The maid dilemma....

I new before I arrived that many foreigners here had maids, but I had also been thinking that I would try to avoid having a maid in Guangzhou. I suppose I saw it as exploiting people lower down the food chain or something. But now that I am actually in Guangzhou and have seen my apartment, I realise that there is no chance of me keeping this place clean by myself!! So me and some other new teachers are going to share one. She will work the full week and clean our 3 apartments during that time. And after meeting the maid I don't feel so bad; she is a local woman who was already working as a cleaner for the company who owns the complex we live in. She was recommended to us as she was apparently a very good worker, and has always been loyal and honest. Working for us will mean she will get a pretty hefty pay raise and will have "bosses" who are not too hard on her!! So she seemed pretty happy about the whole deal, and I suppose for her this is also a good opportunity. So now I don't feel like it is bad, I might even say we are giving a little back to the local community (although I hesitate to say this at the risk of sounding arrogant, as I realise it is only a little!!). Anyway, she seems like a nice woman and I hope we can look after her :) I would love to hear anyone's opinion on this matter, as I am sure that some people might find this an interesting issue!! Anyway, on a purely selfish note I am looking forward to not having to worry about ironing shirts for work or cleaning the floors!!!

My first experiences in Guangzhou

(IF YOU WANT TO SEE PICS OF MY PLACE IN GUANGZHOU, CLICK ON THE "MY PICTURES" TAB ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE PAGE)

When I arrived back into Guangzhou from Sanya I was not sure what to expect, but I needn't have worried for one second. I was picked up from the airport and from that point onwards looked after by the school. They gave me free international phonecards, a bag of essential food for my apartment, and even put some basics like plates, bedding etc. in there for me. When I actually got to see my apartment I was pretty impressed; the apartment is very big for one person, and is pretty well furnished and appointed. Basically it is the same standard as my last apartment in Taiwan, and much bigger. But I used to share that with 2 other people, this place is only for me. It is a little way out of town, as it takes 20 minutes in a taxi. But this means it is literally in the same complex as my school, a 5 minute walk away. The school is part of a big residential complex you see, so I am near the school but not actually within the school grounds. Also, it is right next to a lake and you get to see quite a lot of greenery around. I will live in this apartment for one year, then they will move all the teachers into slightly smaller apartments above the school. I am actually happy about this because they should be newly refurbished and nice; also they should be 2 bedroom rather than the three I have now. Basically, I won't feel like I am rattling around in a big apartment like I sometimes feel now (don't get me wrong, I still love it).

So you can imagine that I feel pretty excited about my new life in Guangzhou, it seems like it will work out really well.

The first week at school was an induction week. We were taken through the basic operations of the school, given opportunities to sort out our classrooms, and taken to IKEA to do some shopping for our apartments. I also bought a DVD (as I love watching films!!) and a laptop (as I can't bear not to be online!!). We also ate out very often in the evening, we would go into town and eat Chinese, Taiwanese, Thai and Vietnamese food. So this week was a fairly easy going introduction to China. One thing I would like to mention here is the craziness of the supermarkets!! When you go into a local supermarket, it is usually packed!! Moving around it means avoiding many people, getting pushed in the back many times and generally feeling pretty claustrophobic. I don't mind this too much, but it makes shopping a pretty hectic affair. You can't stop in an aisle if there are many people in the aisle as well, you feel like you can't browse anything!! This seems to be something that is generally different to Taipei; there I could shop with relative ease and in Taiwan you only occasionally felt that you were in a heavily populated city (usually if you went to a major shopping area on a saturday). However, it seems like in China you will feel the populous much more. Hey, I can get used to it, I am a good one for just going with the flow. It is probably a bit of a cop out, but I will probably do a lot of shopping at the western supermarket in our complex. And that obviously is not busy at all!! But I find that because I cant cook Asian food I end up coming out of Chinese supermarkets with junk food rather than raw materials to make a meal. Hopefully I can do this better at the western supermarket. Also, they have a lot of nice cereal there, something that is hard to find in China. They only sell the sugary children's cereal in local supermarkets here.

This week just gone we have had the kids in. I am teaching Nursery, so my children are 3 years old. They are so cute, although most are fairly quiet right now. I expect them to slowly come out of their shells over the next few weeks.

So basically, my first few weeks here have been brilliant. I have really enjoyed everything and think my life here will be fun. I am practicing my Chinese, but realise I really need to put a big effort in this time to become more fluent. I hope this posting has given an insight into my life here, and I will try to update this blog regularly with things that I do!!

My holiday in Sanya!

(TO FIND OUR HOLIDAY PICS, GO TO THE RIGHT HAND SIDE OF THE PAGE & CLICK ON THE LINK "MY PICTURES", YOU WILL THEN SEE A SET OF PICS FOR SANYA)


Well I flew out to sanya on this crazy China Southern airplane, hoping to experience immense relaxation. I say crazy as the pilot seemed to do everything in extremes, instantly climbing very steeply, doing massive banked turns. Lets just say it wasn't as smooth as it might have been. But before I talk about all of that I need to explain that there was a slight hiccup in proceedings. As my flight to Sanya was delayed from 10:30AM to 3:30PM. I had no way of contacting Jessica as she would already be on her way to Sanya via Hong Kong, so at first I was kinda freaking out. However, I remembered that I had said to her a few times that if she gets to the airport in Sanya and I am not there that she should go straight to the first hotel. So I try to put it out of my mind and wait for the bus that will take all of the stranded passengers to a hotel. Yes, that's right, they offered us a hotel to wait in even though my flights there and back only cost just over 100 quid. So we set off and I realise that all instructions will be in Chinese as I am the only foreigner going there.....should be interesting. It takes maybe 30 or 40 mins to get to this place, the China Southern Resort Hotel or something. I try to check in using broken Chinese, then get told to go to the restaurant where they will be serving us lunch. So I end up sat at a big round table with a group of people I don't know. And of course they are highly amused by the fact that there is a foreigner at there table. They are really nice and friendly, but just watching me eat each different dish then murmuring amongst themselves. They tell me that one person at the table is really good at English, but it comes as no surprise that this person doesn't want to even try to talk to me.... something I got used to in Taiwan. People spent a lot of time and money learning English, then don't want to use it unless forced to!! So we carried on conversing in my broken Chinese, although after about 5 or 10 mins they kinda gave up, or my Chinese ran out!! Anyway, the food was wicked and free, so I cant complain. After lunch I made my way to my room (via bus!!); it was a basic but comfortable room. It is one of those places that has loads of rooms in like a holiday camp chalet style complex. I had a shower, a cup of coffee and settled down to watch some TV. So my little de-tour came to an end and after my slightly worrying flight I arrived in the tiny airport in Sanya. I looked around the airport and there was no sign of Jessica, so I made my way to the hotel. She must be there I thought, so I haggled for a taxi and set off. After a 20 minute ride we arrive at the hotel, a guy takes my bags and I get all checked in. However, after a half chinese/english conversation I find out that Jessica isn't here yet!! So this is where I start to really worry. The porter shows me to my room and I my brain starts working overtime... OK I think to myself, don't panic, just have a shower and she will come. So I hop in the shower, have a shave and start to get dressed. Then the phone rings and guess what?? It's Jessica... you wouldn't believe how relieved I was. It turns out that she flew to the wrong airport on Hainan Island!! They have 2 airports Haikou and Sanya, she flew to Haikou. So you can imagine that she arrived, waited for me and obviously started to panic when I didn't turn up.... and when she asked the people at the airport about my flight number they said it didn't exist!! Anyway, she worked out eventually what had happened and came down to Sanya in a Taxi - it took 3 hours!! Anyway, I am just so relieved to see her and I calm her down, tell her that our holiday started now and to forget all about this bad experience. So we go decide to go and have the hotel's BBQ buffet and forget all about it. We both feel so excited to be with each other again and our holiday starts :) The buffet includes a lot of food and also beer, and they have it on a patio next to a pond with...get this... live entertainment (a filipino singer who is not always in tune!!)So we settle in and enjoy our food. We were staying at this hotel, called "the Resort intime" for 4 nights and it was really nice. It was a big resort style hotel that had its own section of the beach. We spent our time relaxing by the pool and beach, it was awesome. I really needed a simple and relaxing beach holiday to prepare me for starting work in Guangzhou, and I realised that this place was perfect. And it was near a small town, where we could venture to eat cheap food, so we rarely ate in the hotel. Although we did have an afternoon tea buffet once, where you eat cake, sandwiches and sip tea. We sat out on the balcony on these really cool wicker tables and chairs, its a shame I didn't take a picture of this. Of course the breakfast was awesome, and me and Jessica ate a lot every day!! This is one of our many weaknesses!! So we were really happy with this hotel and having a great time. When the 4 nights were up we were booked into the Marriott hotel & spa in another area of Sanya. So we went by taxi and were looking forward to the 5* luxury, wondering how it would be different from the first hotel. Well let me tell you this place blew the other place out of the water. It was a really grand looking hotel complex with a massive lobby, which included a lounge that looked out onto the sea. Its a circular area with lots of wooden sliding doors which they usually leave open, so you get the most amazing views. The style of the place almost had a colonial feel to it with big wooden fans whirring above you. This was a place that we were to often sit, relaxing in the evening sipping cocktails!! The room was awesome with a balcony and a sea view. The place had a lagoon pool area, which was a interlinking set of small pools with jacuzzis and a poolside bar and cafe. Then they had a regular pool in another area. The beach area was very private and they had security guards to stop hawkers. So we went from being relaxed in the first hotel, to a state of almost comatozed relaxation in this place. Just meandering around wearing flip flops and beach shorts was blissful. The complex was in the middle of nowhere, so you had to eat in the hotel. It was expensive for China, but for a 5* hotel it was still pretty good. Probably like regular prices in a Travelodge back home!! We ate in an Indonesian restaurant, as well as eating lots of Hainan specialty's and also having a crazy buffet one night (which included steak, shrimp, peiking duck amongst other things). So all in all me and Jessica had an awesome time in Sanya. We hadn't seen each other for half a year at least and we really enjoyed lazing around and chatting. You should get this impression from our photos!! I would highly recommend this place to anyone who is out this way. It aint exactly a simple Thai style beach holiday, but if you like the occasional blowout resort holiday then you will love this place!!!

First day in Guangzhou :)

Finally, the day arrived to go to Guangzhou. After all the build up it finally arrived. I was so excited by the whole idea, and rocked up to Newcastle airport in the hire car full of expectation. As usual I was worried that my bag was overweight, but of course as usual it was underweight by quite a bit. So I got my bag checked in and I was officially on my way :) I had to go to Guangzhou via Germany, and the airline was called Lufthansa city or something. The plane they ran was really small, the smallest plane I think I have ever been on!! What I didn't realise is this meant that the overweight lockers were also smaller, and I had my "this is hand luggage but not as you know it" bag stuffed full of as many possessions as possible. So I get on this plane and walk to my seat, try to put the bag in the overhead locker (what a joke that was to even attempt it). So I sit down on my seat and wonder what the hell I am going to do with my uber-bag. This German guy stops in front of me and it is obvious that his seat is the seat next to mine. I try to maneuver out of his way, but with my huge bag and people constantly trying to stream past it is pretty impossible. Now I cant remember what this guy said to me next, but it basically made me feel like he was one of those impatient businessmen who thinks that he is the boss of the world and not just a few office pen pushers. So I'm like I can't move mate, sorry, I need to put my bag somewhere. He sits down on the seat opposite and when the people for that seat arrive he tells them "that's my seat but that guy wont move etc. etc." I suppose the communication issue with his German English didn't help, but the way he was saying it was really not helping. So I start making comments back and there it is, my first "in flight" conflict. But this isn't even the best bit. I get off the plane in Germany and when I get a fair way into the airport I decide to go to the little boys room, and guess who is walking out of the toilet just as I am coming in.... yes, you guessed it, that German guy!! So I instantly see the opportunity to cleanse all evil and I hold the door for him to which he says thankyou. All is again well with the world :) The flight from Germany to Guangzhou was much easier though. It was a 10 hour flight, but I was able to sleep for 3-4 hours, and I talked to the guy sat next to me a fair bit - this slightly crazy Dutch guy. It was cool when the plane landed, because it seemed to circle Guangzhou a little bit, so it really gave me an idea of the place. The journey from the airport to the school was pretty easy, and I arrived to meet these two guys, Jon and Rob, who are part of the admin/management of the school. The school is really nice, and looking around really made me start to feel excited. As I was only staying one night in Guangzhou (I was going to Sanya the next day), Rob offered to put me up and take me out for dinner. So we hopped in a taxi and went to his apartment. The taxi ride immediately made me feel at home, as he was ducking and diving all over the place in traffic that seemed to have no rules or order....just like Taiwan :) We spruced ourselves up and went out to this awesome restaurant. There were maybe 8 of us eating, and we went to this local restaurant under an overpass. We ate a real feast of Chinese food, washed down with local beer; so I really felt at home. One dish that was really cool was a plate of legs of lamb. They would put silver foil on the end so you could pick them up caveman style!! We then went back to Rob's apartment and had shots of interesting alcohol; they all ventured out to have more fun, but my jetlag was setting in so I just settled down to go to bed. Thinking of the fact that in 24 hours I would be with Jessica!!