what part of the country are you in?
i am 2 hours southwest of shanghai. shanghai is like the largest city in china, the equivilent to say, new york or paris. (apparently in newsweek, shanghai was described as the "future world capital"...i haven't confirmed this though.) if you don't know where shanghai is, shame on you, and look it up right now. i'll even provide a map for you.
what are the living conditions like?
first, bed mattresses are very hard - or to put it in a positive way, very firm. i actually kind of like it now that i'm used to it. good support for your back. the girls i came out with complain though. my apartment thankfully has a "western style" toilet, although in most places (including KFC I learned recently) the toilet is kind of like a glorified porcelin hole. TV has at least 2 english channels. i have heat in my room (although many student dorms apparently do not...students will go to the library some nights to sleep). no one drinks tap water unless it is boiled (cold drinking water is fairly new phenomemon i think...teas and hot water are usually the norm in non-Western restaraunts). washing machines are common, but i have yet to hear of someone with a dryer - you'll see laundary strung up in some of the oddest places.
furthermore, I have found that outward appearances can be particularly deceiving in china...many buildings look run down (and some look on the verge of being condemned) but often times i have been very surprised at how nice the interior is (my apartment is an example).
are you with other English teachers from the US?
yes. michael also works with the babel english training center. hes been at it for 6 months already, and this is his third time in china. he studied international relations in college and speaks chinese fairly well. so he was a bit of a crutch for me the first few days - someone to hang out with, show the good places to eat, and speak english to. i came out with 3 girls, but they've all gone to neighboring towns to work in high and middle schools (but they often come to visit during the weekends). their experience has been a bit different from what i can ascertain from their emails (i live in the big city where foreigners are more common).
are you ever bored?
honestly, never. my schedule is erratic and at times challenging (i work 6 days a week); i've only explored a fraction of hangzhou; i have four close chinese friends i regularly meet with to play ping, hang out in coffee shops, hike up mountains, exchange language; there are numerous tourist sites and neighboring cities to travel to on my day off; i've begun telecommuting to powersource and BYU newsnet to get some work done for them; on the weekends atleast one of my american friends come into town, and michael and his girlfriend join us for a night on the town. and i still haven't hit up shanghai or suzhou yet.
i was not expecting to have so much fun...to be honest, i saw china primarily as a intellectually stimulating experience, and i was expecting more of an experience that my female collegues are having (smaller town, more cut off, etc). but hangzhou is the best city i could have asked for - a great mix of everything - and i am so lucky to have made the contacts and friends i have.
do you just eat rice?
yes.
no! in fact, i eat a lot more noodles and dumplings than rice. and anyway, they eat rice at the END of the meal, as a final filler, not usually during. and if i'm in the mood, there are tons of western places to eat here - pizza huts, KFCs, McDonalds, etc etc ...and real chinese cuisine is quite diverse. but more on food later. there is too much to say about this topic.
can you speak Chinese?
a little. oh its depressing actually. i thought after my semester of mandarin 101 i was going to kick booty with the language - as if every conversation was really going to be slow paced and only about the weather, wanting to eat food, and buying shirts (i still have a limited vocabulary). when i'm not teaching, hanging with michael, or eating i'm usually studying, thinking about studying, or banging my head against my books with a futile resignation and wish that i was better disciplined in the tedious chore of language learning or at least so brilliant that studying was unnecessary.
are you going to permanently relocate to China?
i had conclusively decided that during the first two days. its so cheap to live here and i love the people and the atmosphere of it all. but now i've decided to back off from my decision and consider the possibility of a temporary residency. but i'd still like to raise my kids for at least a couple years in china.
what is your schedule like?
babel language center (my employer) schedules me for around 20 teaching periods per week. because they are not an actual school, weekends are often the busiest days. monday is my only full day off (i have a class on sunday which is a bummer but it can't be helped - its their busiest day and they've ensured that my sunday mornings will be off so i can go to church somewhere in the city)...so in some ways, it totally feels like the mission. :) i usually have one small class in the morning and 2-3 afternoon classes. i travel to about 5 different kindergartens, elementary schools, and college campuses to conduct classes - usually with a babel chinese english teacher/representative.
are you getting paid for this or do they just pay for your housing etc. and call it even?
I am actually quite an investment for the company...they are paying for the flight over, medical tests, work visa, housing, utilities, and giving me a monthly salary (and i'm not allowed to publicly disclose it), which mostly goes to food and necessities. (i suspect you could live comfortably with only 100$ a month on food). now that i have this connection i could really forgo working with the american company that set me up (they've really not done much, considering the fee they charged, but i wouldn't have known what to do then).
what about the cost of food?
i can get a really really good and filling plate of beef fried noodles, or a plate full of dumplings, or a chinese style hamburger life-size replica at a small joint, for around 6 RMB. (8.25 RMB = 1$). I recently discovered a very popular and good restaurant that will fill me up for as little as 4 RMB. KFC and mcdonalds is roughly half the cost here (about 18-20 RMB for a combo meal). pizza hut is actually a higher scale restaurant here, and the cost is about the same as the US (and therefore outrageously expensive here). a classy, nice sit down place, local to the area, a good meal is around 30-60 RMB (about $4-9). street vendors in some spots will sell you stuff in the 2-5 RMB range.
although i have this nifty detached, fully equipped kitchen unit, its tough to justify the time, money, cleanup, and overrall hassle of cooking for oneself when you can eat well for so cheap.
one thing to note: hangzhou is a BEAUTIFUL town beloved of tourists but the cost of living is actually higher than other places (big city prices). so its even cheaper in other cities. in fact, some people work for beans here but take their savings to the countryside and live like kings.