Details

Ok, so as many (or all I hope) of you know I am spending the next year in China teaching English. Due to popular demand for details I will supply them.

Where am I. in Tianjin, China. Tianjin is a large city 30 min. south of Beijing with a population around 10 million people. Yes, many of them are short, yes, they do stare at me, no, it doesn't bother me too much (yet).

Why China. After my year in Spain I still didn’t know what I wanted to “do with my life” yet, so I decided to spend another year abroad teaching English. I chose China for the large part because Jackson will be studying in Beijing this year and I really don’t like only seeing him once every four months. I am not working in Beijing because I didn’t have the age or qualifications to teach there right now. I also think China is a good fit because it gives me another shot at teaching in a very different climate. I will tell more about my job shortly. Chinese is also very different from English or Spanish, so learning it gives me a chance to go back to the very basic elements of language learning. I can’t remember how I went about learning Spanish, but as a potential language teacher/materials developer/linguist I feel that it is good to be reminded of the frustration and the strategies that go into learning another language. No, I do not speak Chinese; yes, I am working on learning it; yes, it is hard; no, I can’t hear the tones yet.

My job. I work for a company called EF English First. It is a smaller branch of a larger company, which I believe is called EF Education. Basically, the parent company does anything to do with language learning from materials development to study abroad programs to educational travel to, what I do, ESL teaching in developing countries. I am working for the Tianjin franchise of EF English First in the Tianta School. There are four schools in the district/province/principality? of Tianjin. My school is located on the 5th and 6th floors of a building about 25 min. bike ride from my apartment. I don’t have a fixed schedule yet, so I won’t go into too many details there. For general background my school works with kids from 4 years old to adult, yes I work with all age groups. We also work with all ability levels, there is a very complicated system explaining all the levels and ages and stuff, but I promise you, you don’t want to know about it. I had an entire morning orientation on it and I don’t wish to repeat. So far I am enjoying working here. The people have been very nice and welcoming and I have no major complaints.


My pad. I am living on the 20th floor of a nice apartment building about 25 min. bike ride from work. I am in the very center of Tianjin in the Heping district (this means nothing to about 99% of you) and my job is about a block away from the TV tower. I spent the first three weeks here using small blue cards which work had very nicely put my home and school addresses on to inform the taxi drivers were I needed to go. I also spent the first two weeks completely confused as to where I actually lived. I fell asleep a few minutes outside of Tianjin when I was picked up from the airport and it is very disconcerting to arrive at a new place without the foggiest idea as to how you got there. I can happily say that I now know where I live (kind of). My apartment is large with wood laminate flooring and modern furniture. I look out onto the city and can see where I work in the far distance on a clear day. I will attach pictures, as they will do much better job than my words at giving you an idea about my apartment. To quell the few fears about I keep being asked about I will mention that I do have a western toilet. I have a Chinese one at work, which I will describe elsewhere, but at home I can sit to do my business just like in the US. I do have a washer, but no dryer; yes it is in Chinese; no I don’t know what it says; yes I can clean my laundry (more or less). My shower does have hot water, but it is attached to the wall in my bathroom instead of being enclosed in a separate area and I have to mop the floor after I shower; no there is no shower curtain. In the kitchen I have a fridge and freezer, microwave, toaster, sink, and stove. I also have a rice cooker that is AMAZING. I don’t have any oven, so another year of no baking ☹. I am currently living alone since my roommate, Yoyo, left on Friday to go back to her place in the “suburbs.” I will be getting another roommate or I will be moving to a different apartment soon. I will keep you updated.

I think this covers the major questions that I have been getting. For more interesting adventures check my other posts. I will try to update regularly, but as happened in Spain I tend to have great zeal in the beginning then it kind of dies as I become busy with actually having a life in my new location. I am always happy for news from home, feel free to:

email - mandisch@gmail.com

mail - Mandi Schmidt
EF English First
6F, No.98 Qixiangtai Rd.
Hexi District (300047)
Tianjin, China

Skype - mandi.schmidt

AIM - messyinc

call - 27230225 (home land line)
15002247437 (cell)
you will need the country code and stuff if you chose this option,
please also remember that I am in a different time zone (12 hours different for most of you)

or leave a blog post!

Fire in the Streets

As I was riding home from work Friday there were bunches of people burning papers in the streets. At first I thought it was just one or two old people burning garbage, but it didn’t smell bad enough for that to be the case and as I continued to cycle away from school there were more and more ash piles and fires burning. I finally got to consult my China expert, Selina, a Chinese girl I met purchasing my bike, and she told me that on that specific day each year people burn the papers for the dead. There is the belief that there is another world beyond the one we live in and when we die we go and live there. Just like this world, you need money to buy things in the other world as well. The people were burning the “money” that is used in the other world so that loved ones who have passed could continue to live in comfort in the other world. It is amazing how fires in the streets can change into something so much more meaningful when you understand the purpose behind them. I am so luck to have people with the patience to explain things to me!

Missing Floors

My address says that I live on the 20th floor in apartment 2007. Please remember that all of this is by non-American standards meaning that the first floor is what we call in the good ol’ USA the second floor. To add to the confusion, I could, in reality, be on the 19th floor because I discovered shortly after I got here that there is no second floor (Chinese second, American third).

It was very strange because I was riding the elevator and watching the numbers flick by (because there is only so much you can do in an elevator) when I got the horrid momentary feeling that the elevator had jammed because the numbers flickered for an extended period on “3.” Not saying I am claustrophobic or anything, but I have absolutely no desire to be caught in an elevator and much less so in China where I can’t communicate what is wrong over the emergency phone should I get stuck. While all these dreads are flicking through my head the elevator numbers flicked calmly to 1 and the doors opened to let me out into the beautiful world (ok, so it was still the slightly polluted world I emerge into every day, but I was extra glad to be exiting into it on that particular occasion).

I actually thought it was a superstition in china not to have a 2nd floor for a bit since the next elevator I got into also lacked the “2” button, but after a quick powwow with the sources that know (aka other teachers who have lived here for a bit and their native wives) it was determined that I was just special enough to find two second-floorless buildings in the same day. This conclusion was later confirmed when I realized that the building I work in doesn’t have a third or forth floor. Not sure why the elevators don't go to these floors, but I will put it down to a "charming cultural quirk" and hope that I never have to visit the 30th floor of a building with a missing "30."