not quite home

circling

2010-08-07T20:25:00.002+08:00

on hold for now. Real life overtakes virtual life. Too many events going, but in short, the MFA writing has taken the lead, as well as various life changing events.

I'll be occasionally blogging on another blog, which, if you know us, should be easy to find.

Anyway, Hong Kong for now is the psuedo-home, until nyc reclaims us.

You say tomato, I say grapefruit

2010-02-12T19:31:00.002+08:00

I say potato, you say solanum tubersum.

A more substantial, informative post with photos coming post-phuket vacation. But, three weeks of teaching down. Three weeks.

a quick note

2010-02-06T23:13:00.002+08:00

It's been a little over a year since Anny died, and I just wanted to say to her, thank you for being a good student and a caring person. I still think of you all of the time, and I always will.

Once more, with feeling

2010-02-03T20:55:00.007+08:00

Well, a few weeks into teaching and I'm starting to remember what it was like last year. Yes, that confused, fuzzy look staring back at me from all angles. Grading and powerpointing late into the night (currently working on 'marketing mix--pricing methods' a must read for all A-level Business Studies students!...in my class). Teaching Shakespeare and Mary Shelley to Korean and Hong Kong kids? Er...No, no. Can't resort to Leo and Claire Danes version. How to explain "her chastity was well-armed?" or "I'll chop off their head, or their maidenheads."

I'll have more photo fun time w/ my school and kids but since half of them are native speakers, I might have to be a bit more discreet, lest they find this rarely read blog (hi, my five readers!).

Anyway, times are a' busy here. Still honing sharpening my completely inappropriate submission materials to the MFA. Is using "motherf'er" in a personal essay about writing craft a good idea? Wha? No?

Well, at least in a week I'll be returning to Thailand! This time with cole in tow for our Chinese New Year vacation. Gong hei fat choy folks. Happy year of le tigre.

cole, crocheting a scarf for me, on the flight from New York to Beijing

2010-01-18T20:27:00.002+08:00

A race to catch up, and then lag behind again

2010-01-12T12:46:00.017+08:00

"I don't like Thai food," I told cole.
Let's start there; it's as good as place as any to catch up to the last 2-3 months.
"What am I going to eat?" I continued on. And that wasn't the only problem with going to Bangkok for a month.

Actually hold on, before that let me quickly say that look here:

my dad visited us! That's him on the right. To his left is Aunt .... and Uncle ..... (I'm horrible, but the names don't really translate), then my grandmother on my mom's side, then Uncle Kenny (or Uncle #2), cole, and me--all out to dinner in Kowloon somewhere, though I remember the name of the restaurant was Sportful Garden.

Ok, back to where I was:

So after my dad's visit, I told cole:

"...and not only that, but doesn't Bangkok have the potential to be really awful?" for all the reasons that you're probably aware of. But there wasn't any other choice really. To have a chance of teaching in Hong Kong, I needed a CELTA, and the closest cheapest option was Thailand. I applied to the program, got in, booked a serviced apartment (more on that later), got a flight, and off I went.

These are the types of places I remember most. On the street, sweltering at a humid 90 even during the night, chilis and lemongrass simmering in curry, the most tender hainan chicken rice, grilled meats, perfectly fried eggs. 30 baht or so for a meal, less than a dollar. Alright, so I like Thai food now, just not pad thai.

This picture pretty much sums up my experience in Bangkok: Down-to-earth, friendly people (honestly, the friendliest of anywhere I've ever been), oppressive ridiculous heat, and in general much much more than I expected, in just about every way. But...

Two blocks to the right on this street food?--Patpong: ladyboys, pingpong shows (need I elaborate?), smartly dressed men handing me cards while addressing me in Japanese (because in Thailand, I look Japanese). Wandering through--groups of scumbag expats, and yes, there are many, and it can all be so much of a soul-sucking, anger-inducing wasteland that you have to just remind yourself that this isn't it, not really, and next time, remember to take the long way around to the ramen shop, because this is just the 0.1% that ruins Bangkok, and it's not that hard to avoid it. Yeah, the gogo bars aren't going anywhere, but at least if I pretend they don't exist, then Bangkok can stay amazing in my mind.

In the end though, 99% of my time was spent here:

Doesn't look like much, and the same holds true for the inside, but this was the Celta training center. I would get up around seven every morning, shower, get dressed, take the sky train two stops, from Surasak to Sala Daeng, grab an egg sandwich from a guy on the street (20 baht), and then start my lessons at school. Our lessons lasted all morning, then we had lesson-planning, lunch, and the afternoon was spent on teaching practice.

Here's me in action, teaching the different types of future tenses I think. Our students, a mix of refugees from Cambodia and Sri Lanka combined with Thai university students, were the best behaved bunch I've ever taught.

This block is where I lived, holed away from the traffic and noise of the city. You can't see here, but this path gets even narrower, and in the morning, an endless procession of moterbikes, cars, wild dogs, and pedestrians all fight for space.

This is where I stayed, not the best of rooms. Take a thin sheet and put in on the floor, then lie down on it, and you begin to get an idea of what this bed was like. Add in the run-down chic of the place, complete with its very own cockroach-in-the-fridge (hi little guy!), and well...I probably should have just spent another hundred bucks to live in relative luxury. Still, it was fine. I liked how it was hidden behind a maze of elusive corridors, which at night, you would almost have to navigate by feel. In the mornings the same three shirtless men drinking their morning beers would hang out in front of the only convenience store in the neighborhood and say hello to me. Every now and then, I would buy a grilled drumstick from the stand next to my apartment, and it would be better than any barbecued chicken I've ever had. So yeah, it could have been worse.

A drink stand near the ferry to the Royal Palace.

Grilled banana? Plantain? Nicely tart. 5 baht.

I only had time to see one site the entire time I stayed, and that was the Royal Palace.

Sometimes, not often, a place so far surpasses my expectations that I become almost dumbfounded with how incredible it is. The Great Wall, Hiroshima, Meijima Island, the hike over the Tai Tam Reservoir in Hong Kong, a short walk from 3rd ave to A along 10th street in nyc. Add the Royal Palace to that list. The sheer opulence of the place is almost too much to take in at once; no really, the gold and jewels literally blind you.

In the end, I would say that Bangkok was worth going to. I met a nice bunch of people (the above seafood dinner was in Bangkok Chinatown, I didn't eat anything that day because I was too sick...tragic), actually learned quite a bit about teaching, and realized that Bangkok and Thailand isn't at all like what I thought it would be. The first thing I said to cole though, when I got back to Hong Kong was, "I will never leave you again for that long. Never."

Because really....

Never again.

Almost immediately after I returned, cole's dad came in for a visit, since he was on a whirlwind China tour for work anyway.

Standing on our balcony overlooking Aberdeen Harbor.

Cole's students were running a holiday fundraiser. Here's dad playing the game.

Standing on the Kowloon side looking over to the Hong Kong Island side.

Finally we went home for Christmas. On the day we arrived, New York had its first snow storm of the season. We landed just before it hit, but then my dad, who was picking us up, got stuck in traffic for over an hour. He eventually showed up, and we made a quick visit to my family in Queens.

By the time we were ready to leave, I hadn't slept for about 20 hours, and it was time for me to drive from Queens, NY to bergen county, NJ. In a snow storm. Oh, and did I mention that I hadn't driven for over half a year?

We made it home safely. Christmas was wonderful. Being home, as usual, was strange but comforting and then strange again. Sometimes I wonder about when we come home for good, if we'll only feel right either in the city (meaning new york), or in Flushing, Queens--the closest facsimile to Hong Kong outside of Hong Kong.

But regardless of the odd sense of straddling two or three cultures (American? Minority not minority? Hong Konger? Ex-pat?), seeing our families eases away possible identity issues.

And then, we're back in Hong Kong again, back to our little corner of Aberdeen. Thanks to cole's sister, Amy, and her parents, I now sport a kindle. Despite my old school publishing tendencies (real books will never die!!), I'm finding that I carry around the thing everywhere. Reading food and travel writing has never been so convenient. It'll take awhile though, for me to make that leap to reading fiction electronically.

So what else? Ah yes. The whole professional-life-you-mean-I'm-supposed-to-be-doing-something-with-my-life? thing has gotten a nice kick in the ass, in the form of a real teaching gig at an international school. That's right, teaching actual English classes, not esl. Who knew? They even gave me an A-level class (like AP in the US but not really)--Business Studies.

And soon I'll be a grad student at Hong Kong University to study for my education degree. (oops, check that, didn't make the cut. Not native enough perhaps?? still waiting on the mfa --ed, aka d-ah, feb 12,2010).

And after that I'll maybe/probably start my MFA (masters in fine arts in creative writing) at the City University of Hong Kong, the inaugural class.

So much stuff, and things. Two words I remember my high school English teacher hating, ni hao Senor Dunn.

Ok, that's it. No promises on future posts. I'll try.

British Sea Power and er...um...those other guys

2009-10-11T01:48:00.016+08:00

October 10th, in Grappa's Cellar, an Italian restaurant of all places, we finally got to see our first show, meaning concert, in Hong Kong. It didn't start off so hot, since we were made to wait two and half hours before the um..."openers" took the stage. So yeah, these guys, who looked like they were sixteen years old and sounded like they've been playing guitar for maybe two weeks, and just learned how to program a crappy two-beat drum machine track, yes they get to open for British Sea Power. Alright, where's my guitar? Those chords, I still remember them. Can't be that hard to be a Hong Kong rock star right? 1, 4, 5 progression? check. power chords. yep. tight jeans/silly outfit?....hmmm alright, not quite there yet.

Anyway, this duo was by far the worst act I have ever paid money to see. Words cannot express, so this video must do:

Luckily, we didn't have to wait long for British Sea Power. Honestly, before this, I wasn't their greatest admirer in the world, but I had all their albums, and liked most of their songs.

As for band availability in Hong Kong (slim pickings in general), I knew this was about as good as it was going to get, so despite the ridiculous ticket price (really? almost $50? that's like going to see Billy Joel at MSG in 1997 or something [I'm looking at you cole], or what I imagine the ticket price for a reunion Pixies tour to be, or even a 90s era Dave Matthews [I'm looking at...me?the shame]).Anyway, the place was full of brits w/ a strange mix of locals and misc foreigners. Still, the vibe was decent, and by the end of the night, after multiple stage dives and encores by the band, I was a much bigger fan of British Sea Power.

A short clip:

Conks visit

2009-10-10T09:10:00.008+08:00

Friend conks visited us last weekend; our first visiter in Hong Kong! Here are some updated pics of our place, this time with furniture.

It was National Day.

In Victoria Park.

Our convertatable bed for conks.

Contemplative on the cable ride up to the big buddha.

Hi again, large buddha.

Next day it was off to Cheung Chau Island, about 30-40 minutes away via the fast ferry. On the beach.

I decided to read on the beach instead of swim. Cole and conks on a floatie.

Hiking around Cheung Chau

Cheung Chau had a boardwalk type vibe, what with the beach and all the snack food. These were some of the best fishballs I've ever had. The first one has a curry sauce on it, the other one some kind of sweet sauce.

Hike near Quarry Bay.

For the final night, we took conks to the Peak. There we were trying to figure out what to eat...um $300 for two pieces of sushi? no thanks. Burger King? maybe not. Bubba Gump Shrimp....hmmm.....really....ok why not. And there, I wish I took some pictures, because I had one of the best fish n' chips ever. Battered and fried mahi mahi, a bit denser than cod. Sooo good, but also made me feel kinda sick later because of all the oil. Worth it though.

Anyway, it was fun having a friend visit. Hopefully we'll get to show more people around HK in the future.

missing, oh new york shows

2009-09-23T20:41:00.009+08:00

yes, there are many things I miss about new york, but this one is about the music, how every band passes through at some point or another.

missing this one hurts. rural alberta advantage. catch them at bowery on oct 7th, or just buy their album.

I recently found out that Handsome Furs (the side project of Dan Boeckner [of Wolf Parade fame]) was in Hong Kong a few weeks ago and I didn't know! oh the agony. Seeing British Sea Power later in October helps, but hk has a long way to go before indie can even begin to peek out from under the all-encompassing canto-pop.

a neat clip of handsome furs:

Hong Kong so far...

2009-09-20T08:30:00.011+08:00

What can I say about living in Hong Kong these almost two months? Even though I'm not from here, I strangely feel more at home here than just about anywhere else, with a couple areas in New York City and Tokyo being the notable exceptions.

Finding a job wasn't that hard; finding the right job has proven to be much harder, with many educational hoops to jump through, and my current rate of movement is closer to a kind of awkward forward tumble.

But Hong Kong...I'll try to do the abbreviated version, because really, all we've been doing is furnishing our apartment the last month (for that, see cole's blog).

So, here goes:

Actually this is a bit of a jump, since this is the building that we live in now, and will live in for at least the next two years. Not the largest or tallest, but it is newly renovated and located in the old school neighborhood of Aberdeen.

The view of Aberdeen Harbour from our first apartment here, the serviced apt/hotel. Aberdeen used to be one of the largest communities in HK, especially before the Brits arrived. Even these days, there's still a fishing village of sorts.

Taken during a scouting trip for cole.

All of a sudden, my birthday crept up on me. Oh twenties, you're leaving so soon.

Perhaps the best mango cake I have ever had. From Taipan Bakery, which has branches in New York, but the ones here don't resemble the ones back home that much. For one, they don't serve milk tea (oh the milk tea! probably the only reason I haven't become a gaunt, wasted away shell. I will devote at least a couple posts to HK milk tea) and their buns taste different. Still good, but different.

Cole's first day of school

A ferry ride...hmm...where. Maybe to Lamma Island.

At this point I was still interviewing for jobs, and I had some free time so I borrowed the hotel's xbox 360 and played Tiger Woods Golf all day. Here is the electronic golfer version of me I made. Eerie.

The elevator door of a place where we like to get pho. Yum cigarhotdog.

Yangzhou fried rice at a cantina in Causeway Bay. They serve the one of the best chicken congees I've ever had.

The view from our new apartment.

One day, we decided that we needed to get out, and by out meaning out of the Hong Kong Island vicinity. Since the Hong Kong Culture Museum is located in Shatin, it provided us with the perfect opportunity to leave our little daily enclave.

The history of the New Territories was actually pretty interesting. All of these giant planned communities, created either out of literally nothing (with reclaimed land) or total wilderness.

Shatin was also where I used to spend my summers with my family when I was younger. Back then, there wasn't as much around, but now there are all sorts of malls and parks. Even so, the quiet and peacefulness of the suburb was striking in comparison to the usual activity we see on the main island and Kowloon.

The clarity of the water, the blue surrounding us, above and below. Everything coincided, and I realized that there was a very real chance that we may never leave Hong Kong.

The serene scene was broken up by this outdoor karaoke party. People sitting, dancing spontaneously (the man pictured dancing with his little Pomeranian), all to popular Cantonese songs from the sixties and seventies.

Sushi place in Shatin, near a bus terminus.

That night I think, the sky turned violet. For ten minutes our apartment was pink hued from the strange light streaming in.

Then, it rained, and lightening flashed near us, so near that cole, with a yelp, leaped from the balcony onto our coach, a distance of at least four feet. Perhaps the most impressive athletic feat I've ever witness from her.

I'll finish this with our first "home-cooked" meal, meaning we bought dry soba and boiled it up, and I picked up some salmon and cucumber maki rolls from the local Park n' Shop. It wasn't much, but it was good, and it was the first meal that we had made and eaten together in our new apartment.

(sorry about the long delays between posts. "serious" writing is taking up more time, and work and going back to school [of all things]. i'll make sure to update at least once a month).

Over already? To and from New York, New Jersey

2009-08-04T07:58:00.013+08:00

Remember when I said I would have plenty of time to catch up on posts, finally get around to the second Tokyo trip (amazing), and maybe a few others that have been left to linger on the dusty back shelf?

Well, I lied.

The time is gone, and now all of sudden, we're back, but not really. I'm staring out onto a harbor dotted with islands. Next to our (temporary) apartment is a fish market, and from our modest 11th floor window in Aberdeen, I see small boats weaving around one another, workers lumbering among trucks, and an ever-changing sky. It's sticky, humid, and hot. Any second may bring a deluge of rain. Across from us is our probable future home, Ap Lei Chau (Duck Tongue Island), a tiny island almost completely covered by high rise buildings.

That's right, we made it. We're in Hong Kong.

I can feel my brain rewiring to the sounds of Cantonese. I imagine these as slight indentations located somewhere in the back of my brainstem, where the scraps on my 2nd language skills try to claw its way to occupy a useful place. All of a sudden, I'm back in the majority, barely worth a second glance (though that is true of home too).

Before I get into Hong Kong (after all, this is our first day here as real residents), I should talk about home first.

(A brief layover in Vancouver. Canada, we hardly knew ya).

Allendale, New Jersey--Manhatten--Queens

These were the places we split our three weeks. Our first week back was a haze of freakishly nice weather and a steady prescription of turkey sandwiches at our favorite deli (Lotitos in Ramsey, NJ) and naps (taken when needed, and often).

I had honestly forgotten the beauty of a blue sky. Throughout our stay at home, I would be constantly amazed by the layers of white clouds.

Our welcome home barbeque. There's Uncle Bill.
Remember us, new york?

One of our most memorable trips was a visit to the Cloisters up by Washington Heights.

We liked it.

Herbs.

My other mom and dad. Thanks!

After the Cloisters, cole and I decided to go downtown to the High Line Park, which was still under construction last time we were home.
The High Line Park at the moment runs from 20th to around 9th street along the west side, kinda around the West Village, Meatpacking District, and Chelsea.

I'm not sure why I love the grit of New York, especially when I don't like the grit of say...Xi'an, but I do.

It was a bit strange seeing American flags. Part of the reverse culture shock we had upon arrival (so so many white people, can't figure out suburban town life) which only alleviated when we were in nyc.

After the High Line, cole mentioned that she wanted an egg tart and milk tea. Ok Chinatown it was, except Chinatown was ten blocks down and maybe nine avenues over. Heck, we were in the city, we walked it.

We stopped at possibly our (new for us, not so much for everyone else) favorite bookstore, Jackson McNally on Mulberry and Prince.

Yes, I bought some books.

Well, I'll end this here. For some reason, I didn't take that many photos while I was at home, and thus missed documenting some great meals, including a week where I hunted down all of the simple favorites I wouldn't be able to get soon. (pizza at grimaldis, cannolis, nathan's hot dog, carvel, baked ziti, cheesesteak, etc....nothing fancy here). The only thing I didn't get to was a good knish and matza ball soup. Oh well, I hear there's a Jewish deli somewhere in Hong Kong.

Other things happened. The DMV, family gatherings, a short stay in Brooklyn, various Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese pig-outs, the All Points West Music Festival in Jersey City (rained on us all day, but the National and Yeah Yeah Yeahs were incredible. Vampire Weekend was ok. Jay-Z? Skipped out before he got on).

But for now, I'm going to head down in search for my first pork bun since being back.

See you later.

One week left

2009-06-17T23:23:00.000+08:00

Just wanted to come out and say hey. Just one week left! The kids have been strangely well-behaved, maybe it's because they know we only have a few days left together. Most of them have accepted that I'm leaving after this year, but a few still tell me everyday not to go, (by tell, I mean moan in a zombie-like way "noooooo, don't gooooooo."

Anyway, this week has been mostly about reviewing for the final and signing yearbooks. Now, I'm not exaggerating by saying that our students have taken yearbook signing to a new level; it's basically an artform. Not only do they write messages, they form intricate shapes, draw amazingly fun pictures, and sometimes, even create entire new inserts when there isn't enough room left in the yearbook. I'll have a few kids sign mine and see what comes of it. I'm already feeling the pressure to make my messages to them meaningful yet visually interesting as well.

Our apartment is half-packed, as are our clothes. Everything is slowly coming to a close. Then, it'll be time for Japan again, then home, then hong kong.

Posting should be much easier soon, so the updates will come more frequently. Until then.

-d

With two weeks left, peeking out from the firewall

2009-06-09T21:01:00.000+08:00

Hi there, I know it's been awhile, but lately it's been pretty hard to do anything internet related. With only two weeks left of teaching though, I thought I should post a mini-retrospective...in list form (because laziness is catching up with me).

Oh, did I mention that last Friday there was a hail storm? Yes, a hail storm in Shanghai in JUNE. I got one right on the noggin too, right in that soft spot of my skull that never closed, which might explain why most of my mental processes this year...have...um...what?

Right, lists, or hailstorms. No, lists.

5 Things I wish I knew before I came to Shanghai (also written in advice column format)

1. That I should have brought much much much less stuff. Really, pack as light as possible.
2. That the restaurant with the green sign across from the school? the one with the glowing fish--is awful, and they charge foreigners extra.
3. That I would end up worrying about my kids so much. Seriously, some of the things that have been happening this second semester are crazy. Hmm, I would go into it, but not really my place to broadcast these events.
4. That living in Shanghai, although challenging, really does dull the senses. Keeping outside interests is key, (and by that I don't mean going out to every bar) otherwise you might literally feel your mind slipping away.
5. That living with and working with those very same people takes some getting used to (what is this "being social" thing you speak of?)

Top 5 things I will miss
1. The kids
2. Hypocritical I know, but, working five minutes from where I live (with free rent)
3. Everything being 1/4 to 1/2 the price of things at home
4. The French Concession
5. Being with cole all of the time

Top 5 things I'm looking forward to during our one month stay back in ny/nj
1. Seeing friends and fam
2. Being understood when speaking/understanding when spoken to
3. People that don't look that similar to me
4. FOOD!
5. Being back in nyc/museums/concerts

Eventually,once we get further away from this firewall. Pictures of Korea and Suzhou (China) will pop up, along with some I've took of the kids and various outings we've had over the last few months.

Alright, sorry about typos, but at least I posted right?

blogger denied

2009-05-21T23:43:00.000+08:00

oh middle kingdom, why don't you like blogs? just wanted to let you all know that blogger/blogspot is blocked, making posting super convoluted and time-consuming.

so it'll be a bit quieter than usual in these parts. hope to post more soon (I already uploaded half of the korea pics too!).

wacky kids

2009-05-15T14:00:00.008+08:00

Here are some pictures of my kids and their posters. Most of them are from an project I gave them where they had to create a new invention and then present it in TV commercial format. This is my new Japanese kids group: Yuna, Rin, Masaya, and Ikumi.

This was their invention, a mask that enhances the natural senses of the wearer. For being my newest students, they did a great job; they even made a real mask.

This one is from Helen, June, and Soohyun. They had a magic door that could take you anywhere in the world. Note the penguin interface. In a total coincidence, I saw Helen in a random bookstore when I was in Seoul. Then I visited her grandmother's museum. I'll give you the full details in the Korea post, but it was a kinda amazing experience.

Battleship Yamato from Chie, Takashi, JH, and Rex. Who's going to buy this, I asked them. Anyone! they responded. What about terrorists? Sure! We'll sell it to anyone!

My blog is doing that annoying thing again where the pictures won't post correctly, but this is the Lazy Chair from Andrew, Leo, Joyce, and Jenny. It has a speaker, tv, arms to help you do homework--the works.

A time travel clock (perhaps lifted from the Treehouse of Horror Simpsons episode I showed them a few days before).

This is from my Korean boys, and I still can't figure out what exactly it is. They tell me that it can turn into anything. "Anything?"
"Yes, it can turn into another Mr. Wong to teach us!"

Ah, the Nick Key. A key that will open any door.

Hayabusha, a hovering bike that you should not ride unless "you want to suicide yourself"

The Help Driving Robot, from Korean girls Betty, YeSeul, and Stella

Hmm, a strange-looking pen from what's left of the Japanese Triangle: Maki, Rika, with hong kong girl Judy added on.

This from another Jenny, a drawing bunny.

Actually from my ecology & evolution class. A poster from four Japanese girls depicting Darwin's theory.

JiYoon. He got a 96 despite bad handwriting.

Shone (he of "emission" fame). He did manage a 91.

School lunch and Joyce bread

2009-05-11T13:37:00.008+08:00

I get some questions now and then about what school lunch is like. Also, remember Joyce? I mentioned awhile back about how she's always eating some kind of bread in my class. Well, here then, is a week's worth of lunch and Joyce bread. Enjoy.

The lunch line.

Monday
Sweet and sour (chicken?), random cooked vegetable, and eggplant. Doesn't look appetizing, but this is one of the better combinations. The sweet and sour chicken is usually heavily breaded and fried, but when compared to typical US takeout, it's actually solidly good. The eggplant is mushy MSG goodness. The greens? Pass.

Joyce bread: some kind of pre-packaged ham and cheese sandwich.

Tuesday
Ah, random balls, taro perhaps? Hard to tell, even with one in your mouth (that's what she said). The brownish stuff is curry chicken (cole's staple lunch choice), which is next to a celery pork mix. Eh.

Joyce bread: two, two tuna sandwhiches. tuna was a theme that week.

Wednesday

no lunch? Actually, I'm pretty sure that we got fed up that Wednesday and went to the nearby Shanghai South Station for lunch instead. If you are reading this and will be living on Baise Lu someday (first, really? are you sure? secondly, think it over...hard), the South Station will be your closest haven of edible food.

Joyce bread: different roll, but still the same tuna/corn/carrot filling.

now remember, Joyce is sneaking bites of this during class!

Thursday
Oh, finals chicken, why are you so good? A bit of history; during our finals last semester, we received actual chicken breasts (what no bits? no. bones? yes, this be china). and they were tender, and tasty, and amazing. From then on we dreamed of finals chicken. Occasionally we would be teased by finals chicken; we would see a few people with it, but by then it would be all gone, or they would bring it out after we had finished lunch (it would be for the next lunch period). Yet, on the rare rare lunch day, we would have finals chicken. This was such a day, and it was good. Try to ignore the clear tasteless soup and mushroom fiesta combo.

Joyce bread: more tuna, but on a different roll. the drink is chocolate soy milk. you would think that with all this bread that joyce would be a bit big, but she is a little Hong Kong girl.

Friday

One of the only things worth looking forward to. Cole is not a fan, but Friday soup is a bit hit with us foreign teachers. Like a sweet campbells tomato soup, with cabbage thrown in, Friday soup has a tangy zing with a ketchup bouquet. I like mine with a dollop of rice steeped within it. Next to that is the famous Shanghai pork dish that consists mostly of a thick layer of pure pork fat. Not bad, but I'm a bad Chinese person--I rip off the fat with my chopsticks. And, immediately adjacent to the pork is my favorite tofu dish. Basically spicy tofu. Oh, and some balls, what's a lunch without balls?

Joyce bread: not positive, but this is either filled with banana or pork. next to that is regular soy milk

And that's it for this post. Anyone up for a tuna sandwhich?

Less than two months left

2009-05-09T21:02:00.005+08:00

It's May. The last three days have been hot; in the 80s scraping 90, clear skies. It reminds me of when we arrived, not that long ago, but long enough. We were clueless and lost. I couldn't keep food down. Two slurps of noodles and that would be it. And it was hot.

Pretty soon it'll be over, and it'll be time to move on to our next (perhaps better [ok probably better]) city. Now I have a small inkling of what a teacher does, and a very good inkling of what a SHSID foreign teacher does (hmm, I won't go into it).

So, today I meant to write. I wanted to write about things (lessons?) learned, growing up, our changing bodies, etc., etc..., but really do I understand Shanghai or the people who come to Shanghai? Maybe, maybe not. There's a hardened China shell now, a protective layer against the common zaniness of your average day, but actual understanding is still hiding around a corner, asleep and ruffled.

So I meant to write, but instead I just went for a run in the dark. At 9:00pm on a Saturday night, the only other person on the track is a groundskeeper watering the hedges and smoking a cigerette. His eyes followed me around, and I avoided stepping on the length of the hose. It was too dark to see his features, but the glowing end of his cigerette occasionally grew brighter and dimmer. It was odd, and hard to tell if I was sleeping or not. When I finished, I passed him without waving or looking in his direction.

Here is a good point for an inappropriate anecdote. Two weeks ago (before Korea, oh I have to tell you about Seoul and the wonderfullness of it, but I'll save it when for when I post the pictures), I was going over vocabulary on a Monday in my English class. Typical vocab Monday. The kids are bored and still waking up, because I see this class first period. They're too tired to even try to sneak some iPod listening or PSP playing during class. So, they're dead. Then I get to the vocab word "emission." Yes, you see where this headed. One boy looks it up on his electronic dictionary, giggles, and passes it to some other boys in a row.

"Oh, this is very good word Mr. Wong," Shone says. Shone, half Isreali and half Taiwanese, who is the loudest kid by far, spikey hair, skinny jeans.

I ignore him and move on. "Can anyone use this word in a sentence? Anyone?"

Shone's hand shoots up. "Oh, oh. Mr. Wong, I have sentence."

I hesitate, but everyone else is still dead, so I give in. "Ok Shone."

"I cum. C-U-M," he spells out.

I freeze for a bit. "Um..." Finally I say, "That would be a better sentence if you used the word emit."

ok, inappropriate anecdote done.

I'm still trying to figure out when to tell the kids I'm leaving. One knows already, June, but she hasn't told the others yet. I don't know why I'm dragging my feet. These kids are used to their teachers leaving them, but I want to wait a little longer, if just to pretend that I'll be around to see them grow up, and help them when Shanghai and life in general are too much.

Ok, that's enough of dear diary. Next will be Hangzhou or Korea, or maybe I'll move on to a Joyce post I've been meaning to get to.

Nanjing

2009-04-26T21:38:00.003+08:00

Cole just uploaded all of our Nanjing photos, so I won't duplicate them here. Instead, I'll leave you with this video. A slice of Nanjing morning:

note, that is a sacred statue.

Hitotoki

2009-04-24T22:27:00.001+08:00

It's not much I know, but at least it's something right?

http://hitotoki.org/shanghai/

Fourth Anniversary

2009-04-22T09:55:00.004+08:00

March 20th was our four year anniversary. We didn't do much since we were going to Nanjing soon, but we did have the best sushi since we've been in Japan.

In general, sushi in Shanghai is...disappointing. Maybe even more than disappointing, often it's horrible. The fish has clearly been frozen, as far as fresh as possible. Both taste and texture are rubbery. To be honest, after trying four or five different places, we were ready to give up.

But then we found Haiku. Nestled in a renovated block (go gentrification!) of Hengshan Lu, Haiku is a modern Japanese restaurant known for its rolls. Stephenie suggested it, and we went, and it was good. Very good.

Yep, happy four years.

Trustmart

2009-04-20T15:56:00.005+08:00

The closest supermarket to school is this Chinese version of Wal-Mart, aka, Trustmart. Nicole decided to take a couple covert shaky videos while shopping. Note the extensive seafood selection. Mmm, fish floating belly up. They also favor the repeating message on loudspeaker method of announcement here.

Shanghai Sharks

2009-04-20T15:12:00.011+08:00

About a month ago, cole, conks, brian, and I went to the final home game of the Shanghai Sharks, the local Chinese Basketball Association team.

Now the CBA isn't exactly the best basketball league in the world...in fact it's pretty horrible. And to top it off, the Shanghai Sharks are the worst team in the league.

So, after being accosted outside by scalpers (really, if you've never been crushed on all sides by sketchy Chinese men waving tickets in your face, you should try it, it's an experience) we sat back in our cheap seats, and watched the comedy unfold.

The mascot

One of the opposing players (Shanxi??). Ball hog and a bit of a crybaby

cole and conks

a little too close up

oh, I can't describe it all. The missed shots, lack of defence, the inexplicable calls from the refs. And the cheerleader and mascot dances. That, you'll just have to see for yourself.

April so far, words from maki

2009-04-17T09:10:00.003+08:00

So, it's been awhile since I've last posted. Here's a quick update:
We told Helen (our boss) about leaving for HK a few weeks ago and she took it rather well. She was a little taken aback, but really, after about 5 seconds, she was ready to move on. I guess the whole nature of English teacher here is pretty transient, and she's used to people disappearing every year.

What else has happened? Nanjing pictures will be up soon (cole might have them up already, and conks put them up quite awhile ago). This weekend, nicole and I are going for a weekend trip to Hangzhou, a scenic lake resort area an hour or two outside of Shanghai.

After that will be South Korea! where we'll meet up with DK, former Tor intern extraordinaire, and now soon-to-be law student extraordinaire. Can't wait for the food either...bi...bim...bap.

oh, and a group of us ran in a 10K race in Pudong last week. I know it's been awhile since the marathon, but I was still pretty surprised that the five miles weren't that bad. Usually, I only run about two or three times a week, and only three miles each time, so I didn't really know what to expect. Well, it turns out that I finished the 5 miles at about 42-45 minutes (not that bad). Because I missed all the distance markers (and didn't have a watch on), I left way too much for the end, and had to all-out sprint the last K to make up for it.

I was at least able to pass most of the old ladies, girls running in tight sparkly jeans, run-down expats, and smoking migrant workers. The prevailing strategy of the Chinese runners seemed to be, go go go as fast as you can for...the first mile. And then hack hack your way through the next couple miles. Then sprint! Then die. Then shuffle.

We forgot our camera, so no pics from us, but conks (as she always does) posted some, including one horrific shot of our post-race eating.

Well, that's about it for me. Instead, I'll let Maki speak for me, since it's been awhile since I've talked about her (she talks much more now, but is still much more interested in reading comic books in class than studying or listening...oh maki combo).

From the midterm: What would you do if you found a time machine?
(Maki)
If I found a time machine, I will use it. I want to go future very much. I want to go about 1000 year later, so it will be 3009.
I want to go future because I want to watch more developped world!! I want to know the exist of “flying car.” This mean, I want to know if there are any flying object except airplane, bird or other things that exist today. In movie or TV program, if they show about future, there are almost always any flying object. Isn’t it? So I want to make sure it very much!!
Next, I also want to watch about human. I learned that “All living things changes their state or something to adapt to their environment” so I want to watch the “evolved human” in the future. My mother said “Human will have shorter leg. Because they (maybe include me) don’t walk or move more (except sports human who play sports) compare to past!”
And I want to know about their boom. It is popular music, fashion, animation and so on. And I want to read comic book in future. I think story, their speaking or picture will be very different from now. I am very interesting to it.

I also interesting in more useful or unique machine in future that I unable to image, so I will go to future if I found a time machine.

Lonely singer/the news

2009-03-26T23:11:00.004+08:00

Every Thursday night, I hear a student singing outside of our dorm. He belts out Chinese pop ballads, literally screaming until his voice cracks. Sometimes the voice fades away, only to get stronger again. Who is this boy? Why does he sing every Thursday??

--

During the last two weeks, one of my English classes has been getting out of hand. The kids talked, they played PSPs in class (in class!) and generally didn't care about anything. I was surprised because this class was my close-knit group, with Andrew, Joyce, Jenny, Leo and others (Anny too, last semester). Sure, half the class had changed from last semester (seven new kids in a month!), but my core group was still there. What was going on?

Finally, this Tuesday, I had had enough. I took away all iPods and PSPs I saw in my class, promised to fail them if they played games in my class again, and switched all their seats. All the most problematic students I took aside privately to chat with. They listened. They nodded. They knew I was disappointed.

And it worked. Since then, they've been perfect again. We have fun, but it's not crazy. Maybe I was getting too friendly with the kids. Maybe seeing me yell was a bit of a surprise. Either way, I'm glad that teaching is good again for all of my classes.

--

And, to finally end the suspense (of the not so suspenseful situation), Nicole and I are moving to Hong Kong next year!

Details will follow.

Another update...from conks

2009-03-22T21:45:00.004+08:00

Big news on our front, along with our 4th year anniversary, and developments with implications for our jobs...

you'll just have to wait for now. But, if you want to know what cole and I have been up to the last couple of days, click on the link over to the right on our good friend conks' blog.

she has been much more diligent in keeping up to date.

I'll spill the beans soon, for all those people that don't already know (and no, there's no baby). I'll also get around to posting about our first and only Shanghai Sharks basketball outing.

My office cube.

2009-03-13T08:06:00.008+08:00

Just some pictures of the cube.

He's actually a paperclip holder. Guess where the paper clips are...

The little guy holding his nose is Stynx, the pirate stinky tofu.

My laptop. Some pocky, coke zero, apples, Pokari sweat. Seems about right.

My schedule. I have a few classes crossed out because I was originally supposed to teach a 12th grade history, but was changed to a 9th grade history at the last second.

A few of the many decorative clips I have. Hey, whatever gets me by, right??...right?...

A few postcards from home. I find myself missing the Flatiron Building.

The first one says "Have a good cry before being all smiles."

Conks got these for me when I was in a phase.

Last week we had our 9-10th grade charity fair...complete with slave auction. For a good synopsis, check out conk's post. I know, I'm being lazy.

Hong Kong again

2009-03-06T12:26:00.013+08:00

We left soggy Taipei a week early and returned to Hong Kong, this time to Kong Kong Island rather than Kowloon.

The first week we were there, before Taipei, it was all about seeing our families and visiting some of the tourist areas, like The Peak and the rather large Buddha.This time, cole and I were going to focus on our preferred vacation activity--walking.

We walked everywhere: up and down Hong Kong Island (inside the amazing park there), along the shore of the Outlying Islands, through a brief trip in Macau. Everyday was beautiful.

Joyce and bread

2009-02-25T13:32:00.005+08:00

Every time I look at Joyce, whether to call on her, check homework, or if I just happen to be facing that direction, there is a 70% chance that she either has a piece of bread in her mouth, or has her mouth open and is just about to bite into a piece of bread. Each time I catch her, I would frown and point at her and she would freeze. At that point, depending on my mood, I either nod or shake my head. Usually I shake my head and she puts the food back into her bag, but sometimes I let her eat and she happily chomps away during the lesson.

Bread also doesn't just mean bread, although sliced bread is included, it's also all different types of buns and sandwiches.

One time, her friend in my other class, Judy, wrote in her notebook (as a journal entry) that Joyce stayed over her house for a weekend. "Joyce eat all of the food in my kitchen," Judy wrote. "My mother was surprised. Joyce is a very hungry girl."

I asked Joyce about it recently, and Joyce nodded with an affirmative "Hai!" (yes in Cantonese).

"In morning, I can eat three bread and still be hungry!"

She patted her stomach. "I have very strong stomach."

Then, she offered me a croissant.

Introducing: Joyce

2009-02-25T12:53:00.006+08:00

I haven't talked about Joyce that much yet, but from the very beginning, she has been...well ok, let's start from the beginning.

First class.
Me to class:"Tell me who you are, what are your hobbies, etc etc...."
Joyce: "I am Joyce, my hobby is kiss."
Me:"What?"
Joyce:"Kiss. Kiss." points to lips.
Me:"Um ok."

Next class.
Me to class:"So, ask me any questions you might have."
Joyce raises hand."How many muscle you have." She speaks slowly, usually with a slightly loopy smile, and emphasizes each word with a nod of her head.
Me: "Um..."

Another class.
Me to class: "Give me a verb, any verb."
Joyce shouts out: "Kiss, Kiss!"
Me: "Ok...give me any noun, any noun."
Joyce: "Teacher, teacher!"
Me: "Um."

But, after awhile, the "date teacher" and "phone number" requests went away (not to mention the 3-part love/drama/action story she and two of her friends [also my students in another English class] wrote about an unnamed teacher and a student), and now I hang out with her and the other students in that class before and in between classes. Every now and then, I even chat with Joyce in Cantonese, since she's from Hong Kong, but even in Cantonese, she speaks the same way, wide-eyed and like she might burst from smiling any second.

Besides Joyce, in that class there's Jenny, her silent and shy best friend, Andrew, who was Anny's boyfriend, and Leo who was another of Anny's friends.

All in all, that class is my closest-knit group. In this second semester though, half of the class has disappeared, some to higher level classes, and others to another country. But, at least I still have the English stylings of Joyce.

Use the word "peeked" in a sentence that shows you understand the meaning of the word. As recounted on cole's blog, Joyce's answer was "Bitch always peeked the person who dressing clothes."

I asked her in Cantonese why she used the word "Bitch" the next class, and she said she thought it was a normal word that she heard all of the time, like at the grocery store. Er, not exactly, I explained. Eventually, I figured out that the word she wanted was "pervert."

Today. Speech. What are some of the pros and cons about capital punishment?
As a pro, Joyce says, "A dog cannot teach to eat its own shit."
Me: "Um...."

Taipei

2009-02-22T09:09:00.013+08:00

We wanted to like Taiwan, really we did. In fact, we planned to spend two weeks there, first in Taipei, and then traveling south to Tarako Gorge and then to the beaches at the coast. The weather though, had different ideas. Every single day we were there was cold and rainy....every single day. Not only that, Taipei is where Nicole developed her twenty day long migraine.

In the end, we gave up and went back to Hong Kong early.

My friend in the drawer

2009-02-20T13:23:00.003+08:00

Today I opened my drawer to get my stapler, and Conks (who sits next to me in the office) screamed, Denis, Denis, your drawer! and then scurried over to the other side of the office. What? What is it? and I peeked around, and there hanging on to the end of my drawer was an extremely large and perfectly calm cockroach. It twitched a bit, and swayed its antennae to and fro. I grabbed a couple tissues to do...something to it, but by the time I was ready for action it had disappeared.

I've checked all of my drawers, and looked through all of my papers. No cockroach, but now I know that I can be doing anything: grading, sleeping, reading--and Cockroach xiansheng (Mr. Cockroach) could pop out of anywhere.

Oh China.

It's us?

2009-02-18T07:47:00.005+08:00

Last night, six of us went to eat at a diner in Gubei, an expat suburb. It's been awhile I since my last diner experience. Pancakes, fries, milkshakes, 50% off teacher night....the Jersey in me was excited.

So we get there, and at first we're the only customers. The diner has the appropriate 50s vibe, red and white checkers, posters of fords and elvis. Pancakes arrive and they're decent. Biscuits and gravy, not that good (gloppy, soggy mess). Still, everything is going well (even though I get occasional strange looks from the waitresses, probably because I can say some things in Putonghua perfectly yet sound awful otherwise, and because I was hanging with a bunch of laowai).

The diner starts to fill up. In the table adjacent to us is a group of teachers from the Livingston American School, behind is a grandmother(?), mother, and young son. The discussion at our table starts to get louder, and then Brian W. asks me and cole if we want to have a kid soon.
"NO!!" we both say at the same time.
"Unless we can sell it," I conclude.
"People love halfies," cole says.
"We could probably get a good price," I agree. "Or otherwise leave it on Baise Lu somewhere."
The conversation continues for a while after that, veering off in disparate directions, with shouts of "Whore!" and "Prostitute" chiming in. Then I catch the face of the grandmother sitting behind us. Is she giving us a dirty look? She is giving us dirty looks! And the kid next to her, the one that looks about five years old, is...half Chinese.

And then I realize it; we have become those Americans. If only for a night, we are those loud, obnoxious stereotypes.

Maybe it's because we live in the outskirts of Shanghai, where there aren't any other foreigners and no one understands English. How to act when there are actually people who know what we're saying?

I wonder how it's going to be when we finally get home. Will we be unfit for society?

a tree

2009-02-15T21:16:00.006+08:00

cole pointed out the tree first, but not really pointed out. We were trying to avoid the workers blocking the main path. Stacks of trimmed off branches. She swerved off to the side, over to a patch of muddy, trodden-on grass hidden beside the faded yellow wall of the Chinese division building. Where are you going? But she stopped her bike, and I sat on mine, with one foot resting on the ground to balance myself.

One tree lay on its side, roots bound, still waiting. Another was newly planted. It was skinny, maybe five inches wide. Halfway up its trunk was a coat of white paint, like all of the other trees. A forest of neat, evenly spaced, white-painted trees. Its limbs were bare. Just a few branches here and there. Fifteen or sixteen feet tall. There was a sign on it, for Anny, and flowers gathered around.

I need to find some of my stickers, is what I said. The ones I used for their tests. I brought them from home, and found others here. The ladybugs stickers were the ones I used the most.

Then we left and rode towards the North Gate. The grass is really green, I told cole. And we can't walk on it, she said.

We took the 973 bus to South Station and had lunch. Fried dumplings and curry rice.

When we got back, I couldn't figure out where to put the sticker.

Today...

2009-02-09T09:50:00.003+08:00

I talk to my kids for the first time, and I just realized that I left Anny on both my english and ecology class rosters, and that I'll probably won't delete her.

Last Saturday, one of the teachers, Richard Gordon, passed away too. Some kind of cardiac arrest.

It's a strange beginning to the semester.

Why I will never understand

2009-02-04T22:34:00.005+08:00

Anny drew occasionally in her notebook, but more often than not, she wrote careful, thoughtful words, evenly spaced, each letter flowing into the next. These words though, were never about herself. She would contemplate, and I could see her trying to work through her obstacles, brows furrowed, her eyes staring intently into empty space until she came to a conclusion. Every quiet day would be followed by a content one, and all of her concerns would be redirected to those she cared about, her family, her friends.

Is a model student. Works extremely well in groups. Gets along with and helps her classmates.

She would walk down the hall, arm in arm with her best friend. She watched, wide-eyed, to Spirited Away, though she must have seen it half a dozen times already.

Willing to put in effort to improve. Has the ability to excel.

She lived across from us, in the boarding students dorm. I startled her once by eating in their cafetaria. Sweet and sour chicken with white rice. We chatted for maybe thirty seconds, and then I said that I would see her the next day. She smiled, and said goodnight Mr. Wong.

Is sure to get better in the next semester. Considerate and selfless.

I'm sorry Anny that you won't be able to become the person that you were supposed to be. I'm sorry because you should have had the chance to do anything everything whatever you wanted, though in the end you would have cared more about others than about yourself like always.

I'm sorry Anny because I don't know what else to say, except that I will never understand.

...

Hong Kong: home? Part 1

2009-01-27T16:46:00.023+08:00

I had no idea what to expect when leaving for Hong Kong. Yes, for the first twelve years of my life, I would spend one month of each summer there, and that one year of summers collectively formed a jumbled tangle of vague memories. Hot, humidity. Biking during a typhoon. Steamed BBQ pork buns. Ocean Park. Buses. Cousins. Trying to recall Hong Kong, though, was like grasping at a recurring dream. I knew the details, more or less, but did I really remember?

Upon entering the gate for the plane, I thought we were in trouble. We handed in our tickets, and the attendant stopped us. It turned out though, that we were upgraded to first class!

In first class, we had much more leg room than we've ever had before, but everything else was pretty much the same. No fancy meals, no champagne or extra movies. Oh well, the flight was only a couple hours anyway.

Hong Kong was as remembered, hotter than Shanghai (a balmy mid 70s) and hazy. Hearing people speak Cantonese was jarring too. It's a language that's so associated with family for me, that hearing it from the mouths of strangers took awhile for me to get used to. Still, I was surprised by how much I understood, and during the whole trip, almost no one could tell that I wasn't a local; a nice change from being yelled and/or laughed at in China.

Oh, and the diet coke? Really good.

Our hotel was facing the habour. This is behind the building. Hong Kong seems to have gotten a bit smoggier since the early 90s. Still beautiful though.

This vacation also doubled as a family reunion, since my brother and mother were coming over from the US to visit. We were surprised when we found out that my uncle and aunt were going to be there too.

Dinner from our first night. This is roasted pork belly. The meat was much springier and chewier than your average roast pork. Kinda crunchy like cartilage, but tasty.

My Aunt Fanny and Uncle Kenny from Queens, NY.

Shenme?

A bit odd-looking, this is actually a grapefruit salad. Salty, sour, and sweet.

An omelet containing fried rice. Also good.

After the meal. Note the completely picked-clean fish. It never had a chance....

Cole and I had expressed some interest in going to the Peak, and once my uncle heard, he was on it. With him leading, all of us treked over at around 9:00pm (pretty late for us, no?).
Above is me and my brother, going for the asian pose.

At the entrance to the trolley ride up to the Peak (which is basically a mall/viewing point of Hong Kong), there was a wax figure of Jackie Chan, hence cole's karate chop. Jackie is up and to the left of her head.

Close up.

Ben sitting in the (New Years?) train.

The view from the Peak

At night, Hong Kong is rather pretty.

The next day we visited my grandmother (my mom's mom). I hadn't seen her in probably eight years, when she came to Flushing, NY. Above, a picture from the last time I went to Hong Kong, circa 1992. See if you can spot me, or maybe it's best if you don't.

Ben eating a New Years egg. Thousand year old egg? Not sure, I didn't have one.

Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon area. An overactive, neon-lit, shopping frenzy of a neighborhood.

My breakfast for the second day: fish congee, glutunous rice in lotus leaf

and turnip cakes! one of my favorites.

My mom, noshing on egg.

A partial family gathering. Mom, cole, Ben, Gran, me, Aunt Fanny.

We also paid our respects to my great-grandparents on my father's side, since we so rarely get to Hong Kong, and it was nearing the New Year.

Later that day, cole, Ben, and I decided to visit tourist site #2, aka, the Big Buddha, which was built in the long ago bygone year of nineteen-ninety. Amazing that it has lasted all this time.

We took the cable car up the mountain to the Buddha. The other option was to walk (which people do), but that would have taken at least 2-3 hours minimum.

The further up we rose, the clearer the sky became, until we actually were lifted above the pollution.

At the top, the clarity of the sky was unbelievable. The weather: absolutely perfect. Sunny, breezy. I would throw in more adverbs, but you get the idea.

Part theme-park, part monestary. Welcome to Buddhaland! (it was mostly monestary to be honest, but with many shops, restuarants, and two Buddhism-related rides/shows).

Does it mean something that I chose to be on the woman side?

The Buddha was pretty impressive.

Oops, back down into the smog. This taken while crossing the habour on the star ferry.

On board the ferry.

The first couple days confirmed Hong Kong was everything I thought it would be and more. It was like...ok, let's say that you have played Super Mario many times, and you thought that you have caught every last hidden tunnel and bonus screen. Well, coming to Hong Kong was like discovering a secret level you missed the first time around, maybe one of those levels that consists completely of coins, no goombas or flying bullets, just one turtle or two. Finding that level made that part of the game complete, and you could finally move on to another part of the map (oh no, I think I'm mixing Mario 1 with Mario 3 or Yoshi's Island). Um...well, that's the precise version of describing Hong Kong.

Still much more HK to come, with a stop over in Taipei (where we will not be living in next year).

xi'an, the city of endless smog

2009-01-17T19:08:00.009+08:00

Xi'an smog...too much. So polluted, so so polluted. Warriors...eh. City and people....um.

what we've being doing

2009-01-16T20:41:00.005+08:00

In two days we finally go to Hong Kong! I can't wait to test my horrible-but-infinitely-better-than-my-Mandarin Cantonese.

The last two days have not been the most eventful. One consisted of checking the English comments of the Chinese teachers (the teachers have to write a comment for every student they have, that's 109 comments for me, er...not fun). For a good summary, check out conk's blog.

I had two parents come today. One was the mother for my two best history students, these two Japanese boys Satoru and Ryo. Since they are essentially perfect kids, I didn't have much to say and the mom and I politely stared at each other.

The other was Helen Cho's dad. Before the final, Helen told me that her parents were going to pull her out of the school if her scores were too low. I had high hopes though, since her grades have steadily risen from 78 to 80 to 87 on her tests.

The first two months of school, Helen hung out in the back corner of the room, and would stare at her dictionary all class. She didn't talk, had no idea what was going on, and her scores reflected that. Eventually, I figured out that she was texting from her dictionary.

When I did my big seat switch in my English B class (some of the other kids were talking too much), I decided to move Helen to the front and center. She protested, but slowly she started to participate in class. As each week passed, she talked more and more. The dictionary disappeared, and she listened to the lessons. These days, I can barely keep her from calling out the answers.

But, it turned out that Helen's failing just about all of her other classes, and mine was the only one she was doing alright in. I was secretly hoping that she would improve on her 87 and ace the final; it didn't work out that way though. Nope, it was a 73.

So, as I sat there with Helen's father in front of me, I didn't know quite how to begin. Mr. Cho was a sturdy, middled aged man. Serious, careful with his expressions. I waited twenty seconds, and neither one of us spoke.

I could feel sweat beginning to form, and I cracked first. I started off by telling him how much Helen had improved, and how much she contributed to class. I rattled off every positive I could think off. Eventually though, I had to get to the scores, and they weren't good, and we both knew it.

What made it harder was that Mr. Cho didn't speak English, and even though I could understand about 1/4 of his Mandarin, I was missing the most important words. Finally, I had to call over Holly (a returning teacher that speaks a fair amount of Mandarin) and she translated for me.

In the end, all he wanted was to know how Helen could be a better student. I gave him all the usual answers: study, practice, pay attention in class, etc...but really, what I wanted to tell him was that Helen just had to grow up a little. Schoolwork isn't that important to her, just like it isn't for many fourteen year old girls out there. I couldn't say it though, because we were told not to outright critisize the kids. The indirect method is the China way.

Cole had it much tougher; her day was basically a nonstop parade of parents, and they all spoke English, and they had questions. Many questions.

Anyway, parent meetings are over, and after tomorrow's all day end of semester teacher meeting, we'll be done!

So this is Christmas (In Beijing), The Great Wall, Forbidden City, Spirit Way, Duckie, Art District

2009-01-12T14:34:00.026+08:00

Beijing is everything that Shanghai is not; steeped in history (steeped? boiled?), unashamed of being Chinese, dry rather than humid, clean, and spacious. Not only that, because cole and I are studying Chinese with Beijing accents, we were able to understand much more there than in Shanghai, where we get more Shanghainese.

Yes, there was more spit on the ground (and by more I mean covering every inch), and yes, the dryness actually made us chaff just from our walking (the first time I've gotten chaffing since marathon training), but Beijing was still great. So great that we would consider moving there if the chance came up.

Every good post starts with airplane food. Here is a bun with mystery filling. We think it was some kind of plum/bean paste.

Eggs and sausage.

When we arrived we were ended up in the fanciest taxi I had ever been in. It looked like a brand new modern London black cab.

Our first meal in Beijing. BBQ pork with rice done in the Cantonese style. The pork was nice and tender, and overall was one of the best I've ever had.

After lunch, we walked around the back alleys of Beijing, or the Hutongs.

We actually arrived on Christmas Eve, so we decided to go out to somewhere nice for dinner.

So far, China sushi has been...not so good, and this was no exception. Rubbery, tasteless fish pretty much ruins it.

Outside of the restaurant in the lobby, a group of girls were caroling. Here they are greeting Santa.

More Christmas Eve, this time walking around the main pedestrian shopping area in downtown Beijing.

I found this book in the foreign bookstore, and realized that it represents everything I am against in Asian American writing. It's my kryptonite.

I'm still having trouble with blogger changing around my photos, but this says "Lindsay realizes that Chinese girls wanna have chow fun." No, really.

Christmas in China is a cross between Madi-Gras and Halloween, but with presents! Note the devil horns, which were the popular X-mas item of the day.

The hotel's breakfast was amazing. One order was enough to feed both of us.

This was the entrance to Spirit Way, which was maybe forty minutes away from the Great Wall and an hour and a half outside of Beijing.

The sitting animals are showing proper reverence and obedience, while those standing are protectors.

Mao enjoyed the walk as well.

A very confused animal.

Why won't my pictures stay in the correct perspective?

A general.

A scholar

The lunch included with our tour. The other people with us were from Germany, Norway, and the UK, and were not fans of the food. Cole and I stuffed ourselves. We've developed a very specific tactic for eating in China and it goes something like this, "What is this?" -->Hold up mysterious food--> shrug--> shove into mouth.

The entrance to the section of the Wall we visited. It wasn't the main part that most people go to, and apparently Christmas is not the most popular day to see the Great Wall, so we had it almost to ourselves.

A gang of cats live at the foot of the entrance.

It was unexpectedly amazing, and the pictures don't do it justice.

Inside one of the towers. Apologies for the spastic camera work.

On Christmas Day night, we ate dinner in our hotel. The buffet was really good, and I wanted to take pictures, but for most of the meal, only nicole and I were there, so all waitresses and chefs were watching us, and I felt too sheepish to snap my usual photos of food.

snuck this one in, showing the emptiness of the restaurant. food was great though.

Morning after Christmas breakfast: congee and bbq buns.

Next up, Forbidden City.

This is by the entrance. In the distance are the three main halls of the city. Further back and on both sides are the actual buildings were people lived (or rather, some actual some reconstructions).

Sideways...sigh. I think we were there on Mao's b-day, which explained why T-square was so crowded. We declined on viewing the stuffed, preserved Mao.

On our last full day, we visited the art district of Beijing.

And that night we made reservations for what I was told was one of the best Peking Duck restaurants in town; Dadong Roast Duck Restaurant. Above are the side items to go along with our duck, two types of pickles, cucumber, green onions, hoisin sauce, garlic (so good...), and sugar.

The restaurant was within it's own little walled off street. It had multiple extravagent rooms to dine in, and ours was no exception.

Fancy knife action.

The thin wraps were the perfect vessel to house the duck and accompaniments.

First, we were given by the waitress a piece of the fried duck skin, which she dipped in sugar for us. Strange but absolutely delicious. Sugar duck skin, that's right.

Each wrap was a pocket of ducky deliciousness.

Nicole was really sick that day. Nothing like perfectly cooked, not greasy Peking duck to cure the ailments.

Outside the restaurant.

Although we were full, we had to visit "food street" as it was called on our map.

The skewers looked good, but tasted...not so good. Fun to look at though.

And, start with airplane food, end with airplane food.

Getting up to the present, but first....Christmas party, kid drawings

2009-01-11T10:29:00.014+08:00

In the days leading up to Christmas, it became pretty clear that Shanghai is lacking in real Christmas trees, and even if we could find one, it wouldn't have been worth the trouble to bring it back to the school. Instead, we bought this little two-foot guy along with his decorations at our local supermarket.

Nicole decorating.

Neighbor Stephanie had a fancy tree too.

The school threw us a Christmas party at a nice Italian restaurant. The food was ok, though I did get some severe food poisoning the day after.

Helen Hu, the person with the challenging job of keeping us foreign teachers in check.

After some of the teachers had a few bottles of wine...limbo. Conks won.

Me with my fifth or sixth cup of coke. Living dangerously, I know.

I'm going to switch tracks for a second and show you some of the posters my kids have been making. A few weeks ago, I had them create companies because we were doing a chapter about businesses.

Here are what my little entrepreneurs came up with.

Actually, these are pictures of the back of Rain's notebook. She's one of my Korean students.

This one is from Conks' class. Pinky Pooh is a proposed type of candy. Note the diagram, the outside layer is strawberry, the middle is white chocolate, and the center is a dollop of yummy black chocolate.

This is my Japanese triangle: Rika, Maki, and Miyu. I had to correct their spelling from "craps" to "crepes."
"You can taste two tastes in our hamburger."
Ok, no matter what I do, I can't make these pictures post the correct way. This one is from four of my Korean students. I told them they could start any business they wanted, no limitations whatsover, so they decided on a discount home appliance store. The Korean says something like, "Big Savings Store"
This one is a gym I think.
A few of my boys are obsessed with this fellow student (whom I've never met) called David, and one in particular always draws this portrait of David. Here David is the head of an advertising corp, and he claims that he is the most sexy.
Here a hairy David (try not to look too hard at the shorts, yep, 14 year old boys) sells sporting equipment.

Alright, so that's it for now. Coming up very soon, either today or tomorrow, are Beijing pictures and then Xi'an.

Cole already put up pictures of Beijing if you want to go over and take a look.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2008-12-25T21:16:00.003+08:00

Hope everyone back home is doing well, we miss you. Beijing is wonderful, and we had as good as a Christmas as possible without seeing our families.

The Great Wall is amazing. Who knew?

Off to Beijing

2008-12-23T21:08:00.003+08:00

Tomorrow, at around 5:30am, we'll leave for Pudong airport and fly to Beijing, where we'll brave the Wall in sub zero temperatures. I'll try to write again before Christmas.

Today in classes we had our Christmas parties. Last night, cole and I hiked over to People's Square (and by hiked I mean took a cab), where the only Dunkin Donuts in China is. Together, we cleaned them out. All the glazed, All the chocolate frosted. Eight dozen in total, about 480 rmb. The strange thing is that everything in the Dunkin Donuts is taken very seriously. Every donut is counted, each has a separate code to enter into the register, and every one is carefully wrapped and placed into a container. The whole process took us almost an hour, even though we called ahead and pre-ordered all of them.

Our kids appreciated the donuts, and for the entire morning they were bouncing around because of all the candy and donuts (later on that day, around 1:00pm, they had all completely crashed and were napping during my showing of Home Alone 2).

During class, I also found out that I'm losing one of my kids, Ellen. "I'm transferring to a school in America to be an exchange student," she wrote in her journal (I have them keep English journals).
"Really?" I asked her, "You're leaving after the semester?"
She nodded.
"Where?"
She thought about it for awhile, and mummered to herself. Finally she said, "I-da-ho? Boise?"
"Idaho???"
Really? Why there of all places? I looked at Ellen and saw a stylish (the epitome of Asian hipster), opinionated, and tough Korean girl (the Korean boys don't mess with her, because even though she's not that big, she hits hard, I've witnessed it). Would she fit in there?
Ellen then asked me if I liked Idaho.
"Um...I've never been there. I don't know. I'm not sure what's in Idaho."
"Smaller than Shanghai?" she asked.
"Yes, definitely smaller than Shanghai."

I still can't figure out if this will be good for her. Although Ellen is one of my better students, she doesn't speak enough English to have a real conversation with anyone, and I don't think (correct me if I'm wrong) that there are many Korean people in Idaho. How is she going to get by?

Then again, here in Shanghai, Ellen lives by herself in an apartment. Her brother is in college and her parents live in South Korea. She sees them on some weekends, and on a few holidays, but other than that, her parents just give her money and she fends for herself.

From talking to other teachers, I discovered that this isn't uncommon at all here. A good number of our kids live in the city either by themselves, with an older brother or sister, or with other students. At least Ellen is used to living as a stranger in a new country. Maybe she'll learn a lot from living in the States, but then again, maybe she'll also be bored senseless, have to deal with racism, and afterwards will never want to go to the USA again.
Ah well, I don't know. I'm going to give her my email address and tell her that she can email me about anything while she's over there; questions, translations, whatever.

That's about it for now. This past week I also made my first history exam, and I might have made the multiple choice questions way too tricky, especially considering that my history class's test averages run around 65. We'll see what happens.

Time for bed.

A Saturday in Shanghai

2008-12-14T21:27:00.004+08:00

Wake up at 9:00 am, a bit groggy.
Take a shower, only four minutes of hot water left, darn you cole!
breakfast is an: overripe orange, china yogurt, and a glass of tomato/strawberry juice (much better than it sounds).

(A short addendum about the overripe oranges. On Wednesday afternoon, Helen, the person in charge of us foreign teachers, calls up the office, and asks all of the male teachers to come out to help her move boxes of oranges. So, there are only three of us: Josh, Chris, and me. "Boxes of oranges?" I ask Josh. Shrug. Ok...when in china. When we get outside, a thin worker is bicycling a mountain of boxes on the back of his bike. All of them are full of oranges. "They're for you!" Helen says with a big smile. "Why?" we ask. And she explains that the sister city of Shanghai, an island that I didn't catch the name of, was in economic trouble because no one was buying its oranges and they were about to go bad. As a favor, Shanghai bought all of the oranges and was distributing it among its teachers.

"Some people sell it to the teachers for a low price," Helen tells us with a look of disapproval, "but we are giving them to you for free!"

We thank her and eventually get around to trying the oranges and they're....well, most of them are past the point of edible. Hmm, a box of rotten oranges. I eat six of them anyway to prevent scurvy). (in current real time, sunday night) a fat fruit fly just meanders pass my line of vision. maybe time to get rid of oranges.

Pack up grading and head over to Xujiahui for lunch.
Lunch is pork cutlet curry for me, and vegetable ramen for cole. Pretty good.
Proceed to Pacific Coffee, home of free internet (also free in the sense that it doesn't come attached with school firewalls), and reasonably priced snacks. Cheaper than Sahtarbuckoos too.
6 hours of test grading commences. I try to stab myself with an unsharpened pencil, but miss and only manage to smudge my shirt. A pool of drool collects near my socks.
A waiter comes up to check on us approximately ten times during our stay. Hey, we paid 24 rmb for our stuff, a bit more than $3, we can sit as long as we like.
The afternoon passes and the sun sets. Outside the window, three men set up white-wire reindeer on top of fake snow and blue lit trees. They love Christmas here. Shopping and blinking lights, what more could they ask for? They carefully position the trees and reindeer for an hour, and then, the moment comes. They plug it in, and another corner of Shanghai is engulfed in China Christmas spirit.
Finally, at 6:30 pm, we leave. I can't feel my legs. I resign myself to amputation.
Cole and I get home and collapse on the couch. Two episodes of Naruto Shippuden clears our head. We pass out for ten minutes, and then it's time to leave for a concert.
The concert is in Yuyingtang, and the band is Hedgehog, a Chinese indie rock band that sounds pretty good via myspace and youtube. I'm excited, even if I can't quite remember my own name.
We meet conks (aka rebecca), and steph at 8pm by the school gates.
Dinner is at Kung-Fu, a fast-food place in Shanghai South Station that has images of Bruce Lee stamped on everything.
I order pork and tofu over rice (meh). cole has mushroom chicken (slightly better than meh). conks orders broccoli, lettuce, and rice (ok). steph gets tofu and rice and pokes at it suspiciously.
After dinner we hit up the 1 line, and transfer to the 4 line. "Yuyingtang is right outside of the subway stop," conks tells us. Good, because I didn't wear a jacket.
We get out and....no yuyingtang. Where is it? We wander left, we wander right. I ask for directions in two stores. In the first store the girl I ask laughs at me, either because of my stilted formal beijing taught accent, or because of my stilted formal cantonesed beijing accent. In the second, the guy stares at me like I'm insane, and then points to the right, just like the girl did before him. Right is the consensus.
We go left.
And it's not there. Conks goes off on a two mile jog in search of the club, because she feels responsible for our lost state.
cole, steph, and I go to a starbucks.
ten minutes later, conks returns. bad news, no yuyingtang. It's 10pm now, an hour after the start of the show. It's looking bleak for Hedgehog. The solution?
We walk into the nearest McDonalds and order two deep fried pineapple pies (one for conks, one for me), a sundae for cole, and a fish fillet for steph (she was still hungry). The night just got better. Everyone in the McDonalds watches us eat. Free entertainment.
Outside the smell of stinky tofu permeates the air. Boo.
We make one last gasp effort to find the club. During our walk through a park, we find street karaoke, late night rollarbladers, and more stinky tofu, but no club. Alas.
In a desolate strip of closed stores, we come across a plain, unadorned door. "Jetlag" it says on the awning.
"I want to go in," steph says, and she opens the door. There's some kind of light....
"It's a bar!" she tells us. We ask a waitress about the club, she doesn't speak English. Might as well go in, steph decides. Ok.
We go inside. "Moshi, moshi!" they greet. Huh? Where am I?
We sit down, and the server says something to me. But it's not Chinese, or English. In front of us, a large group of women are drinking cocktails and sitting on the floor. Wait, no, on mats. "Kampai!" they shout while clinking tall frosted glasses.
We are definitely in a Japanese bar.
The menu is only in English and Japanese. The prices are high.
Cole and I order plain water, and eat the free cheese. We start to wonder how we went from McDonalds to high-end Japanese expats only bar in the span of five minutes.
The service is impeccable. Cole and I can't stop starting our sentences with "In Japan..."
The check arrives, and it's 180 rmb!! for a gin and tonic (steph) and pineapple juice (conks). For perspective, 180 rmb is enough for most Chinese people to eat on for two weeks. Turns out there's a 50 rmb sitting fee if you order a drink. Oops.
Around 11:30pm, we cab it home in a sketchy, broken, peeling, rusted red cab.
12:00 am home.
1:00 am, pass out.
Saturday is over.

The clearest day in Shanghai

2008-12-10T12:58:00.007+08:00

About once every three weeks, maybe four weeks, the overhanging mist lifts, and the sky opens. What is this feeling? This odd sensation? And then you realize that it's the pollution dissipating for a day. Fresh air?

We had that kind of day a few weeks ago, and have yet to see another one. It was by far the clearest day in Shanghai. No black residue in our tissues, no film of soot on our skin, no construction dust to ride our bikes through.

"I can even see stars!" I said later that night, but then I realized that it was mars and venus (or saturn?).

Oh well, even the clearest day in Shanghai has it's limits.

These days, in mid-December, it's a freakish seventy degrees out. Our kids are wearing shorts, mosquitos have sprouted again, and I spent most of yesterday afternoon playing basketball outdoors with a combination of teachers, local students, and international students.

It has gotten all the way down to around 40 here (which is nothing compared to home I know), but even though I sometimes miss the cold, I'll take the occasional 70 degree day during the winter.

the month of sickness

2008-12-06T09:06:00.007+08:00

I've had the same cold for a month now; it's stubborn and tricky, changing itself every few days into a new kind of sickness. These days it's in my lungs or my throat, and surfaces as empty, hacking, propulsive coughs.

"I'm dying," I say to my smaller English class.
One of my Korean girls, Helen, laughs at me. "You're dying? Really?"
"Yes," I respond with all seriousness, "and I don't know why."
"Mr. Wong, have the last cookie," she says, holding out the last of the chips-ahoy I brought in for them that day. We're watching The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe as a reward for finishing the book and I thought they could use some snacks.
"No, no, you keep it," I say, declining the medicinal cookie. And for an hour my kids and I watch the movie together, and we forget that we're in the 105 classroom of the Zhong Xing building.

Before I got here, I would read on other people's blog about the constant illness once winter arrived, and I didn't believe it could happen to me. My immune system has been good to me. I thought of it as an old, reliable friend. Sometimes he would have occasional lapses in judgement, too much gambling, or forgetting a promise we had shared, but those instances were few and far between, and always forgivable. A hang of the head, a quick smile, and we would be ready to move on.

Now it's as if he decided that enough was enough. This China thing, you know, is asking quite a lot. More than your average favor. Can't be expected to handle all of it.

One of the teachers here, a New Zealander that I only knew as "Nook," recently left. Absconded. Peaced out. Right before the kids' monthly exams and a few weeks before the end of the semester. She lived below us, and would play her music loudly once every two weeks. Her TV exploded a month ago, and for days the smell of chemicals seeped through her roof (our floor) to permiate our apartment.

She taught in the elementary school, and seemed relatively content. Yet, last weekend, she managed to covertly slip away without anyone from the school noticing. A little blonde woman scurrying through the bushes.

Leaving in the middle of a contract is technically a crime, and the school has the right to stop you. In fact, Nook is now blacklisted by the Chinese government, and can no longer work in the country. If she's still in the country, she'll be held if found, if she's out, she can't return.

In some ways I can understand. The school, to say the least, has countless convoluted rules and regulations, many head-scratching policies that may or may not have anything to do with education, but we're here, and we agreed to work for ten-months, and kids are depending on us. Leaving isn't an option.

Besides, Shanghai has a dirty, confusing charm. It's affection can be easy, if you're willing to dive into the expat scene, or become the token laowai (literally "Old Whitie") for a group of Chinese friends (well, I can't do that one since it applies to only paler folk), or it can be hard earned by learning the language, and living life her like you normally would, but I like it here enough to stay for at least ten months, perhaps more even once we truly figure the city out.

Videos of last weeks ninth and tenth grade art festival coming up; you'll get to see some of my students in action, dancing inappropriately, and singing Chinese power ballads.

Shanghai Art Museum

2008-11-26T14:52:00.009+08:00

Daily life in Shanghai isn't really all that different from back home. Work, dinner, a little tv, read a bit, then sleep. The specifics might be different, but the rhythm is the same.Every now and then though, we try to remember that we're not here in Shanghai just to work and watch three seasons of Ugly Betty in a week. Nope, there's more to Shanghai than dirty street food, futureland like malls, and grandmas pushing you out of the way (and sometimes out the door) on the bus. With that in mind, James, Stephanie, Nicole, and I went to the Shanghai Art Museum.This is outside the museum, which used to be the main hall of the old Shanghai horse racing club. Next to it is the new Shanghai.This steamtrain circa the Cultural Revolution was a part of the museum as well.What you don't see is that the large group of Chinese people taking pictures of us.This is inside the train.scary doll.Inside the museum was everything I have been missing since coming to Shanghai. Look, culture...art...opinion. Above is a miniature replica of a slummy apartment.The layout of the museum was strange, since it was forced into the space of a stately Victorian building.I took a picture of people taking pictures of themselves. A video of people passing by was projected onto the wall.In all, there was too much for me to post everything, but I'll put up a few highlights.

There were these crazy happy dinosaur people things.
Stephanie and Nicole getting into the dinos.
Nice foot action
oops, me getting carried away.

There was also this disco ball room, with voices speaking both English and Mandarin.

This is what the disco ball room looks like with the flash on.
Nicole and Steph dancing. That's James talking, I'm following them around with the camera.

a neat video in the museum. Hmmm, quite Chinese of me to secretly record this. Maybe I can sell it for 5 rmb on the street.
Outside the museum, in People's Park.Everything lights up in People's Square after dark.

The museum was exactly the kind of break we needed. It was just nice to be surrounded by art that was meant to challenge. Living here, it's easy to let our brains slowly decay, especially considering the simple material we're teaching. The museum was a kind of jolt to the synapses, like the ultra-sugar rush of shanghai sweets.

A haircut in China

2008-11-26T13:31:00.004+08:00

Ok, so I was scolded for not updating the blog with enough words (hi DK). Here then, is a brief description of getting a haircut on Baise Lu, Shanghai.

November 25, Beijing standard time, I decided that enough was enough; I had to get a haircut in Shanghai. I had managed to avoid it thus far by sneaking in a haircut while in Singapore, but that was a month ago and my locks were getting a little too locky. I was, as my office-mates said, starting to "look very Chinese."

The first step was figuring out which salons were legitimate, because here there are hair salons, and there are "hair salons." Just on our block alone, there are at least seven salons, but I was only interested in the well-lit and large ones (no shady stained rooms please). I also remembered that one in particular had a good mix of male and female clientele, plus it was called Aiya, which I liked (it's an exclamation of surprise in Chinese). So Aiya it was.

Cole was supposed to back me up, but she died on the couch and couldn't get up. I was on my own. Ok. I got on my bike and rode out of the school, onto Baise Lu. It was 5:30 in the afternoon, and all of the night street vendors were out in force. I only had the fading dusk light to guide me in avoiding riding on the various blankets, socks, dvds, flatware (street flatware!), marinated eggs, etc....In addition, by then, all of the schools were out (we're surrounded by three other large schools besides Shanghai High School), and kids took to the sidewalk in that very chinese way of walking, otherwise known as the meandering, zombie-like shuffling wave. In the end, I walked with my bike to my side.

Enter Aiya, and four greeters welcome me, and then ask me....something. What? Um. Sorry, I don't speak Mandarin, I say in Mandarin, which only makes them not believe me. Er...I want a haircut, I say in Cantonese. They squint, and tilt their heads. I say it again and make a cutting motion with my fingers. Ah! Yes. Haircut.

After getting my hair washed (where I had to struggle through another very short and broken Mandarin conversation: I'm American, I teach at Shanghai High School, I've been here for three months, etc....), I make my way to another chair, where a guy with spiky, red-tinged hair (pretty much required here) started to comb my wet hair.

He pointed to a picture of a magazine. I looked at it, reasonable short hair, neat. Good enough. Ok, I say. He then tells me that it'll take a couple hours and cost 180 rmb. Um, maybe not. I still don't know what the process was, but I opted for a normal cut instead.

As the guy cuts my hair, four other Aiya employees crowd around me. Mandarin questions bombard me from all sides. I smile nervously, er...I don't understand I say. I try Cantonese, which confuses them even more. Then I tell them that I'm American.

One guy in particular gets up close to me, about an inch away, and says in English, "But you look Chinese." Sigh. Again, the concept of Chinese-American is too much. I won't go on too much longer about it, but in the end, the haircut was great, and it cost 15 rmb, or about $1.25

The whole experience was so odd, because, for the first time, I was the spectacle. Usually I can avoid it, but in the salon I was trapped, without cole to run interference (nothing is as distracting as a white person). In many ways, I was even more foreign to them then someone like Nicole. The people here literally cannot fathom that I'm from the United States. Most of them settle that I must be from Guangzhou or southern china, since I can speak Cantonese.

What else has happened? We just had our first lesson with our Mandarin tutor, and found out how little we really knew. In fact, right now all of our conversation skills revolve around food and transportation, and that's about it.

The teaching has been going well for the most part. Navigating through all of the rules that change every other month has been difficult, but the kids have been good. I've settled into this odd, older brother role with most of them, and some of them have even started to jump on me, which is what they do to each other and the Chinese teachers.

And that's about it. We're in the stretch with no vacation days for over a month. We don't even get Thanksgiving off, but tomorrow a group of us teachers will have dinner at The City Diner, which is an American restaurant. Cole covered our other China Thanksgiving (that we had last week) on her blog.

Next, I'll post some videos of the Shanghai Art Museum Biennial. Ack, I switched tenses again midway through my post. China is definitely deteriorating the writing.

A Minute of Waiting

2008-11-22T18:02:00.000+08:00

Here's another glimpse into our daily lives; waiting for the bus along the street.

This is right around the corner from the school. I always expected that the locals would be used to foriegners because of the whole international school thing (and it's shanghai after all, the most westernized city in china), but here non-asian faces are few and far between. nicole's pretty much used to the staaaaaaaring, but here's what it's like to stand by a bus stop. I think that day was a not-awful pollution day.

Xujiahua park in the morning

2008-11-17T10:20:00.004+08:00

A week ago, cole and I walked through the nearby Xujiahua park. Here are some of the sights and sounds:

that blue thing is the mascot for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. I think the World Expo is similar to the World Fair, except fancier.

Fabric market and street grub

2008-11-04T22:32:00.009+08:00

Awhile back, nicole and I went to the fabric market to buy new coats. Inside (the fabric market is indoors) are endless rows of booths filled with bolts of fabric stacked high above your head, and coats, suites, dresses, even pajamas hanging from all angles.

Actually, I went in with absolutely no intention on buying a new coat, but then as I walked past one of the booths, I stopped and looked at a jacket. Big mistake. The lady working the booth ensnared me immediately. "Try on. You try on."
"Um, I'm just looking."
"Try on. Try." At this point she has the jacket off the mannequin and is wrapping it around my shoulders.
"Really, I'm not looking to buy a new coat."
She slips my arms in the sleeves, and starts pushing me toward the mirror.
"Go look."
"Really. I'm not...hmmm" I catch my reflection and pause. Not bad, not bad at all. In fact, I rather like it. Oh no, now she knows I like it. There goes one bargaining chip.

Five minutes later, I'm getting measured for my very own black cashmere coat. Oh well. Now, if it'll only get cold enough in Shanghai for me to wear it.

Here is me surprising cole with picture. I even used the flash. We're such tourists.

The entrance of the fabric market.

Outside of the market were many many street vendors because the fabric market is a popular destination for those crazy white folk.
Me on my china cell phone. These days my hair is even longer; I can even comb it.

Also outside of the market, just a street to the right, underneath a highway overpass, was amazing street food. I'm pretty sure these were vegetable dumplings, but considering how good they were, I don't really care what was inside. These cost us 3 rmb for six, something like 40 cents.

To go with the dumplings we had made-to-order chow fun from this cart. I didn't catch all of the ingredients but it was something like, flat noodles, soy sauce, oil, an egg, sprouts, three kinds of spices, two scoops of msg, and a spinach-like veggie topping.
Mmmm....
The msg did make us really thirsty though. Nothing that funny tasting china diet coke couldn't wash away.
That night, cole and I went to Best Buy (yes, they have a Best Buy in Shanghai, the only one in China) and I couldn't help but play their Hello Kitty guitar. I am seriously considering buying it because there just isn't anything like this back home.

In my free time, I've taken to learning how to play anime theme songs. The two latest have been Naruto season 2 theme, and Beck. I know, I know, such a dork, and china is definitely not helping in that respect.

I'll leave you with this video of cole and me in our new coats. The lighting is our horrible industrial dorm lighting (we have nice soft white bulbs now, courtesy of ikea lamps) so we're not looking our best. I also can't seem to act not embarrassing. It's a talent I have.

Autumn in Shanghai

2008-10-28T15:20:00.026+08:00

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

2008-10-22T10:35:00.012+08:00

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

2008-10-20T14:38:00.004+08:00

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

2008-10-17T13:30:00.004+08:00

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

2008-10-14T19:59:00.008+08:00

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

2008-10-10T13:21:00.009+08:00

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

2008-10-05T10:32:00.004+08:00

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

Enter Maki Combo

2008-09-26T12:32:00.015+08:00

A brief explanation about the kids I teach: You see, they're non-native speakers of English. Not only that, they're the lowest level of non-native English, meaning just a step above ESL. Some of them have only studied English for a year or two, or English just isn't their thing, and since they're all about 15, it's getting late for them to have any chance of moving up a level, but a lot of them try really hard anyway, and I see them trying to understand.

So with that in mind, let me share some of the nuggets of wisdom I've been getting from my kids. Oh, by the way, the first week of school, all of them were confused by me. One girl even wrote in her English homework (I have her in my history class, but a fellow teacher relayed the message), "I have this new teacher Mr. Wong. He looks Chinese but he does not speak Chinese, and he from America. Maybe he is Native-American?"

I also fielded questions about why I went to America, do I really not speak Mandarin, and if I was maybe Filipino. They couldn't grasp the idea of a Chinese-American....does not compute, I made no sense.

Anyway, one of my assignments was to write sentences using a new vocabulary word: dangerous. These are some of the best answers:

"Don't get into there, there's dangerous."
"Sars is dangerous. It makes us die."
"That is dangerous to go alone to the jungle."
"It is dangerous that we explore inside the volcano."
"To fall 5 floor to 1 floor is to dangerous."

Yes, it is indeed dangerous to explore inside a volcano.

Now, let me introduce you to Maki Combo. She's one of my English students, a quiet, Japanese girl that sits with a couple other Japanese students. I call them the Japanese triangle: Maki, Riku, and Miyu. Maki became "Maki Combo" because that was one of my favorite things to order back home in sushi restaurants. Usually a maki combo consisted of a tuna roll, a cali roll, and an eel roll....mmmm. Anyway, this Maki Combo consisted of an extremely shy girl who would never talk. If I ever called on her, she would just shake her head and frown.

On the second day of class, I made them introduce themselves in front of class, and when it was Maki's turn, she said one sentence: "I am Maki...." then she looked around, and covered her face with a paper she was holding and turned bright red. I tried to get her to say at least one more sentence but she scurried back to her chair and covered her face with her hands...for the rest of class!

So, it wasn't much of a surprise when she didn't want to do her speech for the monthly exam. Not only that, she absolutely refused to try, even when I gave her the option to read her speech off a paper. The speech was worth 10 points on the exam, so she was almost dooming herself to a bad grade for the term. But nope, she didn't care.

One day passed, and I casually suggested that she could still do her speech with me, one on one after class or at lunch. Nope. No way.

Second day. Same. Maki Combo wasn't having it. I talked to her homeroom teacher, who then talked to her parents.

Third day. The homeroom teacher came back to me and told me that the parents said that they knew that Maki was shy, but they couldn't do anything to change her mind. But she'll fail the test, I said. They know, but she's too scared.......Now what?

Fourth day. I played pictionary with the vocab list, and I specifically called on Maki to draw. She was hestitant, but she did it: "laundry" was her word. When the kids guessed the word correctly, I could see that she was excited. And then, I was completely shocked when Maki raised her hand and answered two of the other kids' pictionary words. And she got them right! I felt a tide turning.

Fifth day. Friday. At lunch time I see the tops of girls' heads poking out from the office window. They peek in, then sneak away, then peek in again. I see Riku and Miyu, and some other students from my ecology class, but I wait to see if they come in. When they catch me looking, I hear screeches and they disappear, and then come back after a few seconds.

Finally, one of my ecology students comes in, Junko. "Mr. Wong, my friend is outside, and she wants to do her speech, but she is very nervous."

I jumped out of my chair. "Is it Maki?"
She nodded. "Yes."

So I went outside and Maki was there, looking petrified. "Um, let's go to an empty classroom," I suggested. I found a nearby one and closed the door. Her friends looked on from the hallway. Maki Combo figeted for awhile as she took out a notecard. She glanced up at me and I nodded for her to start.

Then it happened. For the first time ever: I actually heard Maki Combo's voice clearly...and her English was good! She told me about her Autumn Festival, which was the topic, and her sentences made sense, and had reasonably understandable grammar. When she was done, I didn't say anything for a few seconds.

She looked like she was ready to run away, but then I told her that her speech was an "A" speech. Her eyes widened. I continued and said that she shouldn't be nervous because her English was better than most of the other students' and definitely better than my Mandarin.

I couldn't tell if Maki was going to cry or if she was really happy so I thanked her quickly and said that she could go. She smiled and nodded. Outside her group of friends erupted into cheers and congratulations.

Maki Combo had done it.

On books and food

2008-09-20T21:50:00.018+08:00

Two of the most important things in our lives are books and food, and depending on the day, I'll gladly take books over food. We've been floundering on finding a good English-language bookstore in Shanghai--trying random places that maybe contain a single shelf of English computer programming books, but last week we did it; at least two stores with decent selections, and one with more than an entire floor containing English books!

Here we are at the aptly named Foreign Bookstore, which we found near People's Square. Cole, me, Chris, and Devon. We spent at least two hours here. Although the selection was good, the price of the books was actually higher than back home. When in desperate need though, I'll be more than willing to pay an extra $5 for a copy of Sputnik Sweetheart.

Later that night James and Stephanie, our dorm neighbors suggested that we go to this pizza place that was rumored to have REAL pizza. Not the gloppy plastic goodness of pizza hut, nor the tuna/pineapple/bacon China pie, but a normal, thin-crust pizza. And here it is, in all its glory.

Yes, it was that good. That's what happens after being deprived of decent pizza for two months.

The pizza crowd at Da Marco's: Stephanie, half my head, nicole, devon, jessica, and james.

Another staple for us has been the Food Republic food courts. This one is located under a giant metal ball of a mall (really). This is where I found Yoshinoya, CoCo's curry, and all sorts of dumplings.

Also in the metal ball mall is another bookstore. Go English books! (we're such nerds....)

Starbucks, or as we called it in Japan, Satarbucku. Brian wanted a glass of cold milk, but somewhere in the translation that became steamed milk. Trying to fix the situation, Nicole asked for some iced milk. So they brought us a cup of ice to pour the milk into (those practical Chinese). The result was...not so great (and thinking about the whole poisoned milk thing going on, Brian was probably better off).

Subway. I know I know, but don't hate yet. Try not eating a proper sandwich for a month, and then have Subway; then you'll know what I mean. It was amazing, and not only that. Here in China, they offer you bacon and egg with every sub. I ordered a turkey.

"Do you want bacon with that?"

"Sure do."

"How about on your veggie sub?"

"Do you even really need to ask?"

More books=happy us. Look, I have this crazy hair now.

In Old Shanghai, we declined to eat the ovaries and digestive glands of a crad. For more Old Shanghai fun, visit cole's site.

The perfect store for cutters. Mmm, makes me feel alive.

Dumpling makers in Old Shanghai.

Yoshi-
noya! Even better here than in the US. This is my chicken teriyaki, veggie, and beef bowl combo, w/ miso soup, and a tofu thing. All for about $4!

Engrish menu.
I wonder if there are still chunks of fruit in this? (sorry)

Chinese version of bibimbop. Very tasty, but missing the spicy pepper sauce.

Tiffany and cole. Such whities.

Ok, I have to go on for a little while about these. I've tried a few donuts here and there, but none have been right...until these. They were great, and not only that, everyone who worked there spoke perfect, native level English. Probably better English than we get at the Dunkin Donuts in Hoboken.

Fast food egg tart. Um...not so good. Really chewy crust and the filling is too soft and sweet.

Ham and Cheese at Swensens (sp?) a Friendly's kind of restaurant. Just like home.

And what I had there...a chili dog. Spicy but good, and I didn't feel sick afterwards. That's a winner in my book.

I have yet to find normal-tasting China ice cream. All of it ends up being icy and watery.

The drink line up. A snap shot of our fridge. Soy milk, diet coke, milk tea, kagome grape/veggie drink, mango drink, ice tea, orange juice, and green tea drink.

Wonton soup from a nearby restaurant.

Yogurt. Not that bad, which equals good here for dairy items.
Drink soy milk, it's good for you.

Perhaps my favorite sick food. Tomato and beef with egg over rice.

One of cole's favorites: cold noodles with cucumbers.

And that's it for the food and book post. In the real world, we're about to give our kids their first monthly test, and then we get Golden Week off. Cole and I are heading down to Singapore, where our mail goal is to relax and stuff our faces with all the different types of cuisine they have.

Despite all the enticing food here, I'm wasting away. Down two inches for my pants and now everything is too big on me. Maybe Singapore will fix that.