my first week!

Yes, its true, I am posting two posts in one day! Hailey, please be proud of me:)

I thought while I was sitting down writing that I might as well write about my adventures thus far. After I landed in Shanghai I jumped into a cab and headed to my friend Cheryl's house. I was super excited because I understood the cab driver when he asked where I was going in Chinese! Yay! I still have a little bit stored in my brain somewhere!  So I sat nervously in the back of the cab wondering if he was going to take me to the right place. Even if he didn't I really wouldn't know because I had never been to Cheryl's place so I had no idea what it looked like. Also, to add to the nerves and the intensity of this story, I had no cell phone. Last year when I came my blackberry worked and just charged me international fees. But this time around my chinese cell phone wouldnt turn on and my american cell phone said that it couldnt find service. Guess it couldnt handle that much roaming. If I got dropped off at the wrong place I wouldnt be able to call anyone to help me and if I was dropped off at the right place but got lost in the complex I wouldnt be able to call Cheryl to have her come find me. So after the long cab ride I arrive at the apartment complex. The address seemed to match the one Cheryl gave me but who knows when there are streets with the same name in China but just pronounced with different tones. The cab driver dropped me off infront of building two, unloaded all my luggage and drove away. I proceded to the door and rang 502, Cheryl's apartment and got no reply. I rang several more times and still go no response. I still kept my cool and decided to go to the front gate and ask for a phone. Now you must understand that most apartment complexes in China have "security". This is a highly exaggerated word for what it really is. The "security" is a whimpy gate, always half open anyways, and a chubby or frail older man sitting in a little room watching tv. I could out run these guards even with a recently repaired ACL. So I hauled all of my luggage to this "security" check point and asked the guard for a phone. At first he just stared at me and then he just shewed me away with his had and mumbled some Chinese to me. Every complex  also has chairs in the entrance set out for old people to gather and soak up the humidity during the day or converse about their oh-so-busy days in the evening. This is where I camped out for the next 45 minutes siting in an awkward language-barrier-filled silence with the guard. I just set my suitcases beside me, leaned back on my backpack and kicked my feet up in my rain boots on my suitcases. I did arrive quite a bit earlier than I expected so I thought that maybe Cheryl just wasn't home yet. And if she wasnt back there in 45 minutes I would get back in a cab and go to my school and wake up Uncle Marty who lives there. Luckily Cheryl just not being home was the case. She strolled through the gates and I was saved. oh, by the way this all took place between 10:15-11:15 pm :) nothing like feeling stranded late at night in China!
That was now a little over a week ago and my time since I arrived has been spent trying to beat the jet lag, starting school and finding an apartment so I could give Cheryl her floor back(where I have been sleeping! haha). After doing a lot of research online and going to see several apartments I have FINALLY found one. I decided to stay close to my school instead of live in the cool and hip area I lived last time. Rent is way cheaper out here and it will force me to practice my Chinese since my place is not in an area with a lot of expats.
As I said earlier I have returned to school. The first day of school was last Thursday(and I returned on Tuesday, talk about being thrown into the swing of things!). It took me a few days to get back into the groove of teaching but I am starting to love it again. Unfortunately I didn't get ALL of my classes from last year, ended up with only one:( But I know that I will love these kids just like I loved my kids last year. And my class that I did get were my little babies from last year so I get to see them all grown up! They are so tall now! Another plus is that my old kids are still at the same schools so I have gotten to see some of them in the hallways.  Its actually really funny to see my kids from last year because they are extremely confused when they see me. I am sure they thought I was dying from my leg injury or something!
And now everything is slowly getting back to normal. I sign my lease for my apartment on Friday and can move in right away! I am so excited to have my own place and to be able to unpack my stuff and decorate it all cute. A huge Ikea trip is a must right when I get paid! I will work on getting pictures of my new kids, old kids and my new place and post them sometime soon!

ps. I miss all of you so much and love you heaps and heaps!

Round one: China Round two: ME!!

After my return to the states I had several people scold me for quitting my blog。 so I solemnly swear that I will keep up with my blog this time around! Not just for everyone at home but for myself as well. I realized how fun it would be to be able to go back and read about everything that I did and experienced during this adventure. And since I am horrible at writing in a journal I am going to use my blog as a way to document my adventures:)
As most people know I had to return to the states 3 months early last school year and I was definitely not ready to leave this city, me new friends or my babies. Once I returned home I was torn between getting a big girl job or returning here to finish up my adventure. After job hunting for a few months and not finding anything I began to seriously consider returning to Shanghai. It wasn't until I skyped with a friend that I met here and she told me about everyone that was returning to China and how four of our friends were going to be living together that I made my final decision to return. After that conversation I broke down crying because I was so jealous that they not only got to stay and make these plans but they were returning for another year. I also realized how many opportunities I didn't take advantage of while I was here. I knew that since I was so upset about this and felt like I didn't live life to the fullest over here, that I needed to do whatever it took to get back to where my heart still was...Shanghai! So I literally did whatever it took to get back here. I moved up to Reno, lived with friends and worked six days a week to save money to get back here. I was stressed about money, getting everything ready and getting my visa on time. It took a lot of patience working with my company over here to get the correct documentation for a work visa and in the end I wasn't able to get the right paper work so four weeks before I left I just applied for a tourist visa. It was only about a week before my departure that I received my visa.  This was a huge reminder about how it is living and working in China! Everything is complicated and they like to spring things on you last minute. But I can say with everything in me that it was worth all the stress. Even after I got here and realized how many things I forgot because I only had a few days to prepare and pack, I know that this is where I am supposed to be once again. As the title of the post is titled "Round one;China  Round two: ME!!!", I am not going to let China defeat me this time! I am praying, and asking everyone at home to pray, that I make it through this round physically in one piece. No more torn ligaments or any other kind of injury!

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