Friday, March 30, 2012
My new contract starting in September. (and the lead-up to...)
10:43 PM | 
Posted by
Eric |
Before coming to China, I had a short list of only two cities that I really wanted to live in.
One was Kunming. It is a more relaxed city away from the hustle of eastern China. It's nicknamed, "The Spring City." It is well-known for being about 70F all year long. The draw for me to this city was the amazingly perfect weather.
The other city, Suzhou, was recommended to me by someone I randomly bumped into on the internet. It is nicknamed, "Venice of the East," or, "Heaven on Earth." The city is most famous for it's 2500 years of history. There are so many ancient gardens, buildings, and little bridges over canals running all throughout. It is an amazing city with a mix of ultra-modern and ancient architecture. The city is booming due to it only being a 30 minute train ride away from the mega-city, Shanghai. The weather in Suzhou is nowhere near as perfect as in Kunming, but it is not as bad as someplace like Phoenix, or Harbin. You get all four seasons, with a fairly warm humid summer. The main draw to Suzhou would be the beauty and history.
So, my decision was about 50/50. Kunming for the weather, or Suzhou for the beauty/history? This is where that random internet bump-in comes back into play. That random person turned out to be an absolutely amazing friend named Ye Li. I had been getting to know Li for several months through Facebook. She is so free and transparent with her thoughts and feelings. It was very easy to see that she is exactly the type of people I was hoping to meet here. Kind, sweet, generous, caring, easy-going, intelligent, independent, care-free, and funny, the type of person that I could call a real friend. With my choice for a new city being deadlocked at 50/50, the prospect of having such a great friend around easily tipped the scales to Suzhou.
I started my search for jobs. I got a list of contacts from my lead trainer and blasted out a ton of emails. I searched a bunch of different online resources for job openings. I was in communication with a few different schools, but it is almost impossible to find any useful information online about working at the schools. Ex-teachers go on these online forums under multiple names and bash their former schools to try to get revenge for being let go. School owners use a similar tactic to try to help improve their school's image. All of these review sites are just full of useless, he-said/she-said information. Most of which, is not even legit in any way.
I found a few jobs that sounded OK. One job that I really wanted was with a university. The pay was low, but the hours were too. The benefits were also great. My main concern when trying to find a job was the amount of free time I would have. This job looked to be the perfect place for me. Then, I got the bad news. The hiring manager told me that the public schools absolutely required two years of teaching experience, which I do not have yet. I figured I would now have to go back to my other options and put up with working more hours at a different type of school until I got the experience required to move on to the university.
One of the schools that was very interested in me offered quite a bit more money, but for double the hours. They are a private international boarding school. I read some information online about some of the teaching jobs at these types of schools not being for an ESL teacher, but an actual English teacher just like at an American school. So, I asked the HR manager for a little more information about the position. He told me that the job was for an English teacher, also teaching some History, and some Math. It was like a regular Western curriculum teacher. I told him that I wasn't qualified to do that type of job, and that I would not feel comfortable with it. He said that he appreciated my honesty. Then, he tells me that they are also looking for an ESL teacher and a kindergarten teacher. I asked about the other two positions and discovered that all along I had been talking to the perfect place. He made me a different offer on the other position.
This new job is exactly what I was looking for and more, even better than the university job that I couldn't get. Low hours, amazing benefits, and the monthly salary is decent. The new offer includes a free, fully-furnished, private apartment on campus. All utilities are included for free with no limits. Three meals a day are also provided for free on campus. The hours are normal school times, so no working on evenings or weekends. They also take off all of the national public holidays. There are two major breaks in the school year too. Winter break is about 4-5 weeks paid time off at the beginning of every year. They also give you a small bonus to help you get out of town and travel a bit during the winter break. Summer break is two months, all of July and August. Summer break is not paid time off, but if you are coming back to work the next school year, they give you a bonus worth one of those months. For summer break, the school will also reimburse the cost of a round-trip flight to and from anywhere in the world. All of this for only working up to 16 hours per week. Also, the class times are short and easy to plan for, requiring very minimal time spent working outside of the classroom.
The amount of free time every week, and the long breaks twice a year will allow me to see and learn so many new things. This is exactly my dream, and one of the main reasons for coming here. September 1st can't come soon enough!
I am already planning my visit back to the US. It will be August 2013. Everyone start blocking out your calendar. =)
PS. RSVP for two. My beautiful friend in Suzhou that helped to make this all happen for me should be joining me on this return visit. We will see you then!
One was Kunming. It is a more relaxed city away from the hustle of eastern China. It's nicknamed, "The Spring City." It is well-known for being about 70F all year long. The draw for me to this city was the amazingly perfect weather.
The other city, Suzhou, was recommended to me by someone I randomly bumped into on the internet. It is nicknamed, "Venice of the East," or, "Heaven on Earth." The city is most famous for it's 2500 years of history. There are so many ancient gardens, buildings, and little bridges over canals running all throughout. It is an amazing city with a mix of ultra-modern and ancient architecture. The city is booming due to it only being a 30 minute train ride away from the mega-city, Shanghai. The weather in Suzhou is nowhere near as perfect as in Kunming, but it is not as bad as someplace like Phoenix, or Harbin. You get all four seasons, with a fairly warm humid summer. The main draw to Suzhou would be the beauty and history.
So, my decision was about 50/50. Kunming for the weather, or Suzhou for the beauty/history? This is where that random internet bump-in comes back into play. That random person turned out to be an absolutely amazing friend named Ye Li. I had been getting to know Li for several months through Facebook. She is so free and transparent with her thoughts and feelings. It was very easy to see that she is exactly the type of people I was hoping to meet here. Kind, sweet, generous, caring, easy-going, intelligent, independent, care-free, and funny, the type of person that I could call a real friend. With my choice for a new city being deadlocked at 50/50, the prospect of having such a great friend around easily tipped the scales to Suzhou.
I started my search for jobs. I got a list of contacts from my lead trainer and blasted out a ton of emails. I searched a bunch of different online resources for job openings. I was in communication with a few different schools, but it is almost impossible to find any useful information online about working at the schools. Ex-teachers go on these online forums under multiple names and bash their former schools to try to get revenge for being let go. School owners use a similar tactic to try to help improve their school's image. All of these review sites are just full of useless, he-said/she-said information. Most of which, is not even legit in any way.
I found a few jobs that sounded OK. One job that I really wanted was with a university. The pay was low, but the hours were too. The benefits were also great. My main concern when trying to find a job was the amount of free time I would have. This job looked to be the perfect place for me. Then, I got the bad news. The hiring manager told me that the public schools absolutely required two years of teaching experience, which I do not have yet. I figured I would now have to go back to my other options and put up with working more hours at a different type of school until I got the experience required to move on to the university.
One of the schools that was very interested in me offered quite a bit more money, but for double the hours. They are a private international boarding school. I read some information online about some of the teaching jobs at these types of schools not being for an ESL teacher, but an actual English teacher just like at an American school. So, I asked the HR manager for a little more information about the position. He told me that the job was for an English teacher, also teaching some History, and some Math. It was like a regular Western curriculum teacher. I told him that I wasn't qualified to do that type of job, and that I would not feel comfortable with it. He said that he appreciated my honesty. Then, he tells me that they are also looking for an ESL teacher and a kindergarten teacher. I asked about the other two positions and discovered that all along I had been talking to the perfect place. He made me a different offer on the other position.
This new job is exactly what I was looking for and more, even better than the university job that I couldn't get. Low hours, amazing benefits, and the monthly salary is decent. The new offer includes a free, fully-furnished, private apartment on campus. All utilities are included for free with no limits. Three meals a day are also provided for free on campus. The hours are normal school times, so no working on evenings or weekends. They also take off all of the national public holidays. There are two major breaks in the school year too. Winter break is about 4-5 weeks paid time off at the beginning of every year. They also give you a small bonus to help you get out of town and travel a bit during the winter break. Summer break is two months, all of July and August. Summer break is not paid time off, but if you are coming back to work the next school year, they give you a bonus worth one of those months. For summer break, the school will also reimburse the cost of a round-trip flight to and from anywhere in the world. All of this for only working up to 16 hours per week. Also, the class times are short and easy to plan for, requiring very minimal time spent working outside of the classroom.
The amount of free time every week, and the long breaks twice a year will allow me to see and learn so many new things. This is exactly my dream, and one of the main reasons for coming here. September 1st can't come soon enough!
I am already planning my visit back to the US. It will be August 2013. Everyone start blocking out your calendar. =)
PS. RSVP for two. My beautiful friend in Suzhou that helped to make this all happen for me should be joining me on this return visit. We will see you then!
Saturday, March 10, 2012
A Real Day Off!
Hey!
I had a day off finally. I've had other time off, but I usually spend it writing lesson plans for my classes. Since I am new, it takes me forever to write my lesson plans. Most teachers spend only about 10-20 minutes doing what I do in 2-4 hours. (it's already getting much quicker though).
Anyways, I've taught some high school classes this week which don't need lesson plans. This really freed up a ton of time for me. So I took full advantage of my day off on Friday.
I really wanted to go to the aquarium here, Harbin Polarworld Aquarium. I hopped on an extremely packed bus. Some of the buses get so crowded that you don't even need to hold onto anything. People are so packed in that they keep each other upright. The bus took me up to the bridge crossing the river, which leads to the newest section of the city. I could have found another bus to go across the bridge, but I felt like walking it anyways. On the bridge I walked past an old city worker that was cleaning the street. He was so excited to see a foreigner. He was waving excitedly and saying probably the only English word he knew, "Hello!" I returned the greeting and continued walking. At the end of the bridge I found where the bus would have dropped me off. At that point you need to take a right and walk from there to the aquarium, park, or science museum. It is a super long walk to the attractions. I was surprised that the city didn't have some kind of shuttle that went up and down that street. There were parents, grandparents, and children walking back from the aquarium. Here's an interesting thing though...people in China walk...a ton. They start early and often. I actually have never seen a stroller. Very young kids walk with their parents. Every morning I see the tiniest kids walking to pre-school with their parents. I think it's great.
Well, I finally made it to the aquarium. The price is a little high, about $25. Compared to aquariums that I've been to in the USA, it's a fine price...but for China that's pretty pricey.
When I walked in, they ushered me into a, "Sea Lion Theater." The lights were out and you absolutely couldn't see a thing. I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing. I was thinking that there was no way they could actually want someone to find a seat like this. Well, that's what they were going for. Luckily, the lights came on after about 45 seconds, so it didn't get too awkward. I just happened to get there right as they were hyping the crowd up for the big intro of the show. The show ended up being pretty funny. They had a walrus that played the harmonica and did situps. The superstar is the seal that swims around, catches rings on its neck, and balances a ball on its nose while doing a flipper-stand.
The other big attraction is the Beluga whale show. Watching these two creatures swim around their tank before the show started is hypnotic. They are just amazing. It's just something you have to see. If I go again, I will be shooting video for sure. The show starts with a little music from the Jurassic Park score and then goes into everyone's favorite, "My Heart Will Go On," from Titanic. Two divers swim with the whales, have them push them around, launch them from the water, etc... It was well worth the money, and I'm going to recommend it to people I know here.
The rest of the aquarium is a little small, but there were a few really cool things penguins, polar bears, sea lions. The sea lions are out where you could actually pet them if you wanted to get your hand bitten off. You can buy some little fish to feed them, and there are commands you can give them to do tricks too. The polar bears are huge and they swim around their tank. You are only a few inches of glass from them and you can compare your hand size to their massive paws as they push off of the tank to swim to the other side. The penguins are my favorite. I always wished I could have had a penguin for a pet. They're very active and always jumping in and out of the water and swimming around.
I left the aquarium and walked down past this giant park, which I will definitely be revisiting when the trees come back to life. I knew I was walking away from the bridge though. There is only one bridge that goes across the river. There is also normally a ferry that you can take across though...just not when the river is frozen. I kind of wanted to experience walking across the river and I figured with the weather warming up, this would be my last chance. I kept walking away from the bridge because I kept seeing more interesting sights. By this time, there was no turning back. I saw a few other people out on the river as well as a well-traveled path in the snow. I felt it was safe enough. I have to admit though that my heart was beating a little quicker than usual. It's a freakin' huge river and it hasn't been all that cold the last few days!
When I got to the end I saw a couple of people flying kites. Some of them were having a little trouble because there wasn't much wind. One guy had his so far out there that it was barely visible. There was a photographer taking some shots of the setting sun on the frozen river. He spotted me and suddenly had a new focus. I'm not very comfortable on the other side of the lens, but I let him have a good couple of minutes with me. He spoke a little bit of English and asked me where I was from. He, like almost everyone else here, had never heard of Arizona.
After crossing the river, I decided to walk around the city for a while. It was getting dark and I was hoping to see some more interesting things. I ran into some weird underground passage that had a guy singing and some other people selling toys. It was a strange place to set-up. I continued walking and saw a bunch of people heading into a door. I followed along and ended up in some kind of big food market. There were all sorts of crazy things in there. I probably could've taken a lot of cool photos, but I'm still pretty uncomfortable with shooting random people. I just need to start doing it. I bet they would actually think it's cool that the foreigner is taking their picture.
I walked so far that I actually ended up at my local Wal-Mart. PS. Wal-Mart here is just another Chinese supermarket...it's really not very much like a western Wal-Mart. I was getting very close to the point of having walked too much. I went into the store for a minute and found some Birthday Cake flavored Oreo's and a bottle of water. Yum! I left to get a cab the rest of the way home and stopped at a street food vendor making some weird snack that I had not seen before. The stand was very popular, so I figured I'd better get in on the action. It ended up being pretty good and a good way to end the day.
I'll add a few photos from the day. It's really still a little too cold to comfortably go out to take a bunch of shots. I'm wearing too many uncomfortable clothes, and my hands and camera get pretty cold when they come out of their pockets.
I had a day off finally. I've had other time off, but I usually spend it writing lesson plans for my classes. Since I am new, it takes me forever to write my lesson plans. Most teachers spend only about 10-20 minutes doing what I do in 2-4 hours. (it's already getting much quicker though).
Anyways, I've taught some high school classes this week which don't need lesson plans. This really freed up a ton of time for me. So I took full advantage of my day off on Friday.
I really wanted to go to the aquarium here, Harbin Polarworld Aquarium. I hopped on an extremely packed bus. Some of the buses get so crowded that you don't even need to hold onto anything. People are so packed in that they keep each other upright. The bus took me up to the bridge crossing the river, which leads to the newest section of the city. I could have found another bus to go across the bridge, but I felt like walking it anyways. On the bridge I walked past an old city worker that was cleaning the street. He was so excited to see a foreigner. He was waving excitedly and saying probably the only English word he knew, "Hello!" I returned the greeting and continued walking. At the end of the bridge I found where the bus would have dropped me off. At that point you need to take a right and walk from there to the aquarium, park, or science museum. It is a super long walk to the attractions. I was surprised that the city didn't have some kind of shuttle that went up and down that street. There were parents, grandparents, and children walking back from the aquarium. Here's an interesting thing though...people in China walk...a ton. They start early and often. I actually have never seen a stroller. Very young kids walk with their parents. Every morning I see the tiniest kids walking to pre-school with their parents. I think it's great.
Well, I finally made it to the aquarium. The price is a little high, about $25. Compared to aquariums that I've been to in the USA, it's a fine price...but for China that's pretty pricey.
When I walked in, they ushered me into a, "Sea Lion Theater." The lights were out and you absolutely couldn't see a thing. I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing. I was thinking that there was no way they could actually want someone to find a seat like this. Well, that's what they were going for. Luckily, the lights came on after about 45 seconds, so it didn't get too awkward. I just happened to get there right as they were hyping the crowd up for the big intro of the show. The show ended up being pretty funny. They had a walrus that played the harmonica and did situps. The superstar is the seal that swims around, catches rings on its neck, and balances a ball on its nose while doing a flipper-stand.
The other big attraction is the Beluga whale show. Watching these two creatures swim around their tank before the show started is hypnotic. They are just amazing. It's just something you have to see. If I go again, I will be shooting video for sure. The show starts with a little music from the Jurassic Park score and then goes into everyone's favorite, "My Heart Will Go On," from Titanic. Two divers swim with the whales, have them push them around, launch them from the water, etc... It was well worth the money, and I'm going to recommend it to people I know here.
The rest of the aquarium is a little small, but there were a few really cool things penguins, polar bears, sea lions. The sea lions are out where you could actually pet them if you wanted to get your hand bitten off. You can buy some little fish to feed them, and there are commands you can give them to do tricks too. The polar bears are huge and they swim around their tank. You are only a few inches of glass from them and you can compare your hand size to their massive paws as they push off of the tank to swim to the other side. The penguins are my favorite. I always wished I could have had a penguin for a pet. They're very active and always jumping in and out of the water and swimming around.
I left the aquarium and walked down past this giant park, which I will definitely be revisiting when the trees come back to life. I knew I was walking away from the bridge though. There is only one bridge that goes across the river. There is also normally a ferry that you can take across though...just not when the river is frozen. I kind of wanted to experience walking across the river and I figured with the weather warming up, this would be my last chance. I kept walking away from the bridge because I kept seeing more interesting sights. By this time, there was no turning back. I saw a few other people out on the river as well as a well-traveled path in the snow. I felt it was safe enough. I have to admit though that my heart was beating a little quicker than usual. It's a freakin' huge river and it hasn't been all that cold the last few days!
When I got to the end I saw a couple of people flying kites. Some of them were having a little trouble because there wasn't much wind. One guy had his so far out there that it was barely visible. There was a photographer taking some shots of the setting sun on the frozen river. He spotted me and suddenly had a new focus. I'm not very comfortable on the other side of the lens, but I let him have a good couple of minutes with me. He spoke a little bit of English and asked me where I was from. He, like almost everyone else here, had never heard of Arizona.
After crossing the river, I decided to walk around the city for a while. It was getting dark and I was hoping to see some more interesting things. I ran into some weird underground passage that had a guy singing and some other people selling toys. It was a strange place to set-up. I continued walking and saw a bunch of people heading into a door. I followed along and ended up in some kind of big food market. There were all sorts of crazy things in there. I probably could've taken a lot of cool photos, but I'm still pretty uncomfortable with shooting random people. I just need to start doing it. I bet they would actually think it's cool that the foreigner is taking their picture.
I walked so far that I actually ended up at my local Wal-Mart. PS. Wal-Mart here is just another Chinese supermarket...it's really not very much like a western Wal-Mart. I was getting very close to the point of having walked too much. I went into the store for a minute and found some Birthday Cake flavored Oreo's and a bottle of water. Yum! I left to get a cab the rest of the way home and stopped at a street food vendor making some weird snack that I had not seen before. The stand was very popular, so I figured I'd better get in on the action. It ended up being pretty good and a good way to end the day.
I'll add a few photos from the day. It's really still a little too cold to comfortably go out to take a bunch of shots. I'm wearing too many uncomfortable clothes, and my hands and camera get pretty cold when they come out of their pockets.
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