-So we really had no idea when we were supposed to be up and ready for the day. Eventually someone came around and told us to meet in the lobby at 11:20am. Everyone but me went to open up a bank account, apparently I will be getting one in Qiqihar. I met Charles, an American guy from L.A. I would guess he is around 50/60 years old. He has taught in Qiqihar for almost three years so it was nice to hear a little about the area from him.
-We then had a big hotpot lunch with everyone, including the two men running the company. They didn't speak a word of English which made for an interesting meal. Of course the Chinese way is to ganbei with beer and make lots of different toasts. So at 11am I was chugging the local Harbin beer with my new boss. Casual first day. It didn't help that I was running on a combined two hours of sleep. I wasn't a huge fan of the meal but made sure to try most things.
-After our meal I felt even more delirious than I did before. We wandered over to a classroom in the school only to find out that Kai, Wesley, and Bob were supposedly at different schools than they originally thought. After much talking and calling our CIEE together we found out that Kai was at the same school in Daqing but Wesley and Bob were in different places. We ended up not signing the contracts they gave us due to lots of little things wrong with them. Luckily Charles helped us out when talking to LiDan and Sabrina. Hopefully nothing was miscommunicated! I was then allowed to go gather my things before I left at 4pm for Qiqihar. I was sad to leave the comfort of my American friends but swallowed down the tears and headed out.
-I took the train back with Fiona and Charles, but first, and most importantly, we stopped at McDonalds. Turns out there is no McDonalds in Qiqihar! I don't know what I'm going to do. They were bewildered that I only bought chicken nuggets and fries because apparently you can get that at the KFC in Qiqihar. Anyway, we were early to the train station and waited in the long queue that always forms at Chinese train stations. Lugging around my huge bag was not fun. They really don't make it easy- there are no elevators!
-The train ride from Harbin to Qiqihar is about 2.5 hours. Luckily we had seats and didn't have to stand like some people. I napped a little, then played some games with Fiona and Charles on her iPad. One lady ended up giving a math lesson in the middle of the train to try and sell some of her books. Once in Qiqihar we took a cab to the school. My room is all the way on the 6th floor and there's no elevator so I had to lug my bag up there with some help from the security guard. He was busy complaining about how heavy it was.
-My living arrangement: there are six rooms on the floor. All of them are now occupied but one. One room is shared by a couple from Australia and the Philippines. They love to blast music super loud which isn't great considering our super thin walls. I also get to share a wall with them, yay. We all share two bathrooms- or wet rooms, and a small kitchen with some very basic appliances. On the hall there are also two guys from South Africa who have been here for about 6 months. Then there is a Filipino guy across from me. I'm not really sure who's downstairs but I think there is a Filipino girl who hangs out with the guy across the hall.
-On my first night here my room was swelteringly hot and my mattress was a brick, literally it felt like a brick. However, I was so tired once I got in and tired of carrying around my now broken suitcase (the handle ripped off of course) that I just went to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment