By Saturday… Sure…

So my school starts doesn’t start until Monday September 10^th, which is a week after the majority of Shenzhen schools start, because it is still under construction. However, this Wednesday, Catherine and I, were told that there was a staff-wide meeting that we were to attend. We showed up to the meeting and managed to find Tiffany. When we went into the room, we got into a line for Red Pockets, and then took our seats with the rest of the International Business department. For those who might not know, Red Pockets are red envelopes that contain money, and are usually given during Chinese New Year.  Getting Red Pockets was a nice surprise, especially since they contained 200 RMB J

Welcome to my classroom!! (as yet, obviously, unfinished in this photo [as the desk usually doesn't nearly block the door])

Then the meeting finally got underway, not that Catherine or I could understand any of it, as it is, obviously, in Chinese (and my Chinese is definitely not good enough to keep up!) We were simply told by Tiffany, to stand when she told us to, as we were being introduced to the school. So we sat there just daydreaming until Tiffany told us to stand as our bios, on where we were from, where we went to school etc, were read. It was really funny to see the reaction to Catherine’s bio. When the school was told that she had attended Oxford, there was a big gasp, and small applause, lol! When the meeting finally wrapped up, it was only an hour long; we got our schedules and then went with our department to lunch.

The buildings currently being built right next to the school (although the construction is surprisingly quiet!)

So now for a lovely little discussion about our schedules. Both Catherine and I noticed, right off the bat, that we had significantly more classes than most of the other teachers. For example, where they only had about 4 hour and a half blocks of class, we had 8! Needless to say we were not exactly pleased, but were happy to finally know what our time would be like in the coming weeks. [Later we figured out that we were actually over-contract by one class, and our schedules changed a bit; so I now have 15 forty-five minute classes (most blocked in hour and a half classes)] Oh, I almost forgot to mention, I will be teaching only Senior 1 students (both Oral English, and Written English), and Catherine is only teaching Senior 2 students (Only for Oral English).

A sorta sports area under the classroom buildings

From the school we then went to a nearby restaurant to eat, and had Sichuan food (On a side note, Sichuan food is absolutely EVERYWHERE in China!! It gets a little boring after awhile) The food was pretty decent, although we were told that we were eating intestines (not my favorite) and little cubes of fried pig fat (which were, not surprisingly, delicious, but terrible for us). After the lunch we got to go over and try to look for our new offices, in the new school building (which was still under construction). We found what we thought were our offices, although at the time they contained ONLY cubicle walls. NOTE: there were no desks, chairs, cabinets, computers or printers.

Please note the lack of fans on the ceiling!!

We then went on a little school tour, getting to see our classrooms, the gym, and the rest of the school. So here is a little school tour in pictures. When I asked whether the school would actually be ready by Monday, Tiffany responded, “Of course! It will be ready by Saturday.” To myself, and between Catherine and I, we were like “Suuurrree… I’m sure it will be ready in three days, despite the fact that there are no tables, chairs, or computers in the building, and half of the classrooms lack desks, chairs or fans.”

The administrative building of the school, was not renovated/rebuilt.

Oh, by the way, have I failed to mention that the only temperature control the classrooms have, is four fans on the ceiling, as the only air-conditioning is in the offices. It’s okay, the temperatures in Shenzhen are only in the 80’s or 90’s for the next couple months… I’m sure I won’t get hot, and all the students will be able to focus. (I hope the sarcasm in that statement is apparent) Oh, and some of the classrooms don’t even have fans yet.

The large classroom building (it is all connected by covered walkways)[I teach in the sections on the very left]

Overall, despite the minor issues, such as no fans, no desks, no chairs, etc, the school seems pretty nice and hopefully this year will be good, but I guess I’ll just have to see how it goes.

One of the courtyards between the classrooms (on a nice day)