CHINA here I come

It's finally happening.

I feel like I have been waiting for forever.

This is Marg with happy face and the bits of paper that say I can go to China and work.

Last view of Melbourne for a year

First views of China

That's Guangzhou below......hmmm high rise and smog.  Almost dark at 5.45pm

TUESDAY 31^ST OF OCTOBER.

Great flight really (9 hours), China Southern airlines were good.  Bit of a treat after travelling with Air Asia for so long.  On Air Asia, baggage is limited and unless you book and pay extra, there is no food or beverage on flight.  And certainly no films, and the seats are much closer together.  China Southern had the lot: baggage allowance: 2 bags of 23 kg each.  Good meals, lots of drinks and free films.  Watched "Love Actually" again after probably 20 years and a good fun Bollywood film.

My first sight of China was Guangzhou and all the high-rise as you fly in.  Arrived at 5.45pm and it was almost dark, the air was like “pea-soup” to quote my Mum.  Seems like all I’ve read about the pollution here is very accurate.  It’s daylight saving at home so at 5.45 it’s still very much light.  Waited about 2 hours and then the flight to Nanjing.  The only foreigner on the flight.

Got to the Fliport Garden hotel and checked in about 12.30am  China time – 3.30am Australian time.  

WEDNESDAY 1^ST NOVEMBER

Perfect timing: I made my way down to the hotel foyer and  Daisy from HR walked through the door.  We looked at each other across the foyer and she came up and gave me a hug.  What a lovely start to my teaching career in China.  It has a good feel if the HR person welcomes you with a hug.

1 ½ hour car ride to Yixing.  I was amazed that it was nearly countryside all the way.  I expected China to be city everywhere with highrise, but thankfully it isn’t.  In Guangzhou and everywhere along the highway were planted with beautifully landscaped trees and shrubs.  All well cared for and no litter.  It is autumn which really surprised me after spring in Australia and Laos without 4 seasons.   Recognise some of the trees.  I think, pine, golden rain trees, lots of willow, Some bamboo plants. 

Passed small villages of 1-2 story whitewashed houses with tile roofs.  Lots of yellow gold crop which I later realised is rice ready to be harvested.  Saw some highrise (and they are really high)  but not anything like I expected. 

Yixing     Pronounced Yee - shing

Arrived in Yixing.  And I was surprised by all the very modern stores.  Lots of neon lights.  And all the most modern clothes etc. This nothing like Laos. 

Checked in at the hotel. Daisy took me to the bank to convert some money.  They wouldn’t accept my passport and had to use her id card to change the money.

The sun is shining - a good sign.  These are apartment blocks

My first meal in China

We had lunch and Daisy initially wanted to take me to KFC, I think so that I would "feel at home".  I haven’t come all the way to China to eat KFC, so we went to a noodle place and had soup.  My using chopsticks greatly entertains her which is fine by my.  

We called in to the school and met the staff.  More on that later.

Daisy and I caught the bus home and I went to the supermarket for the first time. Spent ages, just looking and working out what different things were.  I was the only foreigner there and a bit of an attraction for the staff  who followed me around smiling. 

THURSDAY 2^ND NOVEMBER

Ready to meet Daisy in foyer at 7.20 and caught the bus to Wuxi  (pronounced oo sie) .  Went to a Govt department of something like health and quarantine for my medical.  Very efficient.  Given a list of all the tests/examinations I needed and what room each would take place in so I just went from one to the other having them signed off as I went.

These included.  Urine sample –(fill the tube that has your UR number on it and just leave it in the rack along with everyone elses urine samples.)  blood tests.  BP, pulse weight, abdo ultrasound, chest xray and minimal doctor examination where he listened to my chest and palpated my abdo and checked lymph nodes.

Wuxi was BIG>  BIG buildings – a bit like how I feel so dwarfed when I am in the proximity of a cargo container.  And the air was like fog.  Didn’t smell but it was really bad.  Once again, beautifully maintained trees and shrubs everywhere.  Clean streets.  1 hour bus ride. 

So we spent very little time there and then caught the bus back.   

Feeling bereft because there is no access to google or gmail on my computer.

Billy at work showed me how to a access the Chinese google called Baidu  Guess what?   - it's all in Chinese!!!! with very little english that I could follow..  Tried to join Proton mail, an email sight which is OK in China but you need a phone number to do it.  (tried to use the Capcha option but it is blocked in China.  Any sight which Is blocked doesn’t come up with a notice to say it’s blocked, it looks as if it will open, but it just takes forever until you realise nothings happening.  You could waste a lot of time just thinking the internet was slow.

One of the teachers Robert was really helpful taking me down to the MI shop and I’ve bought a basic smart phone. The first smartphone I’ve ever owned.  Havent got a SIM card yet (need to decide on my provider)

Sounds like it is hard to get teachers here because all the young English teachers want to go to big cities where there is more of a “scene”… so Yixing suits us oldies. 

Caught the bus home on my own.  Got off too early and couldn’t quite work out where to go so asked at a take away food shop.   and the gorgeous young thing brought me home in her car.  How lovely.  You can do so much without language in common.  Thank goodness I had the card from the hotel with the address..

 Well that's the first few days.  Must admit, Yixing is looking pretty good.