Okay! It has been an eventful week and oh so much I could talk about. I will start with the final hurrah of summer school. No one failed… the course! Nine out of 25 failed the final, which was pretty much par the course. My class finished with a 65% average, with the GPA dropping four percent during the final. Take away those translators and no amount of work ethic can change the fact that you can write the word “penis” as a mistake for “pen is” and not giggle. That being said they are great kids and they passed. I was happy to take a group shot with them on the final day. They really are willing and eager to learn and I was surprised to see how much debate there was over following rules. They are certainly aware of the sometimes stifling nature of China. I think from a western perspective there is nothing to fear from China if the younger generations continue to have some more open education. They want the same things kids here want and that certainly doesn’t include apocalyptic, world domination war.
The final week was not without one major hurdle. One of the other English 11 teachers accidently gave out the final exam as a practice to their class. Like seriously how do you do that! Read the lesson plans that were made for you. Anyways this resulted in a Wednesday night emergency meeting as we scrambled to have a new exam for Thursday morning. It all worked out as an amazing colleague of mine stepped up and wrote the whole exam herself as we agreed too many cooks in the kitchen would have spoiled the soup. But seriously how do you do that? Sorry I am not over it.
The only final awkward moment of class were the students asking for individual pictures and asking if I would be around all year. Nice, but horribly awkward! I am glad to have my minimal separation living off campus.
The next thing to talk about is the new staff! They arrived last weekend and they are a nice group of people. You really can feel the Maple Leaf team atmosphere. It is also nice that the relatively quick staff rotation here, three or four years, leads to a young staff, but also opportunity to advance. There are several veterans of eight and higher years that man the ship, but it does not feel like every other school I have been in where there are established veterans that control every department. That is not a critique to previous locations just the reality of people teaching together for over ten years with little staff change. I have made a few new friends and expect to be kept busy this year. I already graduate from newbie to tour guide and surprised several of them when they learned I had only been here for the summer school program.
There arrival also spurred my house hunting. They have a staff apartment shortage this year. Therefore, more teachers then normal are being put on the dreaded boy’s campus staff housing. Some of these are apparently quite derelict. This resulted in a series of people bombarding me for information on my apartment hunt and asking to help me move. That is of course assuming they moved in as I went out.
My apartment search was easy in the end. I looked at three places. All in an apartment complex basically right beside the school. I am used to not commuting and will not start here. Despite being about the same distance now from the girl’s campus school as my on girl’s campus residence was. The separation is great. I do not feel that I am still at school. My search was added by the arrival of Grace! A friend from my UVIC education program, who also brought me two jars of Adam’s peanut butter (I could have almost made her a deity in that moment), speaks Mandarin. Therefore, she was able to come arrange, come along and interpret during these apartment trips. She is also moving off campus and was able to get information for herself as well.
I went with the tacky apartment with the purple couch. I saw it first and the other options I considered were not beating the giant couch and bathroom this place offered. It is not like I am someone who would normally pine for a nice bathroom, but the ability to stand up in the shower is nice. A place to put drying laundry is also a plus!
The apartment process is fun! You can actually negotiate here. The places furnished so you can ask to get new furniture, upgrade, etc. Through Grace I was able to lower the damage deposit to 2000 qui, from 3000, that is about 325 CAD. I was also able to get a new water cooler! I wanted a desk, but Ikea may have to save the day there. I like my landlord, he showed up to our first meeting and showing shirtless. Priceless. That being said when we signed the lease he was looking quite stylish. There is a lease, thankfully Grace can read!
In China it is common practice to pay a year’s rent in advance. We negotiated down to six months’ rent. The rent is 1700 Yuan, so just over 300 CAD. I have to pay 2500 CAD to pay for 6 months’ rent, a year’s internet, water, and condo fees. I will eventually have to pay 1800 more for the remaining rent, but still ridiculously cheap! I almost forgot the best part. The bathroom has a giant window that looks into the bedroom. I can see from the shower to my bed. It is super creepy, but was in all the apartment’s I looked at. Hello China!
I need to get out of here! So I will give one last update. KTV!! That is karaoke. Basically you get a group of people and depending on the size of the group you will get a room to match. The room has crazy lights and you can basically have your own private party. Twelve of us went last weekend and it cost only 12 CAD each to rent a room for the night that includes 36 beers between us and snacks. I personally did not get my value from the drinks, but a few people did. My stunning rendition of “I want it that way” also got the party started. Who said I can’t sing or dance? ;) Well actually I think it may have induced people to drink the beers.
KTV is everywhere here and is really fun I look forward to trying it again.
I must be off. Cheers.
The final week was not without one major hurdle. One of the other English 11 teachers accidently gave out the final exam as a practice to their class. Like seriously how do you do that! Read the lesson plans that were made for you. Anyways this resulted in a Wednesday night emergency meeting as we scrambled to have a new exam for Thursday morning. It all worked out as an amazing colleague of mine stepped up and wrote the whole exam herself as we agreed too many cooks in the kitchen would have spoiled the soup. But seriously how do you do that? Sorry I am not over it.
The only final awkward moment of class were the students asking for individual pictures and asking if I would be around all year. Nice, but horribly awkward! I am glad to have my minimal separation living off campus.
The next thing to talk about is the new staff! They arrived last weekend and they are a nice group of people. You really can feel the Maple Leaf team atmosphere. It is also nice that the relatively quick staff rotation here, three or four years, leads to a young staff, but also opportunity to advance. There are several veterans of eight and higher years that man the ship, but it does not feel like every other school I have been in where there are established veterans that control every department. That is not a critique to previous locations just the reality of people teaching together for over ten years with little staff change. I have made a few new friends and expect to be kept busy this year. I already graduate from newbie to tour guide and surprised several of them when they learned I had only been here for the summer school program.
There arrival also spurred my house hunting. They have a staff apartment shortage this year. Therefore, more teachers then normal are being put on the dreaded boy’s campus staff housing. Some of these are apparently quite derelict. This resulted in a series of people bombarding me for information on my apartment hunt and asking to help me move. That is of course assuming they moved in as I went out.
My apartment search was easy in the end. I looked at three places. All in an apartment complex basically right beside the school. I am used to not commuting and will not start here. Despite being about the same distance now from the girl’s campus school as my on girl’s campus residence was. The separation is great. I do not feel that I am still at school. My search was added by the arrival of Grace! A friend from my UVIC education program, who also brought me two jars of Adam’s peanut butter (I could have almost made her a deity in that moment), speaks Mandarin. Therefore, she was able to come arrange, come along and interpret during these apartment trips. She is also moving off campus and was able to get information for herself as well.
I went with the tacky apartment with the purple couch. I saw it first and the other options I considered were not beating the giant couch and bathroom this place offered. It is not like I am someone who would normally pine for a nice bathroom, but the ability to stand up in the shower is nice. A place to put drying laundry is also a plus!
The apartment process is fun! You can actually negotiate here. The places furnished so you can ask to get new furniture, upgrade, etc. Through Grace I was able to lower the damage deposit to 2000 qui, from 3000, that is about 325 CAD. I was also able to get a new water cooler! I wanted a desk, but Ikea may have to save the day there. I like my landlord, he showed up to our first meeting and showing shirtless. Priceless. That being said when we signed the lease he was looking quite stylish. There is a lease, thankfully Grace can read!
In China it is common practice to pay a year’s rent in advance. We negotiated down to six months’ rent. The rent is 1700 Yuan, so just over 300 CAD. I have to pay 2500 CAD to pay for 6 months’ rent, a year’s internet, water, and condo fees. I will eventually have to pay 1800 more for the remaining rent, but still ridiculously cheap! I almost forgot the best part. The bathroom has a giant window that looks into the bedroom. I can see from the shower to my bed. It is super creepy, but was in all the apartment’s I looked at. Hello China!
I need to get out of here! So I will give one last update. KTV!! That is karaoke. Basically you get a group of people and depending on the size of the group you will get a room to match. The room has crazy lights and you can basically have your own private party. Twelve of us went last weekend and it cost only 12 CAD each to rent a room for the night that includes 36 beers between us and snacks. I personally did not get my value from the drinks, but a few people did. My stunning rendition of “I want it that way” also got the party started. Who said I can’t sing or dance? ;) Well actually I think it may have induced people to drink the beers.
KTV is everywhere here and is really fun I look forward to trying it again.
I must be off. Cheers.