It’s definitely a new world for me out here. New customs, new people, new everything pretty much. And I know I’ve only scratched the surface of what there is to discover from this beautiful country. So here’s a run-down of some of the things I’ve learned in my first couple days:
1) Forming lines doesn’t get you anywhere: In every aspect, lines don’t do much except where absolutely necessary (such as the line to checkout at a store, and even then you better be paying attention) whether you’re looking to get your bowl of rice or to use the ATM, if you don’t be assertive, you’ll be waiting for a long time.
2) If you ever wanted to know what it feels like to be a celebrity, come to China: Everywhere we go, people stare and point. One time while we got of the bus to use the ATM I caught one guy stopped at a street corner, mouth hanging open. They’ll take pictures and they love to practice their English with you. They’re also very helpful. While at the store I wanted to buy some fruit, so I put it in a bag and started heading to the register, but I was stopped by a lady who couldn’t speak English but was nice enough to show me that I had to take it to this guy to get it weighed and labeled first.
3) There’s a reason they keep their hair short: The humidity here is crazy, we have air conditioned rooms but as soon as you step out the door you’re hit with a wave of humid heat and by the time you’ve taken two steps you’re sopping wet. Everywhere you go all the women either have short hair, or it’s put up, definitely not surprising. It also explains why they always wear a lot of dresses and shorts.
4) It’s big bus eat little car out there: Basically right of way is determined by who’s bigger. Half the time our bus driver would be driving down the middle of the road. Also horns are used quite frequently. Taking a trip into town was exciting, I can’t count how many times we turned in front of oncoming vehicles who would screech to a stop to avoid hitting us.
5) Germaphobes Beware: Meals here consist of sitting at a table with about 7-9 other people with an array of dishes in the middle that you fill your bowl from. And there’s no serving spoons or anything, you just use your own chopsticks to get food then eat then get more food etc etc. We’re all very close now haha
6) Don’t count on knowing what’s going on: you never really know when or how things will happen around here. For the first couple days we weren’t even sure when our first day teaching would be ( Which is the 1st btw…..hopefully). When we were waiting to go out into town we were told to be ready to leave at any time cause the coordinators could pop in suddenly to get us. We’ve been told we’ll get internet, When? In the next couple weeks. Where’s the missing fridge? Hmmmm, I don’t know, we had ten but now we seem to only have nine. When are you going to register us with the police station? Sometime tomorrow…probably. Haha some days you don’t know how to keep your head on straight.
I’ve also discovered that running in the humidity isn’t all that bad (in the mornings), giant spiders cast really cool shadows on buildings, gigantic grapes and green apple Fanta are really yummy, and when it comes to mealtime our motto is “I don’t know what I’m eating, but it tastes good!”
I can’t wait to see what else this country has in store for me :D
Monday, August 29, 2011
On Our Way
The semester has barely begun and oh what an adventure it has been! After a long night of no sleep Kareena and I hopped into my dad’s car and met up with the rest of my fam at Dee’s on Redwood and 21st. It was nice to get to see everyone and say good-bye. Then we all headed over to the airport where we met up with the ILP crew who gave us our passports and paperwork. After we got our tickets and checked our bags it was time to really say good-bye. There were lots of pictures of course J and after lots of hugs and waving and some tears we went through security and were on our way.
At the terminal we met up with the rest of the teachers in our group. There were 15 of us traveling from SLC. Right away we all got along very well. Our plane was supposed to leave at 11:!1 but unfortunately was delayed by about an hour because of weather in san Francisco. I was surprised by how small our plane was when it did get to us. It took a little creativity to find a place for my guitar, but luckily the staff was very helpful.
I slept through the whole flight but not until I got a few really pretty pictures from up in the air. My head was not very happy when I had to wake up at our next stop. It was even more unhappy when we discovered that our flight to Shanghai, that was supposed to leave that afternoon, was delayed until 9:30 the next morning!! So we spent the next four hours at the airport while our head teachers waited in a huge line to talk to United Airlines. Eventually we got everything sorted out and they gave us food vouchers for the airport and free rooms at a hotel in the city. So we ate dinner and then hopped on a shuttle to the hotel.
It was a actually a pretty nice place and they served a really good breakfast in the morning. We weren’t allowed to go out into the city, but we entertained ourselves pretty well. We played a hilarious game of Phase 10 with Ashley and Dayna. We were all so tired that we were absolutely ridiculous! The next morning we caught the first shuttle back and made our way through security once again and over to our terminal. When our plane finally arrived we were all very relieved. Now all we had was a 12 hour plane ride ahead of us.
I gotta say I was surprised by how well fed we were. We got two meals and a snack and they brought drinks by quite frequently. The food wasn’t half bad either. They had movies and tv shows playing but I was konked out for half of it. There was a Chinese woman sitting next to me and I was intrigued by the fact that every once in awhile she would stand up, stomp her feet and then get up into her seat and squat on it. It was pretty cool haha. Arriving in Shanghai was the coolest experience ever. I’ve never felt more out of place in my life and it was awesome! Getting through immigration and customs was surprisingly quick and then we had to get our bags. We learned really quickly that it’s do or die here haha. If you try and be polite and wait your turn then you’ll never get anywhere.
As we went into the greeting area we found our school coordinator who helped us over to our bus. Everywhere we went the Chinese people were very open about staring at us. It was kind of cool haha. Little kids would get excited and point at us as they tugged on their parents. It was a 3 hr bus ride from Shanghai to Weijin. I was awake most of the time and was able to chat more with Ashley. We’ll be good friends, I can tell J
One thing I noticed right away about the area we were in is that it is very GREEN. Everywhere we looked there were tons of trees and small orchards off the freeway and then in between were apt buildings, lots of apt buildings haha. Once we got to our city we saw a lot more people. A lot of bicycles and a lot of these small motorbikes with really tiny wheels.
When we finally got to our school we were all ecstatic. I was a little surprised by how nice it was. They just remodeled our apts too so they are very nice, although the bathrooms will definitely take a little getting used to.
All-in-all it’s been a crazy journey getting here. And a LONG journey. But as I look out my window and see signs I can’t understand, and people talking in a language that’s complete gibberish to me, and as I wipe the constant layer of humidity off my brow once again, I can’t help but smile. It’s going to be quite the adventure and all the strangeness just makes it that much more exciting.
At the terminal we met up with the rest of the teachers in our group. There were 15 of us traveling from SLC. Right away we all got along very well. Our plane was supposed to leave at 11:!1 but unfortunately was delayed by about an hour because of weather in san Francisco. I was surprised by how small our plane was when it did get to us. It took a little creativity to find a place for my guitar, but luckily the staff was very helpful.
I slept through the whole flight but not until I got a few really pretty pictures from up in the air. My head was not very happy when I had to wake up at our next stop. It was even more unhappy when we discovered that our flight to Shanghai, that was supposed to leave that afternoon, was delayed until 9:30 the next morning!! So we spent the next four hours at the airport while our head teachers waited in a huge line to talk to United Airlines. Eventually we got everything sorted out and they gave us food vouchers for the airport and free rooms at a hotel in the city. So we ate dinner and then hopped on a shuttle to the hotel.
It was a actually a pretty nice place and they served a really good breakfast in the morning. We weren’t allowed to go out into the city, but we entertained ourselves pretty well. We played a hilarious game of Phase 10 with Ashley and Dayna. We were all so tired that we were absolutely ridiculous! The next morning we caught the first shuttle back and made our way through security once again and over to our terminal. When our plane finally arrived we were all very relieved. Now all we had was a 12 hour plane ride ahead of us.
I gotta say I was surprised by how well fed we were. We got two meals and a snack and they brought drinks by quite frequently. The food wasn’t half bad either. They had movies and tv shows playing but I was konked out for half of it. There was a Chinese woman sitting next to me and I was intrigued by the fact that every once in awhile she would stand up, stomp her feet and then get up into her seat and squat on it. It was pretty cool haha. Arriving in Shanghai was the coolest experience ever. I’ve never felt more out of place in my life and it was awesome! Getting through immigration and customs was surprisingly quick and then we had to get our bags. We learned really quickly that it’s do or die here haha. If you try and be polite and wait your turn then you’ll never get anywhere.
As we went into the greeting area we found our school coordinator who helped us over to our bus. Everywhere we went the Chinese people were very open about staring at us. It was kind of cool haha. Little kids would get excited and point at us as they tugged on their parents. It was a 3 hr bus ride from Shanghai to Weijin. I was awake most of the time and was able to chat more with Ashley. We’ll be good friends, I can tell J
One thing I noticed right away about the area we were in is that it is very GREEN. Everywhere we looked there were tons of trees and small orchards off the freeway and then in between were apt buildings, lots of apt buildings haha. Once we got to our city we saw a lot more people. A lot of bicycles and a lot of these small motorbikes with really tiny wheels.
When we finally got to our school we were all ecstatic. I was a little surprised by how nice it was. They just remodeled our apts too so they are very nice, although the bathrooms will definitely take a little getting used to.
All-in-all it’s been a crazy journey getting here. And a LONG journey. But as I look out my window and see signs I can’t understand, and people talking in a language that’s complete gibberish to me, and as I wipe the constant layer of humidity off my brow once again, I can’t help but smile. It’s going to be quite the adventure and all the strangeness just makes it that much more exciting.
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