Meeting our students- They have been welcoming and curious. Here are some of their most common questions so far: Why did you chose Shantou? Have you ever quarreled (their word not mine, given a choice they use the most British or formal word) with Don? Can you speak Chinese? (To both of us) And our favourite, tell us something romantic that Don did for you.
The Students – They are studying in a 3 year program to give them a certificate teaching English to primary or middle school. We’re not too sure yet whether they would be able to teach college / university. Some have studied two years at another school before coming here. They are in their early 20’s and their families are close by, most within a couple of hours bus ride from the campus so they often go home on the weekends. Unlike some of our students in Jinan, there is no epic journey to go home.
Classrooms – We are thankful for the many fans in the classrooms. Some even have one right over the lectern. Unfortunately, we don’t just stand there all of the time and because they spin to circulate the air, we still sweat. So our new teaching dance is talk talk talk, wipe wipe wipe. Ha ha!
Temperature - This week, the average temp has been in the mid 30’s with the humidity factor making it feel like high 40’s, they’re calling for mid 50’s in the next few days. Enough said.
Eating – Our food options have expanded since the students’ return. Despite our best intentions, we’re not able to cook as much ourselves now. Because of our schedules, we can’t go downtown during the week when the bus wouldn’t be so crowded. Last weekend we chose to avoid the bus altogether because we were told it would be bad (remember that there is really only one bus route taking everyone to town, they come every 15 minutes and the buses are small).
So we do take out for lunch and dinner a lot. Most of our meals have remained very reasonable, at $1 Cdn or less. You get lots of rice (Yay for the south, in the north they are not as rice oriented), a bit of greens, and a choice of 3 meats (BBQ pork, roasted duck or chicken for example), cafeteria style so you normally just pick and chose what you want and easy enough to order. We just point.
We also found a restaurant in one of the cafeterias where you can order off a menu. The ordering process is a bit different. Step 1 – take a few photos of menu. Step 2 – go home to translate on electronic dictionary as it’s too rushed there so I take my time and write in the menu items into my dictionary and it translates them for me. Not only can I figure out what is of interest but more importantly what we want to avoid. Step 3 – order a new dish to see if the translation is correct ☺
For fresh fruit, we shop at a little cart outside our gate or the stores along the main road. Sadly, the veggies are further away in the village that looks close but really isn’t in this heat. We made another trip last weekend but it’s a killer to walk there at anytime and the bikes haven’t moved since that one trip we took, just too hilly and hot for me at the moment.
Breakfast – We have been enjoying a great bacon we found in Walmart on the weekends. We can easily buy eggs now. On weekdays, I often buy a steam bun in the little store just outside, one yuan or around 15 cents, filled with some veg, a bit of meat and a piece of boiled egg. The only problem is that if I snooze, I lose. They only make one batch and when they’re sold out, I starve. Boo hoo.
Work - Our schedules are not too bad. There is a max of 3 classes a day since the school day goes from 8:10 – 3:40. We each have one full day. Luckily there is a 2 hour break at lunch so we have time to eat and take a short nap if we want. We’ve found that teaching in this climate has been a bit draining at times. We are always trying to be energetic to begin with, with the temperature and humidity factored in, well, let’s just say nap time is great.
Extra activity - We’ve just had our first English Corner here. Since the other Canadian couple hadn’t returned yet, it was only the two of us. We were surprised at the turnout. The freshman were all required to attend so there was a couple of hundred (yes! hundred!) students there. The student union organized it and a couple of students were hosting it so that wasn’t much a burden for us. The only thing was that we had to give a short presentation (unrehearsed and off the cuff really). It was the Don and June show. Apparently, if you put a mike in either of our hands, we morph. We also dressed the part of Canadian teachers with our matchy matchy red Roots t-shirts. Our big item for show and tell was our Canada flag. We had little trouble filling in our given time slot and then we had fun playing the various games that followed.
Life here so far is comfortable despite the weather conditions. Our classes are going well and the majority of the students seem interested. What more can we ask for.
Here are some more pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22798130@N07/sets/72157622290402185/
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Walking to the Local Village
We set out at 9:30 this morning with our parasols. It helped a little but it was still a hot hot walk to the village right next to the campus. We live near the back gate of the campus (think two gates along the same highway). It takes about 10-15 minutes to walk to the front gate and then another 10-15 minutes walk to the village. We searched for puddles of shade along the way but were still sweating nicely by the time we got there.
We wandered around the area of the small village where little old ladies were selling fresh greens. We imagined that they just picked them from their own gardens. We bought a few veggies and some fruits while entertaining the locals by our very presence. We even bought some pork from a stall. The man selling it was smart, he just started putting a couple of pieces onto the scale and we had to tell him we only wanted one piece, 10 yuan for a big piece of pork. With our little shopping bag full of provisions, we set off towards home.
Along the way, I bought a bottle of cold water from a little store by the gate of the village. I was able to have a short conversation with the lady in a smattering of Mandarin and Cantonese. It’s really cool that everyone I’ve tried to speak Cantonese to either answered back or at least understood me. We got our lunch that way in one of the many little restaurants along the highway back. Lunch cost 10 yuan or $1.45 Cdn. It wasn’t elaborate or anything but tasty enough and definitely reasonably priced. Don even got his hair cut. It was much more expensive than in Jinan, a whole 10 yuan. In Jinan, it was only 4 yuan.
We just arrived home after a two and a half hour “short” walk to get groceries. I’m not sure how often we’ll be doing that, at least at this time of the morning. Thankfully, we did notice that a few of the stores closer had fresh fruit for sale. Planning on taking it easy for the rest of the day with maybe a trip out to get ice cream at our store, the one that is a stone’s throw away, reeeeeally convenient!
Btw, we have found out that everything is downhill from us. Sounds good, until you have to come home. We’re definitely getting a good workout!
We wandered around the area of the small village where little old ladies were selling fresh greens. We imagined that they just picked them from their own gardens. We bought a few veggies and some fruits while entertaining the locals by our very presence. We even bought some pork from a stall. The man selling it was smart, he just started putting a couple of pieces onto the scale and we had to tell him we only wanted one piece, 10 yuan for a big piece of pork. With our little shopping bag full of provisions, we set off towards home.
Along the way, I bought a bottle of cold water from a little store by the gate of the village. I was able to have a short conversation with the lady in a smattering of Mandarin and Cantonese. It’s really cool that everyone I’ve tried to speak Cantonese to either answered back or at least understood me. We got our lunch that way in one of the many little restaurants along the highway back. Lunch cost 10 yuan or $1.45 Cdn. It wasn’t elaborate or anything but tasty enough and definitely reasonably priced. Don even got his hair cut. It was much more expensive than in Jinan, a whole 10 yuan. In Jinan, it was only 4 yuan.
We just arrived home after a two and a half hour “short” walk to get groceries. I’m not sure how often we’ll be doing that, at least at this time of the morning. Thankfully, we did notice that a few of the stores closer had fresh fruit for sale. Planning on taking it easy for the rest of the day with maybe a trip out to get ice cream at our store, the one that is a stone’s throw away, reeeeeally convenient!
Btw, we have found out that everything is downhill from us. Sounds good, until you have to come home. We’re definitely getting a good workout!
Friday, September 4, 2009
Surviving in the Subtropics
It’s hot and humid here, ALL of the time. Sometimes it’s hard to imagine a hotter place. It’s certainly the hottest place we’ve lived in. While it’s breezy up on the hill where we are, there are few screens on the windows so we can’t really take advantage of it. So we are thankful for our air conditioners.
The temperature has averaged around 34ºC with the humidity making it feel more like 43ºC. The nights don’t cool down very much either. In fact, the night time temps would cause a warning in Ottawa. So how have we been surviving? We sweat… a lot. If we go outside for any length of time, we have to change as soon as we get back inside. Thankfully we have a washing machine and a balcony to hang our clothes to dry. We even have a laundry stick that allows us to hang our clothes up high on the ceiling of the balcony. Imagine a stick with a hook on the end. We also keep our curtains closed for much of the day since the heat and the sun beat in.
Another reason we keep our curtains closed in the kitchen is that it overlooks the little convenience store and one of the student dormitories. So when we cook at the stove top, we can see them and they can see us. In fact, today when we put the mop out on the balcony to dry, there were 2 students sitting on the grass right below.
Lily gave us a tour of the campus today. We were shown the 2 canteens, the teaching buildings and another little convenience store. We found a couple of places on campus where we could see the ocean and enjoyed a nice breeze as we walked around. We also found out that there is no barber on campus like in Jinan so we’ll have to head to the nearby village for Don’s haircut. I will wait to find a place in town I think.
Oh yeah, we got class lists today. Don is teaching 9 classes and I’m teaching 8. We will be teaching close to 400 students each. Yikes! We normally try to get to know the students’ names but feel less than confident that we’ll be able to do that here due to the numbers and due to the fact that we’ll only see each class once a week. Don starts on Monday and I start on Tuesday. Wish us luck.
J
The temperature has averaged around 34ºC with the humidity making it feel more like 43ºC. The nights don’t cool down very much either. In fact, the night time temps would cause a warning in Ottawa. So how have we been surviving? We sweat… a lot. If we go outside for any length of time, we have to change as soon as we get back inside. Thankfully we have a washing machine and a balcony to hang our clothes to dry. We even have a laundry stick that allows us to hang our clothes up high on the ceiling of the balcony. Imagine a stick with a hook on the end. We also keep our curtains closed for much of the day since the heat and the sun beat in.
Another reason we keep our curtains closed in the kitchen is that it overlooks the little convenience store and one of the student dormitories. So when we cook at the stove top, we can see them and they can see us. In fact, today when we put the mop out on the balcony to dry, there were 2 students sitting on the grass right below.
Lily gave us a tour of the campus today. We were shown the 2 canteens, the teaching buildings and another little convenience store. We found a couple of places on campus where we could see the ocean and enjoyed a nice breeze as we walked around. We also found out that there is no barber on campus like in Jinan so we’ll have to head to the nearby village for Don’s haircut. I will wait to find a place in town I think.
Oh yeah, we got class lists today. Don is teaching 9 classes and I’m teaching 8. We will be teaching close to 400 students each. Yikes! We normally try to get to know the students’ names but feel less than confident that we’ll be able to do that here due to the numbers and due to the fact that we’ll only see each class once a week. Don starts on Monday and I start on Tuesday. Wish us luck.
J
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Foreigner Day At Walmart
We went to Walmart all by ourselves today. It took about an hour by bus and we even have to transfer. We made it there no problem and celebrated with a KFC lunch. After filling our tanks, we were all set to shop. Shortly after we got into the store, we noticed that there were other foreigners there. Our best guess is that they were new English teachers from another school here and they were buying their provisions. Funny enough, many of them had identical pink irons in their carts. At the checkout, we also noticed a big difference from our basics. One of their carts had a good supply of liquor. No wonder the tonic section was empty.
We also bought an iron. Since we have more clothing that required ironing this time around, we felt that it was a necessity, ok I felt. I wanted a steamer so we didn't needed to cart an ironing board back on the bus. I was able to discuss my options with the clerk today in Cantonese for the first time on the mainland. It was handy! Now we'll be presentable when we get to class. Btw, we got our teaching schedules today too. Now we can start preparing for class. Don starts Monday with 3 classes (his heaviest day) and I start on Tuesday.
Earlier today, our mission with Lily was to get bank accounts set up at a nearby bank so we could get our salaries direct deposited. After an hour of paperwork and other procedures, we walked away with our bank books and bank cards. The next challenge will be to navigate the ATM. Lily promises there is English. We'll have to see if it's Chinglish:)
Besides accomplishing that, we drove through the Free Trade Zone near here (Shantou was one of the first Special Economic Zones set up in China but it looked abandoned) to get to the local police station where we began the process to register our residence here. All foreigners have to register at their local police station. There are many more procedures we have to follow in order to work here. Thank goodness there is always help!
J
p.s. Still cooking our meals. Thanks to precooked meats from Walmart, we had an easy supper tonight of yummy roasted drumsticks with Chinese greens and leftover rice. Thanks also to my mom who taught me to precook a delicious oyster sauce for my greens. It's a quick way to flavour simple blanched greens.
We also bought an iron. Since we have more clothing that required ironing this time around, we felt that it was a necessity, ok I felt. I wanted a steamer so we didn't needed to cart an ironing board back on the bus. I was able to discuss my options with the clerk today in Cantonese for the first time on the mainland. It was handy! Now we'll be presentable when we get to class. Btw, we got our teaching schedules today too. Now we can start preparing for class. Don starts Monday with 3 classes (his heaviest day) and I start on Tuesday.
Earlier today, our mission with Lily was to get bank accounts set up at a nearby bank so we could get our salaries direct deposited. After an hour of paperwork and other procedures, we walked away with our bank books and bank cards. The next challenge will be to navigate the ATM. Lily promises there is English. We'll have to see if it's Chinglish:)
Besides accomplishing that, we drove through the Free Trade Zone near here (Shantou was one of the first Special Economic Zones set up in China but it looked abandoned) to get to the local police station where we began the process to register our residence here. All foreigners have to register at their local police station. There are many more procedures we have to follow in order to work here. Thank goodness there is always help!
J
p.s. Still cooking our meals. Thanks to precooked meats from Walmart, we had an easy supper tonight of yummy roasted drumsticks with Chinese greens and leftover rice. Thanks also to my mom who taught me to precook a delicious oyster sauce for my greens. It's a quick way to flavour simple blanched greens.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Pics So Far
Since we can't post photos here nor on Facebook, we'll be posting on Flikr ... until we can't anymore :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22798130@N07/sets/72157622090140673
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22798130@N07/sets/72157622090140673
A Day At The Beach
An unexpected bonus so far is that we are 20 minutes walk away from a lovely beach. We walked there this morning (earlier this time to avoid the midday heat cause we are learning to live in this climate) along the side of the highway in front of the campus. It’s a public beach so we didn’t have to pay to enter. We were slightly worried about the quality of the beach but are very happy to report that it exceeds expectations. It’s Wednesday (we’ve been here exactly one week) so there was only a family there enjoying the beach. Another fabulous thing was that there was music for our enjoyment. Don frolicked in the ocean while I watched from under my umbrella. One thing I’ve learned so far about surviving this heat is that my umbrella is my best friend!
Campus Life So Far
It’s very very quiet! The teachers’ dormitories are almost empty. Many of the apartments are assigned to teachers who have homes in the city. They use them only to rest during the day while at work. Our current neighbours are the ones who are not from Shantou and there are just a few of them. We’ve seen them wandering around with their families, hear their scooters and see the occasional car drive by. The students haven’t arrived yet because school doesn’t start till September 7th.
Jenny and Lily took us out for dinner to a restaurant within driving distance from here the first night. We had a delicious meal with fresh seafood chosen from tanks at the front door. A yummy start! We spent the next 2 days shopping for food and other basics. Since the campus is nearly deserted during the holidays, the nearby little stores and restaurants are closed and there are no fruit or veggie vendors either. For now, we have to go into town to get everything. There is a village about a 5 minutes drive away with tiny stores. We were driven there the first night to get a few things but we haven’t checked it out ourselves yet since it would mean a 20 minute walk in the heat or a 10 minute bike ride. I haven’t been on a bike in many years so I don’t want to be trying the hilly ride until I’ve rediscovered my bike legs. All that to say, we have to cook. The kitchen here is bright and inviting. It’s also large enough for two people so we can cook together again.
Without a nearby source of food, we desperately shopped for things we might need for our meals for a couple of days at a time. The first day we had the driver with us so we could buy bigger and heavier things. On the second day, we had to take the bus into town with Lily’s help and we headed to Walmart. We bought what we could carry and took the bus back to the university by ourselves.
One of the “essentials” we had to shop for was cockroach spray. Why? Because I saw my first live one in the bathroom the second night we were here. I saw lots of dead ones in Mexico and maybe one live one but I’m not sure since I didn’t get a good look at it since it was the middle of the night. I was unpleasantly surprised! Don came to my rescue. Since the walls are concrete and the window was shut, we think it came from the floor drain or the sink. A plate was assigned the important task of covering the floor drain when it was not in use. The next day when I told Lily about it, she also suggested putting a heavy rock on it since rats might try to come up the drain in search of food. Yikes! A full water bottle quickly joined the plate until we can find a rock. I will not be happy to see one of those! I saw one dead on the street when we were in town but in our apartment, I don’t even want to think about that.
We finally got out and walked around the campus yesterday. It has been very hot (34ºC) and humid so we went early in the morning. It didn’t matter. I’m not sure it’s ever cool here. The campus is large and hilly. There are many buildings to accommodate the 7,000 students who live in the dormitories. Some of them are only here during the week and return home nearby for the weekends. I’m sure the campus will look very different once they all arrive. In the meantime, everything looks abandoned. We saw many people working on the grounds. The vegetation has taken over during the summer so they are busy cutting and cleaning.
Everyone is preparing for the new school year… except us. We haven’t received our schedules yet or our text books so now that we’ve settled into the apartment, we have to wait. We have been enjoying the Internet, and our two English (not CCTV 9) and Cantonese tv channels. My Cantonese will definitely get a work out here and I’m teaching Don more. Mandarin is still the working language here but some people do understand it. I’m sure I’ll be able to communicate more. I’ve already spoken it with Jenny and Lily and heard it around me. Our Mandarin still won’t be improving quickly but I’m happy that I’ll be able to help do things. Besides our intention to experience a different part of China, we wanted to live in an area where my Cantonese might make life a bit easier.
Update: Btw, Don is a big attraction here. No other foreigners in site … until yesterday at Walmart. It was funny. I found Don talking to her and when I approached I was happy to see another foreigner but she didn’t know to be happy to see me. I keep forgetting what I look like ☺ Everyone tells me that I look Chinese until I open my mouth!
Jenny and Lily took us out for dinner to a restaurant within driving distance from here the first night. We had a delicious meal with fresh seafood chosen from tanks at the front door. A yummy start! We spent the next 2 days shopping for food and other basics. Since the campus is nearly deserted during the holidays, the nearby little stores and restaurants are closed and there are no fruit or veggie vendors either. For now, we have to go into town to get everything. There is a village about a 5 minutes drive away with tiny stores. We were driven there the first night to get a few things but we haven’t checked it out ourselves yet since it would mean a 20 minute walk in the heat or a 10 minute bike ride. I haven’t been on a bike in many years so I don’t want to be trying the hilly ride until I’ve rediscovered my bike legs. All that to say, we have to cook. The kitchen here is bright and inviting. It’s also large enough for two people so we can cook together again.
Without a nearby source of food, we desperately shopped for things we might need for our meals for a couple of days at a time. The first day we had the driver with us so we could buy bigger and heavier things. On the second day, we had to take the bus into town with Lily’s help and we headed to Walmart. We bought what we could carry and took the bus back to the university by ourselves.
One of the “essentials” we had to shop for was cockroach spray. Why? Because I saw my first live one in the bathroom the second night we were here. I saw lots of dead ones in Mexico and maybe one live one but I’m not sure since I didn’t get a good look at it since it was the middle of the night. I was unpleasantly surprised! Don came to my rescue. Since the walls are concrete and the window was shut, we think it came from the floor drain or the sink. A plate was assigned the important task of covering the floor drain when it was not in use. The next day when I told Lily about it, she also suggested putting a heavy rock on it since rats might try to come up the drain in search of food. Yikes! A full water bottle quickly joined the plate until we can find a rock. I will not be happy to see one of those! I saw one dead on the street when we were in town but in our apartment, I don’t even want to think about that.
We finally got out and walked around the campus yesterday. It has been very hot (34ºC) and humid so we went early in the morning. It didn’t matter. I’m not sure it’s ever cool here. The campus is large and hilly. There are many buildings to accommodate the 7,000 students who live in the dormitories. Some of them are only here during the week and return home nearby for the weekends. I’m sure the campus will look very different once they all arrive. In the meantime, everything looks abandoned. We saw many people working on the grounds. The vegetation has taken over during the summer so they are busy cutting and cleaning.
Everyone is preparing for the new school year… except us. We haven’t received our schedules yet or our text books so now that we’ve settled into the apartment, we have to wait. We have been enjoying the Internet, and our two English (not CCTV 9) and Cantonese tv channels. My Cantonese will definitely get a work out here and I’m teaching Don more. Mandarin is still the working language here but some people do understand it. I’m sure I’ll be able to communicate more. I’ve already spoken it with Jenny and Lily and heard it around me. Our Mandarin still won’t be improving quickly but I’m happy that I’ll be able to help do things. Besides our intention to experience a different part of China, we wanted to live in an area where my Cantonese might make life a bit easier.
Update: Btw, Don is a big attraction here. No other foreigners in site … until yesterday at Walmart. It was funny. I found Don talking to her and when I approached I was happy to see another foreigner but she didn’t know to be happy to see me. I keep forgetting what I look like ☺ Everyone tells me that I look Chinese until I open my mouth!
Limitations of Blogger
So it looks like we'll be able to continue to post on Blogger but we will not be able to post photos here. Unfortunately, we can't post on Facebook here either so we will have to find another site to share our photos. We will hopefully put links here to the photos. J&D
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Our New Bikes
Along with the accommodations, we also get mountain bikes. We took them for a spin today. While I haven’t been on a bike in many years, it does seem that you don’t forget how to ride one. I wouldn’t have wanted to be in any traffic though as my skills are definitely rusty. Our main mission was to get air for the tires but we weren’t able to find any on campus. The guard at the gate pointed us in the direction to the nearby village so off we went down the hill.
The day before, the driver had shown us where we could buy veggies and meat at the village and took a little road back to the campus so we knew to take a more scenic route to find the air. Without too much trouble, we found the little hut at the entrance to the village and motioned our meaning to the attending man. There was even a little stand beside it that sold cold water. Ah! It cost half of a yuan to fill our 2 bikes up with air and then another yuan for my very cold bottle of water. A great thing we’ve found so far here is that cold water is plentiful. In Jinan, it was a bit harder to find cold bottled water.
We figured that while we were already there, we’d take a quick ride through the village. Unfortunately, it was just enough time under the blazing sun and humidity for me to get overheated. It was a LONG journey back to the apartment. The way there only took 10 minutes but the trip back was filled with frequent stops in the shade. Apparently the campus is very hilly☹
The day before, the driver had shown us where we could buy veggies and meat at the village and took a little road back to the campus so we knew to take a more scenic route to find the air. Without too much trouble, we found the little hut at the entrance to the village and motioned our meaning to the attending man. There was even a little stand beside it that sold cold water. Ah! It cost half of a yuan to fill our 2 bikes up with air and then another yuan for my very cold bottle of water. A great thing we’ve found so far here is that cold water is plentiful. In Jinan, it was a bit harder to find cold bottled water.
We figured that while we were already there, we’d take a quick ride through the village. Unfortunately, it was just enough time under the blazing sun and humidity for me to get overheated. It was a LONG journey back to the apartment. The way there only took 10 minutes but the trip back was filled with frequent stops in the shade. Apparently the campus is very hilly☹
Home Sweet Home
Wednesday August 26th
Our first impression of Shantou, our new city, was the airport. The landing was out of the ordinary, another adventure. We came in fast and the plane bounced off the runway, was buffeted by the wind and the pilot braked hard to stop. I don’t think we were in any danger since nobody panicked. It just felt rough to us. Maybe it had something to do with the age of the airport. As we taxied to the terminal, we noticed scarecrows (or were they crosses?) in the field and fences made of pinwheels. The terminal was the smallest and oldest one we’ve been in. A great start?
The first people we saw after we got our luggage were Jenny and Lily from the new school. They were waiting at the exit and greeted us warmly. We were whisked into the awaiting van (the school president’s ride with his driver, leather seats and comfy) right outside and off we went.
Our first glimpses of Shantou brought back warm memories of Mexico for us. It is green with lots of vegetation and the air is hot and humid. Despite our worries of constant rain here, it was a bright sunny afternoon. We found our new colleagues warm and friendly and during pauses in our conversation I snuck peeps at Shantou while Don rode in the front of the van with the driver. A great first impression.
We arrived at the university, Shantou Polytechnic, after about 40 minutes. It’s located across an inlet from the city proper and is in a rural area right by the ocean. As we approached our apartment building, the guy from the phone company was already waiting for us. The school had arranged to get our phone and Internet hooked up that day.
We have been assigned to a flat on the second floor of the second teacher’s dormitory building. We are the only foreigners in this building. Another Canadian couple, Jackie and Gord, live in the other building. You can easily spot the foreign teachers’ apartments because ours are the ONLY ones with white security bars over ALL of our windows and doors. Talk about sticking out.
Our apartment is very well equipped. It’s furnished with almost completely new furniture and appliances. We spent some time unpacking things from their boxes. It felt like Christmas. We have all of the necessities: a 29” flat screen tv (it’s heaven because we were watching a 15” computer monitor before), DVD player (with USB so we can watch downloaded movies and tv), a wooden living room set (a bit uncomfortable for now but I’m sure we’ll get used to), a couple of desks, a storage unit, dishes, a cleaver, a cutting board, chopsticks, a gas stove top, a microwave, a refrigerator, a dish sanitizer (don’t know how to use this yet but Mom says everyone has one in Guandong), and an instant gas hot water heater in the shower. They even installed a new toilet and sink. The bedroom has a couple of older wardrobes but a brand new bed with a bedside table. We even got 2 brand new mountain bikes that we get to use while we are here. Even though it’s only one bedroom, the apartment is nicely laid out and comfortable. We’ve spent the weekend organizing and cleaning it and now it feels quite homey.
Our first impression of Shantou, our new city, was the airport. The landing was out of the ordinary, another adventure. We came in fast and the plane bounced off the runway, was buffeted by the wind and the pilot braked hard to stop. I don’t think we were in any danger since nobody panicked. It just felt rough to us. Maybe it had something to do with the age of the airport. As we taxied to the terminal, we noticed scarecrows (or were they crosses?) in the field and fences made of pinwheels. The terminal was the smallest and oldest one we’ve been in. A great start?
The first people we saw after we got our luggage were Jenny and Lily from the new school. They were waiting at the exit and greeted us warmly. We were whisked into the awaiting van (the school president’s ride with his driver, leather seats and comfy) right outside and off we went.
Our first glimpses of Shantou brought back warm memories of Mexico for us. It is green with lots of vegetation and the air is hot and humid. Despite our worries of constant rain here, it was a bright sunny afternoon. We found our new colleagues warm and friendly and during pauses in our conversation I snuck peeps at Shantou while Don rode in the front of the van with the driver. A great first impression.
We arrived at the university, Shantou Polytechnic, after about 40 minutes. It’s located across an inlet from the city proper and is in a rural area right by the ocean. As we approached our apartment building, the guy from the phone company was already waiting for us. The school had arranged to get our phone and Internet hooked up that day.
We have been assigned to a flat on the second floor of the second teacher’s dormitory building. We are the only foreigners in this building. Another Canadian couple, Jackie and Gord, live in the other building. You can easily spot the foreign teachers’ apartments because ours are the ONLY ones with white security bars over ALL of our windows and doors. Talk about sticking out.
Our apartment is very well equipped. It’s furnished with almost completely new furniture and appliances. We spent some time unpacking things from their boxes. It felt like Christmas. We have all of the necessities: a 29” flat screen tv (it’s heaven because we were watching a 15” computer monitor before), DVD player (with USB so we can watch downloaded movies and tv), a wooden living room set (a bit uncomfortable for now but I’m sure we’ll get used to), a couple of desks, a storage unit, dishes, a cleaver, a cutting board, chopsticks, a gas stove top, a microwave, a refrigerator, a dish sanitizer (don’t know how to use this yet but Mom says everyone has one in Guandong), and an instant gas hot water heater in the shower. They even installed a new toilet and sink. The bedroom has a couple of older wardrobes but a brand new bed with a bedside table. We even got 2 brand new mountain bikes that we get to use while we are here. Even though it’s only one bedroom, the apartment is nicely laid out and comfortable. We’ve spent the weekend organizing and cleaning it and now it feels quite homey.
New Home in Shantou
After 2 months of lounging around, it was time to get back to work and to China. It was such a treat to be home and visiting with family and friends but time to get back to reality. We dumped off our winter clothing, stocked up on necessities and headed back with fewer bags.
August 24/25 - The flight, while long, was uneventful. With a few of these long flights under our belts now, we are getting more used to the details. Thanks to a nice Air Canada employee at check-in, Don and I got seats by the emergency exits again which guaranteed us great leg room (seats 50 A&B would be ideal). Yay! We even enjoyed the new Star Trek movie finally. Great flick!
Our adventure came when we landed in Beijing. Sam had reserved a room for us at a hotel near the airport the week before we left China to come home for the summer. They were to send a driver to pick us up and would meet us at the airport with our names written on a piece of paper. That was the plan. Instead, we arrived one hour late and so had to make our way in a taxi. I had a printout from the computer with the hotel name in Chinese so we thought we would be ok. Unfortunately, our driver didn’t know the street and had to stop to ask for directions. We even called the hotel but there was no answer. Despite asking countless people by the side of the road and in cars at stoplights, he still couldn’t find it after an hour. The hotel was only supposed to be 5 minutes away. At his last stop, a police hut by the road, the taxi driver found out that the hotel had been demolished! Now what?
We finally called on our friend Kathy in Jinan. Now there is a superwoman! Thanks Kathy for saving us! She talked to our driver, found another hotel for us online and reserved a room and then explained to the driver what was going on. He still had to call the new hotel for directions but got us there in short time. It ended up to be very close to the airport and we even ordered supper from a picture menu with English. We took the hotel airport shuttle the next day and caught our flight to Shantou. No issues this time
August 24/25 - The flight, while long, was uneventful. With a few of these long flights under our belts now, we are getting more used to the details. Thanks to a nice Air Canada employee at check-in, Don and I got seats by the emergency exits again which guaranteed us great leg room (seats 50 A&B would be ideal). Yay! We even enjoyed the new Star Trek movie finally. Great flick!
Our adventure came when we landed in Beijing. Sam had reserved a room for us at a hotel near the airport the week before we left China to come home for the summer. They were to send a driver to pick us up and would meet us at the airport with our names written on a piece of paper. That was the plan. Instead, we arrived one hour late and so had to make our way in a taxi. I had a printout from the computer with the hotel name in Chinese so we thought we would be ok. Unfortunately, our driver didn’t know the street and had to stop to ask for directions. We even called the hotel but there was no answer. Despite asking countless people by the side of the road and in cars at stoplights, he still couldn’t find it after an hour. The hotel was only supposed to be 5 minutes away. At his last stop, a police hut by the road, the taxi driver found out that the hotel had been demolished! Now what?
We finally called on our friend Kathy in Jinan. Now there is a superwoman! Thanks Kathy for saving us! She talked to our driver, found another hotel for us online and reserved a room and then explained to the driver what was going on. He still had to call the new hotel for directions but got us there in short time. It ended up to be very close to the airport and we even ordered supper from a picture menu with English. We took the hotel airport shuttle the next day and caught our flight to Shantou. No issues this time
Testing Testing 1-2-3
Hi everyone! We've arrived in Shantou. This is just a test to see if we can use Blogger in our new location. Stay tuned. J&D
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