Part 1: The Landing

Life in China

Once I landed, the first thing I noticed was that nothing is in English, obvious to some, not me. I eventually found my way to the arrivals where some lovely people were waiting to take me to Yangzhou. Once we started driving I was stunned by the scale of pretty much everything. There were two overpasses that were under construction around 1-2 miles long, and hundreds and hundreds of 'commie blocks' that were all carbon copies of each other.

The next interesting thing I noticed; my driver was a nutcase. He was slowly metamorphosising into Dominic Torreto from The Fast & Furious. We were weaving in and out of cars at 150KM/h beeping and flashing like nobody's business. Suffice it to say that I got no sleep in the car.

We reached our destination after dark, so I headed straight to bed, considering I had been up for ~15 hours. The following days were filled with boring admin, health checks and some training. Though the week was long, I found it really helpful to take things slowly and get used to how things work here.

Some key differences that I noticed:
Constant snorting and clearing of the throat. This one is obvious to anyone that comes to China, and it doesn't get any less disgusting (I've been here around 1.5 months at the time of writing).
Staring. The staring is endless. I now manage to take it in my stride and construe it in my brain, so that it means I'm looking good today. Thanks everyone!

Kindness. People are very quick to help here and I'd say other than not knowing Chinese, causing some low level frustration to the local shop keepers, I feel extremely welcome, safe, and most of all happy!
Shopping! You can get nearly anything you want online. There is rarely that large of a minimum order, so you can purchase a bottle of water, or two, and get it delivered to your house if you don't feel like walking all that way (downstairs)...

I've now moved into an apartment, started working, and really settled into my area. The last couple of weeks I have been travelling locally, and a bit further afield, to see more of this beautiful country! I am very shocked by how green the cities are here. There is definitely a lot of pollution, but I thought it would be more 'dusty'. There are masses and masses of bushes, trees, and grass that are deep green and create a really nice atmosphere to be in.

Next week is 'Golden Week', here in China. The whole country gets a one week holiday. I have been recommended not to visit tourist areas within China this week, so myself and another teacher are heading to South Korea!
That's all for now folks. Thanks for reading!

Check out the Youtube video linked below!!