Month: July 2017

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Day 31 – If you could only hear it …

Oh. My. God. It’s just after 8pm and I finished dinner not too long ago and made the mistake of ordering another beer at my usual restaurant. Why? I was having fun playing a Texas Hold ‘Em poker app on my phone and it’s not like I have anything better going on tonight. (Did I mention before that a beer here usually comes in 0.5L sizes only? I ordered the small one and it still came as a 0.5L size!)

Normally that would not be a problem as I can hold my beer, even after one litre of it. And Suzhou is a seriously safe city plus the place I’m staying at is maybe 300-400 meters away.

But none of that is the cause of my “OMG” outburst. You see, there are all these karaoke places near by and I know a bunch of my coworkers really enjoy singing. Like REALLY enjoy. I’m pretty sure they are all part owners in karaoke joints…It’s not just a myth that karaoke is popular over in this part of the world.

Anyway, it turns out tonight’s live music at this restaurant/bar is a guy with a CD collection of karaoke hits, an electronic keyboard, and a microphone. Apparently all he knows are codependency songs from the late 70s and early 80s…And he’s the only one singing. It feels like I’m stuck in a timewarp and no matter how hard I try and drain this beer, the bottom of the glass seems further and further away! It might be a night to leave a wounded soldier upon the field of battle …

Tomorrow’s agenda: My first trip to Shanghai! Yep, you guessed it; there’s a poker match to be had 🙂 And no faux karaoke!

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Day 30 – Reflecting on differences

As the one month mark marched on by, I find my self comparing my old life in SF to my new life in Suzhou less and less. I don’t need to convert money exchange rates to determine how expensive something is and I can discuss distances in km instead of miles. I learned celsius along time ago so when I went running tonight after work with the running club I knew in advance the outside temperature of 36C rivaled that of New Orleans in the dog days of August, humidity and all! 

But what exactly are some big differences between SF and Suzhou?

  • Smoking indoors in Suzhou is normal, but not at work, medical clinic, grocery stores, shopping mall, or public transport options. (I’ve not been on one of the maglev trains yet, so I only am referring to city transport options.)
  • It is very clean here, except for the air. Exact opposite of San Francisco where you’d often be wondering if that pile of poop came from the human who’s in a drug induced daze or that humans pure bred dog that’s living on the streets with the owner but you never are concerned with the air or water quality.
  • In SF you will walk down the street any time during the day and need to be aware of your surroundings so not to get mugged or walk into the middle of a drug deal. In Suzhou you never worry about your personal safety except when crossing the street. As a coworker mentioned today, “The traffic lights are not safe here [when trying to cross in a crosswalk].”
  • Housing prices are expensive in both cities, though SF is on a whole separate level of obsurdity. 
  • Public transportation, while expansive in both places, is much more reliable and convenient in Suzhou … And way cheaper! A one-way bus fare in SF was $2.25 when I left; it’s about $0.30 in Suzhou.
  • Speaking about public transportation, while both systems start around the same time in the morning (6am), Suzhou’s system mostly ends between 9pm and 10pm. A few bus routes and the subway go until 11-11:30pm, but nothing passed then from what I can determine.
  • In Suzhou anything that requires manual labor is extremely cheap: twice a week house cleaning for a month is roughly $100 in Suzhou whereas $100 in SF *might* cover one cleaning a month for a small one-bedroom apt.
  • Food in Suzhou is still seasonal. In SF there are no seasons. 

Thats all I have for now. At some point this list will be appended. But I want to leave this post with one parting thought and something I really miss about SF apart from my friends & softball team: It’s nealy impossible to find a late night burrito stand in Suzhou!

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Day 29 – Bank account & local phone number

If it weren’t for the help I received from the relocation company, I’d likely still be trying to obtain a local SIM card for my phone (which allows me to have a local phone number and use cellular data). It’s just as confusing in China as it is in the USA. The one difference, the company I went with, China Unicom, had only two plans to choose from. I paid for a few months up front (about $70 USD total for three months) and then the next bill will have to be paid online. Which means it’s time for the bank account.

The person I was working with suggested we go to ICBC (one of the three or four largest consumer banks in China). The staff there spoke fairly good English so setting up the account wasn’t difficult but there was a TON of paperwork involved. The account I opened is basically a savings account with a debit card attached to it and it came with this strange little random number generator I’m supposed to use when accessing the account online. At least I think that’s what it is for since I had to set up a six digit PIN as well.

Lots of paperwork, pictures of my passport — some of which I had to be holding as the picture included me in it — and a couple hours later add up to me being able to receive a paycheck at the end of the month! And once that happens it’s time to go apartment rental shopping!

Tonight is the weekly poker game at Ollie’s. Wish me luck!

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Day 28 – One month and counting!

28 days = 4 weeks = 1 month! …and I’m still alive 🙂 To celebrate the fact I’m still breathing, here are a few things I still cannot figure out about this country in which I’m now living:

  • Why does the “rule” of biggest mass win out on the roadways? Pedestrians here have less chance at crossing safely than deer caught in headlights on a back country road.
  • There’s a definitive lack of acknowledging others while out in public. Walking down the sidewalk while being heads down involved on one’s cellphone, not moving slightly to the side to let someone approaching you pass without physically brushing by, and pushing to get onto a bus or elevator seems to be the norm. Speaking of elevators, no one seems to know what to do when you’re in the back of it and you say “excuse me”; no one moves! 对不起 (duìbúqî) is the phrase for “I’m sorry” in Mandarin…
  • Why waiters (服务员/fúwùyuán) hover over you the MOMENT they give you the menu as if you magically know what you want to order… I need to learn “give me a moment”!
  • And the most confusing issue of all, why does wine cost so much here?!? After moving from California where, depending on the current drought conditions, wine is sometimes cheaper than water!
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Day 26 – First day at work!

The day finally came; after what feels like an eternity, I’m once again gainfully employed by a good company. In fact, after a four year absence, I’m back to being on the payroll for the first company I worked for out of college: Microsoft.

Yes, that’s right — the Microsoft. The one you’re thinking that is in Redmond/Seattle Washington. The one that makes Windows, Office, Xbox, and some pretty sweet Surface laptops.

But then you’re thinking “Why the heck is Richie in China if he’s working for Microsoft?” and what a great question that is! As it turns out, hiring really great software engineers is extremely difficult in the USA, especially when a lot of younger, fresh out of college students prefer to work at companies like Uber, Facebook, SnapChat (yeah, I don’t understand that app either), or Google. The old 1990s type companies similar to Microsoft, Oracle, and Cisco are fighting to get that new talent but it’s an uphill battle. Once you pass that hiring hurdle, you are faced with the issue there is a severe lack of graduates with STEM degrees (science, technology, engineering, math). And don’t get me started with the stupidness that is the visa process for hiring skilled overseas workers to legally enter the United  States. It all adds up to non-winning combination.

It turns out that in China Microsoft is one of the highly sought after companies for software engineers. With government friendly policies and offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzen, and Suzhou, Microsoft is getting those great engineers and the product development follows suit. This allows Microsoft to develop an increasing number of products solely in China, including the one I’m working on.

So what is that product? It’s a team collaboration product called SharePoint. It can easily act as a company’s internal website (or intranet, to use the technical term, not to be confused with internet) or a location where information, documents, and business logic/process can live and execute. It is employed by many Fotune 500 and Fortune 1000 companies as it fills a big need for organizations of many sizes. What’s also pretty freaking cool is that Microsoft’s intranet is powered by SharePoint! That means everyone in my company will be using the product I’m helping to develop! Pretty cool, huh?

My exact set of features that I’ll be helping to produce is still a bit in the air, but I’m sure it’ll be fun to work on as all my colleagues, Chinese & expat alike, are extremely nice and dedicated to making this product even better than it currently is.

Stay tuned!

Oh, before I forget, the blog might not be updated daily as now my M-F (or S-Th for those in the USA, due to the time zone difference) likely won’t be very interesting. But then again, I’m not quite sure how interesting this blog is to begin with! 

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Day 25 – Internations & The Camel

Friday I went to a meetup that was organized by the Suzhou chapter of Internations.org. (If you haven’t heard about Internations before, definitely click on the link and learn what the site is all about! You might find that being a local in a city or country where you did not grow up can be made easier by connecting with people in similar situations.) The event was branded as a monthly mixer where you can network and connect with other members of the organization. Since I don’t really know anyone here in Suzhou I figured what the heck — let’s do this!

It stormed pretty good on Friday and the event was going to be held outside, so I was a bit worried I’d get to that part of town and find that the event was either cancelled or crammed into a really small room. Fortunately that was not the case as the rain stopped about an hour before the event started.

The monthly mixers are held at different locations throughout the city, allowing members to explore new areas and making it easier for some to attend. June’s event was held at the Crown Plaza, at the northwest corner of Jinji Lake (金鸡湖).

During the event I met a number of interesting people from all over the globe. As the official language for Internations is English, it was pretty easy to communicate with everyone. I spoke with people from England, the USA, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Croatia, Canada, Mexico, Romania, and Poland along with some members who are from other parts of China. Everyone had interesting points of view on many topics, and one of the hot topics — to avoid in my opinion — is anything having to do with the current political environment in the United States. Next subject, moving on …

Wine, beer, and softdrinks were free flowing — and free, with the cover charge for the event which was about $20 — and some really delicious appetizers were passed around. Towards the end of the event there was a raffle prize give away for a number of gift cards for places around town. There was even talk about going to one of the bars at Ligongdi Road (李公堤路）, but I wanted to make sure I could get home before I missed the last bus. In hindsight I should’ve gone to the bar because I did miss that last bus; it’s always 20/20, that darned hindsight!

A couple of the people I met on Friday night wanted to go out and celebrate Canada Day on Saturday — after all, the day is marking Canada’s sesquicentennial! Special on Moosehead beer, Fireball (who knew that was a Canadian drink?!), and bowl of Poutine were to be had at The Camel Sports bar, a place I hadn’t been before but had heard good things about; a few of us decided to meet up there.

The Camel is a pretty interesting place, quite loaded with expats and pretty cheap happy hour prices on beer. (A 0.5L of Carlsberg beer was only 20元, or roughly $3. For China, that’s a great price for an alcoholic drink from what I’ve seen!) Tons of TVs live streaming sports (mostly tennis and soccer that night) and a couple pool tables highlight the inside while there are a number of tables and seating outside with a huge projection screen that was showing a tennis match.

Getting to The Camel is really simple if you take the subway Line 1 and get off at Xinghai Square (星海广场) as there is an exit just to the left of the #3 exit at that stop which puts you right at the outdoor seating area for The Camel! If I move to Times Square, it’ll likely take only 10-20 minutes to get to The Camel via subway or bus. It’s a shame they don’t have poker nights like Ollie’s!

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Day 24 – Well, I *was* going to open a bank account

This is turning out to be quite the day. On Thursday (Day 22) the work permit was approved and HR sent a bunch of documentation including one email which indicated my first day at work would be on July 6, which made absolutely no sense as that day is a Friday. Seriously, people, what are you thinking?! After being in communication with my GM at work, she was able to push my start date up to a much more reasonable day, Monday July 3. Phew!

So now the official first day in the office is looming and reading through all the documentation that HR sent was a small bit of financial information saying I need to provide bank account information when I get into the office so I can be paid. (Apparently, direct deposit is the only way for such payments.) But, umm, I don’t have a local bank account. Ugggh.

Looking through the benefits and relocation documents that came with the job offer, there is a blurb about having someone local help with not only opening a bank account but also provide assistance with obtaining a SIM for my cellphone (so I can have a local phone number) and assistance with securing a lease. OK, great! So an email was sent on Thursday to the relocation people asking who I should be working with on these items. No email reply on Thursday. None on Friday (until *very* late in the evening). And then a phone call on Saturday morning came through, and I’m glad it did.

The phone call was from one of the relocation people who asked if I could meet someone at 11am to go to the various places to get a SIM card and then open the bank account. (Apparently it’s best if you have a local number before opening your bank account as it’ll enable mobile banking. OK, makes sense.) We almost had a meeting time and place set … until I was told all that is needed is a 100元 ($14.50 USD) and my passport to open the account. Ugggh. Nope. Don’t have my passport as it’s still with the local police department while they process my resident permit.

Opening the bank account and getting the local SIM card will have to wait until Thursday or Friday, which work will not enjoy as I’ll need some time off to get those things done nor will they like having to enter in some data for my paperwork (ie, bank account information) after the first day when they’re expecting it. (Some internal processes seem to take quite a while at work, including processing HR documents and getting them aligned with accounting.)

The good news is that I did not attempt to open the bank account on my own without having the necessary paperwork (my passport) and local phone number, otherwise I might’ve wasted a lot of time. The bad news is that work will get annoyed. The OK news is that I should get my first pay check before signing a lease on an apartment which is going to be extremely necessary as a security deposit (one month in cash), three months rent (via bank transfer), and payment to real estate broker who ostensibly helps to find and secure the apartment from the landlord (one month’s rent, in cash) is all going to be needed; more on all that “OK news” in a latter post.

Life in China sure is turning into an adventure!