A solid month

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 🙏