I’ve finally made it to Shenzhen, the city where I will live and teach English for at least the next year. It only took me 13 months to get here. (Thanks, pandemic) Now, it’s time to see my school and start working and making lots of pretty, pretty money, right?
Not quite yet. First, I had to go to a special hospital with a floor just for foreigners to do a government mandated health check. After filling out some forms that were thankfully in English (yay, foreigner hospital!) and handing over some of my newly restocked cash supply, I was handed a bunch of vials and paperwork and told to go around to the various rooms. Each room had a person in it who did a different test.
There was so much poking and prodding and having things stuck on in weird places. There was a blood test, an eye exam, height and weight measurements, an ultrasound of my sides, an x-ray, a urine test, and a couple others that I have no idea what they were, and probably one that I forgot all about. By the end of it, I felt like a pincushion.
Afterwards, it was time for lunch. But first we had to get metro cards so we could get there. The process was nothing like getting the single trip card sold in Shanghai. In Shenzhen, you have to pay for a card, that you keep, and load money on it. The only machine that sold the cards spoke only Chinese and didn’t take cash. My employer had to buy the cards and load then up with money and I gave her some cash. But taking the metro was just as cheap as in Shanghai. So far, the most expensive trip I’ve taken is 5 yuan, one way.
Now for the food, my employer suggested a Chinese buffet for lunch across the driveway from the main office building. It was nice to finally have options for the mystery food. I could at least pick a dish with either chicken or some yummy vegetables. After bring given a very large scoop of rice, I decided on something with chicken and potatoes and something else with green beans. The chicken wasn’t bad, but there were a lot of bones and the beans were sour, which I wasn’t expecting and didn’t like. Happily, there was enough other food on my plate that I was full.
Next, it was time to sign a new version of my contract. However, as we were waiting for the contacts to be printed, we were informed that there was an office-wide meeting about to start. In the conference room where we were sitting. Time to move to a tiny little room. With some Reese’s. And wait for the meeting to end. I was told it would only be about an hour.
There was a lot of sitting around waiting for the meeting to end. I spent most of that time getting to know my new coworker. Finally, after what felt like ages, but was only about an hour and a half, the meeting ended. But it was getting late and the people who were supposed to go over the contact with me had other things to do.
We went for a coffee/juice and we were finally told some information about the training center we’re to work at, as my new coworker and I are to work at different branches of the same center, the only training center that my employer still works with after Covid. And, by some miracle, the same one I interviewed with over a year ago. We would be going to meet the manager in a few days and she will tell us more about working there, but it was the only training center that my employer still works with after the pandemic closed everything and no foreigners were able to enter China.
We also discussed the plan for the next few days – in addition to visiting the training center and meeting the boss, we had to find and move into apartments, register with the police, sign the contracts we didn’t today, and get an orientation/training on the company we work for.
We were set to have a busy few days! I was tired just thinking about it.
My TEFL Adventure 