I’ve been settled back in Shenzhen now for nearly almost two weeks.  Spent time first in the hotel with all the other teachers, mostly the group of new folks who were up in Beijing for training with Tori.  It was a bit overwhelming to be around so many foreigners in this town and some of the less desirable habits that the foreigners seem to have.  That said, I was at least able to meet some people I get on with and have the basics of a social structure set up now.  After a few days in the hotel we were shifted out to our schools all over Shenzhen.  My tenure will be at Buji Senior High School, the same school I was at last year.  I was (mostly) happy about this development.

Upon returning to the apartment my new roommate and I divvied up our space here and set about making it feel like ‘home’.  At night I took Gabriel (his name) to the market out in the streets and chatted with some of the folks from the neighborhood in Chinese.  I noticed that the time I spent each day this summer studying Chinese actually paid off as I now have a vastly expanded arsenal of Mandarin words at my disposal, both to listen to and to speak.  I am continuing my studies now and working new words into the rotation, but in the broader sense it feels good to be able to do so much more than before in Chinese.  So many of the new teachers in Shenzhen have next to no experience with the language and seeing that again reminds me of how far I’ve come since first arriving and how much more of China has opened up for me as a result.

Some of my first activities in the week before school started were to call up and meet with my Chinese friends.  Took Gabriel with me to Lian Tang to visit with Miki and Michael, eating some great home cooked Hunanese food and later whiling away the warm afternoon inside clinking mah jongg tiles across the table.  Tori joined us another day and made her American friends here jealous by having Chinese friends to show off now.  I also met up with Sunny, going to dinner with him and a group of foreigners downtown in Luohu.  Food was, as usual, wonderful.

With a week and a half before the start of classes, we were all relaxed, exploring our surroundings.  I went to my street barber who asked me about my summer and my old roommate while she gave me a 55 cent haircut.  The price is low but she does a damn fine job, and she is tolerant of my sloppy Mandarin.  One would think that given this much time, our school and contact teacher would have no trouble whatsoever putting together a sensible schedule for us teachers.  Alas, this was not to be.  Instead of a coherant plan, we were delivered a mess of papers in Chinese at 9pm the night before our first class.  If this was the only issue, it would’ve been tolerable.  Unfortunately it was not.

The following is an example of Chinese thought, the seeming lack of foresight or thinking past the scope of one’s immediate task.  This year we teach both the Senior 1 and Senior 2 levels, meaning we have separate schedules for each.  Upon review, these schedules conflict at numerous points, so much so that nearly half our classes are held at the same time as another class, leading to a great shortage of foreign teachers.  It took me drawing out daily tables to show this to our contact teacher, who seemed confused and surprised by such a thing.  I wish I had been as shocked as him, but at this point such inefficiencies are the norm and I would love a dose of clean German efficiency.

So for now the schedule is being butchered and bandied about, leaving me with a load of six straight classes on Friday which no part of me is looking forward to.  Inevitably it will be changed next week too, as the afternoons of Wednesday and Friday, ostensibly open for us to take Chinese class, have been book with classes we must teach instead.  Nevermind that the contract states this implicitly, the contract the school has, in their own native writing.  Complaints aside, it is wonderful to see my students from last year and the warm welcome they offer me when I am back in class with them.  Part of me is very happy to get that sort of consistency and it feels nice to recognize so many faces, both at school and off campus, when I am walking around the community.

So far, so good