the members of the foreigner church group, she asked me why he didn't check the foreign women's club website. Since he was an unmarried man, I noted, he probably never considered the foreign women's club for anything.
Another thing I mentioned that Marcia and Lisle discussed afterwards was that for many corporate expats the China assignment is considered to be a "hardship assignment," so many people that are relocated by the large corporations are given a lot in their expat packages. Frequently they are provided rent-free a house or spacious apartment, tuition for their children's school (even for preschool), Chinese lessons for the working spouse and the at-home spouse, a driver (sometimes 2, one for the working spouse and one for the family), a large enough compensation package so that the family can employ one or two or more maids and nannies, and airfare for one or two trips back to the home country a year. Not everyone gets all of these; most I've encountered that do usually work for oil companies or really big corporations. The reason is that for many of these people, the China assignment is a necessary rotation for advancement, and this assignment is considered to be highly undesirable. All the extra benefits are supposed help the family "survive" the Chinese assignment until their next relocation. While our family does receive what we believe to be a mostly fair package, we've never been embarrassed by our foreign excesses. Chinese friends from church that have been to my house comment that they always thought that foreigners lived in, uh, bigger places, and I do usually take public transportation. One day I met a 20-something American English teacher in Starbucks and he made some sort of comment about my having a very comfortable life. I put that myth to rest.
It still continues to be a fascinating world, but I tell you, being back with family is better.
In the second part of the At Home in China interview podcast I did, I talked quite a bit about my experience attending the Chinese Catholic Church for the first time, getting around Shenzhen, and about Myles speaking Dingdonghua. A lot of this won't be new to family and friends who keep up with us on the blog.
One of the things I've mentioned here and in the interview is that after that first Mass I bravely (in my opinion at that time) attended at the Nantou Catholic Church was that after the Mass a woman from the choir informed me that there was an English-language Catholic Mass in the gated community near the house. After almost three months of being in China, I had no idea what my options were for going to Mass, other than try to find a Chinese Church, and even that proved to be difficult. When I found out that there was an English-language Mass, and had been for years, I was surprised. I later learned that this bi-monthly Mass and the weekly non-denominational Protestant services were not a secret from those who lived in the right neighborhood or ran in the more exclusive expat circles. I was left in the dark at the time because I didn't live in the right place or know the right people. I wasn't a member of the foreign women's club yet, so I had no idea the worship schedules or any other activity for that matter that might interest me were posted on their website. Of late, this has become a source of increasing frustration for me. At Thanksgiving dinner (the one that was mostly expat men and Chinese wives and girlfriends), I was talking to one American man that has been in Shenzhen for a year and had no idea that there were any options for his attending Mass in any language here. Had he know, he said, he would have gone. When I mentioned this to one of the members of the foreigner church group, she asked me why he didn't check the foreign women's club website. Since he was an unmarried man, I noted, he probably never considered the foreign women's club for anything.
Another thing I mentioned that Marcia and Lisle discussed afterwards was that for many corporate expats the China assignment is considered to be a "hardship assignment," so many people that are relocated by the large corporations are given a lot in their expat packages. Frequently they are provided rent-free a house or spacious apartment, tuition for their children's school (even for preschool), Chinese lessons for the working spouse and the at-home spouse, a driver (sometimes 2, one for the working spouse and one for the family), a large enough compensation package so that the family can employ one or two or more maids and nannies, and airfare for one or two trips back to the home country a year. Not everyone gets all of these; most I've encountered that do usually work for oil companies or really big corporations. The reason is that for many of these people, the China assignment is a necessary rotation for advancement, and this assignment is considered to be highly undesirable. All the extra benefits are supposed help the family "survive" the Chinese assignment until their next relocation. While our family does receive what we believe to be a mostly fair package, we've never been embarrassed by our foreign excesses. Chinese friends from church that have been to my house comment that they always thought that foreigners lived in, uh, bigger places, and I do usually take public transportation. One day I met a 20-something American English teacher in Starbucks and he made some sort of comment about my having a very comfortable life. I put that myth to rest.
It still continues to be a fascinating world, but I tell you, being back with family is better.
Comments
Thank God for the Yellow Pages and telephone message machines, that's all I can say.