Red Lantern: ATH - SVO

I'm sitting on a crowded plane from ATH (Athens) to SVO (Moscow - Sheremetyevo) and will continue to PVG (Shanghai - Pudong) from there this evening. I shall arrive at 9.50 am local time, after a 20 hours long journey if you count the to and fro the airport.

Even though summer isn't the best season to visit Shanghai (too rainy, too hot, too humid), and even though one could suggest that it would be better to rather spend the summer in the 'Sommerfrische' as the Germans say, I'm looking forward to the next three months.

It was uncertain until a few weeks ago where I'd go this summer. It was either Hull or Shanghai, but things took a sudden turn and that's why I'm going eastward instead of northward.

The first email from earlier this year sounded highly positive. It mentioned 50+ students divided in three groups, four teachers from Hull and a few from SISU. A month or so later, just before Easter, a second email arrived, saying that many students had decided to do the course in Hull and not in Shanghai, that's how Hull came into the game as a summer destination. Geoff, one of the people in charge flew over from Hull the week after Easter and thanks to Howard who did the recruitment in various places in China 50+ students registered. So we were back in the game and had to act fast with booking tickets and applying for visas.

Getting a visa was a difficult task. The Chinese authorities in the consulate didn't like one word in the invitation letter, which is 'teacher'. It says that we're teachers at Hull university and it states our duties (recruiting, giving information, etc.). It doesn't mention teaching, because we are not allowed to teach on a business visa. But still the word teacher is enough for the Chinese authorities to reject the visa application.

I was asked to have a private word with the man in charge and he asked me many questions. It was like an inquisition. Two more joined the little gathering and it looked like a scene from the films. Only a lamp turned towards me was missing. I managed to convince them that I won't be teaching in Shanghai and that my duties will be as stated in the letter.

After a long discussion and a second meeting with the very same gentlemen my application was approved and I received my passport with a 90 day business visa a few days later.

Ten or so days after receiving my visa, I am sitting on a fully booked plane to Moscow. I hate this leg of the journey, because it's always fully booked, noisy, narrow and it lasts four hours. The seats are not comfortable and there's limited space for tall people like me. I try to book an aisle seat if possible to stretch my legs a bit. The plane is usually full of young Chinese couples on their honeymoon and sitting next to such a toying couple that likes to tease each other and do all sorts of romantic things for four hours is a pain. Giving them the evil eye doesn't help.

But it can be worse. You might find yourself sitting next to some drunk and smelly Russians.

I arrive in rainy Moscow and have to wait for nearly three hours for my next flight. You exit the plane, get on a bus that takes you to the terminal. There you have to go up some stairs and go through transit check. There's always a long queue and it takes ages to go through. There's usually only one official checking passports, visas, boarding passes, etc. Once done, your hand luggage needs to be scanned, and there's only one scanning machine. All this takes place in a narrow room. Certainly not suitable for claustrophobic people.
Sheremetyevo airport is in my opinion not an airport that makes you feel comfortable. It's long and narrow, seats are limited, toilets are dirty and despite the no-smoking signs, everybody smokes in there. The shops sell mainly booze and chocolate and it's crowded wherever you go.

After spending my waiting time on a stair case, I board another fully booked plane full of Chinese. At least this leg of the trip is more comfortable. I'm flying with Aeroflot and they have besides economy and business, a comfort class as well. It's something between the other two classes. The seats are wider, more comfortable, there's a console with reading lamps between you and the next passenger, it's two instead of three seats next to each other, there's more legroom, the seats don't become a bed, but are reclining in a way that you don't disturb the one behind you, there are sockets to charge your devices, you get many drinks, food is better than economy, there's proper and no plastic cutlery, etc.

The almost 9 hour flight is long. I work on two translations, play a game on my iPad and listen to music. I also sleep a few hours until the stewardess wakes me for breakfast. An older Chinese lady, who sleeps most of the time is sitting next to me, which is more pleasant than the young toying couple from the first leg.

Good morning Shanghai. It has been a long journey once again.

I go through immigration, take my luggage from the belt, walk though customs and look for a driver holding up a paper with my name on it. I find the young man and follow him to the car park. I was told by one of the ladies from the China office who booked the driver, that the car would be a Buick. It's not a Buick he manoeuvres out of the parking lot, but a VW Touran that makes me think of the recent scandal. At least a posh one with brown leather interior. The driver offers me a bottle of water when I get in.

Almost an hour later we arrive at the guest house on campus where I stayed last year. I go to the reception and am told that there’s no reservation for me. I’m asked if I know who made the reservation, but of course I don’t know. I message a few people and get a reply from the China office a few minutes later telling me that they're looking into it. Some more minutes later I receive another message saying that a teacher from SISU booked a room for me, not in the guest house but in the SISU hotel, a ten minutes walk. This teacher arrives a few minutes later to pick me up and walk me to the hotel. The hotel is located at the corner of two main roads, it’s an old communist building and looks shabby from the outside. The style of the lobby is not worth mentioning, but I immediately notice that there’s no air conditioning and that the air is coming from a fan. I check in and have to carry my two suitcases up some stairs to go to the lifts. I arrive on the 12th floor, find my room, open the door and find myself in a tiny, dirty, filthy, hot and sticky room. I’m sweating like crazy and try to find the switch for the a/c. I find one and turn it to 3, only to realise that the room doesn’t have an air con, but just a simple ventilation system. The air coming from the ceiling is not cooling the room at all. The windows are dirty and even though they are closed (you can't even open them, they are possibly blocked) you hear the noise from the street as if you were there. I can’t imagine myself living in this room for three months and send some messages around and ask to be moved somewhere else.

I’m dead tired, sweaty and have to finish and submit my translations, that’s why I don’t take any action yet. When I finish my translations, I walk back to the guest house and ask if there are rooms available. There are. I'm shown a few rooms and choose one on the 16th floor directly opposite the room I had last summer. It’s nice, clean, friendly, spacious and offers a great view. I take it. I'm advised to stay in the hotel for the night to avoid double paying and move in in the morning after 8am. this I do.

I go back to my sticky and depressing room and take a long bath (the best thing about the room is that it has a bathtub), work on a project for an American firm and go to bed. I get up at 6.30am, go to the breakfast room at 7, see that the room is very big, very communist style, which I like, even though it has a depressing aura, there’s only one other guest there and the breakfast is very poor. I have a toast and a fried egg and leave. At the check out I’m told that I don’t have to pay, because I’m a teacher and that the school would pay. Really? I don’t think that’s true. Since they refuse to take my money, I return the key and walk off. A few minutes later I’m at the SISU guest house, check in, get my key and go up to my room. Hardly there, I receive a message from Arthur from SISU asking me why I didn’t pay. I explain and he tells me that that was a mistake and that I have to pay. When I go back to the hotel in the evening, the receptionist doesn’t speak any English, but we find a foreign girl who speaks Chinese and translates for us. The receptionist can’t find my booking and asks me to return on Monday to ask again when the manager is there.

I'm going to meet my foreign colleagues in a cafe on campus and then we walk to the meeting room in the building we will be teaching this summer, where Howard our boss for the summer, will hold a staff meeting. All the Chinese colleagues gather together, there are some familiar faces from last year and there's lunch spread out. Howard tells us all about the various modules and changes and afterwards the colleagues of each module gather in little groups to discuss the proceedings.
Arthur, our helping soul, hands out our office keys and shows us where it is. I have to smile when I see the room number: 404. Four means death.

My day finishes with a visit a the 'Blind People Massage Parlour'. There's a massage parlour a few minutes walk from campus, where all the staff are blind. The treatment is absolutely fantastic. You feel like a new person afterwards.

SISU Hotel off campus