“Luck of the……Polish American Girl in China? I mean, I’ve got some Irish in my blood, so maybe that’s it……”

…..but seriously…..today/these past two days…..I have been really,
truly blessed. In the love and support I've received from family and
friends….and in the awesome way things have been going. Seriously, so
blessed and lucky. Thank you universe! I will pass the luck and
goodness on, I promise.

Plane

I was upgraded to fancy business class. I got a 3 course gourmet meal,
free alcohol, breakfast, 2 pillows, slippers, a toiletry kit, a comfy
comforter, noise canceling headphones, personal tv/music/games screen,
and I could fully lay down, in what was basically a bed….and it had a
back massager. For free. I took some pictures. After the "dinner" and
the excitement of the upgrade and fanciness kind of wore off, I fell
asleep from exhaustion, maybe about 2 hours into the flight….and I
woke up with 1.5 hours left….so that was a good night's sleep (night
or middle of the day, or whenever it was). So lucky and thankful.
Best time for random upgrade ever.

Currently, it's almost 5am in China. My plane landed at about 2:20pm
earlier today (Friday), or yesterday I guess. My sense of time is
still a bit off.

Landing

I deplaned, got my bags (of course, my third bag was one of the last
to come out….) and made it through customs pretty quickly and
painlessly. There was barely a line, and I had to do nothing except
walk through the gate. They didn't even try to take the food I had
buried in my carry-on (unlike in Aruba, where I almost got arrested
for trying to eat an apple….but that's another story).

Anyway, I walked out, and the headmaster and a woman from HR were both
there with a sign with my name on it, waiting for me. The last hour or
so of the flight, I kind of lost it, and I was fighting back tears
while walking through the Beijing Airport….so seeing a semi (as I'd
met him on Skype during our interviews) familiar and smiling face was
a HUGE comfort to me. I got to smile back, and mean it. They, and the
driver of the taxi/van, picked me up.


Air/Weather

At this point, I should mention, it was really hot outside. Like,
85-90 degrees….a little grey, and a little muggy. The sky looked kind
of like how the sky at home looks when it is stormy, except it wasn't
stormy. There was a slight acrid smell to the air, and my eyes burned
just the slightest bit, but beyond that, it really wasn't bad. In
fact, since I had been afraid that I was immediately going to choke on
the air, that some people mentioned was literally chewable, I was
quite glad to walk outside and be able to breathe freely. I was also
happy to notice no one else was wearing masks, so it made me feel safe
to take a deep breath.

As we started driving, I did manage to see blue skies and white clouds
in one direction, so that was really nice. Really, as we started
driving, it felt much like leaving any airport, in any city I've ever
been to. Seeing the blues skies really helped that. So far, really,
the only thing I've noticed about the air is the slight acrid smell.

Apparently, today is like a medium day (not bad, not good) as far as
air quality is concerned. One of my co-workers (who took me out to
dinner tonight- what an awesome system the school has in place!)
mentioned that on a good day, you can see the mountains from our flats
(everyone here seems to be British! I'm learning all of the British
lingo! Like my dress code for school is "smart dress"…..that is not
the same of a smart phone….haha)…..anyway, I LOVE mountains….and never
really thought I'd live anywhere with a mountain view….so that's
really sweet.

Speaking of where I live:




My new flat! (see how posh and British I'm being, like all the ex-pats around!)

You could read this- or just watch the video.

….is FREAKING AMAZING! Seriously guys, this place is huge! I live in a
13 story building (which I haven't done since freshman and sophomore
year in college- 13th floor Bromley represent!) on the 10th floor, so
I have sweet views. I have 2 balconies, one on each side, so I get
double views. Directly below me is the local market (the one where
Chinese go, and it is cheap) and a bank and some other shops. So
convenient! I already went downstairs to buy hangers so I can hang up
all of my clothes…in all of my GIANT CLOSETS! Seriously.

I have a small, but very nice and functional kitchen, and my school
supplied brand new pots and pans and a table setting and mugs and a
tea kettle, all free. Also, they stocked my fridge to help me get
through the next couple days, including fancy organic milk, eggs,
fruit, and two GIANT (600 mL) bottles of Chinese beer called Tsingtao.
Haven't tried it yet, but I'll let you know. (side note: free alcohol
is so far a theme of my trip. The upgrade on the plane involved
unlimited free alcohol. I only had a glass of champagne and a glass of
wine with the gourmet dinner, but I totally could have had all of the
alcohol…..)

Right, back to my apartment. I'm currently sitting at my giant, built
in desk, which has adorable wall shelves above it, and a huge book
case beside it. They pre-paid all of my utiltites for the first week
or so, so I had wi-fi immediately, as well as central air and
everything else I needed. (see "Utilities" heading).

I have beautiful hardwood floors, a washing machine, a lovely guest
bedroom (come visit) and a HUGE living room/dining area. So huge, in
fact, that is has A BABY GRAND PIANO in it, two couches, and a dining
table, with space to spare. No, really. Currently, the baby grand
piano is locked, but my school is trying to talk to the landlord
(apparently an American business woman owns this place, but doesn't
need it at the moment, so rents it out) and they are going to offer to
pay to have it tuned if she'll agree to unlock it for me, now that
she'll know I'm a musician and music teacher.) Seriously….how cool is
that!

Let's see, I have a "lift", which all buildings don't have, so that's
nice. My front door doesn't have a handle. I guess that's safer here.
Because that's how my life works, I managed to get locked out and the
door stuck while my agent was trying to show me how it worked….but we
finally figured it out.

It was a big moment when I could open my own front door! (having no
handle makes it tricky guys….you have to push with just the right
pressure while turning the key just the right way….) And keys are
different here, they have 4 prong things…..it is hard to explain.

Oh right, back to my apartment….I have 2 bathrooms, one of which is,
again, HUGE, and in my MASTER SUITE. My bathroom also has a tub, which
apparently is not super common here. My bedroom is rather spacious,
with a desk and a wall full of closets! I guess I just have to buy
more clothes to fill all that space….I couldn't let it go to waste!
Haha.

They head master mentioned that this place is bigger and nicer than
most. It even has satellite tv that gets American channels (I didn't
even have that in Chicago), and I don't have to pay for that because
the landlord just pays for it!…..again, feeling very, very lucky!

Seriously, I could have AMAZING dance parties here…..now I just need
to make friends with all of the Beijing swing dancers. Or, everyone I
know and love needs to come visit!

Utilities

They do utilities differently here. Each utility (gas, electric,
water) has its own special card. You feed the card into the meter,
which is on your boiler or gas meter in your apartment, and you can
see how many units you have left. When it is getting low, you take the
card down to the bank, and much like an ATM machine, you insert it,
and add money to it. I'm still a little fuzzy on how it all works, but
I think I'll get the hang of it.

Emily, my "real-estate agent", who was here to greet us and show me
the ropes of my new place and sign the lease with me and all, was
trying to explain it all to me and show me. I guess she is hired by
the school to find apartments for the new teachers. She clearly did a
great job!


My first day in China


So after the headmaster and Amy from HR got me settled, gave me an
advance on my paycheck so I had some money to live off of for the
first month, and did some paper work things, they left, and left me
with Emily, who continued to show me around. She took me down the
street to get some passport sized photos taken, and that is where I
was able to spend my first Chinese money!

We then walked back, did a bit more in my apartment, and I had just
enough time to change (because it was freaking hot out and I was still
in jeans from my flight (because jeans are hardest to pack, so I just
wore them….) ) and run downstairs to the market entrance, where I was
supposed to meet one of my new co-workers, who was to take me out to
dinner. Emily walked me downstairs and said good-bye, adding that if I
needed anything, I could call her and she'd help me out. At this
point, it was 6pm.

I waited for a few minutes outside the grocery store, and many people
regarded me curiously. I started kind of walking up and down the
street, trying to figure out where I was supposed to be meeting this
person, and then jeep pulled up with a white woman inside who smiled
at me knowingly. I assumed this must be one of my new co-workers, so I
approached, and luckily, she knew my name! I hopped in, and we were
off. She took me down the road a bit, to what she called "ex-pat
country", where she drove me past the Mrs. Fields Cookies, the
Starbucks, the Subway, the Dominos, and the organic grocery store. She
mentioned that sometimes, you just need a break from China, and you
just need it to be easy, so it is nice to be able to come here.

At the moment, I have no interest, but I'm sure at some point, the
homesickness will set it, and the jolt of familiarity will be nice.
She showed me a few other things, before we ended up at the mall. We
went inside and had a lovely Malaysian dinner, which she treated me to
(seriously, this new school is doing it right!). The food was filing
and tasty, and the meal for both of us was like $21. So cheap! Anyway,
after some chatting, and her answering many of my questions, she took
me home, round about 8pm.

At this point, I went to the store downstairs and picked up hangers
(more spending Chinese money!) and came up to unpack. Got distracted
by the internet (just like at home! Except most of the sites don't
work here), and accidentally fell asleep on my new couch. I woke up
refreshed at like 1:30am….and couldn't go back to sleep. Yay Jetlag
and time conversion! So now it's like 6am China time on Saturday, and
the sun is shining, and I'm still not really tired, but I know I need
to sleep and try to get on some semblance of a normal schedule.

Saturday Plans

Today, I'm going to try to walk down the street (seriously, I live in
such a convenient location) and get a bike. Then I think I'm going to
bike down to the mall where we had dinner last night and get a
haircut. My co-worker said there was a good place that knew how to cut
western hair there.

I'm also going to try to take public transit for the first time….to
make it out to a swing dance practice time that they apparently have
from 4-6pm on Saturdays at a dance studio in town. We'll see how that
goes.

At 8pm tonight, all of the new teachers are supposed to get together
to go to a local pub and get to know each other and some of the
current staff, so that should be fun.

I've felt very taken care of since I arrived. I was not left alone for
the first 6 hours I was in country, so that was really nice.

Anyway, I'm missing home and the people there like crazy, but I'm
still feeling excited about my new adventure.


Contact Me!

I'll keep letting you know how it goes.
You should Skype me:

Lab7569

Or text me via my Google voice number, it'll go straight to my email
and I can text you back! Haven't figured out international calls that
way yet, but I think it's possible!

1-773- 368-8782