Arrival to Qingdao

As our Chinese first class Hogwarts Express chugged through the countrysides of China I observed a new perspective to everyday life for a Chinese country person, a “Den Den”. When entering a town by train a person will witness old quarters built on dirt roads. Many of the brick homes appeared to be old established one-room residences with tin roofs. A person riding a train would also glimpse into a Den Den’s life and see vast pastures of farming to the horizon with workers in the field hand-picking the crop. It’s corn harvest season in China. In many of these townships they had heaps of gold corn drying out on the ground. In China I learned that whole families work the land and “that is all they have to do with their time”. My source told me because there are so many people in China there is no need for machinery to do the picking when there are lots of available workers. The insight of the train ride of the country sides of China reminded me of run down parts of Mexico.

 

 

My husband, Denny, and I arrived in Qingdao around 7pm on the west side of the train station amongst a crowd that quickly dispersed. We stood there with our luggage waiting for our escort in a light drizzle after dark not knowing the language and with our sim card out of money. I was frightened. Fortunately for us, our phone was allowed to receive phone calls ( but keep in mind not give calls). Our escorts Szi Szi and Mary called us twenty minutes in and told us they were on the East Side waiting for us but would come our way. Phew…

When Szi Szi and Mary arrived we grabbed two cabs to the hopes of our new comfortable home. While driving my mind raced with the thoughts of our new flat being a palace by the sea since Qingdao is located on the ocean and our apartment allowance being more than enough for a comfortable living circumstance.

When the taxi stopped my heart dropped. The surroundings didn’t look hopeful but sketchy. We got out of the cab and walked the unlit apartment complex stretch to the flat; I didn’t feel safe. The entrance door to our apartment is eerie and worn out.

We entered and climbed the stairwell four flights in the sometimes dark. Half of the lights were out while climbing the stairs. The two lights that worked, which is every other had to be turned on by loud stomping. I thought to myself, hopefully the apartment inside is really nice. I also thought about our apartment for training and how it had an elevator. On a positive note it means lots of exercise and I imagined it meaning I was living in an apartment like in San Francisco.

We entered our new abode and guess what? I would like to say it looked like paradise but it sadly looked like a dump. The previous occupants looked like they left in a rush. The flat was filthy, it had trash scattered and the paint on the walls was chipping and cracking. If you walk in this apartment for a few minutes your child can stamp their footprint on a nice white clean sheet of paper. The previous people had a daughter who is the next Picasso. Her princess stickers and drawings decorate many of the walls and some of the floors. The place also has a sticky film that lives on the surfaces of the kitchen that makes me cringe.

The flat is ready if we’re expecting a baby, there’s a crib and changing table. Anybody want one? After sometime scouring our living conditions I was looking for our shower. “Where’s the shower, Szi Szi?” She showed me a common Chinese shower, a water heater tank mounted to the wall in the lightless bathroom. “NO…………” that means hours of wet floors in the bathroom. Denny observed the place had only one air conditioner in the bedroom. (Note, air conditioners in China are designed to cool one room.) Case closed, not the palace I imagined and not a place I would want to welcome my family for vacationing.

That night we scoured for dinner. We got to become familiar with the neighborhood that fueled our leeriness. There were several “massage parlors” and one for certain establishment for prostitutes, the poster hanging told all.

My husband’s quest the following day was contacting real estate agents at Starbucks. After hours of frustration trying to get a sim card at China Unicom and a new living arrangement he found flats that were more ideal and in our allowance. We talked to a Chinese woman who said where our apartment was located wasn’t the nicest place to live. “Oh…bother,” is what Winnie the Pooh would say.

Word of wisdom, if your working for an English school make sure you request to find your own residence on your contract. You could easily contact a real estate firm that would find a comfortable arrangement and it would be worth every penny. I wouldn’t say that Kings English for Kids is bad because of this circumstance. Our boss lives in Tianjin, but he is from Holland. He understands Westerners. The Qingdao school isn’t used to finding accommodations like schools in Tianjin. We are the third and fourth teachers to arrive to these newer schools, aka guinea pigs. It’s not their expertise, so I don’t blame them. I am hopeful our concerns will be addressed, God willing.

After what was a stressful day for my husband God blessed us with love. In our quest of trying to figure how much the rent was for this apartment a woman, Kris, was coming in the entrance of our building. We were blessed she spoke some English. I asked Kris if we could see her apartment to get a comparison of our arrangements. Kris welcomed us into her home. The love spilled forth from there.

Denny and I saw Kris’s place on the first floor. It was decorated with marvelous traditional Chinese furniture and was impeccably clean. CLEAN. I love cleanliness. Moments later her mom blessed us with freshly brewed tea in sketched glasses. After seeing the upstairs Kris offered us some food. “Well, okay, but just a sample, we don’t want to inconvenience you.” Before our eyes were set four Chinese dishes of enough food for dinner: a cabbage-pork dish, fried tiny six inch fish, yummy fried eggs, and pink black-eyed (tongue attached) shrimp. The shrimps’ heads reminded me that the Chinese eat food with faces on it. Faceless food is an American thing. We also learned the shrimp’s journey to our mouths. The shrimp were bought fresh at a local market and placed alive in plastic bags until they suffocated. The End. The dinner consisted of Denny, Kris, and I learning from each other and just pleasant conversing. It was a sweet note to end of a long day.

As of  Tuesday, September 25th we are praying for new accommodations. We still reside in the flat we arrived to. =( We had one of our employers see our place. He wants to address the issues we mentioned, but I have no idea how he will. In my mind, a new place would be so much easier than scratching off the bountiful surmount of stickers, painting over the drawings on the walls, and installing a shower and a/c.. How does he plan to address the dimly lit apartment complex and stairwell? Who knows, it’s in God’s hands.

Updates soon to be published.