China-The Beginning

---

I suppose that this message is overdue, but it’s very difficult to put observations into writing, especially when you’re still in the process of acclimating. But I’ve been in China for almost two months now, so I suppose it’s time to give it a shot.

I got into the Shanghai airport fairly late at night and my plans to meet my friend that I’d be staying with were “meet on the subway platform”. This was mildly stressful. I had been to the Shanghai airport before, but I had only passed through and I had a valid plane ticket out of the country. This time I had a fake ticket in case it was necessary, but not much beside that. Luckily, it worked out and I passed through customs without incident. Once I got my luggage I had to find my way to the subway station. This is marked much more clearly than international transfers were, so again no problem. The first moment of panic was when I got to the subway entrance, but couldn’t find the ticket machines. They’re conveniently located on the other side of a wall. Good planning. Also, Shanghai’s metro system is fantastic, so it was a breeze to get my enormous suitcases onto the subway. For real. They have lots of wheelchair lanes, which they’ll gladly open up for people with luggage and there are plenty of elevators. Unfortunately, you will be crushed and glared at by people who are simply too lazy to walk to the escalator, but this is a minor annoyance, really.

I was riding the subway into the city, being watched constantly (obviously), but no one in my car was kind enough (or brave enough, I suppose) to tell me that I needed to change cars at a certain stop to avoid going straight back to the airport. Luckily, a man getting on at that stop was helpful enough and knew enough English to convey this to me before I made my trip longer. Then it was my turn to glare at all of my car-mates that had forsaken me and were waiting with me for the other train. They were appropriately embarrassed.

I didn’t have to wait long on the platform for Analynn to find me, especially since my gigantic bags are like flags pointing out my location. With her help, we managed to get my things to a different line and into her apartment, which was quite conveniently located right by a subway stop.

The next day, I had to meet with my company at their headquarters to sign some papers and get some information. I gave myself some extra time to find it, which I spent walking around the neighborhood, where I discovered that at some point, my iPod had disappeared from my pocket. How this happened, I cannot say. But it was broken anyway, so they’re free to grumble at it instead of me. Plus I have an iPhone now, so whatever. At the same moment, I found out that there’s such a thing as birthday cake-flavored Oreos, so it kind of evens out.

Even though I had been in the country less than 24 hours, but contacts were SHOCKED that I didn’t have a cell phone number and insisted that I get one as soon as possible. I also needed to find a bank and set up a bank account (“All you need is your passport” and Other Lies Told By Locals. If I ever wrote a book, this would be the title.) AND get new passport pictures taken AND I had an appointment at a remote hospital for an examination for which I was to find the hospital and make sure the results were sent to a very specific person at a very specific time. I was supposed to meet with someone else, but they actually sent me away to open a bank account and get my pictures taken before I could meet with her. It was that urgent. Unfortunately, I was missing a lot of information that I needed to open the account because it was all on my “lost” iPod and I couldn’t get my pictures taken because I didn’t have the right change. So I came back a failure. They definitely thought I was incompetent that day. Especially after I told them that I lost my iPod.

I had a few days to myself, but Analynn and I tried a bit of sightseeing during this break, but it was a national holiday so everyone and their mom was out doing the same thing and it was a little overwhelming. So after that, we mostly stayed in her neighborhood and studied Chinese. We had gone down to the Bund, which is a famous street on the waterfront where a lot of the colonial buildings are. They probably look cooler without the swarms of people, but we got to see some interesting old buildings and I watched Analynn eat some street food because I was not brave enough to try myself. My first week in particular, I was very scared to get sick, so I was extremely cautious about what I was eating and I was using a lot of hand sanitizer. It kept me healthy, but it was unsustainable.

The next Monday, I had a day of training at headquarters where they basically threw a bunch of information and acronyms at me. Apparently I came in a month in which not many teachers were coming in, so they chose to give us an abbreviated version of training. For me, this only meant one day and no practice with the computer program that we use, but it definitely helps to get to watch my coworkers use it. And I can ask the ones who are really good at using it to help me put things together. I had a short session just for me, since I was the only foreign teacher starting in April. It mostly consisted of telling me where to shop and informing me that it is inappropriate to show up to teach while drunk (You don’t say….).

The next Thursday I finally got to head out to my campus location. It’s quite a hike from the city center (about an hour to an hour and a half depending on when you’re making the trip. I found out when I got there that I’d be replacing someone who chose to be switched to a different campus and it seems like the decision was not a friendly one. This is something that would have been nice to have a heads up about before I walked into the office and started cheerily addressing myself to everyone.

Teaching was pretty easy to catch on to since I’ve already been doing it for awhile. It’s a bit different, mostly because our students are mostly much younger than I’m used to teaching, and we’re supposed to play many, many games with them, which was frowned upon in Korea.

My training was supposed to last at least a month, sometimes two, but about a week and a half into my training, the person I was replacing decided not to show up one day and the company let him go. I guess this was something he did fairly frequently and they weren’t super happy with the quality of his classes. From teaching his students for a while, it seems like he was doing a great job until about a month or so ago and then all of their understanding seems to go downhill.

I’ve had to teach several classes where the parents come to watch already. This is much more difficult than it should be because I only see the students once a week. So I had to show the parents how much their students have learned and how much I like them, but I have no idea how much they know and I don’t even know all of their names yet. They’re still less stressful than the open classes that I had to teach in Korea, which is a plus.

I’ve gotten to do a bit of sightseeing recently. I walked the Bund on my first week and saw all of the famous waterfront buildings. I also visited the Oriental Pearl Tower with Analynn and David. This seemed like a bit of a rip-off until we got to do the glass-floored level and ride the indoor rollercoaster. We had a holiday the other week, so we went to a nearby town known for its historic gardens called Suzhou. I’m sure they’re much more beautiful when they’re not covered by a sea of humanity, but the tower in town was fantastic and the overall aesthetic of the city and the sightseeing area called Tiger Hill were really enjoyable.

I still haven’t signed up for a Chinese class yet. It’ll be difficult to find one that really works with my schedule and isn’t terribly far away from me. But my coworkers have offered to help me. I study when I have time in the office so I can ask them questions and I go out to eat with one of my coworkers on one of our days off to learn some new phrases.

And this is where I will end because writing about your own life is really difficult. A post about my apartment should come soon, I suppose.

---

Comments

[Brittney]

This looks absolutely terrifying and I would not have been able to do that. I still can't do the Sears Tower one!