Wow!!! A long time has passed since I last wrote in here, and here I was promising to update more frequently. As this adventure is beginning to come to an end, I thought I would take a moment to reflect on the year gone by (even though we're nearly already a month into 2011!!!!!!!).
January
As I had already handed in my resignation at work, January started out with me having grand plans of sorting through my belongs and packing up the house during my work holidays at the start of January. Did this happen? ... no!! Work went back to normal and I had to train a new staff member in my role and tried to sort through belongings in a mad panic the night before our garage sale (with a huge thanks to my sister!). We were applying for jobs and anxiously awaiting to hear back from a certain job. It sounded positive, but with no real affirmation, we didn't know what was really going on. About a week before I finished up at work, we got word that we had the job in China!! The last weekend in January was spent sorting out flights and posting ebay packages. I also got a call from Mum to say that Nana was in hospital and she wasn't too good.
February
Busy, Busy, Busy!! We had just over two weeks to organise ourselves before leaving the country for at least 12 months. We had to pack (and yes, I found it difficult!!! Knowing that we were heading to a country where clothes / shoes etc would be hard for me to get made packing excruciatingly painful and Matt's constant nagging just didn't sit well with me). My Nana passed away and we had to relocate Sheena (my cat) to Matt's parents house. A lot of not so nice words passed between Matt and I (which is really unusual for us), lots of tears were shed (especially coming back to Brisbane from Matt's parents house) and a lot of emotions were flowing. Both of our parents are now lucky enough to have a heap of crap stored at their places (thanks heaps!). All in all, we did it, and managed to arrive in China on the 16th of Feb. I still don't think it really dawned on me that we were leaving and weren't coming back for a while, but I was so excited and ready for change and if it all went haywire, at least we'd get an extended holiday!!!!!! We spent a week in Shanghai exploring and arrived in Suzhou (our new home) on the 22nd of February and were brought straight to our new apartment. The apartment had furniture and essential electronics, and that's all. We had to head straight for the supermarket to buy sheets, towels, pillows, doonas, a kettle, cups, toilet paper and washing soap! We were taken downtown for dinner (Italian of all things!) and went for a stroll. We spent our first week here buying all the essentials we needed to get comfortable (plates, bowls, pans, knives, forks etc ... trolley loads of stuff!) and going into the office to meet our co-workers and to watch a few classes. We were told which classes we'd be taken and handed some books and that was it, pretty much!!!
March
March 1st started with a bang! Matt was lucky enough that he got Sunday / Monday off, while I got Sunday and Thursday off. On my very first day of teaching, I had to watch 4 kindergarten classes and then teach 2 primary school grade 3 classes with about 40 students in each class. It was so nerve racking and I'm not sure the first class went over well, but it was only onwards and upwards from there. Matt bought me a bike for my birthday (but it was yet too cold to ride it), it snowed!, we got into the swing of classes and started to explore, discover buses, and make ourselves more at home. We had to teach 'internal' classes at the language school on the weekends (and some kindergarten classes at night during the week), and teach at a couple of different schools and kindergartens during the week. I think we headed to Shanghai a few times as I got boots tailor made and even ventured there by myself for a day.
April
The weather gradually started to warm up! Hallelujah! We enjoyed the 'spring scene', took the kids from the language school on an excursion to the Suzhou Aquarium on Lake Tai, got a 'kind of' long weekend for Tomb Sweeping day, where Matt and I explored lots of the city and worked lots.
May
Matt and I put our foot down and demanded a long weekend for the public holiday and took ourselves to Hangzhou. Our 3 day trek turned into 1 and 3/4 days in Hangzhou where we enjoyed the scene of West Lake and finally, finally experienced 30 degree weather and could wear thongs, shorts and t-shirts!!!!! Of course, we missed the chocolate eating of easter, but that's probably a good thing (we seem to eat a fair bit of chocolate here, surprisingly!).
June
June saw the wind down of most of our classes (at schools and internally), which meant testing and testing. We had to write tests and report cards and try giving 40 kids a written AND oral test in 40 minutes. We succeeded!!! The last week or so of June gave us a little break, before the onslaught of the 'summer semester' (July - August) but we still weren't given rosters until the day before these classes started!! This month also saw the opening of a 3rd office for the language school closer to downtown and half of the chinese staff moved to the new office. I don't know exactly when, but maybe it was June before we actually saw a gorgeous blue sky day in China!!
July
The end of June saw one teacher finish out his contract and head home, and July saw the arrival of a new teacher. These people aren't always the kind of people you'd be friendly with at home, but as it was summer, we all felt the vibe and became rather social. Summer semester meant full on intensive internal classes for 6 weeks. I saw most of my classes 3 times a week. At first I thought it was going to be really full on, but all of the kids were really great and it turned out to be a lot of fun! Dad also broke his leg the night before my sister's birthday and it was hard being on the other side of the world and not being able to do anything to help back home.
August
In mid July, two other Australian teachers arrived to do a month of work experience. They finished up mid August, and once summer semester ended (also mid August) I had to finish up their classes at the other office. We took the kids to a 'western buffet' dinner (which wasn't that western) but still made them eat with knives and forks. Some of them had excellent table manners, and well, my opinion of other kids changed after watching them eat .... Matt's parents came to visit at the end of August (and we went to EXPO!!!!!!) and I was supposed to get time off, but that didn't end up happening and the 'new' teacher ended up leaving us for many reasons which we speculated upon. So now it was back to 3! Matt and I headed to Shanghai to vote and chose to go on a day with one of their heaviest rain showers all year, in which the new office in Suzhou flooded!!!! haha Grandma had been sick for a while and ended up passing away. This month I guess was really frustrating for me and I felt like packing it in and going home for many reasons, but I'm glad I didn't. My family were so uncertain about whether they could come to visit, and at the last minute Dad was given the all clear and my sister jumped on board and the end of September was in their sights.
September
Time for school to resume and also being told that we were no longer working from the office down the road, but now everyone had to work from the new office. I kind of really spat the dummy at this one (I guess it's just the chinese way, how you are never informed of anything until the very last minute). We settled back into routine and the time tables seemed a lot easier to deal with. It was great seeing kids return for internal classes to start the next level and a new female teacher arrived from Australia and another part-time teacher started (whom we rarely ever saw!). We headed into Shanghai for a couple of days to bid farewell to Matt's parents as they headed home and spent some more time exploring different areas of the city that we hadn't yet seen. We got a day off later in the month for mid-Autumn festival (which we weren't told about until it was upon us), which meant Matt and I got 3 days off (as we both now got Monday and Tuesday off together!! and the public holiday was a wednesday) but it was too late to organise anything and my family arrived for a week on the Thursday!! As is the Chinese way, whenever there is a day off on a weekday, days are rearranged so people never actually get many days off (week days are transferred to weekends, and for us working weekends falls on the 'days off'), so the Thursday and Friday meant working a Saturday and Sunday timetable for us. Luckily it made it easier to cancel classes for me, as I had to fight for time off when my parents arrived, even though I was told I'd get some time off!! (Frustrating much??) This place really used to get to me, but i think by the end of September, I'd really started to chill out and just accept it as it was which made life so much easier. My family stayed for a week and it was great getting to see them and catch up on stuff and show them around my 'home'. I'm still not sure if my sister used an asian style toilet the whole time she was here?? haha
October
October means National Day and a 7 day holiday (which turned into 5 days for us as the last two days were weekend teaching days). Didn't matter ... we were off to Beijing!!! We climbed the great wall, wandered around the hutongs, ate at the night food street market, explored the forbidden city, went shopping at markets, ate beijing duck, went to a music festival and met up with a guy from suzhou that Matt had met at a music festival in Suzhou. Manson and his friends are only young and had only just moved from Suzhou to Beijing to go to university (3 of them are studying Kung Fu!!), but after the music festival they took us out for dinner and it was a really fun night!!!! Chinese people can be really friendly and hospitable, even if they don't know you well. It's really refreshing, and it didn't even cross our minds, but for Manson's mates, it was the first time they had ever eaten with foreigners! They spoke a mix of chinese and english, with Manson translating. It was really sad to come home and the weather here had turned a big grey and bleak and we new winter was approaching.
November
November was all work, mixed up with a few nights out here and there, dinners, day adventures around town with Matt and work. I think we took the kids on an adventure to a Dinosaur amusement park in another city during November. The actual Dinosaur side of it was lame, and what else was lame was that we had young kids and couldn't go on big kid rides and who wants to line up for an hour or more with young kids in tow! An average day out, but I think the kids had fun.
December
December saw the winding down of the school semester once again. Christmas was a bit of a non-event. The shops had decorations and carols but there was really no festive feeling. We had to work on christmas day and I did an easy lesson with the kids and fed them all chocolate (yes, all four classes!). They loved it. Matt and I got to enjoy a turkey and ham dinner but it just wasn't the same and there were no left-overs!!! Our contract was supposed to finish at the end of December, but we agreed to stay on and work weekends in January to finish internal classes and we had to cover for other teachers who had finished up or gone home for personal business.
So that's the end of 2010 and it's now January and one story is only just ending and another is now beginning!
January 2011
Matt and I got the chance to visit Nanjing and we also went back to Hangzhou for a week. We both really enjoyed Nanjing and felt really comfortable there. We weren't scammed, ripped off or stared at awkwardly! We went to Hangzhou the next week and the train trip is so much more comfortable and quicker than the bus. We saw snow (oh boy, did we see snow!) and now I'm hoping we never see so much snow ever again. I guess the snow hindered a little of what we could see but I still am unsure why they claim Hangzhou to be such a great tourist destination! I finished my last class today and Matt finished his on Wednesday. We have now been together for 7 years! We are beginning to sort through our belongings, ready to hit the road at the end of February (after a trip to Harbin), then head south through China, before heading home through Europe / UK. Flights have been booked and plans are being made, so it's all happening!
After the initial frustrations and cultural differences we experienced, I think we'd both say this past year has been fantastic and something we've both really enjoyed. We've done things neither of us has ever done before and had new experiences and grown in many ways. Before we came, people would ask, why china? Well!! Why NOT China!? I find the people and their culture and traditions fascinating. I know a lot of people dislike things about China, and I can understand why, but after living here and getting to understand why things are the way they are, it makes more sense. This country is developing is developing so rapidly and there are seriously so many people that live here!! It took me so long to understand what that really meant in real terms, rather than just being a number. Sure, there are things that could be improved / changed, but there is also so much that we can learn from these people too.
There are many other things I could tell you about life in china, but i think that will have to wait for another post. I think this is enough for now.
xoxo
