One Month Down

I’m coming up quickly to the one month mark of my trip, and I don’t think I could be happier with my post-graduate decision. I’m often meeting new friends, challenging myself linguistically, and quickly gaining a new perspective on my last few years of life, as well as what the future might hold. I had my first two days of work this week, punctuating an otherwise fairly uneventful couple of weeks. I’ve also been planning a trip with my roommates during one of the busiest travel times of the year.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been reacquainting myself with this enormous city that I love so much. Through long nights of barhopping (often accompanied by aimless wandering to seek out cheap, convenience-store beer), long days of metro-riding and walking, and countless hours of deciphering maps, I feel that I have my bearings back in Shanghai. I am still enamored with our neighborhood, and the places in it that we frequent. Every morning, I decide between Pancake Lady and Paris Baguette for breakfast. Pancake Lady is a woman (and her husband) who sells one of the most delicious breakfasts you will ever eat for less than 25 cents. Almost every morning, she excitedly waves to me as she sees me walk out of my apartment complex across the street from where she routinely sets up her cooking stand. One minute later, I get a savory pancake with a scrambled egg and green onions cooked into it, complete with sweet brown sauce and taken 打包 , in a bag to go. Lunch and dinner are of a similar pattern—almost always down the street for the local specialty 生煎, really delicious fried dumplings with soup inside. Another familiar face there, the Portuguese-speaking hostess knows my typical order and immediately calls for the cooks to pack 4 small dumplings up for me. She knows of our feeble attempts to learn Chinese, and everyday tries to teach us something new, or helpfully corrects our errors. Finally, when dinnertime rolls around, Garrett, Gianmarco, and I reconvene to the ever-present question: Noodle Lady, Panda, or Sit-Down? Our three regular dinner spots. The Noodle Lady (and husband) is much like the Pancake Lady; she and her husband live very locally and bring their cart out every night to cook fried noodles or rice for us and other patrons. Panda, which we of course named after our favorite American Chinese food restaurant, offers many different prepared dishes with rice for about a dollar. Finally, our newest addition, the Sit-Down restaurant, allows us to order any Chinese dish we think we know how to say (no menus here), and again a husband-and-wife team prepare it for us.

A few various daytime excursions have of course included a trip back to Yu Yuan, a garden built in Shanghai over 400 years ago. The surrounding Old Town Bazaar is constantly inundated with crowds, but worth the effort to walk through to see the Eastern-style buildings.

The garden itself is still as beautiful as I remember, with ancient stone structures, man-made lakes, beautiful pavilions to relax in, and coy that beg like dogs for snacks.

After I wiled away the days and weeks leading up to my first day of work, I made a couple lesson plans, and dove right into teaching. The students I teach are in their foundation year in the International Education College at SUFE. Their goal is to study at an English-speaking university abroad after they complete their undergraduate studies. The level of English-speaking ability among my 4 different classes varies greatly, and of course there are those who are much more motivated and ambitious than others, but I am already greatly enjoying all of my students.

One of the things that I was most excited about throughout the whole two days I have had of teaching so far was that some of my students still lacked English names. Three boys in one class, and three boys and a girl in another. In the latter, by the end of our first class period, they had all four chosen names for themselves: Black, White, Purple, and Luke. Not quite sure why Luke didn’t go with the color scheme, since he is friends with Black & White (who chose their names based off of the shirt colors they were wearing), but either way, I thought it was an interesting choice to say the least. My other boys, however, gave me the pleasure of naming all three of them, so what did I choose? Mac, Charlie, and Dennis. Those of you who know what that means, we are probably close to soul-mate status. (Or maybe we just have the same taste in television.)

I have to also extend an enormous thank you to all of my professors in college, and other teachers throughout the years, because it’s quite a bit difficult to get started in a new class. It’s hard to decide what kind of dynamic I want to create between the students and myself, and how best to convey that through lessons. It’s difficult to know whether students understand a concept when only one or two students (if that) respond to general questions. But overall, so far, I enjoy it a lot, because in the end all I really do is interact with people all day long, people who have to listen to what I say. And most of you know how much I love attention…

And just for good measure, here is me riding the metro with Gianmarco. That day, I actually ran into a Chinese girl on the metro wearing the exact same shirt as me. I bought it at an H&M a year or two ago in South Coast Plaza. I can only assume she bought it at an H&M, perhaps around the same time, in Shanghai or elsewhere around the world. I just found it extremely odd and surprising that such a huge coincidence occurred.

Hope all is well wherever you are in the world!

Emma

Currently Reading: The Great Gatsby
Currently Listening To: Her Space Holiday