AfroNinja posted:

I got an email from my work and they said it takes 15 days (instead of the normal 7) to get your visa renewed. There is no rush service available. HR sucks and decided to wait until the very last minute to renew everyone's visa which means now we all have to wait an extra week to get our passports back. Many people already booked tickets home so now everyone is hosed! There's gonna be a huge argument during our Wednesday meeting!

Tom Smykowski posted:

CHENGDU YAK CONSUMPTION MEET
I'll be down at WUHOUCI around 4 today. Then after some amount of time we can walk down the block into the Tibetan neighborhood and get YAK dinner (yak pie, yak ribs, yak dumplings, yak soup, yak etc). In between those two things we can awkwardly ruin people's photos at Jinli Street or shoot terrible crossbows or complain about the heat in a variety of locations. And if you feel the need to buy Tibetan religious whatnot, we can do that, too. The Tibetan neighborhood is like 97% religious shops, 2% restaurants, 1% hotels, and a pool hall.

Rental Sting posted:

Got my Z-visa. Leaving for Hong Kong International Airport tomorrow, and then from there, taking a ferry to Zhuhai.

Ceciltron posted:

I need to buy tea, anyone know what the best way for me to buy some good Pu-Erh is? I have no idea where to even start.

Jeoh posted:

Here's amateur video footage: http://cdn.videos.thetimes.co.uk.edgesuite.net/huMHFoZzpbIJ0EEHIdq4IZhlINZ2u2-9/DOcJ-FxaFrRg4gtDIwOmk2OjBrO97z6k

Magna Kaser posted:

How much to you want to spend? Long Sen Yuan (龙森园） is the best hot pot I've ever had, but it's also pretty expensive. I'm talking at least a few hundred RMB per person if you're going with less than 6. I think the soup itself starts at 200-300. With more people it becomes a bit more affordable. Their claim to fame is they spend a year developing their soups before putting them for sale. They're also pretty unique in that they only have one location, which means you will have to wait/make a reservation. It's pretty central and totally walk-able from line 2. you can check it out here.

Fall Sick and Die posted:

Arglebargle III posted:

Crossposting for ~serious business~ because I want people to see this.

Real advice time, and this time it's not about me or about my dumb job. We have a student who was pulled out of our program because her family didn't want to pay and because some cousins had a bad experience (probably failed out) of American universities. The thing is she's a top student, like #2 in her class, and she's back for a visit and talking about how miserable she is in Chinese high school and how she wants to come back to our program and go to an American university. I have no doubt that if she graduated from our program she would be accepted to a number of good American colleges, maybe with generous scholarships.

Her English is really good, her attitude is really good, her grades were almost perfect, she's one of those students for whom I would write a glowing college recommendation letter. She was one of the students selected for a trip abroad last year because of her English ability. She says that if it didn't cost anything she could continue here at our college prep program. A coworker suggested trying to get sponsorship for a scholarship at our program. We're all trying to think of ways to help her out.

Do you guys have any ideas?

Facepalm Ranger posted:

Thanks, so do I have to choose the year long course then?

Verlay posted:

Thanks! Do you know if it's possible for to study Chinese for a year at a Language university and then take courses at CAFA. The CSC site states "students who do not meet the language proficiency requirement for the major study shall take 1-2 years’ Chinese language classes before they start the major program" and "students with no prior knowledge of Chinese language shall take 1 year foundation courses at the assigned universities." I'm not sure if that means "study Chinese on your own time" or "we're going to make you learn Chinese here".

AfroNinja posted:

Corporate or not, EF still is a horrible place to work. At a franchise, anything goes and you'll be exploited to poo poo.

Corporate is full of loving assholes who think they are English masters because they read an article about teaching theories. My former Director of Studies (who transferred to corporate) spent an entire hour "teaching" us about all of these theories he used to increase the English level of his class. He did 10 weeks of research and was showing us pie charts and all this other hot garbage. He kept mentioning, over and over and over again, about how he dramatically increased the English usage by using new teaching theories. This man was super serious and truly believed his nonsense. The class he used for "research" was a Small Star Blue. It's the class for 1 - 2 year old kids. There were 5 of them. Oh and he taught them ONCE A WEEK and it was the ONLY class he taught. His presentation was the most ridiculous thing I ever witnessed. As soon as he was done, he passed off the class to me because hes a oval office. These kids couldn't even say or understand their own English name.

If you love sticking your head up your own rear end then corporate is for you!

SB35 posted:

Cool man, added it to the OP bookmark list. Having locally or at least pre-arranged transport is always recommended. Saved several hundred RMB over the "going" taxi-rate that way when I went skiing out in Yabuli (near Harbin) several years ago.


You gotta get in here more often, tell us about living in Xinjiang. Until now there really haven't been any goons living west of Xi'an/Chengdu

YF19pilot posted:

Yeah, so more than a month after getting rejected, my EF recruiter just left a message on my phone and sent a couple of emails saying they've got positions open and are willing to offer me a position. Probably gonna sleep on it at the moment, but I'm just a little wary of it. Could also be the bitter taste of retail and having just been turned down for a technical sales position is making me leery of job offers.

I am still apt to teaching abroad, just finding this out of the blue "sorry we rejected you we'll hire you now" kinda questionable.

Facepalm Ranger posted:

Ugh so it's a test you do in China, not your home country? I'm out by £145 then because the south-west website was not very clear?

Facepalm Ranger posted:

And I still have about £50 to pay for a chest x-Ray... I say "about" as the dip-poo poo at the reception desk couldn't give me an exact amount. Seriously, £10? I thought I was being taken for a ride, now I think it even more!


Not too bad I guess, it's just been stressful as I've been stumbling around in the dark hoping the pieces will all fit correctly.

China. (It does work a little!)

Any with some luck I should be in Chengdu in time for Chinese New Years celebrations and have a month to settle before beginning my course, I'm coming for you Chengdu Goons...

synertia posted:

Looks like he's pregnant with a turd, boys.

Grand Fromage posted:

How often do most of you guys sport the masks? Moving to China is a possibility for me down the line but I'm not really looking forward to the idea of living in an apocalyptic wasteland where you need a breathing apparatus to go outside.

Rong posted:

Quality brother. I promise you will have never looked better.

TheBuilder posted:

Honestly any tshirt lets any laowai leave a party with two local girls.

Almond Crunch posted:

i mean in russia but me not having a smartphone is more about cognizance of my own inability to not lose valuable things than it is about where i have been living.

I mean i've had my first phone for about 5 years now and never lost it but i've upgraded like two or three times and always lost my new phones within weeks. it recalls an incident in 3rd grade where i got a sweet new watch which was quickly lost; My parents (as was I) were really confused how i lost something which is literally strapped to my arm but you know these things happen

Almond Crunch posted:

dafuq is WCDMA
edit: I think I'd better not even ask what it is; how do I find out if a phone has it?

And yes I did read the OP. I just didn't understand a word of it. An hour with wikipedia taught me some of the basics but it's still p much gibberish to me.

gwrtheyrn posted:

Just drink more hot water

caberham posted:

The utilities thing might be a scam. I know EF Hangzhou use to charge 300 kuai per person when the bill was only 100 ish. Yeah, really dodgy. Have you tried PMing other goons here your resume? I think a few people here might have a lead or two.