So today I woke up early because I didn't go out... I know, shocking! Early as in 11 am early :) I decided to go to the Urban Planning Museum today because the last time I was in Shanghai I loved it so I figured I could bring my camera and see it again. I'm uploading the pics on facebook now, the battery died though because I forgot to charge it after the Tourism fest. The place is amazing, it has a full scale model of the whole city of Shanghai, tons of models of the Expo site and other parts of the city. It is 5 stories. There is a story dedicated to Shanghai becoming a green city and restoring the polluted Suzhou Creek. I got lucky and the top floor is hosting a propaganda poster exhibition through the end of this month. It was really funny reading all of the propaganda posters from over the past 60 years and I'd like to include some quotes, again no pics because the camera died.
"Be a revolutionary red seed. Go wherever the mother land needs you and take root, sprout, bloom, and bear fruit." This poster was about when they forced people to leave their homes and live out in BFE.
"Wipe out the four pests." This was one of my faves, it had a knife impailing flies, mosquitoes, some kind of bird, and rats.
"South Vietnamese people get stronger and stronger in fighting, continue to destroy the American invaders until success is achieved." I had to LOL at this one, I checked the Chinese and it really said the South Vietnamese. Too bad we were helping them fight the N Vietnamese and the Chinese.
"Warmly hail the explosion of our fist hydrogen bomb." xD
"For revolution, must implement family planning policy." AKA no you can't have more than one child, you have to sacrifice for the revolution that happened 22 years ago :P
"It's everyones duty to eliminate illiteracy." This featured a 3o something lady teaching a 50 something lady how to write 鱼 or fish. It was all in traditional Chinese though... strange.
"Buy bond today for tomorrow's happiness." aka the country has no money so invest all of your savings into it so maybe one day you will get your money back.
"Uncle, please return to the owner." it was a fucking pen lol
LAST ONE:
"The war to resist America and aid Korea creates great hero and the hero's family is the most glorious." No comment lol
I'll write more after I get back from work :D
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
EVERYTHING!
So I've been a lazy bum and haven't written anything here in a while. I decided to write now because I don't want to forget all of the fun stuff that has been happening plus its convenient cuz I'm going out again tonight hehe :D
So classes are going AMAZING! A parent sat in on one of my classes yesterday to decided whether or not they want to sign their child up and she gave me a few compliments I would like to share. Her son is very young maybe 3-4, and he didn't say a word the WHOLE class, I tried to get him to speak but he just wouldn't so I assumed there was no way this lady would sign up. At the break, she came up to me and said they were going to leave. She spoke English well and said I was a great teacher with great energy, that was very fulfilling for me because I've been worried about what the parents think of me as a teacher and how much I've progressed. Also, the students are LEARNING! Like if you're not a teacher or have never taught, it brings such joy when you see that things are finally clicking with your students. They now know all of the pronouns + to be! I love teaching and I can't think of anything else I would rather be doing right now.
Now on to Shanghai, I love this city. It is such a melting pot, every time I go out I meet someone from a different country. I went out twice last week and got pretty smashed both times. They were fun times though. On Wednesday I went to this place called G+. Its one of the trendier clubs in this expat area called Xintiandi. I have a connection so I got in for free and got 3 free drinks. Then after that drinks were 5 for 50rmb which is about $1 a drink :D Shots and everything, the tequila was flowin. I ended up leaving with 2 German guys who were on holiday and my Indian friend Victor. We went to Windows, which is my favorite late night cheap bar. But before we left, Victor had been talking to this Kazakh woman who seemed nice but Victor didn't like her so when we were leaving her and her boricua(male) friend said something about him and one of the German guys who were with us(Chinese-German) started cussing them out and I was like Oh no... So I quickly ushered the German into the cab and we were off to Windows... Fun times...
On Monday, I went to the all you can drink for an hour at Zapatas and then to Windows with Ben, his gang, and Nathan. Nathan and Ben were hammered. I was alright... We went to breakfast at this place called City Diner with his gf Selina. Shes so nice, she sells Gucci watches... She treated us to breakfast which was like 35 US. Ben and Nathan PTFOed. They didn't even eat lol. I had this massive burger that was so good...
So about last night and the Kazakh B!tch!!! I went to this place called Logo with Ben and a few friends. It was some underground music weird thing, definitely not my cup of tea but then we went to a disco night place, RETARDED but we were lured in by this 20rmb drink called the Depth Bomb... Tantalizing isn't it? It was alright it was a shot of vodka that they drop into this beer dyed blue concoction. I chugged it, tasted like Kool-Aid. I reminisced a little... haha. After I went to Windows with the gang. There was this weird ass stinky Hatian guy there that kept walking along the bar talking to people. Hatians...(no offence). The people next to us were Russian, so I started talking to them. They were really cool and they work at a restaurant called the Flying Elephant, LMAO. It was a guy and a girl and their friend from South Africa. See its an international hodge-podge. Well I wanted to dance so I went to dance, and was chilling with the Russians at a table and noticed Ben and Selina had left lol so being me, I just hung out with the Russians for the rest of the night.
Well........... Kazakhs think they're fucking Russian, they are not. They are Central Asian so they have chinky eyes and look Chinese. The Russian girl introduced me to her friend Maria, who is Kazakh, she was very nice. I asked the girl next to her what was her name and if she was Kazakh also(I already knew she was). She just said, "it doesn't matter," and turned around. That shit don't fly with me... if I'm being nice and introducing myself and you're going to be a bitch, I'm gonna call you out so I said "Well aren't you a bitch." Then she tried to get fresh so I started cussing her out in Spanish. I walked away though, cuz I'm a big person... Well that bitch tried to go and get security... I thought of Bon Qui Qui. Well she didn't know Chinese, and I do. I told security that she was a 当妇 or whore, and he agreed with me. I'm a white American, she isn't, I win in Shanghai end of story. So I went back to the dance floor and she crawled back to her corner. Then we decided to go. So it was me, the 2 Russians, the South African and this Haitian guy, a different one. He couldn't speak English or Chinese. So using my broken ass French I was trying to get him home lmao, he didn't know where he lived, dumb ass. He gave his phone to some cabbie so he could look at an address or call a friend, well we turned around, and then his phone was gone LOL!!!!!! So he knew he went to 上海大学 well there is no Shanghai University lol. I was like which university in French, and he said foreign language, so I told the cabbies, we were all laughing and one of them said they knew it so they took him home, minus the phone. He's gonna go back and look for it lol. Well the Russian had left by this time so I got in the cab and headed home. What a night :)
I'm going to the free beer for the hour thing, and I forgot to mention they have a tequila song after that where these scantily clad Chinese girls freepour tequila into your mouth. I cheated last week, I got it from two of them hehe, You know me :D Then I'm going to the Flying Elephant lol for cheap vodka and some food. Plus I want to see my friend singing in their band. I don't expect much lol ;)
Oh and I still have no passport lol Andy said they processed the visa and he is getting it soon. Whatever I really don't care right now. No one asks for your passport. You could live here illegally for years... Maybe...
Chao for now! Let me know if you want to know about anything.
So classes are going AMAZING! A parent sat in on one of my classes yesterday to decided whether or not they want to sign their child up and she gave me a few compliments I would like to share. Her son is very young maybe 3-4, and he didn't say a word the WHOLE class, I tried to get him to speak but he just wouldn't so I assumed there was no way this lady would sign up. At the break, she came up to me and said they were going to leave. She spoke English well and said I was a great teacher with great energy, that was very fulfilling for me because I've been worried about what the parents think of me as a teacher and how much I've progressed. Also, the students are LEARNING! Like if you're not a teacher or have never taught, it brings such joy when you see that things are finally clicking with your students. They now know all of the pronouns + to be! I love teaching and I can't think of anything else I would rather be doing right now.
Now on to Shanghai, I love this city. It is such a melting pot, every time I go out I meet someone from a different country. I went out twice last week and got pretty smashed both times. They were fun times though. On Wednesday I went to this place called G+. Its one of the trendier clubs in this expat area called Xintiandi. I have a connection so I got in for free and got 3 free drinks. Then after that drinks were 5 for 50rmb which is about $1 a drink :D Shots and everything, the tequila was flowin. I ended up leaving with 2 German guys who were on holiday and my Indian friend Victor. We went to Windows, which is my favorite late night cheap bar. But before we left, Victor had been talking to this Kazakh woman who seemed nice but Victor didn't like her so when we were leaving her and her boricua(male) friend said something about him and one of the German guys who were with us(Chinese-German) started cussing them out and I was like Oh no... So I quickly ushered the German into the cab and we were off to Windows... Fun times...
On Monday, I went to the all you can drink for an hour at Zapatas and then to Windows with Ben, his gang, and Nathan. Nathan and Ben were hammered. I was alright... We went to breakfast at this place called City Diner with his gf Selina. Shes so nice, she sells Gucci watches... She treated us to breakfast which was like 35 US. Ben and Nathan PTFOed. They didn't even eat lol. I had this massive burger that was so good...
So about last night and the Kazakh B!tch!!! I went to this place called Logo with Ben and a few friends. It was some underground music weird thing, definitely not my cup of tea but then we went to a disco night place, RETARDED but we were lured in by this 20rmb drink called the Depth Bomb... Tantalizing isn't it? It was alright it was a shot of vodka that they drop into this beer dyed blue concoction. I chugged it, tasted like Kool-Aid. I reminisced a little... haha. After I went to Windows with the gang. There was this weird ass stinky Hatian guy there that kept walking along the bar talking to people. Hatians...(no offence). The people next to us were Russian, so I started talking to them. They were really cool and they work at a restaurant called the Flying Elephant, LMAO. It was a guy and a girl and their friend from South Africa. See its an international hodge-podge. Well I wanted to dance so I went to dance, and was chilling with the Russians at a table and noticed Ben and Selina had left lol so being me, I just hung out with the Russians for the rest of the night.
Well........... Kazakhs think they're fucking Russian, they are not. They are Central Asian so they have chinky eyes and look Chinese. The Russian girl introduced me to her friend Maria, who is Kazakh, she was very nice. I asked the girl next to her what was her name and if she was Kazakh also(I already knew she was). She just said, "it doesn't matter," and turned around. That shit don't fly with me... if I'm being nice and introducing myself and you're going to be a bitch, I'm gonna call you out so I said "Well aren't you a bitch." Then she tried to get fresh so I started cussing her out in Spanish. I walked away though, cuz I'm a big person... Well that bitch tried to go and get security... I thought of Bon Qui Qui. Well she didn't know Chinese, and I do. I told security that she was a 当妇 or whore, and he agreed with me. I'm a white American, she isn't, I win in Shanghai end of story. So I went back to the dance floor and she crawled back to her corner. Then we decided to go. So it was me, the 2 Russians, the South African and this Haitian guy, a different one. He couldn't speak English or Chinese. So using my broken ass French I was trying to get him home lmao, he didn't know where he lived, dumb ass. He gave his phone to some cabbie so he could look at an address or call a friend, well we turned around, and then his phone was gone LOL!!!!!! So he knew he went to 上海大学 well there is no Shanghai University lol. I was like which university in French, and he said foreign language, so I told the cabbies, we were all laughing and one of them said they knew it so they took him home, minus the phone. He's gonna go back and look for it lol. Well the Russian had left by this time so I got in the cab and headed home. What a night :)
I'm going to the free beer for the hour thing, and I forgot to mention they have a tequila song after that where these scantily clad Chinese girls freepour tequila into your mouth. I cheated last week, I got it from two of them hehe, You know me :D Then I'm going to the Flying Elephant lol for cheap vodka and some food. Plus I want to see my friend singing in their band. I don't expect much lol ;)
Oh and I still have no passport lol Andy said they processed the visa and he is getting it soon. Whatever I really don't care right now. No one asks for your passport. You could live here illegally for years... Maybe...
Chao for now! Let me know if you want to know about anything.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Roommate and Shanghai Tourism Festival
大家好！
So my roommate has arrived. He's a Canadian. About 250, 6'2 huge... Its fun to watch the Chinese people gawk at him. He knows NO chinese and this is his first time here. He went to McGill in Montreal which is one of the best schools in Cananda. He's rich... Every night hes been here he wants me to go with him to buy beer and walk around, I've obliged, I enjoy walking around. Friday night we walked all the way to NanJing Lu which is the most famous street in Shanghai and is the heart of the city. Its about 4km from where I live. Got a foot massage that night too, they all know me in there now, its too hard not to become a regular :) Got home around 3 and had to be up for work at 7... I felt like shit and almost puked on the subway. Got to work and I kept going to the bathroom, I told them my stomach was messed up lol. I didn't actually puke it just felt like it. He's at the draft for a local hockey league... he is Canadian. Ｏｈ， ａｎｄ ｈｅｓ ｎｏｔ ｔｈｅ ｓｈａｒｐｅｓｔ ｐｅｎｃｉｌ ｉｎ ｔｈｅ ｂｏｘ． Ｈｅ ｌｅａｖｅｓ ａｌｌ ｏｆ ｔｈｅ ｌｉｇｈｔｓ ｏｎ， ｄｏｏｒｓ ｗｉｔｈ ｗｉｎｄｏｗｓ ｏｐｅｎ， ｔｈｅｎ ｔｕｒｎｓ ｏｎ ｔｈｅ ＡＣ ａｎｄ ｔｕｒｎｓ ｉｔ ａｌｌ ｔｈｅ ｗａｙ ｄｏｗｎ ｃｏｍｐｌａｉｎｉｎｇ ａｂｏｕｔ ｈｏｗ ｉｔ ｉｓ ｗａｒｍ．．． I was like close the doors and windows and it won't be hot...
I have wireless internet now so I'm actually typing this in my room :D I'm going to get my visa extended tomorrow. Jessica told me that if they ask any questions tell them I'm travelling... xD Kinda nervous about that. I have to get a bank account first, I guess to add legitimacy to my claim. Getting paid TUESDAY !!! YES!! FINALLY!!! MONEY!!! WOOHOO!!! I have 41 rmb to spend tomorrow. I'm really interested to see how much they pay me, hope its the full 6000 that is the pay for the month of "training." Speaking of, next week I get to go to training everyday, its with all of the new teachers that are coming in for the new semester. The thing is I've been teaching 3 weeks and am already a fucking pro :D Susan, one of the head TAs, watched my class today and was like OMG you're so much better than I'd thought you'd be. She couldn't think of anything to write down for needs improvement, so I had to give her one ;) Discipline, the little devils just can't sit still for 50 min...
In other news, I went to the Shanghai Tourism Festival opening ceremony last night! It was amazing!! Definitely the best parade I've ever seen. I have over 30 min of video from the performances. Here is a link about the Festival http://english.eastday.com/e/0913/u1a4655078.html
So my favorite TA Doris volunteered at the opening ceremony and she called me a few hours before and told me she scored some free tickets and asking if Nathan and I wanted to go. I was like I'm really tired, but what the hell I'll go. Not expecting much... Well more than 500,000 people were there! So we had tickets to these bleachers that were set-up on the sides of the road. There were 5 sets that were spread out over 4 km. Only around 100 people could sit in each set. We got to section D and rammed our way through the 8 deep crowd of people. Then about 15 min in Doris was like, D area sucks, lets go to E where I'm "volunteering." She didn't do anything after Nathan and I got there besides watch the show with us lol. So we walked through the crowds all the way to E and I was thinking this better be worth it... Well it WAS! We didn't have tickets for E, so Doris and her friend went in waving their volunteer badges and were like these two foreigners are with us. So they let us in and we got to sit on the street right behind the parade announcers. All of the performers were less than 10 ft away it was AWESOME! Wait till you see the video of Brazil lol. The video has my dumb comments throughout because I forgot how good the mic was but oh well.
再见！
So my roommate has arrived. He's a Canadian. About 250, 6'2 huge... Its fun to watch the Chinese people gawk at him. He knows NO chinese and this is his first time here. He went to McGill in Montreal which is one of the best schools in Cananda. He's rich... Every night hes been here he wants me to go with him to buy beer and walk around, I've obliged, I enjoy walking around. Friday night we walked all the way to NanJing Lu which is the most famous street in Shanghai and is the heart of the city. Its about 4km from where I live. Got a foot massage that night too, they all know me in there now, its too hard not to become a regular :) Got home around 3 and had to be up for work at 7... I felt like shit and almost puked on the subway. Got to work and I kept going to the bathroom, I told them my stomach was messed up lol. I didn't actually puke it just felt like it. He's at the draft for a local hockey league... he is Canadian. Ｏｈ， ａｎｄ ｈｅｓ ｎｏｔ ｔｈｅ ｓｈａｒｐｅｓｔ ｐｅｎｃｉｌ ｉｎ ｔｈｅ ｂｏｘ． Ｈｅ ｌｅａｖｅｓ ａｌｌ ｏｆ ｔｈｅ ｌｉｇｈｔｓ ｏｎ， ｄｏｏｒｓ ｗｉｔｈ ｗｉｎｄｏｗｓ ｏｐｅｎ， ｔｈｅｎ ｔｕｒｎｓ ｏｎ ｔｈｅ ＡＣ ａｎｄ ｔｕｒｎｓ ｉｔ ａｌｌ ｔｈｅ ｗａｙ ｄｏｗｎ ｃｏｍｐｌａｉｎｉｎｇ ａｂｏｕｔ ｈｏｗ ｉｔ ｉｓ ｗａｒｍ．．． I was like close the doors and windows and it won't be hot...
I have wireless internet now so I'm actually typing this in my room :D I'm going to get my visa extended tomorrow. Jessica told me that if they ask any questions tell them I'm travelling... xD Kinda nervous about that. I have to get a bank account first, I guess to add legitimacy to my claim. Getting paid TUESDAY !!! YES!! FINALLY!!! MONEY!!! WOOHOO!!! I have 41 rmb to spend tomorrow. I'm really interested to see how much they pay me, hope its the full 6000 that is the pay for the month of "training." Speaking of, next week I get to go to training everyday, its with all of the new teachers that are coming in for the new semester. The thing is I've been teaching 3 weeks and am already a fucking pro :D Susan, one of the head TAs, watched my class today and was like OMG you're so much better than I'd thought you'd be. She couldn't think of anything to write down for needs improvement, so I had to give her one ;) Discipline, the little devils just can't sit still for 50 min...
In other news, I went to the Shanghai Tourism Festival opening ceremony last night! It was amazing!! Definitely the best parade I've ever seen. I have over 30 min of video from the performances. Here is a link about the Festival http://english.eastday.com/e/0913/u1a4655078.html
So my favorite TA Doris volunteered at the opening ceremony and she called me a few hours before and told me she scored some free tickets and asking if Nathan and I wanted to go. I was like I'm really tired, but what the hell I'll go. Not expecting much... Well more than 500,000 people were there! So we had tickets to these bleachers that were set-up on the sides of the road. There were 5 sets that were spread out over 4 km. Only around 100 people could sit in each set. We got to section D and rammed our way through the 8 deep crowd of people. Then about 15 min in Doris was like, D area sucks, lets go to E where I'm "volunteering." She didn't do anything after Nathan and I got there besides watch the show with us lol. So we walked through the crowds all the way to E and I was thinking this better be worth it... Well it WAS! We didn't have tickets for E, so Doris and her friend went in waving their volunteer badges and were like these two foreigners are with us. So they let us in and we got to sit on the street right behind the parade announcers. All of the performers were less than 10 ft away it was AWESOME! Wait till you see the video of Brazil lol. The video has my dumb comments throughout because I forgot how good the mic was but oh well.
再见！
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Vulgarity
I know some of you don't like the vulgarity so I'll try and tone it down a bit, but there will definitely be some...
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Trials and Tribulations
Wow what a busy week I've had! The kids have returned to school so now when they come to DD Dragon in the afternoons they are not as excited... well some are but most are tired, bored or a combo of the two. So I've had to become strict in dealing with the kids: yelling, blowing my whistle, tapping them with my stick (WTF that does not sound good). Teaching is definitely a lot easier now, I no longer make a lesson plan, it takes me about 5 min to get ready for class.
A few days ago an incident occurred with my TA Doris. There are 4 kinds of cards at DD Dragon that can be redeemed from prizes. Yellow=1pt Green=5pt Pink=25pt Blue=250pt. Well, they only have the Yellow and Green cards at Pudong and then I asked Doris for a pink card and there were none in HongKou. So I was a little annoyed and I'm sure I gave her a nice face. She took this as me being mad and yelling at her. She went and had a casual convo with Susan another TA and Susan broadcasts to the school that I yell at Susan and we are having problems. WTF I didn't need drama, Ben was like Henry you can't yell at the TAs you should be a team, they make your job so much easier. I was like Ok... In my head I'm like wtf why am I being talked to about this. So I went to Doris and was like, if you have a problem you tell me first then if we can't work it out you go to someone else. It kind of hurt my feelings that she thought I would yell at her. I then went upstairs, ignoring Susan's calls. So Doris came up to our classroom to get ready for our class. Susan follows trying to fix the situation that is totally non-exsistant. I'm like Susan, Doris and I don't have a problem we were messing around laughing, having fun like 2 young people do ;). So I was like Susan, thanks for your concern but you're making something out of nothing. Then last night in Pudong, Mickey and I were butting heads. There was a new student and Mickey thought I should let her do what she wanted even though the girls mom talked to me and was like make her sit down, raise her hand etc. She kept wanting to go to her mom and Mickey would run over and hold her and talk to her in Chinese while I'm trying to teach. I was like Mickey, can you stand over here, you're distracting the students. She said I should be nice to the girl so she signs up, but keep in mind there are 3 other students in the class that are sitting there behaving. But I don't care, I won....
Monday was my day off so I went out and walked around, went to the store and got some things.
I also started volunteering with an organization called Shanghai Heart 2 Heart or 上海心连心. The organization was founded by a British women with the goal to help poor Chinese afford the heart surgeries their children need. They have paid for over 130 surgeries for the children. I thought this would be a good organization for me to try out. So I sent in my info and was to meet an American woman Julie at the hospital. I found the hospital alright and the first question she asked me was if I had a driver... I was like haha no. She does and every other biatch there lol. Anyways there was a Chinese woman with her that she failed to introduce me to so I introduced myself and her name was Spring, she volunteers with the organization too. Another woman came while we were setting up the play room, that is what you do at the hospital, and she was also American. Well these two women seemed nice on the surface but they were actually very racist and they thought they were better than the Chinese and couldn't stop talking about how Chinese women are whores that try and take Western men from their wives. They knew of 10 marriages that were split up because of this. One was fat, one was ugly, they would be nothing in the States. They just had some power in China so apparently it went to their head. Spring is sitting there the whole time while they are talking about how they could never take a taxi, subway, or any other form of public transit because its just beneath them apparently. After we left, I was walking with Spring and was like they were kind of rude. She said it was only her 2nd time going and she felt totally unwelcomed. I would have to agree, she said she might not go back, she might just donate money. She is just as rich as those Americans... She's opening a coffee shop that will have cultural lessons for free and those rich &#*$^ should attend ;) lol sorry for the vulgarity, on we go!
Ben had told me he was having a BBQ so around 6 he sent me a message asking if I was coming. I was like sure, free food what the hell... I didn't know where he lived so I took the taxi to the wrong end of his road, then got another taxi to his house lol. He lives on the 31st floor so he has an amazing view of the whole city. But his house is in the middle of nowhere and my apartment is a lot nicer, plus he has 3 roommates. So there were about 8 people there. Some British, Canadians, a Zambian, and a Swede plus a Chinese girl that was one of the Canadians girlfriends. He was drunk to the T and stumbling around and decided to cook some pork for her. He tried giving it to her 80% raw lol and I'm like DON'T eat that. He said you can eat raw pork, I've been doing it all night lmao. He broke a few beers, I was glad I wasn't the mess of the party. After this we went to this place that caters to ex-pats called Zapatas. They had MENS NIGHT!!!! Free beer for men from 10-11 lol women had to pay! So I was tearing up those free beers and we met up with some Germans, another Swede, and an Indian(it was his bday). I was gesticulating, as I tend to do when consuming alcohol and knocked a beer out of the French guys hand. He was like good thing its free but what about my shoes and shorts!! We were all like whatever, %$#@ French. But every time he went by I made sure to talk to him lol. By the end of the night we were cool. After the free hour of beer, we hit the road because that places drinks are expensive! So we went to this bar called Windows which has 15rmb Rum and Cokes. I had a half a dozen or so of those and the drunk ass Canadian even bought everyone a flaming drink! It burnt as it went down, pretty sweet. Erin, I saw tons of Filipinos and made sure to tell each one I knew they were Filipino lol. Sometime around 2 or 3 we went across the street to some restaurant. Ate some food, not sure what I just remember a green veggie. Got more beer and I knocked mine off the table xD. We then left, I got in a cab by myself and ended up at home, don't know how lol I know I told the cabbie XiangDe lu but I don't know how he knew which apt was mine. The cab cost 35rmb and I looked in my wallet and had 25rmb lol So I ran upstairs and rummaged through everything but couldn't find any money! So I grabbed a few coins I had and 8 US dollars and brought that to him and was like 不好意思 like I'm embarrassed and he was like its OK. So I went upstairs turned on the AC and passed out, when I woke up the window was wide open, and it is like 5ft by 3ft lol.
So yesterday I saw a few funny things. On the way to work, a motorcycle was sitting in the middle of the road, a car had bumped into him. His turning signal on his 1980 motorcycle was bent a little and he wouldn't move it out of the road and was making a HUGE scene. Typical Chinese style, the cop went and looked at the bike and was like, there is nothing wrong, and just turned around and left lol! Probably because he didn't want to have to fill out paperwork and actually work. Then on the way home from Pudong on the subway this dumb middle-aged woman was wearing heels and wasn't holding on to anything and the subway went to stop and she busted her ass right in front of over a hundred people LMAO people all up and down the train were staring. She was on her chest and hit pretty hard, she sat there for like 5 sec and then finally stood up and looked at her shoes like they were deformed HAHAHAHA I didn't laugh out loud, only on the inside hehe!
So if you take anything from this post, remember when in heels on the subway hold on to the fucking hand rails, duh!
I'm having visa issues because I'm so young, or so they say. So I'm going to have to extend my tourist visa and then probably work on a business visa till the new year. I was really worried about this because I was reading about deportation and banning from traveling to China, but at the BBQ another teacher that has been here a year said he had to do the same thing, and so had a bunch of his friends so this helped alleviate some of my worries.
Ok chao for now :)
A few days ago an incident occurred with my TA Doris. There are 4 kinds of cards at DD Dragon that can be redeemed from prizes. Yellow=1pt Green=5pt Pink=25pt Blue=250pt. Well, they only have the Yellow and Green cards at Pudong and then I asked Doris for a pink card and there were none in HongKou. So I was a little annoyed and I'm sure I gave her a nice face. She took this as me being mad and yelling at her. She went and had a casual convo with Susan another TA and Susan broadcasts to the school that I yell at Susan and we are having problems. WTF I didn't need drama, Ben was like Henry you can't yell at the TAs you should be a team, they make your job so much easier. I was like Ok... In my head I'm like wtf why am I being talked to about this. So I went to Doris and was like, if you have a problem you tell me first then if we can't work it out you go to someone else. It kind of hurt my feelings that she thought I would yell at her. I then went upstairs, ignoring Susan's calls. So Doris came up to our classroom to get ready for our class. Susan follows trying to fix the situation that is totally non-exsistant. I'm like Susan, Doris and I don't have a problem we were messing around laughing, having fun like 2 young people do ;). So I was like Susan, thanks for your concern but you're making something out of nothing. Then last night in Pudong, Mickey and I were butting heads. There was a new student and Mickey thought I should let her do what she wanted even though the girls mom talked to me and was like make her sit down, raise her hand etc. She kept wanting to go to her mom and Mickey would run over and hold her and talk to her in Chinese while I'm trying to teach. I was like Mickey, can you stand over here, you're distracting the students. She said I should be nice to the girl so she signs up, but keep in mind there are 3 other students in the class that are sitting there behaving. But I don't care, I won....
Monday was my day off so I went out and walked around, went to the store and got some things.
I also started volunteering with an organization called Shanghai Heart 2 Heart or 上海心连心. The organization was founded by a British women with the goal to help poor Chinese afford the heart surgeries their children need. They have paid for over 130 surgeries for the children. I thought this would be a good organization for me to try out. So I sent in my info and was to meet an American woman Julie at the hospital. I found the hospital alright and the first question she asked me was if I had a driver... I was like haha no. She does and every other biatch there lol. Anyways there was a Chinese woman with her that she failed to introduce me to so I introduced myself and her name was Spring, she volunteers with the organization too. Another woman came while we were setting up the play room, that is what you do at the hospital, and she was also American. Well these two women seemed nice on the surface but they were actually very racist and they thought they were better than the Chinese and couldn't stop talking about how Chinese women are whores that try and take Western men from their wives. They knew of 10 marriages that were split up because of this. One was fat, one was ugly, they would be nothing in the States. They just had some power in China so apparently it went to their head. Spring is sitting there the whole time while they are talking about how they could never take a taxi, subway, or any other form of public transit because its just beneath them apparently. After we left, I was walking with Spring and was like they were kind of rude. She said it was only her 2nd time going and she felt totally unwelcomed. I would have to agree, she said she might not go back, she might just donate money. She is just as rich as those Americans... She's opening a coffee shop that will have cultural lessons for free and those rich &#*$^ should attend ;) lol sorry for the vulgarity, on we go!
Ben had told me he was having a BBQ so around 6 he sent me a message asking if I was coming. I was like sure, free food what the hell... I didn't know where he lived so I took the taxi to the wrong end of his road, then got another taxi to his house lol. He lives on the 31st floor so he has an amazing view of the whole city. But his house is in the middle of nowhere and my apartment is a lot nicer, plus he has 3 roommates. So there were about 8 people there. Some British, Canadians, a Zambian, and a Swede plus a Chinese girl that was one of the Canadians girlfriends. He was drunk to the T and stumbling around and decided to cook some pork for her. He tried giving it to her 80% raw lol and I'm like DON'T eat that. He said you can eat raw pork, I've been doing it all night lmao. He broke a few beers, I was glad I wasn't the mess of the party. After this we went to this place that caters to ex-pats called Zapatas. They had MENS NIGHT!!!! Free beer for men from 10-11 lol women had to pay! So I was tearing up those free beers and we met up with some Germans, another Swede, and an Indian(it was his bday). I was gesticulating, as I tend to do when consuming alcohol and knocked a beer out of the French guys hand. He was like good thing its free but what about my shoes and shorts!! We were all like whatever, %$#@ French. But every time he went by I made sure to talk to him lol. By the end of the night we were cool. After the free hour of beer, we hit the road because that places drinks are expensive! So we went to this bar called Windows which has 15rmb Rum and Cokes. I had a half a dozen or so of those and the drunk ass Canadian even bought everyone a flaming drink! It burnt as it went down, pretty sweet. Erin, I saw tons of Filipinos and made sure to tell each one I knew they were Filipino lol. Sometime around 2 or 3 we went across the street to some restaurant. Ate some food, not sure what I just remember a green veggie. Got more beer and I knocked mine off the table xD. We then left, I got in a cab by myself and ended up at home, don't know how lol I know I told the cabbie XiangDe lu but I don't know how he knew which apt was mine. The cab cost 35rmb and I looked in my wallet and had 25rmb lol So I ran upstairs and rummaged through everything but couldn't find any money! So I grabbed a few coins I had and 8 US dollars and brought that to him and was like 不好意思 like I'm embarrassed and he was like its OK. So I went upstairs turned on the AC and passed out, when I woke up the window was wide open, and it is like 5ft by 3ft lol.
So yesterday I saw a few funny things. On the way to work, a motorcycle was sitting in the middle of the road, a car had bumped into him. His turning signal on his 1980 motorcycle was bent a little and he wouldn't move it out of the road and was making a HUGE scene. Typical Chinese style, the cop went and looked at the bike and was like, there is nothing wrong, and just turned around and left lol! Probably because he didn't want to have to fill out paperwork and actually work. Then on the way home from Pudong on the subway this dumb middle-aged woman was wearing heels and wasn't holding on to anything and the subway went to stop and she busted her ass right in front of over a hundred people LMAO people all up and down the train were staring. She was on her chest and hit pretty hard, she sat there for like 5 sec and then finally stood up and looked at her shoes like they were deformed HAHAHAHA I didn't laugh out loud, only on the inside hehe!
So if you take anything from this post, remember when in heels on the subway hold on to the fucking hand rails, duh!
I'm having visa issues because I'm so young, or so they say. So I'm going to have to extend my tourist visa and then probably work on a business visa till the new year. I was really worried about this because I was reading about deportation and banning from traveling to China, but at the BBQ another teacher that has been here a year said he had to do the same thing, and so had a bunch of his friends so this helped alleviate some of my worries.
Ok chao for now :)
Thursday, September 3, 2009
First Post, a history...
So this is my first blog entry ever!
Just a disclaimer: I warn you this will probably be the most scatterbrained, random thing you've ever read, if you choose to do so. I will probably talk shit about certain people, but you know none of them so all is fine :D I shall begin now...
With this post I'll give you a background on my coming to China and my first weeks here.
I decided to come to China after having been here twice. I love the Chinese people because in all of my experiences with them they are warm and inviting. They seem to just be open and friendly, something I think we have lost in the west in our quest to better ourselves without regard to others. Having studied in Beijing last summer and experiencing the earthquake, I knew I needed to come back.
I knew teaching English would be an easy job to find, and in the economic climate we live in, I wanted to make sure I had a job. I don't know what I'm going to do with my life, as far as graduate school is concerned, so I figured a year in China would be great fun and maybe I could discover what life has for me.
While at UF, I took an Introduction to TESL course. This made me realize I was ignorant of education methods and something I thought was going to be really easy was actually going to be quite hard. I posted a resume on daveseslcafe.com which my teacher suggested and is one of the best sites for teaching in East Asia. I received an overwhelming number of replies, 30+. I attribute this to me having studied at 清华大学(Tsinghua University) last Summer in Beijing, this is the #1 university in China and when you say you studied there people think you're a fucking genius, even though I definitely am not :).
With all of these offers I was looking at a variety of factors. The size of the city, where it was in China, the type of school, and lastly money. I wasn't really worried about money, unlike my family haha, but I do have some loans I need to pay off. I knew I wanted to be in a big city that had convenient public transport, that is one of the best things about China. I also wanted to be around the center of the country that way travel would be easier, the trains take forever and I didn't want to be stuck in some far off area that took days to reach other interesting sites. I also was really torn between teaching at a public school, university, or one of the private for profit English schools. I was warned that the private schools didn't really teach and they were there just to make money from the new middle class Chinese. As for money, some jobs only offered 3500RMB which is less than $500 a month, granted the city the job was in wasn't huge and the cost of living was ridiculously cheap. This was just not enough for me to live life and save :D
So I decided on a job at a *gasp* private school in Shanghai. The job pays 8000RMB a month for 24 hours, apartment included. I figured I couldn't pass this job up. Getting a teaching job in Shanghai is not easy, especially with no teaching experience and a degree that doesn't really correlate. The job is with DD Long or 迪迪龙英语. They were really appealing to me because the co-owner is a young Canadian guy who has been teaching here for 3 years and the fact that they provided lesson plans so I didn't have to worry about course development.
Being here, I am so glad I took this job. Ben, the Canadian, and his partner Andy are both super nice and help me with anything I need. Andy's wife(老婆) Jessica on the other hand is a bit of a concern for me. She is Shanghainese and they are known for being witty, I don't like that hehe too much like me. She is one of those people that smile to your face and stab you in the back. Well thats just what I think so far. At least she is nice to my face ;) I don't think I have anything to worry about though since they are amazed at the fact that I was teaching classes within a week. Should I have been? Probably not, but they just threw me in there and said the best way to learn is through teaching. So the first 5 or 6 classes I was a mess, not knowing what to do next, how long to spend on certain things, but Ben was in the class and he helped steer me in the right direction.
I have begun to go in about an hour before my classes and write out what I'm going to do, what games will be played, how much I want to cover etc. This is working out really well for me and I really love teaching now. Right now I have 6 classes, I have a 7th starting today and an 8th will follow shortly. I teach in two different schools. The DD Long branch in Hongkou and the one in Pudong. The Hongkou branch is about a 10 min walk from my apartment through a preserved historic part of the city that is beautiful and has the old time charm that modern bustling districts of Shanghai lack. The Pudong school is a 10 min bus ride then a 20 min subway ride away. Its interesting to teach in both areas because I get to see the contrasts of Shanghai.
Last thing for this post, my apartment is amazing. It is a two bedroom my roommate comes in a week and hes a Canadian. Its huge, I don't know the actual square meters but I could probably ask. We are the first people to live in it since it was totally renovated because it was a business for years. Its on the 4th floor so I have to climb up all those stairs but hey its good for my fat ass :P
I'll put up some more posts tonight starting from 2 days ago. Let me know if there is anything you're dying to know about and I'll try and post about it :D
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