Autumn in Shanghai

Hey there, the extended absence is due to the fact that midterms are upon us. not only that, but fall has actually arrived, and my sweaters are being dug out from the boxes that they were hidden in. yesterday, it even reached the upper 50s.

Here are some photos of the school these days:

We've had some gloomy, rainy weather for awhile. This is the pond outside of the junior high.

Right outside of our building. Where we park our bikes before getting into the office.

They've been doing a lot of construction at the school; tearing down old buildings to make room for news one. The latest victim was a building that was actually used as a prison during WWII. Our school was a Japanese internment camp, and the movie Empire of the Sun was based on the school's real history.

The school hallway after all the kids have left for the day. Usually it is impossible to walk through these. You basically have to swim your way through the kids.

The classroom where I have three of my classes: English, history, and Ecology.

So, I was talking about midterms before. Midterms here are really involved, with all sorts of rules and regulation. Every test has to be a certain way, and handed in with the right identifying codes and information, but at least the hard part is over now.

Today, in the spirit of halloween, I showed my kids Nightmare Before Christmas, and at first some of them rolled their eyes. oh we're too big for this. oh that's just for children, but once the movies starts...bam, they're glued to the screen. completely captivated.

Life is moving along. When I sit down and recount our adventures it seems a little lame. So much of it revolves around finding a burrito or a normal deli sandwich, but you don't understand. When one eats Chinese cafeteria food five days a week, dreams of other kinds of food start to encroach into both your sleeping and waking hours. And that turkey sandwich that you took for granted, the one with the perfect round roll and cheddar, you start to obsess about it. And pizza. And tacos. and...well, you get the idea.

So, because of our cravings, we've gone on a lot of food hunts. One main trip was to New York Deli. With a name like that, how could we resist. The ad in a magazine promised that they carried "US quality meat" and I was sold.

The deli turned out to be a small counter next to Jing'ling Road, where we bought our guitars a few weeks ago (and by-they-way, I've been playing my guitar like crazy. Just like being sixteen again. I even remember how to play Crash and The Sweater Song...good times).

They also had very good giant burritos. Stephanie couldn't finish hers so she carried it around her purse the entire day, even when we went to the museum later on. Occasionally, she would peek into her bag and coo to the burrito, whispering loving words to it.

Stephanie, Nicole, and Mai Kao. Apparently it was jeans and black t-shirt day.

Serious eating.The deli crowd. Me, Mai Kao, Josh, Brian L., Stephanie, Dennis C., Dennis N. (yes, there really are three Den(n)is's here), and Brian W.)

Some street meat prepping. Actually, you can't see, but all around were people chopping up all types of critters outside, which would later be used for the meals cooked for dinner. Um, nevermind the pollution and fly marinade.

After the deli, Nicole, Stephanie, and I walked to the Shanghai National Museum (I think...we were trying to find the Shanghai Modern Art Museum, but stumbled into the wrong one).

The walk to the museum. It was a nice day. Oh, note the couple in front of us. People here hang all over each other, literally. Not that much public kissing though.

Outside of the museum.

There were people all around the museum selling these squid kites. They would walk up to any group of white people and say, "Buy my kite, buy my kite." All the tourists were too polite and would stand there suffering as the hawkers moved on to watches and other trinkets.

They tried to sell kites to Nicole and Stephanie too, but I think my presence deterred them in the end. I'm like Chinese-hawker kryptonite. Except for maybe the ones who think I'm Japanese. When that happens it's usually these women saying, "Why don't you talk to us? You Japanese? Why so unfriendly? You like KTV (karaoke)? Go art show?"

Lion statues outside of the museum.

Inside the museum were all sorts of exhibits, but we couldn't take pictures of most. I was, however, allowed to snap photos of the different kinds of Chinese money. These pictures are for you Mr. Barriale, coin-collector extradinaire.

After the museum, we hiked through the busiest street ever while looking for a Japanese clothing score. Sometimes there are just too many people here.

Another night, a group of teachers had a barbeque. We ate China steaks and you know what? It was pretty good. I wasn't sure how long they needed to cook so I probably overdid it, but they were still relatively tender and tasty.
Action shot. cole playing wii tennis with josh and brian.

It was a great night. Crisp air. Smoke of the grill. People talking and laughing together. And one giant sing along that included weezer, oasis, and radiohead classics.

One last food report is our trip to New York Pizza (hmm, new york deli, new york pizza, I'm starting to see a trend here).
Outside, there was some kind of Russian folk dance show going on.


The pizza really was like New York pizza, and it tasted just like the two slices and a small coke special I used to get for $4 at that place near NYU, on University Place. So ok, not the greatest pizza, but perfectly acceptable greasy slice, which for China is like, in the top 5% of pizzas.

Decent pizza=happy times.


Yum. Oh yeah, all that weight I lost by being so nervous at the start of teaching? I'm pretty sure I'm well on my way to fixing that.

That's all for now. Sorry for the clunky writing; sometimes I feel my ability to express myself coherantly slip away as I teach all these kids with inverted and mixed engrish grammar. I'll try to get the rest of Singapore up next.

Singapore, land of food, shopping, tropical weather, and English. Day 1

Well, in the strictly chronological way of thinking, this happened about three weeks ago, during the Golden Week National holiday, but I finally got around to posting it now.

Although we came through Pudong airport to get to Shanghai, this time around we weren't horribly jetlagged, and it was during the daytime, so we actually noticed that the terminal was quite beautiful.

Blurry us on the plane to Singapore.We arrived in Singapore around 11:30 pm. The days prior to leaving, we had all of our hotel rooms booked and ready...all except for that first night. For some reason, that night almost nothing was available, and all of the hotels were double the normal price (later on we found out that the F1 races were in Singapore, and it was more than a huge deal there). The only hotel room I found was a cheap, out of the way one. Online it had reasonable reviews, but some people also mentioned that it was a bit shady. Jokingly, Nicole and I called it "the flophouse."

We were tired and uncomfortable when we finally checked out of customs. The only thing that made the night easier was that everyone, literally everyone, in Singapore speaks English. "Choo Jiat Road," we said to the cab driver, and just like that, he understood us.

As we neared the hotel, I started to notice the scenery changing a little; the buildings more worn, the lights dimmer. And then I saw our hotel, Hotel 88 I think it was called. It turned out to be a chain of hotels all on the same road. Also on the road we a number of...how shall we say...women of ill repute. Hmm. So I check in, we get to the elevator, and standing there, right next to me, is a woman leaning against the wall in a "seductive" manner. Yep, another painted lady. How convenient. Oh, and hourly rates? Available. This wasn't a "flophouse," it was a flophouse.

This was the room. Note how there is no real bedding. Also no drawers. Not a good sign. On that little table were some old snacks like a cup o' noodle and coffee packets. Not only that there was a nice trail of ants on there too.

Upon entering the room we were hit with a wave of musty, stale air. No windows here, and Singapore does happen to be right on the equator. The AC choked and sputtered a bit before finally spewing a thin gust of cool air.

This was the bathroom/shower. If you look closely, you can see how the shower head is right in the middle of the room. No separate shower! Also the toilet seat had stains on it. Next to the sink was an all-purpose hair/body soap. I was worried that I might catch something just by being in there.

The night was miserable, between the humidity, the uncleanliness of it all, the ants, and the sounds of people coming and going (no pun intended), we barely slept at all. We woke up early and were glad to get out of there. Luckily, our next hotel was on one of the nicest streets in Singapore, Orchard Rd. It's known as the main shopping and tourist area. We even found a Borders to hang out in before check-in. Oh, and speaking of bookstores in Singapore; simply put, they are amazing. Better than any US bookstore I have ever been in. Better than The Strand (sorry Strand), better than Union Square B&N, better even than the no longer existing Chelsea B&N (my former favorite bookstore). I'll go on more about this later, when we get to Kinokuniya.

Our new hotel. Spacious, clean, comfortable. Pretty much perfect. We should have stayed here for the whole vacation, but at least we had it for two days.

Our first dinner in Singapore was in a department food court. So many options. They had food from all over asia and a fair amount of Western selections too. I went with Hainanese chicken rice, a national dish in Singapore, and chicken congee. Both were very tasty. The chicken rice had a nice aroma, and the cold chicken was cooked perfectly. The spicy dipping sauce was the ideal accompaniment.

Coming up, much more food, shopping galore, the night safari, walking, and another hotel.

Another one from the kids

Here's a good vocab story from one of my kids (vocab words bolded):

One day, a master had a pet. The pet was a duck. The duck looks funny. The duck was miserable because the master hitted the duck's belly. So the duck hated the master. The duck escaped from the house. He shocked because he was hitted by his master. He was hungry. So he laid down in front of the neighbor's house. The next day, the neighbor, whose name is Tom, came out of his house and saw the duck. He was amazing and he stared at the duck carefully. Suddenly, the duck woke up and saw Tom. Tom thought for a minute, and then allowed the duck to get into his house. The house was messy and the light bulb was faint. Even some of the food were rotten. There was a boy playing with marbles. He looks intelligent. He snooped the duck. The next day, Tom took the harness and was going to have a saunter in the park. From then on, the duck lived happily and the ending was hilarious.

The end.

(nicole wondered what snooping a duck entails)

words of zen from an English quiz

vocabulary word: intelligent
sentences:
When raw meat sits out for too long it becomes intelligent.

word: belly
I feel uncomfortable in my belly.

word: harness
Keep your harness tightly, or you will be free fall.

word: miserable
I am a pretty miserble woman.

Fill in with a negative adjective
When we got to the lunch room, all they had left were unfriendly hamburgers.

That is all for today....

The kids are alright

Today, I woke up with my eyes practically welded shut, and when I finally went to the bathroom and managed to wash away the sticky yellow substance (gross, I know) sealing them, I found that my left eye was bright red, and my right eye was not only lined with scarlet, but it was also swollen like someone had given me a stiff jab to the face.

For the last few days I've had pink eye, but it was never this bad; I never looked like a mutant. Not only that, but I couldn't stop sniffling either. To top it off, today was the day that I was going to be observed by Helen (who is in charge of us foreign teachers), Greg (a senior teacher), and Mr. Chen (the director of the entire junior high). Oh poop.

I showered and tried my best to be a well-dressed mutant. I was to be observed in my third period (my rowdy, noisy kids), but I had to teach for both first and second, so that didn't give me any extra time to prepare. I somehow stumbled through the first two hours of the day, with tissues in hand.

"I'm not crying kids," I told them as I dabbed at the corners of my eyes. "My eyes just won't stop tearing."

Finally I got to my third period. I gathered all my students and shushed them. Quietly, before Helen and the others arrived, I whispered to them, "Please be good for me today."
One of my kids, Kipper (who's usually loud), noticed how swollen my eyes looked. "Your eyes are so tired today teacher. You can rest."

"I can't Kipper, I have to teach." But I was surprised at how considerate he was and I thanked him.

I then told the class that we were going to have visitors today, and even though I let them talk usually, I wanted them to be extra good. "Unless you want another English teacher. If you really don't like me and want a new teacher, then you can talk, but if you want me around, then try to be good."

I turned to my two worst kids, who are always fooling around. "Michael, Jeffrey...please behave."

They all told me not to worry, and then the other teachers came: Helen, Greg, and Mr. Chen.
For the first time since the first day of school, all my kids sat quietly, backs straight, and listened. I taught my lesson (new vocabulary, and a few phrases) and they participated, payed attention, and were all round angels.

The lesson went well, and afterwards, all the feedback I received was positive.

The best part was on the way out of class, Michael and Jeffrey gave me the thumbs up, and some of the kids bowed to me and smiled. Ah, those little crappers are such good kids, even when they're not.

My eyes are still a bit off, but tomorrow I'm rewarding my kids with chocolate pocky. Maybe we'll go outside and read.

And, to make the day even better, Nicole and I went to the fabric market after school, and we both had coats made. I found the best coat ever (made of cashmere), and I'm having one custom tailored for me for about $90. Nicole is having a wool trench and a skirt made. She even bargained got the "friend price." When we we done with the fabric market, we found a few stalls of street food and ordered two bowls of chow fun that were stir-fried right in front of us. About $1.50 for both bowls.

We sat on the handrails along the sidewalk and ate our noodles. An eldery couple sat next to us, and the lady smiled at cole (she was the only foreigner eating there, and was probably a strange sight, especially with me around too).

"Ni hao," Cole said.
"Ni hao," the lady said with a grin. And with that she turned to the street.
The air was cool for once, and the pollution somewhat more settled. The four of us sat there, all watching the people pass by. The sounds of hawkers rang out every now and then. A bit further out a mom was feeded her toddler grilled sweet potato.

a pretty good day.

Class photo time, progress of the Combo

I recently snapped a few pictures of my English classes, even though a lot of them were more than a little reluctant about being in a picture.

On that same day, I did a combination of spelling bee in class, and then later on, I took them outside for reading time (ok, so maybe that day wasn't exactly the most demanding day). Besides finding out that most of my kids are great spellers, I also got the Combo (otherwise known as Maki Combo) to speak out loud again! This time she spelled two words correctly, and she pronounced each letter clearly and confidently.

We also just gave the kids their first grades of the year (basically first marking period), but I haven't gotten calls from any parents yet.

Today's lesson included showings of Conjunction Junction and Unpack my Adjectives,both of Schoolhouse Rock fame. The kids might have thought that they were too cool for school, but they weren't; they totally liked it.

Some of the girls in my larger English class. From left to right: Betty, Diana, Stella, and Rain. Except for Betty, they're not much in the speaking department, but at least they try for the most part.

All the boys in that same class. Tommy's all the way on the left, one of the brightest students I have. Duke, who's giving me the finger (such sweet kids), the anime hair guy is Shone, who looks like he's trouble, but he actually tries really hard in my class, and he told me that this is the first time that's he's ever been a good student in English class. Jack is kneeling, another smart kid. Jerry is the one with the hand sign, and he's a boarding student who happens to live right across from me.

More girls from the class. Sitting in the middle is Maki Combo. To the right is Rika, and on the left is Miyu: the Japanese triangle. Standing are Judy, Rachel (the absolute best student in the class, probably too smart to be in this level), Sophia (the next best), and Katy (another bright kid).

My other, more rowdy class. The two kids in the middle Jeffrey and Michael (the one pointing) never stop fooling around. Apparently, it's normal in Asia for boys to stroke each others' hair, or hand, or arms, and to constantly wrestle. I get them to stop, but don't ask any questions.

In the striped shirt is Ellen; I owe her a piece of chicken for her birthday.

The story behind that: I was discussing holidays, and Kipper (the boy on the left) brought up Oct 22nd.

"What holiday is that?" I asked.

"Chicken Day." He said.

"What's Chicken Day?"

"Eat chicken."

"Umm."

"Also Ellen birthday."

I turn to Ellen. "So your birthday is Chicken Day?"

She nods resolutely. "Yes."

"So what do you do for your birthday, eat chicken?"

"Yes."

"Ok, then," I say, because some of my kids like to mess with me, "I'll give you a piece of chicken on your birthday."

"Really?" Eyes wide.

"Yup."

On the way out of class, she says to me in all seriousness, "Mr. Denis, remember my chicken."

So I need to give Ellen some kind of chicken product on Oct. 22.

All the way to the left, the second girl from the end, with the piece sign, is Joyce. Joyce is a bit strange. Every time I give them an essay, she uses me as the example, or writes some kind of story about me. She's also the only kid I have that speaks Cantonese, so every now and then I use it when she's not paying attention in class and it completely surprises her.

I found this drawing while checking Anny's homework. That day she was wearing an eye patch because she hurt her eye or had some kind of treatment done to it (it's hard trying to figure out complicated subjects with them).

The girl all the way to the right is Yoshiko, the best student in this class. Next to her is Anny, the eye patch girl. Both are boarding students (yup they live across from me too), and they almost never see their families. Sometimes they write about it in their homework, and I can't help but give them good grades on their essays, though it doesn't hurt that they're both good at English.

And those are my two English classes.

Yesterday Nicole and I were walking along Baise (the street outside our school), and for the first time I noticed how comfortable we were. It wasn't like the street had gotten any less ghetto: street vendors were still everywhere, half the people walk around in their pajamas (it's a status symbol, I'm told), and bicycles and scooters still whiz around, but these days, all of that feels normal.

Even the Mandarin is getting a bit better. I can handle most easy transactions now. Today we're even planning on buying a couple guitars and start playing again.

It's looking more and more like we'll be spending a few years here, and it's good that our small part of China at least, is feeling like home.

two quick videos

just wanted to get these up. one is of cole riding around in front of our building, and the other is a short clip of the north korea/south korea soccer match.






singapore post coming soon