Holy Cow, I'm the sweatiest person in Ningbo

Let's just say that going from an arid, sun-beaten hellscape (I'm talking to you, Texas) to a tropical typhoon-ridden sauna makes for some two shower days. One in the morning to wake up, one at night to tame the waterfall that has become my body.

That said, let me see if I can recount this.

10 AM (roundabout): Sabrina, the domestic assistant for us foreign teachers, calls my room because she's downstairs and we have to go do the medical examination and have some professional pictures taken for the work visa. We proceed to hoof it down the street and I think she's going to hail a taxi but no. This woman is a Ningbo native. She navigates the streets like she owns them, walking in front of cars, bikes, ebikes, buses. "I don't know this part of town," she says, as we randomly search streets for a photo shop. Apparently they're common. Unfortunately, they're not common in the part of town where my hotel is located. So we spent a good thirty minutes this side of the river as she asked strangers where to find a photo shop. Then it was a few miles over the bridge and into the city center, which, I must say, is pretty damn Western. At least it's getting there. By Western, I mean Apple stores, KFC, boutiques. All the cookie cutter of home interspersed among the usual craziness.

Oh, and at one point Sabrina saw someone she recognized from school and they chatted it up. Eight million people, hundreds of square miles, and she manages to find an old buddy hanging out on a street corner. It was fantastic.

We waited for the bus for about thirty minutes but apparently its route was cancelled because of standing high water from the typhoon yesterday. It feels like a week ago to me even though it was just yesterday. This place is so fast-paced, one day feels like three or four.

So no bus. It was 11 AM and my appointment at the doctor was 11:30 AM, so we just said screw it. We'll do the pictures, get some lunch, then go grab Steve and look at apartments.

Getting the picture was easy. I took some photos and video there and along the way for the rest of the day.

Then we talked about work and she flat out told me her salary and her relationship with the principal/owner and how she helps teachers from 8 AM - 12 AM every day and does everything everyone needs. It dawned on me pretty quickly that Sabrina is the den mother. She does everything everyone needs, even with a begrudging sigh and humph, but she does it because she cares. It's cute and she said she wants to be friends. Also she's jealous that I'm 29. Apparently that's young.

It didn't take long to look at the apartment. It's very nice on the inside. On the outside, I feel like I'd be living in a tenement but indoors it's actually a little pampered for the standard of living here. Three A/Cs, a washer, two big bedrooms. Fully furnished. If I took it, I'd be rooming with Steve, have super cheap rent at an accessible location and he speaks Chinese, so I'd always have someone to help me with issues without having to call up Sabrina. Also, the previous tenants were teachers at my school and they vouch for the place and the landlord likes foreigners. If I went off by myself, I'd pay more, have to deal with a Chinese landlord on my own, and basically be an island. So as long as he doesn't try to kill me with maple leaves or something, I'm leaning toward a flatmate situation.

After looking at the apartment, we hoofed it a few miles north to the central office and did some orientation. I'm taking over classes from two teachers and I got to talk with them. Kyle and Steph, both Brits. Both very friendly and intelligent and on the last few weeks of their contract. Tonight, I sat in on one of Kyle's classes and actually participated a little. It was really fun - we dealt with the 5-7 age range. Awesome kids, well behaved but also energetic like kids that age are. Taught them words like "bowl" and "spoon" and "I clean my bowl." Also "yucky" and "yummy." I pretended to own a restaurant and the kids had to tell me if my food was good or bad. I think it was about 50/50 but I was only serving milk, soy milk, porridge, and some sort of steamed bun thing.

Parents sit in on the classes, so it gets interesting. Some will stay the entire time but most just sit in on the last ten minutes. That's just for the younger children. With the older kids, their parents come every few weeks or so to observe. But the little ones show off their English skills to their parents every day. Today most of the parents were looking at me because I'm the new teacher. Hope they were at least somewhat impressed.

Took like fifteen minutes to get a cab back home but the fare was only $2. I could cab all over this town.

*Observations*

-smells- Some people in this town smell wonderful. Some areas of this town smell awful. But the smells are always different. You don't smell the same awful thing over and over. You smell many different kinds of disgusting. But then there's suddenly a person standing too close to you and they have some magnificent perfume or cleaner or something that makes you go, "Wow, what do you use to wash your clothes?" I couldn't say that in Chinese but I might.

-traffic- Horns are not for anger here. They're communication. Horns are all "I'm coming through" or "Watch out, I'm in this lane." I haven't seen road rage here at all like I thought I would. It's just people trying to get through. And everyone understands that everyone is trying to go somewhere, so they're all cool about it. Nobody gets pissy in traffic, maybe because there is nothing BUT traffic on the roads.

-crossing the street- Frogger. Some people slow down. Some people don't. If someone's clearly not going to slow down, you don't go. If someone shows the least amount of hesitation and lets off the gas for you, you go. If there's six lanes of traffic between you and your destination, you just walk and stop and walk and stop. You don't need a crosswalk or anything. You just have to watch the cars and bikes. Also, traffic cops randomly pick intersections to blow their whistles in. I only saw two intersections today with traffic cops and even there they seemed pretty useless.

-freakouts- Steve has lived in three different cities in China and he's freaking out here because he's afraid of teaching kids. I think it's funny because I've never lived in China and that's what's freaking me out. Give me a classroom full of kids, no matter what language they speak, and I'll be at home. Slap me down in the middle of a country where I don't speak the language well and I don't know anyone and THAT'S a good reason to freak out. But I reassured him. Poor guy is worried about impressing the parents.

-PDA- Couples lean on each other when they walk. That's as far as it goes. But there are a lot of them.

-"Hello!"- Chinese people love to randomly walk up to me on the street and say hello. One was a kindly old man that welcomed me to the country. One was a kid trying to impress his friends and make a girl giggle.

-Communication- Every interaction takes longer than you think it would. Ordering food at a restaurant is not a case of, "I want a #2 with cheese." Every little hole-in-the-wall has their own list and recipe and methods and from what I can tell you have to grill them a little about how it's made and what's in it and how much there is before actually ordering. You don't just pick out food.

-Bikes with horns- Walk on the sidewalk for a hundred yards and at least three or four bikes will sneak up behind you, horns honking. You have to listen for it but it's not tough to get used to. I just have to remind myself that cars aren't the only ones blasting to get through.

-girls- Yes, Chinese girls love American guys. I think I could only be friends with them though because even the older ones have this tendency to act like they're twelve. It's a cultural thing. They think immaturity is attractive, so it's not weird to hear women throwing tantrums in public. Not to say that's common but when you have a country full of only children, you can imagine what happens.