Goodbye summer activities - Shanghai Zoo - Shanghai Aquarium - Minghan Sports Park End of Summer Company party - Shanghai Sculpture Park End of summer team-building trip - Qian Dao Hu (Thousand Island Lake) - Hangzhou
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I have been derelict in my duty to my readers (hey mom and dad) to post somewhat regularly. The main reason for this is because my work schedule is very busy during the summer. We are currently working 12 hour days and I have over an hour commute. Even using my rudimentary math skills I know this isn't great for sleep and such. Also there has been a lot of employee upheaval at my school. We have gotten some great new people but much of the old guard has left, causing my responsibilities to increase. I have two new positions, one of which is technology person. Of the two, I did not volunteer for this role. My boss asked me to do it and my exact response was "I'm a Luddite." But with the other potential person flat out refusing to take on the job, my cries of "What's technology again?" were ignored. I'm learning a lot but the school iPads (my primary responsibility) still aren't working properly despite countless emails between me and the head of technology, so it's going great besides this one abysmal failure.
One of the big events I have failed to share during my introduction to overtime and technology was the visit from my Biffle and her mother. I was able to finagle a day off during summer course (a nearly impossible feat, I assure you) and we were able to spend a couple of days together. We roamed, we shopped (briefly), we checked out a few tourist sights and got soaked at the Bund, we swam!, we gossiped, and just generally enjoyed being in each other's company for the first time in months. I didn't play much of a tour guide for my guests but I did take them to Shanghai Brewery for lunch. Not exactly local cuisine, but by all accounts it was one of Mrs. Plumley's favorite culinary experiences of the trip so I can't feel too guilty. I'm nothing if not a people pleaser. ("Ha ha," say all the people I've ever met.) I may have not emphasized the tourist stuff, but it was just really wonderful to spend time with more people I love from home. The year is counting down, so if anyone else wants to visit book your trip. My Chinese is only getting better (because there's nowhere to go but up). Life is good right now, although work has been somewhat tumultuous. Several staff members are leaving, either for new jobs or for a promotion within the company. I feel apathetic about some departures, but I'm sad to report that two of our three local teachers will be leaving in the next month. The local teachers are my best friends in China, so to lose two of them (one of whom is my metro buddy) makes me very sad. I'm thrilled about their new opportunities while also selfishly wishing they would hang around until I leave. (In case it wasn't clear from past blog posts, I'm not a good person.) A while ago, I went with my bosses and a coworker to Insect Kingdom, a purported bug museum. We were there to research and prepare for a field trip where we would be taking some students to the museum to complete tasks as part of an English language experience. It was a pleasant afternoon, however I was unconvinced about the suitability of the Insect Kingdom as a site for an English language field trip. For starters, the English translations on the signs were cringe-worthy. Entering one area, a sign informed me "Here you will learn about births, then perish." I also observed very few actual insects at the Insect Kingdom. To make up for the lack of insects, there were spiders, a number of reptiles, and a petting zoo. The petting zoo was awful, primarily due to the two goats in residence. The goats were kept in an extremely small pen, and they were vocal about their dislike of it. They screamed and butted their heads against the wall and the very low fence keeping them caged in. I made the mistake of getting close enough where one goat had the opportunity to start eating my jacket.
My learning of the Chinese language has been a painfully slow process. This is partially because I am bad at learning languages, and partially because when the weekend rolls around the last thing I want to do is work on my online classes. I've sort of embraced the trial by fire method, where I just go out and live life in China with a lot of embarassing encounters as I try to communicate. However lately I've been feeling guilty about my lackadaisical approach and so I signed up to take one of the in-person classes at Headquarters. On the schedule, classes are marked by level, such as beginner, intermediate, and advanced. There is also a topic listed that the lesson will cover. For example, one of the beginner lessons was "Do you play golf?" One of the intermediate lessons was "Of course you must eat the duck!" I mentioned to my Mom how I found the schedule frustrating because you don't have a clear idea of what the class will cover. She said it is just like my blog titles. Okay, point taken. But I'd argue that a schedule is meant to be informative and my blog is meant for entertainment. In other news:
Last week my co-workers and I went to Shanghai Wild Animal Park as part of a team-building day. The park is divided into a pedestrian area and a vehicle only area. In the vehicle area, a bus takes you through several animal areas divided by electric fences, à la Jurassic Park. Apparently you used to be able to drive your own vehicle through the park until someone had car trouble in the lion zone and was killed when he got out of the car to check the engine. So actually, exactly like Jurassic Park. I spent most of the day with my Chinese co-workers and took it as an opportunity to learn some animals in Chinese. This was interesting because I discovered that the Chinese take animal names quite literally. For instance, panda in Chinese is xióngmāo, which literally translated means bear cat. Some other enjoyable animal names: An enjoyable part of any exhibit in China is reading the English translation of Chinese signs. Unlike the insect museum (a story for another time), the wild animal park had very good English translations. However they kind of lost it when they attempted to translate some Chinese sayings about the Earth and animals. Some of my favorites:
The park was mostly enjoyable except for some truly heinous animal shows. I hate animal shows in general. Even at home, dolphin shows make me cringe. I don't have a problem with eating animals but something about making them perform for our entertainment greatly disturbs me. However I did enjoy when humans dressed as zebras came out and danced to "Gangnam Style." Still, it was a relief to go to dinner and then light lanterns with the group. On the lanterns we wrote wishes (my group wrote in eyebrow pencil). It was actually quite difficult to get them off and we almost set fire to the surrounding trees several times. Unfortunately, the pictures didn't come out great but hopefully my wishes will come true.
Things I miss:
Things I like:
Things I love:
Things I dislike:
Apartment hunting has been the bane of my existence in Shanghai. Originally I had hoped to live with a roommate(s). However, no one in my training group seemed interested. I found one girl who agreed to live with me, but after our first weekend of unsuccessful searching she decided to go out on her own because she wanted to find an apartment by the next day and felt she would be more successful solo. (She ended up being the last person in the group to find an apartment, but I digress.) I didn't take her decision to abandon me too hard because while I really did want to live with a roommate, two days of apartment shopping made me realize we were probably not best-suited to live together.
Everyone at my school was really surprised to find out my training group was so resistant to the roommate thing. One of the local Chinese teachers suggested no one wanted to live with me because I was too pretty. Unfortunately I know this flattering suggestion to be untrue because my potential roommate (mentioned above) told me we could have a girls day to "help me with all of that," with a general hand wave at my appearance. Not sure if I looked particularly tragic that day or if her red flags were raised when I had no interest in contributing to the "what's your favorite make-up brand" conversation, but in any case I don't think her issue with me was my level of attractiveness. Apartment shopping continued to be difficult after we went our separate ways because we had little time off during training, so most of us had to set up viewings for 8 at night or later. I had an especially tough time because my school is so far from general civilization that no matter where I chose to live I would have some sort of a commute, so I was insistent about living on the metro line that goes to my school. One of the other trainees gave me a hard time because "trains are made to transfer" but he quickly changed his tune when he actually had to transfer a line. Transferring in Shanghai involves walking maybe a quarter of a mile from one line to the next, interspersed with stair climbing and pushing. I ended up settling on a place the night before I needed to hand in my signed lease. I live very close to the center of the city so while I have a commute, I'm really happy with the location and the apartment. I'm especially glad to be out of the Sky Rainbow International hotel and in my own place. Also, if anyone knows what the buttons on my washer mean please share. After two attempted washes it is still a complete mystery to me. Airplanes: the place where personal space goes to die. As I prepare to become best friends with whichever lucky person gets to sit next to me for my upcoming 14 hour flight, let me share what flying yesterday to Seattle was like.
6:15 - Run from security to gate. Only trip once. 6:30 - Carry-on bag is checked at the gate because the overhead bins are full. Relieved that plane is continuing service to Seattle so no need to switch planes. 8:20 - Land in Charlotte. Flight attendants announce that plane is no longer continuing to Seattle, but it's okay because there was only one through passenger anyway. Enjoy my 5 seconds of fame. 9:10 - Board new plane. Flight attendants announce that storage for checked baggage is full so some bags are moved to overhead compartment. The irony is not lost on me. 9:30 - Fall asleep. 9:45 - Take-off 9:46 - One of the five babies on board begins to cry. Other babies are silent. 10:00 - Try to sleep through crying. 10:20 - Continue to sleep through crying. 10:35 - Try to remember why I used to like children. 10:55 - Begin to question the existence of God. 11:00 - Brief moment of peace. 11:10 - Baby is back and ready to make up for lost time. 11:30 - Delirium has set in. Start having dream conversations with said baby. "But WHY Baby?!" Baby never answers questions satisfactorily. 11:45 - 1:30 - Sleep. Crying continues on and off. 1:45 - Baby is disturbingly quiet. Begin to worry that someone has strangled the child. 2:00 - Never mind, baby is okay and back with a vengeance. 3:00 - Realize there is a God because birth control exists. 3:30 - Land. Worried I will never be able to sleep again without track of baby crying while also knowing any desire I had for a future family may be gone. Happy New Year! So it begins. I'm off to Seattle tomorrow on a 6:45 a.m. flight. I haven't done the math yet to determine what time I need to get up because I want to enjoy my dinner and I've found that ignorance is bliss. I'm staying the night in Seattle and then I will spend the first day of the new year on a plane to Shanghai. It's crazy to think that I will call China home for the entirety of 2014. Here are the bags I'll be schlepping to Shanghai. I had to cave and add the carry-on because while almost everything fit in my big bag, it was 11 pounds overweight. While I've fixed that problem, I'm only about 1-2 pounds under the limit, which I determined very scientifically by standing on a digital bathroom scale holding the suitcase. So I'm still somewhat concerned that I will show up at the airport only to be told my bag is indeed overweight. My backup plan is to cry but if that doesn't work my backup-backup plan is to reluctantly remove items while glaring through my tears at the airline employee. Wish me luck! |
SARAH ELLENTPA - SHA - BNA Archives
December 2016
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