The adventure continues - Hello Hangzhou

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Again I’m super sorry for the delay but again it’s been a crazy couple of weeks. Pretty much topped off with having my phone stolen and over here in China you have no hope of ever getting it back again so I haven’t been able to contact anyone. I know it’s only a phone but it was the one way of keeping in contact with people back in the UK, it had numbers in it I’ll never get back, photos that can never be replaced. So yeah there were a lot of tears.

So now to back track back to Christmas eve and making my way to Hangzhou.

Christmas the true story

I booked my train tickets and had to get the 0830 train from Shanghai Hongqaio train station, you can’t book your taxi in advance and with a massive suitcase and many bags I didn’t want to get tube with it all. Thankfully at 0710 the security guard at my hotel flagged me down a taxi. It’s a fair way from the hotel but only cost be 40 Yuan. It cost £6 to cross Warminster which in comparison is ridiculous. Upon entering the train station I honestly thought I’d been taken to the airport next door as it had security checks, scanners and a waiting area that was huge, seats in rows and shops like a airport. When booking the ticket the lady asked if I wanted 2^nd or 1^st class seats. I opted for 2^nd class to save pennies but when boarding the train I felt like I was in 1^st class on a plan. 2 or 3 seats in a row, plugs, leg room enough to put another person in front of you. A cleaner with a broom coming past every 20mins sweeping the aisle. Toilets for every carriage, which equates to 2 loos for every 30 people. I got the bullet train so the journey from Shanghai to Hangzhou only took an 1hr to cross about 70miles, it takes like a hour to get to Bath from Warminster and you’re not even guaranteed a seat. And the whole thing only cost me £15. Anyway an enjoyable train journey seeing the countryside and weird houses along the way.

Before I got on the train and before I had the VISA interview I had written to HR to ask whether I could stay in Shanghai till Thursday since the hotel room was paid up until the 9^th Jan in Shanghai, explaining that I had made plans for Christmas day in Shanghai and that it was technically my day off anyway. I got an email back saying ‘Your transfer day is Tuesday 23^rd, speak to you LLD’ I couldn’t speak to my LLD as she was back home for Christmas, although I had previously been in contact with the SFT at my centre as she had invited me to her Christmas Eve party, I declined saying that I has asked to stay in Shanghai and she said ‘yeah that fine, hope you have a good day’. I had then emailed her back later in the day saying ‘Really sorry Casey but I’m coming on Tuesday now can you still meet me at the station’. I’m not sure what’s going on with my Yahoo email but it’s not been sending all of my emails. Needless to say no-one met me at the station. I managed to get a taxi and even he couldn’t find the hotel I had been given from the Chinese address, I eventually saw the Disney English centre (much more obvious than the Dahua centre) and it turned out the hotel was directly across the road from it. The room in short was huge, had a wardrobe and an armchair to chill in. I’ll get to the long version later of what wasn’t great about it.

So by the time I got off the train arrived in Xiaoshan – which turns out to be miles away from the actual city of Hangzhou and got booked into the hotel is was nearly 11. I was knackered so I had a nap and made sure I was up by 1300 to get to work as I had assumed that I was working that day. Yeah that was the wrong idea. I arrived and was greeted by the CC’s on front desk who manically went to search for Alex as apparently no-one was in. We found Alex who greeted me by saying ‘What are you doing here, you’re not supposed to start till Friday, go home and come back then’ (was said in a funny manner) I honestly could have cried then and Alex must have noticed my annoyance as he said ‘Come on lets show you around and your classroom too’ I was about to leave after the tour when Manya arrived in the centre. Can’t remember if I mentioned her before but I met her at Dahua and soon found out she was transferring to Xiaoshan to be the SLP and was starting the day before me. For the rest of the day I hung around with her, (SHE SIMPLY ROCKS BY THE WAY, I DON’T KNOW HOW I WOULD HAVE SURVIVED WITHOU HER) we tried getting me a phone but didn’t succeed as I didn’t have my passport back yet and they wouldn’t accept anything else. But there was no point in going back to my hotel so I didn’t mind. Whilst Manya did some work I pottered around in my classroom which was pretty much a blank slate bar loads of rubbish in the cupboards. So I cleaned those out and restocked it with stationary and other things I’d need when my classes start – O yeah thats another thing to come back too. But since then I’ve done the displays, sorted out reward systems and planned the first 3 lessons of the 3 classes.

Anyway we finished off at work and Manya me and another FT called James - yeah no comments thank you. Went over to Casey’s flat around the corner for the Christmas party where I finally got to meet Casey who had a bit of a shocked having not received the email and was very apologetic (I have since written and email to complain about the whole situation and then sent another one explaining it wasn’t anyone at my centres fault but HR’s) and another FT Rebecca. We celebrated Christmas, watched some random Christmas movies drank ate and then Casey’s Phillopino fiancé returned from work with more people and lots more food. I was knackered by then and excused myself as I needed to sleep. I also hadn’t booked a ticket to go back to Shanghai so knew I needed to be up early to try find the metro stop (that’s a 30/40min walk away from the hotel) get to the ticket office and try get a train back that would get me to Shanghai before the 12 o’clock Christmas mass at a church Mae had found. OOOO yes now back to the hotel so not to keep jumping back and forth on this topic, the stay wasn’t so great:



* My bathroom was never actually properly cleaned whilst I was there. Which is my excuse for ‘rescuing’ some toilet roll for my apartment whilst there.



* I constantly had ‘female company’ cards placed through my door every evening. Of which I’m sure most of the girls worked at the foot spa next door to the hotel

* There were items on my bed side table that suggested the actual ‘business’ness of the hotel. Including longer lasting oil, spare underwear, condoms and a vibrating cock ring. Of course these were charged items so they stayed in the hotel.

* The other guests seemed to only make noise from 1am onwards which included shouting, slamming doors etc

* And then there was the outside noise, which should really have its own blog page but I’ve complained enough to others about it already so I’ll save you the pain. But there seemed to be a festival or something on outside from day 1 to day 21 of my stay in the hotel. Constant banging drums and tins, singing, chanting and of course fireworks. I never got that much sleep whilst staying there put it that way.
Rant over – well maybe haha

But I made it to the metro, got tickets to and from Shanghai and actually made it to the church on time (theres hope for my eventual wedding day) before Mae and Phillip who had to catch 1 metro. It was nice to be in a church for Christmas day as it’s a tradition back home so made me feel like I was with family. We attended the one English version mass of the day but it still didn’t make much sense to me and was packed with people. We then headed towards Mae’s centre that she’s been training in as she said there were some nice restaurants nearby. By that time I was wearing the Christmas head boppers that I had got when at Casey’s and I received a weird stare from a police man when walking past him. Hey I’m English deal with it. We had the restaurant to ourselves and had a hearty meal of many dishes between the 3 of us. Finished with some ice-cream in Hagandaz. We then made our way back to the hotel as I had left a bag there with some of my stuff as there was no way I could have made the journey to Hangzhou with anymore stuff than I already had. It was hard enough getting pushed around with a massive holdall, hand luggage and laptop bag. So the bag was picked up and I found out that Mae and Phillip had got me a present – A panda ceramic coffee mug called a Love mug with which they filled with lovely quotes to cheer me up. We then tried to make it to the technology park which had a museum but when we arrived it was just closing so we pottered around the shopping centre close by where I picked up some DVD’s as a self Christmas present as I’m rather quickly getting through the series I have on my hard drive and sometimes Viooz just doesn’t work. I should really be doing my TEFL but some days I can’t be arsed. My train back to Hangzhou was at 1930 so I had to depart and go on my way. The next time I see Mae and Phillip will be in February when I go visit for spring festival and to hopefully get into Hong Kong Disney Land eeek!!!!! But that was over a month away then and still seems ages away now. It’s sad really because I’m used to seeing them both every day.

Train journey back was all good and quiet. It’s just the long walk back from the metro to the hotel that is the hard part. I made it back in time to Skype call back home and had a chat with everyone in my aunt’s house before they had Christmas lunch. I can’t remember what I did on the Thursday....maybe I just slept and found some food...it probably meant KFC.

Starting work and New Years

Now to sum up starting at the centre.

I already knew in advance that I would be shadowing and taking over Casey’s classes as she was going on holiday on New Year’s Eve. So I spent my working days co-teaching lessons and did my first demo with an audience – I was very happy to find out one of the kids actually signed up after which is cool. So that week went by really fast and I got my feet quickly in the centre and found out where was good to eat etc. The students were amazing and I had so much fun. Can’t wait to get started with my own classes.

New Year’s Eve was very undramatic and only included walking to the other Mall nearby to a western food selling supermarket in the search for wine. I found wine and also Kellogs cereal YAY!!!! I also got pizza from Pizza hut. I made it back to the hotel Skype called home again and saw the New Year in whilst calling them which was weird as when they would be celebrating it again it would be 0800 for me and I was certainly fast asleep still then. But I did leave the hotel in the afternoon and sat in the massive park nearby reading a book.

I taught the classes which were all fun and a wonderful experience. Found out that Casey had to stay till the following Saturday (11^th) as Chicago had been hit by really bad weather and she couldn’t fly so that meant a crazy rush to try work out covering the rest of the lessons between Tuesday and Saturday as 2 of my classes started on Friday 10th when hers were on too. I ended up swapping my Thursday day off with Tuesday as I had nothing timetabled so it made more sense. It also meant I could go hiking with Rebecca on one of the mountain ranges not far from the centre as she has Tues/Weds weekends.

OMG I nearly forgot to talk about apartment viewing..... Yes now I remember that’s what I did with my Boxing Day, I went apartment viewing. So yeah that day I saw so many places. Some way outta my price range, some that were something out of a home magazine and others that really just needed knocking down. One building I had to walk out of with only seeing 2 rooms just reminded me of a hotel room and I wanted to be out of that and if I was staying for a long time I wanted it to feel like a home. Some places were also just too far away. It turns out that Xiaoshan and Hangzhou see themselves as separate entities and the realtors I had contacted only dealt with Hangzhou areas. Xiaoshan is just a suburb kinda area of Hangzhou (Something like Warminster and its surrounding villages). After all that I had narrowed it down to 2 places, 1 with each realtor. One was a complete mess and needed a massive clean and a mattress for the bed but was a good size, close to the metro which was only 2 stops to the one closest to work (although still included that wonderful 40min walk) and the other was being cleaned out and renovated when I saw it because a family had just moved out from living there 3 years, but this was miles from anywhere but had a decent kitchen. It however would have not been very practical for me to take the latter as the commute to work would have meant me not being there very much to enjoy the wonderful kitchen. So I asked to make sure the other place was going to have an Aiye visit before I moved in, a mattress provided and a microwave. In the end though I choose neither of them because I decided to try find a local realtors to work as there are lots of apartment complexes around the centre and thought one was bound to have somewhere to rent. I was right but the language barrier turned out to be a stopping point, I did however manage to say ‘I’ll be back in 3 days with a Chinese friend’ Manya was however away on holiday at that point so I managed to get Casey’s LP Nicole to come help (Wednesday 1^st Jan). This apartment viewing session caused its own problems though:



* I got a ride on the back of a moped in a country where they don’t understand the highway code with traffic lights or rights of ways, don’t wear helmets



* First property had the kitchen outside of the apartment in a communal hallway with the next door apartment. Very weird layout.

* The next door apartment was really nice and was the one I wanted in the end. But the landlord wanted a year’s rent and then would lower the monthly asking price, but I could barely afford 3mnths (which Disney had given in advance) and the 1mnths deposit. ****
* We then saw an apartment that turned out to be the wrong one and the landlord (he was there at the time) said the other place wouldn’t be finished for 10 days so I said we won’t bother looking as I need to move out in 7 and we needed to get to work

* The next place we had to walk up some stairs to an open planned dining room which had a sort of alcove for basically only large cushions for a sitting area, the shower well you had to step down into it. So yeah straight away a no no.

* I then choose **** the second apartment but had to say goodbye to that when the landlord was being a dick. The realtors then managed to get hold of the landlord we met in the wrong apartment and he said he could have it finished by Friday and would take the amount of payment I had. So we went to see it and well yeah there was no bathroom and no kitchen yet installed but I said ok i’ll take it having seen what the landlord had done in the other place earlier. And at that point I just wanted somewhere to live and couldn’t deal with anymore hassle.

Karma sucks OK!!! Hangzhou not such a paradise city

Friday (10^th) morning I went with Manya to sign the contract, happy to be out of the hotel and looking forward to a decent night’s sleep. Turns out it wasn’t that easy. The realtor then started adding more and more costs to the price which I didn’t expect and I started to panic because it would leave me with less than a 100 Yuan till the end of the month (one bottle of wines worth of money). The landlord then shouted at them for being idiots and said he would pay for the bills for me giving me a 6mnths quote because that was my lease length and I could pay him at the end of January. He would sort out my gas card and have Wifi installed. We went on Saturday to get the keys as they still needed to move stuff out on the Friday. When coming out of the elevator we could hardly make it to the door as there was builder’s rubble everywhere and dust coated everything. The Aiye had yet to arrive so we made sure she was because the place was filthy with dust and debris. So yeah another night in the hotel. On Sunday (12^th Jan) I finished work and got the rest of my stuff together to move in that night. That’s when my phone disappeared. I decided to get a taxi because although the apartment is only a 10min walk away I had loads of stuff with me and the shorter route is currently like off-roading as they are still building places in my complex and the new metro line is opening up nearby. I showed the taxi driver the address in Chinese on my phone and on the way he picked someone else up. I now found out you can refuse to pay if that happens, I already knew you should get a receipt but I completely forgot because it was raining and I had to get my holdall out of the boot and my duvet and pillow bags that I had brought a few days before all by myself. It wasn’t until I went to take a picture of the apartment that I realised the taxi driver never gave back my phone and I didn’t have it. Now I know it’s only a phone but it’s the contents that were more precious to me. Texts, videos, photos, contact details that I will never get back. Accounts that I had to make sure were locked and it’s so weird to go try take a photo and realise you can’t or spend 5mins completing a level on a game. It’s been a crappy week not having it and not being able to talk to people. I feel super isolated right now. Hopefully I can have Manya’s spare phone for awhile to keep in touch with work mates until I make it to Hong Kong and go to the 3 store there and try getting something else with my old number again. But yeah I’ll never see the iphone again BASTARDS. I didn’t want to stay in the apartment that night as was in tears so stayed another night in the hotel, my last one, so I could access to the internet via my laptop and take all the steps needed to lock my phone and change passwords. Also so I wouldn’t feel as isolated and alone as I was feeling at that time. But yeah I’ve moved in completely now and have abused the poor washing machine completely having done a total of about 5 cycles to get stuff washed finally. I only had a small amount of Yuan left this month now so have brought the basics to get me by, mainly a fleecy blanket as the place is freezing at night, a frying pan, fish slice and some items of food. But having tried to go food shopping on Tuesday 14^th I so far only have eggs, bread and water in my fridge – which I don’t have to turn on at the moment as it’s so cold. So yeah I’ve had eggy bread so far woop!!! But meals are so cheap round here it doesn’t bother me.

Ok where was I. O yeah hiking with Rebecca (Tuesday 7^th) Yes was great fun getting out of the city and exploring the mountain that’s actually next to my apartment complex. We saw some great sights even though it was raining, climbed lots of steps and took lots of photos (which were on the phone L ) Found a super random and scary bridge which had written across it ‘Xiaoshan taking on the world’ or something similar. We found an RT mart which was huge with lots of western type things. Where I was approached in the bread section by a Chinese guy with a ‘male company’ card which I turned away super quickly having seen a rather grotesque Chinese man on the front. The same guy tried to give me a mouse mat at the tills too. ‘Only in China’ I keep telling myself.

On Monday 6^th I went into Hangzhou early to try transfer some money back home, this turns out to be extremely hard and I gave up with trying to translate and will hopefully get Manya to help me sometime soon. The reason I went into the city was because they talk more English there and there is a HSBC premier there which I thought would make moving money to my HSBC account in the UK easier. However it’s only as easier as cooking a Crème Brule is you want to transfer US dollars back home. So yeah I’ll be incurring bank charges this month it seemsL. I made it back in time for lunch before starting work.

On Wednesday (8^th) I met up with Jessie who I have been pestering with questions via her blog on here since before I decided to come to China and take the job. However she works at the centre in Hangzhou so it was the first time we had met with her friend and colleague Taryn. We met near the lake, which I had yet to visit had coffee and then went to an amazing restaurant called Green Tea where I got to try out some new dishes and managed to take lots back with me to eat as we must have order something like 12 dished between the 3 of us. I’m happy though because they both liked my dish suggestion of sweet and sour cabbage – YES PLEASE DO SEND OUT A SEARCH PARTY FOR THE REAL ME I ADMIT TO BE ADDICTED TO CABBAGE. We then popped into the newly opened Gap store where I picked up a fluffy jumper as I’m really starting to feel the cold here now. I came back to the hotel to have a message from Rebecca saying we all needed to be in work early on Thursday for an important meeting. Now considering Gary (Big Disney Boss) had visited on the Tuesday we were all quite concerned. I can’t really say anything but in short (and take what you will from it) my classes won’t be starting now and I’ve requested a transfer down to Guangzhou (I’ve requested there, as Mae and Phillip are there now – without their own moving to new centre problems. It’s warmer, close to Hong Kong therefore easier to get a flight home, close to Disney Land and was my second choice in locations when I was offered the job) in a few weeks/months. But it means I have lots of time to listen to RADIO freaking 1 live (which is weird as its the breakfast show) at work whilst writing lesson plans and laminating stuff. But it also means I don’t actually feel at home now in the apartment because I don’t know how long I’ll be here and can’t really buy stuff for it as it’ll be a waste and a pain to transport.

So yeah an eventful journey so far and probably lots more drama to come. As I was saying to Paul the other day, I seriously must have done something pretty shit in a previous life because Karma is not being kind to me right now – and that was before I lost my phone.

Going out like the good old days

On the plus side my first night in the apartment was started with a trip to the bar in Holiday Inn directly opposite work, getting hit on my an old English guy, though totally worth it as Casey, Rebecca and I got a free cocktail each. It was the first time Casey, Rebecca, James, Alex and I had been out together since I started. The bar closed at 12, we left after a number of beers about 2ish. Headed to another bar and I got back to my apartment at 0315. I seriously don’t know how but I managed it getting back there for the first time and made it into work the next day. Yay!!!!

I’m sure I’ve forgotten something but its cold, I’ve prewritten this at home on my day off and drinking coffee in Starbucks so I can steal their internet and it’s over 4500 words long. (I feel like Harry Potters author) That and the Supernatural hunks are calling me to bed to come watch them kick demon arse. And hopefully Paul won’t tell me off for spelling and grammar errors so much this time as it’s written on Word. I blame teaching English to Chinese kids who no matter how many times you correct them still say ‘veta’ rather than ‘vet’.

Until next time folks. Miss you all so much right now.

P.S. until I get to Hong Kong please email me on my yahoo account as it’s the only way I can be reached. I know it’s not convenient but it’s all I can access at work in your morning.

Chinese learnt so far – mostly spelt the way they sound in my head at least


• Laosher – Teacher
• Ni Hao – Hello
• Way – Hello
• Ni Hao Ma – How are you
• Jerr shou – Straight on
• Zwar gui – Turn left
• Yoo gui – Turn right
• Ting - stop
• Mayo – Don’t have
• Neighger (heard very often as nigger) – That
• Bu yao – Not want
• Nei huishou Yingwen ma – Do you speak English
• War yao nage – I’d like that one
• War yao fapian – I’d like a receipt
• Duo shao – How much
• Gan ma – Why



• War bu mingby – I don’t understand
• Shi – Yes
• Bushi - No
• Numbers 1-10
• De nalier – Where to
• War guo san tian zai huilai gen pengyou– I’ll be back in 3 days with a friend
• Mandian lai – easy tiger
• Baibai – bye

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Photos

Hotel Room
Complete with see through bathroom

Merry Christmas
Mae and Me posing as normal

The Christmas Trio
The waiter was so confused when we asked for our photo to be taken

A very traditional English Christmas dinner of course
But still it was super yummy

My wall
Knock Knock Winnie

Whiteboard
Team Tigger, Team Winnie, Honey pot rules and Angry Bee

New Years Eve dinner
Pizza from Pizza hut, wine, chocolate and pretzels yum yum

Happy New Year
Ooo yeah bye bye wine hehe

Jan 1st
Counting down the days of my year in China - Contract is supposed to end on December 31st but who knows

My disney stash so far
Well some of it EEKK!!!

My Fave food atm
Sweet and sour cabbage with Port
BBQ pork and rice
Spicy beans