An Ordinary Day in China | Work, Kids, and Life in a Small City

before my daughter leaves I check her schoolbag for her at her age she still has a habit of losing her pens although to be fair she's gotten much better at it this year I also put a few tissues in her bag she's had a bit of a runny nose these past few days and of course I fill up her water bottle all right time for my daily wake up service breakfast is very simple today millet porridge and fried eggs kids always seem to move at their own pace I used to get impatient when she took forever to get ready but now I'm trying to remind myself to slow down a

little she's still very young after all this morning she looked like she was still half asleep she barely said a word on the way to school that's very different from her usual self the kids have all headed off to school and now it's time for me to go home and get back to work about half a month ago I took on this Powerpoint project at first I was pretty happy about it I thought the pay was reasonable but the deeper I got into the work the more I realized that it really wasn't worth the time I was putting into it when I calculate how many hours I've

actually spent on it I've already been working on it for more than 10 days but even though I feel like the project isn't really worth it I'm still going to finish it for me making money is very important right now life doesn't stop and wait for you just because you're tired suddenly I remembered that I hadn't watered my plants for several days so I quickly filled up a basin with water I'm honestly not very good at taking care of plants when I first buy them I'm always very enthusiastic but after a while I usually forget to water them these two computers

on my desk are both used for work this laptop is a second hand Lenovo that I bought for $800 three years ago and the desktop computer next to it is already seven years old they've both been working alongside me for years during my work I sometimes stop for a few minutes and just stare into space thinking about nothing just sitting there for a while for me that counts as a little break too today at noon the fishing boats here are going back out to sea so I decided to put my work aside for a while and go down to the harbor to take a look it's also a good

excuse to give myself a little break from may to September each year there is a seasonal fishing ban along the coast of Shandong during this period apart from certain small fishing boats that are allowed to operate most fishing vessels are not permitted to go out and fish over the years because of the pressure from overfishing the amount of fish in the sea has been declining so several years ago a strict fishing moratorium was introduced here giving marine life time to reproduce and recover and today the fishing ban has ended these boats can finally head

back out to sea around here owning a large fishing boat like this definitely means you're relatively a fishing boat like this can cost several million dollars to build for an ordinary family that's an enormous investment a lot of people have come to the harbor today just to see their family members off their husbands fathers sons or other relatives are heading out to sea because once they leave they'll usually be away for at least a week sometimes even longer around here fishing boat workers can make relatively good money a crew member can earn around

$150 a day but it's definitely not an easy job when they're out at sea sometimes they only get four or five hours of sleep a day long hours of physical labor combined with rough seas and all the uncertainty of working offshore make this a job that not everyone can handle the fishing boats leave in a specific order these are the boats waiting for their turn the crew members are also making their final preparations you'll notice that people who work on fishing boats for years usually have very strong physiques they look tough and capable and these are the

people who have come to say goodbye no matter how far you travel your family will always be the ones who worry about you the most the sound of firecrackers in the distance is coming from fishing boats that have already left setting off firecrackers when fishing boats head out to sea is also an old tradition here people do it to wish the fishermen good luck before they begin their journey while they are waiting some of the crew members are even playing Chinese chess on the boat some are getting ready to leave some are having a meal and some are standing

by the shore talking with their families everything looks very ordinary but for them this is still a very important moment as I watched the fishing boats slowly disappear into the distance I suddenly felt like I wanted to go out to sea with them many years ago I had dreams of traveling to back then I also wanted to go to many different places and see more of the world but somehow a lot of those things never happened for most ordinary people we eventually find our way back to our everyday lives work children family and all the little things we do over and

over again I'm just an ordinary person there's nothing particularly dramatic about my life most of the time I'm simply living an ordinary life one day at a time maybe this is just the life that belongs to me inthe afternoon I went back to my computer and continued working on that Powerpoint project I worked until it was time to pick up my daughter from school today I arrived a little early the children hadn't come out yet this is actually one of my favorite moments of the day no work no one asking me to hurry just standing outside the school and waiting

quietly the first children to come out are the first graders and soon I see my daughter last night I promised her that I would buy her a cup of milk tea after school today so now it's time to keep that little promise she has such a happy smile on her face looking at her I suddenly feel like I don't want this moment to pass too quickly I wish time could slow down just a little our children grow up a little more every day and we grow a little older too that's why I'm starting to realize more and more that the ordinary days the ones that seem so remarkable

are often the ones worth cherishing the most that's all for today thank you for spending the day with me see you next time