Checking In...

Just letting people know I am alive and having a great summer.

Currently I'm hanging out in the Boston area with some friends.

Blanket progress is going well! I will post pictures when I am all done with it.

Much love,
Stephanie

Back in the USA...for the summer.

I would have posted sooner, but my computer seems to still think I am in China and is blocking blogspot. I am currently using my mom's laptop.

Anyway...I probably won't be posting much for the next two months since I'll be pretty boring. I play Suzie Homemaker when I'm home. I like to do what I can to help out around the house with cooking and cleaning. Tonight I made tandoori chicken with couscous. Yum!

I do plan to post with blanket updates at least, though. I did a first layout of the blanket and it looks a little bit smaller than I guessed it would be. I may end up knitting a few more squares or just putting it together as is. We'll see.

I suppose that's all for now. Hopefully once my computer is totally wiped I will be able to get on blogspot and such again.

Much love!
Stephanie

Shanghai Pride

Figured I might as well post again since I am bored and trying to stay awake. I've been away from this blog for a bit. Some fun stuff has happened since I last posted for real. One of the most exciting was Shanghai Pride.

This was the first Pride event in mainland China (or at least that's what I heard), so it was kind of cool to be a part of history. I was a volunteer during the week and went to three of the events.

The first one I went to was the opening night at Vargas grill. They showed a documentary about queer history in China which was very interesting. There was also a very tasty dinner. On thursday I was a volunteer at the wine tasting. Thursday I was still pretty sick so I didn't drink but rather stayed at the table all night greeting guests, selling raffle tickets and t-shirts.

I was thinking of going to see the performance of the Laramie Project that was planned for Friday, but the authorities intervened and it ended up being canceled.

Saturday was the huge all day event at Cotton's. I got there around 11am and helped with setup. Mostly moving tables and chairs around and stuffing gift bags for the guests. When the festival officially started at 2pm I was at the greeting table getting the gift bags ready and selling t-shirts. After a bit I also did some face painting. Mostly rainbows.
There were rainbow banners completely covering up the courtyard the party was in. It was funny to see people walking by peeking in to see what all the fuss was about. Apparently some plain clothes cops showed up, but I completely missed that. Dunno how. Glad that the party got to continue though.

There were lots of fun activities during the day like drag performances and raffle drawings. There was also a gay marriage ceremony at the end of the event. It was cool.

There are two things that I remember most about Pride. One was that it was HOT. I felt like I was swimming in humidity and sweat all day. Blech. The other was that it was CROWDED. I was surprised that the organizers got such a small venue for the event, but I was really glad to see that it got completely packed.

There was an after party at Glamour Bar but I was exhausted (also still sick...and now drugged up after being to the clinic) so I went back to my apartment and went to bed.

Here's hoping that this is one of many future steps forward for China on the front of sexual equality.

-Stephanie

Last Day of Work

Well today was my last day at work. After a bit of a rush and being super-last-minute-productive, I got everything done. Cleaned off my desk, was interviewed by a guy working on his dissertation, finished correcting finals, wrote up student comments and summer homework, and took some pictures!

I took 4 pictures of each class. Two serious and two silly, both with and without me. I would upload them all but my interwebs are being so sloooooow today. So I am just putting up the two serious ones with me. Look at all my lovely students! (You can click on them to make them much bigger.)

Here is me with grade 10 class 1.
And this is grade 10 class 2.
I look like Godzilla or something next to them. Notice that I am about the same height as the students standing two steps up from me.

I am currently drinking my third cup of coffee tonight and trying to stay awake. I have a few reasons. One is it makes it easier to get over my jetlag if I deprive myself of sleep before heading home (and after making this stupid time change 9 times I have a bit of experience with jetlag). Another is the only way I can sleep on a plane is if I am completely exhausted. The third is that I am ultra paranoid that I will miss my alarm or something. I have a bad habit of sleeping through my alarm when I am very tired and I don't want to miss my flight. Must...stay...awake...

I did the math and figured out that from door to door, apartment to home back in CT, this trip is going to take me about 28 hours. My cab is picking me up tomorrow at 5:30am (or today I suppose, since it is currently 1:20am). I have a flight from Shanghai to Beijing and then from Beijing to JFK. Should be arriving in NYC a little after 2pm EST (2am China time). Have to go through customs and baggage claim and all that jazz and then wait for my shuttle bus to Hartford. Should arrive there a little after 9pm. Then my friend is picking me up and driving me home. I only live a few minutes out of Hartford so will hopefully be home around 9:30pm or so EST. Exactly 28 hours.

I hate this part of traveling. The part right before everything actually starts. I worry. I worry that my luggage is too heavy. That I forgot to buy or pack something. That I'll get stopped at customs for some reason. Since I am leaving my apartment for two months I am afraid I am going to leave some sort of mess and come back to a horrible smell or tons of flies. I think the place is pretty near spotless after all my work tonight, but I am a worrier.

There's really nothing left to do. Dishes and laundry are done. The apartment is swept. The water heaters are off. The fridge is turned down. My sheets are clean. My bags are packed. My carryon is full of books, knitting and sudoku. I just need to put on my sneakers and pack my laptop and I'm good to go.

I suppose I should go watch a movie or something...

See you in about a little over a day, America.

-Stephanie

SixFour

I'm alive. I've just been kinda ill the past few days so nothing new to report and also the internet in my apartment has been wonky so posting wasn't really an option. I have been filling my time with crafting and watching "Dexter".

I've found some interesting school news. I am now an Extended Essay adviser and will be teaching a few Theory of Knowledge lectures next semester. I am very excited about both. It makes me feel like a real IB teacher.

Because of the anniversary of today's date even more websites have been blocked here which makes surfing the net a little frustrating. I am hoping in a few days time a few things will loosen up.

Lucy's birthday is tomorrow which I am really looking forward to. Also looking forward to giving her the necklace and bracelet set I made for her. Pictures soon!

Much love,
Stephanie

Sunday is Thursday?

Today I had to work. Blech. I think I already mentioned it but China does this weird thing where if you get more than one day off of work for a holiday, you have to like...pay it back. So I got Thursday and Friday off and had to work today. It was a strange realization when I finished up the work day and that I still had 5 more days of work this week. Ugh.

Yesterday I went to Century Park again. Lucy and I met up with the same group we hung out with last week...plus some more! It was TONS of fun. There was dodge ball and Frisbee and badminton and soccer and card games and general chatting as well. I've decided I love badminton and want to play more often.

Here is Lucy expertly catching a frisbee with some of our new friends.
I can't remember this guys name (I am pretty sure he was from Italy). I just really like this picture because you have the iconic Shanghai skyline in the back and lots of greenery in the foreground.
And here's a picture that Lucy took with her camera. The colors are so much more vivid in this picture...hmph. I look have passed out in this picture, but otherwise it's nice.
I haven't been feeling too well recently. It's a little hard to breathe and I keep having ucky coughs. I have a student who is out with pneumonia, so now I'm all paranoid that I have it. Here's hoping that I'm just being a hypochondriac. If it's the same or worse tomorrow I will go to the school doctor.

Two other things:
1. I have learned the wonders of making iced tea the old fashioned way. As in, make a whole bunch of tea and then put it in the fridge. I made a whole pitcher and finished it in a day and a half. I made another pitcher today with a different kind of tea...hope it's yummy too.

2. China is doing weird things to my self confidence about my appearance. Whenever I see two or more middle age or older Chinese people, they assume I can't speak Chinese and say these two things about me, one right after the other:
-她是很胖. (She is very fat.)
-她很好看. (She is very pretty/good looking.)

Uhh...thanks?

Much love,
Stephanie

Dragon Boat Festival!

Today is the Dragon Boat Festival in China. Whoo! For those who don't know, there is a legend that the poet/scholar Qu Yuan drowned himself in a river after the Qin took over the Chu capital during the Warring States period (or because he was exiled...there are a few different versions of the story). The people liked and respected Qu Yuan so they threw rice into the river so that the fish would eat the rice and not his body, and road boats to scare the fish and look for his body (which is now dragon boat racing).

We get today and Friday off for the holiday. I was thinking of going somewhere to enjoy the holiday, but then the school took my passport to renew my work visa so I can't. Bah. Probably for the best. SO MANY people travel during the holidays here and I hate crowds.

Doesn't mean I can't celebrate by myself! The school gave all the teachers some nice Dragon Boat Festival treats!
On the left is a mixed package of zongzi and the left (if you can't read the package) is cooked salted duck eggs. Zongzi is sticky rice usually with some sort of filling (most often red bean) and it's wrapped with bamboo leaves. I decided to steam some zongzi for my lunch today.

While I was waiting I figured I would try some of the eggs.
They are vaccuum wrapped individually and there are a bunch of them.
Since they are already cooked I decided to just open one like a hard boil egg and eat it. It kinda split open as soon as I tried that.
Doesn't look too appetizing, huh? It was ok, but VERY salty. June said I should have them with rice congee so I should go shopping and GET some rice congee. Or maybe I can just have them with plain rice...

Once I was done with that, my zongzi were done steaming. I chose the ones with meat filling for lunch. They were pretty good. Maybe I'll have the ones with red bean for dessert tonight.
I also cleaned my apartment. It's simply sparkling now.

Isabelle and Zeno are coming over tonight and I am cooking mexican (Zeno's request).

Also, Becky and Stephanie (two other foreign teachers at PingHe) are working on making costumes for a few plays they are doing with their kids and they asked me for my help. I sewed up two tunics, sewed some trim to two capes, taught them how to make simple hats, made four pouches and am now knitting some costume chainmail. (Did you know that the chainmail used in Monty Python and the Holy Grail was knitted wool painted silver?)

And I'm sorry that my posting has gone down in frequency but it's a lot harder now to post.

Isabelle and Lucy pointed out that I only have three weekends left in Shanghai before I go home for the summer. Eek! This weekend is still up in the air (although I have to work on Sunday), next weekend is Lucy's birthday celebration, and the weekend after that is Shanghai Pride. When am I going to pack...

Just one last thing for this post, the relationship slang class went VERY differently for different classes. With the class I always have the most trouble with they didn't pay attention and when I asked if they had any slang questions they sat in stony silence. A class that is usually good was not much better. The two classes that often pay the most attention and seem most comfortable with me as a teacher played close attention and had tones of other questions (like what a hickey was called in English and different words you can use to talk about attractive guys). Like I said to my students, it may be embarassing and weird to talk about this stuff with a teacher, but they want to go to college in America. I would rather them be a bit embarassed with me if it means that they will know what the heck their classmates are talking about once they get to the US.

That's all for now. Time to start getting ready for dinner.

Much love!
Stephanie