Just to catch up the few of you who didn't know, I accepted a teaching job in Shanghai, China. I'll be teaching 7th grade math. From the time I applied to the time I arrived was roughly 3 weeks. So please accept my apologies if you didn't know prior to this e-mail. The plane ride was uneventful. Met quite a few people returning to China, mostly teachers in the waiting area in Vancouver, Canada, while we were waiting for the plane. They informed me that all fruits were eaten without the peel, including grapes, due to the heavy use of pesticides here. There was no such thing as hot water, and that we had to register our location/address with the police within 24 hours of landing or there was a $500 USD fine that would be accessed. If we were in a hotel, the hotel did that for us, but if not in a hotel be aware of the law. Plus, each time you leave and reenter the country, the police must be notified within 24 hours of your return and what address you are staying at, even if you have not moved. Also, that all people applying for a work permit must be x-rayed and have their blood tested as no one with HIV/Aids, or other diseases would be admitted, in fact they would be sent home asap. After receiving my welcome packet, I found out that our screening day is this Wed. and not to have eaten prior to being tested.
My principal and his wife met me at the airport. Seems they just arrived themselves last week. We had a driver who spoke no English. I was taken to my new "home", shown in the car how to drive to the school from my apartment, re-dropped off at my apartment and left to my own devices. First impression of my principal and his wife were positive. Wish I could say the same for my new lodgings. Before leaving they gave me a few laminated cards with my address on one side and different locations on the other so that I could show taxi drivers where I wanted to go. They also gave me $1000 in Chinese money to buy supplies as the apt. only came with 2 rolls of toilet paper, 1 plate, 1 cup, 1 knife and fork, 1 towel, 1 top sheet and 1 cover for a blanket and nothing else. Need everything else. Already miss an ironing board, iron and hangers so that I can put my clothes away. Plus, there was one rag and a washbowl, which I have been using to scrub the floor.
If you like the same amount of space as in a suite in a hotel, and it all decorated in heavy medieval baroque style than you would love this place. The fabrics are perfect for a castle in England or Germany in the middle ages. The one lamp, one candle holder and vase are all in the same heavy, depressing style and basically dark maroon with fake gold adornments. The drapes are dark maroon with gold insignias splattered on them. The couch is two shades of gold with the same insignias as in the drapes. My new furniture consists of a bed, 2 night stands, a hutch, and a wall unit for a closet (similar to in Germany where closets counted as another room and was taxed as such so there were no closets) in the bedroom, one couch and one over sized tv in the living room and a small kitchenette table with 4 chairs covered in a floral pattern of golds, maroon and some olive green. The worst part is the two over-sized gaudy chandeliers:one hangs over the coach in the living room and the other over the bed! This place is rented furnished and I am not suppose to change the decor or paint.
The first thing I did was to hide all of the decorative accent pieces that were here and the few small pictures in the broom closet. Then I rearranged the furniture and moved the hutch and one night stand out of the bedroom and put them in the living room. Next I took the television and put it in a nook space between the bathroom and kitchen to remove it from the living room. At least now my living space is presentable. The place grossed me out at first, but am now thinking that if I replace the dark maroon drapes with something green with gold accents the space will be livable. Then I can put back the original drapes again when I move out in two years. It'll take me a while to replace the drapes. Can't help but think of my high school as maroon and gold were our colors back then. Amazing how things repeat.
The place appeared fairly clean except that when I walked barefoot from the bedroom to the bathroom, the bottom of my feet turned black. I am so glad I brought my own towel as I was then able to use the white one that was provided for a floor mat. After my shower, the floor towel was picked up and the underside was black. I've washed the floors and counter tops three times now and am not sure I've gotten all of the layers of dirt up yet. It is similar to the layer of dirt that is on the sidewalks. Think it is just residue from the air. I'll see how fast it accumulates back again. Felt a lot better about this place than my very negative first impression after I moved stuff around and cleaned.
Finally got to sleep as there wasn't much sleeping on the plane. The man next to me teaches Berlitz English here and he was talkative and funny, but kept talking the entire trip, even through the movies I was trying to watch, etc. Anyway no sleep. Decided that was a good thing, as I ended up going to bed here at 5 pm and didn't get up for 12 hours. Oh, did I mention that I need to buy sheets and a blanket? Furnished apartment is just that, furniture, ugly pictures and nothing else. The floors are pretty: wood laminate in the living space and bedroom, nice tile in the kitchen and marble in the bathroom. Bathroom and kitchen are small, like in hotels, but very nice. I'd say the entire apartment is somewhere between 450- 500 square feet. Amazingly, my classroom is slightly more than twice the size of my apt!
Think it'll take me around 20 minutes to walk to work. Was given a subway card and a map to go to other locations. That part looks good and the bus passes nearby. There is a new part of the subway that is being built, and it will be only two blocks away, which I got to see when the driver passed it when returning from the school. Currently I am clueless where the subway is located in relationship to where I am. Lots of discovering to do. Took one excursion and just walked as I wanted to know how long it'd take me to get to work.
Then I went with my LONG list of basics on what I need to be able to cook, clean and be here comfortably with just the basics. The taxi system is what I tried first using one of the printed cards that I was handed which states addresses in both English and Chinese so that I would have a way of communicating with the driver. The driver from the apt. to the shopping mall took a direct route and it cost me $2. The one on the way home kept turning around and pretending he was lost, so it was $2.30. Still inexpensive, but then I have no idea how far away things are yet. It was pouring rain when I left the mall, and everything I purchased got soaked just getting into a taxi. I was lucky that the wet batteries purchased for the alarm clock still worked. Came home with 1/2 the items on my list.
Oh, the streets were flooding big time from this rain. When putting packages into the taxi's truck, I was literally up to my ankles in water. All I could think of was that I hoped that the Olympics were all inside. BTW, the Olympics are not being shown here on the tv! Thought I'd watch and tried the 3 available channels prior to removing the tv from the living room. Interesting.
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