I woke up at about 5am this morning. My body is still getting used to the time difference and I really only sleep a few hours at a time. Thankfully, 5am here is around dinner time back in Ottawa, and I had a nice chat with my mother on skype.
Over the last few days I've taken note of some of the more difficult challenges that I will be faced with in my day-to-day life. The language barrier creates many problems
1. Ordering food.
The main one. Generally menus here are in chinese characters and very few have pictures. The servers also speak no english around here. You can use the whole point and pray method but that could mean the waitress returning with a nice plate of monkey penis.
2. Transportation.
I haven't seen any street signs labelled and even if i did i would not be able to read them on a map. Taxi drivers speak absolutely no english. Even if you memorize the address of where you want to go, one wrong tone and you could end up in the middle of nowhere with no way back.
3. Buying anything that requires negotiation or explanation.
cell phones, haircuts. being unable to ask questions about purchases.
4. Getting lost.
If you wander too far on your own your screwed. Not being able to ask anyone for help, understand a map or even call anyone (see problem 3) really keeps you on your toes.
To begin to tackle some of these problems this morning, I made myself little cards and started to memorize the characters for certain menu items. Chicken 雞肉, Beef 牛肉
Pork 豬肉, Fish 魚, Duck 鴨 , Vegetables 蔬菜 , Rice 饭 and Noodles 面. Being terrible at drawing, attempting to scrawl out these elaborate symbols was not easy. Knowing all of them covers most of the dishes found around here though, and the point and pray will be greatly improved. After I felt i was somewhat confident in recognizing the symbols, I headed out for my first solo adventure.
So far I have been travelling around with the other foreign teachers and i'll have to say its very different when your alone. Everyone stares, parents point you out to there kids and say "look, look!" and then call you either a meiguoren or a laowei, the chinese word for foreigner. The feeling is hard to describe. Maybe kind of like being in a zoo, everyone staring and pointing and your unable to communicate back. Just smile your big dumb foreigner smile and wave. I made my way out of the neighbourhood and into the busy main street. After crossing the 6 lane road (not an easy task.. think Frogger in asian driver mode) I decided to go find some breakfast.
For breakfast yesterday me and two of the other new teachers decided to go try Re Gan Mien, a food that Wuhan is famous for. I literally see every person eating this for breakfast. It basically consists of noodles and a sesame paste. Apparently you are also supposed to get chili paste and little vegetables on it, but being the dumb meiguorens we are had no idea how to ask for it. We just smiled and nodded as she handed us the bowls. It tasted like noodles with peanut butter on them. interesting. I learnt for next time how to ask for it the proper way.
So for breakfast this morning i said to hell with it. No more peanut butter noodles. I went to the Mcdonalds up the street. I figured hey its Mcdonalds. This is our turf. But once again, like most things here, I was wrong. I walked up to the counter and said "wu" which is the chinese word for number 5. I got the usual confused look that i get whenever i attempt to speak mandarin so I gave in and put up five fingers. She responded with a rapid-fire chinese question which I assumed was asking if i wanted the combo or not. Since i had no idea how to say I wanted the combo it was the old dumb smile and nod for me. After feeling borderline retarded I went and ate my breakfast alone near the window where people were staring in at me. For the first time i really felt in over my head. I believe this is what they call culture shock.
All the other teachers on my floor today left to go to a meeting at the main branch. Apparently they will be working at the main branch, while I will be working here where we live. Our apartment is pretty much above the school and I just have to walk downstairs to get to work, while the other teachers have a half an hour commute.
After sitting around for a few hours today waiting for everyone to get back, I finally met Nemo. He came to my door and did not understand me when i said "one minute i'm changing" so yea pretty much full frontal for him. Being asian i'm sure he was impressed. He told me a few things. The main thing being that tomorrow at 8am they will pick me up and take me to the hospital for tests and needles. Those who know me will understand my reaction to this news. Second he informed me I would be teaching grade 5's and he would be my co-teacher for the year. I didn't expect to get a higher grade right away so i'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Either way i'm sure the students will be wonderful and being able to actually communicate with them will be great. Now that I think about it most of my students were around that age back home.
speaking of the kids, they were all here today for their orientation i guess before classes start on wednesday. At about 8am there was an announcement on the intercom and I could hear the laughter of children. It is a joyful way to start your day and i'm looking forward to it. Walking by them on my way out today they all waved and smiled. Some even said hello. Their parents seemed so proud for their kids to be speaking to a foreigner. They seem to really love us.
Seeing the kids put me at ease a bit today and I can't wait to start teaching on wednesday.
再见,
Corey
For those of you who don't know yet, I will be spending the next year in Wuhan City, China. I will be teaching English to children in a public school and living in Wuchang (a district of Wuhan.) Because China has so kindly blocked facebook, youtube, myspace, wikipedia entries, google, twitter and many other sites, This will be one of the only ways I will be able to keep in touch and update all my family and friends of my adventures. Enjoy!
Monday, August 30, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
First day in Wuhan
I am currently lying in bed extremely hungover listening to the weirdest sounding bird i've ever heard. I think he's tweeting but in chinese. Yesterday was my first day in Wuhan and it was quite eventful.
I woke up and took a cold shower because i didn't understand the whole hot water tank switch thing, then decided to go for a walk around with Bobby (the teacher who also arrived last night) and his dad. We wandered the streets aimlessly, looking at all the strange shops and restaurants. First thing i noticed was the stares. Everyone will stop and look at you. We were the only foreign people we saw on the entire walk and probably the only who spoke fluent english. Nobody in this area speaks any english really except the younger people, which makes shopping and eating difficult but an adventure nonetheless.
We walked through a strange open place which had a bunch of random workout machines and a ping pong table. awesome. While there I also saw a guy driving his kid around in a big remote control car. also awesome. Feeling adventurous, we decided to sit down and have lunch somewhere. There was a long line of little restaurants and they were all motioning us to come in. All so friendly. We sat down at a tiny family owned restaurant right off the main street. The waitress spoke no english but luckily the menus had pictures. I tried my terrible mandarin out for the first time. "uhh, san..pian.. pijiu?" as the waitress left I had hope i just ordered 3 beers and not the death of three helpless kittens. She returned with 3 rather large bottles of beer for us, which i would've feared at 11:30am except chinese beer is lighter than our light beer. about 3.1%.
The menu was great because it had pictures of the dishes (except one which was just a picture of a bird of some sort) but we still had no idea what we were ordering. Bobby asked what the meat in one of the dishes was and the lady said "dove! dove." interesting. I was pumped. I've always wanted to take a bite out of those little annoying bastards. When our three dishes arrived it turned out she was saying duck not dove, oh well. sad face.
The meal was actually delicious. Around here it seems they put something called sichuan peppers in alot of the dishes which give them all a nice kick. Just how I like it. We finished up and payed the bill. Between me and Bobby we knew enough chinese to somewhat get by ordering and getting the check. It all came to about 80 RMB which is the equivalent of about $12 canadian. For three people to eat a nice meal and get three large beers in canada would be well over $50. I love China.
After returning home and having a much needed jet-lag induced nap I met one of the other foreign teachers, Shannon, who is on her 3rd year here and speaks great chinese. She took us on a journey to the grocery store and was very helpful with everything. I met some of the other teachers also. On my floor is Sean from Vancouver (and his chinese girlfriend), Bobby, Lloyd from London and Richard and his girlfriend Tara from California. All very nice people!
Later on all the foreign teachers got together and went out for an amazing meal. Thankfully Shannon was there to translate for us and order us all food because at this place there was no pictures. The whole meal came to maybe $30 canadian. Food for 7 people and two beers each thats amazing.
Afterwards we all decided to get to know eachother and drink on the roof of the school. So professional us teachers. I learnt that Sean had a band here last year but the lead singer left. Looks like i'll be doing some jammin out while i'm here also. Yes great chinese rock-superstar!!
After the roof we all went to one of the foreigner bars here called Vox. Our cabbie popped his tire on the way and we had to flag down another cab. But we made it. For a "foreigner bar" there was quite a lot of chinese people but luckily the younger crowd in China speaks decent english. I met a group from France here teaching French (a chinese person speaking french is a hilarious notion) and lots of other people whos names i cannot pronounce.
We finished the night around 4am with a trip to Mcdonalds. As if i was in China and I was going to a bar, getting drunk and going to Mcdonalds after. Am I still in barrhaven? Note for anyone travelling to China, a spicy mcchicken in china is SPICY. Me, sean and british lloyd ate our mcdonalds and stumbled back home.
So far China is great success. Everything is cheap. the teachers are all awesome and the food is great. i'm looking forward to my first day of teaching on wednesday
I woke up and took a cold shower because i didn't understand the whole hot water tank switch thing, then decided to go for a walk around with Bobby (the teacher who also arrived last night) and his dad. We wandered the streets aimlessly, looking at all the strange shops and restaurants. First thing i noticed was the stares. Everyone will stop and look at you. We were the only foreign people we saw on the entire walk and probably the only who spoke fluent english. Nobody in this area speaks any english really except the younger people, which makes shopping and eating difficult but an adventure nonetheless.
We walked through a strange open place which had a bunch of random workout machines and a ping pong table. awesome. While there I also saw a guy driving his kid around in a big remote control car. also awesome. Feeling adventurous, we decided to sit down and have lunch somewhere. There was a long line of little restaurants and they were all motioning us to come in. All so friendly. We sat down at a tiny family owned restaurant right off the main street. The waitress spoke no english but luckily the menus had pictures. I tried my terrible mandarin out for the first time. "uhh, san..pian.. pijiu?" as the waitress left I had hope i just ordered 3 beers and not the death of three helpless kittens. She returned with 3 rather large bottles of beer for us, which i would've feared at 11:30am except chinese beer is lighter than our light beer. about 3.1%.
The menu was great because it had pictures of the dishes (except one which was just a picture of a bird of some sort) but we still had no idea what we were ordering. Bobby asked what the meat in one of the dishes was and the lady said "dove! dove." interesting. I was pumped. I've always wanted to take a bite out of those little annoying bastards. When our three dishes arrived it turned out she was saying duck not dove, oh well. sad face.
The meal was actually delicious. Around here it seems they put something called sichuan peppers in alot of the dishes which give them all a nice kick. Just how I like it. We finished up and payed the bill. Between me and Bobby we knew enough chinese to somewhat get by ordering and getting the check. It all came to about 80 RMB which is the equivalent of about $12 canadian. For three people to eat a nice meal and get three large beers in canada would be well over $50. I love China.
After returning home and having a much needed jet-lag induced nap I met one of the other foreign teachers, Shannon, who is on her 3rd year here and speaks great chinese. She took us on a journey to the grocery store and was very helpful with everything. I met some of the other teachers also. On my floor is Sean from Vancouver (and his chinese girlfriend), Bobby, Lloyd from London and Richard and his girlfriend Tara from California. All very nice people!
Later on all the foreign teachers got together and went out for an amazing meal. Thankfully Shannon was there to translate for us and order us all food because at this place there was no pictures. The whole meal came to maybe $30 canadian. Food for 7 people and two beers each thats amazing.
Afterwards we all decided to get to know eachother and drink on the roof of the school. So professional us teachers. I learnt that Sean had a band here last year but the lead singer left. Looks like i'll be doing some jammin out while i'm here also. Yes great chinese rock-superstar!!
After the roof we all went to one of the foreigner bars here called Vox. Our cabbie popped his tire on the way and we had to flag down another cab. But we made it. For a "foreigner bar" there was quite a lot of chinese people but luckily the younger crowd in China speaks decent english. I met a group from France here teaching French (a chinese person speaking french is a hilarious notion) and lots of other people whos names i cannot pronounce.
We finished the night around 4am with a trip to Mcdonalds. As if i was in China and I was going to a bar, getting drunk and going to Mcdonalds after. Am I still in barrhaven? Note for anyone travelling to China, a spicy mcchicken in china is SPICY. Me, sean and british lloyd ate our mcdonalds and stumbled back home.
So far China is great success. Everything is cheap. the teachers are all awesome and the food is great. i'm looking forward to my first day of teaching on wednesday
Friday, August 27, 2010
Arrived in China!
I'm here!
I arrived in Wuhan about an hour ago. I really can't describe how long and boring the flight was. I flew out of Ottawa at 7am and first had a 6 hour flight to Vancouver. It went by very quick as I got a nice glimpse of Canada. The prairies with just endless nothingness and the rockies which reach up so high you feel as if the plane is low to the ground when really your at 30,000 feet. It really was an enjoyable flight. I got off in Vancouver and I was very excited because i've always wanted to go there. too bad I was stuck in the airport but holy shit Vancouver has a gigantic airport. It took me about half an hour to walk through all of it and get to my other terminal.
Next was the 13 hour flight to Shanghai. I boarded the plane with mostly chinese people and white businessmen and took off for the longest flight of my life. Ofcourse my seat was beside a baby, who at first cried incessantly but later became quite the source of entertainment as I made faces and smiled at him.
I watched 3 movies on the plane. Catch me if you can, Iron man 2 and quite possibly the worst Bruce Willis movie i've ever seen, Cop out. Even after all those movies I still wasn't even done half the trip. I attempted to sleep, I read, I listened to music but still the flight kept going. Somewhere over Russia we had a huge bout of turbulence and that kept me fearfully occupied for awhile. Finally after 13 hours, 3 meals, 3 movies and a sore ass I landed at the Shanghai airport.
As i got off the plane I felt like i had landed in hawaii or some tropical place. MAN it was humid, sticky and hot. I was almost immediately sweating as I walked through the terminal. And what a terminal this was. I grabbed my bags and headed down a hallway that was labeled "domestic flights." I figured this was where i had to go until i realized that this section of the airport was completely deserted for no apparent reason. Heading down the same empty hallway was a man I met who told me he was coming to China to learn chinese. I asked if he could use said skill to get us where we have to go. We stuck together and eventually got turned around to the opposite side of the airport where we were supposed to go in the first place.
I had previously thought the Vancouver airport was big but the Shanghai airport put it to shame. I was totally lost and had no idea how or where to check-in for my next flight to Wuhan. Eventually I asked for help (luckily everyone speaks english at the airport) and along the way met Kyle. We stuck together also as I had lost chinese speaking guy some time ago. Kyle was from some town in Oregon and he was also going to China to teach english for the first time. We sat at the airport bar and had some rather expensive drinks. I figured my flight wasn't until 4:30 so I had some time to spare.
After ditching Kyle and going through customs I re-checked my ticket. My flight was boarding at 4:05. Oh shit. It was 4:27. I began running through the rest of the Shanghai airport at full sprint, almost knocking over an asian family and looking like a psychopath. Even running it still took me a good 10 minutes to get through the rest of the terminal. I was sure i was late but as I arrived there was a sign posted in terrible english informing me that the flight was delayed an hour. Thank you jesus. 3 miserable hours later I landed in Wuhan City.
I was the only non-chinese person on the entire flight and getting off the plane I felt very alone. Nobody seemed to speak any english even the people working at the airport. Thankfully, I was greeted by 3 lovely chinese girls holding a sign saying Corey. My students in canada usually never spell it right and i was surprised that they had. They had been waiting 3 hours at the airport for me. I met up with them along with another foreign teacher they had picked up named Bobby from Chicago. He was also here with his Dad, they had been travelling throughout eastern europe before finally arriving in Wuhan. We all piled into a small mini/hippie van with no seatbelts and a driver who spoke no english and headed off to the residence, an hour from the airport. I said goodbye to the sky back in Shanghai. In Wuhan you can never see the sun or stars. yay pollution.
When I say driving in China is crazy it is very hard to explain without actually experiencing it. The drive through downtown Wuhan City was insane. Everything was lit up, the chinese apparently put flashing lights on everything. Even the shittiest worn down residence building, they just threw a couple flashy lights on the top and bang, nice building. And then there was the people. Massive swarms of people. Half of which were driving mopeds and crossing the busy street with no regard for cars whatsoever. Never before have i seen a 4 lane street packed with about 6 cars across.
We swerved, honked and narrowly missed pedestrians, mopeds and other cars as we made our way through flashy downtown. I feared for my life, this was unbelievable how the chinese drive. It seems that their is no right of way or signalling, you announce your presence by simply honking loudly and moving in. Cars would dart into our lane and people would jump or drive their mopeds right out in front of us.
After a terrifying drive I finally arrived at Wuchang primary school. Where I would be living on campus.
We pulled up to the gate and the driver just pushed down on his horn and didn't let go for a good 5 minutes. An old chinese man came hobbling out in nothing but his underwear and let us in after yelling something in chinese which i'm sure wasn't pleasant. I got into my apartment, met one of the other teachers on my floor named shawn and almost immediately crashed. I hadn't slept a second on the plane and had been awake for 26 hours and gone through god knows how many different time zones.
need. sleep. tomorrow will be my first day in China!
oh yea i figured out how to upload pictures. you can view them here www.flickr.com/photos/coreyinchina
I arrived in Wuhan about an hour ago. I really can't describe how long and boring the flight was. I flew out of Ottawa at 7am and first had a 6 hour flight to Vancouver. It went by very quick as I got a nice glimpse of Canada. The prairies with just endless nothingness and the rockies which reach up so high you feel as if the plane is low to the ground when really your at 30,000 feet. It really was an enjoyable flight. I got off in Vancouver and I was very excited because i've always wanted to go there. too bad I was stuck in the airport but holy shit Vancouver has a gigantic airport. It took me about half an hour to walk through all of it and get to my other terminal.
Next was the 13 hour flight to Shanghai. I boarded the plane with mostly chinese people and white businessmen and took off for the longest flight of my life. Ofcourse my seat was beside a baby, who at first cried incessantly but later became quite the source of entertainment as I made faces and smiled at him.
I watched 3 movies on the plane. Catch me if you can, Iron man 2 and quite possibly the worst Bruce Willis movie i've ever seen, Cop out. Even after all those movies I still wasn't even done half the trip. I attempted to sleep, I read, I listened to music but still the flight kept going. Somewhere over Russia we had a huge bout of turbulence and that kept me fearfully occupied for awhile. Finally after 13 hours, 3 meals, 3 movies and a sore ass I landed at the Shanghai airport.
As i got off the plane I felt like i had landed in hawaii or some tropical place. MAN it was humid, sticky and hot. I was almost immediately sweating as I walked through the terminal. And what a terminal this was. I grabbed my bags and headed down a hallway that was labeled "domestic flights." I figured this was where i had to go until i realized that this section of the airport was completely deserted for no apparent reason. Heading down the same empty hallway was a man I met who told me he was coming to China to learn chinese. I asked if he could use said skill to get us where we have to go. We stuck together and eventually got turned around to the opposite side of the airport where we were supposed to go in the first place.
I had previously thought the Vancouver airport was big but the Shanghai airport put it to shame. I was totally lost and had no idea how or where to check-in for my next flight to Wuhan. Eventually I asked for help (luckily everyone speaks english at the airport) and along the way met Kyle. We stuck together also as I had lost chinese speaking guy some time ago. Kyle was from some town in Oregon and he was also going to China to teach english for the first time. We sat at the airport bar and had some rather expensive drinks. I figured my flight wasn't until 4:30 so I had some time to spare.
After ditching Kyle and going through customs I re-checked my ticket. My flight was boarding at 4:05. Oh shit. It was 4:27. I began running through the rest of the Shanghai airport at full sprint, almost knocking over an asian family and looking like a psychopath. Even running it still took me a good 10 minutes to get through the rest of the terminal. I was sure i was late but as I arrived there was a sign posted in terrible english informing me that the flight was delayed an hour. Thank you jesus. 3 miserable hours later I landed in Wuhan City.
I was the only non-chinese person on the entire flight and getting off the plane I felt very alone. Nobody seemed to speak any english even the people working at the airport. Thankfully, I was greeted by 3 lovely chinese girls holding a sign saying Corey. My students in canada usually never spell it right and i was surprised that they had. They had been waiting 3 hours at the airport for me. I met up with them along with another foreign teacher they had picked up named Bobby from Chicago. He was also here with his Dad, they had been travelling throughout eastern europe before finally arriving in Wuhan. We all piled into a small mini/hippie van with no seatbelts and a driver who spoke no english and headed off to the residence, an hour from the airport. I said goodbye to the sky back in Shanghai. In Wuhan you can never see the sun or stars. yay pollution.
When I say driving in China is crazy it is very hard to explain without actually experiencing it. The drive through downtown Wuhan City was insane. Everything was lit up, the chinese apparently put flashing lights on everything. Even the shittiest worn down residence building, they just threw a couple flashy lights on the top and bang, nice building. And then there was the people. Massive swarms of people. Half of which were driving mopeds and crossing the busy street with no regard for cars whatsoever. Never before have i seen a 4 lane street packed with about 6 cars across.
We swerved, honked and narrowly missed pedestrians, mopeds and other cars as we made our way through flashy downtown. I feared for my life, this was unbelievable how the chinese drive. It seems that their is no right of way or signalling, you announce your presence by simply honking loudly and moving in. Cars would dart into our lane and people would jump or drive their mopeds right out in front of us.
After a terrifying drive I finally arrived at Wuchang primary school. Where I would be living on campus.
We pulled up to the gate and the driver just pushed down on his horn and didn't let go for a good 5 minutes. An old chinese man came hobbling out in nothing but his underwear and let us in after yelling something in chinese which i'm sure wasn't pleasant. I got into my apartment, met one of the other teachers on my floor named shawn and almost immediately crashed. I hadn't slept a second on the plane and had been awake for 26 hours and gone through god knows how many different time zones.
need. sleep. tomorrow will be my first day in China!
oh yea i figured out how to upload pictures. you can view them here www.flickr.com/photos/coreyinchina
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Goodbye Canada! First Blog
It's been a crazy day to say the least...
This morning at 9am I arrived at the Chinese Embassy. Visa documents in hand (after being lost by the UPS for 3 days) I strolled up to the medieval church that is the Embassy, excited to finally get my working Visa. Little did i know the physical I got last week was done with the wrong type of document. I waited in line for an hour only to have a rather irritated chinese woman bark at me "you need to go to hospital." My flight is booked for 7am tomorrow and my visa must be processed before 11am in order for me to get it in time to leave. I have an hour. I cannot just "go to hospital"
Or could i? Luckily my mother works at the hospital so I drove their wildly, almost crashing numerous times and screaming at construction workers. Of course their was no parking so I had to park on the roof of the parking garage and ran down the stairs to the hospital. My mom hunted down a doctor who she knew and got him to fill out all the papers (thank you doctor whoever for saving my trip) I then began a manly dash back through the hospital, narrowly dodging expectant mothers and cancer patients. I had to get to the embassy before 11am and it was 10:45.
After a few more construction workers ruined my life I finally arrived back at the Chinese Embassy at 11:05 only to find another huge line. I have a feeling i ought to get used to long lines of asian people. Using the little mandarin I know I begged the people in the front of the line to let me cut in. I'm pretty sure I heard some people in line laugh as I tried the very few words I knew. "Qing bang wo! xie xie! Flight! Ba dian!" I think they eventually felt sorry for me and let me go first.
After breathing a huge sigh of relief I finally got my working Visa and have everything ready to go for the move. I also had to buy a digital camera, get chinese money and immunization records today. All good fun!
My flight leaves at 7am to Vancouver then a 13 hour flight to Shanghai and finally to Wuhan. In total it will be about 23 hours. I'm going to miss this place and all my family and friends. You have all been a great help getting me prepared (and drunk last saturday) for going overseas. I'm sorry If i didn't get to say goodbye to everyone! To keep in touch with me either add me to skype: corey.j.taylor or comment on here.
My next post will be from China so if my plane doesn't explode, get highjacked, or morph into a robot like Starscream, I will update everyone once i've landed.
Goodbye Canada! Have a good year everyone
Corey
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