One Week in China

Hey friends! I’ve been in China for a little over a week now and am getting into the gist of things. It sure isn’t anything like Korea but I’m still enjoying myself, learning new things, and feel more at home here than I did in small town America. 

I wanted to touch base on some things I’ve noticed since living here…

1. A 30 minute taxi ride is no more than $10. The taxi meter starts off at less than $2 and it’s ridiculously cheap even if you go a far distance.
2. Cigarettes are $2. Just saying. And there's Soju (Korean alcohol). Solid.
3. The stairs in my apartment building don’t have motion sensors but instead noise sensors so you have to stomp your feet really hard to get the light to turn on
4. People use filters for their pictures to get their skin looking as white as possible and smooth. I didn’t even recognize my school contact when he showed up to the airport because he is about five shades darker in real life than in all of his pictures.
5. The track next to my apartment has no light at night. So people are just running around the track in the dark. At least no one will be staring at me if I decide to start jogging again.
6. Everything actually is ridiculously cheap. First world country with third world prices and I really don't hate it. I just replaced my iPhone battery for $15. Winning.

Cherry blossom season in full effect!

Sooooo….. everything is done on your cellphone. In China, the main application is called “WeChat.” It is a messaging application, but also has mini applications within it. You can order food, search for apartments, post status updates with pictures like on Facebook, text, call, read newspaper articles, pay for stuff at the store, go internet shopping, pretty much any and everything can be done using this one application.

All around the city, you’ll see barcodes. You can scan these barcodes with your phone to pay for things or to get information on it. You can even scan the barcode at a freaking vending machine!! That’s right, you can buy a drink from the vending machine using your cellphone. I wonder how the older generation feels about this. There’s also public bikes all over that can easily be rented by scanning the barcode on it. Wild, wild stuff but also super convenient.

Co-workers at Karaoke! Karaoke is called KTV in China.

Because my taxes haven’t come yet, I don’t have money for a deposit on an apartment. The school provides money for an apartment each month but you only get paid once a month, which means no pay until the first month of work is complete. The school provides an apartment for the Chinese teachers for free. It’s like dorm style living. So, I’m living with three of my co-workers until I can get situated. One of them speaks great English, one speaks none whatsoever, and the other speaks just a little. There’s two bedrooms and in each room, there’s two sets of bunk beds. So Alex and I are in one room and Tracey and Gene are in the other. It’s kind of like a college dorm, or a hostel even. My director was super concerned with me living here as the conditions aren’t what I would be expecting, but hey - if these girls can live here.. why the hell can’t I? And it’s free! And only temporary. It actually has been working out great because the girls have been helping me speak Chinese and learn about / adapt to my new environment

The beds are rock hard. There’s a thin mattress but I’m not even sure if I can call this thing a mattress. I feel like the beds in US prisons are better than this. But it’s Chinese style and a hard surface is supposedly good for your back. I don’t believe that so I bought myself a mattress topper.

Miles of trees just like this!

The bathroom is another story. When I moved in, the shower was broken so no showers for a few days. The light doesn’t have a switch, but instead a string that you pull. Kind of like the string you pull on a lamp. But half the time you pull the string, the light doesn’t even turn on. Piece of junk. With all of this, I’m just hella grateful our toilet isn’t a squat toilet. (Squat toilets are the norm in China and basically it’s a hole in the ground that you squat over). My apartment toilet is still not a regular toilet because there isn’t any water in it. So just understand, the smell of your own poop hitting the surface of the toilet without any water is sooooo disgusting. Yet so normal here. I still can’t take anyone wearing nice clothes and heels in public the least bit serious because all I can think about is how they, too, are squatting over a hole in the ground to relieve their bladders. Also, you have to bring your own toilet paper to the bathroom and do not flush it! But I was already used to this lifestyle because of living in Korea and traveling Asia.

Next, we have no washing machine. So you have to wash your clothes by hand and then hang them up to dry. I’m not sure if I did it right, but in one bucket you put detergent and let your clothes soak. You can use a brush to scrub them a bit and then you transfer them to another bucket full of clean water. Rinse them out and then ring them out and up they go to hang. Look at me diving right into the culture.

Am I even doing this right? Who tf knowssss

When I eventually move into my own apartment, it will have a washing machine and a “western” style toilet. So.. all good. It’s been cool and helpful living with these girls. They help me order food because everyone orders delivery here for everything. It’s like UberEats on steroids. There’s hundreds of places to choose from and meals are as cheap as $3! The delivery fee is only a buck or less! This, of course, is for the Chinese apps. I downloaded an English delivery food service and those prices are the same as what you’d find in the US. So I’m thankful I have my coworkers/roommates to help guide me to saving money! It’s been an exciting week to say the least and I already have a handful of Chinese words under my belt. Did you know the Chinese word for ‘shiny’ is ‘bling bling?’ True statement!!

The other day I went to the track with Gene and Tracey and there was a group of people sitting in a circle on the grass. They wanted me to go up and ask if we could join them, so why the hell not? They all happened to be from Tibet and they gave us some beer and asked if I liked Justin Beiber. They then asked me to sing a song for them! So I’m basically singing karaoke for this group of strangers in the park. Funny shit! This is one of my favorite things about living in a different country. You can just walk up to people and start talking to them, making yourself some new friends. If I walked up to a group of people in the States and asked if I could sit with them, what do you really think would happen? People don’t do shit like that. But they do here and it just calls for constant excitement.

Everything all good over here, hope you are too.