I guess not much has happened over the last few days. I've been going to work. Thursday was my official first day. I had several training sessions during which my colleagues walked me through the hundreds of steps it takes to work Salesforce, our system that organizes all the applicants who apply to be English First teachers. I can tell it's going to be pretty tough to remember all the intricate steps. I'm feeling a bit discouraged to say the least.
But, 9 of my colleagues and I went out to lunch on Thursday, which was nice. It was to celebrate my first day and a guy named Daniel's last day. Daniel is moving to Cairo. And here I thought I was cool. This guy's moving from Shanghai to Cairo. Anyway, the lunch was amazing. We went to a vegetarian restaurant and ordered like 15 dishes for the entire table to share. I could eat everything! My favorite happened to be the faux Peking duck. It was unbelievable.
On Friday I decided to go into the office at 7 so that I could avoid the traffic (or at least the crippling traffic - there's always a jam on the elevated road, no matter what the time). It was so nice to be in the office by myself for a couple of hours. I answered emails without all the buzz around me. My immediate boss, Michelle, comes in early as well, so I could still ask questions. I can see that the biggest challenge will be to find candidates that match the visa requirements of our four main cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Each one has different age and experience requirements and they're constantly changing. I won't actually start communicating or interviewing the candidates until next week or even the week after, so I've still got some time to learn.
Yesterday (Saturday), Ryan and I went out with a Chinese friend named Christine (she works at 51jobs - the monster.com of China and an affiliate of Blanchard) to look at apartments. We saw some nice ones, but they were all pretty expensive. I can't say we've found "the one" yet, but at least we're not really in a hurry. After that, we walked through some markets off Nanjing Road. I ended up buying a really beautiful teal silk robe. It was a very busy Saturday in Shanghai. It seemed like everyone was out with their families. Ryan and I kept pointing out the cute kids we saw. There's just something about Chinese children. They are so captivating and often rip-your-heart-out-cute.
Last night we went out to dinner with Nancy, Lauren (Nancy's daughter's friend) and a new friend named Steven. Steven's got an amazing story. He graduated from St. Andrews and then worked in London for a while in marketing. He moved back to the States, established himself there and wanderlust got the best of him and he moved to China. He's been here for three years now, teaching and learning the language. On the side, he acts in Chinese TV commercials! I'm really happy that Nancy introduced us to him because he knows so much about Shanghai and China in general. I know we can learn a lot from him.
So, that's the scoop.
Highs:
- Learning Chinese words for right, left and water with ice, please
- Meeting new friends
- Cute Chinese kids
- Learning our way around the city
- Faux meat
Lows:
- Coughing from pollution (It's so bad that I got excited when I could see the shape of the sun yesterday. Usually, the sky is just bright. You can't even see the sun.)
- Being tired all the time from the daily grind
- Feeling dirty all the time when you walk outside
-Alexa
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I identify so much with your highs and lows. Pollution here is horrible, the crowds are stifling, the days exhausting, and I won't even begin to comment on the dirt, grime, and muck (ah, monsoons).
However, the vegetarian food, the kindness of the people, and the adventure of being in a new place often overshadow the bad things - or at least, lessen them to an extent.
I love the posts! And I love that we are sharing our mutual and similar experiences, though it's through blogging and though it's been so long since we've spent time together!
Post a Comment