(upbeat music)
- (foreign language)
I'm Aleese and I currently live in Beijing, China.
I've been here for about five months
and I'm so excited to take you on a wild,
random, hot, glorious glimpse into my life.
So, let's go!
Mmmmm.
Okay, so let's start with my favorite part
about these takeovers,
the apartment tour.
And I love my apartment,
so I am proud to show it off.
So let's start with the view.
I live on the 19th floor of a very nice building.
And on a really clear day,
you can see gorgeous mountains all the way back there.
But not today.
This right here is the subway.
I live super close to the subway,
about a three minute walk.
So that is glorious.
And I have three very big windows.
So take a look at my studio apartment.
It all came furnished.
Decor all by moi.
I've got my bed here.
Air conditioning.
Essential, absolutely essential.
Some plants that make me feel happy.
My big, red, pleather, New Jersey style couch.
That's my kitchen over here.
And my refrigerator.
I love plants.
Got my TV.
TV stand.
This is my closet which is very, very big.
I would say that this is a little uncommon in China
to have such a big closet.
Here is my air purifier.
Again, super necessary if you live here in Beijing.
My refrigerator that's got
a very American pizza menu for Papa John's.
This is my kitchen.
It's really nice.
I've got a microwave,
a gas stove,
a hooded range thing.
Lots of cabinet space.
Nice sink.
And then here we've got my mirror.
This is my shoe closet and just random things.
Here is my lovely front door,
where I take my shoes off.
My collection of masks.
Again, essential if you're going to live here in Beijing.
And then, my lovely Western style bathroom.
So I've got a Western style shower.
That's like a water heater thing.
Nice toilet.
My massive collection of toiletries.
My washer again.
Sink.
And there's me.
So that's about it.
So that right there is my apartment building.
I'm now on my way to find a bike
so I can go get some breakfast.
I'll take you along with that adventure.
But in the meantime,
if you have any questions feel free to ask.
So aside from the subway,
my second form of transportation is this right here.
I'm not talking about the scooter.
No way.
This beautiful,
(laughs)
bike here.
It's one of the many bike shares in China.
Here's another one.
Basically, you download an app.
You scan the QR code.
Costs about two (foreign language).
Less than 50 cents and you are
(snaps fingers three times)
good to go.
(car horn beeps)
Love hate relationship with Chinese grocery stores.
Because on one side,
I can like M&Ms, Dove chocolate.
You know, very recognizable things.
And on the other,
there's things like this.
And like this and like this.
The grocery stores here are all very very nice.
The most exciting part is always the fresh fish
because it's basically just like
a giant aquarium.
But I am a vegetarian
and don't eat any of this.
So, oh!
Oh!
They got one!
Oh!
It's still alive in the bag!
I've never seen this before.
Oh, she gon' kill it!
Oh my god.
Wow!
Oh!
So that was quite the welcome to China
but that's just kind of how it goes here.
Every day is a surprise.
Culture shock happens constantly
and I never know what to expect.
Right now I am at a beautiful park
called Olympic Forest Park.
Actually the largest man made park in Beijing.
It's about a 15 minute bike ride from my apartment.
So let me tell you a little bit about myself.
I took the ITA course online last year.
I was living in New York City
for about nine and a half years.
I used to be a tv producer.
Sounds like a glamorous job.
But I got really tired of traveling
non-stop for work
and my life just being about work
and not having a personal life
and not having any benefits or time for myself.
So I decided that I wanted to travel the world
and make money.
How else to do that but to teach English.
So in China,
I teach at an adult training center
called Wall Street English.
We teach strictly adults 18 and up.
I absolutely love it.
I am a first time teacher
so I was very nervous that I wouldn't have
the classroom management skills
to handle children.
So I'm super thankful that I found
a really good reputable training school for adults.
Here comes the train!
So it is 12:15.
I'm on my way to work.
I work from 1 pm until 9 pm.
I work on the weekends
but my schedule changed a little bit.
I don't know if you can hear me.
I feel like it's so loud.
So let me say some more when I get on the train.
Train views.
So anyway, as I was saying.
I work on the weekends.
My schedule is a little different on the weekends.
I usually work from 10 to 6 or 11 to 7.
But during the week I work 1 pm to 9 pm
which is nice because I always have
my mornings to myself
and I get home and I kind of just like knock right out.
So I have two consecutive days off
which are Thursday and Friday.
I love having Friday off.
I usually go explore.
I've been taking a lot of day trips lately
because there's a lot of cool cities near Beijing.
But check out how empty the subway is
on a weekday.
That is one of the perks.
(both laugh together)
One of the perks about going to work late.
Okay so I've spent about 45 minutes
prepping for my classes.
And I wanted to show you around my center
a little bit.
Usually I teach six classes every day.
There are four different types of classes.
So it's not the same every day.
The maximum amount of students in our smaller
assessed classes is only six.
But on average I'd get about three or four students.
I teach a lot of one on one VIP students
who pay a premium price
just to have a one on one tutoring session
with the teacher.
But take a look around.
So we've got desks here
and computers.
This is called the speaking center
where students come and practice their speaking.
There's Lee.
Hi Lee!
One of the offices.
Everything is glass.
It's very transparent here.
More offices.
And here we have classrooms.
There's a teacher there setting up.
It can be a little awkward sometimes
because as you can see
I work in a big mall so a lot of times
random people will just come here
and stand and watch me teach.
But whatever.
So all of my materials for my classes
are already paid.
That is awesome.
I really love that about being here.
There are two classes every month
that I do have to prepare myself
but it's usually kind of like a long form
PowerPoint presentation and it's pretty easy.
So I am in the middle of teaching a class.
This is my lovely student, Hillary.
- Hi.
- So Hillary.
- Mm hmm?
- Why are you learning English?
- Because learning English is my dream.
When I was a little kid I think
I want to speak English
like a native English speaker.
So now I have time.
I have to finish my dream.
- So amazing.
So inspiring.
Thank you Hillary.
Such a great student!
Wow.
Really, really out here pushing people.
You really gotta push.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Uh!
Oh!
You see, we made it.
You see we made it.
It's really hmmmm.
(foreign language)
Mmmm.
That's how we say cheers in Chinese.
I don't drink often
but I am tired.
And I have two new pimples right here.
Thank you pollution, mmmm.
So I wanted to quickly talk about
the things that I absolutely love about China.
I am smitten with the culture, the history, I mean.
It doesn't even compare to America.
Not at all.
I feel like my country,
the history of my country is so inferior
to what China has, has been, and is
and what will be.
It is extremely eye opening to live in a developing country.
You know, I learn new things about China all of the time.
Like, I didn't know that tourism wasn't allowed
until like the 1970s.
I didn't know that there was no roads in China
until like the 1960s.
So these things are extremely eye opening
and I love, love, love to know about them.
Another thing I really love about China
is the people.
They are so incredibly nice.
Yesterday it was pouring down raining
and I ruined my shoes and taught one of my classes barefoot.
And after class
my student felt bad for me
and went and bought me a new pair of shoes!
Just ridiculously sweet.
All of my friends
help me with everything.
They always have my back.
They're always ready to talk to.
There's a million other reasons
as to why I love China.
So if you have any more questions
or if you wanna know
or if you're interested in coming here
or you wanna teach adults
holla at your girl.
Let me know.
I wanna end my takeover by saying
your mind is a garden.
Your thoughts are the seeds.
You can grow flowers
or you can grow weeds.
Whatever you wanna do, it's up to you.
My whole life motto
is do you boo.
Thanks for watching.
Again my name is Aleese.
And signing out.
(tongue clicking against teeth)
Bye bye.