Week 6,7,8

Look at this. I've only been in China for 2 months and already have a blog set up! See what another country can do for you??? Since I'm quite new at this, don't make your expectations too high. I just hope this one goes well and everyone can read it. Good luck! I will try to email you when I have added to this blog, or you can check it on your own. I will try to be better about writing, since this is suppose to be easier than email. I will also post my pictures on Picasso, which is a gmail photo site.





Well, so much has happened since my last email. Everything continues to go well. I made it through parent teacher conferences without a hitch. I have wonderful parents and students. In fact, since we are studying the seven continents this year, we, my colleague and I, have decided to make a class trip to the Great Wall of China! We leave on Halloween, Ocotober 31st. We will take an overnight train. It leaves at 7:00pm and arrives at 7:00 am in Beijing. While in Bejing we will see the Great Wall, the Olympic Stadium, and the rescued pandas at the zoo. (They were rescued from a wild life preserve where the earthquake happened.) Then, we will fly back on Sunday to Shanghai. I have 5 families going and my colleague has 6. Only in a private school could you ask parents to join you on a field trip like this and have them pay for themselves! Some are extending for a couple of days, and many are bringing the whole family! I am so excited to go with my students and see the Great Wall. This will be our first excursion out of Shanghai.





Edoukou continues to do well. She is working hard in school and in her Monday swimming class ( at school) and her Tuesday Magic Class (at school). She is learning Chinese faster than I am. I have some key phrases and that's about it. I'm always amazed when the taxi drivers can understand us! It's also amazing how much one can communicate by not talking at all! Edoukou continues to keep in contact with her friends in the states through email and skype. She also made a gmail account for herself this weekend so she can start her own blog. (Her computer class at school is coming in handy!) Most of her week is the same as it was at home, school work and getting ready for the next day. She uses her weekends for catching up with friends and watching the amazing amount of movies we are collecting. She bought 7 movies for 5 USD (US Dollars) the other day. Since we can't rent them, we buy them.





My birthday was very fun! Many of the new Western teachers met for dinner at Simply Thai: A wonderful restaurant that has the best Green Curry. I received money for a massage from one friend, my dinner paid for, and Edoukou bought me two Beatles movies I had never seen! A Hard Days Night and HELP! Then I treated myself to 4 Pashmina shawls, and of course, a new Coach purse (for 11 USD). It was a very fun evening! We have two more birthdays to celebrate this week. A friend and I found California Pizza Kitchen by her house. (Yes, all we do is eat here!)





Last night Edoukou and I had our first dinner party! I invited all my teacher colleagues (the Singaporean teachers) to our apt for Spaghetti dinner. It was a lot of fun! We ate and talked about how the school we worked at got started. They are so much fun and have a wonderful sense of humor. I used my new oven (which is a toaster oven) to make brownies for desert. I was planning on having brownies and vanilla ice cream, but they all surprised me with a wonderful mango chocolate cake from this fantastic bakery! It was delicious! (Don't you love when your birthdays just go on and on and on.... )I am so lucky to be at this school with these wonderful teachers. How did I get this lucky????





Today was an adventure to the tailor! I went with a few colleagues. We took the bus to this three story building where booth upoon booth of tailors were stationed to make you whatever you wanted. They have winter coats made out of cashmere or wool or raincoat material. They have tons of suit tailors for men and women. They have tailors for mens shirts and women shirts and skirts and pants. Even bathrobes and blankets and sheets. I made a purple top and a green Chinese top for Chinese New Year (everyone said I had to have one made.) Then I had a pair of black pants made. I gave them a pair of my pants as a pattern in hopes they will turn out. Many times, it doesn't quite turn out the way you expect it to I am told. My friends had shirts and pants made also. Since I got such a good deal on my pair of pants (17 USD), they decided to use that tailor to make pants too. I got a better deal than my colleague had! While I was bartering with the tailor, she told me she could not go down in price because she had to make the pants so big for me. Then when my friend was bartering she said she can't go down in price because it takes as much time to sew hers as mine. So, unfortunately, even though they are all a size 1, they had to pay as much for their pants as mine! (I love bartering!) There were TONS of westerners there having clothes made! I had never seen so many in Shanghai!

I love City Life! We are oblivious to the honks of the cars, busses, trucks that barrel along the busy street next to our apt complex. Since we are on the 9th floor, we tend to hear everything. One thing we don't hear are our neighbors! It's amazing how quiet they are, the ones up and next to us. I never even hear a toilet flush! We met the neighbor across from us. Her name is Sunny! (Just like our neighbor in the states!) Many grandparents live with their children here to help take care of the grand children. We see many grandparents with their grandchildren walking in the mornings or riding their bikes.

Everything we need is a walk away. We have a huge "Fred Meyer" type store right in out back yard. It's called RT mart and it sells everything from bikes to washing machines to cheddar cheese. A little further walk away is E Mart. They are a newer store (1 or 2 years old) and they are a little more expensive. Their grocery dept is not as extensive as RT Mart. We also have a little 7-11 on our way homefrom our bus stop, a flower store, a stationary store, a dairy store and two bakeries! This weekend a coffee shop was opened called Tom n Toms. This is the only shop around us and I am so happy its not Starbucks! (They have infiltrated Shanghai!) I can't wait to see what they have. My friends are hoping they have good eats inside.

Avril Lavigne came to Shanghai on October 4th! Edoukou, Merideth, Margaret, Serefina, Margaret's two nieces and I went to see the show. It was spectacular (Edoukou's words!) She played in the same indoor stadium where we watched the Brazil soccer match. She put on a great show, about 1 hour. Edoukou knew most of the songs, (I only knew two). They sold glow sticks at the stadium and everyone used them to keep time to the music, so all you saw were hundreds of brighly colored glow sticks swaying to the music. It was very cool! Then at the end of the concert, people threw them on to the floor of the stadium, and amazingly enough, no one was hurt or put in jail and, to my knowledge, no one sued! There were two Chinese girls next to me ( about 15 years old) and they knew all the words to the songs and sang along,but when I asked them something in English, they didn't know how to answer in English. After the concert, Merideth said, "The only thing that would make this night better would be if Cold Stone were around." And low and behold, she saw something red out of the corner of her eye and it was a Cold Stone! (Yes, all we do is eat!) It was a very fun night.

Well, that wraps up our first couple of months here.