Lets talk more about the reason I am here....my kids!

This has to be my favorite subject to blog about and after everyone has told me how much they like hearing about them I decided that I need to write about them more often! Although these kids do have the potential to drive me absolutely bonkers, I will say that most days they melt my heart:)  I am loving my babies(my 3 year olds) more and more. In the beginning their class was my greatest challenge. Their lessons were extremely hard for me to plan and conduct because of how little English they know and how hard it is to find little games for them to be able to understand.  But now I am so in love with them! They are like squeezing freshly baked cookies! haha. I love it when they attack me like they did today when I sit down in front of the class. although it takes some time to peel a bunch of 3 year olds off me and can get a little dangerous as limbs are thrown around and flying at my face, I love it! One of my fave little boys in this class, Oliver, will latch on to me if I am anywhere within reach for his little arms and this morning he came running up to me speaking Chinese to me and repeating the same question over and over again. It broke my heart that I couldn't understand what he was saying with such urgency that I felt like his life depended on the question he had. Luckily his teacher speaks English very well and said that he was asking how to say rhinnosaurus in English! hahahaha! so I told him how to say it and he was in complete awe at his new word.  I taught him that when I ask him what animal he likes he should say "I like rhinos"! made my whole day.
All last week in this class we worked on two songs of ours that they would perform for their parents on Friday. We did a new years song and Old McDonald. So when Friday came around I got to go down to the auditorium and sit with all of them for a bit.  as I walked up to them I felt like a big time celebrity. A they all burst out in "mac, mac, mac, mac, mac".  I crouched down in front of them and all of them were beside themselves.  Tony, another one of my fave boys, kept grabbing my hand to smother it with kisses nonstop. finally his mother had to pull him back and tell him to let go of me. Here are some pictures of my babies before they performed and some videos of my older kids singing "we wish you a merry christmas'.

               this is Jerry who is ALWAYS not matter what we are doing, is counting on with his fingers. Jady who has two hair styles: three ponytails(one on top and one on each side) or just one on the top of her head. Eric who is really quite but has such a cute laugh. Dora, one of my smartest girls who always yells out the answers louder than any of the other kids. and Yang Yang, this is his usual expression if he isnt tormenting someone and if I can get him to say 3 words its a successful week.

 Tony the hand kisser is in the second row right in the middles. he is wearing 

a red long sleeves with a puffy vest.

 back row: Ada, Miranda, Sine, Loic and Tony

front row: David, Elmer, Jerry and Jady

 back row: Denny, Apple, Oliver and Eason

front row: Lindray, Lucy and Candy

 ok, so I have to apalogize for my awful singing, but if I dont sing, they dont sing. and also sorry about the jumpiness of the camera, once again if I dont do the motions, they dont do the motions. but notice how much the love the actions that we do with the line "we wish you a merry christmas". I had kids taking other kids out due to their over exaggeration of the motion!

and here are a few of my favorite girls. this is Cici, Stella, Canny and Linda.  Canny is probably my favorite student. I always say that if her parents arent careful she will be growing up in America with me:) she is so spunky and has the best laugh ever. she is always calling me strawberry so now I always call her peach. its so great. this isnt the best video but I had to put it up just because of the girls in it.

this is a random pic from one of my classes. I was teaching the word jacket so I let a few of the kids put mine on. Here we have Cindy, one of my fave girls, being drowned in my coat. she is so little!

Home in Shanghai

It has now been 24 weeks since I left Reno and 21 weeks since I left the United States! Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that I would be able to call Shanghai my home and that is exactly what Shanghai is becoming. I will say that I have been out of the “honeymoon” phase for quite sometimes now. That phase ends quite soon after the rose colored glass come off and you realize that its actually hard work living in a big city where you don’t speak any of the language.  Every task of everyday has to be well planned out.  When planning to run any type of errands I have to think of the following:

-          how long it will take to get somewhere by means of walking, taking the metro or taking a taxi

-          what are the cross streets for the taxi(this includes the vital act of getting the tones rightJ)

-          what metro line/stop/direction do I need?

-          When I get off the metro where do I go?

-          Once I get to my location, will I be able to accomplish my task by myself or will I need

-          What Chinese phrases do I need to know and/or what hand motions will help(I am going to be talking with my hand and acting things out EVEN more when I get home than when I left, this is a major way of communicating. We play a lot of charades)

Needless to say its kinda hard to just wing something when we are out and about. We don’t have the fine luxury of jumping into our cars and driving somewhere real fast. 

But despite the necessity to have everything planned out and the stress that can sometimes come from the language barrier, life is so less stressful and flows so nicely here.  I know that I have to leave my house at 8:15 every morning in order to get to the office by 9:00 in order to have a little time to prepare things for my lessons.  I know that I have to hit a certain intersection by 8:22 in order to make it on the 8:30 train. But as strict as that schedule and all of my other commuting schedules are, there is something extremely laid back about not having control of the means of transportation you are using.  If I have to wait forever for my bus that I take in between school there is absolutely nothing I can do about it.  And this is why I always leave plenty of time to commute from school to school, sometimes you just don’t know when the bus will just cruise on by the stop without stopping!(it did that today so I just barely made it to class on time).  And if there is a ton of traffic and I cant cross the street and I get on the 8:35 train instead there is nothing I can do.  Its just another area in which you have to roll with the punches here in China.  Cabs are a lot easier now that we know the cheat number (the number foreigners can call to have the operator tell the driver in Chinese where to go. It’s a life saver!). And I am pretty much a professional at the metro system now as I explore more of Shanghai and use different lines and learn which lines intersect  and which ones close at random hours. 

The way that I dress is oddly even more relaxed here in China.  One would definitely assume that I would be putting a lot more stress on my wardrobe and what I look like when I leave the house but I don’t at all.  There are a few reasons for this. The first being my salary! Haha. I am no longer a poor college student, I am now a poor English teacher. Spending money on clothes is painful because there is so much more to do here.  And after all, I am spending my days with 3-6 year olds! They not only do not care what I look like but it would be so annoying to wear something that I couldn’t move in or something that they would just pull or tug or poke at all day long! And the last and perhaps most fun reason is…why not give the people more entertainment when they stare at me? Give them a good story to tell their friends when they tell them they saw a foreigner that day! Add some spice to their story by letting them tell how she was wearing grey baggy sweat pants tucked into black UGG boots with a bright purple hoodie under a black Columbia jacket and bundled in bright pink mittens, a huge scarf and earmuffs in the shape of white hearts with navy blue bows on them.  Back in the states I would only wear something like that (minus the earmuffs, don’t think I EVER wore anything like those at home!) to Walmart where all I could drive by myself in my car to the store.  But I wore that outfit pick up some dinner with Jami the other night which was about a 15 minute walk down two busy streets.  I figure if they are going to stare no matter what, why not have a little fun with it! (this fun includes lip singing to all my music during my commutes)

Now that I have been out of the honeymoon phase for a while, am finding it easier to get around, taking Chinese lessons to help with the language barrier and am having fun with the onlookers, I am really beginning to feel at home here. Shanghai is where I live, it’s my home.  I go to work the same way each day. I come home the same way each day.  The roads I walk down, the trains I take and the busses I ride are routine to me.  I know that on my way to the metro in the morning I will see a girl about my age trying to keep track of a her little brother or son or cousin or something as they walk down the street.  I know that I will see the same workers unloading the contents of a truck full of supplies for a restaurant as I exit one of my metro stations.  I know I will see the lady that knows my order for some street food by my school working her little station and I will smile and wave at her and she will do the same to me every day.  My commute is mine, it’s what I do every day to get to my job. It’s just like the walk that I did hundreds of times from the parking garage by the football stadium at UNR down to campus every day for 4 years, its routine, its way I do. 

My place here has become home too.  Although it lacks my family and friends from Reno and Phoenix,  its where I come home to relax after work. It’s where I come to escape the hustle and bustle of the city. Its where I come to crank up the volume and rock out to Taylor Swift. Its where I come to look at all my pictures of the people I love and be reminded of how truly blessed I am which when I am having a rough day helps me recharge and excited again.  

As I sat in Starbucks today, seeking the comfort of a place that is the same here as at home (only lacking the extensive menu of the ones at home), an interesting thought came to me “weird that I came to a communist country and feel so liberated”.  haha!  I don’t stress like I did at home, I find it hilarious to entertain a whim to wear gigantic white heart shaped earmuffs and everyday holds a new adventure or something wacky that will definitely make me laugh.  All in all I love Shanghai and feel incredibly at home here.  I miss all of my friends and family(Moxi included)more than you can imagine, I am getting teary eyed just writing this sentence, but I am fulfilling one of my dreams and cannot imagine my life any other wayJ