First Week Experiences

Hello Everyone!

This week has been one of the slowest in my life, but a lot has happened.

On Monday, I went to an orientation at the Education First headquarters. I had to take two subway trains to get there all by myself with a picture aid. There seem to be about four possible exits at each station, and I had a hard time finding the right one, but a kind soul who spoke English helped me out. At the orientation, I met three guys from Europe that were also new to the program. However, they were all teaching at the adult education centers and I was the only one going to a Kids and Teens Center. Our recruiter took us out to my first official Chinese meal (right after I fell on face right outside the complex in front of the handsome Europeans) since I had only been eating sub par hotel food. It was so delicious and one of the men is also a "vegetarian" and gave me some hints on how to survive. A senior teacher at my school, named Claire, came and picked me up by taxi to get to the hotel.

My school is in the Northern end or "Breezy end" of the city. The building is only two years old and has Western toilets, which is brilliant! The school is composed of foreign teachers and local teachers that speak Chinese. There are also teacher assistants that are local students at university here. Everyone has been so kind and nice. The school starts when the normal Chinese schools end, and are at the most full on the weekends. My normal hours are going to be from one to nineish on the weekdays and 9-6 on the weekends. It sounds like I'll have Mondays and Tuesdays off. The school has classes for ages 3 to 18 and I'll be teaching all ages and levels. I'm excited to work with a variety of age groups.

On Tuesday, all of the Kids and Teens centers were closed so each of the staffs could attend a team building day. We were all bused to a sports center about an hour out of the heart of the city. It was fun way for me to start seeing the city. I got to meet a lot of the teachers and everyone was very welcoming and kind. That night, a few of the foreign teachers took me out to dinner and gave me some advice about settling in and culture shock. It was fun evening.

I spent Wednesday apartment hunting with Education First's real estate agent, Jason, who is quite a character. He teased me about wearing a seat belt as he tried to kill us through traffic! Traffic signals are merely a suggestion here, and the road rage is much worse then anything I have seen on my travels around the US. He showed me quite a few craptastic ones that were awful and I felt sad for the residents that lived there. He then took me to two different complexes in the Media Village where the International journalists were housed during the 2008 games. There is a pretty park with lots of trees and a fountain and a playground right outside. He finally took me to swanky, new apartment but its residents were mostly rich, elderly locals or foreigners, and I decided that wasn't quite the experience I wanted and I had a moment of intuition that told me to get out of there. I ended up placing a hold on one of the Media Village studios. It is pretty small, smaller then my studio in Milwaukie, but perfect for just one person. It has a Western bathroom, which was my one true qualification. It does come with furniture. I learned that the Chinese people do not have ovens in their apartments or homes. My landlords seem like a very sweet couple and they made Jason translate to me that they hope we can teach each other about our languages. I hope so.

Thursday, I met up with the European guys again to go for our medical checks. I was the only one out of the four of us to get a check up before I left, so mine wasn't as intensive, but it was still uncomfortable. It was an hour subway ride out of the city and then we had to take a taxi to the center. There, you wait in line for about ten different rooms and they heard you through each process like cattle, and if you don't speak Chinese, utterly clueless. I had to get an ultra sound, an EKG, a chest X-Ray (where they gave me very a frightfully small sheet of protection) and blood drawn. At least I had some people to laugh about how children may be out of the question after the X-Ray. Sorry Mom.

I also had my first grocery store outing yesterday evening where I stayed as far away from the meat section as possible because I know what's there, I just don't want to see. I bought some peanut butter, crackers and fruit to have for snacks at work and in the hotel room until I get my own place. I also bought a lot of water bottles. I miss recycling. My school does recycle paper though.

Today was my first official day of work. We had a meeting and then I worked with my mentor a bit to learn more about their computer system. I met my boss for the first time, but she was hung over so...? I made two lesson plans for my classes this weekend. A few of the local office staff helped me find my way back to the subway. They are excited that I am going to live minutes away from our school and have already asked me to cook them some American food. I told them I would have to acquire a crock pot before I could produce anything truly good. They just gave me deserved looks of humor and we moved on.

I'm excited to teach two preschool classes this weekend and observe some of the more advanced levels, too. I haven't gotten a chance to do any real site seeing yet, but I know I'll have plenty of time in the future.

I miss home a lot, but I'm excited about all the possibilities that I have now.