As we near the end of our first week in China I figured it was probably time for an update. Despite months of planning, we managed to collect our visas, book our flights and depart for China all on the same day. Who said I liked to leave things until last minute!?
Ahh visa, so nice to see you at last!
All the delays in paperwork meant we had already lost our first job in South Korea and we didn't want to book our flights until we had our passports in hand and were able to travel with the right visa, just in case of any further problems. So on the Monday we were due to collect our passports from the Manchester Chinese Visa Centre we headed over with our bags fully packed (to bursting!) hoping we would be on the next flight rather than heading home empty handed. Thankfully it was the former and after a quick dash across the city, we were on the afternoon flight to Beijing via Istanbul.
Bizarrely it was substantially cheaper to book Turkish Airlines tickets on their own website than in person at their ticket booth in Manchester Airport. The lady behind the counter was kind enough to let us know where we could access wifi so we could go and book the tickets then run back to make the flight. Why they can't price match their own site we'll never know...
Goodbye UK, see you in 13 months!
Just over 15 hours later we were arriving in Beijing and the owner of the school came to pick us up from the airport. Despite us both looking a little bedraggled after the long flight she seemed very pleased to meet us and after another frantic rush across another city we were finally on the train to our new home city, Cangzhou. We were rather thankful she had picked us up rather than trying to make our way over ourselves as we quickly learnt the city is pronounced Tsan-Jo rather than Kang-Zoo as we had previously been calling it!
This is Beijing's less busy travel time. Puts London's rush hour to shame.
After a blissful 13 hour sleep to recuperate it was all systems a go the next day when Andrew had his first lesson. As the school had been waiting a while for our visa's to get processed we were thrown in straight at the deep end however this meant we were able to meet the students and all the other teachers who were very welcoming.
Our new school, part of a chain of DD Dragon schools across Asia (Dì Dì means little brother in Chinese)
A few days later everyone from the school headed out to a nearby restaurant to celebrate Andrew's birthday and our arrival. All I can say is, the Chinese LOVE to order food. The host is expected to be very generous and pays for it all and they are petrified that someone may go home hungry. You will not get asked if you fancy anything more, they will just keep ordering until everyone can barely move. And don't expect everything to come all at once or desserts to come after mains, everything will just be served as and when it's ready. Fruit salad with those fried aubergines? Why not?!
We were also served massive steaming bowls of extra long noodles as is Chinese tradition on birthdays, New Year and weddings which are supposed to represent long life. Given that we hadn't long arrived in China eating the noodles with fiddly chop sticks was rather difficult, particularly as we weren't allowed to cut the noodles as this would be considered 'cutting our lives short!'
This was at the beginning of the meal, the plates have already started to stack up...
Smash with blueberry jam... do not knock it until you try it, this dish is DELICIOUS!
Andrew's extremely floral birthday cake. He also received a ginormous bunch of flowers which were kindly re-gifted to me for our anniversary the next day!
King for a day! I am sure those who know Andrew well can appreciate how much he loved having all the attention lavished on him
All in all it's been an amazing experience so far and now we're finally getting over our jet lag (we're 8 hours ahead of UK time) we look forward to more amazing meals and to start our adventures. This is only the beginning...
