Our first days in Tai'an, China

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February 4th 2009

Published: February 16th 2009

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DavidnLynne

at the park

CHINA DAY 1
We have arrived! Our host met us at the airport with impeccable timing (You know just as we were looking like 2 stupid lost tourists). A brief chat and we find out that we are not off to Jinan (it was always on the cards) we are off to Tai'An. Tai'An is 1.5 hours drive south of Jinan. All the research we did on Jinan is out the window! Bugger! Miss Yen, the principal of the school, does not speak English....Does anyone else see something ironic about a principal of a private English teaching institution not being able to speak English?! Now off you go you have a long drive ahead. An hour later and we can see the sky for the first time....Not from pollution low cloud, even landing in the plane we popped out of the clouds and hit the ground and another half hour later we pull in to our new home (for the next month at least).

Well I will take some pictures for all the folks at home and let you decide. The unit itself is humble, sort of what the average teen would set up when they move out of home

coloured chickens in a bag

with a very limited income! Our principal will also take us out for a welcome dinner (yes you know the English thing will make for an interesting evening) but we are joined by Helen who is also an English teacher and Helen does speak English, at the school so it made for an extremely delicious dinner and fun....Food! mountains of it and all so tasty, spiced Lamb, Toffee coated sweet potato, chicken, mushrooms, sweet & sour pork (a big favourite) some sort of soup made from egg and corn (sweet), pickles....beer of course and then some dumplings. By the time the dumplings arrived we were so full we would have burst but Lynne had a try I will have some tomorrow for brekky. Yes we can take a doggy bag home (not literal). Our hosts walk us home and we set about settling in. Doing stuff like figuring out the hot water, looking for the internet connection (looks like dial up....Hmmmm? time warp back to the late 80's man). “What are you doing! Stop we'll do it tomorrow...Ok!” (Lynne is moving the furniture around!) Very limited English speaking channels on the box, they do have digital reception so the pic

Tai'an at night.

Looks can be decieving, this place is huge! and still growing.

is crystal clear.

Day 2, Helen returned to give us a bit of a guided tour and help with the buses and local shopping. A brief guided tour, the bus system was surprisingly good (CHEAP!), a lot of shops here, KFC's and one Mc Donald's! “Is there WiFi we ask?” and and ominous silence follows “I don't know” says Helen. Oh...No! “WHAT HAVE WE GOTTEN OURSELVES INTO!”. I think at this time we realised how different things would be for the next 12 months and it scared the sh*t out of me!. I did not realise it at the time, communication with the rellies back home, no matter how intermittent, looked far away and I think this was a big hit to our souls. We visited our workplace and met all the other Chinese English teachers...Kiki, Wendy, Cindy, Lily, Lychee, Bonnie, Chris, Helen, ...these are the English names these girls have chosen. There are 500 students, obviously not all at the same time as there are only 6 classrooms. Our classes will have about 20 students at a time.

We parted from our host and walked for a while noticing all the people looking at us and feeling

Our lounge room.

Well not what we had in Aus but it is comfy!

very small in a big town. We did notice on our brief tour of the main street in Tai'an that there are some commercial looking coffee shops. Sort of the equivalent to Gloria Jeans and Starbucks. We stopped in at one of the coffee shops and asked the question, 2 things surprised us, 1 the waiter spoke English very well and he knew what WiFi was yes it is available and it was free! YES! the cry went out and we were happy we could get reasonable coffee and access to the net at our leisure. We both started to feel much better so we moseyed back to the shopping centre to collect some supplies for our new humble abode. Like a normal shopping centre it has all the usual stuff but one specific thing we went for I was very surprised to find was not stocked....Deodorant, 400 different types of toilet paper, 1000 different face creams a lolly section which would put Willy Wonka's factory to shame but only 3 bottles of deodorant! what happens during summer....i guess we will wait and see. We will be calling out to out friends in Aus for a care pack! PLEASE!

The mirror makes the place look big.

Lounge and study in one....compact!

Day 3, Time to take the laptops out for a run in the new town, off to the coffee shop for a test run....cool! works well, good connection and fast. I could not find anything on the net as far as WiFi related info for places outside Beijing so it is such a relief. The level of curiosity is much higher here, everywhere we go there are some who just straight out stand and stare others look and then look away quickly when we turn their way, parents are quite happy to point us out to their children. People on the bus not only stand and offer the seat but insist to the point of pushing you into it (I would have preferred it if the guy who did this for me wasn't plastered and smelt like a bottle of spirit) then sitting down, breathing heavy (phew!) and gesturing something which I think was positive in nature...? He smiled a lot and Lynne and I just smiled and waved in return...Many here do speak a little English but they lack confidence so don't come out with much other than "Hello How are you. I'm fine thank you" all in one

Kitchen.

We eat out a lot any way.

breath.

So time to get a new sim for the phone, I am game to give it a go. I enter the phone shop (bucket loads of them here) and ask “do you speak English” “Yes...a little” sweet I say...thinking, a little is wonderful thing, within no time I have my sim and an on my way. Extremely happy with the level of assistance we received. Big kudos to China Mobile for the friendly service.

We sat in the coffee shop and relaxed surfing the net. Now we have noticed a distinct lack of western faces in this town, this is of why we are the subject of such interest, the population here is approx 1,000,000 Chinese and now it is 1,000,000 + 2 westerners, that's us anyway until we find others.

Day4, we are on the net....the next answer is no! I am not going to do this every day for the next 12 months just the first week then I'll break it down to monthly.
I have found 5 distinct temperature zones on my body when I exit the building:
1)Toes to ankles, approx 8-12deg
2)Ankles to hips, 1-2 degrees above the ambient (which is

Lynne at the entry.

to our apartment. Our place is the second floor on the right....

not bloody hot)
3)Hips to neck, cosy 15-20 deg, big fluffy jacket!
4)Chin to brow.....Bloody freezing (Der! exposed to the cold)
5)Brow to top of my head, comfortable cus of my beenie! (not cus of my hair...Ha!)
The internet is on at home also now but only accessible from 1 computer so we will try to fix with a router i hope this works it will make life cheaper for us. (save on coffee visits).

Day5, We have a nick name for some of the actions that we see “exorcisimist” this is where the heads spin around or the eyes spin in the sockets to look as we walk by or you see the quick elbow to the ribs of the person they are sitting with. Yea it is getting easier and a lot more fun, walking around i mean, we met some tourists today and met some other 'un-local' locals. All of whom are eager to exchange mobile numbers and get together for a chat and exchange banter. There is no shortage of people willing to help if you are stuck but the communication is a slight problem but hey, that's why we are here right. The local

The road to the front door.

government is trying to boost the tourism and i am told over 6 million people visit this town each year (Lynne told me), mostly Chinese tourists. A great need for translation of basic signs and some maps would not go astray. Accommodation is fantastic there are some huge, plush hotels here to cater for every need and some budget rooms too. The largest problem is possibly the amount to do, there is only a few things to visit here the big attraction is the mountain Taishan very steep and a hard climb at approx 4hrs (plus or minus 2hrs depending on your fitness level). We have not attempted it yet and will let you know when we do for sure (the pain will begin again).

The weekend!
Well I don't think we mentioned it but we had training this weekend for our new positions. We met other teachers and they helped a great deal offering advise and if you are a new teacher going abroad to teach, it is as hard as it feels! You do get used to it, our days were filled with discussion and practice lessons, big lunches and bigger dinners....food here is so cheap! We

both views.....Hmmmm?

We did not expect this and it was a surprise.

have finished and we were expecting to start work on the 20th ease into normal classes and then have a meet the parents thing with some open classes to recruit new students in the school. BANG! there goes that idea.

It is Tuesday the 10th we decide to go the new school to see what resources we have to work with.....Hey while your here we will shoot a TV commercial and by the way you have an open day this weekend! WHAT! I am told that the colour drained from my face!(Lynne told me) so they should have told me after the commercial shoot! I hated parent teacher day when I was the subject of the scrutiny in school now I am 40 and I am still the subject of scrutiny from parents only this time my job is on the line! NO PRESSURE!!!!!So now my mind is a buzz with what to do ... i have to impress the teachers, the students, the parents, the teachers of the school we visit, the teachers of our school and possibly ME! I have a secret weapon in mind......a sock puppet!

Catch you next time and i tell you how