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 ...

 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...

 This was my last morning in Shanghai, and I was a little upset about already leaving the friends I had made, but they seemed more occupied with the vibrant nightlife, while I wanted a more deeper cultural experience.  The concierge had successfully called a taxi and also told me that it should cost around 60RMB (6 pounds)-just to make sure I wouldn't be taken advantage of. On arrival at Shanghai Hongqiao, I made my way through a sophisticated level of security, only the equivalent to that undertaken before boarding a plane. I had to show my passport, then put my luggage through the scanners, and after that I had to undergo a full body search as well. I was finally through the barriers, and I turned up around 2 hours before-just in case something went wrong. I had a lot of luggage and so decided to simply go to the platform waiting area and wait. I then met my next Chinese companion, who was on the way to Wenzhou, which is apparently the most difficult Chinese dialects to lear...