Today is a very special date.
Today marks my four month anniversary. I have been in Shanghai for exactly four months.
Today also marks exactly one month before I come home to visit.
:-)
Sunday, 21 December 2008
Saturday, 20 December 2008
Hey Look! A Non-Video Post..
So nothing big has happened recently, but some small things have.
On Tuesday I went with Zeno to the primary school since they were having an English performance. The students did a bunch of different stories including Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, the Emperor's New Clothes, and the Boy Who Cried Wolf. I thought we were just going to watch, but we were given sheets of paper and sent to the front row where we were "judges". At the beginning of the performance the student announcers thanked the judges for coming and introduced them all to the audience. All the other teachers were introduced with their names...I was introduced as "the foreign teacher". Haha. I don't know what's weirder, the fact that I was the only non-asian in the whole auditorium or the fact that it didn't feel strange.
My favorite story was probably either The Emperor's New Clothes which was hilariously acted by the students and included both intentional and unintentional slapstick. I also liked the Little Red Riding Hood because the students included a bunch of other stories and fairy tales just for fun. It also included Harry Potter. Red met a wizard in the forest who said he was Harry Potter. She said he couldn't be since he wasn't wearing glasses. He said, "Glasses? Please! Glasses are SO out of fashion...I'm wearing contacts!"
On Thursday, one of my students came up to me while I was getting ready for class to start. He asked me if I liked Chinese tea and I told him that I did. He said that he wanted to get me tea for Christmas but that he wanted to make sure I liked it first. I thought it was very sweet. :-)
I played a version of Jeopardy with my students this week which they seemed to enjoy. I also had a discussion with Class C about dreams that went pretty well. Students talk SO MUCH MORE when I ask them stuff about themselves. I try to start every class out with them being able to tell me stories. Some had some pretty interesting dreams. One student had a recurring dream when he was younger that he was with a girl on a beach. She asked if he believed in ghosts and he said no. Then they walked away from each other. Then a man appeared and shot the girl. My student said that often he would realize he was dreaming and change his actions but the dream always ended with the girl getting shot and screaming.
Yesterday I felt this wave of contentment. I think it might be because things are feeling familiar and routine. I was walking back from Family Mart with my usual items (a loaf of bread, soda, apple juice, sushi, shrimp pocket bread and chips) and just thinking about the weekend and feeling good it was a Friday and all that. I also understood a whole Chinese conversation as some students were passing me. It was nothing big. One student was asking whose milk he was holding since he couldn't remember who gave it to him, and another student was asking for help carrying a box because it was heavy. But still...small victories. I was also happy because there was sunshine. I feel guilty for enjoying the relatively nice weather when Christmas is 5 days away. The New Englander in me wants a white Christmas.
Friday night I met up with Ron at Enoteca (the wine bar) for dinner. Dinner was SO GOOD. We shared a bottle of the Van Lovern Pinotage (one of the wines at the last wine tasting). We got a bunch of different things to share. We had mushroom risotto cakes, salmon spring rolls, whipped goat cheese tarts with marinated tomatoes, we even got oysters. It was the first time I had oysters, I think, and they were delicious. We also shared a creme brulee for dessert. It was a pricey dinner but since I knew it was coming the whole week before I had sandwiches or baozi for dinner. I think that made friday's dinner taste even better.
Ron leaves for California on Tuesday. I really am going to miss him. He's the first and only real friend I made here in Shanghai outside of work. He was really sweet last night saying that I helped make his semester here in Shanghai even more special. We had a lot of fun hanging out and who knows if and when we'll see each other again. We made tentative plans for dinner again on Sunday but I told him I would completely understand if he was busy packing or wanted to spend time with other people before he leaves.
Bah...now I need to go through the effort to make another friend here! Ron is going home and Isabelle is in Vietnam for a month. I'm glad Lucy is here. We have plans for Christmas Eve dinner.
I'm pretty hungry and I don't really have any food in the house so I should really head out for some dinner. Guess this is all for now.
Love!
Stephanie
On Tuesday I went with Zeno to the primary school since they were having an English performance. The students did a bunch of different stories including Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, the Emperor's New Clothes, and the Boy Who Cried Wolf. I thought we were just going to watch, but we were given sheets of paper and sent to the front row where we were "judges". At the beginning of the performance the student announcers thanked the judges for coming and introduced them all to the audience. All the other teachers were introduced with their names...I was introduced as "the foreign teacher". Haha. I don't know what's weirder, the fact that I was the only non-asian in the whole auditorium or the fact that it didn't feel strange.
My favorite story was probably either The Emperor's New Clothes which was hilariously acted by the students and included both intentional and unintentional slapstick. I also liked the Little Red Riding Hood because the students included a bunch of other stories and fairy tales just for fun. It also included Harry Potter. Red met a wizard in the forest who said he was Harry Potter. She said he couldn't be since he wasn't wearing glasses. He said, "Glasses? Please! Glasses are SO out of fashion...I'm wearing contacts!"
On Thursday, one of my students came up to me while I was getting ready for class to start. He asked me if I liked Chinese tea and I told him that I did. He said that he wanted to get me tea for Christmas but that he wanted to make sure I liked it first. I thought it was very sweet. :-)
I played a version of Jeopardy with my students this week which they seemed to enjoy. I also had a discussion with Class C about dreams that went pretty well. Students talk SO MUCH MORE when I ask them stuff about themselves. I try to start every class out with them being able to tell me stories. Some had some pretty interesting dreams. One student had a recurring dream when he was younger that he was with a girl on a beach. She asked if he believed in ghosts and he said no. Then they walked away from each other. Then a man appeared and shot the girl. My student said that often he would realize he was dreaming and change his actions but the dream always ended with the girl getting shot and screaming.
Yesterday I felt this wave of contentment. I think it might be because things are feeling familiar and routine. I was walking back from Family Mart with my usual items (a loaf of bread, soda, apple juice, sushi, shrimp pocket bread and chips) and just thinking about the weekend and feeling good it was a Friday and all that. I also understood a whole Chinese conversation as some students were passing me. It was nothing big. One student was asking whose milk he was holding since he couldn't remember who gave it to him, and another student was asking for help carrying a box because it was heavy. But still...small victories. I was also happy because there was sunshine. I feel guilty for enjoying the relatively nice weather when Christmas is 5 days away. The New Englander in me wants a white Christmas.
Friday night I met up with Ron at Enoteca (the wine bar) for dinner. Dinner was SO GOOD. We shared a bottle of the Van Lovern Pinotage (one of the wines at the last wine tasting). We got a bunch of different things to share. We had mushroom risotto cakes, salmon spring rolls, whipped goat cheese tarts with marinated tomatoes, we even got oysters. It was the first time I had oysters, I think, and they were delicious. We also shared a creme brulee for dessert. It was a pricey dinner but since I knew it was coming the whole week before I had sandwiches or baozi for dinner. I think that made friday's dinner taste even better.
Ron leaves for California on Tuesday. I really am going to miss him. He's the first and only real friend I made here in Shanghai outside of work. He was really sweet last night saying that I helped make his semester here in Shanghai even more special. We had a lot of fun hanging out and who knows if and when we'll see each other again. We made tentative plans for dinner again on Sunday but I told him I would completely understand if he was busy packing or wanted to spend time with other people before he leaves.
Bah...now I need to go through the effort to make another friend here! Ron is going home and Isabelle is in Vietnam for a month. I'm glad Lucy is here. We have plans for Christmas Eve dinner.
I'm pretty hungry and I don't really have any food in the house so I should really head out for some dinner. Guess this is all for now.
Love!
Stephanie
Friday, 19 December 2008
My Sped up Shanghai Day
WHAT!? Three video posts in a row!?!
Yep.
This is just something I did for fun....let me know what you think.
Yep.
This is just something I did for fun....let me know what you think.
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Video Blog December
Another long video. I cover a lot of stuff in this. My package from Rose, my trip to Nanjing, my decorating for Christmas, my space heater "Sauron Jr." and a song I am trying to learn on guitar.
Sunday, 14 December 2008
A Social Butterfly Am I
This was a kinda crazy week. Monday and Tuesday mostly involved finishing up buying/making/packing/sending Christmas cards and packages. The rest of the week shall be done under headings to keep things organized.
Wednesday
Wednesday night I had to give my monthly test to my students during the evening class. I felt bad giving a test at night but it seemed to be the only time that worked. It went a little later that I had planned so I had to rush out of there since I had plans to meet someone. One of my students, Jackey, saw me biking off and RAN next to my bike just to chat with me on my way out. Hehe.
I met up with a knitter who lives pretty close by. We met up at Starbucks, which was remarkably like Starbucks in the USA. Most restaurant chains here are at least a little different than their American forefathers, but other than the Chinese words on the menu I felt like I was in a Starbucks back home. Her name is Fiona and she has had an interesting life. She was born in Scotland, lived in Minnesota, then met and married a man from Shanghai and now lives here with her two young boys. We talked about what we were doing here, how much we missed nature, and our knitting project. She is making a fair isle cardigan with a yolked neck. I really liked how it looked so far but I REALLY liked the yak hair scarf she was swearing. We made a promise to get together again sometime.
Thursday
Thursday was another wine tasting. I was amused when I walked in and found that the seat I had sat in the last two times was left open. Yay! Tradition! This month it was South African wines. I think my favorite was the second white wine called Van Lovern. Mom, you should check it out. I think this month's wines were my favorite, but the food wasn't as good as before. Ah well. I stayed late and chatted. I gave one of the regulars a shoulder rub and she scratched my head. Ahh...human contact! Ron was there and we made some plans to get together before he has to be all responsible and go back to "graduate". Hrmph. I gave him a scarf I bought for him in Nanjing and he immediately put it on. Yay! I was lucky enough to get back in time to catch the last bus home at 11:30pm.
Friday
Friday was a kind of easy day at school. Some of the other teachers had taken some of my classes so I had an extra class with two groups. I didn't want to start something new so we played Balderdash instead. I thought it would be a fun game and a good way to teach them a few random words that they might run into that they didn't already know. Like jiffy and rendezvous and such. One group had a lot of fun with it, the other seemed bored. Bah.
There was no staff meeting on Friday so after my classes were done I went back to my apartment for a quick lunch and some cleaning. Then I went out shopping to get stuff to make a delicious dinner for me and Lucy. Originally I was thinking of making crab cake burgers, but then I remembered that Lucy had said in her opinion the main American food is sandwiches and that they were boring cuz they are always cold. So I made us hot chicken sandwiches. I flattened the chicken and then cooked it up in a little olive oil and spices with a melted piece of cheddar on top. Then I toasted the buns in the pan with some garlic and oil. I had tomatoes (for her. tomatoes are gross) and salad greens and honey dijon sauce. Oh it was so good. Lucy also loved it. Hours later when we were hanging out at a club she leaned in to me and said "I'm still thinking about that sandwich!". Ahaha. She said she would never be able to enjoy KFC again. That made me laugh.
I also whipped up a batch of rice krispie treats for dessert. Lucy gave me some ornaments for my tree and I gave her a bracelet I got in Nanjing. She also invited me over for dinner on Christmas Eve. She said she would make me some home cooked Chinese food. I am excited and also happy I won't be spending Christmas Even alone. Still no plans for Christmas, but we'll see.
After we finished eating we headed out to Xintiandi and met up with some friends of hers. I get the feeling that Lucy and I were crashing a party. We were there for all of 10 minutes when everyone headed out and onto a bus. The bus was loud and fun. After a short ride we ended up at the fancy pants club called Mint. Apparently you need to be a member to get in, but whatever group we were with went right in. The entrance was this long hallway with a big shark tank. There were people in skintight lycra suits in gold and silver posing on the speakers. The DJ was pretty good though. I shared a glass of champagne with Lucy and danced for a while. After a bit she asked if I wanted to go to a Jazz club.
The place was called JZ (I think). It seemed like a cool place when she gave me a tour, though it was PACKED. It had this lovely outside balcony that I would have loved to hang out on if it hadn't been so cold. We had mojitos and hung out with another friend of Lucy's. I chatted with some people with the standard "Where are you from...how long have you been here...what brings you to Shanghai?" I get annoyed because when people ask where I'm from I never seem to be able to answer correctly. If I say "America" they laugh at me and say America is a big place and what state am I from. If I say "Connecticut" I usually get a blank look (unless that person is from America too). I've taken to just saying I live "near New York".
I headed out pretty late and took the loooong cab ride back. I had to direct the cab driver once he got to my area. I like knowing my area well enough that I can give a cab driver directions.
Saturday
Saturday I got up late. I did a little reading and cleaning and puttering around the internet. I headed over to Charlotte's for a foreign teacher party that she and her boyfriend were having. I didn't know the foreign teachers in my building were going so I took the subway by myself. Ugh. On line 8 there was puke in the subway car I was in. Luckily I only had to stay on for one stop.
We all ended up showing up at the same time. I brought the rest of the batch of rice krispie treats and everyone enjoyed them. A few people said they were hoping I was going to bring the tortilla roll up snacks I had made for the last party. I'm glad they remembered and liked them. We hung out for hours just snacking and talking and laughing and drinking. We played "Never have I ever", which is an interesting game to play with a bunch of world travelers. I took a cab back with Stephanie, Chris and Becky.
Sunday
Today I seriously need to do my dishes. I don't think I have any clean silverware. Ugh. And I need to do laundry. And I need to correct my monthly test. This coming Friday I have a LOT due. My final exam, personal comments on all 60 of my students, my grades so far...
Anyway, that's catch up on my last week. Hope everyone is having a good time at home. I know Drew people and friends of mine in grad school are doing finals now. Good luck on those!
Sending love,
Stephanie
Wednesday
Wednesday night I had to give my monthly test to my students during the evening class. I felt bad giving a test at night but it seemed to be the only time that worked. It went a little later that I had planned so I had to rush out of there since I had plans to meet someone. One of my students, Jackey, saw me biking off and RAN next to my bike just to chat with me on my way out. Hehe.
I met up with a knitter who lives pretty close by. We met up at Starbucks, which was remarkably like Starbucks in the USA. Most restaurant chains here are at least a little different than their American forefathers, but other than the Chinese words on the menu I felt like I was in a Starbucks back home. Her name is Fiona and she has had an interesting life. She was born in Scotland, lived in Minnesota, then met and married a man from Shanghai and now lives here with her two young boys. We talked about what we were doing here, how much we missed nature, and our knitting project. She is making a fair isle cardigan with a yolked neck. I really liked how it looked so far but I REALLY liked the yak hair scarf she was swearing. We made a promise to get together again sometime.
Thursday
Thursday was another wine tasting. I was amused when I walked in and found that the seat I had sat in the last two times was left open. Yay! Tradition! This month it was South African wines. I think my favorite was the second white wine called Van Lovern. Mom, you should check it out. I think this month's wines were my favorite, but the food wasn't as good as before. Ah well. I stayed late and chatted. I gave one of the regulars a shoulder rub and she scratched my head. Ahh...human contact! Ron was there and we made some plans to get together before he has to be all responsible and go back to "graduate". Hrmph. I gave him a scarf I bought for him in Nanjing and he immediately put it on. Yay! I was lucky enough to get back in time to catch the last bus home at 11:30pm.
Friday
Friday was a kind of easy day at school. Some of the other teachers had taken some of my classes so I had an extra class with two groups. I didn't want to start something new so we played Balderdash instead. I thought it would be a fun game and a good way to teach them a few random words that they might run into that they didn't already know. Like jiffy and rendezvous and such. One group had a lot of fun with it, the other seemed bored. Bah.
There was no staff meeting on Friday so after my classes were done I went back to my apartment for a quick lunch and some cleaning. Then I went out shopping to get stuff to make a delicious dinner for me and Lucy. Originally I was thinking of making crab cake burgers, but then I remembered that Lucy had said in her opinion the main American food is sandwiches and that they were boring cuz they are always cold. So I made us hot chicken sandwiches. I flattened the chicken and then cooked it up in a little olive oil and spices with a melted piece of cheddar on top. Then I toasted the buns in the pan with some garlic and oil. I had tomatoes (for her. tomatoes are gross) and salad greens and honey dijon sauce. Oh it was so good. Lucy also loved it. Hours later when we were hanging out at a club she leaned in to me and said "I'm still thinking about that sandwich!". Ahaha. She said she would never be able to enjoy KFC again. That made me laugh.
I also whipped up a batch of rice krispie treats for dessert. Lucy gave me some ornaments for my tree and I gave her a bracelet I got in Nanjing. She also invited me over for dinner on Christmas Eve. She said she would make me some home cooked Chinese food. I am excited and also happy I won't be spending Christmas Even alone. Still no plans for Christmas, but we'll see.
After we finished eating we headed out to Xintiandi and met up with some friends of hers. I get the feeling that Lucy and I were crashing a party. We were there for all of 10 minutes when everyone headed out and onto a bus. The bus was loud and fun. After a short ride we ended up at the fancy pants club called Mint. Apparently you need to be a member to get in, but whatever group we were with went right in. The entrance was this long hallway with a big shark tank. There were people in skintight lycra suits in gold and silver posing on the speakers. The DJ was pretty good though. I shared a glass of champagne with Lucy and danced for a while. After a bit she asked if I wanted to go to a Jazz club.
The place was called JZ (I think). It seemed like a cool place when she gave me a tour, though it was PACKED. It had this lovely outside balcony that I would have loved to hang out on if it hadn't been so cold. We had mojitos and hung out with another friend of Lucy's. I chatted with some people with the standard "Where are you from...how long have you been here...what brings you to Shanghai?" I get annoyed because when people ask where I'm from I never seem to be able to answer correctly. If I say "America" they laugh at me and say America is a big place and what state am I from. If I say "Connecticut" I usually get a blank look (unless that person is from America too). I've taken to just saying I live "near New York".
I headed out pretty late and took the loooong cab ride back. I had to direct the cab driver once he got to my area. I like knowing my area well enough that I can give a cab driver directions.
Saturday
Saturday I got up late. I did a little reading and cleaning and puttering around the internet. I headed over to Charlotte's for a foreign teacher party that she and her boyfriend were having. I didn't know the foreign teachers in my building were going so I took the subway by myself. Ugh. On line 8 there was puke in the subway car I was in. Luckily I only had to stay on for one stop.
We all ended up showing up at the same time. I brought the rest of the batch of rice krispie treats and everyone enjoyed them. A few people said they were hoping I was going to bring the tortilla roll up snacks I had made for the last party. I'm glad they remembered and liked them. We hung out for hours just snacking and talking and laughing and drinking. We played "Never have I ever", which is an interesting game to play with a bunch of world travelers. I took a cab back with Stephanie, Chris and Becky.
Sunday
Today I seriously need to do my dishes. I don't think I have any clean silverware. Ugh. And I need to do laundry. And I need to correct my monthly test. This coming Friday I have a LOT due. My final exam, personal comments on all 60 of my students, my grades so far...
Anyway, that's catch up on my last week. Hope everyone is having a good time at home. I know Drew people and friends of mine in grad school are doing finals now. Good luck on those!
Sending love,
Stephanie
Knitting Update Four, Nanjing Pictures Link
I was a speed demon and went right through four more squares. Here they are!
This is from Dawn at Kamatics. She wrote a really sweet note and stuck it in the yarn. Now the note is on my wall of love and here is the finished square.
This yarn is from my Grandpa and Grandma Stebbins. I really love this color combination. Like a sunset.
This is yarn from my cousin Savannah. This color skein seemed to be a popular choice. I'm guessing because I like blue so much. :-)
Annnnd this one is from Kim! This was one of the ones I got in the mail. Mmm purple and pink.
That's it for knitting for now. Currently working on a square from Auntie Bonnie.
Also, if you want to see more pictures from my Nanjing trip you can see my albums HERE and HERE.
This is from Dawn at Kamatics. She wrote a really sweet note and stuck it in the yarn. Now the note is on my wall of love and here is the finished square.
This yarn is from my Grandpa and Grandma Stebbins. I really love this color combination. Like a sunset.
This is yarn from my cousin Savannah. This color skein seemed to be a popular choice. I'm guessing because I like blue so much. :-)
Annnnd this one is from Kim! This was one of the ones I got in the mail. Mmm purple and pink.
That's it for knitting for now. Currently working on a square from Auntie Bonnie.Also, if you want to see more pictures from my Nanjing trip you can see my albums HERE and HERE.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
