This is the last of a 3-part series! To check out the first two, go to Leg 1 and Leg 2!

So we’ve been in China for a week! What a whirlwind.

Leg 3: Guangzhou-Shenzhen and Settling in

We got to our AirBnb in Guangzhou and, after getting the cats settled in, lied down for a quick nap before we would go out to find dinner. Fast forward twelve hours, it was 2AM and we both woke up in a confused stupor. I wrote part 2 of this saga, we took naps, and finally it was 8:00AM so we thought we’d go out to find breakfast. But having $300 in American cash is not really helpful here (nor are credit cards), so we we needed to find an ATM first. We used Google translate with a few different people to ask them where an ATM could be, and they said things while pointing. We followed their pointing, and a few minutes later, lo and behold there was an ATM! Then we could eat breakfast, which we promptly did by standing in front of a man cooking it outside his restaurant until he indicated his meat selection and said something. We pointed at what we wanted with our very limited Chinese “zhè ge… zhè ge… zhè ge” (this, this, this) and had a seat at a table. A few minutes later he presented us with sustenance:

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Later, I would ask a Chinese colleague in Shenzhen what it was, who said it was a typical breakfast for Guangzhou. It was kinda like Vietnamese pho? But the noodles were fatter and it probably wasn’t pho at all. But it was good. Really good. The two bowls of not-pho together cost about $3.30. Welcome to China.

We took a hired car to Shenzhen, arranged by our company. The drive took about an hour and a half, and cost close to $35. We got to our AirBnB around 2PM on Sunday, which was equally as adorable as the last:

to the left was a loft with two tiny bedrooms that had just enough room for Seth to sit up in bed

Around 5, we walked to our company’s office so they could make more copies of all the documents we needed for the Chinese visa, and re-read and re-signed our contracts and teacher policies. We crashed at 7, as soon as we got home. You know what’s weirder than jetlag, though? Jetlagged cats. Our cats have been taking turns waking me up at 3:30AM for food. First one, then when I kick her off, then the other, and so it goes.

So! Here’s what we’ve done this week:

• been “trained” by our company — they basically showed us what they expect out of teachers, which wasn’t unreasonable. They want cute power point presentations as the class “lessons” with plans to play games with kids. Easy enough, especially with all the planning time we get.
• walked. Everywhere. We have been averaging over 10,000 steps per day; Seth got in 21,000 yesterday. Our American bodies have not yet been conditioned for this, but they’re learning REAL quick.
• gotten introduced to our schools (I’m at an elementary school and Seth is teaching 4th, 5th, and high school). I started teaching on Thursday, and Seth started on Friday.
• had medical tests done — ultrasound on internal organs (one teacher from South Africa found out she had a gall stone!), EKG, blood test for infectious diseases (again) and a comprehensive blood panel, urine test, eye exam, blood pressure, etc. etc. We passed. Yay!
• found an apartment and moved in. It was a little rushed, but we like it!

And now, for some scenes from Shenzhen!

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What really strikes me about this city is how incredibly green it is. When I walk around, I know I’m in a greater metro area of about 23 million (12 million in the city proper), but I don’t feel like it at all. The city was planned with the goal of being enormous, and the green space was incorporated into it. Our apartment is directly across from a mountain. I don’t see other apartments looking directly out of my living room window; I see a mountain. It’s a park where we can take our morning walks (yeah right, like we need that with the amount of walking we do).

Then I walk around in these enormous complexes of apartments, through the extremely clean, extensive subway system, and across a pedestrian bridge on a 6-lane road through the city and I remember – this is China. Everything is on a massive scale.

There are so many things I could tell you about Shenzhen right now — like the buckets of community umbrellas next to every bus stop. The security guards outside every train on the metro, apartment building, office building, and park. Our furnished apartment is nice but a bit bare bones, but oddly it comes with an appliance called a dish sanitizer; after you wash your dishes,  you put them in the sanitizer and it disinfects them with heat. The groups of middle-aged ladies in the parks doing tai-chi to their boom boxes. There are QR codes EVERYWHERE which you use to pay for things (cabs, any restaurant or store, top off your metro card), or you can scan them for a discount at the register when you check out at the grocery store. KFC sells breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and at any point  in the day you can buy an ice cream cone from them. Earlier this week we ate a Chinese omelet called “cháng fèn” which had egg but also like an omelet made of rice flour, too. Topped with some spicy peppers that come on every table in Chinese restaurants.

But I know I’m  leaving out so much.

So I end this saga of Four suitcases, two backpacks, two cats, and 3 planes — our journey to China, and now begins the story of our life here! And that of our kitties, who are also still alive and happy in our new apartment.