It is spring in Beijing. The temperature has gone from too cold to too hot, the winds of Mongolia have coated the city in a fine yellow dust and the mobile phone salesmen have come out of their winter slumber.

China has more mobile phone users than any other country in the world–over a billion and rising by the second. Many of the mobile phones here are covered in glittering rhinestones and embellished with pink bunny ears.

As much as I would like to have a more technologically advanced phone and deck it out in jewels and cute body parts, I cannot give up my simple prepaid Nokia due to a vow I took seven years ago.

Despite the amazing number of mobile phone deals available here, I was forever dissuaded from having a whizzy phone after my last experience with a phone contract when we left our home in the US.

The build-up to the departure was the most exhilarating and exhausting four weeks of my life. We put our businesses online, we sold cars, we sold houses, and we figured out our four teenage daughters’ educational needs. During the entire process of shutting down our life in the US, we had almost zero frustrations. Almost zero.

I inadvertently left my mobile on the airport hotel nightstand the morning of our departure. I had not yet canceled my mobile account since I wanted to use the phone until we left the country.

Once in Mexico, I spent hours and hours and faxes and faxes getting the contract canceled. For some reason, the cancellation of a mobile contract requires an act of God to complete—and God must be willing to go in person to the mobile phone office to speak with someone who can’t help him. All in all it was a three-month process during which I had to pay for use of a phone I did not have and could not have used.

Forever scarred by the memory of that contract process, I have vowed to purchase only the most basic prepaid phones. Seven years and eight countries later, I have stuck with that vow–jewels and bunny ears be damned.

My first Red winter is coming to an end. Temperatures were below freezing for nearly four months and cillia snapping Mongolian winds were a daily occurrence. At the winter’s outset I felt that sustaining any degree of comfort was going to be tough.

But I never touched a thermostat. You see, our apartment complex provides FREE radiant floor heating. The only method of changing the temperature is by opening and closing exterior windows, which due to the constant interior temperature was seldom necessary.

I have been told by some Beijingers that this sort of arrangement is very common and developed years ago when workgroup factories used excess heat from manufacturing to heat water and then pump it into adjoining workgroup housing.

As a good western capitalist I try to recognize diabolical Communist schemes wherever I can–but free heat, that seems downright humane.

The kindergarten where I teach also has radiant floor heating that is on throughout the winter. Last week, our storytime carpet was out being cleaned so the children had to sit directly on the warm linoleum floor. Halfway through the book all of the children were spread-eagled on their backs nearly comatose.

And there it was. Communist control of the populace by floor heating.

Or, maybe just a very effective rendition of Goodnight Moon.

Yesterday in my kindergarten class here in China, we were discussing the weather.  We came to the conclusion that it was both sunny AND cold, but with space for only one weather card, we had to choose which one to post on the calendar.  So I took a vote—1 kid voted for sunny, the other three voted for cold.

The student (we will call him Lin) who lost the vote asked me why the other three should get their way.  I told him it was a situation of “majority rules”.  “But what if I’m right?” he persisted.  I told him that the majority always wins in my class.

Lin was not convinced and I could see his point.

I don’t know if pulling the “majority rules” argument is a common classroom management strategy in China—but I’m guessing it’s not.  Just because we learn something as a core tenet of our social value structure in the West does not make it applicable everywhere.

But then again, this country is communist which implies that the people’s will is the way of the government—but I’m pretty sure that’s not really true, no more than the US Congress represents the majority of the people in the US.

So really, both governments are run by people who are not representative of the general populace but who achieved positions of power because they are in some way better at some things than the general populace.  We might even conclude they are smarter than the general populace.

Though Lin was not happy with the majority rule decision, he finally caved after I threatened to take away his recess.

My class, my rules.

Many thanks to the kind folks over at The Displaced Nation for the interview they did with me recently.  The interview can be reached via the link below.

The Displaced Nation Interview

Things are inexpensive in northern Thailand.  One can get a bowl of tasty noodles for $1, a fresh fruit smoothie for $1.25, an hour massage for $4 and in some cases, a hotel room for $5.

Since I am traveling with someone who deserves a certain level of comfort, I opted for the more luxurious $6 room.  Despite having to fork over the additional buck, I can appreciate what we are getting for it–a working fan, clean sheets (most days), WIFI and our own bathroom.

But, there is a problem with a $6 room: Whatever I do or consume during the day inevitably totals up to be more than the price of the room which makes even cheap things seem outrageous.

A plate of pad thai and a foot massage are nice but can they top a full day´s use of a comfy bed and several episodes of The Daily Show?

Is spending a nights lodging on three bottles of local beer a good idea? Note: it is but only after the 2nd bottle.

God forbid I should need some odd western medical device like dental floss–and have to pay our room cost for it.

I don´t recall ever spending less than $75 for a hotel room in the U.S.–and that was on the cheap end of things.  If I splurged and the wife and I both had our own lattes in the morning –courtesy of our friends at Starbucks–the cost would be less than 10% of the room so even that hedonistic indulgence seemed like a reasonable purchase.

Here, if we each inbibed in a Starbucks beverage (there are several locations in town)  they would total more than our room cost.  As you might guess, neither of us will be enjoying a squeeze from the mermaidś teet on this particular trip no matter how loudly she beckons.

Though I try to remind myself that the room is supremely inexpensive (I could stay in this room for three months and still spend less than what I used to pay for one month of health insurance coverage) I cannot bring myself to spend more than $6 for any thing or activity that will last less than 24 hours which means we spend a lot of time in our $6 room–which further raises its value in my eyes since on an hourly basis is is only costing me 25 cents per hour.

And under no circumstances whatsoever should I even think about the fact that since there are two of us using the room cost is actually just $3 per night….

20 November 2010 – Culture shock and forming social connections are the main concerns of expats moving abroad, according to a survey of expats in 22 countries conducted by www.ExpatArrivals.com . But a significantly increased quality of life, better sex and more leisure time make the move well worth it.

Expat life has many payoffs, although increased salary is not among them. Only 21% reported that their salary was significantly better, with 22% reporting their salary as much lower. However, the amount of free time improved for 61%, while social connections (41%) and love lives (47%) took distinctly upward trends while abroad. Stress levels improved for 53%, combined with improvements in overall physical health for 46%. Together these factors contribute to an overall quality of life that 65% of respondents rated better when working and living abroad.

There are challenges though: culture shock was rated by 41% as a significant difficulty to cope with on arrival, and 46% regarded it as the one factor they wished they had known more about before moving. Significantly, only 30% of respondents expected culture shock to be a problem – hence many where caught unawares.

Another main challenge was making friends and social connections. While 45% expected this to be difficult before moving, 52% found connecting socially to be difficult long after the move was made. By contrast, other major expat life issues did not trouble recent expats to any significant degree: healthcare, accommodation, visas and cost of living all failed to feature as concerns.

In planning their move abroad, most respondents found books (58%) and exploratory visits (63%) most useful, with social media sites Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn rated as useful by only 17%. Specific expat information sites however were rated as useful by 45% of participants. Very few people used relocation experts (10%) or expatriate coaches (2%) when executing their move abroad with 71% reporting that nobody assisted them. After arrival, the key resources to facilitate adaptation and overcome culture shock were personal contacts in the expat community (74%) and connections with local people (73%).

ExpatArrivals.com publishes over 100 online destination guides to help global expats plan their move abroad and optimize their lives on arrival. City-based experts works with the editorial team to produce constantly updated information covering 15 main content areas of significance to expats.

Our friends over at Expat Arrivals have put together a short survey about expat life.  If you are an expat and want to get your two bits into the conversation, the survey can be found here.

Expat Arrivals will share the results with us after the survey closes.

Argentine culture is a little different with regards to dating and relationships. Argentines are notoriously passionate and jealous. The women are surprisingly cold at first and the men are very forward and overly romantic in order to break through the cold front. Confused by this arrangement I asked some locals for advice. The pearls of wisdom I gained are “the more a woman says no, the more that she likes you.”  The male philosophy, “Never give up!”

With that mantra in mind, I decided to try my luck with a pretty Argentine girl that I had been quietly admiring in the usual timid western manner through unrequited awkward glances. I would say hello and she would ignore me. At times she was actually mean to me. However, against my better instincts which told me she absolutely was not interested, I listened to the expert advice from my Argentine companions and began to tell myself that she must, in fact, be in love with me.

We would see each other daily in my neighbourhood and I would then recount the cold things she’d said to my Argentine friends and they kept telling me, “Forward, forward, more forward!”    I finally managed to get a cell number out of the ice queen who had become my obsession.

I would send her messages and receive no replies or at best, very short ones. The Westerner in me said “give it up”, but the Argentines would tell me this is a classic game, “she loves you!” A few weeks passed and I managed to arrange a date although I was not sure that she knew what it was yet.

I treated myself to a new haircut before the big day and went to a hairdresser that my friends had recommended. As usual, my broken Spanish successfully managed to put me through yet more embarrassment by letting a classic Argentine mullet form on my head.

Sporting my new mullet I went to meet the Argentine that is 100%-for-sure in love with me. She arrived, to my surprise, holding hands with a girl, a normal Argentine custom—they must be friends.   After we sat down I leaned over and said, “I didn’t know you were bringing a close friend.” She whispered back with a revealing wink, “She’s not just my friend!”

So stuck with my mullet and a broken heart, I learnt to be careful about the advice I take about women and hairdressers in Buenos Aires!

About the author:

Luke Sewell (22) hails from London and now lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  He works for Vamos Spanish Academy a Spanish school where you can learn Argentine Spanish as well as organise your travels in Argentina.

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