Our Gym

I think in one of my earlier posts I explained how hard it is to exercise outside around here... the streets are super crowded, the drivers are crazy, and the weather is way too hot and humid.  I did bring along my Hip Hop Abs DVDs, which is like aerobics, but hopping around my living room was just getting old after a while, so we decided to look for a good gym.  

We ended up finding a great gym called Wills.  It's a chain, just like Fitness World is at home, with about 7 locations around Shanghai.  (You can see their website at: www.willsgym.com/index_en.html or google it if that link doesn't work).   Unfortunately there were no locations super close to our place; the closest one is about 10-15 minutes by taxi, depending on traffic.  Anyways, that's the location we ended up going with.  It's really modern looking with tons of cardio machines, weights, and the best part.... it has a POOL!!  Swimming is my favorite thing in the entire world to do, so this was important.  Here's a pic of it:  

Now the crazy thing is that, as you'll notice, this pool is shaped kind of like 2 kidney beans and has no lanes.  You can swim in a straight line all the way across, but the Chinese people seem to enjoy swimming in much the same fashion as they drive.  This means swimming/thrashing in circles thru the 2 kidney beans makes perfect sense in their minds, and doesn't mesh well with Andrew and I trying to power thru from one end to the other in straight lines.  Arghh!  We've definitely had our share of collisions!  In addition, the pool is manned by a very sleepy lifeguard who is often found nodding off in the corner, while his boss sits in the lifeguard room smoking (a VERY high percentage of Chinese people smoke by the way... and everywhere, like in restaurants, offices, etc).  Now it's fine with me if this guy wants to ruin his own lungs, but the problem is he leaves the door open into the pool room, so whenever you come up for air you inhale a bunch of smokey goodness from Mr. Boss.  They kind of give me a funny look when I get out of the pool and go close the door, but that's they way I roll!  

Now let me tell you about the cardio machines.  They are great, but I HATE them!!  I have always been an outside-exercise kind of girl.  That means I prefer soccer over basketball, and running outside over running inside on a treadmill.  I somehow just have a really tough time, mentally, running in one spot.  5 minutes is terrible, 10 minutes is deadly, and 15 minutes is where I go shooting off the back of the treadmill.  Seriously!  Which is really strange since I can run happily for over an hour without problems when I'm outside.  All this to say that I can't stand being on a treadmill, but I've come to the conclusion that if I don't want to return to Canada next summer as a sack of lard, I'd better be movin' my but throughout the year, and if that means being on a stupid treadmill, then so be it!  

Okay, enough about that.  Moving on... when we signed up for the one-year gym membership, the guy threw in a "bonus" for us.  This was comprised of a tacky Wills gym bag each, and a 500RMB gift certificate each to the spa below the gym.  (Remember, divide 500RMB by about 6 to get the Canadian dollar value).  We were pretty stoked about the gift certificates and were hoping to get really nice massages or something with it.  So we went downstairs to the counter to schedule our luxury pampering date.  Here is another example of Chinese scamming: the only thing that these GCs were actually good for were facials, which all cost around 300RMB.  The GCs were for 500RMB, so there wasn't enough on them to get 2 facials, and we also weren't allowed to combine our remaining 200RMB each for one of us to get a second facial.  Anyways, all complaining aside, the facials were really really nice.  They had Andrew and I lie down side-by-side on these gurney-things (that's what you lay on at a spa), wrapped us all up in towels on our heads and shoulders, and went to work for 1.5 hours.  During that time we had all kinds of goops, scrubs, and masks spread on our faces.  Our skin felt really tight and relaxed after all that.  (I know tight and relaxed are kind of opposites, but if you've ever had a facial you'll know how your skin can be both these things at the same time).  Here's a couple pics of Andrew waiting for the process to start, after being "towelled":

Now here's the kicker: just 2 days after purchasing this big one-year gym membership we were walking around the corner from our house when we saw a big sign on the outside of a building in construction: "Wills Gym Opening Soon".... arghhhh!  We couldn't believe it!!  The timing was incredible (and not in a good way).  Of course we've stopped by the new location a couple times (where they're already trying to sell memberships) to try to change our membership over to this new location.  So far they've said no, but there's a saying here in China that "Everything is negotiable", so we're not giving up!  

Indoor Snowboarding Anyone?

Hey guys, it's Andrew.  On Sept. 29th, Corinna and I went indoor snowboarding!  Now, don't get me wrong, it wasn't Whistler, but we had a great time.  

In the morning, we hopped in a cab, then took the subway out to an area west of the city. From there, we took another cab to this huge building that had a word like "Snowland" or something on the outside.  "Here we go", I'm thinking.

After paying, we were given very "interesting" colored snowpants and jackets, along with these wimpy gloves.  I'm pretty sure half of China had used my outfit over the last few years!  Fortunately,

Corinna and I had brought our own touques.  I didn't even want to go there.  We proceeded downstairs to choose our boots and boards.  The boots were okay, the board screamed rental.  Then, we went past a turn style, where someone swipes your timecard to show what time you entered at.  

You go through the doors, and enter this HUGE room that resembles an ice rink slanted upwards on one side.  The slope was a total of about 200 m in all, with the bottom half being a flatter run (crowded), and the top half being what we would call an intermediate, or "blue" run at home (empty).  So we headed up the slope, first by a moving sidewalk escalator that was on one side of the run, then by a Poma lift, which is similar to a t-bar.  

The slope was okay, and the snow was a bit granular, almost "corny", if that makes sense.  It was a little bit loud in there too because they had the snow blowers on the whole time.  After about 2 hours, we had our fill, and headed back.  "Let's see here; Indoor snowboarding in China in September..........check".

Talk soon,

Andrew

Army Training Week

About 3 weeks ago we were suddenly and mysteriously told (like so many things in China!) that all our students would not be attending school the following week as they had to attend army training.  "What for," you ask?  Are they being trained in case China goes to war?  Nope.  It's just for "military education" so they have an idea of what it's like to be in the army.  Fine with us!  We had a week of work with no teaching, which was a great time to do some planning.  Monday was actually a statutory holiday, we worked Tues and Wed, took Friday off to go sightseeing, and on Thurs we drove out on a big bus to visit our kids at the army!

Our kids (48 grade 10s) were taken about 2 hours west of Shanghai (inland) where they, along with another 2000 grade 10s from other schools, did drills, marching, obstacles courses, shooting practice (with fake guns apparently), and team-building stuff.  Their days went from 6am to 10pm for 5 days straight.  The whole week it was about 35 degree Celsius with no wind and the poor kids had to wear the full army fatigues: long camoflouge pants, shirts, jackets, and some chose to wear hats so they wouldn't get a tan (which is a bad thing for Asian girls b/c they all want to look pasty white, which I really don't understand).  Anyways, on with the story.  The army training was held at a place called "Oriental Land", which is a really hard place to describe.  Basically it's similar to a massive theme/amusement park that covers hundreds of acres and doesn't have rides, but instead is filled with parks, a giant lake, a hotel, and facilities to house and train national athletes for swimming, rowing, etc.  It wasn't the normal army grounds, but is often used for big groups such as this.  

Anyways, when we arrived there on Thurs morning we found our kids who were all lined up and ready to march off to their next activity.  We felt SO bad for them since it was so hot out, but it was also kind of funny to see them all dressed up like little soldiers.  

 It was actually almost lunch time by then, so we walked over to the giant hall where they ate all their meals, which was like a huge Chinese house/castle.  Quite nice actually.  Here's a picture from a distance:

The kids all had to line up outside in front of the hall and a real soldier yelled at them for a while (into the microphone no less), saying who-knows-what.  The kids just stood there at attention and didn't make a peep.  Then the principal of our school (who had also come along that day) made a little speech into the microphone.  The whole time us teachers were standing in the shade near the entrance to the building and all the kids in their full-on army-heat-suits were standing under the blazing sun.  Again, poor them.  Here's a picture:

Finally they got to go inside to eat, as did we.  Us teachers got the special dining room upstairs and apparently had better food than the kids did (although I thought the lunch was gross).  After lunch we walked around the grounds a bit and saw all sorts of interesting buildings, including one in the shape of a whale (again, for no apparent reason.... are you noticing a theme here in China??).  Here's a pic:

After a little while, an extended-cab golf cart drove up out of nowhere and we (teachers) were asked to board it.  This turned out to be a really cool tour of Oriental Land where we were shown the lake, the parks, etc.  The very very very best part of this whole ride was when we got to get out at "Fun Bridges".  Just as the name suggests, these were bridges that were fun!  As you can see from the following pictures, there were about 20 different kinds of bridges, all spanning a swampy man-made canal, about 15-20 feet in width.  The object was to cross these challenging bridges without falling in, which proved to be quite a feat with some of them.  

Like I said, this was by far my favorite part of the day.  I was SO sweaty after trying most of the bridges, but it was fully worth it.  I couldn't help but think of my brothers Steve and Austin the whole time and how much fun we'd all have on these together (and I'm SURE we'd ALL end up in the swampy canal after some tom-foolery!).

The last stop on our Oriental Land tour was a giant walk-way/open mall that had loads of statues of historically famous people to the left and right, along with little plaques of what they'd accomplished in life.  It would have been a very nice area to browse had it not been 35 degrees!  Here's a couple pictures of the best ones:

Andrew hanging out with Isaac Newton.

This one of Beethoven was taken soley for my dad... hope you enjoy it, Dad!

If you're wondering why I'm suddenly posting so many entries on this blog recently (after a few weeks of a dry spell), it's b/c we have the week off.  I'm not sure if I explained it in one of my previous posts, but it's National Holiday week here.  It's been really nice to have the time to go sight-seeing, get extra sleep, work out, etc.  And it's also been a good time to write some posts.  I'm sure you can expect a couple more in the next few days before we head back to work.

Our Church

A lot of you have been asking us whether we've found a church yet, and the answer is yes!  It wasn't hard to find, as there is only ONE Protestant Church in the city (on our side of the river anyways).  I had actually looked it up online before we even accepted our jobs here just to make sure we'd have a church to go to as it's important to both of us.  

The church we now go to is called Shanghai Community Fellowship (SCF for short).  It's all expats, so both of the services are in English.  There are a TON of people who attend, and it's so cool to be worshipping with people from around the world.  So far we have gone 4 times and really enjoyed it.  The feel of the whole thing is kind of American, including the worship team which has a resident sax player (we think we're in a Kenny G concert sometimes!)... but it's cool.  The preaching is solid, and the community feel of the whole thing is also really good.  One funny thing about it is that the services are on Sunday afternoons, not mornings (we can choose from the 2pm or 4pm service).  This gives Sundays a whole new feel as we can sleep in, relax, and then go to church feeling refreshed.  Then we usually go out for dinner with people we meet at church afterwards.  

Another great thing about this church is that it has a lot of cell groups.  For those of you reading this blog who are not familiar with this concept, a cell group (aka: home group, growth group, care group, etc) is a smaller gathering than a Sunday service... sort of like a small Bible study.  One of its purposes is to get to know other people in the church better.  Often with churches that are really big, it's easy to get "lost in the shuffle" and not really get to know anyone that well, which is discouraging.  With cell groups you meet once a week, study the Bible, talk about how it applies to our life, maybe have some worship (singing), some dessert, chat a bit, etc.  Andrew and I led one of these for the past 2 years at our house, through our church in Vancouver (PGCC) and were really encouraged by it.  It's nice to take a break from leading one this year, but still great to be involved in one.  Our group meets Friday nights and has about 10 people in it from all over the world.  

One little note to all of you reading this blog who go to church regularly: make an effort every Sunday to look around, figure out who's new, and go talk to that person... show a little interest!  I know this sounds obvious, but too often it's so easy just to talk to the people you're familiar and comfortable with.  I say all this b/c Andrew and I are both really comfortable with being in church and meeting new people, yet we found it really hard the first few Sundays at the SCF church not knowing ANYONE there... (not knowing anyone in the whole country for that matter!).  Not that the people at this church are mean or anything, but I felt they could have done a bit better of a job of saying hi and making conversation with us.  It seems that as soon as church is over here, there is a massive stampede for the exit, which makes it a wee bit awkward to strike up a conversation with people as they go sprinting by!  I'm happy to say that we've met a few cool people over the weeks and have gone out with them (more on that in another post), so we're content now... but just remember to make new people feel comfortable and welcomed, be that in church or any other place!  

I've been SWINDLED!

Tonight was the first time that I was "taken" or swindled here in China.  

Here's what happened: I noticed that across the street from our place there was this make-shift kind of tent set up and stuff being sold underneath.  Curious as always, I walked over to have a look.  To my delight, it was all cosmetic-type stuff.  Not that I'm a big make-up person or anything, but there is this one kind of moisturizer that I really like to use, made by Clinique.  At home it costs about $40 for a bottle, which lasts about 6 months.  (For any guys reading this who think I'm crazy for spending that much on face cream, let me just say that it's completely justified!  Any girl will tell you that when you find a product that works well for you and makes your skin feel great- stick with it!).  

  Anyways, so under this tent was all kinds of stuff made by Lancome, Olay, Clinique, etc.  I noticed that they had ONE bottle of the kind of Clinique moisturizer I use and it looked totally real.  I even ran back up to our place to get my half-empty bottle of the same stuff to make sure it was the right size and labeling, which it was, but the box was wrapped in celophane-wrap, so I couldn't take the bottle out to look.  I asked the guy how much, and he said RMB 150 (divide by 6.2 to get it into Can. $).  I thought it was too much so I walked away, and he yelled out 100 after me.  I said 50, and we settled on 70.  Pretty good, right?  A $40 bottle of cream for just over $10.  I ran back home with my purchase to proudly display my find (and boast about my bargaining abilities) to Andrew.  That's also when I was able to remove the celophane wrap and take the bottle out of the box.  Uh-oh!  The font of the writing was off, which was my first clue that something was amiss.  Next, I tried some of the moisturizer on my face.  Hmmm, it felt kind of oily, didn't absorb well, and smelled of granny perfume.  Woops!  Not that same stuff.  Rats!  

  O well, at least it was only around $10 and I learned my lesson.  A bit disappointing though as I thought I'd found a deal.  I'll know for next time. 

Some Canada/China Differences (there's more than a few!)

  It's hard to believe that we've been in China for just over a month now... in some ways it seems like way longer, and in some, way shorter.  No matter where in the world you travel, there will always be differences to what you're used to at home, but I believe that in some countries this is much more apparent than in others (namely China!).  Over the past week I've compiled a list of the biggest differences we've noticed here... some are funny, and others are just different... you'll see:

Communication:

The Chinese language (Mandarin) consists of four tones, ie- each word is more sung than it is spoken.  I found this out the hard way when we first got here, as I cleverly pulled out my Mandarin phrase book whenever I needed something in a shop, etc.  But whatever Chinese person I was trying to talk to would just look confused.  It wasn't until a couple weeks later that I found out this book is useless unless you know the correct tones in addition to the words.  But how to remember them all?  Well, I've started drawing musical notes into my book above the words, so I know the tones in relation to each other for each word.  So far so good, but very hard to remember.  Mandarin is the hardest language by far that I've ever tried to learn.  I will keep trying, but will definitely NOT be learning how to read or write it as the alphabet is WAY different from ours and super complicated.  One thing at a time...

Transportation: 

In Canada most people drive cars, but here I'd say the percentage of people who own and drive a car is WAY lower.  Instead they take transit or taxis, but MOST ride scooters or bikes.  And when I say bikes I mean either rusted out 1950's style bikes, or electric bikes that go really fast.  NO ONE wears helmets, and they don't seem to get into crashes either, for some weird WEIRD reason given their manic driving styles.  Anyways, the biggest annoyance is the noise... NO ONE here has ever heard of greasing their brakes, so whenever we walk somewhere there are tons of bikes going by squeaking SO loudly.  Imagine 1000 high-pitched dog whistles all going at once and you'll have an idea as to what we go thru every day.  Andrew got smart and has been wearing ear plugs on the way to school.  He gave me his spare set which I managed to drop into the gutter one rainy day.... they floated off to who-knows-where.  Sad.  

  Also, we take taxis everywhere we need to go.  We're lucky that our work is close enough to walk to, but for big grocery trips, getting to church, cell group, the gym, etc we need a car.  There's NO WAY we're driving in this crazy-ness, so taxis are our best bet.  They are super cheap too- usually no more than $2-4 per trip.  However, going anywhere here require a lot more preparation than it does at home.  I have to find the address (usually online) and write it down in English, and then have it translated into Chinese characters by a bilingual co-worker so I can show it to the taxi driver later on.  I definitely have to plan ahead, especially for our weekends.

Our Students:

Having taught in places where there is increasingly little respect for teachers, being in China is a welcome change.  I think I have mentioned it before in one of my previous posts, but the kids here are so respectful, friendly, and eager to learn.  Every day when we come into the classroom they are all seated quietly, ready to go.  When I say good morning to them, they ALL respond with a hearty "Good morning Teacha!"  It's SO nice!  Whenever they pass us in the hallways they greet us and wave- very different than home.  Also, they take care of their classrooms- erasing the boards, sweeping and mopping the floors, wiping the desks, doors handles, etc.  If they make a mess they clean up after themselves (imagine that!).  Every morning when we pass thru the school gates, there are 6 students standing there, 3 abreast on each side.  They smile at us, and as we pass thru their "gauntlet" they slightly bow their heads and say good morning.  Also, there are students everywhere sweeping the school grounds with big brooms (there are trees all around the campus so lots of leaves and stuff need to swept up to keep it tidy-looking).  We are amazed!

Prices:

We are used to having to spend quite a bit to live in Vancouver, so it was another nice surprise to find out how cheap things are here in China.  Some examples:

-you can get a great pedicure or pedicure here for about $5 (Can)

-Andrew got his hair cut and dyed for under $7

-you can get an awesome body massage (1 hour) for under $10

-DVDs are sold on many street corners for under $1.50 each... we are very well entertained with all this selection!

-we can go out for a rockin' dinner where we both get a massive plate of food and a big bottle of beer to share for $3.  Of course this is not in very nice restaurants, but still, it's good food.

-a big bottle of beer in the grocery store costs about 50 cents.

Of course you can spend just as much in China as you would in Canada if you want to.  We have definitely gone out for a couple of nice meals that cost the same amount as in Vancouver, but we keep this down to a minimum.  You can also buy really expensive imported groceries ($10 for a box of Life cereal- Andrew's favorite), and other imported goods and clothes.  You just have to be smart about how you shop here.  

On the other hand, electronics are pretty expensive here... at least as much as they are in Canada.  We found this really surprising as we figured they'd be WAY cheaper here as they're made here,  but nope.  Not sure why this is.  We got matching cel phones when we first got here, and they cost about the same as home, but WAY cheaper to use.  Some of you might remember me boasting that I was gonna get a really cool and cheap iPhone when I got to China... well, that didn't happen considering the price and the fact I didn't really NEED one. 

   

Weather:

The temperature here has been around 30 degrees Celsius ever since we arrived (plus humidity).  Super gross when you've just had a shower and then go out to walk somewhere... I was a constant bag of sweat.  However, a couple days ago the weather changed to about 8 degrees cooler literally overnight.  It's way more comfortable now and we can still go out in shorts and t-shirts without being too hot or cold.  I think the change may be due to a typhoon which is coming thru south of China (don't worry Mom, it's not gonna hit here!).  

Manners:

It seems that in China anything goes.  People have NO PROBLEM peeing on the sidewalk, fully picking their noses and pulling out massive boogers in full sight of anyone around them, and letting out loud farts in the office.  They don't seem embarrassed about it, and no one bats an eye (except for us!).  Totally crazy.  And while the kids are really respectful at school (leading us to believe that the whole Chinese society is like this), it somehow doesn't transfer to the outside world.  We have noticed this most blatantly in how people try to cheat you.  For example, sometimes we'll be waiting for a taxi during a really really busy time.  When one finally stops for us and we go to get in, someone will sprint up out of no where, jump into the taxi, and be off.  Or we'll be waiting on the street for a taxi, and someone will come stand themselves 5 feet in front of us so whatever empty taxi might drive by would stop for them first.  And they think this is totally normal.  I just don't get it!!  Needless to say, we've become a LOT more aggressive!  

The Mystery of it All:

There are some things here that we just don't get and that there seem to be no explanations for.  For example, there have been a couple of important statutory holidays here, for which the school has given all of its 200 teachers gifts.  The mystery is that these gifts are SO random.  For example, for teacher's day, we are all given a big box of figs.  They weren't that tasty, so I pawned them off (re-gifted) them to my students (it fit perfectly with my healthy living unit I was teaching as I discovered none of them were eating enough fruits & veggies, so I told them this was the perfect solution and they all better eat them!).  On the most recent holiday, the school gave us each a massive box of pear-apples, and a box of 2 bottles of cooking oil.  So between Andrew and I, we have about 50 pear-apples and 4 big bottles of oil in our house.  We have cleverly started giving away the pear-apples to the security guards in our building.  There are 4 of them on duty at any given time.  They shall each receive 2 pear-apples at a time over the next few days.  We just delivered the first "load" and they seemed pleased... we'll see how long this lasts!  (The pear-apples are good by the way, but they're just massive and I don't think we can eat that many before they go bad).  

Another mystery has to do with our visas.  When we first came to China we were only able to get single-entry visas, which means we can only come into the country once, which would be a problem since we plan to travel in and out of the country on our vacations.  So once we arrived here we  had to apply for multiple-entry visas.  This sounds like it might be a simple procedure, but no, it's NOT!  There is a girl called Joyce who works with our company.  She is Chinese, speaks some English as well, and is in charge of all our affairs, so she's handling this visa application thing.  She'll call or text us at the strangest time and tell us to "be ready on Thurs at 12:40- I will be there".  So she comes to the school, tells us to come downstairs, and we get into a car with some random driver.  There are no introductions made and we drive for quite a ways to who-knows-where.  The first time it was to get a medical check-up, which apparently all foreigners have to get.  We gave a blood sample, and then each had a chest x-ray, eye exam, ENT exam, ultrasound, blood pressure check, had our internal organs pressed around on, and were weighed.  Weird!  We asked Joyce why we had to have this done and she had NO idea!!  So funny.  The next time she picked us up we drove to this visa center where you have to line up for ages.  Out of no where, this man came up (whom she was in kahoots with apparently), took our papers, and got us to sign something in Chinese.  Then we lined up somewhere else, got our pictures taken, and we were done.  Again, I have NO idea why, where, when, what, etc, but I guess it's all necessary.  Don't worry anyone, it doesn't seem shady, just weird to be so outta the loop about your own affairs!  

Other stuff:

We have a week off right now for National Holiday Week (I guess it's similar to Canada Day, but more time off).  It's actually only Wed-Fri off, but our school made us work the previous Sat-Sun, and then gave us Mon-Tues off instead.  So in other words, we worked for 7 days in a row and now have 7 days off.  We were thinking of going somewhere cool, but then didn't end up having our passports as they're working on the visa thing with them.  Also, we're trying to save our money so we can do a really cool trip when we have 3 weeks off this coming January.  We are thinking Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, etc.  Hopefully we'll be able to see 2-3 different countries, and are trying to get some planning done on that this week.  

Hopefully I'll be able to write a few more posts to get you all updated on our happenings here.  Hope you're all well!

The Differences Between China and Canada

Congratulations Kirsten & Malcolm

A HUGE congratulations goes out to one of my very very good friends today, Kirsten Schroeder on her engagement to Malcolm Campbell.  I am SO excited for her and this huge event in her life!  I wish you all the best Kirst... congratulations!  

If you know Kirsten, now would be a good time to give her a call or email to say the same!

A March wedding is being planned.

What are the Chances??!

A couple weeks ago I wrote a post about what an ordeal it was to mail the letter home containing the mailbox key that I'd forgotten to leave for our tenants (if you didn't read it, scroll down a ways to catch up so this makes sense!). Anways, I thought that all was fine and dandy, until Steve (Andrew's brother who's taking care of our place in our absence) called yesterday. He called to say that he'd received the envelope and the letter inside, but that the key had created a hole in the corner of the envelope and had fallen out en route. So no key! Argghhhhh! What are the CHANCES of that happening?? Houdini the key!

So now our poor tenants have been without their mail for over 2 weeks and we're trying our best to solve it from here. Thinking that our building's strata or management company must have an extra key to our mailbox somewhere, we called to inquire. But guess what? NO KEY!! So now we have to get a locksmith in to replace the whole lock and get new keys. The cost? A smoothe $90. All because I forgot to leave the stupid mailbox key on the counter... I had even left myself a note.

O well... these things happen. At least I remembered everything else!

A big huge thank you goes out to Steve for being so kind and accomodating of my forgetfulness!

Happy 32nd Birthday, Andrew!

Today is Andrew's 32 birthday, and this post is to wish him all the best on this special day!  Andrew is a wonderful husband, and a great friend to many.  He is the most special person in my life and I love him so much!  

Yesterday I wrote about not knowing what to do for his b-day, but I came up with some ideas in the end.  I wrote him a nice card, got him his favorite Life cereal (it's hard to find here and really expensive compared to home as it's imported), and took him out for Chinese food for dinner.  I also made him a slideshow of his life on our mac laptop (to Jack Johnson music) and showed it to him this morning.  Tomorrow I'm having a birthday dinner party for him at our house.  Even though we don't really have any "friends" here yet, I've invited 2 couples from our church that we've just met... hopefully it'll be a fun evening!  Tonight I'm also gonna give him a foot-bath and foot massage with lotion... his favorite thing is to have his feet rubbed.  

It was also so special to Andrew to open some birthday cards from his parents and brothers today.  Also, he got a card in the mail from his Aunty Margaret and Uncle Charlie... perfect timing as it came in the mail on his actual birthday!  Thanks so much to all of you!

Till next time...

More pics of where we live...

I thought I should post a few more pictures of our place... last time I just posted pics of the inside of our apartment, but the entryway and outside is nice-looking too.  

"This is the outside of our building... it's 24 stories high, which is not uncommon for Shanghai housing.  We're on the 9th floor, which feels really high as we're used to living on the 2nd floor in Vancouver.  If you look really carefully you can see a unit with a bunch of laundry hanging out on the left side, close to the bottom.  Our place is one to the left of that and up about 5 floors."

"This is the outer area in front of our building's entry.  Our building is on the left, and the red & white buildings you see in the background are part of the Crowne Plaza Hotel... our neighbors!"

"The foyer of our building.  You have to kind of check in with security in the foyer, plus get thru a security checkpoint off the main road when you come to our building.  No big deal for us (we don't have to show our passports or anything), but it keeps the weirdos out I guess!"

"Here is the station (our home office) that brings you these blogs and our Vancouver phone line.  The # once again is 604.248.5191 and it's FREE for you to call if you're calling from the Vancouver area... try it!  Just remember, we're 15 hours ahead..."

"And finally, the jumble of wires, cables, and boxes, that powers the whole technological operation.  It was a trick getting it all set up, I tell ya!"

So there you have it...

Tomorrow is Andrew's 32nd birthday... very exciting!  I'm still trying to figure out exactly what to do for him that would be really special or out-of-the-ordinary as he doesn't want or need anything, and he's happy with just about any type of food I give him... any creative ideas, please let me know!"  

This week in Shanghai...

Well, plenty has happened for us this past week... nothing overly exciting, but I'll give you an update anyways.  

Last weekend we wanted to start seeing the touristy sights of Shanghai, but decided instead to stay closer to home and just check out what's in our neighborhood.  We ended up walking for almost 4 hours, doing a huge big loop of the area.  We found a post office, grocery store, and a couple of bakeries really close to our place, and also a couple little parks.  They were nice, except for the fact that it's still about 30 degrees here every day (plus a whole lot of humidity), so we don't really feel like doing anything overly active in the parks.  Also, wherever there is a bit of grass and trees here, it seems that there are also tons of mosquitos.  These are not so much of a problem for Andrew, but they LOVE me and I end up getting eaten alive.  So at this point I'm not especially keen to be sitting around in any park.  Maybe once the weather gets a bit cooler, which it's meant to by the end of October apparently. 

While we were in one of the parks, we saw some Chinese guys trying to "mountain bike"... of course that's a little tricky in Shanghai as there are NO mountains, but they were giving it their best shot, jumping from rock to rock on their bikes... they were actually really good and had quite the crowd watching them.  

"Chinese guys trying to jump from the ground to the smaller rock to the bigger rock on their bikes... very cool, and very much something I'd never try b/c I know I'd break myself in about 30 seconds!"

One interesting event this past Wednesday was "Teacher Day".  I'm not sure if this is an international thing or just Chinese, but we loved it!  Basically it's a time when all teachers are honored.  It seems like a funny time to have it, right at the beginning of the school year, b/c how are the kids supposed to know that early on in the school year whether their teachers are worth honoring or not?  I think it would make more sense to have it at the end of the school year.  Anyways, it was a great day.  The kids gave us cards and a couple gifts, our school gave us a box of fruit, and the Chinese school's principal and VP came around to all the classrooms shaking us teachers' hands and thanking us personally for the good job we were doing of teaching.  That evening, the school took the whole teaching staff out for a nice dinner at a restaurant.  Apparently there are about 200 teachers at this school, so it was more like a big banquet.  Think wedding reception... that's kinda what it looked like.  It was a full traditional Chinese dinner... 11 people to a table with a big lazy susan (turny thing) in the middle of the table.  It was course after course after course of authentic Chinese food.  While I'm a bit hesitant to try tons of new stuff (especially being a vegetarian), Andrew is a whole lot more adventurous when it comes to cuisine.  He happily indulged in the jellyfish, sea-cucumber, and duck-wrap dishes, to name a few.  His most frequent saying these days is "Hey, when in Rome..."  All in all it was a very nice night.  We got to sit with a lot of the Chinese teachers whom we share an office with, and it was nice to get to know them a bit better outside of the office in a social way.  

"Ron, Terry, and Andrew with our Chinese colleagues at the Teacher's Day banquet."

"This banquet was toast-mania for the Chinese- they LOVE making toasts to anything and everything... and making the same toast 5 times in a night is not a problem for them.  For example, Mr. Shen (on the right) made a toast to "healthy happy" every few minutes!  The red wine was the worst we've ever tasted (Mr. Clean would be better I'm sure!), but we went along with it and switched to orange juice ASAP!"

Of all the cards I got, this one was my favorite!  Lots of the Chinese cards that are translated into English are pretty funny.  Usually you can at least understand what they intended to say, but this one.... I'm not so sure.  And what is the meaning of the noose on the bottom?  I'd better watch my back!

Our new address

Some of you have been asking for our new address here in China, so here it is:

Andrew & Corinna Nairn

9G  No. 8  Lane 210, Xinhua Road

200052

Shanghai

CHINA

Our School, Etc

So, now that I have written a bit about our life here, I need to tell you about the reason we actually came here in the first place; to teach!

A few details: Our school is called “Nan Yang Model High School” and has about 1400 students from grades 10-12. The school is over 100 years old, but obviously the building is not that old. In the BC offshore school program we have 47 grade 10 students, randomly divided into two classes, called 10A and 10B. They have all come from different schools to be a part of this program, so none of them know each other very well yet… but I’m sure that will change very quickly! Our program has six 40-minute blocks each day, and Andrew and I each teach 4 of those and have 2 off for prep time and supporting other teachers. After the six blocks, the kids carry on with three more classes in Mandarin (obviously not taught by us!).

The kids are absolutely lovely. So far they are quiet, respectful, hard-working, and eager to learn- model students! I’m sure it’ll change a bit once they are more comfortable with each other and with speaking English, but for now this is a VERY welcome change to a lot of the kids we have taught back in Canada. One challenge is to get them to speak only English at school. Of course this is difficult for most of them whose English is limited, but so far we’re keeping on top of it- they need tons of reminders, but it’s the only way they’ll improve.

"My students doing the Human Knot on the first day to get to know each other up close and personal!"

"One of our two classrooms a couple days before school started.  Sorry this picture is kinda dark, but you can see a little bit that the walls have been freshly painted blue and yellow, and there are hardwood floors.  The teacher and his/her desk stands on a kind of little stage (see to the right where the desk is a bit higher)."

"View from one of our classroom windows- very pleasant!  We are on the 4th floor so it's quite a hike up every morning (when we're already really sweaty from walking to school in the humid heat)- no complaints though; at least it's not cold and raining like another place we know!  See the skyscrapers nearby?  You're never far from them here in Shanghai!"

Yesterday (Sept 1st) was the first day of school here. It began with a massive opening ceremony out on the sports field. All 1400 students, neatly dressed in their uniforms, were arranged in perfect lines of about 50 on the field. They all stood quietly through-out the entire program and didn’t make a peep! They didn’t even whisper to each other, poke each other, scratch itches, turn around, etc. Amazing! Their teachers all stood directly behind them and kept watchful eyes on them. The only disturbance was a few students fainting from the heat, despite it only being 7:45am. (Shanghai is about equal in latitude to northern Mexico, so it’s pretty far south compared to what we’re used to. The weather is around 30 degrees with a ton of humidity. Luckily we have air conditioning in our house, classrooms, and office.) The opening ceremony included a march to the flagpole, the raising of the flag to the national anthem, and many speeches from the big outdoor stage, including introducing us Canadian teachers (I felt like the president waving at so many people from high up on the stage!), urging the kids to work hard this year, and the “swearin- in oath” taken by all the Chinese teachers who are new to the school this year. Over all, it was quite the production with much fanfare and triumphant classical music.

"Marching in with the flag during the opening ceremony"

"Watching the opening ceremony: Andrew, Ron & Terry (our school's principal and his wife the English teacher from Maple Ridge), and Kate- our terrific Chinese co-worker"

"Harvey and Andrew.  Harvey is our real boss who is the owner and founder of the company that has hired us to teach here in China- he's a great guy and has been fantastic to work for so far"

There are quite a few differences in terms of teaching practices here. One of the most surprising ones is the use of paper. The school was shocked that we Canadian teachers have asked for computers, a printer, and a photocopier. Apparently, most Chinese teachers here just lecture for the entire class and the students take notes into little notebooks that are the size of what grade 1s would use in Canada. Then they go home and memorize it- that’s school here. Of course we’re used to making up worksheets and photocopying enough copies for each of the students. At first the school said they wouldn’t buy us a printer or photocopier, but that instead, if we gave them a copy of whatever we wanted, they’d go photocopy it for us somewhere. So we devised a plan of attack: we decided that we would make them photocopy SO much stuff that they’d get tired of it, give in, and buy us a copier. I’m happy to report that after only two days (and hundreds of copies later), our plan has worked!! The photocopier was installed just down the hall this morning and the printer is being installed in our office as I write this- yahoo!

"Us outside our new office a couple days before school started- see the sign behind our heads?"

"Inside our office- there are about 13 little cubicles in here; 3 for us Canadian teachers, and the rest are all for other Chinese teachers.  My desk is right by the window and Andrew's is one up from mine- it sure is nice to be desk-mates with my husband!"

"School's basketball playing courts- these are FULL at lunch time as b-ball is a super popular sport here, especially since there's a massive Chinese guy who's a basketball STAR at the moment- Yao Min (he plays for the Houston Rockets)."

"And finally, we've got Andrew posing in the school's garden- pretty nice, don't you think?  There are little tables you can eat at in here and it's all really well cared for- we love our school so far!"

News from the Shang

Anyone who has traveled a lot, knows that things abroad are rarely done as they are done at home; usually they are extremely different, and this usually produces countless entertaining stories. Take yesterday for example. I desperately needed to mail a letter back to Vancouver, as I had forgotten to leave the mail key for our tenants. So just as I would do at home, I bought an envelope, addressed it, put the key and the note inside… and then the games began! First, I noticed there was no lick-and-stick thingy to close the envelope, so I found a stapler at school and closed the envelope with about ten staples to ensure that the key wouldn’t fall out en route to Canada. After struggling to find the post office here in Shanghai, I bought the necessary three stamps I needed to mail the letter. Guess what? No lick-and-stick backing to the stamps either. Rather, I was directed to a corner of the post office where a massive bowl of runny liquid glue and a paintbrush were set up. Awkwardly I painted the backs of the stamps and glued them to the envelope, and of course got glue everywhere. I then handed the envelope back to the girl behind the counter, who indicated to me that all the staples needed to be removed before mailing it. But guess what? No little staple remover claws like we have back at home. So I was left to extract ten tight little staples out of the wet, glue-covered envelope. All the while, a pack of annoying little fruit flies buzzed around my face, making the task that much more frustrating. Eight staples later, with my fingers nearly bleeding, I gave up and handed the envelope back to the girl, showing that there was NO WAY I was going to get the last two staples out of the envelope. She proceeded to hand my envelope to a male co-worker who managed to finangle the last two staples out of the envelope, all the while glaring at me. Once the envelope had nearly dried I was finally able to put it into the mail box. I sincerely hope that it arrives in Canada, and does not affix itself to another piece of mail (it being so sticky) and wind up in some other foreign nation.

After not even a week of living here in Shanghai, I feel like I could already write a book and post a thousand pictures about this experience. However, I know how it is when you read blogs or emails of people who are traveling and they feel they just have to include every sordid detail, like the weather, what food they’ve eaten, a minute-by-minute account of each day, etc. Over the course of writing this blog, I will definitely aim NOT to do these things, b/c I know it’s boring and annoying to read. However, that being said, I must share that I’ve just had my first crazy Chinese lunch of “steamed lotus flower fruit”. Andrew and I have managed to get ourselves on the school’s lunch plan as there is no cafeteria here. This means that all the kids get their lunch “catered” to them in their classroom each day. The meals look like little airplane meals and consist of a lot of rice, some meat, and some vegetables. There is no vegetarian option available, so lucky Andrew gets a double portion of meat (mine)! Andrew and I go sit in our office and the classroom monitor comes and serves us our little red boxed airplane meal, which we proceed to eat with chopsticks (sorry, no forks and knives here!). And the cost of all this finery you ask? The equivalent of $1 a day. Cheap is good!

"The Lunch"

More details: Our accommodations are nice. We live in an apartment about a 15-minute walk from the school, on the 9th floor of a 24-story building with a great view of lots of other buildings and skyscrapers. It’s a 2-bedroom place, but we’ve turned the smaller bedroom into our office. Although they promised us a “fully-furnished” place, we found the kitchen to be quite lacking, with only 2 forks and spoons, a wok, and a couple random plates and bowls. Also, the mattress of our bed was hard as a rock, which is apparently quite normal here in China. A trip to Ikea was clearly in order, so that’s what we did on the weekend, getting our place as set up as we could, without going overboard (b/c we only intend to live here for a year, two tops). Also, the place was definitely NOT left as clean as we’d like, which totally sketched me out (I like to live in cleanliness and don’t love piles of dust and Asian hair bits underfoot!). So after Lysoling the entire place, I’m feeling much more at home! One handy feature in our place is a massive flat-screen TV. We don’t have a TV at home in Vancouver so it’s a bit weird, but I’m kind of happy to have it there so I can do my exercise DVDs on it. (I bought Hip Hop Abs off the internet before we left Canada which is great so far). I haven’t attempted to run here in Shanghai yet, and I don’t think I will as the streets are SO busy, traffic-filled, and dangerous!! A walk symbol at any given crosswalk means very little; people turn left and right whenever they please, and at break-neck speeds. Also, there are TONS of bikes and scooters that don’t pay any attention to traffic lights, etc, so you’ve got to watch it!! This morning on our walk to school we saw a taxi hit a guy on a bike… the man fell over and starting yelling insanely at the taxi driver. The taxi driver- can you believe this?- just grinned and waved at the guy he’d just hit!! UNREAL!! The even crazier thing is that NONE of the bike or scooter riders wear helmets- it’s like they’ve not yet been invented in China (although they’re probably made in some factory here and shipped to North America!). So all in all, you’ve really got to pay attention when walking anywhere. Running doesn’t seem like an option b/c of the traffic danger, and b/c of the fact that I’d have to stop at each and every block to wait for the traffic.

There is SO much to tell that I think I’m going to have to break it up into a few blog entries so it doesn’t get too long. Till next time… dsai-jian

"View from our living room"

"Our home office aka the guest room... beware of the hard mattress and single bed if you come visit!"

"Our bedroom... notice how nicely the curtains match the bedspread? ahhh"

"Our bathroom- bigger than ours in Vancouver- we can both fit in it!"

"Our kitchen, all equipped with our new Ikea stuff"