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.