1:38am, I've been awake and laying in bed for about an hour now I think. This is after coming straight back to the hotel after an observational day at my new place of employ, Web International, and falling asleep around 6pm. I'll write something here quick then try to get back in bed- I'm due at work at 9am and I'll be teaching my first classes today.
So yesterday I had to figure out food. The floor above Web International has a "Food Bazzar" where I'm told the cheap eats are. I'd already purchased the requisite food card the night before on Tyler's advice, 100 RMB prepaid onto the card, which I estimate to be about $30 canadian (I did a lot of fund estimation yesterday, which I'll share with you later). Armed with this card, and being aware of my limited budget, I was keen to find a sustainable but low cost diet. The cheapest stuff I saw were these pre-made sort of bowls with relatively indeterminate contents. I bought one that looked like it may have been chicken but could have been mushrooms (it was mushrooms) fingers crossed either way for protein, and then another dish that had a sort of glowing see-through noodle (not literally glowing) with a little chopped up carrot, celery, and... mushrooms. Like, it was mostly mushrooms. Like an idiot, I bought two things of mushrooms for breakfast.
I placed the items on a tray, brought them over to the register where there is a boxy device with a series of chopsticks poking out parallel to the ground. You just pull them out, and voila, chopsticks. Didn't think to look for napkins though, I still don't know if there are any around. The person working the register just takes your card, inputs something into the register, swipes the card, and you're good to go, with a new receipt and your card given back. I don't see any kind of scanning device, so I can only think the cashier input my order manually, which suggests a huge knowledge base of the prices of everything in the foodcourt. Or they just guess and good luck to me, I can't confirm based on the receipt what I ordered.
I don't know which item on my receipt is which, but the one item went for 5.80 RMB and the other 3.80 RMB, less 10% on each item for having my prepaid card, becomes 8.64 RMB which was then rounded down to 8.60 RMB, leaving my card with 91.40 RMB remaining.
The spicy mushrooms were alright, a little tingly around my mouth which is worrisome. Spicy, or allergic reaction? Only time will tell! (It subsided, but still..) and the other... blargh. A man can only have so many mushrooms. I really had to force myself to finish. When done, you just leave the trays on the table for a quick removal from a highly effecient cleaning staff. They have to be, because once you move on, there will immediately be someone wandering around looking for your spot. I know, i know, I'm just describing any cafeteria/food court during lunch time.
I went in search of a bathroom, not because I needed it, but because I wanted to be prepared to find one. There's a small step into the room (there are small steps everywhere, I'm probably going to trip and break my neck here. So. I didn't expect THAT to be how I die.) and the first thing I see is a no-smoking sign with a guy standing in front said sign smoking. What a badass.
Also, smoking is gross.
The faucets have a good water flow, and are of the press down variety that turns off on its own. There is no soap. The toilets are squat down, and there are urinals. I forgot to check at this point, but I returned later to see whether or not the reports I had been given about there not being toilet paper in public bathrooms were true. They are true. So the public bathroom situation is basically a nightmare.
Headed over to Web International for about 12:30- for once in my life I'm going to establish a reputation for being early (I was due at 1). But seriously, I'm living 15 minutes a way or so- hour long commutes on TTC have a way of breaking down ones potential for punctuality, get off my back world.
Met Vicky, the woman who interviewed me and had been my contact here for lo these many months. She broke down the different levels of student- 8 levels from "icebreaker" up to "advanced" where the first two levels are run by Chinese teachers alone, and the final six are foreign teacher led. Classes last an hour, with three different class types: private (4 students max.), salon (10 students max.), and english corner where the teacher presents to a larger group on some topic and there's necessarily much less back and forth. It's a good mix, and after spending the next three hours sitting in on one of each type of class I'm happy to report that I can totally do this.
In order I sat in on Tom's private class (Tom is an older guy from Australia that's only been here a week himself, he seems to already have some mandarin under his belt, and has an electronic dictionary to cover the rest. He told quite a few jokes during his lesson, mostly logical stuff: "Spell your name" "Y-O-U-R-N-A-M-E". "Imagine you're driving a bus, X, Y, Z happens. Who's driving the bus?" "I am!"), Alona's salon (Alona is from the Ukraine and, interestingly enough, is not herself a native English speaker, rather studying it in post secondary), and finally Adeel's English corner (I'm not sure where he's from... but in talking with him after the fact I can tell you that this guy has been all over. He was familiar with the geography of Toronto because he has relatives there who he has visited, he lived in Chicago, and studied medicine itself I believe in China- yup, a doctor taking a breezy year teaching English)
The most interaction I had with students was in Alona's salon, where everyone was directed to ask me a question at the beginning of class. The question I remember the most was from this guy who asked me if I was single, which I feel like I cleverly answered with "If I wasn't single before, I am now!" That got a laugh, while also keeping my innate lameness to myself.
They discussed different word pronounciation, asking me whether "Often" had a noticeable "T" sound in it or not. I told them either was fine, and then explained about part of the plot of Pirates of Penzance revolving around orphans and how "orphan" sounds like "often". I drew a terrible little pirate head on the board. Bad hat, eyepatch, scruffy beard and a frown. Hats are hard to draw, especially when you're trying to not waste everyones time. It was more scribble than hat. Ghastly.
I was also asked about my current living situation, hotel with an eye on apartment hunting soon (I'm scheduled to go do that with Vicky on Monday). This girl Amy said she was looking for someone to stay in her apartment when she left for some reason that I don't know/remember. So she gave me her contact info which I forwarded to Vicky. It'll be good to have a number of options, but this place would have to be furnished, so that would be amazing.
The English Corner was the lesson that I had the most trepidation over, so seeing it in action was a relief. Adeel spoke with great familiarity to the students about New Years, and then showed a music video about a guy that lost his leg in a bike accident on the road, but came back to biking after healing, getting a prosthetic, and designing a magnetic bike pedal. Words of the hour were things like "amputee" noun, "amputate" verb, "prosthetic", and "stuntsman".
I've never heard "Stuntsman" before, but it's close enough to "stuntman" so whatever.
At 4 Vicky asked me to go north to the "Bank of Communications" to open an account. I was assured they'd speak English, and eager to get some access to more of my funds. I took my leave of Web International, not noticing a small step that gave me an unexpected drop. I caught myself and hoped no one saw the awkwardness. The good news is that I found the Bank of Communications easily enough. The bad news is that there wasn't enough English to get me going. The Bank of Communications and we can't communicate. Irony. Yeah.
I returned to Web International to report my failure to Vicky, but she was teaching a class of her own, so I gave my hotmail address to this woman who needed my contact info (I have yet to access the internet in China) and chatted with Adeel about his history and the help I'll need getting a smartphone. He said he'd help me do that during lunch the next day so that may be good, though I'm a little worried about the prices he was quoting at me.
I returned to the food bazzar and had some rice with a few peas and corn mixed in, as well as some actual meat... though whether or not it was chicken or pork, I can't tell you for sure. As I'm sure you know, mine is the most unsophisticated of palettes. So, it was something. Had a sweet and sour-y sauce. It was good! Based on the price discrepancy on the receipt I can assume the rice came to 4 RMB and the meat was 9.2 RMB. Each item was dicounted 15% this time, perhaps because of the non-peak hour, 4 something versus lunchtime? The total came to 11.22, rounded down to 11.2, leaving me with 80.2 RMB on my food card.
I did some rough estimates based on what I was given at the Pearson Airport foreign exchange- $300 canadian got me about 1000 RMB, I spent 10%, 100 RMB, on the food card, so that's about $30 canadian, and I spent almost 10% of the food card, 10 RMB, on each meal, so that's $3/meal, so $6 total for the day. Boy I hope I got that right.
When I was running these numbers all scientific and whatnot back at the hotel I, for some reason, only figured in spending the 10 RMB, so I was like "okay, $3 for meals a day, great" 30 days in a month, 90 RMB/month. But yeah, duh, I spent twice that amount today, so it's 180 RMB/month.
OOOOOH!! I just looked at my notepad, I didn't make any mistake after all. Wow, you can pretty much disregard the entire last paragraph, I was looking at the 3 RMB on my notebook, thought it was dollars, and tried to, I guess reverse justify it, but no, that's just my potential transit budget! Just above THAT number is 20 RMB/day for food number. Man, I'm trying to give myself a heart attack.
Alright, time to scare you- a breakdown of my finances, as best as I can estimate with the $300 Canadian= 1000 RMB benchmark. Fingers crossed I don't mix up my numbers again.
For a 30 day month (so already I'm way off by a day for January, whatever) I'd need approx. 600 RMB for food (yes, I will be hungry), an apartment at 66 RMB/day is approx. 1980 RMB, transit costs... for some reason I'm thinking 3 RMB/day. I absoltuely forget where I got that number, but I haven't ridden on the transit system to get any hard data on this, so let's assume I got it from somewhere legitimate even though I forget where- 90 RMB/month.
My hypothetical phone costs, and my upcoming laundry costs are undetermined.
From what I've got so far I'm looking at 2670 RMB needed for living expenses in China for a month, plus phone, plus laundry. I had $1100 in my chequing account back home before going on this adventure, $300 of which I took out and converted at the foreign exchange at the airport giving me the 1000 RMB. Let's say I've only got $1000 to start for the month, because that's easier to do the math with, it gives me a little wiggle room after the fact, and because I feel I got hosed so much by the taxi guy getting here from the airport (he charged me 300 RMB, ouch, that's like $90, right?) So 1000 (Canadian dollars) times 1000 (RMB) divided by 300 (Canadian dollars) = 3333 repeating (RMB)
I believe that's how you do that, cross multiply and whatnot.
So I have to make the month work on 3330 RMB. Actually I get paid on the 5th of February, so it's a little worse than that. 2670 RMB-3330 RMB= 660 RMB leftover to cover phone and laundry. And there's going to be some amount of bank fees when I ATM money from my account back in Canada.
Aye-yaaah this is going to be tough. I may have to borrow some more money from Jordan back home, I really don't want to do that. And this isn't even allowing me to spend money on my credit bills back home.
For reference sake, I'm trying to make do for the month on 3330 RMB, which includes rent for the month. Once I get paid, it'll be for 6500 RMB (just under double), and I'll be getting a housing allowance that takes care of my rent. That'll be easy street once I get there.
And then after my probation period of 3 months is over we're looking at 8000 RMB per month. An even easier street.
3:55am. I'd better see if I can sleep some more before work tomorrow.
Wish me luck, have a good day
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