On the 16th of June 2012, Liesl and I left Cape Town to start our new adventure in China.
Armed with 30kg of luggage, which included clothes; a harddrive full of TV shows; a fully charged iPod and a selection of Meryl Streep DVDs, we were ready to embark on our new lives as English Teachers.
We will be working for
Shane English School. We will be teaching English to little Chinese kids (3years - 12 years). Our school is situated in Wuhan, in the Hubei province. This is about 6 hours by train from Shanghai. Our contract is for one year.
We were flying via Dubai on Emirates: Cape Town to Dubai to Shanghai.
Lucky for us, the Emirates flight was empty, so we were upgraded to Business Class! The flight was totally awesome! Only 10 people in our cabin - NO BABIES! We got complimentary champagne and snacks. A full bar and wine list. An actual menu to choose from, and the air hostess comes around to take our order. LOVED IT! Unfortunately, it has ruined me for future travel... as I don't think I could ever go back to economy class (#i'msuchasnob).
Here's some pics:
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| Our complimentary champagne. Cheers! |
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| CLINK! |
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| Check out that leg room! |
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| Appetizer - tiny salt and pepper shakers. So cute. |
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| Dinner, REAL knives and forks! |
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| Inside the cabin |
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| SMILE! |
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| Sleepy time! So nice to stretch out and get comfy. |
We arrived in Shangai on the 17th of June. Elaine, from Shane English School, met us at the airport and took us to our hotel.
We had the next couple of days to rest and relax, before our week of intensive training started.
We didn't have much time for sight-seeing, as we spent most of our days in training - which was all day. But we did manage to visit a couple of local restaurants and bars, as well as do a bit of (window) shopping.
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| Inside Westgate Shopping Mall |
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| Liesl having pizza at our "usual" restaurant called The Grand - which was just around the corner from our hotel |
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| Shopping area -yay they have H&M!! |
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| OH, thank god they have Marks and Spencer! |
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| This is the view from our hotel room |
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| Everyone drives scooters here. |
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| Shanghai skyline |
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| Not sure what this is... but the school overlooks it. |
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| They have Tesco here. Everything is going to be ok. |
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| Check out the electricity / telephone cables. |
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| Liesl and the midget hydrant |
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| Liesl on the subway |
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| Shanghai Zoo |
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| Shanghai Zoo |
Whilst we were in Shanghai, we had to go for full medicals in order to apply for a work visa.
We had to have full blood work, chest xrays, an ultra sound, an ECG and a general exam. Quite hectic! The nurse that took Liesl's blood seemed to be practicing to be Hannibal Lecture's assistant...
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| Liesl's arm a couple of hours after the medical |
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| Liesl's arm a few days later. Ouch! |
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We had a really good time in Shanghai. Pity we only had one week. We met quite a few ex-pat English teachers, experienced the local culture, had a great time hanging out at the little restaurants and bars.
The city is so clean - the subway is spotless, you could eat off the floor. It was easy to walk around - even late at night - and take in the sights. The only trouble we had was trying to catch a taxi. For some reason no taxi's wanted to pick us up. They are weird like that.
I can't wait to go back to Shanghai and spend more time.
Alas, the time had come for us to board the 6 hour train from Shanghai to Wuhan, where we would call home for the next 12 months.
More to come!
xxx
I read the other post first... and then this one. What a difference between the two - here you're so full of hope and still enjoying the China experience hahaha!! :)
ReplyDeleteI know right! Shanghai was very cool. We enjoyed it, so we thought, "hey, this won't be so bad".. boy were we wrong! Miss ya and love ya xxx
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