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U.S. Foreign Service Officer headed to Wuhan, China

The mission of a U.S. diplomat in the Foreign Service is to promote peace, support prosperity, and protect American citizens while advancing the interests of the U.S. abroad. The work that diplomats do has an impact on the world as they serve at one of any of the more than 270 embassies, consulates and other diplomatic missions in The Americas, Africa, Europe and Eurasia, East Asia and Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia.

The duties of a Consular Officer include to provide emergency and non-emergency services to American citizens and protect our borders through the proper adjudication of visas to foreign nationals and passports to American citizens. We adjudicate immigrant and non-immigrant visas, facilitate adoptions, help evacuate Americans, combat fraud, and fight human trafficking. Consular Officers touch people’s lives in important ways, often reassuring families in crisis. They face many situations which require quick thinking under stress and develop and use a wide range of skills, from managing resources and conducting public outreach to assisting Americans in distress.

The good and the bad


Recently I've had a few friends make comments like, "Your blog makes China sound like a dream, is it really that amazing?" Let me answer that with one word: nope. I think it's easy to blog about the positive stuff because I always want to make it seem like everything is ok and I don't want to complain because that's no fun. But sometimes China is not fun (for me at least). Could I spend the rest of my life here? Absolutely not. Am I excited to come home on July 5? You better believe it. For those of you have only heard the good stuff, let me balance things out a bit. Here's why I personally struggle with China:

1. The condition of the environment is pretty bad. The air quality is abysmal, the sky is gray, the rivers and lakes are toxic and if you're looking for nature you have to look long and hard.

2. There's people everywhere and they all stare at me all the time. The hordes of motorbikes, buses and cars can get a little overwhelming (and not to mention dangerous) at times and there is always a crowd of people everywhere.

3. Coming from the Midwest it's hard to be here and deal with behaviors that would be labeled inconsiderate and rude in my culture such as: pushing, shoving, spitting, cutting in line, not waiting for people to exit somewhere before entering . . . the list goes on and on.

4. Chinese society is noisy - all the time. People talk/yell/shout on their cell phones when you are crammed right next to them on a bus and nobody even bats an eye. If you're out in public, the volume is probably high. Answering your cell phone loudly in a movie theater packed with people is no big deal. Answering your cell phone at any time (interviews, class, meetings) is perfectly acceptable.

5. Everybody smokes. The doctor who gave me a physical last week was smoking while he did it and the nurse lit up while she signed the forms. People smoke in restaurants, elevators, hospitals and schools. They will even smoke under and next to "No Smoking" signs.

6. Living in a place where the government censors information from its people and doesn't encourage free expression is alarming - to say the least.

7. It's impossible to get anything done and we are frequently given the "Chinese runaround." This was common in Latin America too and it happens all the time here. If you need some help with something people will keep telling you to go somewhere else or call someone else until you go around in circles without getting anything done. For example, we have had English Corner now for 3 weeks and nobody will unlock the door for us. Although it's a very simple problem/issue, we've tried everything and there is no way we can solve it. Thus, we have EC outside where it's freezing though there's a perfectly good room provided. It's maddening.

8. The food tends to be greasy and chock full of msg. Also, you never really know what you are eating and even packaged food is hard to trust sometimes because of all the history with Chinese food scams (sawdust in baby food, cardboard in ground meat etc.)

9. China is a developing country and there are still a lot of problems with basic infrastructure. For example, there's no heat in the classrooms or other public buildings. Sometimes I don't have water or electricity. Sometimes my water comes out brown.

10. China can be a little dirty. There's a reason why nobody wants to put their bags on the ground anywhere. Little kids don't wear diapers - they just have a slit in their pants, so use your imagination. Sometimes they go right in front of you on the bus. Oh, and squat toilets aren't a picnic either - they can get pretty slippery and rank. There's never any soap, toilet paper or paper towels provided anywhere - bring your own.

11. Cheating/copying is the norm in business and in academia. Publishing in a 'scholarly' journal here is a joke and can be done by paying someone off. True, I do benefit from this by buying cheap, pirated DVDs - that's the only kind of DVDs that's available!

12. The amount of government corruption is pretty unbelievable and I know I haven't heard all of it. Knowing the right people and pricey bribes are the surefire way to get anything done.


Those are some ideas I just scribbled down in the last 10 minutes, but they should give you a more realistic picture (hopefully) of what foreigners deal with on a daily basis here. I'm sure there are others who handle it better than I do, and for the most part I've accepted that the things that bug me aren't going to change. Of course there are loads of good things about being here and I'm definitely glad I came. We were only planning on staying for one year but we liked it so much that we decided to stay a second. But in no way would I classify urban China as my type of paradise. It's been an interesting experience, that's for sure.

On the upside, we get to eat decorated apples! (I'll just refrain from thinking about how they make them that way)
Read More 3 comments | Posted by Sarah Sanderson edit post

3 comments

  1. Chris Winkler on March 15, 2011 at 6:15 AM

    I can totally dig! While worlds apart, I could say much of the same about life in Nigeria.

    Blessings on your time there and may you finish well.

    Chris

     
  2. Unknown on July 24, 2013 at 12:53 AM

    I totally agree. I just came back 5 months ago from teaching in China for a year. It was very much a love/hate relationship I kind of miss.

     
  3. lola on March 2, 2015 at 11:18 PM

    Came upon you blog today and I could not agree more. Been in China for two months on a study abroad program. Sometimes it can be one of those days when you just want to get on a plane a fly home immediately but sometimes you just feel like China is home away from home........but I still can't deal with the stares though
    ........

     


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    Sarah Sanderson
    I am currently in Mandarin language training as a new diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service. Sean and I depart for Wuhan, China in November 2019 for my first tour in consular affairs.
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