Thames Pirate wrote:
> Yet they want hundreds
> and even thousands of dollars for their service? That's crazy, and it is
> absolutely exploiting teachers who are perhaps a bit naive.

This. Exactly this. I just came across the Staffroom people's most recent posts in my LinkedIn feed. Their prices are outrageous, especially as non-native English speakers are their target audience. In many countries, these teachers already have reduced salaries compared to their western peers, so the ridiculous markup on a resume workshop or LinkedIn touchup -- to say nothing of the absurd percentage of a salary they ask for if they "place" a teacher who-knows-where -- is practically highway robbery. Besides, given their shameless marketing, I'd wonder how much of their workshops are set aside to try and upsell people on one of their other "services."

Most recent update is that folks getting in will depend on the vaccination rate within Taiwan. They don't want to loosen border restrictions until more people have received both shots. There are still a number of groups in the priority ranking who haven't gotten their first jab yet. It's gonna take a while.

Check out schools in Taichung, as well. There are several WASC accredited schools in the city as well as one IB-authorized school. The IB school in particular has a mix of foreign and local staff teaching in both the MYP and DP.

Maybe also check out Hsinchu? Though the schools I've heard about there seem to be worth avoiding.

I have the opposite problem--no mold in the school, TONS in my apartment. We treat it every month, hire folks to come in and take care of it, and still it persists! Then again, I'm in Shanghai and it's really humid and damp here throughout the year.

If I have mold in my home--school=provided or not==I figure it's at least partly my responsibility to take care of it. In the school, on the other hand, they'd better get on that. Chinese "standards" of construction, health, and safety seem to be flexible or non-existent, depending on where the owner has connections.

It says so right on the back of your entry/departure card. Every time you get a stamp for entering China, you're supposed to go to the closest police station to your residence within 24 hours to register. Every time you leave and come back.

If you stay at a hotel, the hotel registers you. It's a painless process--the desk that does it is never busy and it takes about 2 minutes total.

It usually loads up for me, but GChat functionality usually goes in and on. Attachments are iffy, particularly downloading. Keeping a VPN on clears up just about every issue with China's internet, thankfully.

I've been in Shanghai since August, and air quality was (and is) one of my major concerns. I have asthma, although it hasn't been an issue since I was a little kid. On a day to day basis, the air quality is generally poor. You can taste it, sometimes. We had a few really dreadful days in December when the AQI went above 500 (which is essentially OFF the scale). It was smoggy inside my school that day.

The air is worse in more congested parts of the city. On that awful Friday in December, the AQI went over 600 in the JingAn district, which is a pretty popular part of town. Lots of the big international schools are more on the outskirts, where the quality will be bad, but not quite as bad as the central districts. I recently moved to the southernmost district of the city when my school moved to a new campus and the air is A LOT better down here. We're also a solid 60-70 km away from Shanghai proper, so that's a factor as well.

If I had kids and I was looking at a job that would pay well and take care of their schooling, I'd still go for it. There are precautions I can take to mitigate the effects of the poor air (filters at home, masks outside, etc.) and the rewards of being in a great city are worth it. The really bad days are a handful, and there's plenty to do indoors.

I'm about to head to China as well, and I'm probably going to switch to Astrill. I've used StrongVPN for the past few years with no issues, but the general consensus I've seen from folks behind the Great Firewall is that Astrill is the one to get.