Stinkers on a Field Trip

In our cute little international department at our school, the administration decided that we take the students on English field trips. Ironically, everything was in Chinese. It's not really ironic, because this is backwards land.

So, two weeks ago, we took our third graders to The Mankattan (right, not Manhattan) Food Company because we've been learning about healthy eating and cooking. The students really enjoyed themselves.

3rd Graders at Mankattan Food Co. 

December  5th

 First we had a lecture on healthy eating and how they make bread here (I think).

 Kirsty and I have no clue what's going on.

Then, we all walked down a hallway with huge windows that overlooked a production line of machines that were making hamburger buns. We were not allowed to take pictures there.

Here's William enjoying his hamburger bun.

The last thing the kids did was make sandwiches. In my mind, I was thinking of a proper sandwich for eating. What they should have said, is that the students would be making bread art. Candies, cookies, sausages, mayonnaise, and tomato sauce- sounds delicious, doesn't it?

 Hello Kitty! ( I think I saw about 3 of these)

 

The three best "sandwiches." Gorden made a tank. 

Leftovers. Gross.................

My third grade kiddos

Note the sweet bus upholstery and the coolest poloroid picture ever:

Then last week, we took the fourth graders to Tony's Farm, which is an organic vegetable farm. Talk about disappointment when the kids realized there weren't any animals. On most of their reflections, they wrote that lunch was their favorite part. >.<  Naturally we went to a farm because we've been studying natural disasters and safety.  Clearly, the farm was a good choice.

4th Graders at Tony's Farm

December  11th

Fanciest greenhouse I've ever seen...

After lots of walking around and looking at plants, the kids finally got a chance to get their hands dirty. They each planted a little sapling to take home with them.

Jason didn't follow the rules and planted 5 plants.

 And I could only round up the girls for a class photo- because my boys just don't listen.

And, the final class consensus: Lunch really was the best part.

 

These kids are finally growing on me. They're ornery but they have a great sense of humor. I'm thankful for both of my classes. And can you believe it, Josh and I are almost halfway done with this contract. Unreal! I'll keep you posted on what our next move will be.

As I have been looking through my pictures and working on this post, I couldn't bear the thought of ignoring the two elementary school tragedies that have just occurred. I don't want to end on a sad note, but I must express my sympathy to the families and teachers who were affected by the school shooting in Newtown, CT and also the stabbing in Chengping, China.  What a horrible day all over the world. I honestly can't imagine anything like that happening at an elementary school anywhere. I admire those teachers who protected their students to the best of their ability. And I would hope, if found in a situation like that, I would do the same. Both attacks must have been equally terrifying. I saw several of my Facebook friends post things along the lines of "I'm hugging my children extra tight today, I can't imagine losing my babies," etc. Losing a child is awful. Being in a traumatic experience like these is awful. I pray for those survivors and families, that they can fully heal from this. We unfortunately had two more terrible reminders that life is way too precious to take for granted.

Cold War

There are so many things that I could go on a rant about here. I usually don't, but you'll know what I'm thinking when I mutter "ugh, China!" with frustration. There's one thing that I should mention, because it's so ridiculous, it's funny.

When we first arrived at the school, the weather was warm and nice. All the windows remained open, none having screens (because that's super safe for young children). The breeze was really pleasant.

I share an office with Allison, another foreigner and 6 female Chinese teachers. My relationship with the Chinese teachers is much different than my relationship with former Korean coworkers. In Korea, I shared all my classes with a Korean teacher. We discussed students, discipline, and the English language. We were a team working towards the same goal- to teach the kids English. And, my Korean coworker, Annie and I became great friends! It's very different here. Of course, I'm not working at an after school English academy anymore, keep that in mind. These students have a variety of subjects in a day, I'm one of many teachers they see. Only a few of the Chinese teachers speak English.

Something else that I should mention, is that the local teachers don't seem to place an importance on our (the foreigners') classes. Several times, they have taken students out of our classes to do Chinese homework, and some have even told the students straight out that their English classes weren't as important as the other classes. We've discussed this with the administration, and so far it's just been an unspoken battle between the Chinese and foreign teachers. Sets a nice mood for the office, doesn't it?

Allison told me right away to bring headphones, because it can get very loud in our office. That's an understatement. If it's not loud bantering or group singing, its an iPhone going off at top volume playing a Chinese pop song - 10 times in a row. She's not answering! Stop calling, idiot! It never stops. I find myself cranking my headphones on full blast just to tune them out.

Lucky me, my desk also sits right under the daily schedule posted on the wall, near the door. At least once a day, a Chinese teacher's torso is leaning on my head as I'm ducking while trying to type up my lesson plans. Occasionally I get a "sorry" but it's not like they stop after apologizing. Whatever, that's not the worst thing.

To be honest with you, none of this stuff really bothers me as much as the door. Because I sit right next to the door (my back is to it) It has become my unofficial job to close the door that everyone leaves wide open. Everyone seems to ignore the sign that says, "Close the door." You may be thinking, what's the big deal about leaving the door open? It's a very big deal, because not only do they leave the office door wide open- every window, right outside the door in the hallway, is open. It's winter. It's freezing. WHY?! WHY?! WHY?! As soon as the door is opened, it sucks in the cold air. I'm the first target.

Apparently, the Chinese teachers value fresh air more than warmth. They've each got a little humidifier on their desks to battle the dry air. There is a nice big heater in the center of the ceiling, that's running on high. But then, all the dang windows are open. Right, makes perfect sense.

I've taken it upon myself to fight back, passive-aggressively of course. It started with loud, unsatisfied sighs. Then Allison joined in with me at yelling "Close the door!" to any student who enters. And now, I just slam the door closed when people leave it open. I don't know why I bother changing  my outfits everyday, because I wear my coat and gloves all day.

I don't think I'll win this war until spring. At that point, I surrender.

Grateful Heart

At the start of November, many of my Facebook friends followed this trend of posting something they were thankful for each day. Being the nonconformist hipster that I am, not only did I opt out of this movement, but with each post I read came a huge eye roll.

Before you decide I'm a jerk, just try to remember where I'm coming from. Everyone's all: "I'm so thankful for my blah blah blah." And I'm thinking, it must be nice. It must be nice to be near family, it must be nice to have comfort food within arms reach, it must be nice to be able to communicate with the general public in English.  Not only is my heart two sizes too small at this point, I'm also the nastiest shade of envious green. It must be nice to have a stinking oven for crying out loud!

For a few weeks, I've been mulling in this ball of self pity mixed with jealous rage. The Thanksgiving posts were getting to be too much, and next it was going to be Christmas. oh joy.

But that's the end of the negativity. You know what? I have a job. I have an amazing husband. My whole family is actually coming to visit me. I'm not isolated from the outside world. The internet in China isn't great, but God bless VPNs (virtual private networks)!! Oh you know what else China HAS that America DOESN'T? Thanksgiving feasts delivered to your door.  Josh and I invited our dear friends Bri and Matt over for a delicious chicken dinner (turkey was available but our fridge is small).

No, it didn't exactly turn out like a Norman Rockwell painting, but here's what happened....

We get a call from Fields (the fancy western foods place) right after work Thursday at 4:15, confirming that we'd be home for the meal delivery at 4:30. I hadn't heard from Bri yet to confirm when or if they were coming over that night. Since I love procrastinating, the house wasn't cleaned or ready for guests either. Josh and I rushed home and started tidying things up the best we could. 4:30 comes and goes. Around 5 we get a text from Bri asking for our address. I didn't know she had emailed me to confirm dinner plans because Gmail and Google were down that day (Thanks, China!) So, with no worries, Bri and Matt made it around 5:30 and were soaked because of the Thanksgiving monsoon. And still, no dinner. Josh gave Fields a call again, the lady was going to call us back after talking to the driver. The new ETA was 7:00.  Maybe we should just order pizza?

We busted out the wine, Bananagrams, and lots of conversation.

FINALLY! 8 PM! THANKSGIVING DINNER HAS ARRIVED!!!

Ok, so this meal was delicious. After a diet of mostly greasy Chinese food (not in a good way) for the last few months, I will NEVER take for granted a good American style meal.

Yeah, big whoop. I took a picture of my plate. But this is my plate in China! This is huge deal.

Having this feast did not make my heart grow three times its size. The two-and-a-half-hours-of-good-conversation-with-people-who-are-in-the-same-boat-as-us did. This Thanksgiving, I got a new perspective. I'm leading a truly amazing life right now. I have an amazing man by my side, and the sky's the limit for us.
You know what I'm doing this winter?  I'm going to Thailand... and Laos... and Indonesia... and India. Okay, now I'm just bragging.

We sacrifice a lot choosing to work and live on the other side of the world. But, we sacrifice a lot staying put in the Midwest too. It's all a matter of your perspective.

Pep talk to myself: Be thankful for what YOU have, because it's spectacular.

Hallowhatever

Here are my little terrors dressed up for Halloween.

3rd Grade

Witches and Wizards

 Princesses and Fairies

 Gorden the Fox

 He picked this outfit because it was warm!

4th Grade

 Lucy the Birthday Girl

 Ten the Polar Bear Devil?

Feury as Darth Vader

Chaos as usual.

 Jason the Photobomber. He asked me the day before if he could wear a paper bag on his head for a costume. Why not?

Another funny thing about Asia (speaking only of what I have experienced: China and Korea) is western holidays. It's just a knockoff really, like so many other things here. Costumes? ok! Candy? we got it! There you have it, an instant Halloween celebration.  I told the kids they could dress up, and as you can see by the pictures, most of their outfits were just random costume items, not necessarily a matching outfit.

That morning, I went into our director's office to get the candy for the students. On the table sat 3 large bags of small hard candies, similar to the kind you'd throw at a parade. As we were prepared to take multiple handfuls, the Chinese secretary informs us that we are to only give the kids 2 pieces each.
"There are 1600 pieces, you can give each student two. The rest will be used for the assemblies."

Seriously? Two dinky little cough drops? I was dreading going into the classes. They're going to freak out. They go to this expensive private school and all the school gives them is two pieces of candy at the Halloween party? Both of my classes were so excited to be  dressed up and to not have actual class, they were thrilled. We watched some Shrek Halloween movies as they munched on the snacks and candy that they brought to class. It was kind of cute actually. It was more like Valentine's Day. They all brought candy for each other. When I gave them my measly little candies, they were just tickled. I'd love to see how that would go over with American kids.

In other news, I've been very sick. It started two weekends ago as a horrible stomach bug (use your imagination) and as that went away within a week it turned into a sore throat, cold, and now a horrendous cough remains. I'm hoping that with another restful weekend, I'll be back to normal by Monday. I'm getting cabin fever just sitting around in the apartment! Time to explore............

Just another day in Shanghai...

Obviously, China is very different from the States. I wasn't expecting it to be so different from Korea. Holy Cow. Just to give you an idea of the oddities I keep observing, here is a list of some "only in China" experiences that happened one evening. This is what Upside Down World looks like.

• Walking on the sidewalk, a girl next to me simply throws her empty Sprite can onto a nicely trimmed bush without missing a beat, you know, because it's practically a trash can.

• A little girl squats on the sidewalk to pee.

• Dogs wear clothes, some even have shoes.

• There are three beggars on the overpass between the subway station and the grocery store. And also a man with a pet monkey that collects coins from those who offer them.

• As the sun has gone down, a man does not hesitate to pee on the the side of a building, of course on a busy street. I would expect nothing less.

• A few feet away from the sidewalk under the sparse trees, a young couple is making out  out in the dark.

• A man yells at a crying boy and smacks him a few times on the face.

• Both girls and guys are wearing glasses without lens. Ok, I am a fan of the fake glasses as an accessory movement. But no lenses? Come on....

I kid you not, this was all within a span of 2 or 3 hours. I just don't know what to think sometimes. My mind is completely boggled at how different things are here. I know I'm doing a horrible job of embracing the culture and adapting. I'm kind of being that turtle who just puts all his turtley parts in the shell and stays there until he's no longer threatened.

Americans, I know it's super cliche, but you really don't know how good you have it to live in a free country. Wherever you go here, there are guards. The internet is extremely censored, and you would not believe how hard it is to find a church to attend. I feel like Big Brother monitors everything. Apparently there are only two state approved Christian churches in Shanghai, which of course are monitored by the government. It's definitely an adjustment, even compared to Korea!

I'm trying to stay positive. Yeah, I'm not crazy about the food, and occasionally a rat may come up out of the sink..... but it is cool being here. Just being on this side of the world makes us that much more apt to travel since we have insanely long vacation time.  And... you know, it's so good to have a M-F job again. I loved working at Costco, but I hated having the opposite schedule as Josh. I'm so happy that now we get to walk, not drive, to work together everyday. I'm so lucky to have such a motivated language learner for a husband. But, I'm kind of been using him as a crutch. I've made two goals for myself.

New Goal #1:  Stick in my head!!

New Goal #2: Learn to live in the moment.

Rat Tales

You're lucky I don't have pictures for this one. Shyeah, as if I'd grab a camera to capture this.

Two days ago, Josh and I came home from work. I've actually started to feel more comfortable in our apartment, as we'd spent last weekend rearranging furniture and improving our digs with Ikea bedding and housewares. So, it was like any other weekday, my throat was sore, my mind was tired. (Yay teaching!) Josh went into the kitchen as I am putting my backpack down.

"Brit, did you-shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!!!!!!"

"What?!" I ask. Then I see. It looked like a weird stick or plant was just sticking out of the sink. All of a sudden it starts flopping around. It reminded me of the sea monster from Godzilla (Yeah, I don't know why my mind went there first). And within seconds, That weird flopping stick turned into a rat's butt, and then a whole dang rat. And no, it wasn't small. It scurried under the gas burners and I pretty much just stood there with a dropped jaw. Josh closed off the kitchen and went for the can of Raid. Being the sissy that I am, I ran to the bedroom, closed the door, and tried to comprehend what I'd just seen. I heard some thumps and bangs. After a few minutes I went to see how Josh "the Exterminator" Deitner, handled this.  Apparently he just started spraying it to prevent a ninja attack, and then it decided our peanut butter lined drain wasn't worth it and he plummeted back down into the sewer (The rat, not Josh).

So, that happened.

I was just starting to warm up to the idea of cooking in that kitchen even though it was a cockroach graveyard. Now that I know it's a handy portal for sewer rats, I'm not so keen. I can barely rinse a spoon without staring at the drain expecting to see a sea monster.

These are the stories that color my life interesting, right?

Um, I'll take monotony over this crap any day.

First Week of School

Here's what that looked like.

 

Here's my good class:

 I love them!

 Here's my not so good class. Obviously, we're going to change that:

Last weekend was Teacher's Day. A few of my students brought me flowers and candy. The school hosted a mandatory sleepover at Chongming Island, which is about two hours away. We had a super fancy meal, had to do a performance (seriously?) and got a Y1000 (about $150) bonus and a gift. And they put us up in this swanky hotel. After the meal/presentations, our international department took a trip to a local KTV which is similar to the Korean norebangs, or private karaoke rooms. We had such fun getting to know all the new teachers, and yeah.. you know me- I got to sing Abba and Kylie Minogue!

Here's our new coworkers/friends:

Some of the Chinese teachers performing...

We sang "All of We is One Family" which is a Bahamian song that Bonnie, our head teacher, taught us.

And here's some of the food:

We thought this was snake. Luckily, it was only eel! Super slimy though.

And our gift? 45 eggs, corn, beans, and some weird pickled vegetables.

Amidst all this work craziness, we have been entertaining (or trying to entertain) our guest, Pete, from the UK. During our working hours, he's managed to see a lot of cool things in the city. We did manage to join him for a trip to Nanjing Road and the Bund.

Mao is Batman now.

I fell in love with this city when I saw all the lights of the Bund.

 

Nanjing Road - One hot shopping spot. Oh yeah, Forever 21 COMING SOON!!

And there you have it. Our first week here in Shanghai. I think I'm gonna like it here.