Arrival and not getting picked last

Well, it's official, I'm here and they've put me to work. I arrived thursday night and, after only missing each other once, I found the girl who was picking me up (well, we kind of found each other - her sign with my name was WAY too small, and she didn't recognize me from my picture... in her defense, though, it was her first day.)

She - or rather, Sasha - and I took a taxi all the way in from Pudong Airport, across the river, and to a small, run down hotel north of the Bund/People's Square. It's roughly a 10 minute walk to People's Square, to give you some perspective.

The next morning I made my way over to Hangzhou Rd. and found the Pearson HQ, as instructed. The girls at the front desk mistook me, understandably, as an applicant (I did look rather lost) and handed me an application for me to fill out. Soon enough, though, I managed to flag down Tim Franta - the guy who hired me - and clear up the situation. He took me back and got started on getting me, well, working.

It was about this time, between copying passport pages (for the third time) and him telling me I'd need to eventually find a photo shop to get a bunch of face shots taken, that the true surprise of the day was uttered: I'd need to give a "demo" lesson... and not just one, but 2! I'd need to, on the basis of a couple of books, come up with a 15 minute sample for 2 age groups... ugh..

Well, suffice it to say, I'm pretty sure I bombed it. The people watching were - in my estimation - decidedly unimpressed. Knowing more now, here's why: I approached the demo more from the perspective of "teaching English," rather than "keeping kids involved." My mistake. Nevertheless, apparently I'm not completely without hope, because the "Master Teacher" (essentially, multi-facility manager)who had come to see me, immediately after said "Can I have him?" The answer was ultimately "yes," and so off I went with Brian, a 6-year veteran of China with a scraggly face, heavy frame, and cigarette near-perpetually in hand.

Now before you get too overly excited, let me clarify. His primary school (where I'm now working) is the Chunshen, and it's been undermanned since it's opening. It's sole foreign teacher, Peter, has been burdened with basically everything for his three-month tenure. In addition they've been running through Chinese co-teachers (TA's) like water, since most of them don't want to make the trek out so far into the suburbs. So they were fairly desperate for a second full-time foreign teacher. They saw on my resume my experience with Sports Camp, and so were pretty excited about that.

So I suppose it wasn't simply "desperation... I was simply the first new foreign teacher to arrive, but since thursday a steady stream of newbies have followed me, and I believe there are something like 10.

Though some poeple might be put off by a 40 min commute, it's really nothing if not typical of my Chinese experience so far. After all, that was my daily life in Wenzhou... and that on a horribad bus on a road bad enough to make me queasy. Compared to that, sitting on the Shanghai metro and a short bus ride is cake. Plus, the distance is going to be very temporary. I'm already looking at apartments in locations which will (with any luck) effectively split the distance between downtown and Chunshen. An area called Xujiahui is looking particularly appealing right now, but more on that next time...

(CS) TAW Out.

LYRIC HERE