One day I had an epiphany. The bathroom might smell so bad since we hadn't cleaned the toilet since we had gotten there. I mentioned it to Patrick. His response was something along the lines of: "Oh, you have to clean toilets? I thought that was a germaphobic American thing." I explained that it wasn't and that we should clean the toilet. Now, I must tell you that almost every toilet I have seen in China has some sort of black nastiness at the bottom of the bowl. In our toilet the bowl did not hold water. When you flushed it simply just rinsed everything down the pipes and drained all the water out of the bowl. Because of this, I thought that the black stuff at the bottom of our toilet bowl was mold or something. I grabbed the toilet brush and some toilet bowl cleaner that we had just picked up from the market across the street. I began cleaning the toilet just like anyone else would. Put in the cleaner and insert the brush. This is when I realized that this toilet had probably never been cleaned...
With the first sweep of the brush down the bowl a huge sheet of "mold" came unattached from the porcelain. I thought I would vomit. This "mold", as I originally and probably hopefully thought, was actually petrified fecal matter. After gaining my composure I flushed the sheet of feces down the toilet and started the cleaning process again. At this point Dave was walking out the door and asked what we were doing. I explained that we were cleaning the toilet. He said, "Oh, I just cleaned that a week ago." Patrick and I responded with, "No, because a huge sheet of crap just came loose." Dave's response: "Oh, well I didn't clean the INside of it, I wiped off the OUTside of it." (Gee, Dave, you're bright!) After the first wipe and flush the toilet started to look cleaner but there was still a lot of black stuff at the bottom towards the S pipe's opening. I gave up on the toilet brush since it was too big to get into the pipes. I rolled up my sleeves and directed Patrick to grab me a shoe polishing brush (which we had purchased to clean the rest of our apartment) and bleach. I grabbed this brush covered in bleach and began scrubbing the bowl of our toilet. I wasn't making much headway and asked Patrick for a toothbrush so I could get further in bowl without having to actually put my hands in the very bottom. I got a little more of the black nastiness to come out. After flushing the toilet again I asked for a pencil. It was similar to a drawing pencil in the way that it had no eraser on the end. I used the top of the pencil and started scraping the bottom of the bowl. All of a sudden flakes of what I prefer to think of as mold started flying off the porcelain. Because this pencil was quite short I was dangerously close to having this "mold" all over my hands and arms since I was now practically crawling into the toilet. At the sight of these flakes flying off I got so nauseous that I had to quit. Patrick grabbed a Flathead screwdriver and gave it a shot. He also couldn't deal with the thought of having hands shoved in the toilet and quit. After repeatedly washing my hands, bleaching them, and Purelling them I decided that I am done cleaning this apartment.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
First few full days in Xuzhou
The next day I was still pretty out of it but I had to go through training and all that. Before we went to training, Pat and I went to the market across the street and got a bunch of cleaning supplies. We spent a good 6 hours cleaning our apartment and still didn't get to the bathroom. The office cabinet in my room was covered in something. It was everywhere, even in the drawers. I had to scrub it with a brush! We were so tired of cleaning that we didn't wipe the bleach off the floor so the floor is kind of weird since there is so much bleach everywhere.
Our toilet seat was cracked so that was not fun. When you sat down to go to the bathroom you had shards of plastic digging into you. All the seats here are plastic. The repair man said that we should put something under the seat for extra support. Then he said something in Chinese that I am assuming was a fat joke towards Pat and I. We can't flush toilet paper; we have to put it in the trash can so that makes the bathroom smell even worse than it originally would.
Our kitchen had a horrible smell in it that we can't figure out. We just poured a bunch of bleach in the cabinet that it is coming from hoping that would kill whatever it was. We are were going to hire a cleaning lady. They are about $2/hour so we figured we would do that once a week or two. We planned on not cooking here because we would have to buy a tank of propane for our stove and that would be a waste of money for just 1 1/2 months.
Our laundry machine was a piece of junk. There are no dryers here first off. That's not too bad but the washer was basically a tub that will spin the water around for you. The bad part was that there is no rinse or spin cycle. So we loaded the washer with clothes, soap, and water from a hose. We let that move around for a while then drained the water. We then put more water in and let it move around some more. Drain while putting more water in to rinse some. I eventually ended up hand rinsing all the clothes and putting them in the spinner. The spinner only holds 2 pairs of jeans at a time so it took about an hour to do one load of laundry and I did most of the work; the machine helped a little.
Pictures of our apartment.
Our toilet seat was cracked so that was not fun. When you sat down to go to the bathroom you had shards of plastic digging into you. All the seats here are plastic. The repair man said that we should put something under the seat for extra support. Then he said something in Chinese that I am assuming was a fat joke towards Pat and I. We can't flush toilet paper; we have to put it in the trash can so that makes the bathroom smell even worse than it originally would.
Our kitchen had a horrible smell in it that we can't figure out. We just poured a bunch of bleach in the cabinet that it is coming from hoping that would kill whatever it was. We are were going to hire a cleaning lady. They are about $2/hour so we figured we would do that once a week or two. We planned on not cooking here because we would have to buy a tank of propane for our stove and that would be a waste of money for just 1 1/2 months.
Our laundry machine was a piece of junk. There are no dryers here first off. That's not too bad but the washer was basically a tub that will spin the water around for you. The bad part was that there is no rinse or spin cycle. So we loaded the washer with clothes, soap, and water from a hose. We let that move around for a while then drained the water. We then put more water in and let it move around some more. Drain while putting more water in to rinse some. I eventually ended up hand rinsing all the clothes and putting them in the spinner. The spinner only holds 2 pairs of jeans at a time so it took about an hour to do one load of laundry and I did most of the work; the machine helped a little.
Pictures of our apartment.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Xuzhou... Finally!
Our train to Xuzhou arrived at about noon. It was now July 10 I believe. I have no idea how long we were actually traveling but it was well over 36 hours. We got out of the station and found a phone. We were to contact the training manager, Scott. I called the two numbers that were were given by Scott. Both times some stupid girls answered and told me that Scott was not there and we should call back in 30 minutes. So we waited 30 minutes in the horrible heat with hundreds of people blatantly staring at us. (Come to find out that there are only about 30 or 40 ex-pats in this town and it's rare for them to use the train.)
After the 30 minutes I called the school again. A guy answered this time who spoke very good English. I told him who I was and that I was at the train station and we needed to be picked up. He was astonished that we were in town and no one was there for us. He asked me if I could see KFC. I said no. He asked if I could see McDonalds. I said yes. He said to go to McDonalds and he would be there in 15 minutes. I said okay. I went to tell Patrick what was said. Right after I told him some girl walks up and asks if she can help us with anything. This was probably the 20th person during our trip that had asked us so we said "no, we have a friend coming to get us". She insisted on helping us do something so she pulls out her phone and calls the school. She talks to the same guy that I did. She was yelling at him! She gets off the phone and in broken English says to stay where we are and that someone will be there in 10 minutes. She walks away after we thank her and Pat gives her a hug. I think she was meeting her boyfriend at the station because a boy showed up and she points at us with a huge grin on her face. She must have been very pleased that she helped foreigners find their way.
A few minutes later Leon, the guy who had answered the phone, shows up and helps us carry our bags 2 blocks away because the taxis at the train station are too expensive. We get two cabs. One for us and one for our luggage. We get to the apartment and are greeted by Dave, our roommate. We drag the luggage up a flight of stairs to our apartment and walk in. It is a sty! I didn't expect much since it's China but this place was disgusting! It is a nice apartment but it looks like it has never been cleaned. The kitchen smells like moldy poo and rotting who-knows-what and the bathroom makes you not want to shower because you would just be dirtier afterwards.
We went to the school and met Scott and figured out when we should meet him to go through training. Later that night we went to hotpot with Dave and some of the Chinese teachers. This is where I got really sick. I wasn't really sure where I was or what I was doing at moments. I was drenched in sweat again and felt like I was going to pass out or throw up at any moment.
Hot pot is this meal that you have a stove in front of you with this huge pot of broth. You order a bunch of random stuff to put in the broth like noodles, meats, veggies, and cicadas (those are really popular right now). Oh and cow testicles. As soon as the food started coming out I just got more and more sick just looking at the raw meat. I decided I had to leave. That is a very very rude thing to do here even if you aren't feeling well. I waited as long as I could but had to give up.
I got back to the apartment and passed out on the couch. Leon had to put a curtain in my bedroom (since there is a window from my room into the living room) and give me a fan since I didn't have AC. I didn't even hear him pounding on the door I was so sleepy. He woke me up by yelling through the kitchen window. I heard him, got up, for some reason started walking towards Pat's room. He must have seen me do that so he yelled again and I sort of woke up a bit more and let him in the door. I slept while he was pounding nails into the wall to put up a sheet over the window. He woke me up to tell me that he was leaving. I slept more until Pat and Dave came back. Everything was still a blur.
The first day or so in Xuzhou.
After the 30 minutes I called the school again. A guy answered this time who spoke very good English. I told him who I was and that I was at the train station and we needed to be picked up. He was astonished that we were in town and no one was there for us. He asked me if I could see KFC. I said no. He asked if I could see McDonalds. I said yes. He said to go to McDonalds and he would be there in 15 minutes. I said okay. I went to tell Patrick what was said. Right after I told him some girl walks up and asks if she can help us with anything. This was probably the 20th person during our trip that had asked us so we said "no, we have a friend coming to get us". She insisted on helping us do something so she pulls out her phone and calls the school. She talks to the same guy that I did. She was yelling at him! She gets off the phone and in broken English says to stay where we are and that someone will be there in 10 minutes. She walks away after we thank her and Pat gives her a hug. I think she was meeting her boyfriend at the station because a boy showed up and she points at us with a huge grin on her face. She must have been very pleased that she helped foreigners find their way.
A few minutes later Leon, the guy who had answered the phone, shows up and helps us carry our bags 2 blocks away because the taxis at the train station are too expensive. We get two cabs. One for us and one for our luggage. We get to the apartment and are greeted by Dave, our roommate. We drag the luggage up a flight of stairs to our apartment and walk in. It is a sty! I didn't expect much since it's China but this place was disgusting! It is a nice apartment but it looks like it has never been cleaned. The kitchen smells like moldy poo and rotting who-knows-what and the bathroom makes you not want to shower because you would just be dirtier afterwards.
We went to the school and met Scott and figured out when we should meet him to go through training. Later that night we went to hotpot with Dave and some of the Chinese teachers. This is where I got really sick. I wasn't really sure where I was or what I was doing at moments. I was drenched in sweat again and felt like I was going to pass out or throw up at any moment.
Hot pot is this meal that you have a stove in front of you with this huge pot of broth. You order a bunch of random stuff to put in the broth like noodles, meats, veggies, and cicadas (those are really popular right now). Oh and cow testicles. As soon as the food started coming out I just got more and more sick just looking at the raw meat. I decided I had to leave. That is a very very rude thing to do here even if you aren't feeling well. I waited as long as I could but had to give up.
I got back to the apartment and passed out on the couch. Leon had to put a curtain in my bedroom (since there is a window from my room into the living room) and give me a fan since I didn't have AC. I didn't even hear him pounding on the door I was so sleepy. He woke me up by yelling through the kitchen window. I heard him, got up, for some reason started walking towards Pat's room. He must have seen me do that so he yelled again and I sort of woke up a bit more and let him in the door. I slept while he was pounding nails into the wall to put up a sheet over the window. He woke me up to tell me that he was leaving. I slept more until Pat and Dave came back. Everything was still a blur.
The first day or so in Xuzhou.
Arrivals... Maybe... Maybe...
During our flight we were fed twice and received all the free alcohol we could handle. I had always heard that because of the high altitude one will become drunk faster than on the ground. I stuck to this rule and only had a bit of my first drink. Well, it didn't do anything. Although I hadn't slept I was unable to do so. I decided to get another drink to help put me to sleep because there was no way I was falling asleep on my own at this point. I figured that four drinks combined with high altitude would make me at least drowsy. This was not the case. I was awake for the entire 10+ hour flight. Patrick had long since passed out and I was stuck there with not much to do other than browse through the on demand movies and television shows. When one movie was done I would watch the flight screen that tells you where you are and how much longer you have until you arrive before giving up on sleeping and watch another movie or TV show.
The flight was pretty good overall. The seat belt sign was on almost constantly because of turbulence but other than that it was okay. There were plenty of movies to watch and a lot of radio stations to listen to, not to mention the meals and free liquor! I highly suggest taking Air Canada for international flights just because of my one experience with them.
Because of the delay in Vancouver, our flight was three hours late arriving in Beijing. We had thought about catching a flight to Xuzhou, our final destination, but this was now out of the question. We grabbed our luggage and got through customs extremely quick. During some research before leaving I found that there was a shuttle that went from the Beijing airport to the train station. Since we were no longer in any sort of rush we got on the shuttle and started our 45-60 minute ride to the train station.
At the final stop for the shuttle we looked around and didn't recognize anything that was around us. I had been to the train station in Beijing before but couldn't see it anywhere. Using what little Chinese I could remember from the last trip I began asking random people what direction the train station was. No one seemed to know or understand me. We finally began walking down the sidewalk carrying 2 large suitcases and 2 carry-ons each. Let me tell you, this was a pain in the butt! The side walks in China are nothing like the sidewalks in the U.S. Here, they are tiles. Not just plain tiles but tiles with grooves and notches in them. There will be tiles with circles on them or tiles with grooved lines in them. This didn't help our problem with the luggage. Eventually we found a random white person and asked him how to get to the train station. He told us and we continued walking.
About a mile or so from the shuttle stop, we found the station. After taking a rest and getting some water we went into the lobby to get some tickets to Xuzhou. According to the Internet (a very reputable source, I know) ticket window number 1 in Beijing always has a clerk that can speak English. This, however, is not the case. After clawing our way through line (the Chinese queuing system is outrageous), with about 150 lbs of luggage each, we find an English speaking clerk and get a ticket to Nanjing which is only 30 minutes from Xuzhou according to the clerk. In order to get to the platforms where the trains are you must go out of the ticket lobby back outside then fight through another line, have your bags scanned at security, and find your platform. Luckily, we found someone who spoke English and told us where to go. There were so many people offering to help me with my bags. I reluctantly let someone help me and he ended up actually helping instead of stealing my bags as I feared he would do. No one took my stuff and they seemed very pleased with themselves that they helped an ex-pat. We found the correct platform and were very happy that there was an escalator up to the platform gate. Different story when we got to the gate though. We had to carry our bags down about 2 flights of stairs.
We had gotten soft-sleeper tickets and were directed to the proper car and cabin. One of our cabin-mates had very good English and told us that we could try to fit our bags in the overhead storage area. Because of the size and amount of our bags, only half were able to fit. We ended up sleeping with some of them. As the train began moving and people started settling down the lady who spoke English started asking the usual questions. "Where are you from?" "What are you doing in China?" "What do you think about China?" and eventually "Where are you going?" We told her that we were going to Xuzhou to teach English in a school there. She seemed quite confused at this. I thought it strange that she asked where we were going since we were on a train to Nanjing which was very close to Xuzhou. Turns out it was pure luck that she asked this. The reason she was confused is because we were not on a train to a city near Xuzhou. We were on a train to a city near Suzhou. She had a bit of fun with this and proceeded to explain that Suzhou and Xuzhou are completely different cities. There is also a Fuzhou, a Chuzhou, and a number of other --zhou cities all in China. She was kind enough to write Xuzhou for us in Chinese characters so that we could get the proper train when we arrived the next morning. After a terrible night's sleep we finally arrived in Nanjing, which is not close to Xuzhou but is close to Suzhou.
We arrived at about 7:00 am and unloaded all our stuff. Patrick stayed on the platform with our luggage while I went to go get some tickets to Xuzhou. I followed all the people assuming they would be going to the exit. I found a booth that said ticket counter and stopped there. The lady in there just looked at me then pointed towards another sign that said ticket counter. I went towards the sign but realized I had to exit the station to get there. I didn't really have a choice so I left the station. I got to the other counter and it was closed. Now I had to actually go outside and assume that I would be able to get back to Patrick. I found an actual working ticket office and bought two tickets to Xuzhou. The tickets had correct pinyin and characters so I knew we were going to the right place. I went through security and wandered around until I found an information desk. I stood there for a couple minutes waiting for someone to come to the desk. No one came so I went in the direction of a waiting room. When I got there I saw some doors that looked like they would go to the platforms. They were all closed and there was a guard there. The guard was busy talking to someone else so I just walked on by and went through whatever door I wanted to. I figured if they really didn't want me to go through the doors they would stop me or yell or something. I went through the doors with no problem except that I didn't know what platform Patrick was on. I walked over the bridge over the tracks looking for him but couldn't see anything. I picked the middle platform to go down so I could look around a bit. No such luck. I went up on the other bridge on the other side of the platforms and looked around. I remembered this weird granite sidewalk next to a wall and figured that is where Pat must be. Sure enough he was just at the bottom of those stairs that I chose to go down. Well, they weren't stairs as much as it was a broken escalator.
We sat there for a while pounding waters and sweating to death. My bra was completely soaked. It looked like I had just come out of a shower fully clothed. Pat wasn't doing any better. It was about 90 degrees with about 95-100% humidity. There was a very helpful security guard on the platform that helped us find the right spot for our car. We stood there so we wouldn't have to deal with the crowd of people trying to get on the train at the same time. About 2 hours later the correct train came. It was a very futuristic looking bullet train. All there were was soft seats, no classes. There was very little overhead space so we took about 10 other people's overhead bins and still had a bag on the floor slightly in the way. Oh well. When we got situated and seated, the men sitting across from us had a slight look of "Why they hell did we get seated next to the stupid Americans". It took us about 2 1/2 hours to get to Xuzhou. When we got there we hired a red cap to carry our bags for us. We are pretty sure he ripped us off royally but at the time we didn't really care. I was not about to lug those things up one more stair and tear my arms off in the process.
The flight was pretty good overall. The seat belt sign was on almost constantly because of turbulence but other than that it was okay. There were plenty of movies to watch and a lot of radio stations to listen to, not to mention the meals and free liquor! I highly suggest taking Air Canada for international flights just because of my one experience with them.
Because of the delay in Vancouver, our flight was three hours late arriving in Beijing. We had thought about catching a flight to Xuzhou, our final destination, but this was now out of the question. We grabbed our luggage and got through customs extremely quick. During some research before leaving I found that there was a shuttle that went from the Beijing airport to the train station. Since we were no longer in any sort of rush we got on the shuttle and started our 45-60 minute ride to the train station.
At the final stop for the shuttle we looked around and didn't recognize anything that was around us. I had been to the train station in Beijing before but couldn't see it anywhere. Using what little Chinese I could remember from the last trip I began asking random people what direction the train station was. No one seemed to know or understand me. We finally began walking down the sidewalk carrying 2 large suitcases and 2 carry-ons each. Let me tell you, this was a pain in the butt! The side walks in China are nothing like the sidewalks in the U.S. Here, they are tiles. Not just plain tiles but tiles with grooves and notches in them. There will be tiles with circles on them or tiles with grooved lines in them. This didn't help our problem with the luggage. Eventually we found a random white person and asked him how to get to the train station. He told us and we continued walking.
About a mile or so from the shuttle stop, we found the station. After taking a rest and getting some water we went into the lobby to get some tickets to Xuzhou. According to the Internet (a very reputable source, I know) ticket window number 1 in Beijing always has a clerk that can speak English. This, however, is not the case. After clawing our way through line (the Chinese queuing system is outrageous), with about 150 lbs of luggage each, we find an English speaking clerk and get a ticket to Nanjing which is only 30 minutes from Xuzhou according to the clerk. In order to get to the platforms where the trains are you must go out of the ticket lobby back outside then fight through another line, have your bags scanned at security, and find your platform. Luckily, we found someone who spoke English and told us where to go. There were so many people offering to help me with my bags. I reluctantly let someone help me and he ended up actually helping instead of stealing my bags as I feared he would do. No one took my stuff and they seemed very pleased with themselves that they helped an ex-pat. We found the correct platform and were very happy that there was an escalator up to the platform gate. Different story when we got to the gate though. We had to carry our bags down about 2 flights of stairs.
We had gotten soft-sleeper tickets and were directed to the proper car and cabin. One of our cabin-mates had very good English and told us that we could try to fit our bags in the overhead storage area. Because of the size and amount of our bags, only half were able to fit. We ended up sleeping with some of them. As the train began moving and people started settling down the lady who spoke English started asking the usual questions. "Where are you from?" "What are you doing in China?" "What do you think about China?" and eventually "Where are you going?" We told her that we were going to Xuzhou to teach English in a school there. She seemed quite confused at this. I thought it strange that she asked where we were going since we were on a train to Nanjing which was very close to Xuzhou. Turns out it was pure luck that she asked this. The reason she was confused is because we were not on a train to a city near Xuzhou. We were on a train to a city near Suzhou. She had a bit of fun with this and proceeded to explain that Suzhou and Xuzhou are completely different cities. There is also a Fuzhou, a Chuzhou, and a number of other --zhou cities all in China. She was kind enough to write Xuzhou for us in Chinese characters so that we could get the proper train when we arrived the next morning. After a terrible night's sleep we finally arrived in Nanjing, which is not close to Xuzhou but is close to Suzhou.
We arrived at about 7:00 am and unloaded all our stuff. Patrick stayed on the platform with our luggage while I went to go get some tickets to Xuzhou. I followed all the people assuming they would be going to the exit. I found a booth that said ticket counter and stopped there. The lady in there just looked at me then pointed towards another sign that said ticket counter. I went towards the sign but realized I had to exit the station to get there. I didn't really have a choice so I left the station. I got to the other counter and it was closed. Now I had to actually go outside and assume that I would be able to get back to Patrick. I found an actual working ticket office and bought two tickets to Xuzhou. The tickets had correct pinyin and characters so I knew we were going to the right place. I went through security and wandered around until I found an information desk. I stood there for a couple minutes waiting for someone to come to the desk. No one came so I went in the direction of a waiting room. When I got there I saw some doors that looked like they would go to the platforms. They were all closed and there was a guard there. The guard was busy talking to someone else so I just walked on by and went through whatever door I wanted to. I figured if they really didn't want me to go through the doors they would stop me or yell or something. I went through the doors with no problem except that I didn't know what platform Patrick was on. I walked over the bridge over the tracks looking for him but couldn't see anything. I picked the middle platform to go down so I could look around a bit. No such luck. I went up on the other bridge on the other side of the platforms and looked around. I remembered this weird granite sidewalk next to a wall and figured that is where Pat must be. Sure enough he was just at the bottom of those stairs that I chose to go down. Well, they weren't stairs as much as it was a broken escalator.
We sat there for a while pounding waters and sweating to death. My bra was completely soaked. It looked like I had just come out of a shower fully clothed. Pat wasn't doing any better. It was about 90 degrees with about 95-100% humidity. There was a very helpful security guard on the platform that helped us find the right spot for our car. We stood there so we wouldn't have to deal with the crowd of people trying to get on the train at the same time. About 2 hours later the correct train came. It was a very futuristic looking bullet train. All there were was soft seats, no classes. There was very little overhead space so we took about 10 other people's overhead bins and still had a bag on the floor slightly in the way. Oh well. When we got situated and seated, the men sitting across from us had a slight look of "Why they hell did we get seated next to the stupid Americans". It took us about 2 1/2 hours to get to Xuzhou. When we got there we hired a red cap to carry our bags for us. We are pretty sure he ripped us off royally but at the time we didn't really care. I was not about to lug those things up one more stair and tear my arms off in the process.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Departure
The day of departure was quickly approaching. I was living with my brother, Elias, and his friend, Steve, in Orange County, CA. I was all prepared. I had my visa and was for the most part packed. There was only one problem: How was I going to get to San Francisco to catch my flight to China? I had no car that I could take with me and very little money to get there. Luckily, about a week before the flight, Steve was moving to the Sacramento area and offered to give me a ride when he moved. I gladly accepted and rode to Sacramento with him and his dog.
After spending the week with Patrick, a visit from Elias, and repacking my stuff I was ready to go. Our flight was for about 7:00 am on July 8. The night before Patrick and I were running around like chickens with our heads cut off checking and double checking that we had everything in order and doing last minute laundry. We didn't sleep the entire night because we had to leave the house at about 3:00 am to get to the airport in San Fransisco. The time to leave the house finally arrived and we loaded into Joanne's, Pat's grandma, SUV. The three of us arrived at the airport a little before 5:00 am and Patrick and I said our goodbyes to Joanne (who was also kind enough to let me and Elias stay at her house). We were officially on our way.
After checking in and having one last smoke for the next who knows how long, we proceeded to line up for the security check point. We found our gate then took turns going to the restroom and finding food and other necessities (such as Skoal) for the flight. As we sat at the gate eating our cinnamon rolls and drinking water the thought that we would soon be in China still hadn't hit me. Our plane started boarding and soon we were in Vancouver, Canada. Neither of us had been to the Vancouver airport before so we rushed as fast as we could through customs to find our next gate. We eventually did just to find out (after waiting for about an hour) that our plane was not safe to fly and that we would have to wait another few hours for a new plane to arrive.
It was obvious to us that we were in the terminal for flights to Asia as it was filled with Asians and Asian restaurants. We decided to get some food while we were waiting for the plane and settled on a Japanese restaurant. Being true to airport food, it was insanely expensive and sub-par for the price. While Patrick went to find some drinks I tried to sleep a bit in the seating area near the gate while sticking my arms and legs through handles of our carry-ons so they wouldn't be stolen if I happened to fall asleep. Although I had not slept in over 24 hours, I was unable to sleep. After a while Patrick came back and told me about the different beer that he had drunk and how much it cost.
This next story may provide a laugh for some. It had been about 6 or 7 hours since we had our last cigarette so we decided to break out the chew. Now, I had never chewed before and had always found it quite disgusting. After Patrick gave me a course in "Chewing 101" I grabbed a tiny pinch to put in my lip. Patrick laughed and said I needed more than that. So I grabbed a slightly larger gob and stuck it in my lip. Listening to Patrick on that one was a HUGE mistake! I immediately got really nauseous and dizzy. I spit it all out in a bottle I had and swore I wouldn't do that again.
Eventually our plane showed up and we began boarding. We were headed to China!
After spending the week with Patrick, a visit from Elias, and repacking my stuff I was ready to go. Our flight was for about 7:00 am on July 8. The night before Patrick and I were running around like chickens with our heads cut off checking and double checking that we had everything in order and doing last minute laundry. We didn't sleep the entire night because we had to leave the house at about 3:00 am to get to the airport in San Fransisco. The time to leave the house finally arrived and we loaded into Joanne's, Pat's grandma, SUV. The three of us arrived at the airport a little before 5:00 am and Patrick and I said our goodbyes to Joanne (who was also kind enough to let me and Elias stay at her house). We were officially on our way.
After checking in and having one last smoke for the next who knows how long, we proceeded to line up for the security check point. We found our gate then took turns going to the restroom and finding food and other necessities (such as Skoal) for the flight. As we sat at the gate eating our cinnamon rolls and drinking water the thought that we would soon be in China still hadn't hit me. Our plane started boarding and soon we were in Vancouver, Canada. Neither of us had been to the Vancouver airport before so we rushed as fast as we could through customs to find our next gate. We eventually did just to find out (after waiting for about an hour) that our plane was not safe to fly and that we would have to wait another few hours for a new plane to arrive.
It was obvious to us that we were in the terminal for flights to Asia as it was filled with Asians and Asian restaurants. We decided to get some food while we were waiting for the plane and settled on a Japanese restaurant. Being true to airport food, it was insanely expensive and sub-par for the price. While Patrick went to find some drinks I tried to sleep a bit in the seating area near the gate while sticking my arms and legs through handles of our carry-ons so they wouldn't be stolen if I happened to fall asleep. Although I had not slept in over 24 hours, I was unable to sleep. After a while Patrick came back and told me about the different beer that he had drunk and how much it cost.
This next story may provide a laugh for some. It had been about 6 or 7 hours since we had our last cigarette so we decided to break out the chew. Now, I had never chewed before and had always found it quite disgusting. After Patrick gave me a course in "Chewing 101" I grabbed a tiny pinch to put in my lip. Patrick laughed and said I needed more than that. So I grabbed a slightly larger gob and stuck it in my lip. Listening to Patrick on that one was a HUGE mistake! I immediately got really nauseous and dizzy. I spit it all out in a bottle I had and swore I wouldn't do that again.
Eventually our plane showed up and we began boarding. We were headed to China!
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
The Beginning
In mid February, during one of my random calls to my friend Patrick, who was in Dalian with me for a few months of my last trip, I was presented with a rather "out of the blue" question. "Do you want to go to China?" We had always talked about going back to Dalian some day after we graduated college. Well, the time had come when we were both finishing up. I had just graduated and Patrick was on his last semester. He had found a blog from a girl who used to work for Future English in Dalian and thought this would be a good company to work for since we had both heard of it before and had friends who had worked for the company.
After a bit of research and some discussions with my family, we decided to apply to teach English in China. It took a while to get everything in order but we were finally given the go ahead and officially hired by Aston English (the corporate name for Future English)for summer and fall semesters. We had our hearts set on going to Dalian but all the schools in this town were filled for the summer semester. We were told that there were openings in Dalian for fall semester but would need to choose a place to go for summer. When we called the recruiter the next day, he suggested that we go to Xuzhou Aston for the summer since they really needed teachers. We didn't really care where we went for the summer as long as we would go to Dalian in the fall.
A few days later we received our contracts and contact emails for the schools we would be going to. We bought our airline tickets and a while later got our tourist visas as instructed. This is how it all started.
After a bit of research and some discussions with my family, we decided to apply to teach English in China. It took a while to get everything in order but we were finally given the go ahead and officially hired by Aston English (the corporate name for Future English)for summer and fall semesters. We had our hearts set on going to Dalian but all the schools in this town were filled for the summer semester. We were told that there were openings in Dalian for fall semester but would need to choose a place to go for summer. When we called the recruiter the next day, he suggested that we go to Xuzhou Aston for the summer since they really needed teachers. We didn't really care where we went for the summer as long as we would go to Dalian in the fall.
A few days later we received our contracts and contact emails for the schools we would be going to. We bought our airline tickets and a while later got our tourist visas as instructed. This is how it all started.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Background
It all started as a freshman in college at Southwest Missouri State University-West Plains. It was my first semester; Fall 2002. I was eagerly waiting for my class to end, for my teacher to quit her endless droning about whatever it was that she was talking about. I had only a few minutes left of listening to her talk when she suddenly stopped and changed the subject. She began talking about a study abroad program that the school was offering. I perked up and started paying attention at the phrase "study abroad". She went on to explain that our school had a branch campus in Dalian, China and anyone interested could get an application from her after class.
Being interested in travel ever since I could remember I went and talked to her after class and got my information packet. I learned that they only accepted 2 students every semester. Since there were plenty of people that were picking up info packets I thought I wouldn't be accepted. After an application, an essay, and an application fee I began waiting to find out if I would be chosen to travel to China for a semester.
Weeks passed. During this semester, my grandmother passed away. I told all my teachers that I would be missing some class since I had to travel to California for Grandma's funeral. They gave me my homework and wished me a safe trip. One night while at Uncle Chuck and Aunt Lori's house after the funeral I was checking my email. There it was. An email from the Dean explaining that he had heard I was out of town but didn't want to make me wait any longer for the status of my application. I had been accepted for the study abroad program in China! I raced through the house to find my family and tell them the news. I nearly slid into the kitchen counters because I was wearing socks and running on marble (or some other slick stone) floors.
A couple months later, early February 2003, I was boarding a plane with another student and some teachers from Springfield. The semester went well and I made many friends. The semester went so well, in fact, that I asked to stay another semester and was allowed to.
When I left China in January 2004, I wasn't very sad. Naturally, I was sad that I wouldn't be seeing many of my good friends for a long time but somehow I knew that I would be returning some day and that I would see these friends again.
Being interested in travel ever since I could remember I went and talked to her after class and got my information packet. I learned that they only accepted 2 students every semester. Since there were plenty of people that were picking up info packets I thought I wouldn't be accepted. After an application, an essay, and an application fee I began waiting to find out if I would be chosen to travel to China for a semester.
Weeks passed. During this semester, my grandmother passed away. I told all my teachers that I would be missing some class since I had to travel to California for Grandma's funeral. They gave me my homework and wished me a safe trip. One night while at Uncle Chuck and Aunt Lori's house after the funeral I was checking my email. There it was. An email from the Dean explaining that he had heard I was out of town but didn't want to make me wait any longer for the status of my application. I had been accepted for the study abroad program in China! I raced through the house to find my family and tell them the news. I nearly slid into the kitchen counters because I was wearing socks and running on marble (or some other slick stone) floors.
A couple months later, early February 2003, I was boarding a plane with another student and some teachers from Springfield. The semester went well and I made many friends. The semester went so well, in fact, that I asked to stay another semester and was allowed to.
When I left China in January 2004, I wasn't very sad. Naturally, I was sad that I wouldn't be seeing many of my good friends for a long time but somehow I knew that I would be returning some day and that I would see these friends again.
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