So, guess I arrived in China over a month ago, which is insane. Time has honestly flown by. I'm getting more comfortable with my job for sure, but I'm definitely no more adept at navigating my way around Shanghai. Like just the other day I exited a cafe from the opposite side of the St that im usually on and was totally lost for like 7 minutes. I've always been good at getting lost though so maybe that's just me.
Yeah, so went to that Village on the Water last weekend, and it was awesome. There's decidedly like an insane amount of amazing places in Shanghai, and each one of them impresses me equally. I'm still at the point where I can go outside and still be impressed just because there are trees everywhere (there actually are like lined with the sidewalk it's wild) and I can't understand the signs and not many people look like me. And like the other day I played that 'guess what I'm asking' game with a small restaurant owner (the restaurant was small, not the owner); i asked for beef and got noodles, asked for chicken and got a plate of pig ears, and asked for water and got coke. Dont get me wrong, I was still happy with all of it. It's just fun that a simple exchange-based interaction can leave both parties confused and smiling.
Jerry says hi. He wanted me to include him in this blog post. He's the new math teacher. Me and him went to play basketball today at a public court (which parents seem to use as a daycare because of the abundance of tiny children that are always there just chillin on the tarmac, but if you're careful it's still usable as a court) and met a guy around our age who spoke decent english that we managed to play a game with. That was cool. I'll be in this neighborhood for a long while and gotta socially start from scratch so it's cool getting to know folks.
Finding options to stay active has been important cuz i can tend to go stir crazy just lounging at home for a while. I like using the city bikes (which are literally lying everywhere) to go for a ride, or playing daycare basketball, or getting sports injuries in the apartment (ok, embarrassing true story, yesterday I got a bloody lip by playing foosball with one of my students. Foosball. A foosball sports injury. Like, I lowered my face down near the players for some reason as he spun the thing and the plastic friggin guy kicked me in the mouth and I bled. That's insane). Hopefully I get to play some badminton soon, cuz this past year in university I've really gained an affinity for badminton, and I wanna find some place to play it.
This week our boss really wants us to go tough on the kids in regards to vocab and milestones and classroom rules, so that means more strict policies and being the badguy who has to take away their phones. So hopefully the kids dont hate me by the end of this. I'll just say it's me acting out from being hit in the face by an inanimate plastic figure.
Wish me luck 🙏
Sunday, 27 May 2018
Sunday, 13 May 2018
Bleh
Blaahhhhhhhh I'm so siiick. I havent gotten better, I should probably be taking it easier. I always plan to go to bed early but then end up doing something because I'm in Shanghai, but its been two weeks I've been sick now and I need to chill a bit.
It's been fun, though. The apartment where I live is huge, and we have a funny older woman who cooks and cleans for us who we call IE. She speaks no English so we're on pretty good terms, as the only things I know how to say to her are 'hello' and 'very good', and that makes for a pretty polite base for a relationship. We've had a bunch of funny little interactions, like when she started pointing at her phone over and over and speaking in Chinese, and so I pulled out mine hesitantly, thinking "does she want me to call someone or..?" Then she went over and pointed to the washing machine and I was just totally lost, and to this day I have no clue what she was trying to say. But she's funny and makes great food and apparently has some cool grandkids.
I've had a surprising amount of downtime; when we're not exploring outside or trying to teach tomorrow's international students anything but curse words, we're just kinda lounging around. We've seen a lot of movies (two of which are totally two of my favourites, y'all need to watch The Greatest Showman and Her) and I've already read two books, one of which is Flowers for Algrenon, which I'll talk about at length how it is far more depressing than it needs to be. I'll probably start the Handmaid's Tale soon, even though Margret Atwood stole from my friends store that one time (shoutout to Anna)
Yeah. Thankfully we got a new teacher the other day to start teaching more math and science-based things, so I can take a bit of a break from my physically based classes and get some rest before I die from whatever this persistent sickness is.
It's actually crazy that I've almost been here for a month already, I still feel like a complete noob and that I wouldn't last 5 minutes outside the apartment by myself. But babysteps. I still got a long ways to go.
It's been fun, though. The apartment where I live is huge, and we have a funny older woman who cooks and cleans for us who we call IE. She speaks no English so we're on pretty good terms, as the only things I know how to say to her are 'hello' and 'very good', and that makes for a pretty polite base for a relationship. We've had a bunch of funny little interactions, like when she started pointing at her phone over and over and speaking in Chinese, and so I pulled out mine hesitantly, thinking "does she want me to call someone or..?" Then she went over and pointed to the washing machine and I was just totally lost, and to this day I have no clue what she was trying to say. But she's funny and makes great food and apparently has some cool grandkids.
I've had a surprising amount of downtime; when we're not exploring outside or trying to teach tomorrow's international students anything but curse words, we're just kinda lounging around. We've seen a lot of movies (two of which are totally two of my favourites, y'all need to watch The Greatest Showman and Her) and I've already read two books, one of which is Flowers for Algrenon, which I'll talk about at length how it is far more depressing than it needs to be. I'll probably start the Handmaid's Tale soon, even though Margret Atwood stole from my friends store that one time (shoutout to Anna)
Yeah. Thankfully we got a new teacher the other day to start teaching more math and science-based things, so I can take a bit of a break from my physically based classes and get some rest before I die from whatever this persistent sickness is.
It's actually crazy that I've almost been here for a month already, I still feel like a complete noob and that I wouldn't last 5 minutes outside the apartment by myself. But babysteps. I still got a long ways to go.
Sunday, 6 May 2018
Ayo
Aight, so blog number 2. I've been sick for the last little bit (prolly too much crazy Shanghai livin') so I'll try to take it easy for the next while, cuz this place is mental.
Like take a few days ago. Me and my teaching friends were coming home late trying to get in the Subway and there was honestly an insane crowd of people like as big as the population of my hometown (1400 people Burford represent) also outside trying to get in. Then something was said in Chinese over a PA system and everybody started screaming and surging forward and cops were shouting and me and my friends were separated like instantly and folks were sprinting into the station, like people weren't paying just flying through. I just kinda went with the flow hoping I wouldn't die or end up stranded an hour from home in Shangai without a working phone, and we all eventually found each other again. So that was an experience. I've never encountered Burford rushing a subway station before so that was something unique
Yeah, anyway. It's interesting trying to communicate with people, It's kinda like a game. Like, try to figure out what I'm trying to say to you. I have this interaction with store clerks and cashiers like all the time, and it always feels good when we figure it out. Like I pointed to chicken wings once, and held up three fingers, and he billed me 80RMB which is the equivalent of 16 dollars, and i was like that can't be right, and eventually he realized I didn't mean three boxes of chicken wings. Or like when I needed a comb and went to a convenience store and was trying to show what I wanted with my hands, and he kept offering me shampoo, and we were both confused. But these things always seem to work out in the end.
I'm in a coffee shop right now trying to come up with a lesson plan for this week. Lowkey, a few of my kids are kind of divas, but I'll get them to love drama (or Public Speaking. Or at the very least gym, cuz those are the things I'm teaching).
We also were told that we wont have any electricity in the office tomorrow, which is where the classroom is also, so that means no AC. Shanghai is blistering hot, so hopefully I live to blog another day.
Stay cool (or whatever the weather is like over there) ✌
Like take a few days ago. Me and my teaching friends were coming home late trying to get in the Subway and there was honestly an insane crowd of people like as big as the population of my hometown (1400 people Burford represent) also outside trying to get in. Then something was said in Chinese over a PA system and everybody started screaming and surging forward and cops were shouting and me and my friends were separated like instantly and folks were sprinting into the station, like people weren't paying just flying through. I just kinda went with the flow hoping I wouldn't die or end up stranded an hour from home in Shangai without a working phone, and we all eventually found each other again. So that was an experience. I've never encountered Burford rushing a subway station before so that was something unique
Yeah, anyway. It's interesting trying to communicate with people, It's kinda like a game. Like, try to figure out what I'm trying to say to you. I have this interaction with store clerks and cashiers like all the time, and it always feels good when we figure it out. Like I pointed to chicken wings once, and held up three fingers, and he billed me 80RMB which is the equivalent of 16 dollars, and i was like that can't be right, and eventually he realized I didn't mean three boxes of chicken wings. Or like when I needed a comb and went to a convenience store and was trying to show what I wanted with my hands, and he kept offering me shampoo, and we were both confused. But these things always seem to work out in the end.
I'm in a coffee shop right now trying to come up with a lesson plan for this week. Lowkey, a few of my kids are kind of divas, but I'll get them to love drama (or Public Speaking. Or at the very least gym, cuz those are the things I'm teaching).
We also were told that we wont have any electricity in the office tomorrow, which is where the classroom is also, so that means no AC. Shanghai is blistering hot, so hopefully I live to blog another day.
Stay cool (or whatever the weather is like over there) ✌
Tuesday, 1 May 2018
Why not
Yep so I've decided to blog. It was suggested to me and I decided why the heck not, I got stuff to write about.
I finally got out; left the Great, White, familiar North for the crazy and unpredictable land overseas. It's such a 'whim' kinda thing that I did; my friend told me her boss wanted someone else on their team, I got an interview, got offered the job, said yes, and poof, one month later I'm as far from home as possible for the better part of a year. It's nuts, especially since I've never gone outside the Canada/US region before.
So far, man, It's great. It's an experience, 100%. I've had frog and chicken feet (which my whiteness flinched at so hard) and popcorn that was legitimately just popped corn (catches you way off guard) and realized that no one here cares in regards to traffic safety. Folks pull U-turns in the middle of busy intersections, people walk into the street seemingly at random and cars just go around them, and a few of the taxis I've been in didn't even have seatbelts. Everywhere I go people are offering me flyers or asking for money or saying Ni hao (to which I have a very limited number of responses memorized). It's also strange how some things work. Like I don't get how taxes work; twice I've paid what was on the price tag and gotten an RNB (Chinese currency) back, which seems like a kind of weird utopian thing where the taxes go back to the customer but like why not. And today was kind of funny. I went to a tiny phone store to unlock my phone and ended up buying the clerk's personal phone off of him. China, man.
I'd talk about work but I don't feel like talking about work. Maybe when I get more situated in my job. We're gonna be visiting the 'Villiage on the Water' hopefully next weekend, and I'm excited, cuz apparently it's almost entirely a water-based area.
It's only been a week and I already have so many stories I could share. I'll save some for future posts, if I decide to keep this up. I'm a fan, why not.
Cool. Ok so. Goodbye
I finally got out; left the Great, White, familiar North for the crazy and unpredictable land overseas. It's such a 'whim' kinda thing that I did; my friend told me her boss wanted someone else on their team, I got an interview, got offered the job, said yes, and poof, one month later I'm as far from home as possible for the better part of a year. It's nuts, especially since I've never gone outside the Canada/US region before.
So far, man, It's great. It's an experience, 100%. I've had frog and chicken feet (which my whiteness flinched at so hard) and popcorn that was legitimately just popped corn (catches you way off guard) and realized that no one here cares in regards to traffic safety. Folks pull U-turns in the middle of busy intersections, people walk into the street seemingly at random and cars just go around them, and a few of the taxis I've been in didn't even have seatbelts. Everywhere I go people are offering me flyers or asking for money or saying Ni hao (to which I have a very limited number of responses memorized). It's also strange how some things work. Like I don't get how taxes work; twice I've paid what was on the price tag and gotten an RNB (Chinese currency) back, which seems like a kind of weird utopian thing where the taxes go back to the customer but like why not. And today was kind of funny. I went to a tiny phone store to unlock my phone and ended up buying the clerk's personal phone off of him. China, man.
I'd talk about work but I don't feel like talking about work. Maybe when I get more situated in my job. We're gonna be visiting the 'Villiage on the Water' hopefully next weekend, and I'm excited, cuz apparently it's almost entirely a water-based area.
It's only been a week and I already have so many stories I could share. I'll save some for future posts, if I decide to keep this up. I'm a fan, why not.
Cool. Ok so. Goodbye
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)