The Magic of China

 Since this was my first 'real' job, I had no idea what an annual 'team building' activity was. I assumed it had something to do with being in teams, perhaps a type of sports. The company, EF, decided to host the first team building event I attended in Suzhou, around the time of Halloween, with each 'centre' having its own 'theme'. Since Andy Oliboni was the manager of two centres we decided to have a combined theme of 'the Mario Brothers', though, I really have no idea as to how the theme came to fruition, and all I knew was that it was a Nintendo game involving two, if I may say, Italian-looking men with thick black hair and moustaches, overcoming obstacles to get to a beautiful girl with long blonde hair in a pink dress, with a similar look as Aurora in sleeping beauty. It was decided that there would be only one Princess Peach from each centre, with everyone else dressing as a Mario Brother. I really didn't care who I was, but I was told ...

 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...

 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...

 My first Chinese 'friend' was called Victoria, a Chengdu girl who had recently moved back from teaching English in various countries in Asia. She seemed very laid back and relaxed, turning up to every meeting at least 30 minutes late, and getting lost most of the time too. My British colleague, Johnny, who was in China with his long-term Chinese girlfriend says 'she's from Chengdu so she's really laid back'. This was probably my first 'education' about the differing places in China. All I knew about Chengdu was that it was the home of some really cute pandas, nothing so much about the individual characteristics of its people. The differences between Chinese cities are not only geographical, but cultural and linguistic, with each having its own attributes, or rather 'personality traits' of its people. This small encounter made me realise that I knew nothing about China She was a new 'local' teacher, basically meaning that she did the exac...

 I had my first of adventures in Shanghai, and this is when I realised I was starting to like it. The company had provided us with a a metro card with 50 RMB-I had no idea how much this was, but I was very grateful. I knew, unlike most of my fellow cohort who were remaining in Shanghai, that I probably wouldn't use the money.  Jason, who seemed to like me, invited me to go out with him to explore, so we met up together downstairs in the hotel. We found a place close by the hotel on the evening called 'Yang's dumplings', and of course, I ordered the cheapest thing, because I was worried about money, so I bought the 8RMB dumplings, which were pork soup dumplings, one first of the most delicious foods I had ever had. I was trying to learn to use chopsticks, but just ended up sticking them in the middle of the chopsticks, which I learnt was rude because I just wanted to eat.  Figure 1: Shanghai's famous skyline. We caught up with other members of the group and saw an im...