Jun 2008

I'm not one to catch Public Transport at home and I'm not one to catch them in China either. I do taxi's or I walk.

Whenever you see a bus arrive at a stop there is a rush. It is normal for the bus to be already full, but everyone squeezes in to fit more in.

Recently I wanted a teacher to show me where this supermarket was that he raves about. He is a long timer in Tai'an and he catches public transport. I go along for the ride. It's Tthursday afternoon and we have both finished class for today. We get on the school bus. We get off the school bus after a little bit and wait for a bus. We get on the No 4 Bus. We get off the No 4 Bus and get some lunch. We get back on a No 4 Bus and head to the shop. We arrive at the shop and I struggle to see what the attraction to this supermarket is. We go back and catch the number 4 bus and get off and the train station. We then catch the no 2 bus back to the school. Catching a taxi would have been heaps easier and saved 2 hours of my life.

The ride is fascinating as the bus weaves its way through all sorts of traffic. Sometimes it's best just to look out the window and wonder how there are not more accidents.

The buses stop at every stop. They announce in Chinese and English the name of the bus stop. Why can't they just install bells!

Anyone who knows me well, knows that mornings are not my favorite time of the day. I prefer to sleep in the morning. Knowing I now have to catch a bus to the new campus is very daunting for me. I have visions of me running for the bus.

As it turns out the morning bus has not been an issue for me. I've always made it with plenty of time to spare. However my first day at the new campus I can be seen running for the bus. Tthe bus leaves at 12.05pm home bound. Fortunately some Chinese students hail the bus down and I get home. Otherwise it's a Y30 trip.

Day two at the new campus my last class is at 3 pm. I have to catch the bus at 2.20 pm. Off I head to the bus stop as I get around the corner from the apartments I see the bus just about to pull out of the school. I start running again, however this time it is not only me but 2 other foreign teachers behind me. Fortunately for us another foreign teacher was on the bus and told him to stop. It wasn't 2.20 yet. However we learn on route we need to stop for petrol. If only they told us we had to be on the bus earlier!

Just the other week, I had kept my class in, thinking I had given myself enough time to get to the bus before it took off. I get to the ground floor and walk out only to see the bus pulling out. I start to run down the middle of the square. There is a man on the side who sees me and he tries to flag down the bus. Meanwhile I've dropped my books. The next minute the man calls out to me. I start to run towards his car, it felt like I was in slow motion. I jump into his car. He speeds out the front gate not stopping for the security guards, he goes right with his hand on the horn and waving madly. He pulls up in front of the bus. The bus has two options, either hit the car which in any case I will be split in two or stop. Fortunately for all he stops. The man unlocks the door and I say thank you and get on the bus. The Chinese all start to chatter. I guess they are saying stupid foreigner!

During this same week I had kept another class in. The played up that bad I was not letting them go until they had completed the work. I didn't care if that meant I was there until 10 PM. Eventually I got out and started walking down the square. Hoping I would find a taxi otherwise it was going to be a long walk. As I got half way down I noticed the bus pull out. I tried to wave him down thinking he was going back to the old campus. He just nodded his head so I started to run back to the bus stop. Unbeknown to me there was a staff meeting so they had the buses running late to take all the teachers back to the old campus.

I am a Taurean under the western horoscopes and a Dog under the Chinese Years. What does this mean...............
I am loyal, stubborn, not keen on change and a home body. I enjoy life's luxuries and stability. No one would ever dream that I would give away my safe and secure lifestyle for the unknown!

Telling my parents.............
This was always going to be difficult. I'm the youngest, the only one not married and I have no children, therefore my parents still think I need taking care of although at my age my mother had had 5 children and me being her youngest was 11! Added to this, was my Mother was about to lose her sister to Cancer. No time was going to be a good time to tell them. Sadly my Mother lost her sister on 16 February.

My parents invited me for dinner on Sunday 24 February. By this stage we had attended the funeral and this was my opportunity to tell them. I gathered my certificates and the information and took them with me. When I arrived at my parents I left them in the car, not knowing if this was going to be the right time or not.

Over dinner Maurice asked me what was knew. I told him that nothing was knew today but tomorrow I would be resigning. Mum then asked if I had another job to go to. Which I responded with, "Yeah." Mum wanted to know where. When I told her China her jaw dropped. I can still picture it now. Maurice was not overly joyed about my decision and wanted to know why they were only finding out about this now when I obviously hadn't thought about this overnight. I told them that I knew Mum would be worried about me and that I didn't want to add to the stress she was already feeling from losing her sister in the near future. Mum agreed with this. I'm still not sure that Maurice was convinced but knew that he would come around.

In enters my Grandmother. Mum gives me the look that I know means to tell Nana. Nana had a completely different outlook and one I was not expecting from a 92 year old woman. She said, "You go love, you don't want to die wondering what if I had of gone to China." I guess this comes from just losing your daughter at the tender age of 66.

Telling my brother and sister.............
When I told Paul he was, "good on you mate," although I think he was probably thinking why would she want to do that.
When I told Wendy she was how exciting another adventure in your life, something else for you to do. Have to admit didn't expect that response from Wendy, but happy with the positive outlook. Told her that when Mum rang her, as we both knew she would, she will need to reinforce this!

Telling my friends...................
Deleece was very supportive and helped in any way she could. One of my biggest issues was what was I going to do with Angel. Deleece made an assumption that she would take her. I could never have asked her because her cat Jimmy is her soul mate and he has never been fond of Angel, although she was in love with him at one stage of her cat life! Getting closer to the time I made a comment, "Why do I also have to do the extreme? Why can't I just be normal like everyone else?" Deleece replied with. "Bloomin heck mate, I don't know why."

Sharon was so concerned about me going. She thought I might have been sold off as a slave upon my arrival. Tim suggested to Sharon that I move into Sharon's home. Sharon and Tim came over the Wednesday before I moved out of my home and did my gardens for me. I can not express in words my thanks. This overwhelmed me. I am so fortunate to have such fantastic friends.

Nikki didn't know what to say. She knew I was doing what I wanted to do, but also knew it was something that a lot of people wouldn't understand.

On the 21 February I handed in my resignation with an end date of 21 March, expecting I would be walked that day. This didn't happen. However a week later on 28 February I was given my marching orders. Fairly poor game plan to give me no notice given the commitment to my various positions over the 7 years I had been with the organization. However, saying this, this is the reason I was leaving. My decision was justified by the behavior.

This worked to my advantage because I was to start in China on the 20 March! Now the fun begins. I have a list a mile long of things I have to do before my departure. These include maintenance on my home, contact real estate agents to rent my home, packing and storing my belongings, canceling the utilities, arrange for my rates and body corp bills to be sent to the agents on all my properties, advertise my car to sell it, organize my cat, book flights, get a visa, update my will and POA, check my income protection policies and life insurance, consider whether I want an international drivers license, develop photos, get prescriptions filled, putting my gym membership on hold, trying to get an appointment with the endocrinologist, renewing my Drivers license, buy a mobile with international roaming capabilities, buy phone credit, go and collect winnings from the Melbourne Cup, suspend my Health Fund, arrange travel insurance, cancel car insurance, cancel RACQ, add signatories to my accounts, cancel home and contents insurance, sort out my Margin Lending Account, see the accountant, arrange removalists, cancel my dentist appointment for January 2009, organise mail redirection, get the carpets cleaned, organise shares, etc.

Yes I was overwhelmed by what I had to do. But I worked through the list and everything fell into place.

I had a departure date of the 17 March flying Qantas from Brisbane to Sydney, Sydney to Beijing, stay overnight in Beijing and then the next day fly from Beijing to Jinan. The school will send the driver to pick me up in Jinan for my adventure.

I had just 17 days to do everything.

On the 15 March I will have dinner with family and friends at Tomato Brothers to say farewell for 10 months. I will miss them of course, but will send emails, letters and speak to them on the phone.

I was told it would be cold when I arrived in China, however I should have done more research on cities when I was applying for jobs. The average temperature in Tai'an in March is a Maximum of 3 degrees and a Minimum of -4 degrees. I'm a Queenslander. We don't know those temperatures. We really don't have much winter in Brisbane and certainly not temperatures as low as the Maximum. Of course, I normally wouldn't have clothes for this weather and it is very difficult to buy that type of clothing especially in March in Brisbane, however for some strange reason unbeknown to me at the time, last winter I spent a lot of money buying clothes at Kathmandu in their Winter sale. A woman's intuition I will put that down to.

How was I ever going to manage with such cold weather? I hate the cold. That's why I live in Brisbane. I thought that the classrooms and my apartment would be heated. I assured myself it wasn't going to be that bad!