Arrival to Dalian

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I made it to Dalian. I arrived very late at night and was greeted by a man holding a sign with my name on it who spoke no English. In CQ one of the secretaries picked me up and showed me around – not this time. Oh well.
My first night in Dalian sucked. My apartment that they gave me is disgusting. There was some sort of insect genocide right before I came because there were dead flies and other critters everywhere. EW. Its also really muggy here so things kind of smell funny and mold is a common sight. My blankets stink too. Ugh.
The next morning my big brother came to see me. He has been living here for 4 years and one of the big reasons why I moved to China in the first place. I figured it would be a good chance to spend some quality time with my only sibling and experience a new culture (and make money) all at the same time. What more could I ask for? (I know of one small, tiny thing – AM)
Anyway, we went out for breakfast at a place owned by one of the school’s old librarians and his wife. It was nice to have some eggs and coffee. After that we went into Kaifaqu. It takes 30 minutes to get there on the Qingwei (subway). Kaifaqu has almost everything you need – grocery stores, McDonalds, Starbucks, etc. Apparently in the city of Dalian there is an IKEA and a ‘Metro’. Metro is supposed to be the equivalent of Costco but I know deep down inside it won’t be as good.
The day was exhausting. We walked everywhere and ran around doing errands like crazy. It ended very well though – my brothers wonderful roommate cooked us a BBQ dinner. I ended up staying the night there because 1) transportation apparently stops at 630pm, 2) It was fun and 3) My apartment is nasty. It felt so weird and yet so good to be in someone’s home, sitting on a couch, and talking English for so long.
The next morning was our first official day of work. Well, technically it was my 6th official day but I missed the first 5 because I was in CQ and HK doing other stuff. Anyway – we had a staff meeting, listened to a long speech in Chinese and then met with our departments. Today I found out I am teaching Social Studies. This should be interesting. I am also a teacher on call (TOC) for the rest of the school. I hope I get to do a few PE classes.
The next few days are full of Professional Development courses and department meetings. Our first day of classes with the kids is September 1st . I hope I do OK – everyone else here has some teaching experience, a TESL or equivalent certificate, and/or a teaching degree. Not me though, I have absolutely nothing.

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Comments

[Clair]

Nothing!
You have two degrees and lots of experience coaching and working AND and very positive attitude!