Week 1 Update- Travel to Macau

Sorry for the delayed post, everybody. I have just gotten internet in my apartment, so I am going to give you an update about my travels to Macau this week. This weekend, I will give you another update about how I am getting settled. So, without further ado...

On Sunday, January 4th, I boarded this plane to Macau via Taipei:

It was a 13.5 hour flight to Taipei and I had an overnight layover in the airport. While it was the longest flight I have ever been on, it was about as comfortable as one could have asked. In an effort to avoid jet lag, I stayed up for all but 2 hours of the flight knowing that it may allow me to actually sleep in Taipei. I watched all kinds of movies, some good (Boyhood) and some not-so-good (The Equalizer). The food was also better than I expected. I sat next to an American who works in Taiwan and Macau, which was also beneficial. He did not really want to talk much, but we made it work.

After landing in Taipei, I got the pleasure of spending the night in the airport. It was a beautiful airport. There was an orchid garden and a zen garden (below) where I ultimately slept a little bit.

It was a rough night of sleep, but the excitement of the last leg of my journey was building. I arrived into Macau at about 11am and was met by the awesome HR director, Jeanie. She helped taxi me to the hotel for the week, immediately got me a sim card for the phone and pointed me in the direction of the school. I was hoping to fight through, but the jet lag got to me, so I crashed for a few hours before meeting some folks for dinner. The director and his wife, along with Gretchen, who is an Art teacher who has been doing the counseling in my absence took me to hot pot. It was basically Melting Pot with the broth and all kinds of balls of fish, tofu, veggies, etc. We had a good time and good conversation. Everybody was recovering from holiday break and it was nice meeting people. 

The next morning, I visited the school for the first time to meet Jeanie. She has set up meetings with real estate agents for me to begin apartment hunting. Here is a picture from my exploration:

It is a very nice building that I am just getting to know. There are multiple roofs with outdoor basketball and tennis courts. School of the Nations is a K-12 school with an IB curriculum. 70% of the faculty are expats from all over the world, so we are in the same boat. I will tell you more about the school and people in another post.

The first, and most important, part of my transition was to secure a new apartment. The real estate market in Macau is crazy. Rents are much higher than other places for much crappier accommodations than I am used to :). Here is an example of terrible purple-ish cabinetry (sorry for not being able to rotate it) and pink fuzzy couch that the realtors showed me:

We visited about 10 apartments across the Taipa and Coloane areas of Macau. I could not understand anything that the real estate agents were saying. Were it not for Jeanie joining me, I would have been completely lost. I found an awesome, brand-new apartment in the more rural part of Macau. It has a brand-new gym and pool, too. I am very excited to be living here and am pumped to be overlooking the panda park in Macau! 

By far, the toughest part of the transition has been the language barrier. All of the people have been exceedingly nice, but I can't read any sign or menu and can only talk to a handful of people outside the school. My hope is to learn as much of the language while I am here, but you never know. I am beginning to make friends and getting into a routine. More about the people and idiosyncrasies in the future. Hope you are well!

Much love,

Bryan