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.

Week 3 and 4

Hello!
We found an apartment! We are so excited. The most important thing is that it is close to my school. Edoukou and I woke up yesterday and said we wanted a green and yellow apt. The first one we looked at was green and yellow! It is a two bed one bath. It's 96 sq meters. It has a nice bathtub and a nice balcony from the living room and also from my bedroom. The kitchen is also very nice and there are lots of windows and storage. I will try to send pics.We looked at so many apt that we took pics of them so we could remember what each one looked like. We will move in on Sept 20th. Edoukou's room is green which is what she wanted! She is very excited. We are on the 9th floor which isgood for me, not too high and not too low. There are no fire escapes in these buildings so I figure we could probably jump and make it. (Just kidding! Mom, don't freak out!:) They have stairs as well as elevators, very small elevators. I think I will be using the stairs a lot. There is a gym and an indoorswimming pool right next door that is open to everyone. Idon't know the cost yet, but I hear it is resonable. We have a Papa Muphys very close, but we tried it on Sat and didn't like the meat they used. They use a lot of balony here. The canadian bacon was not like ours. There are lots of shops and makets within walking distance. My HOD (Head Of Department) lives very close as well as another teacher. We can catch the student bus to school from the entrance toour complex at 8:00. NO MORE EARLY MORNINGS! YEA! Mainly Chinese people live in the complex so we should pick up Chinese fast!

We both survivd our first week of school! Edoukou was a little sad on Monday, but already has a couple of friends and knows the school and her classes very well. She has 17 different classes for the whole week. She likes most of her teachers esp her Chinese teacher. She starts swimming on Monday for 10 weeks, then they switch to another activity for 10 weeks. She also has co-curricular classes and she wants to take gymnastics. She has been such a good trooper. She had fun looking at all the apt. She was the photographer and I wrote down all the info on each apt. She's getting use to the uniform. Once she found out that she could wear her PE uniform to school every day, she was much happier.
Take Care!

Week 2

Good Morning!
All continues to go well. We found a wonderful apartment, but we were too late and someone else took it. Apartments go very fast here, so when you see one you like, you have to act quickly. But there are a million others ones and we won't have a difficult time finding one I'm sure. We are eager to get out of the hotel we are in. It is great having a swimming pool and eating out every night, but we want to be able to relax in our own house. It will be a much shorter distance to school also. the school picks us up and drops us off every day, so we don't have to pay for our own tranport unless we want to go in early and leave late.

Schools starts on Monday. I have met most of my parents and students. I will be teaching Kindergarten. There is a heavy emphasis on reading and the school expects to have the students reading what would be the end of first grade material by the end of the year. I have 16 students and that is all I can have in my class. Not a lot of resources, paper, crayons and such, but enough to get by. I guess there is Staples store here, but very expensive. They have a store called the Graveyard where teachers pick up used school things (like a surplus store). The Singapore teachers are great at finding good deals and where to look for items we need like clothing and school supplies.

Since we are in Shanghai and not Bejing, we thought we wouldn't be able to see any olympic happenings, but last night a group of us went to a soccer game which supposedly was for the Bronze medal. It was between Belgium and Brazil. We were in the audience with about 50 Brazillians and other ex-pats. There were only a handful of Belgins. Many others from Autralia, Britain and France. It was very fun and very interesting to watch the game with people shouting out in all different languages. Brazil won! Yea! I talked a guy down from 8 USD to 4 USD for a large Brazillian flag for Edoukou. She got stopped many times to have her picture taken with different people. I think they thought she was Brazillian!

We are eating lots of Chinese food and Singaporean food. At school they make both. I have loved everything so far. We have fresh veggies and fruit every day. The Singaporean chef likesto use garlic,so that is wonderful! We have had braised beef and duck, green beans and peas, and lots of fish, fried, deep fried and baked. There is a lot od seafood here also; shrimp, scallops, crab, octopus and other things we have not identified yet.

That's our week. This is just to keep you informed of our journey. I will try to write every Saturday, because there is not enough time in the week. By the time we get back to the resort and get ready for the next day and eat, time is gone. There is a day off September 15th. Then a week off in October (the week of the first) which is National Day. It is best to go out of China during this time because many people have it off and it is very difficult to travel. For Christmas we are thinking of going to Bejing to see the sights. We are checking on the weather to see if it will be a good time to travel. So far, the fastest train there is 12 hours from Shanghai. It leaves at 7pm and arrives at 7 am. They are making a bullet train that will get there in 5 hours, but it won't be finished for a couple of years.
Take care!
Marla and Edoukou

Hello from China!

I have time to sit down and write a few words. All is very well. I didn't have the right adapter for my computer plug (the three pronged one) so I couldn't get on last night or the night before. We also have been having lightning and so we are not supposed to be on internet. But I finally got one from the office today. It is 10:00ish. Edoukou is in bed watching China win in Badmitton. She is having a great time!

We have been in a bus all day looking at places for rent. We drove by many different areas and saw lots of good places. For me, it's all about how close it is to school. Tomorrow we will board a bus again and actually look at some apartments (inside) where we might like to live. Many people can live below their allotment, so I am hoping I can too. Most people want to leave the resort right away because it is hard to live out of a suitcase and my school is 1 hour and 15 minutes away! So the sooner we leave the better.

Everything is going well. The food is excellent! Haven't had anything bad yet. Edoukou is trying lots of new foods and enjoying them, although I don't k ow if it was the bus ride or the hot day or the Dairy Queen blizzard (yes, you read that right!) but she threw up when we got hoome last night. She is quite the trooper. We found DQ in this beautiful old part of town. I will try to send pics this weekend. Today someone said they saw two more!

There are McDonalds adn Starbucks on every corner! I'm not exagerating! Mainly in the tourist and ex-pat places. It is amazing. We haven't used their facilities yet, but we did eat at Subway in a mall and Edoukou had a blizzard.

Edoukou is fast asleep now. We have been on the go since we got here. We also have been swimming at the pool, which helps us sleep esy at night! She will get on the computer this weekend and probably tell you all about how awful it is!!!! She met a 6th grade girl from New Zealand, but they are not exactly each others cup of tea. They will be goihng to different schools anyway. WE bought Edoukou's uniform today. Lots of good skirts and shirts, jacket and dress pants and even a winter coat and PE outfit! They have to have clothes for all seasons.

There are about 7 Americans (all from the west coast, 2 Cali, 2 Oregon and the others I don't remember, 5 New Zealanders (3 of them were in Japan teachng at an International School), one other family from Australia and the rest from Singapore. All very nice people. The Singapore people speak English and Chinese or Malay depending on where their parents are from (China or Malaysia).

Well, I have to get up early tomorrow, so I need to go. I should have more time this weekend to send pics and write more. I will try to get skype this weekend also.
Nihao (Hello in Chinese, haven't learned bye yet!!!)