| 02 March 2010
Well I've started my classes, which range from 5 to 15 year olds. There's 2 types of teachers at Bai Da Wei - Branch and Kinder. The kinder teachers are sent out to kindergartens that have contracts with us - they work 5 hours a day, Monday to Friday. The branch teachers are the "core" of the business and teach evening classes, from 5 - 7, 3 days during the week and 9-5 on weekends. There were 2 branch positions available and they selected Sam and I - which is a good thing. We also found out that within the chinese employee circle, we're known as the "beautiful couple". Tell me how that's not supposed to go straight to my head?
At my branch - Nan Guon, there is one other english teacher - Justin, who is the son of the founder of the school. I've got 2 teaching assistants - Jessie and Amanda, one of which I have in every class. Nan Guon is about 15 minutes away from our apartment or 10 RMB (that's $1.50 CDN) by cab.
We have a handful of "direction cards" to help us get around the city, that we show to the cab driver if we want to go somewhere. Like, "Hello cab driver, please take me to Quo Gin Supermarket." And today we used one that I've really been looking forward to. The WALMART card!
We were dropped off in front of a huge department store and explored all 5 floors before we found the actual entrance to Walmart. We giggled like children when we saw things like french bread, cheese slices and ketchup. Don't get me wrong - I still don't eat ketchup. Of course, we discovered new foods too. In the meat dept, beside the chicken breasts were chicken head, feet, hearts and livers. Fun! But the thing that excited me the most was the Serve-Yourself chicken wings! Hundreds of wings sitting on ice for you to pick and choose at your leisure! I most certainly will be having wings for my birthday!
There was also a huge selection of salami and pepperoni, which I can't wait to dig into. (On that note Jen, I found chinese sausages on the first day we were here, and since we don't have a microwave, I've had to resort to slicing them and frying them - but they still taste the same!)
And one that thought - remember in South Korea, when I described the water pressure in the shower to be like getting peed on by a midget? And the strange lack of a shower curtain (and rod)? Well here, the water pressure in the shower head is great, but not only is there no shower curtain, but NO SHOWER either. You just shower in the bathroom itself! I've always had a fear that I would die by slipping in the shower and now the chances of that have increased a thousandfold. Some sort of rubber/foam mat for the bathroom is definitely on the list..
But thank god for that western toilet....