Becca's in China

For the holiday Paul and I decided to head down to Bangkok to get out of the cold and cheer up our spirits.

Well…let me tell you, it’s hot here. Now I’m not sure if it’s actually hot or it’s just the fact that in comparison to Shanghai it’s driving me crazy. Regardless, today was spent walking around buying flip flops, sunglasses, t-shirts, and funny looking pants.  Mainly these things we’re needed for Paul…still the same though, necessary – very much so.

Other than that…yes…this city is nuts!

Things on sticks, hot carts, fruit everywhere, tuk tuk’s, incredible temples, the sun, warmness, and strange offers – Bangkok isn’t a place that I’d want to live…but it’s worth the exploration.

So last weekend Blue Novella had our third performance featuring almost all three of us the entire time. I have to say that even though parts of working on the music and rehearsing were a tad stressful overall the performance went really well. Nicole over at the Plum Gallery had run out of chairs however, so Todd ended up playing the concert on a stool. This is great because in the photos he actually appears to tower over me even though we are both sitting down while playing.

Lots of our friends came out to show their support and everyone seemed to have a really good time. We played all sorts of music from Lady Gaga, to Dido, to Cake, to the Beatles. We covered it all and had a blast doing it.

Show number four is on the way…somehow, somewhere, it’s a good project and we’re going to keep it rolling for now.

Well this weekend I finally got trapped in doors. Not by my own choice, but instead because I have come down with some sort of horrible sickness. So with a cough that won’t quit, a runny nose, and just a nasty sick feeling I essentially locked myself in for the weekend. I went out at one point with Di to try to find a doctor only to find that the doctor’s offices were no longer taking patients so after collecting some more medicine I went and got some movies and have stayed at home.

To be honest it has been a long time since I’ve just stopped moving and let myself spend a weekend in. I put away laundry, read, watched movies, slept, and I have to say that its not that bad having to stay at home.

Sad to say soon I think that I am going to have to find a new platform to write this blog on.

For two weeks now the site has been almost completely down so I have not been able to update. I’m on the hunt now and hopefully I will have some good news for everyone soon! But until then know that I am live, healthy, cold, and still kicking!

After being in China for so long I was itching to dye my hair, and like a silly person I got too ancy and went with Jalin one day to try and get it done. I sat in the chair for a few hours, had the dye poured in, and relaxed…that is until they washed it out. Sad to say my hair ended up a red color, which later quickly turned into an orangey-blond color. Then the other day one of my students came up to me and said:

“Ms. Wade…why is your hair changing color?”

I know that my hair was starting to look bad, but man…I was so upset. Not at my student, because it is amazingly sweet of her to actually take notice to the fact that somehow I am changing. However, my hair! Spending only a little time to really think about this, I said screw it and then proceeded to go to the store, buy a box of dark brown hair dye and do what needed to be done. Here is a list of some of my students’ reactions:

Constance: “Woah, your hair is dark!”

Ruth: “Ms. Wade, I liked your brown hair…but your new hair is beautiful too, now you have hair like me!”

Samuel: “You’re hair, is….dark.”

Eimi: “Misssssss Waaaade, your hair! (giggle) It’s pretty.” (high five following)

Elena: (smile)

And then there is perhaps the best one. Kyra, one of my first graders this year came rolling in with her little book bag with a smirk on her face. She shot me a glance and rolled straight over to me looked up and said:

“WHY!?”

I burst out laughing and then she burst out laughing, I fell to the ground I was laughing so hard and she proceeded to sit on top of me laughing. Finally when we were both done I looked up at her…

“Kyra, I’m going to give you a star for that one – now go unpack your bag and turn in your homework.”

Warning: My new babies are starting to grow on me…it’s finally happening.

So I have recently run into a new problem in my life, and that problems name is Andy.

Now, let me tell you that I love this kid. He’s half Dutch/half Chinese and to be honest is completely adorable even if his English is a little below the standard. He has been working hard throughout the semester though and has made overall a great amount of progress in his English and writing skills. He is also one of our big class trouble makers and overall is just a silly little boy.

However, Andy has recently developed a HUGE problem…and that is he always finds himself exploring what’s “down there,” during almost every class. At first I just thought the kid was going down there for a moment or two. This unfortunately is no longer the case, and instead finds some reason to stay down there for almost all class period if we let him. He sits in the front row and bless his heart is not only becoming a distraction for me while I’m teaching – but for other students as well.

Trying to asses the situation appropriately I decided to go to my roommate and colleague Paul just simply to ask….is this normal? After all, I was never a six year old boy – so I’m not quite sure as to what he’s doing down there. Paul laughed and simply explained that it was perfectly normal and that he wasn’t doing ‘what I think,’ he’s doing down there; but rather simply exploring around and trying to figure out what it is exactly.

I can understand exploration and I openly encourage it. However….does it have to be during English, Science, Social Studies, Chinese, and Math class!? Ms. Gu and I have also recently talked about this and we just don’t know how to react to it. So after a lengthy conversation of strategies and just plain weirdedoutness we came up with the only solution. That I would talk to him. Then if need be, move onto phase two. Now I really don’t want to go onto phase two, so I took the time to warn Andy today.

At homework time I sat down at his table and he of course had his hands in his favorite place. I told Andy to put his hands on the table and that I needed to talk to him. I explained that I wasn’t sure what he was doing and though I’m sure it’s lots of fun it’s just not okay to do it at school, and that during class time his hands need to be on his desk. I warned him then that he would have three chances, and after these chances are over that I would take two large pieces of red paper and put big hand prints on his desk – and then during class his hands would have to be placed on the hand prints. (To be honest I’d just like to say now that this was Paul’s solution…but damn if it isn’t a good one.) Andy’s eyes got big and he shook his head no. Then he quickly pinky promised and hopefully now he won’t do it again….

…or maybe he will and then I will have to put up a photo of the red hands. Either way this is a story for the books for sure.

So last night we did the best we could with our holiday and after going to work all dayand then onto the gym we were out the door and in a cab headed further into Jing’an. Met a few people at a subway station and then walked even further into the heart of local Jing’an to have dinner.

Essentially no one made up their minds about what they wanted to do, so I went ahead and took care of it. Dinner at one place, dessert at another place. In total there were six of us, 4 Americans and 2 of our Chinese friends. We started by having dinner at this place called Brasa Chicken. It wasn’t turkey, but it was still a long table in a semi-quiet restaurant and we had plates of turkey, potatoes, french fries, and salad.

Yes Mom, I had french fries for Thanksgiving dinner.

All sitting around we were busy talking and catching up with one another on our weeks and just well…having a good time and enjoying the atmosphere. We didn’t say what we were thankful for or talk about how great it is to have each other. We already know this, so instead we we’re just together – and enjoyed that instead. After dinner we all grabbed cabs and then headed over to this other smaller cafe to grab dessert.

Whisk* is amazing. They are known for their famous chocolate desserts and their slogan is “Chocolate has an address.” We grabbed the mob table in the back of the cafe and drank frozen hot chocolates and shared several desserts to include chocolate pudding, mousse, tarts, cookies, and ice cream. We we’re so sugar shocked it was unreal…but still a great way to end the night.

Even though this is the one holiday that for some reason makes me desperately homesick – I’m glad that I had a chance to spend it with my good friends and laugh until my sides hurt. Admittedly I am thankful for my friends and my life here, and no matter how much they piss me off or upset me – at the end of the day I am very appreciative of what I have here in Shanghai.

I am a very lucky person.

So as a yearly tradition at our school we have a day set aside on Personal Growth devoted to sharing Thanksgiving with our children. Now the majority of our kids are not American…so they have no idea what’s going on – but are usually entertained by the motion of eating all the food you can eat and watching Pikachu floats in a parade.  This year however we decided to go with the classic turn your hand into a Turkey bit and then made the students write what they were thankful for on the feathers. I handed out the papers and sat down to complete some of my grading when suddenly I heard a student complaining about another students Turkey. I personally paid no real attention to it because my students are six and tattling is in their nature…however when I collected the papers I discovered the actual problem….

Now as you can see in the image above….this is not a Turkey. This is not even close to a Turkey – yes my friends it is a 5 legged Octopus.

Happy Thanksgiving from the other side of the world, I hope that every one’s Turkey day is wonderful and full of togetherness!

So I’m not sure if you really knew this…but I actually do occasionally work with other Chinese people besides Jalin…and now I have proof that they exisit. Here are some more photos from Halloween with other co-workers and some are quite entertaining. Enjoy!

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