Moving to Guiyang

Right now I am accessing my blog by emailing in an entry. If someone could send an email to lilpinkteacup@yahoo.com (an old email that I am using) to tell me that this worked that would be great. Also, I am unable to get on Gmail or Facebook right now so that email is the best way to get in touch with me at the moment.

 

Last night I met up with an Australian guy at my hostel and invited him out with Claire and I. I was feeling like eating Indian, which I ate a lot in HK due to the immigrant population there. There was a restaurant right down stairs that we tried which was pretty good. Then we met up with Richard. He used to bartend at this one random bar so we went there to chill out. We didn't stay out too late because we were all so tired, but it was sad to say goodbye to Richard and Claire. And Hong Kong.

 

This has been quite a day. I heard there was a bus to Shenzhen airport from this hotel in Wan Chai so I took it. We got to Shenzhen though and I went into the customs line. For some reason they didn't like my passport or visa or something so they took forever to look at it. Everyone in the long line behind me was upset and yelling at them about it so I felt pretty upset even though they were just being dumb, it wasn't my fault. Then, I crossed the border and I didn't know what to do. Now I realize I was being extremely stupid because you catch the bus on the other side to the airport but was freaking out so I got in a taxi to the airport. Then I didn't have enough money I realized so when we arrived I had to get some to pay the driver. Luckily he was really nice. Then I caught my plane, which of course left an hour late. But it was all very easy, they had everything in English too and the flight attendants spoke English.

 

Maosi, the guy who runs Interlingua, my school, picked me up at the airport. The first thing I noticed is that it is much dryer and cooler here than in Hong Kong. And he said it's the hottest day of the summer so that's pretty amazing. Now when I've told people I'm teaching in Guiyang, even those who are familiar with China give me blank stares and everyone assumes I'm in some random village. But first of all, this is the capital city and it's not so different than HK. There are green mountains all around and high rise buildings. Lots of stores and everything, and a fair amount of English signs. More mainland China though, definitely a bit rougher. It was really confusing because I can usually tell the difference between Mandarin and Cantonese but here they sound Cantonese when they talk, until I start listening for the random Mandarin words I know.

 

We arrived at the school, which is on the 14th floor, and I am lucky because I basically live in the school so I will have a 30 second commute. Maosi said my apartment is small but I had seen Claire's closet in HK so I really like it. I mean this is the largest room I've had living on my room so I'm quite comfortable. Everyone's very nice and I've been meeting all the people from the school. At the moment I'm the only girl teacher (it's like the opposite of Bryn Mawr!) but there is another girl coming soon, and there is only one other American who is from Texas. I went out to eat with Maosi and his wife, who are very nice and seem fun. They wanted pizza, they wanted me to adjust before I eat the spicy food here so I went to a pretty nice pizza place, it had great food that was as good as American really.

 

I hung out a bit from some of the teachers and they seem quite cool so far; very chill. Now this week I have sort of an orientation and training so should be pretty busy.