Hey Guys,

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!! Working and going through with CSA has opened
a world of firsts for me but one thing I thought I’d never be doing in
a million years is organising a Thanksgiving Party!!!! I mean the Brit
guy organising a distinctly American Holiday?!?!?!  What’s all that
about?!

Been running around Beijing like a headless chicken (or should that be
turkey) for the last couple of weeks to find the ingredients to make a
good Thanksgiving for my first attempt. First thing’s first, it ain’t
cheap to do so seeing as most of the ingredients are imported and so
needed to head to specialist shops. See here at CSA there’s no expense
spared going all out for the students! Haha, I digress slightly! The
next problem is to find a turkey as ovens aren’t standard in Chinese
apartments and trying to order a roast turkey with stuffing and
cranberry sauce took some inventive Chinese and hand gestures indeed!!
Finally got it all together and just needed to put it all together.

So crunch time 5pm today saw all hands on deck as everyone pitched in
with peeling and mashing potatoes, rushing about buying last minute
snacks and party stuff which was great as isn’t that what Thanksgiving
is all about? Everyone coming together???! Several plates of turkey,
mash potato, gravy, cranberry sauce, bread, salad, pasta, chicken,
apple pie, ice-cream later saw everyone fit to burst!!! All seemed to
have a good time which was awesome, made all the hard work worth it
seeing 30+ people chatting and all having fun.

Thanks to the CSA crew for mucking in and proving that many hands make
light work! You guys rock! Also a special thanks to Denise for an
awesome pasta and fantastic Caesar salad!

Hope you guys have a great Thanksgiving!
Until next time. I’m off to sleep for the next few days!

Rob

Today, someone told me that I was the best boss that she’s ever had. A few months ago, another employee said the exact same thing to me. And it means a lot. I’m not bragging, okay, maybe I am, but that’s only because it’s so important to me. A lot of times I don’t really consider myself right for the business world because my priority isn’t to make a lot of money. Yes, making money is great, but I think it’s only incidental to the ultimate satisfaction which comes from making the people you work with, in this case customers, employees, and supervisors, happy. That’s a really difficult thing to live by because it’s pretty much impossible to gauge the happiness of those around you, unlike money which is absolutely quantifiable. But I have found certain aspects of this job very satisfactory; trust me it isn’t the money, haha.

I think that it only happens in moments, like when someone will say thank you, or when I am able to help or provide for someone. Most things in life are pretty thankless. The best example is my good friend Feng-wei. Because our company has been expanding, we needed to hire another program advisor, and Feng-wei fit the bill perfectly. So, I trained him and now he works for us! And the best feeling about this is that our company is able to provide for one of my close friends, who only a year ago was delivering pizzas for tips. And maybe the ultimate dream of entrepreneurship is to create a sort of micro-utopia in which the people that interact with or are a part of that corporation are treated fairly and with respect.

That being said, it’s been a tough semester. And lately, I’ve been feeling really down about things because we had to split off with a valued employee of the company. I consider this person a close friend, but it wasn’t exactly an amicable departure. I’m a pretty emotional person, and this has been quite a strain. However, I try not to mention it to people because I believe that it’s important to remain professional at all times. But sometimes, I wish that people could see that although CSA is a company, it is comprised of very human people. Every single person in this company cares about the welfare of our students and staff, and we take it very personally when students have needs that aren’t being met.

As a program director, I make it my utmost priority to be as fair as possible to each and every single student. I’ve done my best to reach out to students to let them know that I am more than willing to hear them out about every single thing, be it a word of praise or complaint. I also do my best to ask my employees about how things are going with them as well. However, I don’t have very thick skin so it isn’t always easy to remain unbiased and impartial, but I do my best. As I said before, what matters most is that students have a great experience studying abroad here in China.

Part of the reason we decided to start this staff blog was to show students and potential customers the human face behind China Study Abroad. And let me be the first to tell you, that the foremost goal of all of the talented people working at CSA is to further promote international education. We all could be making a lot more money working somewhere else, but we want to be here. We like you! And we hope that when you get to know us, you’ll like us too!

~Jason