On Monday 20th February I started the journey back to China and arrived safely at Beijing airport at 4pm China time on Tuesday 21st February. I was picked up from the airport by James and after a quick catch up I was dropped at my apartment to drop my luggage off and then I was straight back out again to meet the girls for an early dinner at 5pm. It was a bit weird really because I had to go to the supermarket round the corner from my apartment and get some money out as I had no Chinese money on me, then I had to get a taxi to Pinnacle Plaza to meet the girls. Easier said than done, I couldn’t remember how to say Pinnacle Plaza and vaguely remembered the way so I had to direct the taxi driver and at one point we went round in a circle but managed to get to the Mexican restaurant on time. 8 of the teachers had come out to give me a “welcome back” dinner which was really nice of them and it felt like I had never been away! I was fighting to stay awake though and by 8pm I was ready for bed so after putting credit on my Chinese phone, I called it a night and one of the teachers gave me a lift back to my apartment.
I walked into my apartment and realised that there was no electricity left on the metre. Great. By this point it was 8.30pm and I went to the property office around the corner to put money on the metre and was told that they couldn’t do it until tomorrow. What a great start! I returned to my apartment and had to use the light from my laptop to see so I just put everything on the floor and went to bed. The apartment was freezing because there was no heating, there wasn’t any hot water and no electricity so I couldn’t even do myself a hot water bottle! Luckily I don’t have a room mate yet (will tell that story in a moment) so I used the duvet from that room over the top of my duvet and went to sleep.
So during dinner I found out a bit about the new interns that started last week. There were supposed to be 5, including Analisa who was my roommate and stayed on from last semester. Apparently only 3 turned up! During Chinese New year Analisa just upped and left without telling anybody and didn’t come back, after the school trying to contact her for over a week she sent an email saying “something came up” and that she wasn’t coming back, so I currently have no room mate until they find a replacement for her. The other intern that was supposed to start aswell flew home the day before they were supposed to come out to the school! So the school are not having much luck with interns at the moment. The three that are here are two girls from Norway and a Scottish girl who I will probably meet within the next few days.
Anyway, today is Wednesday and I woke up at 7am and as the property office didn’t open until 8.30am I had to wait until then before I could get electricity. I had been given the day to settle in but soon realised that I can’t get anything done, such as get a bank account or set up the internet in my apartment until the school register me with the local police station. So until then I am going to have to use the wifi at Pinnacle Plaza or wait until I get a school laptop to access emails during the day at school.
I spent today just unpacking and sleeping, I have picked up a cold from the flight and feeling a bit rough but part of that could be down to the fact I have no idea what time or day it is meant to be and feeling a bit dazed from all of the travelling!
I met a few of the teachers after they finished school for dinner and I have just left them to come to starbucks and write this. Early night for me as I start at 8am tomorrow at the school.
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