asiamericana

You can leave China, but it won't leave you. The diary of a returned Peace Corps Volunteer readjusting to American life and searching for the next step.

[asiamericana]

I’ve got news. I've found a job! I’m really excited, and I feel like I’ve finally got my feet back on the ground. To celebrate, J and I went out to a local Chinese restaurant that we’ve been anxious to try. We ordered all the classics—麻婆豆腐，鱼香茄子，they even have some 南瓜饼.

With the advent of a new career, I think it’s time for me to say goodbye to this little blog. I’ve had an amazing time these past few years, and I’ve enjoyed connecting with all of you readers. Thanks for your kind comments, sage advice and insight on Chinese culture.

Life’s journey is twisty and wild and deliciously unpredictable. Keep on trusting the process, don’t forget to connect with others. Thanks, friends. 再见！

[asiamericana]

Censorship Sucks

It really bums me out that Instagram is still not accessible to my Chinese students. It was a great way to keep in touch. Censorship is ridiculous.

[asiamericana]

Latest handmade scarf is up for sale on my etsy shop! Etsy.com/shop/strawberryhaus

[asiamericana]

My first Thanksgiving back in America came with a seriously stuffed stomach after my first plate of food. Darned gastrointestinal craziness that I brought back with me from China is still making it impossible to just eat like a normal person!

[asiamericana]

This this this. The black stain on my experience. I still think about it often. I'm still dealing with my own gastrointestinal problems that were often casually brushed off while I was there. When you're overseas serving your country, it's more than important to feel like someone's got your back.

[cgtnofficial]

Jiang Tengzhi, an 88-year-old man in southwest China’s Sichuan Province, has climbed a mountain every day to visit the tomb of his late wife since she died in Jan. He talks to her & sometimes dances for her. “As long as I live, my love for you will never stop.”

[asiamericana]

Cue all the tears!!!!

[asiamericana]

Hi! I've been following your blog for a bit now and I think I've asked you questions before but if you don't mind I'd like to ask another! I just recently got an email requesting a phone/web cam interview from the Peace Corps for an Education position in China! I want to rock the interview so I was hoping you might have some tips?

Woo! That's awesome, congratulations!!You're probably gonna wow the interviewer just by being yourself, but here are the tips I can offer:--express open-mindedness, ability to really be flexible (such as when your boss invites you to a 6:00pm dinner at 5:55pm...it's not optional, you must go! Even if you're already home and in your comfies!)--what are your interests/passions? Secondary projects are important to the China experience. If you're an avid runner, an artist, leader of a women's group, into music...any of these things can be turned into activities and clubs, new ways for students to interact and practice their English/cultural skills.--just be honest and stay true to you! Best wishes, and send me a message once you find out your results!

[asiamericana]

Lake-effect craziness. It would be cozy if my arms and back didn't hurt so bad from shoveling. It's impossible to explain how bizarre this blizzard has been. Cars are just left in the middle of the street, abandoned. Helicopters and humvees circled the neighborhood in the afternoon. A neighbor helped us plow the driveway, and we went out and helped several neighbors shovel paths from the street to their front doors. Five feet in, two more feet on the way. It's not even winter yet!

[asiamericana]

I spent all day shoveling yesterday, and didn't even make it halfway to the street. Buffalo storm! I've never experienced so much snow. The hardest part is that there's nowhere to shovel it, the drifts are over my head--I can't lift the shovel high enough! I haven't gotten out of bed to look, but I'm guessing drifts and more snowfall have erased all my work! Indoors we've got cocoa and a fire, though. It might just be time to sit back and ride it out!

[asiamericana]

My Catch-22: Job Hunting Without the Internet

Exciting news, guys. On Monday, we’re getting the Internet at our house! I won’t have to sip coffees at Wegmans while hunting for jobs anymore—now I can do it all from the comforts of my in-laws’ home.

Living without the Internet isn’t the biggest inconvenience, but it’s definitely isolating…especially when you couple it with our lack of cell phones. Job, please!

Yesterday I had an interview for a position that requires total knowledge of popular news stories. It felt like sort of a catch-22 situation…the interviewer was barraging me with questions, but because I have no Internet/cell phone (because I’ve got no $$$!) I am not super up on everything.

Two years in China really limits that, as well. Who won the Super Bowl? Well, it’s true that I’m not a football fan…but in America, I’d at least have attended a party and watched the game and had the results cemented in my mind. In China, we had to stream the game over a poor internet connection at like 7 a.m. And I chose bed, not football.

I kept up to date on what was popular by reading Buzzfeed, but actually listening to music wasn’t as easy if we couldn’t find an illegal download—there was no YouTube in China. I still remember the first week back in America when J and I first heard Pharrell’s “Happy”, it was like a little lightbulb over our heads…oh, this is that song we’ve read about!

The lack of access made me feel old and outdated! It’s funny to think about.

Come Monday, I’m going to be “around” again. Friends can message me when things are happening, and I will be able to respond without a half-day’s delay.

I’m excited. But this experience—coupled with some homeless outreach volunteer work that I’ve done—has really shed a light on the difficulties one faces in trying to stay afloat without simple everyday luxuries like cell phones and the Internet. Programs exist to help people, but how can one find the information? What if an aid office is on the other side of town and you don’t even have bus fare? These are real issues. My situation pales in comparison.

Today I’m keeping my chin up and feeling grateful for what I’ve got. Keep on trusting the process, pals! Whatever you’re striving for right now, don’t give up.

[asiamericana]

Sometimes it's good to just focus on small happy things. Like Eddie Murphy's laugh in Beverly Hills Cop.

[asiamericana]

Weekends

Still trying to trust the process... But honestly I'm getting frustrated when people tell me to relish this time off of work. Weekends are the worst, because there are no new jobs posted on weekends. No chance of getting a call back from potential employers. It's like teenager-hood, minus all the fun parts of being a teen. I'm living in someone else's house. I have no cell phone. I have no internet. I have no income! My free time is listless and strange: reading library books, sitting on the bed and staring off for minutes on end, writing in my journal, developing acne, dreaming of a vague future that feels almost hopelessly distant. Mondays have become better than they ever were before. Monday brings possibility. I imagined I'd be employed by now. I imagined I'd have a job by Christmas. It makes my heart race to realize that maybe I won't. Something's got to happen, right? Just keep trusting the process...

[asiamericana]

I've posted some new finds up at the Strawberry Haus shop--vintage casseroles just in time for Thanksgiving, and a dreamy three-piece vanity set.

[asiamericana]

So, waiting for a phone call on the eve of Election Day is the worst tease ever!

Phone rings…it’s an unfamiliar 716 number…maybe it’s a call back regarding my job interview!

Heart is in throat! Ack! Be cool!

"Hello?"

It’s an automated recording from Carl Paladino or Martha Robertson or whoever. So many calls have come in today, and none of them were the one I’m dreading/hoping for!

[asiamericana]

I cut off my hair, and it feels glorious!

[asiamericana]

Job Interview!

Guys, I finally nabbed a job interview! I won't go into too much detail (except to tell you that it's the position I want the most out of all the applications I've sent out), but it was so different from Chinese job interviews. When we were in China, we would often be asked to join interview panels for various businesses--sometimes our school requested assistance, sometimes it was the local city government. These interviews were usually lorded over by an imposing older man, and the applicant was almost always a young woman. We were involved sheerly to add fear and discomfort to the mix. Applicants would see our foreign faces and become even more nervous at the prospect of having to speak English in front of us. We'd always be shoved into bizarre improv scenarios...like, "Okay, you are the mayor of a large American city. She is your translator. Now, tell us about your city's energy situation/infrastructure/complex economic whatever!" The applicants almost always shed tears during these interviews, with the man in charge acting as an overly stern and judgmental father figure. It was so weird. Anyway, this interview was nothing like that. The people who spoke to me were friendly and relaxed, and I am completely in the dark about my actual chances at this gig. I guess I should just be grateful that nobody purposefully shamed me and brought me to tears...?

[asiamericana]

Halloween is almost upon us! What's your favorite candy to receive?!? If you say Dots, we can't be friends...