9/28/09
1) They Tend to Have Their Pants on Backwards:
It is common for kindergarteners to go to school all day. Therefore, they eat, nap, and have snacks at school. (In America I went to kindergarten only in the morning. We used to have AM and PM classes. I think that’s how it’s still done. Makes more sense to me to do it that way…) Anyhow, I often teach the kids right after they awake from their naps. I ALWAYS have at least 3-4 students per class have their pants on backwards. WTF?! The teachers must be exposed to so many wardrobe malfunctions that they don’t fix any of them.
2) They Love to be “Tickled” and Give/Receive High Fives:
My students looooove high fives. It brings an instant smile to their faces. If they bring me the right graphic, they get a high five. If they tell me the right answer, they get a high five. And so on. If they have been good during a particular class, I will go around the room at the end and give them all high fives. About half respond with, “tickle!” So, you make a funny noise and “tickle” them and they giggle so hard. This tactic would never fly in America. I think it would be called “harassment.”
3) They Are Insanely Meticulous (for 4-6 year olds):
We use laminated ‘graphics’ to teach the kids English words. A lot of times we’ll play games with them. The gist of most of the games is for the kids to bring me a certain graphic that I ask for (the pictures are usually spread out on the floor). If any of the graphics are lopsided, turned the wrong way, or touching one another, the kids go nuts. It’s pretty hilarious to see them rush up to the middle of the floor to align the pictures perfectly. And to think they are only in kindergarten….
4) They Love Sporting the Chinglish:
I devoted a paragraph in one my recent blogs about some of the shirts my students wear. The ‘Chinglish’ written on them causes some serious lol-ing. What makes me really giggle is that I totally have repeat offenders. One crazy boy named, Lee (weird coincidence he shares the name of my brother), always wears the funniest shirts. In one week he managed to pull off a “Black is the new black,” and “I didn’t do it” (with a skanky looking cartoon figure looking like he was up to no good). There are far too many one’s to comment on.
5) They Really Enjoy Dancing:
We dance and sing in our classes every day. I’m clearly not a trained teacher, so I have no idea if this is normal, but the kids love to sing and dance. They hop around and perform in solos, duets, and groups. The boys are just as interested, if not more, than the girls. It’s awesome to watch.
6) They Have Some Questionable Holes in Their Pants:
In China, babies wear ‘spilt pants.’ The name describes what they’re used for…relieving themselves on streets, in museum trashcans, and the sidewalks of the city. It was pretty disturbing at first, and I still think it’s really weird, but it’s an everyday occurrence. What is NOT normal is seeing little boys’ pee-pees through holes in their pants at age 5. Time to zip it up and put it away like a man. I understand the occasional slip up and having some problems exposing your private parts when you’re little. But, intentional holes in your trousers need to go.
Baobei: Child
Monday, September 28, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Things I Miss: Part 1
9/24/09
*Orange Gatorade
*Wearing shorts everyday
*Turkey sandwiches
*Texas football
*Watching E News Live
*Yoga class
*Driving my car
*Yogurt Planet and TCBY
*Going to see the latest movies in a movie theater (not on a pirated DVD)
*Soft water
*Running and breathing in clean air
*Not sweating
*Dressing up and feeling cute
*Having a lamp
*Sleeping in a big bed
*My closet, shoes, and handbags
*Cereal: Shredded Spoonfuls, Oat Cluster Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Frosted Mini Wheats, Kashi Island Vanilla and………..
*Mexican Food, especially queso
*Having both a washer AND a dryer
*Whole Foods
*My rings and watch
*The Onion
Ni tiaode zhenhao: You’re a fantastic dancer
*Orange Gatorade
*Wearing shorts everyday
*Turkey sandwiches
*Texas football
*Watching E News Live
*Yoga class
*Driving my car
*Yogurt Planet and TCBY
*Going to see the latest movies in a movie theater (not on a pirated DVD)
*Soft water
*Running and breathing in clean air
*Not sweating
*Dressing up and feeling cute
*Having a lamp
*Sleeping in a big bed
*My closet, shoes, and handbags
*Cereal: Shredded Spoonfuls, Oat Cluster Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Frosted Mini Wheats, Kashi Island Vanilla and………..
*Mexican Food, especially queso
*Having both a washer AND a dryer
*Whole Foods
*My rings and watch
*The Onion
Ni tiaode zhenhao: You’re a fantastic dancer
It’s Gettin’ Hot in Here
9/23/09
To maintain our sanity, Hallie and I make a point to go out to eat/get drinks with our teacher friends once a week. It normally falls on Wednesday just in time to complain about the first half of the week. (Also, our ‘Friday’ is actually Thursday so we get pretty antsy by Wednesday.) Our first hump day fest was at a place called Taco Popo. Tonight we went all out. We went hot potting.
I first heard about hot pot from Molly. She talked about it like I already knew what it was before I left (but I didn’t). Arriving in Shanghai in the middle of the hot, humid tail end of summer had me thinking absolutely no hot pot in the near future. Well, the weather has cooled down and this hot pot sounded delicious and came at a perfect time of week. Hallie and I joined our friends at the restaurant (couldn’t tell you the name because it was in Chinese) and were in no way prepared for the monstrosity that was about to occur.
The interior of the restaurant resembled a Rainforest Café type atmosphere. There were fake trees and a bar that was shaped like a mushroom. The steam from the hot pots was a-flowing from table to table. As we passed by each table, we were exposed to funky looking meat, disturbing looking tofu, and quite a few new vegetables. I went into the experience not wanting to know what I was eating. The ten of us sat down at a big table in the back and ordered a round of beers. Our less than $0.50 gi-normous beers were brought to us and we put our order in.
The waiter came back with trays and trays of food. There were some recognizable items: lotus root, ham, pork, potatoes, and dumplings. And then there was tofu, Asian vegetables, and brown stuff (*I was told later that the brown stuff was duck blood. Glad I didn’t eat that). One side of the pot was spicy and the other was mild. They lit us up and we piled it all in. The temperature was rising as we began cooking and then eating. Half way through the vulture massacre, I began to feel it. Sweat dripping down my face. I was so incredibly hot. But there was no slowing me down. Minutes into the dinner I already was perspiring and burning my mouth over and over again.
The cost was a whopping 14 kuai per person. That’s essentially a little more than $2 for a feast. Not too bad. We spent the last hour doing some serious complaining about New Beat. The bizarre hours, the endless favors they ask of us, and the little pay. Each of us had a new story about something ridiculous that had happened the week before. Mine was pretty good, I must say. And here it goes: Every Monday and Wednesday morning I go to Wu Yuan, a nice kindergarten in the French Concession. Cissy and Stephanie, two Chinese English teachers, always accompany Hallie and I on these mornings. (FYI: they insist on staying together when we get to the school and usually come to my classes. Because I’m THAT lucky. *I am being sarcastic). In my first Book 3 class, the two of them sit in the back of the classroom, gossip with the Chinese teacher, interrupt my class, and distract the kids they are sitting next to. They were being too loud and they chose the wrong day to set off my fuse. I was teaching ‘A is for apple, B is for banana, and so on….’ over their loud voices. I started yelling, “A IS FOR APPPPLLEEEEE, B IS FOR BANANNNNNAAAA,” until I was red in the face and they got the idea to shut up. I felt slightly like a crazy person, but it was necessary. I was so mad that I didn’t talk to either of them for my next two classes. However, at the dinner table much later, it made for a funny story.
I’m beginning to really love some of my classes and kids. My Tuesday and Thursday kids are my favorites. They are smart, obedient, and sooo cute. It’s weird how they can put me in a better mood when I’ve been feeling stressed out. I feel like it’s common for my Monday and Wednesday kids to put their pants on backwards. Not sure how or why, but it always gives me a good giggle.
Doufu: Tofu
To maintain our sanity, Hallie and I make a point to go out to eat/get drinks with our teacher friends once a week. It normally falls on Wednesday just in time to complain about the first half of the week. (Also, our ‘Friday’ is actually Thursday so we get pretty antsy by Wednesday.) Our first hump day fest was at a place called Taco Popo. Tonight we went all out. We went hot potting.
I first heard about hot pot from Molly. She talked about it like I already knew what it was before I left (but I didn’t). Arriving in Shanghai in the middle of the hot, humid tail end of summer had me thinking absolutely no hot pot in the near future. Well, the weather has cooled down and this hot pot sounded delicious and came at a perfect time of week. Hallie and I joined our friends at the restaurant (couldn’t tell you the name because it was in Chinese) and were in no way prepared for the monstrosity that was about to occur.
The interior of the restaurant resembled a Rainforest Café type atmosphere. There were fake trees and a bar that was shaped like a mushroom. The steam from the hot pots was a-flowing from table to table. As we passed by each table, we were exposed to funky looking meat, disturbing looking tofu, and quite a few new vegetables. I went into the experience not wanting to know what I was eating. The ten of us sat down at a big table in the back and ordered a round of beers. Our less than $0.50 gi-normous beers were brought to us and we put our order in.
The waiter came back with trays and trays of food. There were some recognizable items: lotus root, ham, pork, potatoes, and dumplings. And then there was tofu, Asian vegetables, and brown stuff (*I was told later that the brown stuff was duck blood. Glad I didn’t eat that). One side of the pot was spicy and the other was mild. They lit us up and we piled it all in. The temperature was rising as we began cooking and then eating. Half way through the vulture massacre, I began to feel it. Sweat dripping down my face. I was so incredibly hot. But there was no slowing me down. Minutes into the dinner I already was perspiring and burning my mouth over and over again.
The cost was a whopping 14 kuai per person. That’s essentially a little more than $2 for a feast. Not too bad. We spent the last hour doing some serious complaining about New Beat. The bizarre hours, the endless favors they ask of us, and the little pay. Each of us had a new story about something ridiculous that had happened the week before. Mine was pretty good, I must say. And here it goes: Every Monday and Wednesday morning I go to Wu Yuan, a nice kindergarten in the French Concession. Cissy and Stephanie, two Chinese English teachers, always accompany Hallie and I on these mornings. (FYI: they insist on staying together when we get to the school and usually come to my classes. Because I’m THAT lucky. *I am being sarcastic). In my first Book 3 class, the two of them sit in the back of the classroom, gossip with the Chinese teacher, interrupt my class, and distract the kids they are sitting next to. They were being too loud and they chose the wrong day to set off my fuse. I was teaching ‘A is for apple, B is for banana, and so on….’ over their loud voices. I started yelling, “A IS FOR APPPPLLEEEEE, B IS FOR BANANNNNNAAAA,” until I was red in the face and they got the idea to shut up. I felt slightly like a crazy person, but it was necessary. I was so mad that I didn’t talk to either of them for my next two classes. However, at the dinner table much later, it made for a funny story.
I’m beginning to really love some of my classes and kids. My Tuesday and Thursday kids are my favorites. They are smart, obedient, and sooo cute. It’s weird how they can put me in a better mood when I’ve been feeling stressed out. I feel like it’s common for my Monday and Wednesday kids to put their pants on backwards. Not sure how or why, but it always gives me a good giggle.
Doufu: Tofu
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Out of My League
9/20/09
Today my kids all wore funny t-shirts. One read, “I’m the cat’s meow” (a Hello Kitty shirt), “Blame My Parents” (my personal favorite), “Love Mouseo for Breakfast” (with a cartoon image of a mouse and cheese), “Brilliant Summer Day” (with a cat and bunny holding hands on a beach), “Applause,” (with pictures of apples across the chest), and “Tricky” (in Halloween colors, not sure if they even know what Halloween is…). We learned about apples, bananas, and coconuts today. Not sure why they need to know about coconuts, I mean who even eats them? “A is for Apple, B is for Banana, C is for Co-co-nut. Apple, Banana, Co-co-nut, they are good for you and me.” I sang that song 10-12 times today. And, I get to sing it tomorrow too. Joy.
It’s interesting to see the dramatic academic difference in kids who are the same age. The classes vary in level. Hallie and I think that schools group them according to level. That, or they have really terrible or awesome teachers. Jazz (the institute we work for) is letting us have a little freer reign when it comes to going to the schools and finding our way on our own. Today they let me hop out of the van and said, “Bye bye Buffy, good luck!” I was like…hm which way is the school? I kinda like when they let me go by myself though.
The whole teaching experience has been pretty bizarre, partly because of the language barrier and also because of the cultural differences. I’ve found myself royally screwed with my scheduling in relation to all the other teachers. Everyone has at least one afternoon off and most have a morning or day for “lesson planning” in addition to days off. What little break do I have? NADA. I’m ridiculously overworked (compared to my co-workers) and I’m having a tough time conveying that to Touba, our waiban. Most teachers teach anywhere from 10-15 hours. I work 19. WTF. (This does not include commute time (an hour each way) and silly time in between classes where I don’t have enough time to do anything worthwhile) All I think is that, this would happen to me because I have the worst luck ever. So, I will not stop until I get a hefty raise or classes cut. My negotiation skills will be put to the test…..re-thinking law school? Just felt my parents get excited. Not going to law school though… =( Need to get on grad school apps though! Eesh…prioritizing my life would be nice. Just because I’m in China does not mean I can forget about my future!
On Tuesday between classes, I bought some gummy bears and was going at them pretty hard, until I realized they were a little stickier/tougher than American gummy bears. I swear I felt a shift from my back, right molar. (For those who don’t know me THAT well, I have a veneer in place of a back molar I lost my sophomore year of high school. Most painful experience getting a route canal, and have had issues in the past with my tooth, well, coming out of my mouth. Funny stories when it happened in Austin, NOT funny if it happened in China.) So, I immediately stopped eating them and was pretty bummed. I guess that’s when you know you’re having a rough day. To finish off our long day, we met up with Thomas and his friends at a wine and tapas place. It was much needed and fun. And prepared us for another day of teaching.
After a ridiculous day at school and schedule negotiating, I just had arguably the most scarring 45 minutes since being in Shanghai. I hop on the metro, like I always do after my last school, and turn on my iPod. A group of high school Asian guys were staring at me, as usual. (Staring is an everyday habit for the Chinese.) While I listened to music, I pondered what they were talking about. Although I can’t understand Chinese, I often think they are talking about my shoes or my freckles. (I am an avid Chacos supporter, and I think Asians think they’re funny looking or something.) While I’m having some alone time, I somehow miss my stop. I swear the metro passed it up! I ended up two stops further than anticipated and by some miracle ended up getting to the other side of the station to board the right metro, going the right way. I get off at Shanghai South Railway Station, aka the correct stop, and go nuts on the free “Mister Donut” samples. (Was definitely feeling sorry for myself.) The most shocking thing happened as I was walking home. I’m walking down Liuzhou and hear chickens clucking. I think huh, this is pretty normal until I see a huddle of Chinese men around them with knives, cutting their heads off. (Just got sick to my stomach writing that.) There was a bowl of blood and my jaw dropped…it stayed that way until I got home 15 minutes later. So disgusting, I mean down the street that I live off of….yuck, yuck, yuck!
Hallie and I woke up early on Friday morning to hit People’s Square. We took the metro there and got to walk around and see the scenery. It was a cloudy day, which was a bummer, but it was a little cooler so that was nice. The greenery was really beautiful there. The only annoying thing was the “Tea House” scammers were out on the prowl. We read about them in our guidebooks, but had yet to have an encounter with them until Friday. They are young Asian girls who say, “Hello, where are you from? You so lovely.” Apparently they take you to tea houses and try to charge you a lot of money. Well, we were prepared and not having any of it. I felt kinda rude though giving them the cold shoulder. We ended the day at the Shanghai Museum. It was really nice and fun to see all the different types of art from ancient China. It made me think of how old China is in relation to young America. It contained a collection of sculptures, calligraphy, paintings, currency from over the years, jade pieces, and furniture. After the museums, we took a picture with the Yao Ming wax figure before hopping back on the metro. And THAT was awesome.
Two teachers who have taught here for a year, Emily and Paige, invited us to a house warming party and we went to that on Friday night. Hallie and I tried to teach everyone “King’s Cup” and it didn’t work out too well. The crop of people here are just plain random. Most of the teachers are really nice, but friends of friends start getting really foreign and pretty bizarre. Anyway, we had fun and it was nice to have people to share our frustrations with.
We polished off Season 5 of “Weeds” and I just started “The Time Traveler’s Wife.”
Sanmingzhi: Sandwich. I want one so bad.
Today my kids all wore funny t-shirts. One read, “I’m the cat’s meow” (a Hello Kitty shirt), “Blame My Parents” (my personal favorite), “Love Mouseo for Breakfast” (with a cartoon image of a mouse and cheese), “Brilliant Summer Day” (with a cat and bunny holding hands on a beach), “Applause,” (with pictures of apples across the chest), and “Tricky” (in Halloween colors, not sure if they even know what Halloween is…). We learned about apples, bananas, and coconuts today. Not sure why they need to know about coconuts, I mean who even eats them? “A is for Apple, B is for Banana, C is for Co-co-nut. Apple, Banana, Co-co-nut, they are good for you and me.” I sang that song 10-12 times today. And, I get to sing it tomorrow too. Joy.
It’s interesting to see the dramatic academic difference in kids who are the same age. The classes vary in level. Hallie and I think that schools group them according to level. That, or they have really terrible or awesome teachers. Jazz (the institute we work for) is letting us have a little freer reign when it comes to going to the schools and finding our way on our own. Today they let me hop out of the van and said, “Bye bye Buffy, good luck!” I was like…hm which way is the school? I kinda like when they let me go by myself though.
The whole teaching experience has been pretty bizarre, partly because of the language barrier and also because of the cultural differences. I’ve found myself royally screwed with my scheduling in relation to all the other teachers. Everyone has at least one afternoon off and most have a morning or day for “lesson planning” in addition to days off. What little break do I have? NADA. I’m ridiculously overworked (compared to my co-workers) and I’m having a tough time conveying that to Touba, our waiban. Most teachers teach anywhere from 10-15 hours. I work 19. WTF. (This does not include commute time (an hour each way) and silly time in between classes where I don’t have enough time to do anything worthwhile) All I think is that, this would happen to me because I have the worst luck ever. So, I will not stop until I get a hefty raise or classes cut. My negotiation skills will be put to the test…..re-thinking law school? Just felt my parents get excited. Not going to law school though… =( Need to get on grad school apps though! Eesh…prioritizing my life would be nice. Just because I’m in China does not mean I can forget about my future!
On Tuesday between classes, I bought some gummy bears and was going at them pretty hard, until I realized they were a little stickier/tougher than American gummy bears. I swear I felt a shift from my back, right molar. (For those who don’t know me THAT well, I have a veneer in place of a back molar I lost my sophomore year of high school. Most painful experience getting a route canal, and have had issues in the past with my tooth, well, coming out of my mouth. Funny stories when it happened in Austin, NOT funny if it happened in China.) So, I immediately stopped eating them and was pretty bummed. I guess that’s when you know you’re having a rough day. To finish off our long day, we met up with Thomas and his friends at a wine and tapas place. It was much needed and fun. And prepared us for another day of teaching.
After a ridiculous day at school and schedule negotiating, I just had arguably the most scarring 45 minutes since being in Shanghai. I hop on the metro, like I always do after my last school, and turn on my iPod. A group of high school Asian guys were staring at me, as usual. (Staring is an everyday habit for the Chinese.) While I listened to music, I pondered what they were talking about. Although I can’t understand Chinese, I often think they are talking about my shoes or my freckles. (I am an avid Chacos supporter, and I think Asians think they’re funny looking or something.) While I’m having some alone time, I somehow miss my stop. I swear the metro passed it up! I ended up two stops further than anticipated and by some miracle ended up getting to the other side of the station to board the right metro, going the right way. I get off at Shanghai South Railway Station, aka the correct stop, and go nuts on the free “Mister Donut” samples. (Was definitely feeling sorry for myself.) The most shocking thing happened as I was walking home. I’m walking down Liuzhou and hear chickens clucking. I think huh, this is pretty normal until I see a huddle of Chinese men around them with knives, cutting their heads off. (Just got sick to my stomach writing that.) There was a bowl of blood and my jaw dropped…it stayed that way until I got home 15 minutes later. So disgusting, I mean down the street that I live off of….yuck, yuck, yuck!
Hallie and I woke up early on Friday morning to hit People’s Square. We took the metro there and got to walk around and see the scenery. It was a cloudy day, which was a bummer, but it was a little cooler so that was nice. The greenery was really beautiful there. The only annoying thing was the “Tea House” scammers were out on the prowl. We read about them in our guidebooks, but had yet to have an encounter with them until Friday. They are young Asian girls who say, “Hello, where are you from? You so lovely.” Apparently they take you to tea houses and try to charge you a lot of money. Well, we were prepared and not having any of it. I felt kinda rude though giving them the cold shoulder. We ended the day at the Shanghai Museum. It was really nice and fun to see all the different types of art from ancient China. It made me think of how old China is in relation to young America. It contained a collection of sculptures, calligraphy, paintings, currency from over the years, jade pieces, and furniture. After the museums, we took a picture with the Yao Ming wax figure before hopping back on the metro. And THAT was awesome.
Two teachers who have taught here for a year, Emily and Paige, invited us to a house warming party and we went to that on Friday night. Hallie and I tried to teach everyone “King’s Cup” and it didn’t work out too well. The crop of people here are just plain random. Most of the teachers are really nice, but friends of friends start getting really foreign and pretty bizarre. Anyway, we had fun and it was nice to have people to share our frustrations with.
We polished off Season 5 of “Weeds” and I just started “The Time Traveler’s Wife.”
Sanmingzhi: Sandwich. I want one so bad.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
My Airplane Pillow/DVDs Are The Only Things That Kept Me Sane This Week
9/13/09
After a stressful, frustrating, but overall satisfying week, I’m starting to have some mixed feelings about China. The way they do things around here makes no sense to me. The school system especially seems inefficient and just plain bizarre. I mainly get these feelings due to my ridiculous schedule. I work at seven different schools five days a week. Most classes begin at 9 AM, but the commute time is an hour, so I’m looking at waking up at 7 AM most mornings. We have about a three-hour lapse of time between our morning and afternoon classes. With that absurd and inconvenient time frame, I eat lunch at school everyday and hang out at my married teacher friends’ house (Josh and Becky) in between classes. My day usually ends around 4 PM, but I don’t get home until 4:30 or 5 because of the extensive time I ride on the metro. This past week I’ve been too tired to do anything after I get home. Hallie and I go to the grocery store, cook, watch DVDs, prepare for the next day, and go to bed by 10-11 PM. I am old.
One of the many joys of teaching young Asians is getting the sweet pleasure of knowing their English names. The best my class has to offer is a certain boy named “Sun.” In China it’s cool to have symbolic names, so I guess this is the reason for these gems: Elf, Boots, Pretty, Fish, and Pink. These are all real names of children that attend kindergartens that we work at. However, I have many Williams, Roberts, Charlies, Cindys, Amys, and Carols. And I also have the borderline names that always give be a good giggle: Bennie, Yvonne, Angel, Calvin, and Robin…for a boy. Johnny, one of my students at Zi Wei, gave me my very first teacher’s present. It was Teacher Appreciation Day and he gave me a sweet card that read, “Best Wishes to My Dearest Teacher. Just for You.” Precious.
On Wednesday night we went to eat dinner with a bunch of our work buddies. Everyone is starting to miss certain American foods and high on the list is Mexican food. So, we went to a half price night at a place called Taco Popo. Yeah, Tex-Mex in China. I ordered a huge plate of nachos and they were pretty good. Other items on the menu looked pretty good, so I’m sure we’ll be back. A funny fact about Taco Popo: We had to take an elevator from the street to get to the restaurant on the 3rd floor. What was on the second floor you ask? Just a club….that was rocking out to Michael Bolton.
Thursday couldn’t have come any sooner. Elliot (fellow CIEE-er who teaches about 30 minutes outside of Shanghai) came into town and we made dinner. Noodles, vegetables and Oreos. We looked up some drink specials and ended up at a questionable bar that we decided not to go into. We ended up meeting up with Josh and Becky (most fun married couple ever) and went to a bar called Mural where we had Carlesburg beer for 50 kuai all night. We had a really fun time together and made friends with some hilarious Asian guys whose dance moves were a mixture of the Robot and someone having a back spasm.
Friday we said goodbye to Elliot and made our first IKEA run. It was huge and overwhelming. But, I got a new blanket and enjoyed a one kuai cone of ice cream. Hallie and I decided to try and go out and make friends on Friday night. Not sure if we’re going to the wrong places or if the expats here just don’t like us, but we’re having a hard time meeting new, normal people. We sat at a table with a bunch of German guys and they were about as boring as Accounting 311. Hopefully we’ll get the hang of this new-friend-making-business soon enough!
Saturday we went to see Thomas Verity play in a rugby tournament. It was pretty much an all day affair. It took about an hour and fifteen minutes to get to the fields in Pudong, but was well worth the trip. I enjoyed a large hot dog and was exposed for the very first time to the sport. While I got in over my head in upper man thighs, which is a part of a dude I’m happy without ever seeing, Hallie and I cheered Thomas and the “Shanghai Hairy Crabs” to victory. It was really fun to watch, especially because it was the best looking crop of boys I’ve seen around China since stepping off the airplane (still looking for the cute guy sitting across from me on the airplane…). What was interesting about the tournament was that there was a girls division….scary and weird? Yeah, I think so.
That brings me to today (Sunday). I had my first Sunday classes that took up my entire day. To give you a brief overview, I had an all boys class of about ten 8 year-olds from 8:45-10:15 AM. A boy named Hans, yes another crazy name, was eons above his age group. From 10:30-noon I had my first “Side-By-Side” teaching session where I had a Chinese teacher who translated the whole time. These classes are catered to older students who are learning more than just vocabulary. My first class of SBS was filled with pretty young kids and I felt like I didn’t really know how to teach them the concepts. However, Louie, a brilliant know-it-all, shouted out every correct answer even if I didn’t call on him. Not only did he spit out the answer, but he also spelled out every word he said. After he spelled the word “restaurant” without hesitation, I was pretty impressed. The kid was only 8.
I had lunch with a bunch of Asian teachers who jib jabbed in Chinese while I just sat there, kind of hating life. I was exhausted and was only half way done with my day. Then, I was scooped up by my new SBS teacher, Christina, who took me to my next location. We took a taxi to Gao An where I found my brightest group of students yet. It was so nice to have the book just for reference, because these little kids could have full-on conversations with me in English. They had great questions, we got to talk about interesting topics, and they could READ. Amazing. One of my student’s mothers took Christina and I to Hong Hui for my final class. It was my first time in a native’s car. Best part: the music choice. I don’t think it could have gotten more random than Radiohead’s, “Karma Police.” I mean quite the jam. My last class was awful. The kids were silent and I was so tired. The hour and a half is too long for a bunch of little kids to sit still.
After the class ended, Christina gave me some obscure directions to get to the metro. I wandered around for a solid 30 minutes before I came up to one of many Line 1 metro entrances. I was mad and relieved at the same time. The rest of the night is filled with lesson planning and hoping to get a better night’s sleep. Most of my dreams have involved crime, not sure what that means. Hope for something more pleasant tonight.
I am not re-reading this post due to lack of motivation/my attention span is DONE for the night. My apologies if there are any typos.
Songshu guiyu: Squirrel-shaped Mandarin fish
After a stressful, frustrating, but overall satisfying week, I’m starting to have some mixed feelings about China. The way they do things around here makes no sense to me. The school system especially seems inefficient and just plain bizarre. I mainly get these feelings due to my ridiculous schedule. I work at seven different schools five days a week. Most classes begin at 9 AM, but the commute time is an hour, so I’m looking at waking up at 7 AM most mornings. We have about a three-hour lapse of time between our morning and afternoon classes. With that absurd and inconvenient time frame, I eat lunch at school everyday and hang out at my married teacher friends’ house (Josh and Becky) in between classes. My day usually ends around 4 PM, but I don’t get home until 4:30 or 5 because of the extensive time I ride on the metro. This past week I’ve been too tired to do anything after I get home. Hallie and I go to the grocery store, cook, watch DVDs, prepare for the next day, and go to bed by 10-11 PM. I am old.
One of the many joys of teaching young Asians is getting the sweet pleasure of knowing their English names. The best my class has to offer is a certain boy named “Sun.” In China it’s cool to have symbolic names, so I guess this is the reason for these gems: Elf, Boots, Pretty, Fish, and Pink. These are all real names of children that attend kindergartens that we work at. However, I have many Williams, Roberts, Charlies, Cindys, Amys, and Carols. And I also have the borderline names that always give be a good giggle: Bennie, Yvonne, Angel, Calvin, and Robin…for a boy. Johnny, one of my students at Zi Wei, gave me my very first teacher’s present. It was Teacher Appreciation Day and he gave me a sweet card that read, “Best Wishes to My Dearest Teacher. Just for You.” Precious.
On Wednesday night we went to eat dinner with a bunch of our work buddies. Everyone is starting to miss certain American foods and high on the list is Mexican food. So, we went to a half price night at a place called Taco Popo. Yeah, Tex-Mex in China. I ordered a huge plate of nachos and they were pretty good. Other items on the menu looked pretty good, so I’m sure we’ll be back. A funny fact about Taco Popo: We had to take an elevator from the street to get to the restaurant on the 3rd floor. What was on the second floor you ask? Just a club….that was rocking out to Michael Bolton.
Thursday couldn’t have come any sooner. Elliot (fellow CIEE-er who teaches about 30 minutes outside of Shanghai) came into town and we made dinner. Noodles, vegetables and Oreos. We looked up some drink specials and ended up at a questionable bar that we decided not to go into. We ended up meeting up with Josh and Becky (most fun married couple ever) and went to a bar called Mural where we had Carlesburg beer for 50 kuai all night. We had a really fun time together and made friends with some hilarious Asian guys whose dance moves were a mixture of the Robot and someone having a back spasm.
Friday we said goodbye to Elliot and made our first IKEA run. It was huge and overwhelming. But, I got a new blanket and enjoyed a one kuai cone of ice cream. Hallie and I decided to try and go out and make friends on Friday night. Not sure if we’re going to the wrong places or if the expats here just don’t like us, but we’re having a hard time meeting new, normal people. We sat at a table with a bunch of German guys and they were about as boring as Accounting 311. Hopefully we’ll get the hang of this new-friend-making-business soon enough!
Saturday we went to see Thomas Verity play in a rugby tournament. It was pretty much an all day affair. It took about an hour and fifteen minutes to get to the fields in Pudong, but was well worth the trip. I enjoyed a large hot dog and was exposed for the very first time to the sport. While I got in over my head in upper man thighs, which is a part of a dude I’m happy without ever seeing, Hallie and I cheered Thomas and the “Shanghai Hairy Crabs” to victory. It was really fun to watch, especially because it was the best looking crop of boys I’ve seen around China since stepping off the airplane (still looking for the cute guy sitting across from me on the airplane…). What was interesting about the tournament was that there was a girls division….scary and weird? Yeah, I think so.
That brings me to today (Sunday). I had my first Sunday classes that took up my entire day. To give you a brief overview, I had an all boys class of about ten 8 year-olds from 8:45-10:15 AM. A boy named Hans, yes another crazy name, was eons above his age group. From 10:30-noon I had my first “Side-By-Side” teaching session where I had a Chinese teacher who translated the whole time. These classes are catered to older students who are learning more than just vocabulary. My first class of SBS was filled with pretty young kids and I felt like I didn’t really know how to teach them the concepts. However, Louie, a brilliant know-it-all, shouted out every correct answer even if I didn’t call on him. Not only did he spit out the answer, but he also spelled out every word he said. After he spelled the word “restaurant” without hesitation, I was pretty impressed. The kid was only 8.
I had lunch with a bunch of Asian teachers who jib jabbed in Chinese while I just sat there, kind of hating life. I was exhausted and was only half way done with my day. Then, I was scooped up by my new SBS teacher, Christina, who took me to my next location. We took a taxi to Gao An where I found my brightest group of students yet. It was so nice to have the book just for reference, because these little kids could have full-on conversations with me in English. They had great questions, we got to talk about interesting topics, and they could READ. Amazing. One of my student’s mothers took Christina and I to Hong Hui for my final class. It was my first time in a native’s car. Best part: the music choice. I don’t think it could have gotten more random than Radiohead’s, “Karma Police.” I mean quite the jam. My last class was awful. The kids were silent and I was so tired. The hour and a half is too long for a bunch of little kids to sit still.
After the class ended, Christina gave me some obscure directions to get to the metro. I wandered around for a solid 30 minutes before I came up to one of many Line 1 metro entrances. I was mad and relieved at the same time. The rest of the night is filled with lesson planning and hoping to get a better night’s sleep. Most of my dreams have involved crime, not sure what that means. Hope for something more pleasant tonight.
I am not re-reading this post due to lack of motivation/my attention span is DONE for the night. My apologies if there are any typos.
Songshu guiyu: Squirrel-shaped Mandarin fish
Monday, September 7, 2009
Tired
9/7/09
Putting the apartment back together on Sunday was quite the task, which resulted in some much-needed R&R later that day. Our best friend, the plumber, made his last visit three days ago to glue our toilet back on to the floor. As of yesterday morning, our bathroom has been in full use. (Knock on wood, seriously) Because of this glorious day we’ve been waiting for for what seemed like years, Hallie and I took it upon ourselves to devote the day to cleaning.
We swept and mopped the floors, bleached the bathroom and cleaned every countertop. We also did a little re-arranging in my room/the living room with the desks. I put up some pictures of my friends and family by “my desk” and we cut out some good drink/food specials from a magazine to consider. Our kitchen wall is going to be a collage of all the events, bars, restaurants, and places we’d like to go to. After a busy day of cleaning I went to bed ridiculously early.
Today (Monday) I had my first full day of teaching. I had three classes in the morning, lunch at school, and then four classes this afternoon. I have to say, I kind of felt like I was going to pass out after my last class in the morning. I have a newfound respect for teachers who never get to sit down, don’t drink enough water, and have so many kids relying on their every move. It’s a tough job!
The kids I have are really smart. They love to participate and catch on to the concepts pretty quickly (from what I can tell). Did I mention how stinking cute they are? They respect their teachers, listen when you talk to them, and horse around like a normal little kindergartener would do. The material of course gets redundant and seems pretty silly at the end of the day, but I have to remember that these kids are starting from scratch. (Not sure how many more times I can sing, “Good morning to the morning sun” song. Oh wait, I have to do that every day…)
All the kindergartens have school nurses checking the children as they file in each day. They make them wash their hands, look in their mouths to see their throats, and give each kid a ticket once they’ve passed the heath examination. Pretty good idea I’d say. I seem to get the kids before or after their snack times. Therefore, they’re either all riled up or on the verge of delirium. Every school I’ve been to thus far have napping quarters, where there are tons of tiny little beds in lines. It’s the funniest little room. Also, I get a kick out of the tiny bathrooms. The smallest toilets, urinals, and sinks I’ve ever seen. Adorable.
If you must know the play-by-play, Hallie and I are quickly approaching the end of season 3 of “Weeds.” This season has been really intense. But, we continue to watch. Tonight we cooked. We gave our best shot at making macaroni and cheese with Chinese noodles. What ingredients did we use you ask? Noodles from the noodle shop by our place and some “cheddar cheese” that looked a whole lot like American cheese to me. (Even in the individual packets) Anyway, it was good and I wouldn’t mind having it again.
And I’m done. I just realized that the majority of that last paragraph is about macaroni. Yikes, very tired…such as the life as an international teacher.
Chong fu: Repeat
Putting the apartment back together on Sunday was quite the task, which resulted in some much-needed R&R later that day. Our best friend, the plumber, made his last visit three days ago to glue our toilet back on to the floor. As of yesterday morning, our bathroom has been in full use. (Knock on wood, seriously) Because of this glorious day we’ve been waiting for for what seemed like years, Hallie and I took it upon ourselves to devote the day to cleaning.
We swept and mopped the floors, bleached the bathroom and cleaned every countertop. We also did a little re-arranging in my room/the living room with the desks. I put up some pictures of my friends and family by “my desk” and we cut out some good drink/food specials from a magazine to consider. Our kitchen wall is going to be a collage of all the events, bars, restaurants, and places we’d like to go to. After a busy day of cleaning I went to bed ridiculously early.
Today (Monday) I had my first full day of teaching. I had three classes in the morning, lunch at school, and then four classes this afternoon. I have to say, I kind of felt like I was going to pass out after my last class in the morning. I have a newfound respect for teachers who never get to sit down, don’t drink enough water, and have so many kids relying on their every move. It’s a tough job!
The kids I have are really smart. They love to participate and catch on to the concepts pretty quickly (from what I can tell). Did I mention how stinking cute they are? They respect their teachers, listen when you talk to them, and horse around like a normal little kindergartener would do. The material of course gets redundant and seems pretty silly at the end of the day, but I have to remember that these kids are starting from scratch. (Not sure how many more times I can sing, “Good morning to the morning sun” song. Oh wait, I have to do that every day…)
All the kindergartens have school nurses checking the children as they file in each day. They make them wash their hands, look in their mouths to see their throats, and give each kid a ticket once they’ve passed the heath examination. Pretty good idea I’d say. I seem to get the kids before or after their snack times. Therefore, they’re either all riled up or on the verge of delirium. Every school I’ve been to thus far have napping quarters, where there are tons of tiny little beds in lines. It’s the funniest little room. Also, I get a kick out of the tiny bathrooms. The smallest toilets, urinals, and sinks I’ve ever seen. Adorable.
If you must know the play-by-play, Hallie and I are quickly approaching the end of season 3 of “Weeds.” This season has been really intense. But, we continue to watch. Tonight we cooked. We gave our best shot at making macaroni and cheese with Chinese noodles. What ingredients did we use you ask? Noodles from the noodle shop by our place and some “cheddar cheese” that looked a whole lot like American cheese to me. (Even in the individual packets) Anyway, it was good and I wouldn’t mind having it again.
And I’m done. I just realized that the majority of that last paragraph is about macaroni. Yikes, very tired…such as the life as an international teacher.
Chong fu: Repeat
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Fabric Market
9/5/09
After a rough Friday morning, Hallie and I decided to get out of the apartment that night. Hallie’s uncle has a co-worker living and working for a law firm here in Shanghai. She is a really fun 30 year-old lawyer who took us to this fun bar called Sasha’s. It was a nice cocktail bar filled with expats (I hate that word, “expats” it sounds so criminal or something to me...). After we finished a couple of drinks there, we went across the walkway and ended up at Zapatas, a bar that we went to the first night we went out in Shanghai. It was entertaining to watch all the madness go on, but found it ultimately tiring and called it a night pretty early. We had a fun Saturday morning planned.
That brings me to this morning. We got up around 8:45 to make our first trip to the Chinese fabric market. I had no idea what I was in store for…I immediately thought of Amelia and how excited she would be about going, which incidentally made me pretty pumped to see the place. Well, it was INSANE. Completely INSANE…insanely awesome.
This is my best attempt to give you a visual:
The market is a 33 kuai cab ride from our apartment (across town) and the building is massive. We walked in to three, jam-packed stories of fabric, fabric, and more fabric. There were sections that could make shirts, costumes, suits, pants, dresses, jackets, scarves, vests, shorts, skirts, you name it. Thank goodness we were with a veteran to the market and one of her friends who spoke fluent Mandarin.
I think the first hour we spent in this fashion Mecca we were essentially speechless. Where do I begin? Should I go with jersey or silk first? Pants or a shirt? Should I just start with a casual dress? Or do I want a crazy costume? Or perhaps a suit? Yes, my mind was working on overtime. We followed our market gurus from kiosk to kiosk, more and more baffled and amazed. Each station had numerous rolls of beautiful fabric. The jersey was thick, the silks were soft, the suit materials were structured, and the sequins were so glittery.
Hallie and I decided to start small because, A) we are on a teacher’s salary and B) we were completely overwhelmed. We both picked our favorite dress pattern from a book and got measured for our custom-made jersey dresses. I chose a deep red and Hallie picked purple. It was our first attempt at bargaining, which was pretty awkward. I guess with practice and learning some key phrases, I will be better off. We get to go back next Saturday to try on and make adjustments or pay the final amount and take the dresses home. They can finish anything in one week.
While perusing the halls of the market, I kept a running list in my mind. They allow you to bring in clothes that you own and they will copy the pattern (shape) of the garment and make it out of whatever fabric you like. After thinking about how much Amelia would love this place, I immediately thought about my mom. Wow, the lady would go nuts in here! There are tons and tons of suit shops that can make any kind of suit you could dream of. I can see her coming here and getting 10 suits made. Haha, wink wink Mom.
After the intense morning, we were taken to a delicious American café called “Element Fresh.” OMG, it was so good! Since living here, we have had trouble getting our protein in our diets. So I ordered up the biggest club sandwich and ate in silence. I couldn’t speak because I was too happy. After I wolfed down my nearly 100 kuai lunch (around $15, that’s some big spending here), it was time for a big rest. (the Chinese people call a break “a rest”) Hallie and I came back to our apartment and assumed the position ie: airplane pillows in hand and plopped down on my miniscule bed for a mean DVD party. We successfully finished the second season of “Weeds” and I of course fell asleep in the middle and was out for the night. We really need to figure out how to not be tired on Saturday nights…..
Yingwo: Hard sleeper
After a rough Friday morning, Hallie and I decided to get out of the apartment that night. Hallie’s uncle has a co-worker living and working for a law firm here in Shanghai. She is a really fun 30 year-old lawyer who took us to this fun bar called Sasha’s. It was a nice cocktail bar filled with expats (I hate that word, “expats” it sounds so criminal or something to me...). After we finished a couple of drinks there, we went across the walkway and ended up at Zapatas, a bar that we went to the first night we went out in Shanghai. It was entertaining to watch all the madness go on, but found it ultimately tiring and called it a night pretty early. We had a fun Saturday morning planned.
That brings me to this morning. We got up around 8:45 to make our first trip to the Chinese fabric market. I had no idea what I was in store for…I immediately thought of Amelia and how excited she would be about going, which incidentally made me pretty pumped to see the place. Well, it was INSANE. Completely INSANE…insanely awesome.
This is my best attempt to give you a visual:
The market is a 33 kuai cab ride from our apartment (across town) and the building is massive. We walked in to three, jam-packed stories of fabric, fabric, and more fabric. There were sections that could make shirts, costumes, suits, pants, dresses, jackets, scarves, vests, shorts, skirts, you name it. Thank goodness we were with a veteran to the market and one of her friends who spoke fluent Mandarin.
I think the first hour we spent in this fashion Mecca we were essentially speechless. Where do I begin? Should I go with jersey or silk first? Pants or a shirt? Should I just start with a casual dress? Or do I want a crazy costume? Or perhaps a suit? Yes, my mind was working on overtime. We followed our market gurus from kiosk to kiosk, more and more baffled and amazed. Each station had numerous rolls of beautiful fabric. The jersey was thick, the silks were soft, the suit materials were structured, and the sequins were so glittery.
Hallie and I decided to start small because, A) we are on a teacher’s salary and B) we were completely overwhelmed. We both picked our favorite dress pattern from a book and got measured for our custom-made jersey dresses. I chose a deep red and Hallie picked purple. It was our first attempt at bargaining, which was pretty awkward. I guess with practice and learning some key phrases, I will be better off. We get to go back next Saturday to try on and make adjustments or pay the final amount and take the dresses home. They can finish anything in one week.
While perusing the halls of the market, I kept a running list in my mind. They allow you to bring in clothes that you own and they will copy the pattern (shape) of the garment and make it out of whatever fabric you like. After thinking about how much Amelia would love this place, I immediately thought about my mom. Wow, the lady would go nuts in here! There are tons and tons of suit shops that can make any kind of suit you could dream of. I can see her coming here and getting 10 suits made. Haha, wink wink Mom.
After the intense morning, we were taken to a delicious American café called “Element Fresh.” OMG, it was so good! Since living here, we have had trouble getting our protein in our diets. So I ordered up the biggest club sandwich and ate in silence. I couldn’t speak because I was too happy. After I wolfed down my nearly 100 kuai lunch (around $15, that’s some big spending here), it was time for a big rest. (the Chinese people call a break “a rest”) Hallie and I came back to our apartment and assumed the position ie: airplane pillows in hand and plopped down on my miniscule bed for a mean DVD party. We successfully finished the second season of “Weeds” and I of course fell asleep in the middle and was out for the night. We really need to figure out how to not be tired on Saturday nights…..
Yingwo: Hard sleeper
Friday, September 4, 2009
Chinese People Love:
I'm keeping an ongoing "Chinese People Love" list going, so here's the first post:
-Crocs
-Smoking
-Spitting, truly amazing loogies (sp?)
-(women) High heels
-Slurping soup
-Britney Spears (“Blonnie”)
-Chinglish
-Bicycles
-Karaoke
-(children) Hair accessories and lots of ponytails
-to disregard any traffic signal
-KFC
-Disney
-(girls) Giggling
-Cussing in English
-Long fingernails
-Ice cream
-Hello Kitty
-Mopeds
-Riding with 2 or 3 people on their bikes or mopeds
-(babies) Split pants
-(women) Umbrellas
-Velcro
-Sleeping on the metro
-Crocs
-Smoking
-Spitting, truly amazing loogies (sp?)
-(women) High heels
-Slurping soup
-Britney Spears (“Blonnie”)
-Chinglish
-Bicycles
-Karaoke
-(children) Hair accessories and lots of ponytails
-to disregard any traffic signal
-KFC
-Disney
-(girls) Giggling
-Cussing in English
-Long fingernails
-Ice cream
-Hello Kitty
-Mopeds
-Riding with 2 or 3 people on their bikes or mopeds
-(babies) Split pants
-(women) Umbrellas
-Velcro
-Sleeping on the metro
-(babies) Spilt pants
-Pop music
-(women) Anything sparkly
-Milk tea
-Cats (yuck!)
-Cutting in line
-Michael Jackson
-High heel boots for daily wear
-Noodles
-Opera music
First Day of Class/Up to speed...I think
9/3/09
First Day of Class!
Today I woke up at 6:45 am to make my nearly hour commute to my first kindergarten, Xiang Yang. I taught three “Book 3” classes in a row. The kids were adorable. They were, for the most part, very well behaved, smart, and eager to participate. I had about 25 students in each class and we learned a “greeting song” and how to count from 21-30.
Teaching is kind of crazy. I’ve never done it before and it’s especially difficult to delegate to students who don’t speak your language. The kids really liked my stickers I gave them and I really can’t wait to see them again. I didn’t really take lesson planning very seriously until I realized today that it is the rock and incredibly essential to the class. Little kids have the tiniest attention span, so fun games are necessary at all times. Also, I hope to learn some more Chinese so I can communicate with them if they look lost. I whipped out a “Bu dong?” which I though meant, “Understand?” but I’m pretty sure it came out wrong. I’ve got some practicing ahead of me.
We started watching “Weeds” after racking up at the DVD store. Our setup is pretty special. Basically, we cramp in to my bed (mind you, smaller than a twin), kick back with our airplane pillows ‘round our necks, and watch some serious DVDs. We’ve already plowed through Season 1 and are continuing right along with disc number 3. While I find the show pretty bizarre, I think I’m hooked.
The day was a busy one after having school, lunch, and a teacher’s meeting. Hallie and I went to buy a new Ethernet cord at the “electronics market” near our school hoping to solve our Internet problem. We got a cord for 10 quai (about $1.75) and hoped for the best. We also picked up some salad from a Western supermarket to eat for dinner since we haven’t eaten that in ages. We come home to a broken Internet and even worse, a broken toilet. Remember the “Gotta love China” bits posted above, yeah, nope. Ah, the “delights” of living in China. No one told us we couldn’t flush toilet paper…..SUCKS BABE? It was a miserable and very long 5 minutes of watching a rather small Chinese man hack away at the toilet with a plunger. Really, someone could have told us about not flushing the paper down…
To let go of some of the stress, I went on my first run around the neighborhood. Pretty sure the thoughts going through all the Chinese people’s minds that saw me were, “Strange white girl, running around town with a silly t-shirt with a big shape of Texas plastered on the back, what the heck?” I think I’m getting used to the stares. Hopefully tomorrow with be a good day filled with fixing things and feeling like I’m kinda at home…away from home that is.
Duo Shou Tian- How much is this?
9/4/09
Up to speed…I think
We spent all morning with Lily, one of our Chinese waibans, a plumber, and a computer tech repairing all of our broken appliances in our apartment. Like I said before, no one bothered to tell us not to flush toilet paper down the toilet. So after spending hours removing our toilet from the pipes (COMPLETELY removing the toilet from it’s original location), and having our second run-in with the Internet man, we are feeling pretty decent about our place. Not to mention that our plumber didn’t mind having a smoke in our bathroom while fixing the toilet. Only in China…
Hallie and I went to the fruit market and got some new fruit and feel good about life. I was feeling pretty bad yesterday when nothing was working, but now I feel connected to home and in a few short days, the glue will have dried from my toilet so it will be usable. I feel like we’ve gotten all the necessities for our place and will hopefully have a little bit of free time this weekend. Now that we have the Internet, there is a little more down time spent at home.
Numbers 0-10:
Ling- 0
Yi- 1
Er- 2
San- 3
Si- 4
Wu- 5
Liu- 6
Qi- 7
Ba- 8
Jiu- 9
Shi- 10
First Day of Class!
Today I woke up at 6:45 am to make my nearly hour commute to my first kindergarten, Xiang Yang. I taught three “Book 3” classes in a row. The kids were adorable. They were, for the most part, very well behaved, smart, and eager to participate. I had about 25 students in each class and we learned a “greeting song” and how to count from 21-30.
Teaching is kind of crazy. I’ve never done it before and it’s especially difficult to delegate to students who don’t speak your language. The kids really liked my stickers I gave them and I really can’t wait to see them again. I didn’t really take lesson planning very seriously until I realized today that it is the rock and incredibly essential to the class. Little kids have the tiniest attention span, so fun games are necessary at all times. Also, I hope to learn some more Chinese so I can communicate with them if they look lost. I whipped out a “Bu dong?” which I though meant, “Understand?” but I’m pretty sure it came out wrong. I’ve got some practicing ahead of me.
We started watching “Weeds” after racking up at the DVD store. Our setup is pretty special. Basically, we cramp in to my bed (mind you, smaller than a twin), kick back with our airplane pillows ‘round our necks, and watch some serious DVDs. We’ve already plowed through Season 1 and are continuing right along with disc number 3. While I find the show pretty bizarre, I think I’m hooked.
The day was a busy one after having school, lunch, and a teacher’s meeting. Hallie and I went to buy a new Ethernet cord at the “electronics market” near our school hoping to solve our Internet problem. We got a cord for 10 quai (about $1.75) and hoped for the best. We also picked up some salad from a Western supermarket to eat for dinner since we haven’t eaten that in ages. We come home to a broken Internet and even worse, a broken toilet. Remember the “Gotta love China” bits posted above, yeah, nope. Ah, the “delights” of living in China. No one told us we couldn’t flush toilet paper…..SUCKS BABE? It was a miserable and very long 5 minutes of watching a rather small Chinese man hack away at the toilet with a plunger. Really, someone could have told us about not flushing the paper down…
To let go of some of the stress, I went on my first run around the neighborhood. Pretty sure the thoughts going through all the Chinese people’s minds that saw me were, “Strange white girl, running around town with a silly t-shirt with a big shape of Texas plastered on the back, what the heck?” I think I’m getting used to the stares. Hopefully tomorrow with be a good day filled with fixing things and feeling like I’m kinda at home…away from home that is.
Duo Shou Tian- How much is this?
9/4/09
Up to speed…I think
We spent all morning with Lily, one of our Chinese waibans, a plumber, and a computer tech repairing all of our broken appliances in our apartment. Like I said before, no one bothered to tell us not to flush toilet paper down the toilet. So after spending hours removing our toilet from the pipes (COMPLETELY removing the toilet from it’s original location), and having our second run-in with the Internet man, we are feeling pretty decent about our place. Not to mention that our plumber didn’t mind having a smoke in our bathroom while fixing the toilet. Only in China…
Hallie and I went to the fruit market and got some new fruit and feel good about life. I was feeling pretty bad yesterday when nothing was working, but now I feel connected to home and in a few short days, the glue will have dried from my toilet so it will be usable. I feel like we’ve gotten all the necessities for our place and will hopefully have a little bit of free time this weekend. Now that we have the Internet, there is a little more down time spent at home.
Numbers 0-10:
Ling- 0
Yi- 1
Er- 2
San- 3
Si- 4
Wu- 5
Liu- 6
Qi- 7
Ba- 8
Jiu- 9
Shi- 10
The Apartment/Training at Jazz
8/30/09
The Apartment
Our apartment is located in Southwest Shanghai. It’s not too far away from the hotel/university we were at for orientation. Our school came and picked us up from the hotel in a van and we drove about 10 minutes on the highway to our new place. Hallie and I got really lucky because everyone lives by herself, but since we signed up together, we were put in the same room. As we approached our stoop, we were a little nervous about what was inside.
Stephanie, our New Beat facilitator, showed us in and of course commented on the ridiculous amount of luggage that we brought for 6 months. Thank goodness we were on the first floor. Stephanie opened the door and bright red cabinets blinded me. The kitchen is super cute and equipped with a tiny stove, refrigerator, microwave, and wooden table with chairs. The bathroom is to the right of the kitchen and it is much nicer than I anticipated. We even have the option to “make it rain” with our showerhead. The most hilarious part of the apartment is the layout of the bedrooms.
Immediately to the right is a fairly small room with a full bed. While the bedding is not terribly tacky, the closet doors are plastered with pictures of Dalmatians with French writing under them. Hm? The other bedroom is bigger and has a huge, flat screen, HD TV hanging on the wall. It also has a couple of desks (with bright orange doors) and a lot of room for storage. It must sound like the go to room right? Well, the bed is definitely smaller than a standard twin bed. Not only is the bed small and insanely hard, but it also has a headboard that has two cartoon mice playing and is wrapped in plastic. Yep, I got the kid’s room.
Hallie and I’s luggage happened to be in opposite rooms, so that’s how we decided. Each room has pros and cons. Our laundry area is right outside my room. There is a tiny washing machine and lots of hangers and clips dispersed throughout our little shed for drying. The tiles along the back wall have images of strawberries, hamburgers, and the most notable is the McDonald’s French fries that say “loving it” under them. Yeah….. We definitely lucked out with have a closed in area, rather than being on a higher floor and having the possibility of our clothes flying around anywhere.
I’m sure you’re thinking, “this can’t get any better,” but it does. China is home to “Chinglish,” Chinese take on English phrases. We’ve already come across some great ones like, “My life is like a diamonds,” and some more basic signs like, “thanks for your coming.” But our welcome letter to the apartment takes the cake. If I had the patience, I would type out the whole thing, but the last two lines really say it all. “You will leave extraordinary footmarks on our school and will gain precious friendship. Let’s join together to work miracles!” Hahaha.
Kuaizi: Chopsticks
8/31/09
Training at Jazz
We’ve now had two days of training at Shanghai Jazz “New Beat” English Institute. It has a lot of names. We found out it’s basically a place that dishes out teachers to about 10 kindergartens. So that means we’re on the go everyday as we travel to our schools. There are three girls from CIEE who are still teaching here from last semester. (Two of them extended their contracts so they could stay an extra 6 months…good sign I guess?!) Everyone, both American and Chinese, at the school seem nice. **When I was overlooking a teacher roster on Touba’s computer, one of our waibans, she had spelled my name, “Barfin.” Even when I go international, I can’t catch a break with my name.
Our first excursions out with the Chinese waibans were to go get cell phones and bank accounts. Both tasks would have been virtually impossible without their help. Getting a cheap phone with a couple hundred minutes to start out with was around $40. Although Shanghai is really expensive compared to other parts of China, it’s seems pretty cheap to us Westerners. Opening a bank account was timely and required tons of stamps. I’m talking over 40 stamps. Lots and lots of red ink…
Maybe our funniest excursion yet has been to the Care Fore, China’s equivalent to Wal Mart. We went with our whole group to buy things for around the apartment. It had been a long day of training at the school and we were all pretty hungry and tired. Anyway, Hallie and I decided to buy comforters to sleep on because our beds are so hard and we also got some plastic drawers for our bathroom. Long story short, we had a lot of stuff. We opted to take a cab home until we found out we didn’t have our address card with us and well, it’s a lost cause trying to communicate with a cab driver. So the metro it is…we found our way to our stop and were exiting at the Shanghai South Railway Station metro stop when shit hit the fan. Hallie was going through the turnpike stall thing and got completely tangled with her leg caught behind her on the metal rod. If all the Chinese people weren’t staring before, now they really were. I was laughing so hard I could barely stand up straight. We eventually made it out but giggled all the way home. I haven’t laughed that hard all summer.
Training has been going well, but I think all of us feel lost. I’ve never taught anything formally before and feel pretty responsible if I become a terrible teacher. The school gave us textbooks, CDs, and “graphics” to use in the class so there is structure to the lesson plans. I found out my schedule today and it looks terrifying because I’m at 6 different schools. I teach Sunday through Thursday (although times change apparently very quickly here) and am mainly teaching “intermediate-senior” students. I think this means they’ll likely be 5-6. (On a recent stroll around the neighborhood, we found Zei Wei, a kindergarten that we’ll both work at. It looks very nice and filled with cute kids.)
New Beat’s strategy for learning is through virtues. Therefore, there is a lot of visual, audio, and hands on learning. Basically, I’ll be making a fool out of myself singing and dancing about fruit and numbers in front of the kids. (We practiced a song this morning, “How do you do? How do you do? Have a nice day! Thank you, you too!” Of course equipped with hand motions and dance moves). After getting our books and schedule, I have gotten really excited, but pretty nervous as well. I teach my first class to intermediate kids on Thursday at Xiang Yang. Hallie and I start class at the same time everyday except on Sunday. The schools I teach at are kind of a mouthful: Hong Hui, Gao An, Wu Yuan, Xiang Yang, Jian Guo, and Zei Wei.
Today Paige, one of the girls who taught for New Beat last year, told us about this cheap DVD store by the school. Since Hallie and I have been milking my one disc of “Friends,” we decided to check it out after training. OMG, so cool! We were overwhelmed going in there to find all these movies from 8 to 20 quai a piece! ($1-2.50) Even more impressively, there was a wall of TV series. We decided we’d start “Weeds” since neither of us had seen it. But we also stocked up on some other good movies. I got seasons 1-3 of “30 Rock,” “The Hangover,” and “Love Actually” for around $24ish. Gotta love China.
Hallie and I cooked our first meal tonight. We have this awesome outdoor market right beside our complex that has fruits and vegetables. There is also this fresh noodle shop right in the middle of the market. We bought noodles for two for a whopping one yuen. Yep, less than $0.16 for our delicious dinner. Really, gotta love China. We met up with Thomas later that night at a Western wine bar that was really nice. We had a good time and it was nice to see a familiar face so far away from home.
Our Internet is still not hooked up, so that’s pretty annoying. I’m going to post a bunch of blogs at once. Sorry if this is boring all at once, but once we get our Internet going, the posts will be shorter and more frequent!
Ting Bu Dong: Don’t understand
The Apartment
Our apartment is located in Southwest Shanghai. It’s not too far away from the hotel/university we were at for orientation. Our school came and picked us up from the hotel in a van and we drove about 10 minutes on the highway to our new place. Hallie and I got really lucky because everyone lives by herself, but since we signed up together, we were put in the same room. As we approached our stoop, we were a little nervous about what was inside.
Stephanie, our New Beat facilitator, showed us in and of course commented on the ridiculous amount of luggage that we brought for 6 months. Thank goodness we were on the first floor. Stephanie opened the door and bright red cabinets blinded me. The kitchen is super cute and equipped with a tiny stove, refrigerator, microwave, and wooden table with chairs. The bathroom is to the right of the kitchen and it is much nicer than I anticipated. We even have the option to “make it rain” with our showerhead. The most hilarious part of the apartment is the layout of the bedrooms.
Immediately to the right is a fairly small room with a full bed. While the bedding is not terribly tacky, the closet doors are plastered with pictures of Dalmatians with French writing under them. Hm? The other bedroom is bigger and has a huge, flat screen, HD TV hanging on the wall. It also has a couple of desks (with bright orange doors) and a lot of room for storage. It must sound like the go to room right? Well, the bed is definitely smaller than a standard twin bed. Not only is the bed small and insanely hard, but it also has a headboard that has two cartoon mice playing and is wrapped in plastic. Yep, I got the kid’s room.
Hallie and I’s luggage happened to be in opposite rooms, so that’s how we decided. Each room has pros and cons. Our laundry area is right outside my room. There is a tiny washing machine and lots of hangers and clips dispersed throughout our little shed for drying. The tiles along the back wall have images of strawberries, hamburgers, and the most notable is the McDonald’s French fries that say “loving it” under them. Yeah….. We definitely lucked out with have a closed in area, rather than being on a higher floor and having the possibility of our clothes flying around anywhere.
I’m sure you’re thinking, “this can’t get any better,” but it does. China is home to “Chinglish,” Chinese take on English phrases. We’ve already come across some great ones like, “My life is like a diamonds,” and some more basic signs like, “thanks for your coming.” But our welcome letter to the apartment takes the cake. If I had the patience, I would type out the whole thing, but the last two lines really say it all. “You will leave extraordinary footmarks on our school and will gain precious friendship. Let’s join together to work miracles!” Hahaha.
Kuaizi: Chopsticks
8/31/09
Training at Jazz
We’ve now had two days of training at Shanghai Jazz “New Beat” English Institute. It has a lot of names. We found out it’s basically a place that dishes out teachers to about 10 kindergartens. So that means we’re on the go everyday as we travel to our schools. There are three girls from CIEE who are still teaching here from last semester. (Two of them extended their contracts so they could stay an extra 6 months…good sign I guess?!) Everyone, both American and Chinese, at the school seem nice. **When I was overlooking a teacher roster on Touba’s computer, one of our waibans, she had spelled my name, “Barfin.” Even when I go international, I can’t catch a break with my name.
Our first excursions out with the Chinese waibans were to go get cell phones and bank accounts. Both tasks would have been virtually impossible without their help. Getting a cheap phone with a couple hundred minutes to start out with was around $40. Although Shanghai is really expensive compared to other parts of China, it’s seems pretty cheap to us Westerners. Opening a bank account was timely and required tons of stamps. I’m talking over 40 stamps. Lots and lots of red ink…
Maybe our funniest excursion yet has been to the Care Fore, China’s equivalent to Wal Mart. We went with our whole group to buy things for around the apartment. It had been a long day of training at the school and we were all pretty hungry and tired. Anyway, Hallie and I decided to buy comforters to sleep on because our beds are so hard and we also got some plastic drawers for our bathroom. Long story short, we had a lot of stuff. We opted to take a cab home until we found out we didn’t have our address card with us and well, it’s a lost cause trying to communicate with a cab driver. So the metro it is…we found our way to our stop and were exiting at the Shanghai South Railway Station metro stop when shit hit the fan. Hallie was going through the turnpike stall thing and got completely tangled with her leg caught behind her on the metal rod. If all the Chinese people weren’t staring before, now they really were. I was laughing so hard I could barely stand up straight. We eventually made it out but giggled all the way home. I haven’t laughed that hard all summer.
Training has been going well, but I think all of us feel lost. I’ve never taught anything formally before and feel pretty responsible if I become a terrible teacher. The school gave us textbooks, CDs, and “graphics” to use in the class so there is structure to the lesson plans. I found out my schedule today and it looks terrifying because I’m at 6 different schools. I teach Sunday through Thursday (although times change apparently very quickly here) and am mainly teaching “intermediate-senior” students. I think this means they’ll likely be 5-6. (On a recent stroll around the neighborhood, we found Zei Wei, a kindergarten that we’ll both work at. It looks very nice and filled with cute kids.)
New Beat’s strategy for learning is through virtues. Therefore, there is a lot of visual, audio, and hands on learning. Basically, I’ll be making a fool out of myself singing and dancing about fruit and numbers in front of the kids. (We practiced a song this morning, “How do you do? How do you do? Have a nice day! Thank you, you too!” Of course equipped with hand motions and dance moves). After getting our books and schedule, I have gotten really excited, but pretty nervous as well. I teach my first class to intermediate kids on Thursday at Xiang Yang. Hallie and I start class at the same time everyday except on Sunday. The schools I teach at are kind of a mouthful: Hong Hui, Gao An, Wu Yuan, Xiang Yang, Jian Guo, and Zei Wei.
Today Paige, one of the girls who taught for New Beat last year, told us about this cheap DVD store by the school. Since Hallie and I have been milking my one disc of “Friends,” we decided to check it out after training. OMG, so cool! We were overwhelmed going in there to find all these movies from 8 to 20 quai a piece! ($1-2.50) Even more impressively, there was a wall of TV series. We decided we’d start “Weeds” since neither of us had seen it. But we also stocked up on some other good movies. I got seasons 1-3 of “30 Rock,” “The Hangover,” and “Love Actually” for around $24ish. Gotta love China.
Hallie and I cooked our first meal tonight. We have this awesome outdoor market right beside our complex that has fruits and vegetables. There is also this fresh noodle shop right in the middle of the market. We bought noodles for two for a whopping one yuen. Yep, less than $0.16 for our delicious dinner. Really, gotta love China. We met up with Thomas later that night at a Western wine bar that was really nice. We had a good time and it was nice to see a familiar face so far away from home.
Our Internet is still not hooked up, so that’s pretty annoying. I’m going to post a bunch of blogs at once. Sorry if this is boring all at once, but once we get our Internet going, the posts will be shorter and more frequent!
Ting Bu Dong: Don’t understand
Oriental Orientation
8/29/09
Not sure how I made it through my first week in Shanghai, but sure enough it’s been done. The past week has been an experience that I could have never dreamed up before coming here. To recap my week of orientation for all those who have been viciously affected by the lack of technical communication (ie: no facebook and cell phone), here goes…
I wanted everyone to feel the thoughts that consumed my mind while I was on the plane. I have re-read my messy journal entry that I wrote in the dark and will include some of the literary gems I wrote. I’ve never felt so anxious and terrified to leave home than I did last week. I basically had a knot in my stomach for the last couple of days I spent at home. So when I opened my journal on the plane in my mid-panic/flight anxiety attack (we were cruising right over the North Pole), to find a secret letter from my Mom, tears started flowing. So I wrote some serious jib jab about what the heck am I doing and how much I missed my family and friends already. I turned on 30 Rock and immediately felt better. When we landed, we met some people from CIEE and other participants who seemed normal…woo!
The first couple of nights were pretty restless for me mainly because of jet lag. As I glanced over at Hallie getting 10-12 hours of sleep, I pretty much felt pure jealousy. However, a few nights later, I found a decent sleeping pattern. The rock hard beds were also something to get used to….and all the salty food. Anyone who knows anything about me is aware that I like a plethora of fruits and vegetables (and a mean sandwich), so all these salty, carb-filled, large meals were starting to get to me. Now that Hallie and I are in our apartment, we hope to go blander with our food choices.
To give an overall summary of the sites I’ve seen is going to give no justice to the incredible views, but I’ll give it a go. We went on a walking tour of the French Concession, which was so beautiful! It looked a lot like Europe. It was equipped with cute buildings and the 2nd prettiest trees I’ve ever seen (1st is Magnolia Ridge, of course.) Our crew wondered around the Bund, which was covered with construction due to the World Expo starting in May 2010, but really cool to see the first sites of the Oriental Pearl Tower and the downtown area. This was the first day that I really noticed how smoggy and polluted the city is. The third day we went up one of the world’s tallest buildings, China’s tallest building: The Shanghai World Financial Center. It is actually the highest observation deck in the entire world. It felt as if I was a part of the Star Trek crew. The employees were dressed like people from outer space and the whole interior was so bright I felt like I needed to wear sunglasses inside. The view from the top was SO INCREDIBLE. We even saw the men washing the windows and I was very scared for them. This was by far my favorite site yet. The next day we went on a walking tour of the Lujiazui Commercial Area. It was a lot of tall buildings and an overall sweaty, humid, rainy day. But the nasty weather took a hiatus long enough for our river cruise on the Hangppu River. It is the river that splits the city in two and gives the most amazing views of the lights of Shanghai. The last walking tour was of the Tian Zi Fang Art Street, which was filled with quaint cafes and shops. This again reminded me of Europe. It was very cute and I got to see a different side of Chinese culture. I also ate some awesome ice cream, so good!
Our Chinese outings are definitely worth commenting on too. We went to a traditional “Face Changing” performance at a spicy food restaurant called Baguobuyi. I have A) never seen a Lazy Susan so big in my life, B) felt so incompetent using chopsticks (rice noodles were all over my area), C) saw crazy ‘professional’ tea-pourers pour tea in a kung fu way, and D) witnessed the craziest performance with a Chinese man changing his face like a magic show. The next night we ate at my 2nd favorite dinner of the week, Jujube Tree, a vegetarian place that was so tasty. After our meal we went to an acrobatic show that was so intense it felt like it may not have been real. Those little girls are insanely limber, strong, talented, brave, and absolutely out of their minds. It was SOOOOOO cool. Our farewell dinner was surprisingly really sad. We ate at the Faculty Club Restaurant (in the hotel where we were staying) and it was my favorite meal. I got to eat salad, shrimp, fried fish, chicken, egg rolls, and this fried corn and pea pie that had sprinkles on it and tasted like a funnel cake (only in China, right?). Again, one heck of a Lazy Susan. The dinner ended with some serious karaoke from our CIEE staff. They got really into it and it was very entertaining to watch.
Our whole program was broken up into three groups. Hallie and I were in Group 3, which coincidentally was the best group. Fiona, our leader, led our “Survival” Chinese lessons. She was the best! She called Hallie and I ‘twins’ and loved us so much and we loved her just the same. Basically our social group formed out of this Group 3 business. Our best friends that we made were Eliot, Ryan, and Helen. But we also got to know the rest of the group pretty well too: Jordan, Phil, Betsy, Seth, Josh and Jessica. We had the best group by far and we became friends really quickly. Eliot and Ryan stayed a couple doors down from us and we befriended them early on with a game of Bananagrams. It was all smooth sailing after that. We went out two nights that we were in orientation and both nights were a lot of fun and interesting. One started with free margaritas and ended in my favorite lipstick being used as a writing utensil for our hotel’s name. Being slightly lost on the streets of Shanghai early on was something I was not expecting. The other night we attempted to karaoke, but incidentally stumbled into a gay bar. Naturally, right? Hallie and I were both really surprised how much we loved our friends and were very sad to say goodbye to them (as none of them with the exception of Betsy were placed at our school or in that case, Shanghai). We will hopefully get to travel together or some will come and stay with us and vise versa. We did attempt to do some karaoke at KTV and didn’t have the patience for the line, so another attempt is definitely in store.
We are now moved into our apartment in Southwest Shanghai and the apartment itself deserves it’s own blog posting. We have training and orientation with our school, Shanghai Jazz English Institute, tomorrow morning (8/30/09).
WPB:
Ge An – Buffin’s Chinese name
Bu yong xie – you’re welcome
Not sure how I made it through my first week in Shanghai, but sure enough it’s been done. The past week has been an experience that I could have never dreamed up before coming here. To recap my week of orientation for all those who have been viciously affected by the lack of technical communication (ie: no facebook and cell phone), here goes…
I wanted everyone to feel the thoughts that consumed my mind while I was on the plane. I have re-read my messy journal entry that I wrote in the dark and will include some of the literary gems I wrote. I’ve never felt so anxious and terrified to leave home than I did last week. I basically had a knot in my stomach for the last couple of days I spent at home. So when I opened my journal on the plane in my mid-panic/flight anxiety attack (we were cruising right over the North Pole), to find a secret letter from my Mom, tears started flowing. So I wrote some serious jib jab about what the heck am I doing and how much I missed my family and friends already. I turned on 30 Rock and immediately felt better. When we landed, we met some people from CIEE and other participants who seemed normal…woo!
The first couple of nights were pretty restless for me mainly because of jet lag. As I glanced over at Hallie getting 10-12 hours of sleep, I pretty much felt pure jealousy. However, a few nights later, I found a decent sleeping pattern. The rock hard beds were also something to get used to….and all the salty food. Anyone who knows anything about me is aware that I like a plethora of fruits and vegetables (and a mean sandwich), so all these salty, carb-filled, large meals were starting to get to me. Now that Hallie and I are in our apartment, we hope to go blander with our food choices.
To give an overall summary of the sites I’ve seen is going to give no justice to the incredible views, but I’ll give it a go. We went on a walking tour of the French Concession, which was so beautiful! It looked a lot like Europe. It was equipped with cute buildings and the 2nd prettiest trees I’ve ever seen (1st is Magnolia Ridge, of course.) Our crew wondered around the Bund, which was covered with construction due to the World Expo starting in May 2010, but really cool to see the first sites of the Oriental Pearl Tower and the downtown area. This was the first day that I really noticed how smoggy and polluted the city is. The third day we went up one of the world’s tallest buildings, China’s tallest building: The Shanghai World Financial Center. It is actually the highest observation deck in the entire world. It felt as if I was a part of the Star Trek crew. The employees were dressed like people from outer space and the whole interior was so bright I felt like I needed to wear sunglasses inside. The view from the top was SO INCREDIBLE. We even saw the men washing the windows and I was very scared for them. This was by far my favorite site yet. The next day we went on a walking tour of the Lujiazui Commercial Area. It was a lot of tall buildings and an overall sweaty, humid, rainy day. But the nasty weather took a hiatus long enough for our river cruise on the Hangppu River. It is the river that splits the city in two and gives the most amazing views of the lights of Shanghai. The last walking tour was of the Tian Zi Fang Art Street, which was filled with quaint cafes and shops. This again reminded me of Europe. It was very cute and I got to see a different side of Chinese culture. I also ate some awesome ice cream, so good!
Our Chinese outings are definitely worth commenting on too. We went to a traditional “Face Changing” performance at a spicy food restaurant called Baguobuyi. I have A) never seen a Lazy Susan so big in my life, B) felt so incompetent using chopsticks (rice noodles were all over my area), C) saw crazy ‘professional’ tea-pourers pour tea in a kung fu way, and D) witnessed the craziest performance with a Chinese man changing his face like a magic show. The next night we ate at my 2nd favorite dinner of the week, Jujube Tree, a vegetarian place that was so tasty. After our meal we went to an acrobatic show that was so intense it felt like it may not have been real. Those little girls are insanely limber, strong, talented, brave, and absolutely out of their minds. It was SOOOOOO cool. Our farewell dinner was surprisingly really sad. We ate at the Faculty Club Restaurant (in the hotel where we were staying) and it was my favorite meal. I got to eat salad, shrimp, fried fish, chicken, egg rolls, and this fried corn and pea pie that had sprinkles on it and tasted like a funnel cake (only in China, right?). Again, one heck of a Lazy Susan. The dinner ended with some serious karaoke from our CIEE staff. They got really into it and it was very entertaining to watch.
Our whole program was broken up into three groups. Hallie and I were in Group 3, which coincidentally was the best group. Fiona, our leader, led our “Survival” Chinese lessons. She was the best! She called Hallie and I ‘twins’ and loved us so much and we loved her just the same. Basically our social group formed out of this Group 3 business. Our best friends that we made were Eliot, Ryan, and Helen. But we also got to know the rest of the group pretty well too: Jordan, Phil, Betsy, Seth, Josh and Jessica. We had the best group by far and we became friends really quickly. Eliot and Ryan stayed a couple doors down from us and we befriended them early on with a game of Bananagrams. It was all smooth sailing after that. We went out two nights that we were in orientation and both nights were a lot of fun and interesting. One started with free margaritas and ended in my favorite lipstick being used as a writing utensil for our hotel’s name. Being slightly lost on the streets of Shanghai early on was something I was not expecting. The other night we attempted to karaoke, but incidentally stumbled into a gay bar. Naturally, right? Hallie and I were both really surprised how much we loved our friends and were very sad to say goodbye to them (as none of them with the exception of Betsy were placed at our school or in that case, Shanghai). We will hopefully get to travel together or some will come and stay with us and vise versa. We did attempt to do some karaoke at KTV and didn’t have the patience for the line, so another attempt is definitely in store.
We are now moved into our apartment in Southwest Shanghai and the apartment itself deserves it’s own blog posting. We have training and orientation with our school, Shanghai Jazz English Institute, tomorrow morning (8/30/09).
WPB:
Ge An – Buffin’s Chinese name
Bu yong xie – you’re welcome
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