Weeks One and Two

We finally rolled up to our hotel around 10 pm after a 12 hour flight to Beijing, a layover, then short two and a half hour jaunt to Chengdu. The airport in Beijing is spectacular. It dwarfs the massive Atlanta airport and has this really cool orange lattice-work ceiling. The staging staff warned us that officials would board the plane to check everyone’s temperature, and sure enough they did. They have stopped wearing the spacesuits-style haz mat gear they favored in the first stages of the outbreak and now settle for gloves and the plastic full face contagion screens. They also have the coolest thermometers ever. They look rather like bulky penlights and fit easily into a shirt pocket. To take a temperature, you just focus a beam of light on the person’s forehead, and it somehow reads the temperature. Nifty, huh?

No one had a fever, so we were allowed to disembark and begin to trek through the terminal. There was another “temperature gate” that uses infrared cameras to screen passerby. If you appear to be warmer than normal, they scoot you into a curtained area and slap a mask on you and take your temperature again. Several of our group, yours truly included, was afforded this extra hospitality, but we all came up clean. We even got to keep the masks as souvenirs!

The rest of the airport and flying was fairly uneventful, and we were all glad to get to our hotel. I pretty much crashed straight away. The next day, we began pre-service training (PST) in earnest. We would normally only stay in the hotel three days, but since we could be quarantined anytime in the next seven days, we will stay here a week. We don’t want to exposure our host families to contagion and possible quarantine. Also, our wonderful medical staff will be taking our temperature daily. They are going to know our foreheads SO well.

Training quickly settled into a routine. Multiple hours of Mandarin a day mixed in with TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) training and safety and health briefings. Most of the training is great, and I can tell that my Mandarin is improving rapidly. The people have been great to help us. In general, I think most of the merchants and vendors here are nicer to us than many Americans are to immigrants with flawed English. It’s been very pleasant.

Just down the street from our hotel, there is a TrustMart, the Chinese rebranding of Walmart (Walmart does actually own it.) It is surreal to go there because everything looks the same…but it isn’t. The store itself is much more compact and multi-level, but they sell everything! Notebooks, chopsticks, snacks, snake meat, you want it, they got it! The goods that look the same (paper, coffee, socks) are somehow just the tiniest bit different- enough to give you that Twilight Zone feeling. That being said, the store is fun and hectic and very useful.

We also got to make a trip to the American Consulate, something I’d never done before. They staff was welcoming and provided a surprisingly (and welcome) discussion of their perspective on expat life in China. They also invited us to speak at their English corner when we are around Chengdu. That could be fun.



Finally, I just need to say that our hotel is great. They seem a little baffled by the descent of 80 westerners with matching name tags, but they have been most accommodating and always answer our questions. The breakfast here is amazing and varied, including fried peanuts, potatoes, spinach with peppers, dried tofu and peanut scramble (very tasty!), and tomato and egg on a rotating basis. Everyday they have rice porridge, yogurt, steamed bread, tea, instant coffee, and milk. Not a bad way to start the morning! On Thursday we will move in with our host families. I’m not sure what the internet situation will be, so I will update when able.