Some Random Things

CHINA POST
Getting to the post office is quite an ordeal. For some reason, they don't have many post offices around nor do they have postal boxes (like the red Canada Post drop-boxes). When it was warmer, I was able to walk to the post office, which is btw a 40 mins. walk!

Now that it is colder, I need to take a taxi to get there. So about 2 weeks ago after school, Genelle and I asked Yolanda to help us get a taxi to go to the post office. She hailed a taxi quite quickly, but after she told the driver where we wanted to go he started driving off (with the door STILL open!). I have no idea why he refused to drive us to the post office...but anyway, the second taxi driver was ok with it.

The post office here is not like the post offices in Canada. They don't sell stamps, they don't have postcards, envelopes, etc....They just have rows us chairs (cuz for some services, you have to take a number and wait to get called to the counter) and they have different windows that you line up at to get service. I'm not sure if I'm going by the correct procedure, but I don't bother taking a number and I just go up to the window that says postal/parcel service.

They actually provide envelopes and stuff for you (which they probably include in the postal fee) and it takes a while because you have to fill out forms and wait for them to put stickers/labels on. And sadly, they don't use actual stamps :(; they just stamp on a stamp OR print out something to stick onto your envelope. I wish they used actual stamps because it's nice to see what stamps they use here. oh wellz...

ANYWAY, that night after school....I got my mail processed pretty quickly since there was hardly anyone there. I had a feeling it would be difficult to get a taxi to go home since it was rush hour & our area doesn't have as many taxis. Genelle and I walked up the street a little and stood there waving our arms to hail a cab. The traffic was pretty heavy and the odd taxi that we saw either was already occupied or it was not willing to stop to pick us up. It was getting cold and we decided to jog a little up the street to wait at a taxi stop. We started singing "Sound of Music" songs to keep us from thinking about the cold...

"Raindrops on roses, and whiskers on kittens.....When the dog bites/When the bee stings/When I'm feeling sad...I simply remember my favourite things/And then I don't feel so bad...!"

Eventually, we had enough and went to a nearby coffee shop that we had gone to a previous Saturday. I was freezing and SOOOOO hungry! The same waitress was there and we tried to tell her we wanted to call a taxi (since waving one down from the street was clearly not working). She was so nice and tried to help us even though she couldn't understand us. We ended up calling the taxi company we usually use and they said they couldn't say how long it would take for a taxi to arrive. So we ordered some food to eat and I read an English newspaper & flipped through some Chinese magazines. It think we were there for 2 hours...and finally the waitress was able to call a taxi for us and we were finaly able to get home.

So a 20 mins. trip to the post office turned out to be a 3-hour one! SO when you receive snail-mail from me, know that it was sent with lots of love!


BRRRRRR
I remember the day before our Halloween party at school, I was doing the 5 Little Pumpkins poem with my class and there's a line that goes "WOOOOO went the wind....". We were going outside for outdoor play and it was SO windy and all my kids were saying "WOOOOO!!!!" They were all so excited. hehee It was strange because the poem seemed to foreshadow that it would become windy and cold...
Anyway, on Halloween night, it turned really COLD!!!! And because there is no centralized heating and because the insulation in the walls is next to nothing here, it feels just as cold or even colder inside.

To make things worse, we couldn't get the warm air function of any of our air conditioners to work! So I made up my mind---I was going to get myself a space heater! So I went to Carrefour and coincidentally, there was one on promotion & and it was good brand (Midea). I immediately said I wanted one but then realized that I wouldn't be able to get it home by myself. Genelle decided to get the same one too. So using our body language we got the Carrefour lady to find someone that spoke English. And out came a cute, short lady (she was probably the height of one of our kids at school) and she spoke really good English. She explained that they could deliver the heaters to our apartment [i[for free! When they filled out the delivery form, I specifically asked them to write down the date (which was Nov.4) and the time they would come (and we requested 5pm since we don't get off work until 4:30pm) in case we later had to refer to it later on---which we did so thank goodness I asked them to write those details down & sign it!

So guess what? no one showed up on Nov.4 and we waited and waited. I tried to call Carrefour, but no one picked up. The next day, Carrefour called me when I was at work....I called them back at lunch and they said that they had come to our apartment yesterday, but no one was home. They said they came at around 4:30pm....and right away I said that I had told them (when we were at the store filling out the delivery form) that we could not be home until 5pm because we work and they said OK!!!! So why would they have come early??? If they were professional, they should have called to let us know what was happening yesterday. I put on my stern, teacher voice and arranged for them to come again that day (Nov.5) at the same time...5pm and I said I had a 5:30pm appointment so I would not be able to wait if they came late.

5pm came and went...no sign of any Carrefour delivery people. At ths point, Genelle and I were not happy. Fortunately, it wasn't too cold that day...if it had been, I would have been really mad. So we stomped off to Carrefour with a game plan. We were going to be very serious and demand to speak with a manager. When the Carrefour man saw me holding the yellow delivery receipt paper...I think he knew exactly why we were there. Right away, we asked to speak to someone who spoke English. They told us there was no one on staff that night who spoke English---convenient for them, eh? Instead they said they could deliver it now. So what I don't understand is, obviously there were people available to make the delivery so why were they standing here and not at our apartment delivery our heaters? If they said they could do it now, then why did it have to take us marching down to Carrefour in order to get the delivery done?
He got a cart and got 2 heaters from the store shelf (which is again odd because they had already known we had bought 2 heaters....so shouldn't they have kept 2 aside for us or have it already in their delivery truck?). He kept on saying, let's go now!

But that was not the point, we wanted to talk to someone to make a complaint or at least make them give us a free gift or something!!!
I called Julie (who speaks Mandarin) to talk to the man who was "handling" our situation. She told me that he said he was not happy with us because HE was actually the manager & we weren't willing to talk to him? Well, it wasn't that we weren't willing to talk to him...it's because we cannot speak Mandarin!!!!!

In the end, we didn't get a free gift and we couldn't submit a complaint. But we got our heaters. To add to the story...the delivery was not a very pleasant experience. This manager man that had been "handling" our situation got this guy--a teen---(who I gather was an employee of the store, but didn't have on a Carrefour uniform) who looked sickly and skinny. He had the cart with our 2 heaters and I was thinking he was just going to help us push the heaters to the exit. But when we got to the exit, he just lifted up the security poles and kept going up the escalator. I was wondering, how is this delivery happening? Well, the delivery truck was the shopping cart. This teenage boy was going to push the cart down the rode with us leading him to our apartment. I felt HORRIBLE! This was ridiculous & not what I had signed up for. And it was even worse when we got to our complex and there was no ramp for him to go up to our building. There was a flight of steps so he had to take out the heaters from the cart and carry them up. And the heaters are heavy! I felt SO bad...I hate to see people struggling or do hard labour (well, in my eyes, it is hard labour) like that. That is totally not proper treatment. It made me feel so upset. SIGHHHHHH

I was able to put the space heater together...the wheels and everything...and I did it all by myself! :)
I haven't had to use the space heater yet, because we got the warm air mode on our air conditioners working. But's it's gotten even colder, so I feel like I'll be making use of it very very soon!

I actually wish I could roll my space heater to work because for some reason, the school keeps the windows and doors open---to let in fresh air! But it is freeeezing cold inside and I have to layer up like an onion.

a Heu
I actually don't know how to spell the name of the lady who drives us home from the subway in her motor bike-carriage. I think it's her last name...but it sounds like "Heu". Anyway, so there are always a bunch of motorcycles and other people with motor-bikes w/ a little carriage attached....to drive people home from the subway. They charge like 5 RMB.
My housemate and I are not lazy to walk...but it's just nice when it's late or when it's rainy or cold to not have to walk 10 mins. to get home. And also, a Heu is such a sweet lady and she remembered us & where our complex was only after the 1st time we got a ride from her.

It also seems like these motorbike-carriages get the right-of-way. She is a pro at driving on the streets with her bike...she cuts through wide intersections like there's no other cars and just keeps going even when it's a red light.

ILLEGAL STANDS?
Last weekend, we went walking/shopping around Huaihai Lu. As we were walking and crossing the streets, random people would constantly come up & wave a piece of paper in our face saying "bags, watches???". I just kept walking and ignored them.

Then on the sidewalk, there were scarf stands, jewellery stands, book stands (which btw sold fake copies of books)....set up. We were looking at some scarves and suddenly the lady just folded up her stand/table and started carrying it away. I was kind of stunned because I was wondering, how did she just do that and fold up everything like that all at once? Meanwhile, I still had the scarf that I had been looking at in my hand, so I quickly just passed it/threw it back to her. She told us, in Mandarin, to follow her (to some back alley??) and I said "bu yao" (don't want). We walked ahead as quickly as we could to get away from her…and she followed us a bit waving the scarf & kept on lowering the price to convince us to buy it. But I sad "bu yao...bu yao" and kept on walking. It was funny because down the street, we passed by the book stand man. So that means he had probably folded up his stand and relocated down the street.....but we hadn't seen him pass us as we were going down the street, so how did he get there so fast?

Anyway, I think these vendors didn't have a permit or it's illegal to have sidewalk stands. Perhaps there was a police nearby so that's why they suddenly just folded up their stand and moved elsewhere.

TEACHERS OF THE MONTH
One day, Ivy (one of my Chinese co-teachers) said we had to take a picture together. And I was kind of confused and she said something about the principal and vice-principals....anyway, so later I find out that it's because we, the K1 teachers were voted the teachers of the month!

During an English meeting last week, Joanne told us that found the school has decided to have teachers of the month...where the principals choose either a single teacher or a group of teachers to be the teachers of the month. This news would be passed on to Maggie, who is the president/founder of the school. They started this for the month of October.

I was wondering how they decide about teachers of the month. My Chinese co-teachers explained they talk about it during their Chinese teacher meetings, but mainly the principals decide. So I guess English teachers don't have a say.
Anyway, Ivy said that Joanne, Holly, Delia and the Chinese teachers made mention that I had been doing a particularly great job! I felt kind of surprised because all along, they've never really said anything like that (at least not directly to me) and in our English meetings, they always say we can be doing better. It's strange because it's not a custom for them to give out praise. And none of the principals had ever came up to me to say anything good or bad about how I was doing.

I was flattered and I appreciated that they had been noticing the effort that I've been putting into my students and my class.
But I was embarrassed during our English meeting last week because on the agenda was "Rebecca is awesome!". When they got to that point, the principals and my coordinator just started talking about me and I felt so uncomfortable. I don't like to be the centre of attention and also, I felt kind of bad that they were saying all these things about me while my English colleagues were sitting there...and even though everyone's been working hard, they weren't receiving any commendations like I was.

So I must say that I think all of us English teachers should get praised because overall, we have been doing great and putting in lots of time & energy into creating awesome classroom environments and lessons for our students. :)

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