Today was the final day of new teacher orientation. Tomorrow we will be thrown in to the mix of the entire staff, and so we will have a lot of new teachers’ names to learn. I have met most of the music staff, and they are all beautiful people. I am very excited to work with all of them!

The administration in the middle school is very good about giving us time to get done what we need to. Angela is a little more occupied during the day, so today I did an important errand for our apartment. Angela is very good and found a woman who is moving back to the United States and needs to unload some of her belongings. She decided to buy some pots and pans and a drying rack from this woman, but the only catch is that she lives in the French Concession. I had no idea how to get there, so today I went with a new friend of mine who has lived in Shanghai for a year already to find this woman’s apartment. The trip took us a total of two hours. We took a long subway ride on the very clean subway. Well, it was clean until we witnessed a poor older man throw up all over it! There is an important emphasis on ‘saving face’ in China. In fact, I think one could assume that this saying may have stemmed from China (this is a big assumption on my part). I found it interesting when the man threw up, though all of the nearby riders quickly moved away, nobody drew any attention to him. I was a little queasy, though! After we arrived in the french concession, we had to walk for many blocks until we found her house. She is a freelance artist, and has been living in Shanghai for six years. We were successful in obtaining the goods and headed home. This evening we had a small outing with a few friends, and played ‘Cards Against Humanity’ afterwards. Glad to know people all over has sick senses of humor!

Still crazy hot here, but I can’t believe it’s only Tuesday.  Today is our last day of new teacher orientation.  Tomorrow all the staff comes back.  I”m looking forward to this, because it will be nice to meet the team.  Last night we went to a popular area of Shanghai that has a ton of restaurants catered to Westerners, as well as, Shanghai’s famous pearl market (I’ll be checking that out later).   We went to Mexico Lindo, which on Monday has 50% off all food and 2 for 1 deals on pitchers of Margaritas.   Let’s just say, everyone had a good time!   Last night was the 1st time that both Jason and I took the subway and like everyone says, it’s so easy, and surprisingly clean!

Today is dedicated to classroom time.  I may venture out and pick up some pots and pans I found on Craig’s list, problem is I have no idea how to find this lady’s apartment!   Also today, our Ayi (Auntie)  starts!  She will be coming 2x a week to clean, do laundry, and help out!  I know this sounds a little over the top, but it’s almost expected of us since we both are earning a living.  It’s our way to help people out.  And hey, I won’t complain about not having to do the laundry!

Good evening from Shanghai, China! Pretty low key weekend, which is a positive thing at times! Friday our school took us to a nice restaurant and really showed us a good time. Afterwards, only about four teachers took the bus home. The rest of us went out for a night in the French Concession. One of my favorite aspects of Chinese dining is that usually only one person orders for the whole group. All of the food is then put on a lazy Susan, and you only need to pluck the desired morsel up with your chopsticks (sometimes easier said than done). Whenever we go out with school administrators, they take care of it all. That means I do not have to make any decisions, and I love it! We went to a popular expat bar after dinner, and ended up on a rooftop bar that was possibly a little too ritzy for me. I was unable to order myself a simple beer, and the vice principal of the middle school saw and came to show me how it was done. He would not even let me pay! They are very nice people.

This weekend was much slower paced. We have not been good about keeping food in the apartment yet, as everything is so different (and of course all in Chinese) and we do not have pans, either. We went to a bakery for a light breakfast, and while Angela waited for the internet guy, I went with a friend to a nearby grocery store to learn where it was located. For dinner, a bunch of us new teachers found a very close restaurant much like the one we went to on Friday night, but much less expensive! We ordered a lot between 9 of us, and ended up paying about 70 RMB total. Divide that by 6, and that is your dollar equivalent. Afterwards, we were invited to the apartment of one of the new teachers where we sat and talked. I went to bed very early for a Saturday night! Today we went shopping once in a cab for a few necessities, and then decided to walk to Carrefour, a popular shopping mart, and got a few more. Slowly but surely our apartment is feeling a little less like a completely empty hotel room! Tomorrow we go back to school, but I do not mind. I struggle with so much free time more than I did back in Iowa, since I don’t know what to do with myself! I enjoyed being around all the other new teachers, and when I am busy all day, some down time after school feels alright. One more week of in services, and then the students will come! All for now,

      -Jason

It’s sad to think how much we rely on the Internet! But either way its awesome and we finally got it installed! We even have TV, but of course all the buttons are in Chinese and I’m terrified to push a button. Anyways, below is the blog I prepared about our flight to Shanghai, LAST WEEK! Time flies!

We Arrived to Hot Hot China! And it was SO much easier than expected! Our last flight from Seoul to Shanghai was delayed but with the hour time difference we still made it in decent time! Our first step was immigration/customs, and for some reason I was the most worried about this part! Thankfully it was easy, almost too easy! Immigration/quarantine was as simple showing our passports and looking into a camera! Done! Jason got stuck behind a family and had to wait a bit longer, so during that time I went to find our luggage! After I lifted 5 60 plus lbs bags into a row, Jason arrive and we loaded all of it onto two carts! Thats right folks, ALL of our luggage arrived! Next stop customs! Customs had 2 lines, and all we had to do was walk through, no check of luggage, no questions, simple and we were home free!

After walking by Chinese men asking us if we needed a hotel or a taxi, we found our pick up who was the High School principal and off we went to find our new apartment!

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Good afternoon from Shanghai, China! Angela and I are still working on getting home Internet so blogging is not so easy as we must use our phones. Last night we were supposed to go out with some staff, but were hit with a storm of typhoon like proportion. We decided to still go out with a new friend that lives in our apartment complex. There must have been a foot of water running in the street. We went to a “sport bar” called bocu bocu. After dinner we tried to get a cab to do some shopping but we failed miserably, so everyone was instead asleep by 8:00pm.

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Quick update! We arrived with no problems! Our apartment is awesome and we are using wifi at a neat bakery! More to come later, hopefully we will have our phones working later! It’s very hot….so hot! First day of work tomorrow!