Erik-Amara

Today was a fun day out. Erik and I finally went to the Shanghai Aquarium which Erik has been looking forward to seeing since we got here. It was fun. They had a Deadly Aquatic Animals exhibit which showed some of the most dangerous sea animals. Some of the fishes were huge! We loved seeing the sharks and of course, the penguins!

This is a picture of a man feeding the fish. He seemed totally unconcerned about the sharks swimming around him!

After the Aquarium, we went to our first FIFA game. It's women's soccer and it's pretty popular. The USA played Nigeria, so there were many Americans watching the game. It was a fun experience.

The stadium where the game was played

USA VS. Nigeria. USA won 1-0.

So things have been a little crazy here for the last few weeks. Changing jobs was much more difficult then I imagined. My boss at Shane (the job I left) has refused to hand over some important papers that my new job needs in order for me to legally work there. I've been told it is illegal for my boss at Shane to not give me these papers, but he apparently does not care. We joke that he must be some kind of mental case because he is acting highly irrational and although he has a right to be angry at my leaving, refusing to give me my documents, especially when I gave him notice before quitting, is a little extreme. We've definitely been having a little bit of a rough start here in China! But we're learning as we go along. Fortunately, I was paid for my last month of work. I was concerned that he would try to not pay me, but he did. So the worst thing that could happen now is that I would have to retake my health exam (which is unhealthy to redo so soon and would cost me nearly 100 USD, but whatever I guess). I took one before, but he won't give me my results, so I'll probably have to get another one. So frustrating!

On the positive side, I'm enjoying my job at Kid Castle very much. I love the people I work with and I've made some good friends. The kids are a challenge to teach, but I feel I'm adjusting. Thankfully, there are some wonderful people there who are helping me work out this mess with my previous job and have even helped Erik and me with our apartment issues.

Like Erik said, we’ve decided to hold off on getting a new apartment for now. Although we would like to get a nicer place, this one is extremely cheap and we're able to save a lot of money. Mostly, neither of us wants to deal with any more stress or making new adjustments.

Though, we've been busy, we've still managed to have some fun. On Monday, I went to Suzhou, a city about an hour away from Shanghai, with the staff at Kid Castle. They treated us to it because the school met the recruitment goal for this year. Since I've only just started work there, I was not really apart of it, but got to go anyway. It was a very fun day. Suzhou is a beautiful city that is called "the Venice of Shanghai" because of the many rivers that flow through it. There are many beautiful gardens there. We toured one of them and also went to the Suzhou Museum which I found to be a little boring, but I enjoyed feeding the fish in the pond. They were so huge! And they would jump out of the water and fight for the cookies. We also did a little shopping, of course which was also enjoyable.

Today we hung out with one of our friends from the U.S. who's here for a little while. Always good to do that. And to get an American breakfast of pancakes and a chocolate shake. (I guess a chocolate shake isn't really breakfast, but it’s so hard to find good ones here!)

Erik and I are looking forward to our trip to South Korea next month. We'll be staying there for 8 days and hopefully will be doing a little traveling around the country. Erik is looking forward to seeing one of his friends who has been teaching English there for the past year. Should be fun!

Not too much else going on, hopefully I'll get all my stuff sorted out soon.

Amara and I have decided to stay in our apartment and instead use the money we saved to add to our Korea trip budget. Our first step in our preparation was a trip to the foreign bookstore to buy "Lonely Planet" Korea. We plan on spending a few Days in Seoul. Then we want to tour the Demilitarized Zone on the border of North and South Korea. We'd also like to spend a few days hiking volcanos and resting on the beaches of Jeju island, an island south of the country. Mostly, we are looking foward to seeing our friend Ryan, who has been teaching in Korea for a little over a year.

Classes started the other day. The teachers communicate with us in only Chinese, but they are able to get us to understand with non-verbal communication (hand gestures, facial expressions, etc). We also have a textbook that we follow along with during each lesson with English translations. The only thing that I don't like is that I was placed in the beginner level class due to the fact that my Chinese reading skills are limited. So I'm going to request to be placed in a more challenging class.

The weather here has been cool, the best weather I've seen in Shanghai.

On the downside, we've been having trouble with our landlord getting out of our lease agreement. We stand to lose around 400 USD if we leave.

To make matters worse, I broke Amara's camera today. I feel terrible.

Today I went to my orientation for my classes. It felt like freshman year again. I got my student ID, took my placement exam, and met a lot of interesting people from all over the world. It will be interesting to see how these classes are taught, being that everybody speaks different languages.

I included some pictures from our friend Michael's birthday. We were the only foreigners there, which is good. Those experiences really help us better understand both the language and the culture.

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!