Pollution and my future career

So, I have a lot of updates. This past week brought with it horrible pollution, job interviews, apartment hunting and revelations about the cost of living in China! It has been hectic and I'm sure will continue to be hectic until we move and I find a job.

First, I'll jump right into the good stuff...The United States Embassy calls this weather hazardous and weather.com refers to it as “smoke”. Who knew that you could have smoke without a fire? Beijing has been plagued with the worst pollution I've ever experienced. My skin itches, my face is breaking out and my lungs feel like they are on fire every time I exert myself outside. And if that wasn't bad enough, the smog actually makes me sick to my stomach. Please Lord make it rain! We might be moving this weekend but even so...I would rather move in the rain than move in this smog infested hell! The picture above I took today at noon. I added the other picture above it so you can compare them with my normal view.

In more exciting news, I finally had a job interview that was worth my time! A global recruiting company has contacted me for an interview :) Yesterday, I went in for my first interview and met with my potential future boss. Tonight I have a second phone interview with his boss. Wish me luck! If I am hired, this will be my first real job! That being said...I am a little scared. My future as a career woman may be starting very soon and that means that my time as a stay at home wife has to end. It's bittersweet. Also, I forgot to mention that he is going to try and get me an American starting salary! In China that is a miracle!

This topic is a little late, but none the less very interesting. The snow that I posted about not too long ago was actually semi-fake snow. This region of China is in a drought, no doubt the reason for this is that the whole country is literally being stripped of everything natural to make room for industry growth...but anyway I want to educate you about snow rockets. In Beijing where we breathe in who-knows-what practically all the time, we had to breathe in a little extra chemical cocktail with the arrival of the snow. When China gets too dry, the Chinese launch chemicals into the clouds that cause precipitation. While this has positive effects on the lack of moisture, I don't even want to think about the draw backs in terms of my health. A more comical case of fake snow can be seen in the pictures I posted from my skiing adventure right before Christmas...the funniest picture by far shows the snowy white ski slopes in the foreground with the green hills in the background.

In other “what annoys Katie” news, Google maps is driving me nuts lately. For some reason it is stuck on my old home location in Norcross. Every time I search “Beijing”, Google informs me that it is actually just down the road from our old house...If that's the case I feel like a real idiot for moving all the way to China to get to Beijing when we could have just walked a little ways down the road and gotten there from Atlanta! Fix it Google...its making me crazy!

I almost had great news to give my blog readers and myself yesterday... We found an apartment! The complex has a gym, a pool, tennis courts and more...all free for residents! The place is clean, new and nice! The only problem is the landlord. Shortly after we made a deal, he decided he wanted more. When we bargained with him he decided that he didn't want to rent it to us anymore even if we agreed to his crazy demands. He told my real estate agent (who doesn't much care for him due to the way he treated her) that he doesn't want to rent to Americans and refuses to have a Chinese/English contract. He then told her that she was no longer allowed to call him because talking to her on the phone was a waste of time...she could email him in the future. What a gentleman. So our new dilemma is that because we thought we had that apartment, we stopped looking elsewhere. Now we have to move out of our current apartment in the next 9 days...that means we need to find an apartment, negotiate and sign a lease, and move in a little over a week. Thats doable...right? Hope everyone reading this is having a great week and enjoys reading the blog!