Arrival Day| 4 min read
The TTC team was up bright and early preparing everything for the big day. After months of planning and organising, the day had finally arrived; interns arrived from all around the globe to begin their month of training, bonding and cultural acclimatising here in Beijing. Interns arriving from the UK, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Slovakia, America and Australia, where all picked up by the TTC girls in their blue TTC t-shirts from Beijing Airport. Many of the interns had been travelling for over 24 hours and were understandably eager to get to their ‘home’ for their next month. Groups of interns were collected and taken to the training centre. They were all briefed on what to do on arrival so that their check-in would be as quick and pain-free as possible.
The team back at the University had set up three desks which interns were to visit in turn once they had arrived. Interns checked the notice board for their room number before stepping up to the first desk to hand over their passports for visa checks; following this they checked over their details on a form waiting for them a desk 2. Next up was desk 3 where interns were given a welcome pack with water, a notepad and pen, an English/Chinese phrasebook, a TTC t-shirt, a Beijing map and an arrival package prepared by TTC which included an itinerary for the first few days, some advice on calling home and some emergency contact details for the TTC staff.
Once interns were checked in, armed with their room keys and their welcome packs, they were helped to their rooms; with some of our stronger TTC staff carrying their luggage! Once all of their luggage had been taken to the their rooms and it was ensured the air-conditioning was on in every room (a must on arrival day- it was nearly 40 degrees!), interns were left to shower and relax ready for their orientation talks the following day.
TTC Assistant Kianie- “Everything went so smoothly on arrival day and we were all surprised at how fast the day rushed by! Hopefully this is a sign of things to come and everyone here at the training centre will have a stress-free, fun-filled month!”
Interns thoughts…
What were your first thoughts of China on arrival day?
“It was very hot!” – Phillip S.
“Sweaty! It’s was like 15C degrees more than I’m use to” – Andrew H.
What are your thoughts about this program?
“Meet heaps of new people, and get a view of a lot of different cultures!” – Phillip S.
“You’re kinda free. I thought it would be a very strict program, but there seems to be freedom and everyone seems more easy going.” – Andrew H.
What was the first thing you noticed about being in China?
“The signs! All the Chinese characters everywhere look really exotic.”- Ann F.
“Wow! There are a lot of people. I’m from a small town so it really stood out to me.” – Phillip S.
“The Shopping is so different! Some of the stuff you can buy at the markets are out of this world; fried scorpions, cockroach, snakes. It’s so Chinese!” – Silie S..
“The roads. Some don’t have lines marked, it’s crazy! Kinda like a free for all!” – Tyler G.
“The zebra crossings, the cars don’t always stop!” – Linda K..
How was TTC welcome?
“Yeah, I think it was good! My room-mate is awesome, so I think that was organised very well.” – Phillip S.
“I was one of the earliest people, so I just dropped my stuff off and went touring. Everything was already organised it was great!” – Andrew H.
“It was very good, and very fast” (does some finger clicking do demonstrate the speediness!) – Ann F.
