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Breaking The Shackles

Tales Of My Adventure Moving Away To Experience Life Abroad.

 

Homesick? Maybe a little.

Well this Christmas has come and gone, yet another year without family other than my brother. It makes me a little depressed during the holiday season as it's easily my favorite time of the year. I've watched a lot of Christmas movies:

  • A.Charlie.Brown.Christmas (1965)
  • Its.Christmastime.Again.Charlie.Brown (1992)
  • Charlie.Browns.Christmas.Tales (2002)
  • I.Want.A.Dog.For.Christmas.Charlie.Brown (2003)
  • The.Muppet.Christmas.Carol (1992)
  • Its.A.Very.Merry.Muppet.Christmas.Movie (2002)
  • Deck the Halls
  • Home Alone 1
  • Home Alone 2
  • Bad Santa (A little bit, not all of it)
  • A.Garfield.Christmas.Special
  • The_Smurf's-Christmas-Special
  • Pinky and the Brain - Christmas Special
  • The Polar Express
  • Scrooged
  • How the Grinch Stole Christmas (The Cartoon)
  • Winnie The Pooh A Very Merry Pooh Year
  • Mickey's Magical Christmas

On Christmas Eve I started the day off by getting up and watching the Charlie Brown Christmas movies. I then went to a lunch w/ the other teachers at EF. I've uploaded pictures of that to my flickr page - you can look at them there. If you'd like me to post them here let me know and I'll do so. There we had turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pizza, salad, cranberries, and that's about it. I then went home and watched some more movies. Christmas Eve is one of the biggest shopping days here in China, so I waited for my GF to come here and we went out looking for Doug's gift. After visiting 3 shops, and they were all closed we decided to go get some food then we went home and she went to sleep while I watched a few more movies.

Christmas day started out with me watching some more movies then I went out to the same places to get Doug's gift. Turns out they were out of the price range, but I found one place that maybe had something Doug would have liked. I invited him to come out and take a look at it, and he said he was coming w/ his gf. I walked back and sat on a cold metal bench waiting for them since they didn't know where the place was. After getting there we walked down and for some reason his GF doesn't like me. She won't tell anyone why though - or at least I'm not being told why. She started acting immature and quite rude I thought. I tried to be nice to her and we went to the shop. Doug said he liked it, but it was a little too expensive. They told me a different price 30 minuets ago then the price they were telling us now. They eventually came down to the price I was originally quoted, but it was still about 100 too much. His GF was pacing around and being quite unhelpful - I mean Doug and I's Chinese is pretty poor, she could have helped us out. She said something to them in Chinese and kind of walked off a little bit. We decided to leave because nothing was happening and again I could feel tension in the air. She began walking quickly almost as if she didn't want Doug to be near her or hold her hand or even touch her. Doug knew of another place but didn't know how to tell me how to get there, and I didn't know where it was, but his GF knew. He asked her several times if she'd like to go, and I could tell she wasn't being very helpful by the way Doug was responding. We decided to split ways because she was being problematic. That experience alone almost ruined my Christmas.

I then went over to some co-workers house. 2 Girls from England and 1 from the Philippines. They were holding a little gathering there and there were 2 Chinese girls, 1 Australian, 1 American, and myself. We just hung out, listened to music, ate some food, I watched them play drinking games, I raced a toy car around for awhile, played some card games, talked and all that stuff. During the time I was there, Doug and I thought about going back to the Holiday Inn we went to last year with his GF and I (so the 3 of us). As soon as I got to the house I sent Doug a message saying how I had no desire to be around someone who's going to throw a tantrum and act like a baby. I asked my GF if she'd like to go, she sounded interested so I had her call since it's in Hankou, not here in Wuchang. She replied back saying it was from 6:30-10:30 and 198rmb/person w/ Self-assisted food (buffet). She wasn't going to be done w/ work until 9:00 and it's about a 40 min trip by bus. So we decided not to go because by the time I got there, met up with her, then we got there, it'd be over. She decided to come over here when she was done with work. Doug was sending messages back saying he was sorry and I was replying telling him it's not his fault, but it's her fault. I was told by other girls that she probably likes me which is why she's not telling anyone a reason. I thought of that too, but I also think she might just not want Doug spending any time with anyone else other than herself. It's almost like she's trying to get in between us - which I really don't like. He wrote back saying that she was ruining his Christmas too, so I don't know what happened on their own. Needless to say, Doug mentioned that he had gifts for the people at the party and decided he was coming over. He came and gave gifts to everyone there and then said he had to go and that he'd probably been gone too long as it is. I'm guessing it was probably something to do w/ his GF again. Everyone enjoyed his gifts and they were thrown around for quite some time. They were these little pig shaped things that you can throw at a wall and they splatter then reform to the shape of the pig. So it's like you're killing the pig and it comes back to life. They're different colors and everyone was throwing them on the roof where they'd stay splattered.

Eventually everyone there was going to go to Hankou to one of the other school teacher's house to hang out. I wasn't interested so I came home and watched some more movies until my GF came over. We went out and got some food then came back. She went to bed I did a few more things then went to bed again.

Now in my little write up of the following days it makes it seem like Doug's GF is a bad person. I'm pretty sure she isn't, I just think she's immature and needs to grow up. Doug says she's fun and happy when they're together, and I don't doubt it. I just wish she'd grow up and not try to get in between Doug and I's relationship. We've already been through a lot as it is as a family.

Today I got up and watched a few more movies (the ones mentioned above). I had a teacher's meeting at 3:00 - it's normally at 2:00. I took a taxi there and the meeting only lasted like 10 minuets. I was kind of upset because I felt it was a waste of time and money. I found out one of my "classes" was canceled for today so that made me feel better. I went back home and got some food and watched some more movies. Then I went back to work and did my class and then came home. Here I am writing this entry into this blog.

That was about it for my Christmas time. I'm pretty upset about work these next two weeks. The government here does these weird things where they rearrange days to give everybody more days off, but it's really artificial since you wind up working your normal days off. It's like they shift the days off around to extend the vacation. My school doesn't really do this though because they figure students will come during those other days. So normally I have Monday/Tuesday off. Saturday and Sunday are the busiest days of the week for us. So this week Saturday becomes Monday and Monday becomes Saturday and we get Tuesday off (which is my normal day off, so I get an extra day of paid holiday). So I don't work on Saturday because it's become Monday and I'm off Monday. Then I work Sunday and Monday (which is busy like a Saturday normally would be) then off Tuesday for New Years then back to work again on Wednesday. So they've basically screwed us and I don't have consecutive days off this week. The people who are normally off Thursday and Friday though made out like a bandit by getting 4 days off this week somehow.

Well, that's about it from me tonight. I hope to update more often. I'm going to try and get the gifts sent out this weekend, sorry about not getting them out before Christmas. I've just been really busy.

What did everyone over there do for Christmas and Christmas Eve? Give me the scoop!

By Thomas
On Wednesday, December 26, 2007
At 12/26/2007 11:01:00 PM
Comments :
 
 

Merry Christmas




Hope you're having a great Christmas!

By Thomas
On Tuesday, December 25, 2007
At 12/25/2007 08:56:00 PM
Comments :
 
 

Taxes

Patrick, maybe you can help make some sense of this? It involves Taxes and International Employment.

Assuming you are a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, you are taxed on your world-wide income regardless of where yuo earn it. Thus, you will file your taxes as your would normally. However, for U.S. persons working abroad, you may become eligible to exclude some of the foreign earned income (if you qualify under the tests below) or to receive a credit for any foreign income taxes paid on your earnings. In order to use the foreign earned income exclusion (you may exclude up to $82,400 annually) you have to establish that your tax home is in a foreign country; and, you must establish a qualified residence in a foreign country through either the bona fide residence test or the physical presence test. A "tax home" is generally established wherever your principal place of business is. Thus, as long as your place of employment is outside the U.S. (in a foreign country) and that your employment there is expected to continue for at least a year, then you have a "tax home" in a foreign country and you meet this test. Bona fide residence is established if you live for an uninterrupted period that includes a full calendar tax year in a foreign country. The physical presence test may be met if you are present in a foreign country for 330 days out of ANY consecutive 12-month period. If you qualify under the bona fide resident or physical presence test for the full year, then you may exclude foreign earned income of up to $82,400. If you qualified under the physical presence test for part of the year, then you may qualify for a partial exclusion (i.e. calculated as the ratio of the number of qualifying days divided by 365 multiplied times $82,400). To claim the exclusion you must fill out form 2555 (see http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f2555.pdf). If you will not meet these tests, then you may not exclude any foreign earned income from U.S. taxation. However, you may be able to take as a credit any foreign income tax paid on the income you earned to the country in which you worked. See IRS Publication 514 at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p514.pdf. If you are out of the country on 4/15/2007, you receive an automatic two-month extension to 6/15/07 to both file and pay your 2006 income taxes. Please know that if you do owe income taxes and pay by 6/15/07, you will pay interest on the amount owed for the 2-month grace period. You may also want to review IRS Pub 54, which provides information regarding U.S. citizens working abroad at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p54.pdf.
Of course, this is for last years taxes I imagine. Just trying to figure out the best course of action for when taxes need to be filled. Thanks

By Thomas
On Friday, December 14, 2007
At 12/14/2007 11:32:00 AM
Comments :
 
 

Spam

Yep - that was indeed a spam comment. I've deleted it so it won't bother anyone anymore. I hate spam by the way. Not much to say right now - trying to find the best way to ship some things home. I've already purchased them :) It's not that I'm indecisive when it comes to "What I want" for Christmas... It's just that I know all the things I want are too expensive to ask for as gifts. Besides I kind of like to be surprised on Christmas... Not knowing what you're opening is a whole lot better than knowing what it is before you even get it... That's all for now.

By Thomas
On Wednesday, December 12, 2007
At 12/12/2007 10:03:00 PM
Comments :
 
 

My Christmas Tree in China

Here's the video of my Christmas Tree set to Christmas Music... This post was posted from YouTube as a test of their new feature.

By Thomas
On Thursday, December 06, 2007
At 12/06/2007 02:25:00 AM
Comments :
 
 

My Christmas Tree

Got a Christmas Tree today, here are some pictures from different stages of putting it all together... Hope you enjoy!

 

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And with the lights turned off:

 

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I also took a video of the tree, however the video is sideways....



 
 

Pictures from my birthday [11-24]

Here are some pictures taken on my Birthday. I had just gotten off of work, my busiest day of the week, so I didn't look too presentable at that point in the day. It was sweet what she prepared though :)

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Trans-Siberian Railway

Patrick:

Have you ever ridden the Trans Siberian Railway? If so, what'd you think about it, and did you think it was worth it? Which route did you ride?

Linda:

Could you email (don't post as a comment) your mailing address? I'm in the process of buying some Christmas gifts and to save on shipping I want to send them all in one parcel instead of separate packages. Dad has told me Mom isn't reliable for answering the door or phone, so I don't trust the package arriving safely if I send it to Mom and Dads.

In other news: I'm trying to buy a XMas tree this year. I'm probably going to be getting a fake one though - as I'm not wanting to clean up the droppings in this small apartment. Also, I've gotten some socks (like you hang on the mantle) for XMas. I also picked up a few candles. Trying to get some more things soon.

If you want to watch a pretty decent fantasy type movie, I'd recommend 'Stardust'. I just watched it today and enjoyed it quite a bit.

I'm really tired right now, so I'm going to bed... Have to work tomorrow *sigh* :(

By Thomas
On Wednesday, December 05, 2007
At 12/05/2007 12:47:00 AM
Comments :