Chante Greene: A New Chapter in China

The Global Recruitment Team loves hearing from our candidates, whether it’s at the beginning or middle of a new journey. Recently Chante Greene, an educator originally from North Carolina, reached out to share her continuing story! We met Chante last year when she came to San Francisco for the ISS job fair, partnered with Teach Away.

Today Chante is enjoying life in Beijing with her three children. We’re thrilled to share this peek into their world!

The experience has been incredible so far. Yesterday my children and I hiked the Great Wall Mutianyu. Friday we will be visiting the Beijing Zoo to see the pandas. Everyone at our school has been extremely helpful and very friendly. The children have made friends already and seem to be transitioning nicely, and we’ve done more in the past 3 weeks that we’ve been here than what we typically would do in 6 months back home. It is a blessing to be in a position financially for the first time, that allows me to breathe without worrying over whether one activity is going to put us in a bind or not. For the first time in my life, I will be able to save money while allowing my children to have a new adventure 1-2 times a month. The children have already eaten authentic Indian and Chinese food, tasted Macaroons for the first time, journeyed to the Great Wall Mutianyu, visited Pandas at the Beijing Zoo, eaten Moon cakes for the Mid Autumn Festival, participated in a school-wide Service Learning Project, and seen part of a famous Chinese theatrical piece called “The Monkey King.” Last night we even went to McDonald’s and it was the funniest thing because all of our meals totaled to about $12.45 USD which is impossible to manage back in the US. Back home I would spend about $20-$30 per family meal. Now we’re spending half as much and sometimes less, while eating healthier, more filling meals.

Our Ayi started working for us on October 11th. and she has been incredible! An Ayi is basically a Chinese Nanny. She works for us 3.5 hours a day on school days to help me with chores and dinner prep so I can spend more time in the evenings spending quality time with my children. In addition, our Ayi is helping to teach us Chinese while we teach her English. 

The best part about being here, is how safe we feel. We can walk home from a restaurant on the weekends at 9pm and no one bothers us. We live on the school campus which is also nice, because the children can play on the playground whenever they want without fear of strangers bothering them because the school has guards 24/7. They don’t speak any English, but they are the sweetest people and always say hello.

The only downside is when the pollution gets high. We’ve had to adjust and remember to take our masks everywhere — the pollution level might be low in the morning but higher later in the day, or vice versa. So far, we’ve only had one bad pollution day that bothered my asthma (because I forgot my mask). Other than that, we’ve had at least 12-13 days out of the 15 we’ve been here where we didn’t need to wear masks at all. The winter will be a challenge, but aside from the air issue, this really is a great place to be.

Funny story to close out….within the first week, my children had already made friends and had playdates scheduled. We’ve been here one month as of today, and this weekend will be my first Mommy weekend. My kids have more of a social life than I do. I think that’s hilarious! We love our new home!”

And the whole team is glad to hear that, Chante! We look forward to continued Greene family updates as the school year goes on and you find more adventures in your new home.

 


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