TheBanyanTree: Transition 22

[Pat M]

            My new employers are Margry and Charls, (that's how they spell
their English names), a couple in their late twenties related to Owen
Buckland, the founder and CEO of Buckland International Education Group.
Their school is called Successful English Training Center. Unusual English
names with strange spellings are common here. Because Chinese names are
difficult for foreigners to remember and pronounce, students are given
English names (or give themselves English names). Some of my past and
present students have names such as Koala, Strawberry, Sharp, Weir and Easy.
Easy was a shy fourteen-year-old girl in Lintong, and I didn't bother to
tell her what 'easy' means in the west; there is little chance she'll travel
abroad and if she does, one of her future foreign teachers can enlighten
her.
           Margry and Charls were on vacation for Chinese New Years when it
was time to move, but they'd made arrangements with their staff, Jenny and
Eric, to pick me up and take me to their apartment. I'd live with them and
another young male teacher until March when the teacher's apartment would be
vacated.

            While waiting for Jenny and Eric to arrive, I wrote emails on
one of three computers provided for hostel guests. A tall, attractive
Chinese woman in her twenties wearing fashionable clothes entered the
computer room.

"Hello. Patricia?" she queried.

"Hi, yes, that's me."

"I'm Jenny."  She smiled and extended her hand.

"Nice to meet you."

"Eric is outside. Let me help you," she said and took hold of my suitcase.

She introduced me to Eric who stood next to a new-model motor scooter in the
courtyard. He, too, was in his twenties, handsome and immaculately dressed.
"I'll go find a taxi," Jenny said, and strode up the lane to the main road.
A few minutes later, she was back with a taxi trailing her.
Fifteen minutes later we met Eric at the apartment gate. An elderly, balding
man stood watch and asked about me when we passed. Many police cars sat in
the outdoor parking lot and an open-sided garage sheltered dozens of
motorcycles, scooters and bicycles. A large gray goose tethered to the side
of the garage ruffled its feathers in the dust as we passed.

"Someones Chinese New Year's dinner?" I asked.

"Maybe," Jenny said.

 We walked through a basketball court to reach the apartment, one of several
eight-storey buildings in the compound. It was old and dirty, not at all
like the clean, new apartment I'd occupied in Lintong, but I was living in
China's Hawaii now and could overlook many things for such a pleasant
climate, beautiful beaches and an endless supply of cheap, tropical fruit.

            "This is a very safe area," Jenny said as we climbed the stairs
(no elevators here either). "Many policemen live in the building next door."

            "Ah," I said. "That's why there are so many police cars."

            Apartment 302, my new home, was large but the common areas were
untidy and downright dirty; they needed a thorough cleaning. I'm not a fussy
housekeeper so when I make such a comment, you know it has to be bad.
The apartment's living room was about 20' x 24' and contained some solid
wooden armchairs, an ancient green fridge, a large TV and DVD player, an
aquarium with several huge goldfish and a desk with a computer. A tangle of
extension cords littered the living room floor, indicating there were
electrical problems and the computer desk sat skew in the room so the
computer cords could reach the outlets.
The kitchen was large too and had a one-burner propane stove and a
microwave, but few dishes or pots and pans.  (Home ovens are virtually
non-existent in China so doing any baking here isn't possible.) I later
discovered that the kitchen sink drains onto the floor and the water runs
down a nearby drain.

I was given a bright, clean bedroom, however, which pleased me.

         Wayne, my new apartment-mate appeared. He joined Jenny, Eric and I
when we went for lunch, a short walk away. Wayne, from Wales, and his
girlfriend, Elsa from Mexico had been teaching in Sanya since the previous
September. They'd just parted ways and Elsa had moved to Beijing to study
Chinese.

There was no English on the restaurant's menu so I relied on my companions
to order. We ate in the Chinese style—that is, they ordered platters of food
that were placed in the middle of the table and everyone used their
chopsticks to take and eat food from them. I had long-ago overcome my
aversion to sharing food from the same plate as others.

Afterwards, Jenny and Eric took me to buy groceries. The following day, the
whole country would be coming to a virtual standstill for the biggest
festival of the year, and the Wang Hao supermarket, the largest in Sanya,
was shoulder-to-shoulder with customers.

After six months of not cooking, I bought only fruit, drinks, snacks and
household essentials; for now, I'd eat my meals out. Propane stoves make me
nervous (I've had some bad experiences with them) and I didn't want to cook
with one if I didn't have to. When I finished shopping, I stood in a long
line-up, one of a dozen, and it took me half an hour to reach the cashier.
Although there are tourists in Sanya, not many leave the beaches and resorts
for the downtown core, so there were some curious glances from the locals.
Jenny accompanied me back to the apartment and gave me a slip of paper with
the apartment's address on it. The Chinese characters could have said
anything and I wouldn't have known. She got back into the taxi. With a wave,
she said, "Happy Chinese New Year's Patricia!"  Now that I was settled, both
she and Eric were allowed to go on vacation.
"Same to you!" I replied and waved.

I was on my own.


-- 
My Blog:  http://mysouldancesinchina.blogspot.com/

If you don't use Picasa, China photos can be viewed at
http://picasaweb.google.com/home?tab=mq

If you use Picasa, you must access the albums individually:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Ms.Pat.Martin/MuShuixia
http://picasaweb.google.com/Ms.Pat.Martin/ZhangRuntao
http://picasaweb.google.com/Ms.Pat.Martin/China3ZhangKang
http://picasaweb.google.com/Ms.Pat.Martin/WangYani
http://picasaweb.google.com/Ms.Pat.Martin/Sanya
http://picasaweb.google.com/Ms.Pat.Martin/January2008To
http://picasaweb.google.com/Ms.Pat.Martin/China2
http://picasaweb.google.com/Ms.Pat.Martin/China