China, my introduction

I have been in China for over two months now and have only just thought that writing a blog might be a good idea. I left on 26/7/2006 from heathrow to Beijing via Copenhagen with Scandinavian airlines. The send off I received was highly appreciated. Thanks to Phillip and Ann for coming. At the time I had little idea of what to expect from the coming year. I couldn't say that at the airport that I was hugly excited though I was eager to begin. Upon reading the cards and poems Mum had given me while waiting in Copenhagen I couldn't stop tears coming to my eyes. The memory of reading those at that moment I feel will stay with me forever. I am writng this all two and half months after it has happened and just through thinking about it now I am finding that my perspective towards it has changed. I have been trying to keep a log so far though have failed to fill it in regularly. So what I write is mainly from what I can remember. At the moment I am finding even though alot has happened I can remember most thinks as if they had happened yesterday even if they feel rather distant.
Anyway back to the standard what I have done so far. The course with WTCC (Work Travel Company China) didn't start until 4th August. I was flying out a week early to meet up with Pete who flew out to Singapore, I think in April and since then had been working his way back to good old Coton (for those who don't know it, it's not far from Cambridge) via land before starting at the LSE in the autumn. It just so happened that he was going to be around Beijing at the same time as me so via emails we arranged to meet at Beijing airport at 11am on the 27th. I don't know why I've written that but I like to remember that kind of detail. I'll write up my exploits with Pete in a separte post (complete with photod) as I think its that good. I'm not trying to sell it or anything though if you your interested in sponsoring any of my fantastic posts feel free to contact me and we can negotitate a price.
After my week with Pete (that could be a title to a best seller. I'll leave it to your imagination what the plot is.) I met up with WTCC for my month of being trained as an English teacher. Again I'll write this brillent episode in a separate post. Upon completion and after an extended presentation ceremony we split up. Around thirty of us flew down Shenzen on the 31st August. Where then deposited are luggage (mine being far more than it should be) at a rather fancy looking hotel room. After a short work and a little over an hour queuing we found ourselves in Hong Kong (see separate post). We spent the night there in order to sort out F visas for everyone though I already had mine due to flying out early. After collecting our luggage we went our separate ways. Some staying in Shenzen, others heading for Dongguen, two off to Zhuhai and the rest including myself to Zhongshan. Even on the bus to Zhongshan I coouldn't say I was really excited of nervous which I found strange. Upon arrival Me and Tom, I suppose I should introduce Tom. We found out in Beijing that we were to be placed together at a place called the Boli English training centre. WTCC allocated rooms in Beijing according to who you were meant to be placed with so me and Tom shared a room in Beijing. He was 25, English (from around Bath) and had been working since completing his A-levels mainly as a power tools salesman (please email me if you are reading this and tell if I have got anything wrong). He came to China in search of something different to what he found himself in. A day or so before heading to Shenzen we were told that we would actually be at a school called Wuguishan. So on the 1st September we found ourselves waiting to be picked by the people from Wuguishan (I'll go into this in a separate post). The whole school is made up of a primary, middle and high schools all on the same site. After a week of orientation I found myself teaching the primary school with Tom in the middle and high schools. Our accommodation was a flat about a minute or so walk from the school. We are sharing the flat with a Chinese English teacher we know as Jamie though his Chinese name is 张志宏 zhang, zhi, hong). After a month of teaching came the national holiday which I mainly spent in Yangshao (see post). That pretty much brings us up to speed I look forward to writing more detailed posts and adding photos.