The Magic of China

 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...

  Figure 1: The skyline in Shanghai I arrived in Shanghai Pudong Airport on November 16th 2016, what would become my ''Chinaversary'', and I was amazed to find that I quickly went through passport control, immigration, and collected my luggage with no hassle. But the next task was to find the driver who was taking me to the airport. As I arrived and walked over to collections I saw huge groups of Chinese drivers with various names of individuals and companies....I was so happy and relieved when I saw one sign that read EF. I think I was the second person he picked up, as I realised that we were waiting to collect at least a few other people. I remember being shocked to find how warm it was....I didn't think to check the weather in Shanghai but assumed it was cold this time of year to find that it was around 13 degrees and there was no need for layers of jumpers and coats. Slowly.....other future colleagues trickled in, one called Jason, and another guy who had recen...

 I had no real idea what to pack, I thought that bringing clothes plus bed sheets would be the best idea, since the expectation was that I would be getting an apartment. I remember my mum buying a really beautiful set of duvet covers, which I loved....along with packing a dressing gown and formal clothes.  I was also told to take at least 20 000 RMB in cash with me for startup costs. I watched EF videos about setting up in China while, they said China was a very 'cash up front' society-I didn't really seem to understand this, and didn't take it too seriously. But I took around this amount with me in Chinese money, thinking that I probably wouldn't really need that amount.  My magistrate mum wanted me to have the 'best start' so she arranged for her friend Ray, also another magistrate, to drive me in his jaguar to Humberside airport to give me the final 'goodbye'. I had asked Ray to take a look at the EF contract and look up the company-my mum's m...