Shanghai Times

The last couple weeks have been stressful to say the least. Though I've enjoyed teaching the last 3 months at my Kindergarden and I absolutely love my kids, I'm tired of the long hours and feel that I work too much. I've been missing out on the Shanghai experience. So when one of our friends offered me a job at his school, I accepted. I'm now working at a place called Kid Castle. This school is much different from the one I've been teaching at. It's strictly an English training center. Kids from around 4 years old through Middle School come here after school and on weekends for English classes. The dedication the Chinese commit to education is strikingly different then what I'm used to in the U.S. I would never have wanted to spend my summer learning another language, much less come after school for additional classes!

Teaching at Kid Castle should be much easier then teaching at the school I have been working at. For one, the kids have books and there's a set curriculum for me to follow. No more just making it up as I go along! Another thing I'm looking forward to is all the people who work there. Unlike in my other school, all the teachers at Kid Castle speak English. Most are only a little older then me. It will be nice having more friends here. I really like everyone who works there.

Of course, my boss at my old job is not pleased that I'm quitting. Though I gave him almost a month's notice, he still is very angry. I'm trying to be understanding, it's difficult for him to find teachers at that school since it's so far in the outskirts of Shanghai, but he has done his best to make this as difficult as possible for me. I've been very angry with the school as I was not even allowed to tell the children that today would be my last day as teacher. The teachers did not want the parents to find out that I was quitting because my boss never got around to finding a replacement. I feel the whole school is run more as a business then as a place that values the education of children. I think it's terrible because I really do adore my students, and it's sad that this is where they go to school.

So I am feeling very uprooted right now. I have a new job to get used to, and Erik and I are still planning on moving to a new apartment next month. But I'm also excited for all these changes and to finally start feeling settled here. Still love being here!

Erik here.

Monday marked my last day of work for the classes I taught during the summer. It was dificult to say goodbye to my students. I am very proud of them, to say the least. Yesterday I was offered a permanent position at the location I worked at in July and August, with a nice pay increase. I have a week vacation before I start work and begin classes, so I am trying to make the most of it.

Yesterday we went to Dino Beach, a nice waterpark in South Shanghai. A few days before, I went to the Shanghai zoo.
Today our roomates Kelen and Jason left for Nanjing. We will miss them, it has been a really fun summer.

Here's more stuff from our Beijing trip. When we were out shopping one day, we found vendors who were selling sea horse and scorpian on a stick.

Obviously, this is a must try. Here is the video I shot of Erik eating scorpian on a stick.

Pretty cool, right? I am ashamed to say I was too afraid to try it.

Erik's mom reserved us rooms at this really awesome hotel in Beijing. It looked like a small temple! It was really cool. We shot a video of our hotel for you all to see.

Neat, huh?

Well that's all for this blog entry. Erik and I are preparing for the many changes that will be occuring within the next couple months. Erik will be starting his Chinese classes at ENCU and I will begin teaching at a new school. We are also looking forward to getting a new apartment as we have had many problems in this one. More later!

This year, we decided to go to the part of the Great Wall that was restored. Last year, we had a wonderful time hiking the old, unrestored section. But this year, we wanted to see how the wall looked like 2000 years ago. It was definetly differnent than last year - the dozens of tourists, the stores, and a great big tacky Olympics sign (you'll see in the pictures). The Great Wall is amazing to look at, and it is no suprise to me that is considered a wonder of the world.

Olympic fever has swept Beijing. Olympic memorabilia is everywhere. Construction on stadiums, tourist actractions, and other facilities are being built night and day. The Government has even launched a movement to "train" their citizens in how to be polite (for example, there are now fines for spitting on the ground and littering). All this for preparation for the big games.

Here is a picture of one of the olympic venues. The opening ceremonies will take place in the brand new "birds nest" stadium, surely to be one of the symbols of the 2008 games.

Erik and I had a great time in Beijing last weekend, despite the fact that we were unable to buy sleeper tickets for the overnight train between Shanghai and Beijing. We spent the night in seats, so did not sleep much before we arrived! We got to Beijing at about 7 in the morning and still managed to have an activity packed day despite being tired.

One of the first things we did was go shopping for shoes. I only brought my flip flops (of course!) and I wanted to see Mao's body. Chairman Mao was China's revered leader. After he died, they preserved his body so that people could continue viewing it and pay their respects to him. Last year, since I was not wearing shoes then either, I was prohibited from seeing Mao's body because to wear sandals is considered disrespectful. So this year, I was excited to finally see it. However, like most sites in Beijing, the place was closed for renovations. Beijing is preparing for the Olympics next year, so unfortunately many of the tourist sites were closed. We did spend some time hanging out in Tiananmen Square, which is the world's largest public square.

Us standing with Erik's mom

Erik's mom has also spent the summer in China, so we wanted to go to Beijing to see her before she returned to the US. We had an excellent time with her and Erik, of course, was very happy to see her. We all went out together to eat Beijing duck which was delicious. The husband of one of Erik's mom's friends lives in Beijing and graciously took us out to eat and drove us around to see the sights. Such a nice guy.

This is a picture of one of the Ming Tombs. Emperors from the Ming Dynasty (1364-1644) are buried here. Very beautiful.

Us and Benjamin at the Ming Tombs. Benjamin is our Chinese friend who came with us to Beijing.

We also visited the Lama Temple. This temple is much different from the other temples in Beijing because it is a Tibetan temple. Tibetan Buddhism is much more mystical then other forms of Buddhism and its temples are always painted bright colors. This temple is famous because it has a record size Buddha that is 60 feet tall.

Me standing under the ornate gateway.

Of course, no trip is complete without visiting my favorite, the Hard Rock Cafe. It always feels weird to be in an all white environment when you're in China.

We did some other cool things in Beijing (including, of course, seeing the Great Wall) but Erik will post later on that.