UPS – My Story

Well friends, the time came for me to return to the UK. Moving back to another country is hard enough as it is, but when you combine that with the stress of shipping??? oufff…

I decided to use UPS because they were one of the few couriers that would collect directly from my door. A 24kg box isn’t easy to cart around when you don’t own a car!

The experience, however, was a total farce. I’m going to explain everything that happened during the 5 weeks (and pending!) it has taken for my box to arrive.

I warn you now, this post is going to be long and ranty…but omg do I need to get this off my chest.

Details: 24KG box containing personal items such as clothes, teaching books, blanket, folders and art pens.
Shipping FROM: (my town), Sevilla, Spain
Shipping TO: (my address) Cambridge, UK
Shipping Cost: €66,84 (+ import fees later)
Date of collection: Monday 12th July 2021
Date of arrival to destination: due on Friday 16th July 2021

MONDAY 12TH JULY – FRIDAY 16TH JULY

My box was collected at 1pm, scanned by the driver and taken away. It was taken to Seville, then to Guarroman, then to a facility in Madrid.

13th July the tracking gave this update

• “UPS initiated contact with receiver or importer for clearance information. Once received, UPS will submit for clearance.”

They never initiated contact with me.

Regardless, this update was given the same day:

• “Your parcel is prepared for clearance.”

Every day since it’s arrival in Madrid it was scanned

23RD JULY 2021

I returned to the UK on the 23rd July (a week after it was due to arrive) and my box was still in the Madrid warehouse.

Again on the 23rd they said initiated contact – they didn’t. The tracking showed these updates:

• UPS has received the information needed to submit your parcel for clearance.
• UPS initiated contact with receiver or importer for clearance information. Once received, UPS will submit for clearance.
  

29TH JULY 2021

After spending more time in the Madrid warehouse the tracking was updated on the 29th July to say the following:

• UPS initiated contact with receiver or importer for clearance information. Once received, UPS will submit for clearance. / The package will be returned to the sender.

Upon seeing “/ The package will be returned to send” I panicked. Returned to sender how?? The sender is in the UK because this box was meant to be waiting for me at my UK address!

I called UPS UK explaining to them that the package MUST NOT go back to my Spanish address because I no longer live there. I asked them to tell me WHY my package is stuck in Spain to start with and they didn’t give me an answer.

I spoke to a few people from UPS UK that day and they said that they will put the package on hold and it won’t return to “sender” (aka my Spanish address). Unfortunately I trusted them.

I spoke with a UPS UK agent who informed me I needed a document that allows me to ship items from the EU to the UK. They sent me an email with a document attached titled: C3- Bringing your personal effects to the United Kingdom from outside the European Community.

Huh?? I’m not shipping items from outside the European Community. Spain is IN the European Community and I am shipping FROM Spain INTO the UK (!)

I replied to this email saying I believe they sent me the wrong form. I called HM Customs and Excise and asked them if there is a form they could help me find so I can send the correct form to UPS. They told me no such form exists and that is isn’t my responsibility to sort this out, I paid UPS to help with this, why aren’t they helping?
After receiving no response from my email asking for the correct document I continued to call and call and call until I was finally transferred to UPS Customs, I received an email from a lady who asked for these details:

• Customs procedure/Reason for import

• Commodity Code or Plain language goods description

• Your EORI/VAT number

• Your UPS Credit account number if you have one

• Approval to use your Deferment Approval Number (DAN), where appropriate

• Any other information we must take into account when completing this Customs declaration on your behalf

I provided those details within 10 minutes of receiving that email.
I got a reply 6 hours later asking me for:

• returns good statement

What is that?? So I asked her to elaborate on what a returns good statement is and explained again how these were my personal belongings some of which  I brought over from the UK when I moved to Spain for work a few years ago. And as I have moved back to the UK the box contains items which were bought or given to me for my birthday/Christmas as well as items I originally took over to Spain.

Again, I replied within 10 minutes.
This is the reply I received

“Thanks for your response. This is duly noted. For future clearance instructions, don’t hesitate to contact me”

So I wrote back asking for her to provide confirmation that my box is NOT going back to my old Spanish address (as the tracking is STILL telling me that’s where it is going) and I explained AGAIN how I no longer live there and it is imperative that it doens’t return.

No reply

I wrote again the next day, expressing my deep deep concern that the tracking continues to say “return to sender” with my old Spanish address. In addition to this the tracking updated with a notice telling me to pay an “import fee”, I asked what this was for as HM Customs and Excise told me I wouldn’t have to pay anything until it arrives in the UK.

No reply.

2ND AUGUST 2021

No updates as it is the weekend and then on Monday 2nd August I see this update on the tracking “We received a request from the receiver to reschedule the delivery“. I was unsure as to what this was about, maybe the woman I spoke to by email did something?

The tracking, however, said that the package is STILL going back to my old Spanish address.

I call UPS UK who tell me not to worry, my package is in Bury St Edmunds and will be delivered by end of day Tuesday. Everything is under control.

3RD AUGUST 2021

Tuesday 3rd August comes and goes, no package.

4TH AUGUST 2021

Wednesday 4th comes and goes and still….no package.

5TH AUGUST 2021

On Thursday the 5th I call UPS again, where is my package? You told me it is in Bury St. Edmunds UK and would be delivered 2 days ago, so…where is it?

They told me they will contact someone from Bury St Edmunds UPS and get them to call me to explain what is going on.

A few moments later I received a call from a lovely lady at UPS in Bury and she informs me (very apologetically) that the last time my package was scanned was in Madrid and it hasn’t arrived and Bury, so she would put her money on it still being in Spain.
I cannot explain how my heart dropped upon hearing that. HOW can one UPS agent assure me that my package is IN the UK and is due to arrive the next day when it hasn’t even left Spain?! I was so upset. The lovely lady told me I need to contact UPS Spain and have this fixed, Bury will put a request for an investigation into where the package is, and that I should do the same.

I open UPS online and sign into the account I made when I was in Spain originally organising this shipment. The claims for asks for all sorts of details such as the invoice, where it is going to, and from.

Interestingly, the addresses are automatically put in and both saying my UK address, I couldn’t change the “from” address. So the details on the claim said “to: UK” “from: UK”.
I don’t understand how this could have happened since the only address I have for me is my Spanish one and the only address for where the package is going is my UK one….how was that automatically entered?
I called UPS again and explained to them the situation, the man informed me it wouldn’t be a problem since they have already cleared the package so even though the address says “to: UK” “from: UK” UPS knows the correct address. They specifically said there will not be a problem.

I call UPS Spain and I speak with a kind man who spoke English, I explained the situation to him and he said I will receive and email soon because I need to provide them with documents in order for them to release my box. I confirm my email with him, both in English and in Spanish and I wait.

I wait.

I wait.

No email.

I call again to UPS Spain and this time the woman doesn’t speak English and refused to transfer me to someone who can. So I try in Spanish. She told me that I won’t receive any email until next week.

….huh?

That was that and she hung up on me.

So I ask my Spanish friend who is currently in Spain (she has been in the loop with all of this, thank god), I asked her if she could contact UPS Spain and just ask them about that email I was supposed to receive and if they can, again, confirm my package wont go to my old Spanish address.

She spoke to around 5 different people as they kept hanging up on her. But eventually they said the package will be held and NOT delivered to the Spanish address. They promised her.

Thursday 5th August evening the tracking status continued to say “Returning to sender”

Then this happened.

09/08/2021 12:19	Returned Returned to shipper Sevilla, ES
09/08/2021 6:30	Arrived at Facility Sevilla, Spain
07/08/2021 5:00	Departed from Facility Guarroman, Spain
07/08/2021 1:30	Arrived at Facility Guarroman, Spain
06/08/2021 21:42	Departed from Facility Madrid, Spain
05/08/2021 21:19	Returning to Sender The package will be returned to the sender. Madrid, Spain

9TH AUGUST 2021

Monday 9th August my package was delivered to my OLD SPANISH ADDRESS and just by pure happenstance my landlady was there was signed for it. UPS can officially wash their hands of this because it is no longer in their possession as my landlady stupidly and without my knowledge SIGNED for my package.

UPS did what the claim asked of them – they found my box. Then delivered it to, in their eyes, a random woman who was in my flat.

I was angry with UPS for sending the package back when they promised they wouldn’t, and I was also angry with my landlady for accepting a box knowing full well I was IN THE UK .

So now I have to contact my landlady and apologise for inconveniencing her and tell her I’m going to try to get this sorted out! I call UPS UK, while my Spanish friend calls UPS Spain.

We both were given the run-around.

The first agent I spoke to apologised for the inconvenience and told me I would receive a free re-collection and I should organise that with UPS Customs, so I was transferred to UPS Customs, and then told I should be speaking with UPS exports. They transferred me and hung up. I called back again and asked to speak directly to UPS Exports, they transferred me and hung up AGAIN. I called back and finally got through and the man from UPS Exports said I should speak with UPS Imports and hangs up.

At this point I’m losing all hope and getting so overwhelmed. I call back, they give me a direct number to contact someone who can help, guess what number I was given? HM Customs and excise! HOW are HM Customs and excise meant to help me organise a free collection??

Meanwhile my Spanish friend could hardly get through and when she did she was hung up on too!!!

Finally she speaks with the most awful man, who says this

• it is my fault the package was sent back because i incorrectly labelled the package.
• the package said it was going “to UK” “from UK” and this is my fault
• I need to buy a whole new label
• I need to take responsibility for my mistake and pay in full for inconveniencing the UPS drivers.

HOW. DARE. HE.

Firstly, the package is clearly labelled correctly.

Secondly, even if the label say “from UK” how in hell was it “sent back to sender” in SPAIN?? Where did that address come from if the box was SENT FROM THE UK????

Thirdly, the idea that I was the one who inconvenienced UPS is laughable. How dare you sir.

My Spanish friend said all those things to him, she knows everything about this, including the address issue with the claims form – so she said explained that the website automatically put the UK address in and it wouldn’t allow me to change it, and that a UPS agent assured me it wouldn’t be a problem.

The man refused everything and just said “take responsibility” and hung up.

I couldn’t believe this, were my documents incorrect? was there actually a problem?? I saw the tracking label, it definitely wasn’t incorrect.

I went to Bury St. Edmuds in order to speaking to an ACTUAL person. I took all my documents and photos with me. Photos of my box that I took before I sent it way back in July. Screenshots of the tracking. Evidence I paid for an import fee when my box hadn’t even left Spain. EVERYTHING.

The lovely man from UPS Bury saw all of my documents and said there was absolutely nothing wrong with any of it. He was outraged I was asked to pay an import fee when there is no evidence that it even entered the UK. He recommended that I email everyone as high up as I can and demand someone help, because all of the UK and Spanish UPS agents aren’t doing their jobs and are just trying to use me as a scapegoat.

10TH AUGUST 2021

Tuesday 10th August I put together an email detailing my experience and the effect it has had on me. I find emails for CEOs of UPS, customer support, complaints…literally anyone I could find, it didn’t matter if they no longer worked there I was gonna email everyone. I even CC’d Watchdog UK.

Within 30 minutes I receive a call from UPS Operations Director who listened to me, apologised and told me he was on it. He would speak with Spain and sort this out.
By 1pm my box was collected again the driver informing my landlady there had been an “international complaint” (!) and the box travelled back to Seville, Guarroman, and finally Madrid.

13TH AUGUST 2021

As of Friday 13th August my package tracking said (and emails confirm) the box is “On the Way, Departed from Facility – Madrid, Spain”

16TH AUGUST 2021

Today, Monday 16th August I receive an email stating that they were told the package had been “short shipped” and that it “didn’t arrive as planned”. They’re in contact with the people in Madrid.

The tracking was finally updated to say my package is in the UK in Stanford Le Hope and it due to be delivered tomorrow.

17TH AUGUST 2021

I woke up this morning to an email saying my box had cleared customs and would be delivered later today.

It finally arrived, after an entire MONTH of waiting…it finally arrived. The driver was so kind and apologetic despite not knowing the full details about what I went through trying to get this box into the UK. So, Paul, thank you so very much.

My thoughts

I am truly saddened that a company as reputable (or so I believed at the time of shipping) as UPS can do this. I’m shocked at the lack of customer service and internal communication. How exhausting is it to have to repeat the same story again and again and make the same request again and again to no avail? My package was still returned to my Spanish address despite being explicitly told it wouldn’t be.

The absurdity of the man who claimed I sent the package from the UK yet it was returned to “sender” in Spain. The total lack of empathy shown as I was hung up on countless times from UPS agents both in Spain and the UK.

The only time I felt truly listened to is when I sent out that email pleading with someone to actually help me.

I implore you friends, if you are to ship items internationally, learn from my experience and check your couriers. Read reviews and listen to them.

Should you get into a situation like this with UPS or any other courier, email the people at the top. No one likes to be told they’re doing a terrible job, but the embarrassment would hopefully kick them into gear to solve it as it did with me.

UPS may tell you they “tried to make contact” when they didn’t. They may try to tell you there is nothing wrong with your box all while holding onto it. They may try to blame you for their own mistakes. DO NOT LET THEM.

If you have any questions or comments regarding my experience please comment below. Have you had a bad experience with UPS or any other courier? Let me know!

Enjoy your day friends 🙂

Cucarachas!! Cockroaches in Spain

I’ve spent 2 summers in Andalucía so far and each year I encounter one, maybe two cockroaches.

Cockroaches are disgusting. I curse their very existence.

Every time I see one I run to my cockroach spray that I bought from Mercadona and nearly empty the can trying to kill the thing, possibly poisoning myself in the process. Btw that cockroach spray from Mercadona is a GODSEND! Technically you dont need to spray much because it is toxic af but…..I’m pathetic and will keep spraying even when it’s upside-down and no longer twitching… heh

After nearly dying trying to kill this cockroach I then go online and find out why I had one in my flat to start with (yes…every time).
I live on the 4th floor, my flat is clean – regularly swept and mopped floors- my rubbish is taken out on the daily ESPECIALLY in summer…so what’s with the cockroaches?

Well, you google it and you find lots of American sites that say things like “THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS ONE COCKROACH YOU HAVE AN INFESTATION CALL AN EXTERMINATOR IMMEDIATELY!” and like, that causes a panic…But I live in the south of Spain where every now and again you see a dead cockroach chilling by some stairs. Do THEY have an infestation? Nah, it’s just Spain.

Cockroaches are a part of life, they gross and make you feel gross but what can you do, right…?

WELL ..!
I had a chat to my friend a few months ago when I saw my first cockroach of the year (what a time) and we found the answer to preventing cockroaches….for the most part, not killing (the spray does that!) but deterring them from entering your space

So what is it?

SALT.

My friend is originally from India and she used to go back to visit her extended family a lot. She told me that before her visit her grandma would sprinkle salt in the showers/drains and doorways to deter cockraoches from sneaking in.

Apparently it works because during her time there she never saw a cockroach in her grandparents house.

Heeding the advice from my friend’s grandma, I tried it.

For 4 months now, after I have a shower I will sprinkle some salt in and around the shower drain. Luckily I have a shit load of salt because my ex-flatmate hoarded it or something ahaha.

I promise you, it works. Like I said, I’ve been doing it every time for 4 months and I haven’t had any cockroaches in my flat. At all.

Sadly cockroaches don’t just wander about, they can also fly *shudders* so it won’t get rid of them 100% but it will give you a one up!

Because really, if you’re living in a hot country and you’re anything like me and you hate the heat (I know, why am I living in Andalucía?!) the last thing you want is freaking cockroaches running around your nice flat! GROSS

SALT YOUR SHOWERS PEOPLE!

This is all the salt my flatmate left behind ahaha

Coming to terms with it

WARNING: TALK OF DEATH, SUICIDE AND DEPRESSION.

5 things I loved about China

You can’t really judge a country very well when you’ve only spent 2 months there.
But here are some things I really loved about my time in China

I felt so safe

Walking back to the flat at 8.30pm to walking around the town at 2am I felt so unbelievably safe. One night after our Saturday classes my co-teacher and I went out for a drink. While we were out by the river drinking Tsingdao, as you do, we were approached by these two guys and a woman. We got talking and they invited us to go to KTV (karaoke) with them. Baring in mind we had quite a few beers bought for us so we were um…rather tipsy. Dan and I then got into this guys car and got driven 10 minutes down to road to this building.

I know what this sounds like, if this happened to me in the UK I totally would have thought I was being kidnapped.

We go up in the elevator to the top floor and oh my god…..the place looked exactly like those swish Vagas bars you see in the movies. Marble floors and pillars, mirrored walls and a water feature just chilling in the middle of the lobby. The place looked amazing! I would have taken a photo but I’ll be honest,I had no idea where I was and I was in too much awe at my situation,

After 2 wide hours of KTV where I was forced to sing You Belong With Me by Taylor Swift twice because the 4 women there practically threw the microphone at me..both times. Dan and I were taken back to our flat….we offered to pay for the ride and the KTV room, but we were told it’s okay.

I never felt uncomfortable at any point during my trip when I walked alone at night.

I spoke to my high school students about safety and they were shocked when I said I felt so much safer in China that I do in the UK.

The People

This kinda ties into the first one. Everywhere I went, whether I was alone or with Dan, people who didn’t even know how to speak English would try and talk to us. We were invited to people’s homes and cooked for and we were invited out to drink.

We took a 20 hour train to Beijing (That’s another story!) and so many people approached us, tried to teach us card games. Nearly everyone I met was so warm and welcoming, even the drunk people I met in bars welcomed me to China!
The people I met there definitely made my trip worth it ^^

The fruits and vegetables are so delicious

AND SO CHEAP!!

I bought a watermelon for the equivalent of £2 and it weighed the same as my little brother when he was 5 years old.

I swear to god.

That watermelon was one of the best moments of my trip.

The walking up 5 flights of stairs carrying it however, wasn’t.

Feeling like a celebrity when I walked down the street

When foreigners go to countries that are largely homogeneous they always make posts about how everyone stares at them. But I guess because I was going to quite a small city I was already aware that people would stare at me, so it didn’t bother me that much.

But what I wasn’t expecting was being approached quite so frequently and being asked if they could take a photo with them!

Having my photo taken and being told I’m pretty by people off the street did wonders for my self esteem

The only thing I didn’t like was when the parents made me pose with their children. This one time I was walking to the school one morning and this man grabs my arm, I turn around and he gestures that he wants to take me photo so I’m like “okay^^”, the next thing I know he puts this really young kid in my arms. The kid sees me holding him and starts crying so loudly. Like proper red face bawling. I was just stood there holding this traumatised child until the father took him off me.
I felt so bad for scaring the crap out of that kid *sigh*

THE FOOD!!

Oh maaaaaaaaaan

Legit Chinese food is amazing.

I mentioned in a previous post how I was in the south of China for the majority of my stay, and the south of China is known for having super spicy food,

The first 2 weeks I struggled. Everything I ate had chillies and chillies and more chillies in. But the flavours!! THE FLAVOURS!!

After spending a week in Beijing I started to miss the spicy. But Beijing food is special and mouth watering in its own way~

And then returning to the UK I really started to miss the spicy!!

For the past four years I’ve been putting hot sauce on everything (T-T)

Annnd some things that I didn’t like so much

The Bathrooms

You’ve probably seen things around the internet about the hygiene of Chinese toilets, particularly public toilets…..they don’t seem to be exaggerating.

Although, after spending a few months there I became VERY good at using a squat toilet~ quads of steel!

The Weather

What do you expect going to an Asian country in the middle of the summer?

It was humid, sunny and foggy (smoggy).  However, after a few weeks I got used to it and was able to wear jeans in 32 degree heat+humidity~

 

 

And that’s about it!!

I really loved my experience in China, I just wished I could have stayed longer and learnt the language properly~

Making Paella the I-don’t-know-what-I’m-doing Way!

I’ve been living in Spain for 2 years now and hoenstly….I’ve never eaten Paella.

Never

I know, I’m ashamed.

So in order to rectify the situation, and since I had a day off due to May Day, I decided to try!

I’m not so good at following recipes…I just kinda see what they say and then wing it especially when it comes to measuring amounts out.. ^^”

But in the end it went well! I decided to make a seafood paella despite not liking seafood so much, but it actually tasted alright.

I’ll link the recipe I “used” at the bottom

INGREDIENTS

All items were purchased from Mercadona.
Mercadona, I love you, please sponsor me.

• Frozen Onions and Pepper Mix

• Round rice (I couldn’t find the special paella rice….damn pandemic!
  
• Chopped tomatos/smooth tomatoes (I ended up using the chopped)
• Garlic (ahahah I used a lot!)
• White Wine (idk the brand it was the cheapest there was #classy)
• Paella seasoning x2 (couldn’t decide which…)

• Mixed seafood/Paell Seafood bag – I did half and half, one if for frying but I thought screw that you can’t tell me what to do

I just kinda whacked it all together in the order that the recipe said….HERE’S MY STAGES!

THE STAGES

 

cook dem onions and peppers! chuck in the paella stuff and paprika

add the rice

add the tomato

add the chicken broth….boi that’s a lot of liquid…

whack in the seasfood….still a lot of liquid but it all boils away!

THE FINAL RESULT

BAM, Paella!

Served in a bowl bc I’m not about to eat out of a pan yet.

I enjoyed it outside on my balcony with my plants and a big add glass of iced tea….WHAT A HOLIDAY!

 

The link

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/easy-paella

 

My job in China – Things were not what they seemed…

During the 2nd week Dan and I had to go to the police station.

Apparently there is a law where if Chinese citizens are hosting foreigners for a specific length of time then they must register them with the police… So Dan and I go to the police station with Anna and the headmaster.

The headmaster went into the station first, so Anna Dan and I waited in the car. We took this opportunity to ask her what type of things we could do in Zhuzhou.  She looked at us and said “Why in Zhuzhou?”

Dan said “since we’re going to be here a while it would be nice to go and see things when we have free time”

She looked at us again, you could see the confusion pasted all over her face as she said “Yes but Zhuzhou is really far from here.Why do you want to go there”

Dan and I looked at each other, sharing Anna’s confusion we asked her where the hell we were!

She said we were in Lengshuijiang. which is maybe 3 and half hours from Changsha and 3 and a half hours away from Zhuzhou…which is where we thought we were!

THREE AND A HALF HOURS.

We were stunned. How was this possible? Has there been a mix up?

Naturally the moment we get back to the flat we email our university who then emailed the lady in China who had organised everything for us.

I was absolutely bewildered that we were miles away from where were thought we were, and where we had planned to be!

A few days later we get an email back  from our university that said the school we were going to in Zhuzhou already had the teachers because the two teachers we would take over from decided to stay. This happened literally while we were in the plane flying to Beijing International Airport.

So they relocated us. Without telling us or anyone else.

It wasn’t really a problem but it would have been nice not to have spent the first 2 weeks thinking I was miles away from where I was!

So here are some photos of the streets of Lengshuijiang. NOT Zhuzhou

I did like the place though, it was quite industrial but the large river than ran through it was pretty, at night when it is lit up…so lovely!

My job in China – The First Day

In the last post I spoke about the airport problems. Well, in this post I’m going to talk about my first full day in China!

After eating a very spicy KFC, Dan and I got into the car with the headmaster’s nephew and his friend and we drove.

and drove

and drove some more.

It felt like Zhuzhou was an eternity away from Changsha. When I googled it back in the UK, I saw that it would take us over an hour to drive from  Changsha to Zhuzhou. But my god felt like we had been driving for 4 hours.

We finally arrived at the apartment we would be staying in and I dragged my suitcase up 5 flights of stairs while Dan walked baglessly in front of me.

When we got to the top floor (I was completely knackered and sweating from every hole in my body) I saw a man and a women in pyjamas waiting for us. The man introduced himself through his nephew (because he didn’t speak English) as the headmaster and the women was called Anna she taught at the school.

Dan and I were shown two rooms and we decided which one we would have. Dan let me have the room with the bathroom.

Not gonna lie, these photos look horrific but my room wasn’t that bad. It was decorated with flower stickers on the wall and look….a double bed~

 The bathroom however doesn’t look nice. It clearly hadn’t been used that often, but I didn’t care if it was a little dirty I was happy enough that I had an en suite ahaha it saves me from having to walk across the hall if I need to pee~.

and the view from outside my window ^^ so it was quite a built up area we were in

This is the main living area, you can see that open door on the left? that is my room

 A shot of that perfect archway. I loved that archway…maybe too much

 And this one is the view from my “bathroom” window. I occasionally saw some people on that roof right in front ahaha~

The Next Day!

So we were told that we would start teaching tomorrow and had to leave the flat at 8. Which wouldn’t normally be a problem, except we were so jet lagged.

 

Dan asked me if I managed to sleep last night, I didn’t, neither did he. The poor guy had to wear the same clothes as yesterday because of his missing bag.

We left the flat with Anna and she bought us breakfast from a lady selling jiaozi on the street and then we got the bus.

For 2 yuan (RMB)

2 YUAN!!!

In Cambridge it costs you £5 and your first born child to ride the bus. No lie.

Once we arrived at the school that was in like a multi-purpose building. Like the first floor has a ballet and a piano school, the 2nd floor was our English school and I have no idea what was on the third floor..

But the building was surrounded by shops and things. If you walked down the steps to the square there would be people dancing and exercising in the mornings and evenings~ It was really cool~ Nothing like I was expecting

So we meet the other 9 English teachers briefly before I was sent to a class with one of the teachers I just met and Dan was sent to another class.

The first class I was teaching was full of 7 to 8 year olds. It was amazing.

The weird thing is they were only learning A, B, C and D and 4 words that start with those letters. I must have gone over those 4 letter a thousand times in the 2 hours, but I was having the time of my life

After that first class every other class was relatively the same. The day was split into 5 periods

1 – 8.30 until 10am   (these were usually the really young kids: 5 to 8 y/o)

2 – 10.30 until 12  (I liked this class too~ they were around 9 and 10 years old)

3 – 2.30 until 4

4 – 4.30 until 6

5 – 7 until 8.30 (the classes at this time had the 15 to 17 year olds in- I loved this class)

All of the 1 and half hour periods were split into 3 sessions that were 30 minutes long.  So  I could teach for 1 session at 8.30 and then nothing until 10.30.  I had to teach 8 sessions a day.

Usually it would be 3 in the morning (1st period) and 3 in the evening (5th period) and then 2 other sessions in the 2nd, 3rd or 4th period.

It was an alright system, I got a few breaks, sometimes I didn’t need to be in until 10.30, other times I was in straight away at 8.30am.

Every morning a teacher would come up to me and say “Laina you have my class!” and give me the text book pages that I would be working on.

Unfortunately because we were only summer school teachers Dan and I weren’t allowed a lot of freedom when it came to how we taught the class or how we presented the material, but it was kinda okay because if the class sucked, we could always blame the textbook.

After the morning classes, some of the teachers and the headmaster took us out to lunch at a restaurant really close to the school.

They asked us what we wanted to eat. Dan and I looked at each other…we had no idea. So they ordered for us. Maaaaaan that food was delicious.

The thing you should remember with Chinese cooking is that when you order chicken or fish….it comes whole. Not like in the UK where everything has been removed and you’re left with the meat. I had to pull a few bones out of my mouth but it was totally worth it because I have never tasted anything that delicious…(I lie…I ate something amazing the week after when we went to Shaoshan…ugh my mouth remembers it so well~)

And that was my first day teaching in a Chinese Summer School!! Yaaay!

As I said from the first day onwards the school experience was pretty much the same ^^

I will make some other posts including the photos I took over the 2 months.

But photos are limited!
While I was there..maybe 3 weeks in….the camera on my phone just stopped working. It literally died. Every single time I tried to start it, it would flash up with an error message. Really quite infuriated I asked Dan to take extra photos because my phone is dead. I did have my camera but the photos would be a little too grainy.

It sucks when your really good phone camera dies and you’re left with a crappy machine that was purposely made to take photos ^^;;

But anyway, more posts are in the making~

My job in China – The Airport Issue!

After spending what seemed like an eternity on the plane, alternating between awkwardly talking to a guy I just met a few hours before, and trying to sleep….we arrived at Beijing International Airport.

If I remember correctly we had like 2 hours until our next plane from Beijing to Changsha, so we grabbed some food~

At this point I’d like to say I had a very basic grasp on Chinese. One of my good friends was teaching me on an informal basis, and because I studied Japanese too I could read some of the characters which were similar to kanji.

Ordering food was a relatively painless experience. I have no idea what we ordered but for airport food it was tastyyyyy

We got 2 different things, looking at them now they look the same, but I assure you we got different things. No idea what though.

After eating we made our way to the gate, Dan abandoned for me like 20 minutes so I got myself a drink at this place:

And I had that guy staring at me the whole time~

The plan for when we arrive in Changsha was: we would get picked up by the headmaster of the school we would be working for. We were really grateful that anyone would be picking us up from the airport, let alone the headmaster!

It was time for us to board the plane, this time Dan and I weren’t sat next to each other we had a 9 or 10 year old boy in between us who…did not look great at all. The would be boring flight was made surprisingly intense as I spent the entire time on the edge of my seat thinking that I would suddenly have to move out of the way so this little kid could run to the bathroom.

But that is all irrelevant back story~

Issue One!

Once we arrived in Changsha we collected our bags…well I did.

Dan’s bag had not arrived.

After I had a mini panic, Dan went to talk to a member of the airport staff to try to find out what to do. I started scanning all of the people in waiting area for a guy who could possibly be a headmaster, hopefully he could sort this situation out?!

We had probably been in the airport for an hour by this point. Dan was having real difficulty trying to explain that he hadn’t got his bag and it seemed no one was going to collect us.

Issue Two!

While all of this was going on we tried to contact the woman who was kinda organising everything here in China and reporting back to the company in the UK and to our university. But we didn’t have any contact numbers. For anyone. The only phone number we had wouldn’t connect. I felt like we were stranded in Changsha airport. So I panicked some more.

Positive Outcome!

While Dan was sorting out his bag issue I was approached by two youngish looking guys.

One of them says to me “Excuse me. Are you from England?” to which I happily reply “Yes! I am” he then showed me a piece of paper with mine and  Dan’s flight details on. I internally celebrated, we are no longer stranded!

The guy told me that he is the headmaster’s nephew and he would be driving us to where we would be staying. I was like cool but…you need to help us resolve a situation first and directed him to a very desperate Dan.

Thankfully the guy sorted everything out. Turns out Dan’s bag was still in Beijing because the check in person back in London has messed it all up. -.-”

They were sending it to Changsha airport so someone would have to pick it up tomorrow for him.

After that was resolved the guy and his friend took us downstairs to KFC….yep, our 2nd meal in China was KFC~ literally the most perfect thing ever.

First Thing I Noticed!

I didn’t realise that fast food places in different countries had different tastes. Of course it makes perfect sense to me now, it just wasn’t something I had considered before.

I got the normal KFC chicken burger, but when I took that first bite I swear to god my mouth was on fire!

You see the thing about going to the south of China is…literally everything is spicy.

No lie.

Everything!!

As someone who didn’t like spicy things and would tear up just smelling a chilli, I’m sure you can imagine my struggle hahaha

But yaa, be aware that the ‘taste of home’ might not be what you expect, and double check your flight details before leaving your home country!

As you can tell I used to be quite an anxious person. I didn’t (and sometimes still dont) deal well with situtations that I don’t know how to handle, and missing luggage in a foreign country is definitely one of them!

Thankfully things weren’t as bad as I thought and the two guys arrived and helped Dan get his bag sorted out to be transfered to Changsha.

In the next post Ill talk about my first full day in China!

My job in China – backstory

In the summer of my first year at university (2014) I applied for a summer job teaching English in China.
I’ve posted about this on my old blog but I want to include it here too because it was such an eventful trip, however it will be so difficult to condense everything into one blog post. But today, I have decided to start!

Today I’m just going to go into details of what I was doing in China, why I was there, how I got there etc. just to paint a picture~

So, in university I studied Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and graduated with a first class degree, and honestly my experience in China contributed greatly to who I am as a person now.

The job that I saw advertised at my university in January was for an unpaid teaching assistant for 2 months in a summer school  with 1 week training which would result in a certificate. Thinking that this was amazing  I applied for the job and sent a cover letter as well as my really quite limited CV to the Careers and International Travel department at my university (who were advertising the job).

My university has been working alongside Teaching English In China for a number of years I believe, with a post graduate program. I think my time in China was the 2 time they actually opened a Summer School position for undergraduates.

3 weeks after the deadline I receive an email saying I was selected for an interview. I remembered that there was only 2 positions available for the job so  I wasn’t very confident that I would get it.

The interview was before the Easter holiday so…at the end of March 2014. I told them all about my past experience with working with children and that  I was doing a TESOL course at the moment and that I’ve always wanted to go to China (and my plan at the time was to eventually live and work in  Japan). Clearly I made a positive impression because fast forward to the end of April 2014, I received an email telling me that I was successful and I swear to god I wept I was so happy.

The job itself was advertised to be in Zhuzhou in the province of Hunan, however due to complications (which I will talk about in a separate post) we ended up staying and working in a different city called Lengshuijiang.

The other successful candidate was a 2nd year student at my university. The first time we met was in Heathrow airport on the way to China….I’m sure you can imagine the awkwardness.

After finding out we were successful we had to submit out passports and information so our university could apply for Visas for us. I believe we had holiday Visas because the work we were doing was unpaid volunteer work…or something like that.

Unfortunately due to complications we ended up having to apply for out Visa ourselves. Which resulted in a very pricey trip to Manchester on my part just to go to the Chinese Consulate*sigh*.

Once I was in China my job was to, well, assist. In my mind that means the teacher would be in the room and I would kinda do my English thing…you know, assisting

Well…that was what I thought…!

I ended up leading every single class while the teachers took the opportunity to take some time in the staff room. I’m not complaining (for the most part) I had fun playing games with the 5 year olds and…less fun attempting to engage 13-14 year olds in textbook work.

Unfortunately at my school I wasn’t permitted to change anything. I had to play the games they selected, I had to go through the textbooks with the older students without straying or making it fun in any way – which totally goes against what I learnt in my course, adapt the textbooks to make them engaging!

For me this was incredibly frustrating.

After 2 months of working in the school, we had 1 week before we need to travel to Changsha to complete the training for the certificate. So we took a 20 hour train(!!!!!) to Beijing <– definitely more on this later.

Following a week in Beijing, we travel back to Lengshuijiang and on to Changsha to complete the training~

TL;DR

My university advertised a 2 month teaching placement created by Teaching English In China (TEIC).
I applied and out of over 50 applicants me and another guy were successful~
I met the guy at the airport and we flew for about 10 or 11 hours to Beijing International Airport
I was meant to assist…I ended up leading

And that is pretty much the back story of my trip to  China…

Sh*t my Students say

Teaching in Spain for 2 years has definitely come with it’s challenges. But without a doubt my students are the ones who make it all worth while.

While I don’t use Spanish in my classroom, I don’t prohibit my students from using their native language – provided that English is the language that they use the majority of the time. After all, this is English class!

That being said I find that my students provide me with great colloquial phrases that I can use in my day to day (or not!) life here in Andalusia.

I’m sure as I continue with my classes I’ll remember some more but for now here are 5!

YO QUÉ SÉ!

A very common one, particulary with the students who haven’t particularly been paying attention. You ask them a question or give them a task such as “Celia, tell me what Ana did last night using reported speech”, and Celia tries to remember what Ana said but because she wasn’t paying attention, Ana gives her a look of “…?” and she gives up often throwing her hands in the air and exclaiming “ARGGGH YO QUÉ SÉ”

This phrase translates to “I don’t know” but I’d like to think it means something along the lines of “Duude, how tf could I know that?! Ask someone else!”

Either way it’s a clear indication that someone hasn’t been paying attention and if very fun to use. Especially if you’re dramatic like Celia.

 

NO ME SALE

Another good one. My students tend to use this one when they can’t quiiiiiite remember a word or an answer. It means something like “It’s not coming to me/ I can’t get it out”.

I love it when they get frustrated and just shout “POR QUÉ NO ME SALE!”

QUE DICES?/ QUE HACES?

Used very often particulary in a group of close students. They mean “what are you saying?” and “what are you doing?” respectively.

Often my students will try to explain using wild actions with has the rest of the class laughing going “que haces!?”. Or they’ll make a mistake and say something strange and just before I can say anything their classmates will shout “Que dices?!”

It’s all in good fun, it can be used in a jokey way or to express shock

TEACHER, NO PINTAAAAA!

Oh this one drives me nuts! We’re using mini whiteboards and I’ve given them a board pen, so naturally they scribble all over the board. No matter how many times I tell them not to or how many times I confiscate the pen, they do it.

Then they wonder why the pens “no pinta” BECAUSE YOU’VE WASTED ALL THE INK MANUEL, YOU’RE THE REASON NONE OF MY PENS WORK!

So yes, “no pinta” means the pen has run out of ink.

QUÉ HA DICHO?

“What did she say?”

In Andaluz because of the accent it sounds more like /kæ’ di:ʧɒ/ with the “qué” and “ha” blending together.

This one cracks me up. You’ve explained an activity, their heads are nodding because they understand and then you’re like okay, I’m going to ask so and so to explain to the class JUST IN CASE not every one got it. So you ask your ICQs (Instruction Checking Question) and get them to explain in their own words what they have to do and…..they blank look before they turn to their partner and whisper “Qué ha dicho?”.

Ah the endless battle.

Thankfully someone was paying attention and explained to the whole class and we were good to go. ICQs are important!