-Mike

I get an e-mail from Chloe on the afternoon of April 1st.

From: Chloe Harris
Date: Thu, Apr 1, 2010 at 3:39 PM
Subject: Fwd: boyfriend…

So…I kind of sent an April fool to some friends from home…and I kind of used your picture to attempt to make it more believable, because it is so cute…
please don’t hate me…I’m sorry for being racist…

I was just wondering if my friends would come out to china if i was to get engaged to a chinese guy…

see you later white mike

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Chloe Harris
Date: Thu, Apr 1, 2010 at 3:21 PM
Subject: boyfriend…
To: [redacted]

Hey guys,
hope you’re well,

I’ve been meaning to tell you all for a while but I haven’t really known how to put it, and I really hope that you guys can support me in stuff that’s been going on here in China lately.

So I don’t have too much to say as I’m still not sure myself, but I met this guy a few months ago, and he is so great. We’ve prayed and talked about it and decided to give it a go and to try and make it work. Language is sometimes a problem but its working out, and there are alot of cultural differences but alot of the time i just forget about them.

So I think its going to get pretty serious pretty quickly, and I was wondering where you are at in terms of coming out to China if something were to happen in the next couple of months?

love you x

I’m pretty sure you could have heard me snort the Coke I was drinking all the way down across my office. I had to leave early to make a dinner thing and started SMS’ing Chloe from the car, which went something like…

Me: OMG on the email!!! I think I might have snorted my drink. We need to set FB status to in relationship with…

Chloe: And change my status to ‘Chloe Harris is happy’, but I don’t want people to know your name….michael is not Chinese enough!

Me: I’ll try to change it.

With the power of the iPhone, China Unicom’s 3G network, and the Freedur VPN service, 30 minutes later we ended up with this:

…which solicited a flurry of responses for Chloe.

The next morning in China, and still April 1 in most places in the world, on the suggestion of Matt Banker, we decide to up the ante a bit and go straight over to being “Engaged.”

And hells bells, the comments just start to FLOW!

Then the IMs…

Then the messages….

Thankfully, a little skepticism abounds…

But also a few takers!

Not to mention getting greeted at dinner with…

Congratulations on your engagement! …are you really engaged?

 

Chloe, on the other hand, had a few more choice statements from friends…

For those who were wondering what responses I got…

It was meant to just be a joke for people that I emailed, but seems to have got a little out of hand with facebook to the point of getting a message from my sister:

‘Why the hell didn’t you tell me you were going out with Mike Lu!’

April Fools Day is fun

Thanks to Mike for letting me be racist.

clo x

Responses:

Chloe……………are you getting to get married in a few months time?!?! xxx

but obviously, very happy for you and will be supporting you whatever happens! big love to you xx

Thanks for the email – crazy but exciting news! As long as you’re happy & feel it right God wise go for it.

Don’t quite understand the email: by serious you meaning proposal / marriage soon?! Is he Chinese / Asian?

So no big news going on your end, pretty dull stuff, nothing to report.  YOU HAVE A BOYFRIEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  This is so cool.  Couple of months? 

Marriage? In China? I need details! Why not do it in Leeds with me and Rhiane?  Aaahhhhhhhh, too many questions, what’s he like, what does he do, etc etc.

Babe, what lovely news! I’m so glad to hear you’ve met someone who you really like. I would still definitely be on for coming to China – it would be lovely to meet this chap, he must be pretty special! How did you meet? What’s he like? I want to hear all about it!

THis is SO exciting!!! Wowowowowwwwwwwee! Yay! What is his name, how do you know him, where is he from??? Tell me everything! I want to come to china and meet him. When you say serious, in what terms are we talking?! How serious??! I have no doubt I would thoroughly approve. I am so happy for you cloclo!!!

Wow I wasn´t expecting that! So how did you meet him? Tell all! You guys look very happy I was planning on going out to Chile for the summer but were you thinking about marriage? Obviously I´m really happy for you and will support you no matter as long as you know this is what you and God want.

brilliant to hear from you and crazy but exciting news! Are you thinking about marriage then if you’re asking about China availability?!

Were you thinking before you’re back in the UK in the summer as well (or guess you’re not sure..)? I would have to check with work and look at flights etc as work fluctuates on a monthly basis depending on what meetings and events I have to be around for and organise…

This is so exciting and you both look so happy together- what’s his name though?!

And then there are a couple more comments on facebook. Particularly ridiculous as it says that I am in a relationship with 吕明克。One friend wrote: ‘how do you pronounce that?’

SO. Just to set the record straight… I am NOT engaged.

Happy April Fools! =)

Living in Beijing sometimes reminds me of staying in hostels. Every week, I somehow end up meeting new people that all start by asking the same questions.

“Hi, what’s your name?”

“What are you doing in China?”

When I mention I work at Microsoft here in Beijing, within five questions I’m inevitably asked, “so Microsoft sent you out here?” Occasionally, someone will just be the straight-shooter and ask, “are you on a package?”

Ah-ha. Ex-pat lingo. Let me talk about the three types of working ex-pats.

Working to Live – Most of my friends fall into this category. Typically these are people that love China or feel called to China and found some job to support their habit. They show up on tourist visas and look for work on the ground, usually teaching English. The work is technically under the table, so every few months a 3-4 day run out of China is needed to get a new tourist visa.

Transferred Professionals – This is the category I fall into. We’re a group that love China or feel called to China and created a win-win for ourselves by finding a job to advance our careers at the same time. We have residency, get paid in local currency, and pay taxes. The pay puts you squarely into the local middle class, though in absolute amounts you’d probably be making more back at home.

On Assignment – Ah yes. Highly coveted. People ‘on assignment’ are sent by their companies because of a specific need here on the ground. For Microsoft this means that the job found you and not the other way around. As you imagine, people in this category are senior and/or being groomed for a future position. Since these folks didn’t necessarily want to be in China, they get compensated appropriately. You get paid in $/£/€. You get a very generous housing allowance. The international schooling for your kids is paid for. You’ve got the retirement benefits of your home country and bulletproof health insurance. You get the driver. Sometimes you also get a hardship allowance and your spouse gets an allowance for his/her social activities. This is what it means to be ‘sent’ out here and be ‘on a package.’ It means bank.

—–

Answering clearly the ‘why are you here’ question is very important to me. Sadly, most of the time, this question isn’t so much getting to know who you are, but really just ascertaining your motive and/or social status. My replies are swift—no, I wanted to come and transferred out here; no, I’m not on a package.

Especially in Beijing, it’s easy not to live in China. With all the international-grade offerings of malls, housing, and restaurants, it’s easy to lead a life exclusively inside that international community and have the local communities, people, and culture just fade into the background. That’s not why I’m here. China’s grreeeat! I’m here to grow, here to see, and here to connect with China—as hard as that can be sometimes.

This may sound a bit random: I’ve got a clothing label!

For the few months, I’ve been working with Matt Lu, Mark Guerrero, and other friends to create a clothing label here in Beijing. Matt, who’s an awesome graphic designer, has for 15 years wanted to create a way to give back and and wear cool stuff at the same time. We put in a some time and money to make this real and as a result:

short+savage is a non-profit clothing label for the urban, hip-hop, and skater communities.

Each shirt has a design that’s eye-catching, curious, and a conversation starter for increasingly cold urban societies.

Like: “Why is your shirt missing a sheep?” or “Wunder Bread and Tuna?”

Each shirt also has a little something extra on the flip in English and Chinese.

Last Friday, we got our first batch of shirts delivered. Saturday, at the Forbidden City, we did our first photo shoot. Sunday, with support from stage one productions, we launched our label here in Beijing, selling 110 shirts and donating 1063 RMB to the Oasis House!

We can’t be more thrilled—we’re out there, making an impact!

This is a side project, as all of us have day jobs. Anyone who’s ever done one of these knows that it’s a lot work, late nights, and pushing each other to keep going. Launching is a huge milestone. Our goal is to grow this thing and help the street youth of China—but that’s a future post. =)

Interested in being part of our story? Reach out!

[short+savage website / short+savage flickr]

Bede told me that New Zealand was a great place to see a bunch of different terrain in a short distance. I totally understand what he means—KM after KM of beautiful topology on these little narrow two-lane roads that crisscross the whole country. The idea of highways or motorways just doesn’t exist here and I couldn’t be more thankful.

Here’s a selection of eye candy from around the country.

I’m currently in the neat little mountain town of Hanmer Springs, population 900. Hanmer feels akin to what ski towns probably used to be before monstrosities like Vail and Whistler came into being. It smells exactly like Whistler here—crisp fresh mountain air with the sweet smells of a wood fire and the hint of evergreens.

Despite highs of 3-4 degrees C (about 38 degrees F), I decided that a) no way I was leaving Hanmer without romping around in the mountains and also, b) mountain biking was the way I was going to accomplish this.

It had rained, hailed, and snowed yesterday—so the trails were sopping wet, slick, and muddy. I thought this was just fantastic. The guys at the rental shop set me up on a week-old Specialized XC with full suspension, disc brakes, and fat nubby tires, then sent me packing down single-track trails.

This turned out to be really hard work—pedaling up these trails was a huffer and wet super-slick tree roots perilously slid me sideways. But the reward was wicked—big clearings from logging activity with beautiful views followed by downhill stretches down single-track trail. About midway through it started raining, which turned to snow, and suddenly I found myself alone and pedaling through a snow-falling forest. Incredible.

With the single-track turning to gullies of water runoff, I had to stay active on the brakes—thank God for disc brakes—and ended up right where I began after two hours, closely resembling a drowned rat.

Loved it. Will do again.

Before and after!

This was the view at 8:00am standing on the docks of Picton, NZ looking out into Queen Charlotte Sound.

My dad did most of the planning for this trip as I’ve been bolting around all over the world. In the last three weeks alone I’ve been on three continents and spent about 35 hours in the air. My dad is really more of an urbanite than the outdoorsy type and I was therefore a bit surprised when my dad suggested we take a ferry into one of the islands of Queen Charlotte Sound, and hike 15km (nearly 10 miles) from Ship Cove to the Furneaux Lodge where we’d be picked up.

I was so proud to see him troop on through. The first 30 minutes were a pretty decent climb up to the top of a hill, followed by never ending set of undulations as we circumnavigated the island from the sides of its hills. Total hike time was about 4 hours, terminating in a bar serving fantastic brie and chicken burgers with cold beers.

As far as views goes—my dad sure knows how to pick a hike!