Fuddland

The train journey was utterly uneventful. Every time I looked out of the window, I saw nothing but farmland — seemingly every spare inch was given over to agriculture of some kind, be it genuine farms or wall-to-wall allotments behind every house. I found it simultaneously fascinating and boring, although I was relieved, after nearly four months in China, to finally see great swathes of paddy fields stretching out over the landscape.

We pulled in to Sūzhōu (苏州) an hour late on Thursday evening, in the tail-end of a rainstorm that had lasted the entire day. My new boss introduced herself and whisked me away to my temporary accommodation; I’d be lodging with a couple of colleagues for three nights until my own flat was ready, which was a lovely stopgap. After scrubbing off twenty-seven hours of train travel and having a quick tour of my new place of work, I was presented with a bottle of Old Speckled Hen, bought especially for me from a local [French-owned] supermarket by one of my temporary flatmates — a kindly old Irish chap called Garreth, who made sure I was more than comfortable on my first night in Sūzhōu, in the fine tradition of his countryfolk.

I’ve spent my first few days at work doing nothing more than observing the other teachers in their lessons — class sizes have so far ranged from two to twenty students — and giving a couple of “demos” [these are taster lessons to potential students, giving them some idea of how their classes might go if they chose to study with our school].

On Sunday I moved into my permanent flat, a nicely-furnished building just across from where I had been staying up to then. Unfortunately it is severely lacking in cutlery and crockery, which means an expensive first few days as I stock up on essentials — although I did successfully persuade my new boss that the school should at least provide a wok and one or two items of crockery [don’t ask, don’t get!], and I may yet benefit from donations from soon-to-leave colleagues.

Over the next few weeks I hope to find time to explore the city, so that I actually have something of interest to write about; in the meantime, some shots of my spiffy new premises and the view just outside the corridor.

#1

Hannah | 2006 / 06 / 05 – 21:29

I assume that’s your workplace rather than your flat. It looks posher than here (thought that’s not hard). V. shiney floors.

#2

David | 2006 / 06 / 06 – 09:11

Re #1: Ah, yes, by “premises” I meant “workplace”. Shots of the flat may follow once I get it all shipshape [or, at the very least, flatshape]. :)

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