Today, according to the handy schedule my employer made, I was finally going to the bank to get an account! I can’t wait. I’ve been waiting and hoping since I got into China, but it was always, “You need this first” and I annoyed lots of people by paying with cash while I waited.
I’m also supposed to meet the boss at the training center for some sort of overview or training. But they haven’t been all that clear about what to expect. I was just happy that someone would show me where my center is. I’d heard that it wasn’t at all close to a metro station.
But first, the highlight of the day – the bank account! As we weren’t supposed to go to the training center until the afternoon, we met up at the office a bit before lunch. We had to get out picture taken for our residence permit applicants first.
After a quick ‘look here and take off your glasses’, we were back on our way to the bank while the photos printed. It was just down the street a little.
As we were passing a few banks whose names I recognized, I wonder which bank we’re going to. It was one that I had never heard of. It was yellow and purple. What bank is Laker-colored? I would need to get more money out of my bank in the US and deposit it in the new bank to pay my rent soon. Were there any other branches of this oddly colored bank?
I didn’t know how useful the bank would be, but I knew I was getting an account there. My employer had a stack of forms and documents ready that the bank would need for me to be able to open the account. She handed them over while I grabbed my passport and police registration to add to the pile.
Then, I waited. And waited. And, then, there was some more waiting.
It took forever just to open an account. About half way through, when I was getting bored of sitting there waiting while they checked my documents several times by 2 different people and checked that my passport photo matched my face, it was then time to sign a bunch of things that I couldn’t read and hit whichever button I was told to.
And, they had to verify my phone number by texting me. It took a minute to get the number correct as they, once again, read my 6s as 4. Then, my phone didn’t want to get the text. I had gotten a message earlier from my provider that it wanted more money but I decided to wait until I had the bank account and could use some mobile payment method to give it some money. Apparently, my phone was temporarily shut off and I had to change a couple settings to get the text through my US provider (which I kept forgetting to suspend). Eventually, I got the message and everything was verified.
I was given a card and some more paperwork. My employer took a photo of the card so they could use the number to pay me. Apparently, the account number and the card number are the same. That just seems like a good way to get all your money stolen to me, but I that’s the way things work here, I guess.
It took most of an hour for me to get my account and, now, I’d have to wait while my co-worker got his account. I am not that patient, and I was getting hungry. It was lunch time! And, I realized that I didn’t deposit any of my cash into my new account. It was still useless! I couldn’t pay with WeChat Pay.
After, another eternity, he was finished and someone had showed me how to use the ATM to deposit my 100 yuan bills (that was the only bill that the machine would take). Thankfully, I had quite a few straight from a different ATM as I had started collecting them a couple days ago so I would be ready to pay rent in a couple days.
Finally, we were free to go off and eat lunch. We chose the buffet right next to the office. It was a known quantity and we knew how it worked. And, even better, it was cheap and we didn’t need to speak to get food, just point!
After lunch, we were told that we had to sign the contracts that we hadn’t the other day. They talked me into a year and a half contract. The very one that I had successfully avoided once before. However, they pointed out that the semester had already started (last week) and that they’d reimburse me for some of my quarantine hotel cost if I signed the longer contract. They did try for a 2 year, but I held firm against it.
Once everything was happily signed, I was told that the training center’s boss wouldn’t be able to meet us today. She was too tired. We meet her tomorrow, the first day of the work week for the center, Wednesday.
After getting some help to set up my WeChat Pay. A lot of it was in Chinese, even though I told it to speak English. I was free to go home.
After a long and boring day, I’m finally a normal person! But, I still have a wallet full of cash that I need to use up.
My TEFL Adventure 