Hello again!
We have made it into our apartments and the Chinese adventure continues! We have adopted a saying here – TIC (This is China). Everytime something….funky…happens, we shrug it off with TIC.
After our medical on Sunday, we were carted off to the Pacican office. We were all hired through Pacican to teach here in China. Pacican is a Chinese based company that hires internationals to come in and teach English in the Chinese school systems. Some of us have been placed in GO (government) schools, some in “private” schools (there is officially no such thing in communist China, but that is essentially what they are) and others, in Pacican-run schools which operate on Saturdays. Luckily, Sara, Alyssa and I only have to go to GO schools and we only have to go to one school each (some of the others have to transfer between schools in the middle of the day).
We underwent some “basic training” which was essentially a crash course on how-to-survive in China (including a warning about crosswalks and traffic, as if we hadn’t noticed haha) We also had a crash course in Mandarin – beneficial for sure! It was at the Pacican office that I first encountered the dreaded squatter. I was more talented than some others, however, as I overheard one of my friends exclaiming “I got it all over my boots!”. Going in the woods is coming in handy now – and in more ways than one! Toilet paper is also a scarce commodity in public washrooms….
During a break in training someone discovered that there was a Starbucks across the street. After being served a true Chinese lunch at Pacican (true Chinese meal means lots of rice, questionable meat - usually fatty and boned smothered in sauce - and unidentifiable vegetables coated in an oil based sauce), some of us ventured over there. Tom was the first to cave and bought a chicken Caesar wrap. A few of us bought croissants for later, just in case! The Starbucks certainly perked up our culture-shocked group!
We did discover how sweet the Chinese could be! After May, our sweet little Chinese coordinator (aka Chinese mom and saviour) took us to get Chinese cell phones, Alyssa, Sara, Susan, Fraser and I became utterly lost on the way back to the hotel. We ended up finding a couple in their 20s who were waiting for the bus and were willing to help us. With the use of their cell phones, they guided us home but not without missing their bus! They were so willing to help that they missed their bus not knowing when the next one would arrive! Can’t say too many back home would go that far! When we finally did get back home, however, we discovered a multitude of escort cards under our door. Not only was this amusing in itself, but some even had pictures of white girls on them.
We spent the next morning at Pacican again then were shipped off to Qingpu. We had to fit one of the suitcases in the front seat so the driver whipped out a homemade roughed-out seat that he placed between the two middle seats in the van. This seat perched precariously on top of the two seat-belt receivers and May, our Chinese coordinator, had to ride to Qingpu like that. Between the driving of the Chinese, lack of seat belts and the tipsy chair, I wasn’t sure if May would survive the trip. That said, I have seen worse… It took approx. an hour and a half go directly from the Pacican office in Pu Xi (East of the River; Pudong means west of the river and boy oh boy can you tell the difference. Coming out of the tunnel that separates the two is like closing your eyes in Manhattan and reopening them in the Bronx, I am sure). Not terrible, but a daunting journey by public transit, I am sure.
I’ll write about the apartment in the next blog post to break up the reading.
We have made it into our apartments and the Chinese adventure continues! We have adopted a saying here – TIC (This is China). Everytime something….funky…happens, we shrug it off with TIC.
After our medical on Sunday, we were carted off to the Pacican office. We were all hired through Pacican to teach here in China. Pacican is a Chinese based company that hires internationals to come in and teach English in the Chinese school systems. Some of us have been placed in GO (government) schools, some in “private” schools (there is officially no such thing in communist China, but that is essentially what they are) and others, in Pacican-run schools which operate on Saturdays. Luckily, Sara, Alyssa and I only have to go to GO schools and we only have to go to one school each (some of the others have to transfer between schools in the middle of the day).
We underwent some “basic training” which was essentially a crash course on how-to-survive in China (including a warning about crosswalks and traffic, as if we hadn’t noticed haha) We also had a crash course in Mandarin – beneficial for sure! It was at the Pacican office that I first encountered the dreaded squatter. I was more talented than some others, however, as I overheard one of my friends exclaiming “I got it all over my boots!”. Going in the woods is coming in handy now – and in more ways than one! Toilet paper is also a scarce commodity in public washrooms….
During a break in training someone discovered that there was a Starbucks across the street. After being served a true Chinese lunch at Pacican (true Chinese meal means lots of rice, questionable meat - usually fatty and boned smothered in sauce - and unidentifiable vegetables coated in an oil based sauce), some of us ventured over there. Tom was the first to cave and bought a chicken Caesar wrap. A few of us bought croissants for later, just in case! The Starbucks certainly perked up our culture-shocked group!
We did discover how sweet the Chinese could be! After May, our sweet little Chinese coordinator (aka Chinese mom and saviour) took us to get Chinese cell phones, Alyssa, Sara, Susan, Fraser and I became utterly lost on the way back to the hotel. We ended up finding a couple in their 20s who were waiting for the bus and were willing to help us. With the use of their cell phones, they guided us home but not without missing their bus! They were so willing to help that they missed their bus not knowing when the next one would arrive! Can’t say too many back home would go that far! When we finally did get back home, however, we discovered a multitude of escort cards under our door. Not only was this amusing in itself, but some even had pictures of white girls on them.
We spent the next morning at Pacican again then were shipped off to Qingpu. We had to fit one of the suitcases in the front seat so the driver whipped out a homemade roughed-out seat that he placed between the two middle seats in the van. This seat perched precariously on top of the two seat-belt receivers and May, our Chinese coordinator, had to ride to Qingpu like that. Between the driving of the Chinese, lack of seat belts and the tipsy chair, I wasn’t sure if May would survive the trip. That said, I have seen worse… It took approx. an hour and a half go directly from the Pacican office in Pu Xi (East of the River; Pudong means west of the river and boy oh boy can you tell the difference. Coming out of the tunnel that separates the two is like closing your eyes in Manhattan and reopening them in the Bronx, I am sure). Not terrible, but a daunting journey by public transit, I am sure.
I’ll write about the apartment in the next blog post to break up the reading.