Stage Two

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Day 25 - Twenty-five quick days here in China and I feel like enough has happened since my last entry to entertain you with some more tales of my exploits and adventures...

Firstly and most importantly I now have a job! I am officially a teacher from this moment on, well since Sunday when I signed the contract. I think the fools hired me almost entirely because of my 'BBC accent', who knew that the blessed BBC's influence had reached this far into central China. I watched a couple of Katie's lessons (she's the girl who's job and flat I've taken) and it looked like a piece of piss but then it was Katie's last lessons so she was just playing games with them, plus she speaks fluent Mandarin which helps. Almost a year after Tarn gave me a Mandarin CD I've finally begun to listen to it everyday but I'm still only managing to learn about one word a day.

I've moved out of John's place now and am living in Christine's apartment. When I last wrote J&D had left that morning so I was looking forward to a few days of quiet before living with Christine who's (openly) a little intense. But one of my friend's from Beijing came down and stayed with me for the rest of my time there, I taught her how to ride a bike, she taught me to be brave when crossing the Chinese roads (they're very scary) so it was a good exchange. Talking of bikes, I now have one of my own! It's a new bike without gears (apparently that's the Chinese way) and cost the equivalent of 20 pound, so a pretty good deal. I've spent the day riding around in town, soaking up the car fumes.

The Chinese, or the Chinese I've encountered in the cities, are quite different from my impressions I had before coming. They're by and large very friendly but at the same time they grate on my nerves if I'm surrounded by them for a long time without any western safety net. They stare. Not just a quick glance at you because they're surprised to see a white face but literally stare without any hint of self-consciousness up to a minute a time, which is a long time if you're eating and don't want to be stared at. I've never felt threatened in China just uncomfortable when you realise that couples have stopped in the street to look at you. It's not always so bad and it's almost always limited to the older generation (30+), it's still strange though. Perhaps that it's just that I don't speak the language so I feel disconnected from them.

Still there are other problems, such as their approach to queuing, a sure sign of a civilised nation, it's like they've heard of the concept as there are often queue lanes but choose to have no truck with it, which can be very infuriating. My final jab at China is the pollution here, it's so bad at times that you can feel fine grit coating your teeth. I think because I'm new here I'm finding it particularly bad but then I came from London so I should be used to it. In London I feel like the pollution is by and large limited to the centre, whereas here in Hangzhou it pervades even the outskirts of the city where I am now with almost the same vehemence.

Despite the negatives, I'm still really enjoying myself here and I'm really pleased to be in China. I don't know how I'd like it without some of the Western luxuries (Ros skip pass this bit) I've eaten more McDonalds in the past month than in the previous 10 years of living in the UK, it's nice to be able to fall back into familiar territory after being surrounded by such foreignness, plus noodles loose their limited appeal if you eat them every day.

Before I started rambling I was talking about living in Christine's place, it's nice here, very Chinese. It's a Chinese style apartment which means no elevator but only a max of seven floors (I'm on the 6th), there's one kitchen shared between four families and me which is fine as I only make tea (the drinking kind) there and one bathroom. I call it a bathroom but there's no bath, there's a shower that hangs over the toilet and a washing machine. I'm not sure how long I'd like to live in a place like this, not because I'm a snob (although that might be part of the reason) I just don't feel like I have any... no it's because I don't like sharing with people I don't know, can't speak to and they're families, it's like student halls but without the drinking, the cleaners and young people. But still I'm grateful for the chance to try living like a lot of the Chinese do. Again if I spoke the language I'm sure my experience would be very different.

I'm moving into my own place on Wednesday which I'm really looking forward to and then it's my first day teaching on Friday so I'm going to start preparing tomorrow. I'm still looking for a full time job as I need a working visa (I've just put in my tourist visa to be extended) but I've had a few emails from potential schools so I'm hoping that I'll get something soon.

I've bought a microphone for John's mac so I'm now able to use skype, my username is alexherronabroad so I can talk for free to you. Money's tight as usual.

Umm, just trying to think if there are any other interesting tales I can regale to you or insightful musing I can impress you with. But I can't think of anything...

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