Angela and I continued our streak of fun exploring through Sunday today. I won’t talk too much about Saturday as Angela already did, but I will add a few things.
On Friday, we met Angela’s co-worker at a wine bar on a nearby pedestrian street. We hit up a place called “Whiskey Village” right next door that is brand new, and chatted with the staff a long time as we were the only patrons. They do not appear to be doing very well, but were very pleasant to talk to.
There is always something going on in Shanghai. We decided to pass on watching a Rugby game and instead chose to explore the city. Jason and I haven’t really seen much of Shanghai, so we were excited to get out! My Saturday morning started with getting my permeant visa! Luckily, I didn’t have to do much for this, and it was just like a trip to the DMV, take a number and wait. The whole process took about an hour! For some reason Jason did not have to go so when I got back home we biked to get some coffee and breakfast. My whole plan after these excursions (since it was just 12:00) was to take a nap, but instead I laid on the couch and Skyped with Julia and my parents! So no nap for me!
Sorry for the delay of postings! It has been a hard week, but it is looking up in a big way. Last week around Thursday I came down with a little stomach bug and fever. I felt worse and worse and had a pretty sick weekend! I always feel homesick when I am sick, so the weekend was a little rough. On Sunday, I decided to ride my bicycle to our Fantasy Football draft in the French Concession. I was still feeling pretty sick, but still had a nice time completing the draft. However, when I came out of the bar, my bicycle had been stolen! We were in a popular area, around 1 in the afternoon and the bike was directly out in front of the building. I was really surprised, and also sad. It was a nice giant bike, and a little expensive. I learned my lesson, so behold the upgrade:
This cost me $60. This one won’t hurt so bad when it is stolen. Now I am greatly looking forward to a weekend of not being sick!
Angela here and sorry I’ve been MIA! Not much new happening here but things are going great! I’ve been waking up very early to go swimming at school. It’s nice to drag myself out of bed and jump, bike to school, and jump in cold water….no really it’s fun! Tonight Jason and I are meeting up with a friend of his from high school! It’s crazy how small the world is. This week, I told myself I’d be better about cooking at home which turns out has been a failure! Monday and Wednesday we had plans! Tuesday we had leftovers—Wait I ate the leftovers, Jason had PB&J! That leaves me tomorrow. It’s so different cooking here. Going to the grocery store is a chore and then after all that work you have to cook….but thankfully I can have my groceries delivered! That’s right! I haven’t gotten to that point yet but I’m thinking it will be worth it!
Below are a few pictures from my phone! China win: having convenient Gum packets! China fail: Said gum comes in a green package (I think mint) turns out it’s flower-ish! Oh well!
We celebrated our second Monday of the year by going to our friend Joel’s apartment to watch a movie. We watched Ghost Busters. This past Friday, we had a school happy hour that a lot of staff attended. We stayed there a long time, and then went to our Canadian friend Cat’s house to have a low-key night. Saturday we went out to dinner via bicycle in the French Concession to a place called Abbey Road, based off of the Beatles album. It was a very fun adventure.
On Sunday Angela and I got foot massages! We went to separate places. Both of us had awesome foot massages, but my place was much more expensive! All for now.
I don’t have too much to write about, because this week was a pretty typical week of school. Today was the first day that we did not have a ‘dragon time’ schedule. Our mascot is a dragon, and dragon time is basically advisory time. The school is on block schedule, and boy, does a full 90 minutes feel like a long time. I am going to have to work hard to function successfully in a 90 minute class period! We have been moderately sociable with our friends in the evenings, including a trip to Brilliance Mall. There is a Decathalon store there, which is a large sporting goods store. I needed to buy swimming trunks, and our new friend Candice needed to stock up on some clothes. Angela was along for the ride. While we were at the mall, there was some sort of variety type show. The first thing I saw was three women singing in Chinese, dressed very fancy. The next act was a magician, who was very good. I was reminded a little bit of Gob from ‘Arrested Development’ as this magician liked to put a little flash into his ‘illusions’. I was disappointed that the Final Countdown was never played. The last act before we left was a fan dance, which was neat but a little less exciting, and we were ready to go home. Last night we had dinner with our new Canadian friend Kat, and then a small group of us hung out at our apartment.
I teach a section of beginning band, and today I had students write a simple rhythm on the board for all to clap and count. All the students did a nice job working with eighth notes, quarter notes, half notes, whole notes and the rests of all lengths. I was entertained when one student wrote up for his rhythm a full measure of alternating 16th rests and 16th notes. We had not talked about those yet. I found that several times when a student got up, I had to explain a new concept to the class. They are bright cookies. We tested instruments today and all of the students were very excited.
High school band is difficult because I do not have the resources that I am used to, and buying things from the music store is a little more difficult. However, the kids have been adjusting to me well and I have gotten to know many of them, and shared some laughs with a few others. They are very nice kids.
I find that I have to deal with waves of homesickness occasionally when something happens that is a result of the international climate. The school is wonderful, but sometimes I get frustrated when I can’t do something, or buy a musical item I need and find myself pining for Iowa. So it goes – starting a new job is always difficult. I could not have asked for better colleagues or a more awesome girl to have come here with though, so life is good.
Tomorrow is Friday, and we have much to look forward to. Happy hour for us middle school teachers after school, and a school barbecue on Saturday. The pollution levels have been incredibly low for Shanghai, so the weather has been warm, but breezy and blue skies and sunshine.
We got bikes! This morning we took a cab to the Giant store to search for a bike. The store had a great selection of bikes that were all decently priced. After going back and forth between a cruiser and hybrid bike, I decided on the hybrid. The guy at the shop let me take it for a test drive down the street….the breaks felt a little weak so they tightened them up for me. The bike felt a little small but the weight and color sold me. It didn’t come with a kickstand but was able to have one installed before we left. Oh and of course I bought a helmet! Less than $500 for a brand-new bike, kickstand, and helmet. The only weird thing about it is the disc breaks….not sure how I feel about those! Since we had cabbed it to the bike shop one of us was going to have to ride the bike home. Jason volunteered and ended up beating me home! After an afternoon nap we rode our new bikes to the pearl market to pick up my clothes that I had ordered last week. The whole adventure took about 20 minutes and was pretty easy. Having a bike really makes getting around a lot easier! Actually biking in Shanghai is pretty nerve racking because you don’t really have to follow any traffic laws! In fact I noticed the more careful I was, the more dangerous it seemed. Cars yield for you but you can never really tell if they will! So for example when the light was red we just went for it and weaved in and out of traffic! Not to worry –we wore helmets and really, we were the only people wearing helmets! Once all of our friends get bikes it will be nice to bike around the city!
Oh and the clothes I picked up are awesome. The dresses that I got are a perfect match and fit great!
Angela and I have both been very busy as this is the first week that we had students! I think we can say that we have been successful. The children are well behaved, and very nice. I also think I can speak for both of us when I say that we are really busy! I teach on an 8 day cycle, so every other day I see the same classes. We are on block schedule, but the classes also switch times throughout the 8 day cycle. For example: I had beginning band on Wednesday, day 1, first block. Today (Friday) I had beginning band for the second time, day 3, and it was second block. This will continue until beginning band happens at every time during the day. Crazy, right? I have to travel a lot for my classes, and that is the only thing that really stresses me out too much. I am used to being able to always be in one location, and so when I show up to the band room with students already present, I become flustered while searching for the materials I need. Luckily it is block, so a few minutes wasted at my inexperience is not so bad. Wednesday and Thursday was filled with name games, and answering questions. Today was the first day that I really did stuff – and I did a lot of music! High school band played, we ran through the guitar class book, and beginning band did a lot of note naming and rhythm practice.
Wednesday Angela and I hosted a successful first day get together at our place. We had a huge majority of the new teachers show up! Thursday we decided to have an adventure after school to look for bicycles. We went to a big athletic store that many teachers suggested, but found the selection to be bad! After that we went to the trek store. Angela saw the first bike in the window, and suggested that I “just buy my dad’s bike”. A little too pricy I am afraid! I don’t know why we thought it would be any better, but we went next door to the Cannondale store and of course, that was even more pricy! Very nice bicycles though. I was hoping that we would find something really cheap that I could buy and mail back to the States (like a Cannondale tandem…?). Eventually we ended up at Carrefour, which is a local super store. They have a giant bicycle shop inside, and so I ended up with this beauty. 
I have not ridden it much, because we still need to get Angela a bicycle! I decided to throw a few old pictures up for your enjoyment as well. They show the first dinner that we have home cooked, and a trip we took to the Pearl Market. This is where you buy fake purses and stuff. I don’t quite see that appeal, but you can also get very cheap clothing. Angela had three dresses tailored for a very good deal, and I saw a lot of fancy shoes. You have to barter, and I have not been brave enough for that yet.
Teacher friends in Iowa, be jealous. I know we’ve been spoiled these past 2 weeks, but last night was just too good to be true: complementary cocktail hour at the Ritz Carlton in Pudong. Of course I’ve never stayed or visited any Ritz Carlton hotel and considering the stores surrounding it were Cartier, Tiffany, and Armani, I knew that this would be a treat! Our bus arrived first and we were escorted to the elevators. After stopping at the 30th or so floor we were shuffled into another elevator where we arrived to the Flair Bar on the 58th Floor! Here we were eye to eye with the top of the Pearl Tower. Take a look at the photos! It was really amazing….of course it was really hot, but because we were the 1st group to arrive it was nice to have lots of space to take pictures etc. Also this high up, you really see the pollution. Either way it was beautiful!
The fact that I actually am going to be working in Shanghai, China has become very real. Now that the entire staff has returned, it is down to business and I am feeling a familiar, overwhelming sense of ‘I have little to no idea about what is going on’. The band program at SCIS seems super awesome, but it is so different than I am used to. SO DIFFERENT!! I think it will be great, but I am a little stressed because I just do not quite understand it. I should be starting a marching band show right now, and that should be all I have to worry about! Obviously, without a football team, there will be no marching band show. I would really like to do something along those lines here to introduce them to something new, but we really don’t have any space for that. They do parade marching mostly, and so I will have to be creative. Pretty steep requirement for someone who has a career in music. Becoming overwhelmed about not knowing what the new job will look like has made me a little homesick, but I knew that these feelings would occur. So far life has been crazy busy with mostly social events, and so now the work that I came here to do begins. I am so excited/terrified.
Iowans Abroad 