The Magic of China

 In September 2017, Andy asked me whether I could work at the adult training centre in Ningbo which I was reluctant to do because I barely knew how to get back to Shanghai, let alone Ningbo. It was an opportunity I was reluctant to take, but did so, feeling obligated.  I booked my train tickets, which was around 1 hour from Hangzhou. My initial impression was that it was more industrial, but much less people than Hangzhou. It also seemed to have less Western brands, as in Hangzhou there was a Starbucks in every street corner, while Ningbo didn't have this, with mostly Chinese chains.  Consistently voted as one of the most 'liveable' places in China, it has a much lower population, so it was possible to actually get a seat on the subway and never seemed over-crowded. It also had more British influence, with spellings such as 'centre' and 'theatre', and probably due to the branch from Nottingham University, bringing academics from the UK. Churches was also a c...

 Walking along the lake at night became an integral part of my routine. The atmosphere was different to that during the day, which was usually busy. While at night time, usually after 9pm, it was quiet and peaceful, with the odd couple walking past enjoying the view of the lake with a backdrop of delicately lit mountains. Once a Chinese guy, around mid-20s, called David, once caught up and started talking in very good English, almost in a Native American accent.  He explained that he studied in Canada and lived there for many years and was simply 'travelling' around China as a hobby, but from the South originally, Guangzhou. He invited me to go for a late night snack, but given that it was 11pm, I was suspicious of his intentions, as I was still getting used to Chinese hospitality, that it was 'normal' to simply find a foreigner and go out for a meal with no ulterior motives, as China is generally, completely safe. We're not just intensely watched by police at every...

 China isn't a country associated with the term 'cafe culture', but rather a more Western concept in European countries such as Sweden with Fika and Italy and their coffee culture. When I visited my GP in the UK before coming to China to get medical advice he replied 'why would you go there, they have no milk in their tea', which is partially true, in the case of green tea, which the Chinese are most well-known for within this topic.  Cafe culture was emerging in China with the rising 'openness' of its borders to Western influence. There's a Starbucks on every street corner with one shopping mall often having at least three shops, each selling the exact same products. Though in Hangzhou one that I really liked was known as 'Cash Miel', where I could buy a cappuccino, latte, or vanilla cappuccino and could choose from a range of, mostly Danish pastries. I liked this particular cafe because it was a smaller space than that of Starbucks, cheaper at ...

 Life doesn't exist in the East of China until 10am, with shopping malls and gyms opening on the hour, and closing at the same time at night, 10pm. I was shocked to observe this since it was always thought that Chinese people worked hard long hours. It's normal for shops to open anytime between 9 and 9.30am in the UK, closing between 4 to 5:30pm, though more recently larger supermarkets open between 7am to 11pm if not midnight. The concept of convenience is important in China, with everything being able to be delivered as quickly as possible through the use of an APP. However, Supermarket 'culture' doesn't exist here to the same extent as the West. With it is more common to go to different shops for groceries, meat, fish, and confectionary, to the Western mind, or especially the British expat, this is far from the concept of 'convenience' as supermarkets provide all these products under one roof, and all household related shopping tasks can be done under one...

 Four months of living in Hangzhou, I was enjoying life, and had blended in well....I liked it a lot and was beginning to find the concept of going back to the UK difficult. A call with my younger sister, Elizabeth, where she started asking when I would be returning home, proved difficult after being reluctant to tell her that I had no intention of returning any time soon to the UK-a very different attitude that I had left with.  Upon arriving in China I had lost a few pounds-which I was glad to be rid of.....most likely because I was occupied with settling into Hangzhou and I was also figuring out where, and how to buy food. But after discovering Carrefour, a large supermarket that sells amazing various kinds of baozi as well as other foods I couldn't identify, I would go here routinely every week. It appeared similar to Morrisons but with vegetables and herbs I couldn't identify, such as Dragon Fruit and Durian. Biscuits and cakes were sold, but completely different, being m...

 Katharine, another Chinese sales girl at EF who I counted among my friends, as well as an additional Chinese teacher. On a late night walk home after work, she asked about how I was getting along in China, and assured her I was fine, but needed more friends. She always would give the advice that to make connections with people in China, you have to 'open your heart', whatever is meant by that. It's a phrase that was repeated by a later colleague, Angela, in Nanjing who also said that I needed to open my heart in order to meet 'the one' in China.  It was also a phrase used in a business context too when businessmen were developing their 'guanxi', or network, and that opening the heart was necessary to sealing contracts, business deals and obtaining business partners. This centred around drinking in China, specifically Baijiu (白酒), which is a colourless liqueur of between 35 to 60% alcohol by volume. Indeed, a business contract isn't sealed until a drinki...

 In English 'Dan' is a nickname, usually short for Daniel if a man or Daniella if a lady. But in Chinese 'dan' or 蛋 means 'Egg'. A ginger, bearded, overweight man from Nevada Las Vegas, but apparently he was from the 'countryside' area. He was also the most popular teacher in the centre, as he seemed to 'wear' his weight well, combined with a certain American charm and humour for the students. It was easy to see how students were 'drawn' into his personality.  Our birthdays were only two days apart, his was on February 25th and mine was on the 27th. It would be my first birthday in China, but for him, it was his third and he would turn 34 and me, 27. Since his birthday was close to the Chinese main holiday, Spring Festival, he decided to plan a two week trip to Japan and South Korea, as he said that he liked to visit at least one new country for every year of his birthday. The new country would be South Korea for him this year, bringing t...

 Cherry worked at the EF centre in sales and aimed to improve her English, though it really was 'elementary' level. I accepted her invitation to take me to lunch on one of our Monday's off, at 11am, which I didn't really consider the time for lunch, but Chinese usually take it fairly early in comparison.  We started with beef noodles at one of the local restaurants where we mostly sat in silence and resorted to using WeChat translate to communicate. I explained that I was interested in culture, art and museums, and so she took me by bus to a local library where I could peruse all the books I wanted, some huge, some small, and although an insight into genuine Chinese art from these books, I couldn't read or understand anything.  When a Chinese person suggests to do one activity, they don't mean 'one', it can continue for the entire day, which could often get exhausting, especially when struggling to communicate. The walk back to the bus stop seemed to tak...

 Shirley, a Chinese girl of around 26 years old, was a new student of the centre, who was working in textiles for a company that needed to communicate in English as a supplier. We were the same age and she had specifically asked for a class with me, because she said I was 'beautiful' and the only foreign girl in the centre. I was on a full schedule in three weeks, teaching 20 classes, but normally taking 16, as if there were no bookings then the class would be cancelled.  Face to Face classes were usually given to a maximum of four people, though it was unusual to have four, and most commonly two. Occasionally the higher level English classes were taken by only one student, which was great, because in this case we could usually have a normal fluent English conversation that deviated from the class dictated on the PPT. Other, larger classes were 'Business English', which could have up to 20 people, and specifically targeted at Chinese intending to learn English for busin...

 Yang, the visa officer from EF, was added on my WeChat and I had the day off reserved to register at the police station for my full working z-visa. While in Shanghai I had undergone a full medical check with the rest of my cohort, which seemed to be more of a 'song and dance' rather than anything considered a 'check'.  A medical check in China is very systematic. Getting into a dressing gown and following the footprints on the floor, going from station to station, with around eight in total only took around 40 minutes. I had no idea what they were checking for, the paper with all the check boxes made the process look detailed. There's the chest X-Ray, followed by a station with a lady patting my back, another feeling my stomach, taking my blood pressure, and then also checking my eyesight, as well as a blood test. Undergoing a blood test was difficult for me, the last two times I had fainted in the hospital, as I'm terrified of needles and seeing the sight of m...

 I had finished my first full week in the training centre at around 8pm on Saturday. I took appropriate lengths to make sure I made a good impression by dressing formally the whole week in navy blue trousers paired with a light blue high neck collar silk shirt. One of the benefits of choosing EF adults was that, unlike EF Kids who were paid more, there was no uniform, and working on online classes would involve taking a pay cut, so teaching adults seemed to be the best 'compromise' between the other two.  Figure 1: Drinking coffee at a cafe in Hangzhou During the week, I had observed around five classes by local teachers and foreign teachers, mostly the Dan, an obese ginger bearded American from what he calls the 'countryside' of Las Vegas. I also taught half of one class myself, which was to a Level 7 student who was advanced in English. To my relief, my first half class wasn't awful-I think. I kind of just read whatever was on the PPT and got the student to repeat...

 YoYo took me to the bank because I wanted to see if I would be able to draw money out of my British bank account to at least pay Andy back. I only had 300RMB and I had no idea where to go to buy food, or how, or what anything was. Even though there was an English option I asked YoYo about on the small computer screen, she seemed to dismiss this and was shocked that I had the equivalent of 10 000RMB waiting in my British account. Andy also told me that we had been paid, and that I could submit my expenses from the Uk, including train tickets and visa fees, so I had also already submitted them.  Since this was my first 'real' job, I had only just clicked that companies also pay for the time spent training new employees, which I thought was generous. I checked my Chinese account and noticed 4000RMB, so this, together with the 6000RMB from my British account would be enough to pay Andy in full, and drew a further 2000RMB to tie me over until the next payday.  During the firs...

 Andy told me that if I liked a place then I should take it, because apartments were taken up quickly in China, due to the shortage of living spaces and huge population, with most children living with their parents into adulthood; a concept British people struggle to understand because we're brought up being told to pretty much leave as soon as being admitted to university as a way of developing distance with our parents, thus less interference.  Yoyo came to meet me at the centre, as she had set me up with an agent to find apartments who could speak English. We met the agent at the first apartment complex, who showed me to a studio apartment on floor 24, which had a huge bed, a bay window, a modest kitchen sideboard to prepare food, and a bathroom with a shower. I didn't love it, but didn't hate it. It was small, private and also modern, with the reception hall resembling that of a hotel. But at 3800RMB per month-it was expensive, and the landlord was asking for a deposit ...