Well, it’s nearly been two weeks here in China. Monica and i are settling into our new lives moderately well I believe. Our first day here was crazy. lol After a 15 hour flight we were traipsed across the entire province by numerous modes of transportation. The unfortunate admin who had to pick us up at the airport helped us with our baggage. I was carrying/pulling over 100lbs. for about 3 hours. It was a killer day! Finally, after our three hour adventure, we were safely in our new apartment. We live in the Panyu District of Guangzhou China. Our complex, Clifford Estates, is just over two years old and has very little in the way of transportation to the outside world. There is basically one initial option when it comes to getting out, the Clifford Group bus. It is a fairly inexpensive way to travel, though, which is quite nice. It is also a comfy coach bus, yet another pleasant touch for our morning/evening commute.

We had one day to adjust; the day we landed. 😛 The very next day we started our training. We were in training for a little over 5 hours. Let me take a moment here to describe the hiring process. Our company finds schools that need English teachers and places its teachers in these schools. A group of 4-5 teachers come all at once so the schools can still choose which teacher they want. The group of teachers has to go to each school on the list and give a “demo,” – teach a 10-15 minute sample lesson in front of the principal. It’s a tad stressful…

Monica and I were told that we may have a demo on Monday (our 3rd day in the country), and if we did it would be in the afternoon; most likely, we wouldn’t have one until Tuesday. Around 9:00pm on Sunday we were informed that we would have a demo the next morning and be ready and in the lobby at 9:00am. We were freaking out! That was not what we were expecting!! Luckily, God gave us wonderful housemates. One of them took 2 hours to help us with our lesson and give us games and general tips! I stole all of the ideas i was given. lol We were a hardly conscious, bundle of nerves the next morning. Our jet lag was severe and we had stayed up later than originally intended to get our lessons done, and had arisen earlier than expected to be ready for the demo. Praise the Lord! We both did rather well and within 3 days of demos we both had jobs at pre-schools!

The school I work at is newer and very small. At the start, I will only be teaching about 6-7 classes a week. After my boss feels I have a firm grip on my English classes, I will begin teaching art, reading, and music – learning each one as they come. This is a very think-on-your-feet kind of job. The age range that I work with is 0yrs – 6yrs. So, I will have infants in the music class and 2-6 yrs in my other classes and the music class. I had the privilege to sit in on another English class here. I saw the words of my house mate played out live “you just have to think that they are a bunch of monkeys and that you are the king monkey.” It is an unbelievably accurate representation of what it seems will be my every day life. 😛 The small children, however, are adorable, which may act as a buffer for me. lol The only vice of working here is the vice of where I live. My commute every day is about and hour and a half one way. I leave the apartment at 7:50am and get to work just after 9:20. Including travel time, I have a 12 hour day… it’s a bit rough, especially on the “i want to eat” front, but, it will all be figured out in time!

My co-workers seem kind so far. We are an office full of women. I have yet to meet everybody, though, I am sure the others will be just as sweet. The only downside to the people I work with is, I seem to be the only fluent English speaker here… Thus my days, so far, pass by in relative quiet due to lack of ability to communicate. It would seem that I need to learn Mandarin as quickly as possible! My boss would also like me to have a basic understanding of Cantonese and Japanese, so this year will definitely be a year of growth!

Lucky for me… there is food a plenty around where I work including: subway, burger king, and a hagen dazs cream store! Also, right across the street from my bus stop home, there is a cafe called Cafe Bene that I went to often while in Korea and also a Starbucks! Coffee…my addiction. 🙂 Speaking of food… Our apartment complex is basically a self contained city. There are about 110,000 residents, a school, 2 hospitals, and a large market area. Think mini-store strip mall. It has everything there: cloths, shoes, bakeries, cafe’s, restaurants, foreign grocery stores, a mini walmart-ish store, and a farmers market style in-door market area. We buy our fruits and veggies at the farmers market and we go to the grocery store for things like soda or something sweet. 😀 With our working schedules it’s going to be harder to cook for ourselves every day, so we’ll be eating out much more often than we originally thought. It’s not as bad as you would think, though. I went to subway today and got a 6in. sandwich by itself for 15 yuwon (about $2.30). We’ve both already noticed a huge shift in our normal eating habits. Not necessarily bad, just sudden. 🙂

If anyone is looking for picture, you’ll have to look to Monica for that. I fear I have been lax about picture taking so far. I will try to remedy this in the future, for the moment, however, Monica is your girl! Anyway… that’s all I have for now. I’m sorry this post is so long everybody! Today was the first day I have had enough time and wherewithal to sit down and type this out. The jet lag still hasn’t quite worn off… So, in the future, I hope the posts will be shorter; for this one you all can deal with it! 😀

Lots of love from the traveling teachers!

– Britt