My Living Situation in China

When you teach in China the majority of schools offer you a free apartment (you may pay the utilities) pretty close to school either by walking or public transit. Some schools will offer you free on-campus housing which can be nice. My boss (a fellow foreigner) blatantly lied about our living arrangements. I wanted to share my experience and offer advice to those that were going to be living abroad.

My ideal living situation would be the first option: my own apartment. Seriously, I have had SO many bad living experiences these past two years before I left (most New Yorkers do) that I really wanted my own space. Like if I had my own apartment I seriously would have just ran around that ish in a circle for two minutes before I unpacked. So, when I had my interview and found out that the school had free on-campus housing I had a few reservations. Well, turns out I should have.

So the way the housing was explained to me was we had our own apartment. So, I’m thinking we are in an apartment building on campus. I decided to accept the job because the housing was free. Naturally, I still asked for pictures. I was told by my now boss that he lost the cord to his camera. In retrospect I know this to be a lie upon talking to my friend Britni shortly after my arrival. So, he finally sent me one picture, but it was of the flat screen tv on the wall. Ummmm my dude, this really doesn't show me anything. He also promised the room would be cleaned when I get there. When I arrived I learned that things were very different from the picture my boss painted. My room was super duper nasty; it hadn’t been cleaned since the last teacher left. I also didn’t have a desk and my toilet didn’t work upon arrival. My boss later claimed to me and my co-workers that our rooms were clean by "Chinese standards".

The foreign teachers are all in a building in the middle of campus. It’s basically like having a hotel room; you have your mini kitchen that has a mini fridge and a sink and some cabinets, your own bathroom, and then living area/sleeping area. We are all in a row and the walls are paper thin (I had a co-worker that talked SO damn loud and Skyped at 3 am on weeknights, and one that sings and plays guitar loudly all the time. Guess where I am? Sandwhiched between the two lol). 

I also was not told that the kids live on campus! I didn’t bring it up that he didn’t say anything. I figured why complain. My boss made a remark on his own and said that the kids leave on the weekends. Well, they don’t; they’re pretty much here 24/7.  Since the kids lived on campus the school blasted music at 6:30 am to 7 am, 4 pm to 5 pm, and 5:30 pm to 6 pm Monday to Friday. And would be the same songs everyday.

Side note : A few weeks later we actually found lots and lots of mold. A co-worker of mine found it because he kept getting sick and having trouble breathing. One of the headmasters wanted to put all the molded things and furniture in the sun, so that the mold would dry and go away. Ummmm mold doesn’t work that way brah. My co-worker had to move to another room later. He also had to be taken to the hospital to receive treatment. Another co-worker here found mold under his bed. Luckily, me and Brit were mold free ^_^. But, it seems that teachers who work at my school before continually get sick while working there. I was told this by Nicky, who used to work at my school, but left after her first year. I had have only gotten sick once, but Brit had been sick a few times, so I was a little worried for her. We went through every nook and cranny of her room and it was fine.

It was hard at first to adjust with jet lag and the dern music all the time, but I’ve gotten used to it now. I made sure to focus on ways that I could decompress when my living living situation started to get to me.  Once I effectively thought about how to deal with the living situation, it stopped becoming an obstacle. There are still moments where it gets annoying, but those moments have become few and far in between the longer I am here : ) 

So my advice to anyone who wants to teach abroad is to definitely get lots of pictures of your housing. Ask if there are students that will live on campus. If you have off campus housing, ask questions about your commute and what you will have to take to get there. Also, speak to a previous teacher; I would even be specific and ask to speak to someone who worked there the previous year. You don’t want the school to put you in contact with someone from like 5 years ago. The real work starts after you have a school interested in you. It's easy to get carried away by the prospect of your job, but remember to ask detailed questions.