Welcome to Beijing! After weeks of waiting for our visas to
be processed, we finally left on the 18th, arriving in at 6am the
following morning. Our first impression, “OMG, it is FREEZING! -4 degrees!”
That was only in the morning. By the afternoon, it got to about 4 degrees, and
today it was a high of 8 degrees so apart from the initial shock, it’s not as
cold as we were expecting.
We were driven straight to our apartment, Sunny Era. It’s
actually a large gated complex (with guards) with about 15 high-rise apartment
buildings. It takes 10 to 15 minutes to walk from one side to the other. Our
apartment is on the 16th floor of a 26-story building (see photos).
How apartments work here is not easy! For example, all of
the amenities are prepaid using a different plastic card for each one – cold
water, hot water, toilet water, gas, electricity. To find out how much you have
on your cards, you slot them into different places. For example, the
electricity is out in the corridor, the gas is in the kitchen, I haven’t quite
worked out where they all are yet. You need to make sure you top them up when
needed otherwise you will all of a sudden have no supply! Very confusing! And
because they’re all in Chinese, I don’t know which one is which! Nothing has
been easy yet. Trying to get things like a second door card and key, getting
internet, working the washing machine that is all in Chinese characters and has
no hose connection, … we’re still working on getting TV channels and plugs for
the sinks! But we do have floor heating and a split system so we are warm.
Thyson was the first to start school while I had my medical
check for Immigration. It was very efficient, being herded into room after room
for different tests. Fast but absolutely no bedside manner, not even a smile. After that I went shopping to get the basics
for the apartment. I got a few things but it’s going to take some time before
we get the apartment well equipped and feeling homely.
Had our first try of the subway system this afternoon. It
may take a few goes to get the directions down pat. A taxi is much quicker but
costs about 20 yuan ($4). The subway only costs about 40 cents. We might do a
bit of both – taxi in the mornings and subway in the afternoons. The problem
with the taxis is that they often don’t know where to g
o so you have to give them directions. That’s a problem when you’re totally lost yourself! We need to learn some Chinese taxi talk to make things a bit easier.
Last night and today were high pollutant days. Just looks
very grey and foggy and the sun looks like the moon. We’ve been told we don’t get many days like
that so fingers crossed… Check out Thyson in his mask! They are very
uncomfortable but may just save our lungs!
Everyone at school is very friendly and helpful. Thyson has
already started making some friends from all around the world. Classes are very
small and you have quite a lot of freedom to teach in your own style as long as
it’s inquiry based. There are 11 children in my class, and only one boy who
doesn’t speak much English. He should be fun to work with. They are a bit
naughty though but I think that’s due to having a substitute teacher for the
last 3 months.
Anyway, better go, still trying to organize the apartment
and get ready for school in the morning. Hoping to be organized this week so
that next weekend we can start a bit of sight seeing. Looking forward to that.
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