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！