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Last night I threw a surprise party for Amara. The party was held at our friend Henry's new restaurant. It is a very nice place - they serve Brazilian food, and it's cheap, too! Henry is from California and also studied Chinese at East China Normal University. They did an excellent job serving our party.
The surprise was very hard to organize and keep Amara in the dark at the same time. In fact, Amara tried to organize a party a few days later, because she didn't know. This caused some confusion with the guests.
It is Chinese tradition for the the person whose birthday it is to pay, so we honored the custom and treated everyone.

I decided to throw the party yesterday because people are really busy around the 23rd.

Today I went to the travel agent and booked our flights for our upcoming SouthEast Asia trip - We will fly to Nanning (Southern China), and take a train into Hanoi. We will spend a few days there, and fly to Bangkok. We play to spend several weeks travelling through Thailand (including the beaches of Ko Tao), and make a side trip to Ankor in Cambodia. We will then fly to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and spend a few days with our friend's Sue Gee and Adam, whom I went to College with in Michigan. We will return to China from Kuala Lumpur.

Thank you for the Christmas Cards, YES, they HAVE gotten to us.

-Erik

Amara here.....
So the last few weeks here have been eventful (in a good way). I experienced my first Teacher's Day. They make a really big deal of it here in China. Since I had only been teaching at Kid Castle for a little over a week, I didn't expect anything, but I did receive one gift from a student.

It's a Fuya. They're the mascots of the Olympics. While the teachers in China may not be paid all that well, they are greatly respected.

Here's some pictures from my day in Suzhou.

Here's me with some of the girls I work with at Kid Castle.

Here's me with one of my closest friends here, Iris.

Things have been going much better for me in terms of getting the paperwork I need in order to work here legally. Although the previous school I worked at, Shane, continues to refuse to give me the results of the health exam I had to take in order to work here, I have managed to get another copy from the hospital. Ten dollars later and I'm good to go. When Erik and I go to South Korea, I will go to the Chinese Embassy in Seoul and apply for my work permit. Once I have my work permit, I can apply for my residence permit. With that I can stop reapplying for visas all the time and I'll also be able to move freely in and out of China. So, needless to say, I am very happy right now. Things are beginning to work out.

So today is Mid Autumn Festival. It's the celebration of the full moon that occured tonight. During Mid Autumn Festival, it's traditional to spend time with family and eat mooncakes. We spent the day at the zoo. Yes, we finally made it to the Shanghai Wild Animal Park. Erik has been waiting to go there since we got here. It was fun. Much like last year. We rode the bus through the lion and tiger pit and fed the lemurs. At night, we visited one of our friends who lives near Fudan University. Fudan is like the Harvard of China. Our friend Benjamin is busy studying in hopes of being accepted there this winter. The campus is beautiful so it was a nice night.

So things have been going well. I have a three day work week, and then Erik and I are off to Korea! We excited for our first trip out of China.

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 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!

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!