Durianfan moves to northern China

[Durianfan]

It is currently -26 C outside. If I decide to go out, it's about a 7-minute process to get all geared up. I have been here since August, and the temperature drop occurred in the middle of November - I think that's when the first snowfall happened. And it's not a proper snow - it's more like dust flakes falling from the sky. But it's so cold that the snow just stays and turns into this black-ish color. Not attractive in the least.

Anyway, I moved to northern China to work at an IB school here. The first term kicked my ass. The students are all great - nationalities from all over. Very small school - only 30 or so teachers and 150 students. My DP classes are no more than 3 and my MYP classes reach 9 at the maximum. Between teaching, prep, reading, and researching I'm working about 60 hours per week. There is no curriculum for Literature classes so I am writing all of it myself at the same time as I'm teaching it. The resources I have created (so far) fill up a 4 gig thumb drive.

The IB system is not that hard to learn however it does take time - it's almost like learning another language. I'm not really teaching any differently; I'm just reworking my units into the IB language and curriculum. I now know why administrators from IB schools do not hire people who do not have IB experience. The induction period is a killer, and if you don't know what you're doing you can easily get overwhelmed. I have been here for 6 months and I am just now getting used to all the language and acronyms that come with teaching IB.

Before going any further, here are some pics:

My apartment building.



Outside the complex. This is covered with snow now. Most of these pictures were taken the first few weeks I was here (when I had time).

[Durianfan]

The inside. 2-bedroom place on the 12th floor. When I first got here my first reaction was "how hard am I going to have to work to live here?" The place is very well-insulated with tacky decorations. And for the first time since coming to Asia, I have an oven.

Living room:







Kitchen:



Bathroom:



2nd bedroom:



I somehow forgot to upload the pic of the master bedroom to photobucket so I'll do that later - the internet here is fucking slow as snails....Bangkok is lightning fast compared to this shit. The Great Firewall blocks everything from youtube to google to facebook. Even with a VPN youtube is impossibly slow.

[obsidian]

what province?

looks MUCH nicer than the shithole i was in at jilin prov.

[laoshi]

Looks like a very nice set up DF, thanks for sharing. Definitely interested in learning more about China

[laoshi]

What sort of facilities in the apartment? Any gym/pool/shops or whatnot?

[Durianfan]

A word about the Chinese people: they're pigs. That's not an exaggeration. Their behavior is fucking disgraceful. I see people pissing in public (women too) 2-3 times a day. I've even seen people take shits in the middle of Walmart. People regularly empty their trash at cash registers. Go into any Chinese restaurant and you'll see puddles of spit, vomit, cigarette butts, food, beer bottles, etc. on the floor. Everyone smokes. They'll even smoke in the taxis. We have to lie and tell people my missus is pregnant just so they won't smoke when we go to a semi-nice restaurant. They just don't give a shit. They're philosophy is that someone else will clean it up.

Since we live in northern China, no one speaks English. Not one fucking word. So this makes doing everything very difficult. I have a rolodex of Chinese people (all teachers at my school) that I call whenever I need translation. Even things like buying train tickets (only 5 days in advance) or changing money requires translation. Even pointing to a menu item - they just look at me like I'm some alien from another planet.

There's really not much to do here, which is fine because I don't have much time anyway. We are surviving but it is not easy. I never realized how convenient Bangkok was until I left. There are some perks. I save a lot of my salary, accommodation is free, and it's relatively cheap to live. Here are some pics of the downtown area - again, not much here. There are a few restaurants but that's about it - there's just not that much to do, especially in the winter when it's 25 below.

[obsidian]

raining work, it is. applicant beware.

[obsidian]

as you wish on the province.

summers can be nice.

[Durianfan]

The apartment is brand new. I think they are building a gym but not sure at this point. For the first 2 months I was living here I was woken up by drilling and hammering from the floor above me and from the apartment next to me.

We live in Changchun, Jilin Province. It is a very nice set up primarily because the school has a problem with teachers staying on the full two years. I wish the city was nicer - honestly it's at the point where we just don't go out anymore because the people are so disgusting. They spit everywhere. We are constantly looking where we step because we have to dodge frozen spit and vomit.

However the school is fantastic - no real complaints there. All the teachers support each other and even though I'm having write curriculum, I'm keeping up. They even sent me to Shanghai a few months ago for an IB conference. Once the ice melts we will venture out more and see if there's anything worth doing here, but even with layers and down jackets we can only stay outside for so long.

More pics of downtown Guilin Lu:

[Durianfan]

Zhong Dong market: