It’s been too long since my last blog post and it’s been almost two months since I packed up as much as I could force into two suitcases and moved to China, so I figured it was time for another update for you folks. I promised myself I would do these entries fairly often... so far I’m a liar. Here’s hoping I’ll get better in the future!
Things here have been going very well. I feel as though I have adjusted to the culture without many issues, the biggest one being the language barrier, but no surprises there. It is actually not as different as I expected it to be, except for the fact that my communication with other people has now been limited to “hello,” “thank you,” apologetic shrugs, and for some reason “grape,” and “watermelon.” Luckily there is a fairly large expat community in Zhongshan, which Steph, Greg, and I found on one of our many trips to the local watering holes. It’s nice to know that there are other foreign people who came here just two or three years ago who now speak Chinese to the point that they are taking a written Chinese proficiency test... it gives me hope that I’ll learn more words quickly, and hopefully my address soon so I can stop showing cab drivers my address in a text message and then have them look at me like I’m crazy and then laugh at me. I’m sure the Chinese Rosetta Stone I have will help but that involves finding the time to sit down and actually do the lessons. Now that my class schedule has FINALLY been finalized I hope that I can start getting into some sort of a routine!
So probably the biggest change for me since my last entry has been the beginning of my classes. Greg and Steph are in a different department than me so they started teaching a week before me. I was unquestionably starting to go a little crazy with nothing to do so teaching was definitely a welcome change for me. I am teaching in the Humanities and Social Science department and my students are all Hotel Management majors. My first class was supposed to be on September 10th, so I woke up bright and early (8am) to make sure my lesson plan was solid and that I was awake and ready to go! Unfortunately after getting ready to go I got a message from my department secretary telling me that my class had been rescheduled. What a bummer. But I found out 2 weeks later (Frosh classes don’t start until the 4th week of class, the 3rd for me since I started a week late) that it’s worse when they cancel your 8am class and just don’t tell you. As a student who made it through their entire time at Acadia without taking a single 8:30 class I’m finally being punished by having to teach three 8am classes... UGGGHHH. Grumpy Ginger. Anyway, back to my originally point. So I finally had my first class on September 12th and it actually went pretty well! I was super nervous but all of my students were very excited to have me as their teacher and my lesson plan actually filled the entire class! For the majority of my students I am the first foreign teacher they have ever had. Most of the time foreign teachers only teach actual English majors so I think this is a nice change for them and a chance for them to learn a lot more than they would from a Chinese English teacher (or at least I hope so). I have a total of eight two hour classes a week (they are actually an hour and 30 minutes because there is a 10 minute break in the middle of the class and they have 20 minutes at the end to get to their next class) and I have six different classes. I have two third year classes, two second year classes and two first year classes which are the only classes that I have twice a week.
 |
| Here's a copy of my schedule... yay for early classes and long breaks, NOT |
I didn’t start my full schedule until the 24th of September since that was week four when all of the Frosh started class so I really didn’t know what life in Zhongshan was actually going to be like for me until then. That week was was pretty exhausting since the number of my classes doubled but luckily the next week (September 30 - October 6) was not only National Day (October 1, 1949 is when the People’s Republic of China officially became a country) but also Mid-Autumn Festival which meant we got the entire week off! Greg, Steph and I decided to go to Shanghai and explore!
Now, for anybody who loves anything awesome, get the hell to Shanghai right friggen now! It is an amazing, crazy city and I am completely in love with it! We did so much in the six days we were there I don’t even really know where to start! We arrived at our hostel around midnight on October 1st, we checked in, dropped our stuff off and found our beds, ran out for a quick “welcome to Shanghai beer,” and then went the hell to bed. The next day we woke up early so we could explore as much of the city as possible on day one. First we headed to “The Bund.” This is an area in the centre of Shanghai that happens to be on the Huangpu River, which flows through the city. This area is really interesting because on one side of the river the buildings are all very typical European styled buildings. They are very beautiful, but definitely not something you would expect to see in one of the most important areas in one of China’s biggest cities. Let me tell you now that I am not the best person to be writing this section of this blog entry. Before getting to Shanghai I did absolutely no research. I didn’t even type “Shanghai” into google. Greg and Steph did all of the planning and decided what were the important things to do so I really had no need to look into it (you aren’t going to hear any complaints from me). Anyway, so these seemingly oddly placed Europeans buildings are here because this area in Shanghai was initially the British settlement where all international trade was to be conducted (eventually it became the international settlement and housed many embassies, some even remain there today). So, that answers that question, thank you Dr. Perrins. On the other side of the Huangpu River you see exactly what you expect to see when in a large Asian city. Huge, beautiful, and oddly shaped buildings. The area that you see directly across the river is called Pudong, which is the bustling financial and commercial area of Shanghai. Aka there are a lot of super rich Asian and foreign people that work there. We didn’t spend much time on that side of the river because it was much more expensive!
 |
| View of Pudong from The Bund |
 |
| View of Pudong from The Bund at night |
 |
| Greg, Steph and I rocking out on The Bund! |
P.S. None of my pictures of the buildings on The Bund (the European ones) turned out very well, so check it out on google images so you can see the difference between the two areas.
Next we went to the Shanghai Museum, which is located in People's Square. This was actually a really interesting museum, people do not have to pay to enter, but only 5,000 people a day are allowed to go in. Luckily, even though we went there a little later in the day on one of the biggest holidays in the country we were still able to get in without waiting in line more than 10 minutes! This museum had everything, traditional chinese clothing for each region (much of the clothing in the Northern provinces looks very similar to the traditional clothing worn by Canadian aboriginals), chinese painting, ancient Chinese jades, traditional and ancient Chinese stamps, Chinese money dating back centuries, Chinese statues, Chinese pottery, Chinese calligraphy (this was one of the first times that I was really upset that I can’t read Chinese because you know what the scrolls say must be beautiful in order to be in such an important museum but for all I knew they were the directions to put together a barbecue), and the section I found most interesting was actually the Fabergé collection which was on loan from a museum in Russia. Ever since I was first exposed to Fabergé eggs in Octopussy I have always wanted to see more of the Fabergé collection, who knew it would happen in China of all places!
 |
| Awesome Chinese statue |
 |
| A view of the Pearl Tower from People's Square |
Side note: when I went to Shanghai I wasn’t expecting people to stare at me because there are a lot of foreign people in the city, I thought they would just be used to it! Instead, about 10 times a day somebody would come up to me or Greg (super tall for those that don’t know him) and ask us if they could have their photo taken with us. And those were just the people that would ask. I would regularly notice people following me and taking pictures of me. SO STRANGE!
 |
| Random Chinese people that wanted a photo with us |
While in Shanghai we also went to a lot of other interesting places, one was called the French Concession. Many foreign people live here and this area is known for its expensive shops and delicious Western food. Coming from a fairly small city (for China) we do not have the opportunity to eat Western food so we made sure to hit up a Mexican restaurant and a burger place. While the burger was no Lib Pub burger, it was definitely a close second and, the Mexican place was ridiculously delicious. I think we were all a little sad to leave Shanghai just because of all the delicious Western food. Yes, Chinese food is delicious, but after awhile it gets a little repetitive and having the option to switch things up now and then would be wonderful. Oh well, suck it up, right? I can east Western food when I’m back in Canada!
Nanjing Road is another interesting place to go. This is a very busy walking street in the centre of Shanghai. It is surrounded by stores and at one end of the street is The Bund and at the other is People's Square.
 |
| View of Nanjing Road at night. SO MANY PEOPLE! |
We also went to the Yuyuan Gardens and the City God Temple which are located in a very traditionally looking area called the Yuyuan Market (at least this is what I am calling it). This area was very beautiful and the buildings were definitely what I expected most Chinese buildings to look like. I think if I travelled to more rural areas I would see this a lot more.
 |
| This is a main roach in Yuyuan Market |
 |
| A much smaller and much busier road in Yuyuan Market |
 |
| The entrance to City God Temple |
 |
| People praying inside the temple |
 |
| Inside Yuyuan Gardens |
 |
| Yuyuan Gardens: SO MANY KOI FISH |
 |
| Fan art inside Yuyuan Garden... Asia Cartman anyone? |
 |
| This is the head of a dragon, its body surrounds the gardens to protect them |
Besides the typical tourist stuff we also went out three different nights in Shanghai. This part made me really glad that I live in a small city. Going out in Zhongshan is a lot cheaper than going out in Shanghai! But we still had a blast... as I’m sure you can tell from these photos.
 |
| Me, Steph, Greg, and Taylor (a friend of Greg's from high school in Trinidad!) |
 |
| Bottle Service!! |
 |
| Loving life |
 |
| So on our way home from the bar I found this bathtub... originally it was sitting on its side. This photo was taken as the bathtub fell over which is why my legs are up in the air like that. |
 |
| Slightly more composed |
 |
| The security guy wanted a photo with me so I got one with my camera too! |
 |
| KEITH'S BIRTHDAY!!! Couldn't get Keith's so we drank the only Canadian beer we could find |
So that’s really all for now folks. Not much has happened since we got back from Shanghai other than the fact that I broke my Chinese phone. Let me tell you, when you break a phone that costs the equivalent of $35 it doesn’t really suck that much! The positives of China! So instead of buying another phone I unlocked my iPhone... so let’s hope I don’t break this one!
Miss you all and love you lots! Hope you are all doing well!!
p.s. I apologize that I don’t have any pictures of my city or of my campus. You never think about taking pictures when you actually live somewhere. I promise to try and get some of these photos for the next entry!
