Pacican Workshops and Getting Lost

We all arrived to China on Sunday evening around dinner time. After checking in with the Chinese security and finding our luggage, the 11 of us were divided into 3 vans. It felt strange to leave each - other especially after being on 2 planes and travelling for 24 hour together. We were divided into the van according on the location we were living. Everyone besides 3 of the girls had apartments all ready. Jennifer, Macayla, and Alyson stayed in a hotel for the first few days. Shelbi and I went in our van with the driver and our coordinator, Sinphy. (Sinphy is our go to gal. If we have any questions we are to ask her. She helped us out a lot the first few days getting phones, banks, schools, etc, all set up.)

Driving in the dark made it difficult to see my surroundings, but from what I saw it was nice. It sort of reminded me of a more glam version of driving on the highway to/on the outskirts of Halifax. I don't know how long we were driving for, but the driver did have some issues finding our apartment. What a driver. Everyone in China drives like they're playing Grand Theft Auto. There's no use of blinkers, just swerving in and out of lanes and around other cars, motorbikes, and bicycles! There are multiple lanes going in all different and same direction. You should have seen him parallel park, such a tight squeeze. I will not be driving in China.

After finally arriving at our apartment, we carried up our suitcases 3 flights of stairs, did an 'apartment check' with Sinphy, got some papers of information, showered, did some unpacking, and ate some Kraft dinner bowls that Shelbi brought from Canada. Our first meal in the apartment.

The next day, Monday, we got up early because we had to be at Pacican for day 1/3 of an almost full day of training/information session. Pacican is about an hour away from our place. At Pacican, we were all happy to see each other again. We met Edward (the director) and he told us all about Pacican and the type of work we should be ready to expect. Here are some of my notes that I wrote:

Schools:

• Pacican Education is not for profit and it has the highest rating. They have 150 schools with 120 foreign teachers where about 56% of them sign on for another year.
• We teach from two different curriculum books: Pacican and English Oxford.
• Students have a Gal Cal (a test on science, Chinese, English and...it's an assessment for university entrance exams)
• Students have an oral English test (so our work really affects them in the long run)
• If students fail their high school entrance exams, they go into trade school and no longer partake in academics
• Grade 1s think class is important because its a class, but grade 4 and up you have to show them that your class is important (all they care about is the test)
• Grade 3 is when serious testing begins
• Learning about other countries doesn't start until grade 3

Culture:

• If someone does you a favor, its a big deal, so do a favor for them back/if someone asks you for a favor, they will return the gesture
• Every question has a single correct response
• Pointing is viewed as aggressive
• Pinking finger is an offensive gesture
• The well being is focused on the spoiling of children
• Foreign female English teachers are held to a higher expectation
• There are laws that restrict us from spending too much time with the students and when we can see them
• Gifts from parents are frowned upon, but gifts from students are ok

On Tuesday, the second day we had to be a Pacican, Shelbi and I got slightly lost. It was a fun adventure though. We couldn't remember if the bus stop was to the left or the right of the metro. We decided to walk right. We continued to walk for about 15 mins before we decided that we should turn around and walk back. The bus stop was to the left of the metro. If we had of kept walking to the right, though, a few more minutes and we would've walked all the way to Pacican. Once on the bus, we couldn't remember if it was 1 or 2 stops before we got off. We stayed on for 2 stops and drove right past Pacican. The second stop was much farther away and took us on some turns that threw us off. We finally were able to get off the bus and we were at the Bund (where Pearl Tower is). We crossed the street and knew that if we kept walking back towards Pacican there would be another bus that would take us to the stop we should have gotten off at (we found it and took it) and then walked back in the opposite direction to finally arrive at Pacican. Everyone thought we all had to be there for 9am. Shelbi and I showed up at 9:30am. To our luck though, everyone got the time mixed up and we were only actually starting at 9:30am so everything worked out!

During these first few days, none of us could remember what day or what time it was and when we asked each other we had to clarify if we wanted home time or China time.

I will have to take some pictures of Pacican to show you all. Here is a picture out the plane window of China (I had the window seat on the flight from Toronto to China) and of mine and Shelbi's lost adventure. It was smoggy that day so you'll have to look hard to see the Pearl Tower between us.