Freelancing

Think it's hard to find a job? Come to China, you'll get more than you need. It's pretty funny that, before the Olympics, every school and office was shut down in Beijing (or so it seemed), but now, I literally have more job offers than I want (and I'm sick of being hounded to do more work).

Recently, I've been doing a good amount of part time work. Sometimes, it's tutoring one on one, from ages ranging from 6 years old to 18. Other times, it's a classroom setting (know as english corner) where I talk about everything American to kids between the ages of 4 and 10. Those classes are fun, but not as easy as tutoring, namely because Simba (yes, named after the lion king) is so eager to learn a new word, he proceeds to hell it out loud for about 15 seconds. He and his little girl friend, Tu Tu, who feed of of each other love playing games, but are very OCD about what goes where, and exactly how to do things. My one on one tutoring classes are great though, and will most likely be a mainstay of part time work after I start a monthly paying job.

Then there was today, when, after receiving the standard last minute text saying "the meeting has been moved to 1:30, my boyfriend will take you instead of me, he'll pay you for this week", I proceeded to head north east to what I was told was a student who needed editing for his paper. As it turns out, I arrived and was quickly moved a block away to the Beijing Transportation Studies School. Instead of helping some college guy with his paper, I was helping the Beijing municipality clean up their reports that are headed to Sweden this Monday. It was alright though, just translating sometimes confusing sentences (my helper Eugene and I had a good laugh because it was translated almost directly from the CCP decree meaning everything was about harmony and development), but I was able to really clean up a 16 page report.

Following the meeting, Eugene asked if I could do some more work, as they had 4 more 50 page reports still in need of cleanup. So now, I have one report that's due on Friday, and more working hours on Friday afternoon. But, and this is big, he asked me how much I was getting paid from Creative, then proceeded to bump it up 5 USD. Apparently, the finder's fee for a college grad is worth something, but now we had guanxi and that meant direct pay.

Although I don't relish the thought of weaving my way through this garble of chinglish, I'm happy to be getting paid about 23 USD an hour, on my own time. Sure that might not sound like a lot, but consider that it costs about 1-2 USD for a full meal, 30 cent's to ride the subway, and yes of course everyone's favorite economic idicator (eat your heart out big mac index), beer is 40 cent's a big bottle.

Job's are plentiful here, so to those feeling a slight recession in the US, come out east, or really far west, rather. This is the new frontier--a land of golden opportunity. The American dream hasn't changed, it just means that you gotta keep moving further towards that western frontier. Just trade in your pick axe for a pen, and your wagon for a word processor and you'll find you're own personal gold rush in no time.

Tonight, to see Ambrose off (although he should be back in two weeks), we'll dine on Beijing Roast Duck, a delicacy that in relation to Chinese incomes is on par with a full Lobster tail and steak dinner. However, unlike a surf n' turn extrodinaire, this meal will cost at most around 40 minutes of today's work, maybe an hour if we go all out. What can I say, for all it's short comings, China really knows how to make a guy feel special. I'll put some pictures up.