Thalea &Stacey Take China- The begining

Where do I begin… I am pretty much still in transitioning stage of this move but been kept so busy with work ( reminder to self that’s why I am here) Its been insanely crazy.

Let’s start at the beginning, After a 25-hour flight and a stop in Dubai and Beijing we finally arrived in Hangzhou a city where I am based for the next year. For those of you who are new to CHB ( Cherrryheartsblog) welcome. The reason for my move was to teach English and travel. Cape Town will always be my home, and I miss my family and friends, but China is where I am this season in my life.

Back to the point before I start meandering off on a tangent that makes no sense. So, we arrived safely in Hangzhou at around 9 pm at night then waited an hour for bags that never arrived…. We then spoke to the baggage claim who confirmed our bags are in Beijing, and they will return it to us as soon as possible.

With a one-day survival kit in our hand luggage, we set off into the unknown. An HR lady called Indie was waiting for us as soon as we saw the sign we were excited to get the show on the road. We then took a bus and a taxi to our new apartment. Only arriving at our place at 12am. One thing you will soon learn about China is the outside of buildings, and the inside are never the same.Even if the building looks run down from the outside it could look good inside. After nearly 30 hours of traveling all I wanted to do, was sleep. The apartment wasn’t too bad two bedrooms, a lounge bathroom kitchen and balcony area.

We then slept till 12pm the next day woke up and decided to go to the city. We needed to get a change of clothes and some toiletries as we had no clue as in when we would get our bags back. So off we went. Now arriving at night not knowing where we were and seeing this place in the day time was a surprise. We found a coffee shop, and they could not speak English with some WiFi and a translator app we managed to ask them to help us find a taxi to go to the city.

It was cool exploring getting around everything is so different the clean streets, the wide streets, people everywhere and the ever grey sky. Its so crazy how you never see the sky here because the pollution is so bad. We found some awesome shops and then found H&M we don’t have this store back home. They were having a sale, so we bought some things to wear for the next day,we bought toiletries and even found this Technology center. Stacey got her laptop screen fixed for cheap in a manner of minutes.

After a successful day in the city, we managed to make our way back home. The next day was filled with admin.We got sim cards, went for our medical exam, got bank accounts and finally saw our new office English First the School we will be teaching at.

We met some of our Colleagues, and we finally got great news the airport was going to have our bags dropped off at the school.Once we got our bags we set off home, we got lost with huge suitcases walking the streets was no joke the constant humidity is something I will never get used too. Stacey found a nice guy who offered to help us he had a bike and dropped or bags at our place. Having our stuff back felt good we could finally unpack and make this new place feel somewhat like home…..

I think I will stop there for now and continue very soon with whats been happening next every day is an adventure here from getting lost and soaked in thunder storms but more about that in my next post. Hope you enjoy some of the pictures.( my camera broke on the first day just my luck)

Peace love and Happiness

Cherry ♥