Good Morning, China

I slept like a baby that first night.  I don't know what I dreamt that night, but I'm sure that my mind replayed the drive from Shanghai to Suzhou.  The architecture was uniquely different from what I'd seen before.  That's what stuck in my mind the most.

My mind's geographic radar was in play when I woke up the next day.  I had arrived at Chateau Regency in the dark, so when I got up I immediately went to the balcony of my new apartment and took in the view.  It was time to see exactly where I was.

I was on the 16th floor of a building with 22 stories.  My view out the window:  Straight down and out about 50 yards was a broad boulevard.  It ran east and west with four lanes on each side of the street with boxwood and other shrubs immaculately kept.  To the west (left) was another broad boulevard crossing this first boulevard at 90 degrees. The four lanes on each side were bordered by another grouping of shrubs and trees placed exactly 10 paces apart (I measured it later....exactly) outside this strip was a bike path on each side of the street 10 feet wide.  
Straight across from me was a large building which took up the entire block.  It was the same height as my building, but a little bit fancier.  
Off to my right (east) I could see another street which looked exactly the same as my street and between the buildings I saw in the distance, perhaps 1/2 miles, a lake, which I discovered later as called Jinji Lake.  
Over all this view hung a smog that was a bit grey and dulled what I hoped would be a clear picture.


It was mid-morning now on this first day and Linda appeared with yet another helper.  We finished the project of inventorying the entire apartment and then we made plans for going to get basic food stuffs and necessities that I might need.  Before we got out the door, however, the elementary principal of my school stopped by to greet me.  He gave me an interesting item.  He had what looked like a playing card deck with a metal ring holding the cards together.  These were direction giving cheat cards to help me get around Suzhou.  In Mandarin and English was written important name places, such as the supermarkets, banks, hospital, etc, etc.  The idea would be to show the appropriate card to the taxi driver who could then take me to any given place without the aid of Mandarin.

My principal told me he'd be by again tomorrow, Saturday, to take me to the school to get acquainted.  Then Linda, her helper, and I jumped into a taxi and set out for a gigantic grocery store, Auchon a short taxi drive away.  I do remember being taken with the look of SIP, with its wide and well landscaped avenues.  It was midday by now and we went into a Chinese fast food restaurant in the Auchon complex and the two women ordered food which I readily ate.  With this and other food which I would be eating I discovered that Chinese food had much more variety than appeared on most American Chinese restaurant menus.  But, that would be expected.

We then went into Auchon      and I began trying to communicate my needs to these two women.  They had a fun time trying to understand and interpret my needs and find them within the store.  Both of these women's English skills were rather low so we did a lot of wandering around for quite a while.  In the process I got to see the store and generally where different types of items might be, so the next time I could find most things by myself.

This was also the first time that I got to use Chinese currency.  The exchange rate kept going through my head as I read the prices of the groceries that I was about to buy.  But, I hadn't really dealt with trying to make a recipe that I would have made in Guam.  So, hunting for specific hard to find items was still to come.

The help of Linda from the relocation agency was to important to me in these first days.  I will be forever thankful to her and her company's helpers.  She created a list of things which I might need in the near future.  However, what must be remembered is that I had arrived to this school after the beginning of the school year, by nearly two months.  So, the other new teachers had been dealt with in early August.  I was their only customer now.

We would go out again on Saturday and take care of connecting my apartment to the Internet and setting up my television.  But, that was another day.

As the afternoon wore on Linda suggested that I join her and her colleague for dinner.  She gave me the address written in Mandarin on the back of her business card and I had my first lone taxi ride as I found my way to the restaurant at Singa Plaza.  Singa Plaza I appreciated that she had kept the distance rather close so even I wouldn't get lost.   The three of us had dinner together and after Linda flagged down a taxi and gave the driver directions for dropping me off.

I got home rather early and set about making the bed so that this evening I could sleep in a "real" bed and not just drop on the bed and pass out as I had the night before.  This had been the end of my first full day in Suzhou.

Tomorrow: SSIS

Leaving Guam for Suzhou, China

What is it that makes people do extreme things?  Sometimes life gives us few options.  We work as hard as we can to stay in the status quo.  The status quo is safe.  We know it....it's happened before and we can have it go on and on.

But, God doesn't always allow us to keep doing the things we want.  Sometimes we try and try and try to fix problems but it just can't be fixed.  If that occurs then maybe it's time to walk away and start something new. 

You've reached the top in your particular job and still what was good in the past is somehow not accepted by those who are around you.  You can beat up on yourself and take it, or you can say, "that's enough" and start in a new direction.

That's what happened for me.  I worked at a school in Guam, thought of as the best on Guam, and perhaps it was, at one time.  But, people from the outside, who had no idea about the traditions of the school and further, did not respect those traditions came in and started chopping off heads.

I was NOT one of those who had their head chopped off.  I was a cooperative man who could adapt to new ways, if necessary.  But, the decline in the school had already been set in motion.  So, my friends disappeared in quick fashion.  Of 60 teachers, 26 disappeared, either forced out or sympathetic to their co-workers' plights.  The following year the school's student population fell and with it the income to the school.

By the end of the second year of this new administration the school was now  monetarily driving on fumes.   One day in the spring of the new administration's second year I accidentally found in the trash, next to the copy machine, notes that the headmaster would be using for the board meeting.  He had been given the job, by the board, of eliminating those teachers who had been found to be superfluous.

But, the layoffs did not happen.  This new administration's third school year began with all 60 teacher in place.  Within one month "financial austerity" was declared to the assembled teachers by the headmaster and immediately 7 teachers were laid off.  This was too much for me, especially since I had been privy to the memo from the springtime which stated that the headmaster must act.  But, he had waited until the school year began and then had laid these teachers off.  I felt this was beyond cruel to have taken someones signed contract and throw it away one month into the new school year.  For me this was writing on the wall.  I needed to find a job that would meet the same income standards that I'd had at this school, and do it NOW.

Most of my friends, who had left, but who had taught at this school had gone to international schools in the Asian area.  This seemed like the best possibility for me also.  I had been checking international school hiring websites for the past few months and had found a job opening at a school in Suzhou, China where a friend of mine had previously worked.  That's what I needed!  This would be a natural departure.  

So, it was time to prepare for going to China.....a lifelong interest of mine.
I had always been curious about China since I was a child.  My parents had a travel encyclopedia which I had pored over and China had been of special interest.  Asia was so much different from what I had seen growing up in Portland, Oregon.

Dave Janssen's Music Online
 "Hafa Adai" in the classroom, Spring 2010

My beginnings with Suzhou Singapore International School were from a listing that I'd seen for an elementary music specialist position which I'd seen listed in early September of 2010.  This was a lucky break for me because usually international schools advertised in December and January prior to the beginning of the school year.  So, this was an opportunity that I was lucky to have found.

As a part of being hired I had talked to the elementary principal, a director of PYP (a system of study in many international schools), an elementary music teacher already in place, and the head of the arts department.  The interview was done by telephone which surprised me.  I thought they might use Skype in a face to face conversation.  


24 hours later I received word that I had been successful in my interview and my move began in earnest.


I needed to pass all my important papers to the human resources department so that they could begin the process of my Chinese work visa.  This was one of the most important aspects of moving to China.  For me,  I had not been hired in the normal fashion so the school did not have adequate time to get my work visa, which usually takes a few months.  The principal wanted me there immediately so they were going to us other ways to start me out.


As it turned out the music teacher that I replaced had come to the school the first day of school, turned, and left without returning.  So, the second music teacher had been under a double work load for the past month and a half and wanted out of that circumstance as quickly as possible.


The solution for the school was to land me in Hong Kong, get a 30 day tourist visa, and then make my way to Suzhou in haste.  What this meant was that I would have to leave the country after 30 days of work at Suzhou, to return again to Hong Kong to obtain my work visa.  But, that will be written of in a future instalments, at length.