Hello Nanjing

It’s only been my first day in Nanjing, China, but stepping outside—whether I am leaving my apartment, work, or a store—I am immediately made aware of the fact that I am not in smelly Samutsakhon, Thailand anymore. The air here, while polluted, is not caked with the smell of sewers or fish factory effluent. Furthermore, the air is not hot! (later correction: the air is very hot and humid in summer) It has been a very chilly 24 hours in my new city, as autumn begins to take root. In fact, the weather is cold enough that I’ll soon be asking my parents to stuff some sweaters into the care package to be sent! Winter is around the corner and I can expect to see some snow.

My new manager, Anthony, picked me up at the airport. Anthony is from Vancouver but has citizenship in the U.S. as well. Before China, he worked as a chef, so I may have a new cooking partner and someone to learn from! Anthony has been in China for three and a half years and he is already fluent in Mandarin. This is inspirational for me as I begin my studies of the language. He says he will find me a language tutor to help my studies along. As our taxi left the airport, I couldn’t help but notice cameras that took pictures of the cars on the freeway. Anthony explained that security is insanely tight in Nanjing. “If we were to steal something at the airport,” he said, “the cameras inside would have tracked us to this taxi, the photos over us would track the car all the way to where we exit, and police would be waiting.” Basically, Nanjing is one of the safest cities in Asia, he explained. Secure and safe, sounds good to me!

The roads throughout my new city are a huge improvement over every road I ever traveled in Thailand. To go from the pot-hole riddled roads of Thailand, with uneven bumps every few kilometers, to these smooth, well-maintained roads…it felt like the taxi was driving on the surface of a marshmallow!

The taxi dropped us at the office building of my new school. The school is located on the 7^th floor. The decoration, materials and equipment, the look and feel of my school, the atmosphere, everything combined in a way that very much reminded me of my mother’s kindergarten classroom. Most of the students that I will work with are between the ages of 3 and 8, but we do teach older students as well. This is a private language school, opened on weekends and after normal school day hours, in the afternoons and evenings. That means I will have mornings free to exercise, write, and explore the area. The school is always closed on Mondays and, hey, I’m ok with not working on Mondays!

I met my real bosses, Jasmina, who is an American and fellow alumni of Metropolitan State College of Denver (although she is originally from Virginia), and Steven, who is Chinese. Everyone seems very friendly and supportive. They are all interested in the success and growth of the school. I think we will all make a great team! I gave the staff some dried mangos and other dried fruits from Thailand as a welcome gift. Just something else I picked up from Thai culture.

Then I met my roommate: Paul from Texas. Paul is a Korean-American who grew tired of university and decided it was time for a change. At the moment, Paul is only here on a four month internship, but he may stick around as an employee after. He is also studying Mandarin Chinese so we can practice together.

My second-floor apartment is great! Not only do I have a real bed (goodbye floor mat!), but it’s a fairly comfortable double bed with a head board! I also have a nice couch, a chair, and a sizeable dresser, as well as two small dresser drawers. Oh, and don’t forget the desk, which is a perfect work and writing space. The desk faces out to the enclosed balcony that holds my washing machine and some storage cabinets. The bathroom features a western toilet and hot shower (thank you Buddha). The kitchen has two stove top burners. Talk about improvements in efficiency—I was used to cooking everything with one stove top in Thailand! I have a nice refrigerator and a freezer, and plenty of cabinets to store cereals, cooking items, etc. There is also a small breakfast table with two chairs. I am very appreciative of not having bugs and lizards in my apartment, because they were frequent guests in my Thai home! The neighborhood is also very nice. I found a place down the street where I can buy big bottles of drinking water. Trees are in steady supply, and there is a nice playground where I saw a lot of adults stretching and working out with the equipment.

(yes, that is my pink bed sheet)

The next morning, Paul took me around to a few of the places he has discovered. We had a pretty tasty lamb ‘pancake’ for breakfast. Different type of pancake than what I was enjoying in Thailand or would enjoy in America, but it was tasty. Then he showed me Citizen’s Park where we watched small groups of elder Chinese people practicing tai chi. The next stop was the neighborhood grocery store. I turned this into a preliminary scouting mission and made notes about what I could come back for to fill up the fridge. I bought some raw yogurt, ate it, and thought about my dad and twin bro who get to enjoy raw dairy every day. I also bought some Skippy peanut butter, and on the way back to the apartment, Paul took me into a nice bakery to get a good loaf of wheat bread.

We visited the Nanjing University campus which was very impressive. The campus grounds were well maintained and had beautiful greenery’s. If it wasn’t for distinct Chinese statues, Chinese letters on the building placards, I might think it was a college campus back in America.

The rest of the day was spent running errands with my manager, Anthony. We went to another, bigger grocery store for some other food items and to buy me a water bottle. Then we went back to the subway station to get me a sub card, that way I don’t have to fumble for change whenever I travel. We opened up a bank account and changed over my USD to RMB (Chinese Yuan). I had changed my THB (Thai Baht) to USD at the aiport to make the transfer easier when I arrived.

Anthony invited us up to his 42^nd floor apartment for dinner. He cooked a “simple meal,” he said, which featured three different Chinese dishes and a Chinese soup. It did not look or taste simple to me! He is a very good cook! After dinner, Paul showed me the nearby internet café and I sent some folks back home a quick email or two. By this time, it was about 9:30pm and my body was getting tired. I went back to the apartment, read a bit, and then hit the hay. Tomorrow will be my first day of teacher training at my new school!

Security, security, security. I saw a few police officers walking around the park, the downtown streets, and I even located a small police office/station in my neighborhood. Tomorrow, I have to fill out some paper work and go register with the police. All foreigners living in China must register within 24 hours of arriving. The police want to know our address and what we’re doing here. Yes, it feels like they’re keeping tabs, but I am also OK with the police knowing where I am from the standpoint of my safety.

Here's a picture of the tallest building in my city, the Intercontinental Hotel, which is one of the tallest in China. It's a very useful landmark!