Happy Holidays!

I'm taking a semi holiday break so check back by January 14th for my latest updates. I want to wish everyone a merry christmas and happy new year.
p.s. i may have a change in mailing address but check back for updates.

November 28, 2007

I can officially say that no matter what city I live in or the friends I make I am always planning something….. and the past two weeks have been no exception. The two weeks also resulted in me sleeping for 11.5 hours in one night…which if you know me RARELY happens…..

NETWORKING EVENT

There was a networking event held at Jean George, one of Shanghai’s chichiest restaurants. The mixer/networking event was sponsored by Berkeley, MIT, UPenn, and Harvard. There were a lot of Asian Americans but mostly anyone who had graduated from some college or university in the states. I met up with a friend at the event so I didn’t really network but as I was walking around I bumped into a guy I had met at a CAL event. He introduced me to one of his friends. And I was like, “What university did you attend?” And he was like, “Well actually I didn’t attend a university, it wasn’t my thing”… Okay I think EVERY single person reading this went to a college or university. I am not saying you have to attend a college or university to be smart or rich …whatever…but when you are attending a networking event that is titled, “ All University Mixer” and you make some kind of snotty comment that college isn’t “ your thing” .. well I just gave him the weirdest look like… “Umm what are you doing here?”….

BIRTHDAY PARTY
Well my friend had said she wanted to go KTVing for her birthday. AKA karaoke with your own private room. The pictures are posted on facebook. Anyways so over gchat I am asking her where am suppose to meet up with her. And she said she didn’t know because she said our mutual friend was picking the venue. At the same time I am on gchat I contact mutual friend. Mutual friend then states he thought I was taking care of it. And I state to mutual friend that I thought the birthday girl was planning it. And he makes a comment about, “Who plans their own birthday?” And I was thinking …..hmmm me and like most people I know.
So well we decided we would do a pre-party at mutual friend’s apartment for the birthday girl. I bought a cappuccino cake. The only thing with buying a cake is that there’s no writing on the cake!!! So I bought candles that spelt out Happy Birthday! At midnight, when it was her actual birthday, we brought out the cake and played the Happy Birthday song by Stevie Wonder. It was an almost perfect birthday celebration except that I forgot to get a big group picture of the birthday girl and all the people there =(….oh well.
After cake cutting we went to KTVing… aka karaoke in your own private room. We went to a place a friend of mine suggested and well the price included an all you can eat buffet. I can’t tell you exactly how much the price was because well I had heard 98 RMB a person but then I heard 68 RMB a person. I sang my favorite karaoke song….. “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond….but no one else really knew it. Well as people were leaving I decided to tell everyone to put in 200 RMB. Well hmmm by like 4:00 am it was time to go home. And as I was playing hostess along with my friend, well we got the bill and compared it to how much we had….well hmm we ended up having over 1000 RMB leftover. So the cake and alcohol ended up being paid for. THIS USALLY NEVER HAPPENS!!!! Whenever you’re the hostess you end up forking like almost half the bill sometimes. I was so happy!!!!


THANKSGIVING

Well from facebook you can look at pictures to see that I celebrated Thanksgiving three times.

Thanksgiving #1 : Thanksgiving day at Moon River. There were about ten of us, which was nice except there was some girl who when she was leaving was like, “I know you’re Suda. I just wanted to introduce myself.” And I was like…. “Okay. Bye.”…Ummm please introduce yourself at the beginning of a meal not as you’re walking out!!. She was also this girl who asked for extra turkey skin. The food was well…. Hmm being able to have “Thanksgiving” esque foods on Thanksgiving Day in China, well you can’t complain too much.

Thanksgiving #2: Well my friend took half a day off from work and I didn’t have work so we went grocery shopping the next day. Grocery shopping started off with me thinking I was going to the City Shoppe ( grocery store with western products) I had been to a week earlier, but since there were two City Shoppes on HuiHai Lu ( a huge shopping street) we ended up at the one on the other end of the street. However during the walk of confusion/frustration/ me having have a bad sense of direction…. my friend called to wish me a Happy Thanksgiving and it was so nice to hear a familiar voice. Well we bought stuff and then went back to my friend’s apartment, then walked to Carrefour bought more stuff, then took a cab to his place again, and then we went to another grocery store but decided to get food before that. Food being CPK- ….yep that CPK. California Pizza Kitchen. They have my favorite salad but they don’t put blue cheese on it = (.

Well the next day I taught in the morning and met up with my friend to help cook Thanksgiving dinner for ten people total. We had the dinner at our friend’s apartment. Which with is own bathroom that has Jacuzzi bathtub, tv, two toiletes and two sinks and I think a shower….well you can just guess how nice the apartment is….oh wait did I mention his private elevator? Anyways the important thing about his apartment is that he has an oven!!!! Most apartments in Shanghai do not have ovens. Well I was the little assistant for about five hours. Meaning I shredded cheese, peeled potatoes, made some biscuits, decorated a pie, cut up squash and pumpkin… and maybe a few other things.

Thanksgiving #3: This was with people from my program. I taught all day Sunday and then got off of work around 6 but we didn’t eat until 8!!!

Sunday night = The past two weeks of three Thanksgivings, one birthday party and KTVing, one night of all you can eat and drink sushi, one EPWS networking think tank event, one goodbye for a month salsa dancing, and ohhhh yes did I mention helping to plan the like half of those events almost….. me sleeping for 11.5 hours.

“IF YOU LEAVE ME NOW, YOU’LL TAKE AWAY THE BIGGEST PART OF ME….. “- Chicago

On Monday and Wednesday nights when I teach there are two other Americans who teach at the center. Justin went to school in the Bay Area and grew up there and in Newport Beach so of course we bonded. HAHA. Anyways he came and told me that he was moving to Beijing with his girlfriend. The first thing I said to him as I was looking at a calendar was, “Please don’t tell me you’re leaving this weekend or like the 16th -20th. And he said… “Yes I am.” I gave him my sad face and said that I wish he wasn’t leaving. He’s been in Shanghai for a year and half and was a part of the program last year. Guess who I’ll be visiting when I’m in Beijing Well the reason I mention those dates to him were because four of my friends are going to their respective countries, three Americans and one Costa Rican for the holidays. Well the good thing about the friends going back to the states is that I’ll be shipping stuff to their places. But really……. what do you get as a combination Christmas gift/ moving away present?

“YESTERDAY ALL MY TROUBLES SEEM SO FAR AWAY” – The Beatles
Sometimes I’ll randomly sing…..at random times. On Sunday as my kids were packing up I started to sing “Yesterday” by the Beatles…and this cute little six year old started to sing with me. How in the world would he know that song? Well I told my co-teacher to take a picture of me and him and of course he got all embarrassed but we were able to take one semi picture together.

Stand by Me

HALLOWEEN

I was at Ikea and in the children’s section looking at masks when I heard an American woman talking to her children. And I asked her “Excuse me do you know of any Halloween stores?” And she recommended a place called Holiday House. Well the address is 1188 Panyu Lu. Can you guess how many times I ended up at the store and how many times I went? My roommate and I were initially going to be panda bears but when we found out our friend was getting a custom made panda dress, there was no way we could compete with that. So there I was the first time at the Halloween store for two and a half hours. There were a ton of Americans in and out and I did the whole conversation of, “Are you from the states.
What are you doing here? How long have you been here? Do you like it here?” Well I finally settled on buying two costumes. I bought a tiger costume and a butterfly costume. I also bought my roommate an elephant head.

My friend needed a costume and I wanted to buy an elephant head so that I could be an elephant in the future. So we met up and then took a cab to the place. Even though we had the address in English AND Chinese we had no idea where the cab dropped us off. He wasn’t very friendly at all. We ended up walking eight to ten blocks until we found the place. This time I was only in the store for half an hour. For Halloween weekend I went to a party where a ton of people from my program where at on Saturday. They were going to club afterwards but I ended up meeting with my other friends. Then on Halloween day I taught until 9pm. Afterwards I went to another party and then went to a bar. My friend was dressed up at Hello Kitty but most people thought she was a nurse.

OCTOBER 30

Well for most people who know me, they know that the death of my uncle has had a major impact on my life. I am sure many people have days and anniversaries that they would rather not mark. I decided not to mope around and be with people . I had told my roommate and she was very supportive. It was cold and I decided that I would wear black boots, tights, a white dress and a scarf. No way would I give into wearing a jacket or coat! Well since it was Tuesday we decided to attempt to go to Taco Belle Grande and eat some Mexican food. No relation to Taco Bell, or so we read on the internet. We were so excited to be doing Taco Tuesday in Shanghai!!!! I met my roommate there and found out that it was closed!!! Well two of our other friends ended up meeting us so the four of us just wanted to eat something American. Well we settled on Subway! Yep Subway has a few shops here. They have my favorite type of cookie….dark chocolate chocolate chip cookies! Well they had a subway sandwich outfit and I was like….well I like dressing up….so I tried it on. HAHA. Don’t I look like a ___ in the subway outfit?

Well then my roommate and I ended up sitting at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, my second home here. So I was pretty content. I had wanted to go to a museum but then I just figured it was too cold to walk over and I wouldn’t have enough time because I was meeting up with a friend of mine. My friend and I met up and went to the costume store. (See above story). Afterwards we ended up at a Spanish restaurant, so I semi got my Taco Tuesday. So in the end it was actually a good day.

“YOU SAY HELLO AND I SAY GOODBYE….”– THE BEATLES

Well the thing about living and working in Shanghai is that people are always coming and going. This week we went to an all you can eat and drink sushi place for my friend’s going away party. Needless to say my friends got trashed due to all the sake we were having. I got to the singing stage but I think I ate too much and I only had a few sakes so I never made it to my friends’ level. The best part that I loved was that we sang. We were singing Christmas songs, Sublime, Counting Crows, Stevie Wonder, The Red Hot Chili peppers, some oldies but we sang Stand by Me about three times. It’s really a great song and everyone sang the entire song. On Sunday another friend is leaving to go home for a month so we’re going out on Sunday. However on Saturday it is a friend’s birthday so we’re going KTVing. KTV is basically karaoke but where you have a room with your friends. So it’s not the whole American bar and everyone in the ENTIRE barwill sing along with you…..and we know how much I love that. But I will be looking for a birthday cake tomorrow.

THANKSGIVING

Trying to do Thanksgiving in Shanghai is going to be interesting. We’ve plan to celebrate on Saturday since everyone but me works M-F. We’re either going to order the turkey from one of the hotels or cook it on our own. But I went to three supermarkets; one hotel and one restaurant do some research. My friend were impressed with my Thanksgiving email and thought it was long….and I was like…oh that’s nothing. For entertainment we’re going to be watching “Harold and Kumar go to White Castle”…..hahah. So by the next post there should be something about Thanksgiving. My friend was thinking about going to Thanksgiving somewhere on Thanksgiving Day. We were walking around a shopping center when we saw that there was an Applebee’s. And he was like what about Applebee’s? And I started to laugh hysterically and said, “You’re kidding right?” Unfortunately he wasn’t.

ARE WE GOING THE RIGHT WAY? I DON’T SEE ANY WESTERN PEOPLE? LET’S GET INTO A CAB!!!

I must have walked for a total of two or three hours in one day. The day started with my roommate and I running to catch a bus for two blocks. We both had our laptops with us so we were running with weight on us. I took a phone call when I was on the bus and my roommate was embarrassed to be sitting next to me. Apparently what I was telling my friend people could understand it was not exactly a G-rated story. Our destination was the fabric market. Taking a taxi would have been 30 RMB but taking the bus would be 2 RMB per person. Notice the price difference. HAHA. My roommate likes to take buses so I was like okay why not. However where we got off was like 8-10 blocks away. We stopped in shoe store and of course since it was a semi cold that day, the shoe person decided to hit me and tell me it was too cold for me to be wearing my Rainbows. LOL. We finally made it to the fabric market and I got three dresses made. I have had eight dresses made. I also got a winter coat made. I get my dresses made with the same person so here’s a picture of me and her. So we finally leave the fabric market and decide that we are going to take a cab to a metro station. However because it was rush hour, we decided that it was that we just take the cab to our destination…. Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf to do our homework. Well this time the cab ended up dropping us about five blocks away!!!

But then we were only there for thrity minutes because we both hadn’t had anything to eat. We wanted to go to Moon River. We knew we had to walk six blocks and then either turn left or right…. Well of course we made the wrong turn!!! So we were walking for about forty minutes until we reached the end of the street. And realized there were no “Western” people or “Western stores” ….so we got into a cab and realized we should have made a right turn instead. So we were at Moon River for about an hour and half. Later I walked over to my friend’s apartment and then took a cab home. However I had milk for the first time in China. I have this fear of having milk in Asian countries. Whenever I go to Thaiiland I just drink a lot of Sprite. Well he made home made Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies and well it’s really hard to turn down a glass of milk, so I ended up drinking a glass and half of milk! But yes last Tuesday was a really long day.

MOTHERLY LOVE

My friend’s parents were in town and I had dinner with them. Which was great, however well hmmmm let’s just put it this way.
I felt faint and felt like passing out. It may have been the six shots and two drinks within and hour and half I had had the night before. And waking up that day was not very fun. Actually it was kind of fun because there was no way I could teach so I called in sick. I basically slept almost the entire day and night except to see my friend’s parents. Her mom decided to tell me that I needed to eat more. Tequila is not my friend. But it was so nice to see my friend’s parents and grandmother. Sometimes you just need some motherly love.

BIG GIRL NOW….

So I joined the Expatriate Professional Women’s Society. I went to a power breakfast the other day. And because I had expressed some interest in being on the Special Events committee, when I registered the people told me I should speak with Marissa. Well Marissa asked me to take over her position and sit on the executive board and take her position as the Special Events Executive. Well my mouth just dropped. I mean the average of these women is probably like forty!!! I was like “I’m only 24 and I’ve only been here for two months.” Well this is totally up my alley but I think I may do only a junior position. I’m suppose to have lunch with her to discuss this so we’ll see.

“ I BELIEVE THAT CHILDREN ARE OUR FUTURE. TEACH THEM WELL AND LET THEM LEAD THE WAY. SHOW THEM ALL THE BEAUTY THEY POSSESS INSIDE. GIVE THEM A SENSE OF PRIDE TO MAKE IT EASIER. LET THE CHILDREN’S LAUGHTER REMIND US HOW WE USED TO BE….” – WHITNEY HOUSTON

I had a blah day on Wednesday because of a couple of things but I had my favorite class that night. And even though I really couldn’t concentrate on teaching because my mind was on something else, I kept singing the “Greatest Love” of all by Whitney Houston in my head and kept thinking how much I love my Monday/ Wednesday class.

OMG – WE’RE AT THE WRONG MUSEUM!!!

So I wanted to see this exhibit that was ending in three days. I decided that I would go on a Saturday because well that’s when everyone has the day off! HAHA. Well my friend decided he would go with me. Well we walked to the entire museum which was nice. Lots of photography and a cool modern exhibit sponsored by United Colors of Benetton, but we still hadn’t see the exhibit. I went to the front desk and asked them where the exhibit was and showed them the article about the exhibit and the woman was like, “You need to go to the Shanghai Museum; you’re at the Shanghai Art Museum.” I felt so embarrassed! Good thing my friend was cool with it. The other museum was about a fifteen minute walk, so it wasn’t too bad.

YOUTUBE

Youtube was blocked for a few weeks but I should upload my videos by this Sunday.

HAVE a HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!

I LIKE it here, I don't LOVE it here....

"Working hard to get my feel. Everyone wants a thrill...." - Journey

~The poster for this blog is going on vacation this weekend, thus this post is counting for October 28^th.

~I’m writing this without writing people’s names but if I write about you, well you will know it’s you. You may play the game of “guess who” when I write about other people, but please let me know if you have any objections. Although once in a while I might slip…..

~Youtube has been blocked here for about a week or two, so no new videos.

~Next posting should be November 14, 2007.

~HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!! Don’t end up in the hospital or in jail!

“Square one, my slate is clear. Rest your head on me my dear. It took a world of trouble, it took a world of tears. It took a long time to get back here.” –Tom Petty

I’ve been asked, “Do you like it/ love it in Shanghai?” I like the non- Concordia friends that I’ve been making, I like that I am still a busy bee, I like networking, I like my roommates, I like being able find almost anything I want to eat except good Mexican food, I like meeting American expats, I like practicing my Chinese, I like having Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf here, I like the children I teach, I like getting clothes tailored for cheap, I like going out in this city… however I don’t love the way people push each other, the disregard for people’s personal space, Chinese and American clashes, etc. ! I appreciate common courtesy, customer service, lining up in an orderly fashion, knowing that the water you are served is safe to drink, etc, a lot more than ever before. I am thinking of “leaving” teaching around June and living a “Shanghai Summer”, getting another job or just traveling around. My ticket home must be used by September 4, 2008. I may come home early to try and catch a few birthdays in late August. Vegas in September 2008? Anyone? HAHA. And to what city will I be moving to when I return? Well at this point everyone is moving here and there so I might as well take a dart and throw it on a map and see where it lands. HAHA.

“The ones you love are always in your heart and if you’re very lucky just a plane ride away.”- Sex and the City

My friend’s parents are arriving tomorrow as I write this. Hopefully they’ll have the Marie Claire magazine or duct tape I asked for. Crossing my fingers! But either way it will be nice to see some faces from the states! A friend might be here on business in December!!! Whoppie!!! A friend just asked if she could come in January and another friend has asked about the spring time. The later two friends were people I met when I was studying aboard. How ironic that they both emailed me the same day and now they might be visiting me in Shanghai! The only bad days so far to visit are January 28-February 10, which might be my Chinese New Year break. Either my mom is coming to visit or I will be bouncing to Thailand and traveling somewhere else. As much as I love playing tour guide I will be seeing family in Thailand. I will not be leading an expedition as I previously did during my last trip to Thailand. Other than those dates, please do come and visit if you can or would like!

“In the name of love….” – U2

What would you do in the name of love? My friend sent me an email asking if I could show her friend around and that her friend was coming the next day. THE NEXT DAY. And as most of you know I’m not a spur of the moment kind of person and like things planned in advanced. But because I like the friend who made the quest and I was on a holiday break I was like, “Sure!”With two blackberries, skype, and a telephone call it was established in twenty minutes that I would be entertaining her co-worker. She said that her co-worker had a story and that he would be visiting a friend. I met her co-worker and he didn’t turn out to be sketch as my roommate feared he would be. We hit it off right away. He was somehow able to keep up with my pace of talking although I think he might have been a little scared. So basically he came in late Wednesday and was leaving early Monday morning. He flew 8,000 miles and four airports later to win back the girl he had broke up with A YEAR AGO. Well we played tourists and we came up with a scheme to get the girl to meet me. I was supposed to be a friend of a friend’s who was in town for business. Did I mention she had de-tagged every photo of them and blocked him on facebook? He had someone look up her profile and got her number and her address off of facebook. He kept asking me what he should say to her and my response was, “That’s a song in your heart that you need to compose.” Well when she met me at the metro station I gave my fake name, “Kate” and took her to where the guy was waiting. The moment she saw him, she fled down the stairs. He looked at me and I said, “Go get her!!!”

Long story short, the address he had for her school wasn’t the school she was going to, she actually took a leave of absence from college in the states and is enrolled in a five year acupuncture program. They are now a couple doing the long distance thing. He took me out to dinner for helping him and his little scheme. One itty bitty problem, he’s kosher which meant many things were out of running. Thank goodness they have a California Pizza Kitchen here! I guess pizza is Kosher. I ordered my favorite salad but I noticed a key ingredient missing…. They didn’t have the blue cheese in it!! Well I can consider both the guy and girl to be friends now. The guy also kept saying that according to Jewish tradition, if you pair three couples together, you will get a golden ticket to heaven. We’ll see about paring up two other people… hahaha

“Isn’t she lucky….”- Britney Spears

I went to a 7^th anniversary party for the Shanghai Expat group. The ticket was 120 RMB but included one drink and unlimited finger foods. I love finger foods!!!! I was so excited because they had little puff pastries and since I don’t have an oven, I definitely ate my shares worth. At one point my friend asked when my birthday was, turned to another person and said they were buying me a toaster oven for my birthday. The same night we also went to the Absolute Bar. It’s sponsored by Absolute Vodka and the bar, the cup holders, sculptures and chairs are made out of ice. I think I lasted thirty minutes in there. Well I left the night winning two 100 RMB gift certificates to Moon River Diner, 249 RMB gift certificate for Crocs…yes those shoes, three pens and two things of hairspray. What I really wanted to win was the turkey dinner, it was worth 1000 RMB. But I was still a little lucky….

“Didn’t we almost have it all….” – Whitney Houston

I was totally ready to book a flight home if CAL was going to the Rose Bowl. Well CAL football….. Hmm tracking the game on espn.com is kind of fun sometimes when you see a good score. I immediately dialed a few friends when Stanford beat USC. And it was great to shout with excitement as if I was standing right next to them. However when the Beavers beat CAL I found out via post-it note. I was teaching and my friend, who is from the Bay Area, wrote the score and posted it in the window. Kind of like that scene in SATC where Cari gets arrested and shows the post-it against the window to the cop. There’s a bar here called Bubba’s and they show t NCAA college football games, a day later. I went to watch a CAL game and met a CAL alumni who was very enthusiastic and passionate about CAL football. Well being a true American expat his company credit card paid for any drinks me or my two guys friends ordered for over the course of about four hours. So two Jack and Cokes, a glass of wine, and a tequila shot later I was content. At one point he bought fifteen tequila shots for the CAL fans and for the Duck fans. Well my friend, eight pints later, was not feeling well. We sat with him for about an hour on the curb. I’m sure a good number of you reading this have been that person on the curb or have been the friend. I think I’ve been both. I survived Fall 2001 when CAL was 1-10 and I was there when CAL thought it had a ticket to the Rose Bowl and was 10-1 up until the bowl announcements in 2004. However I will….. Always Believe in CAL!!! GO BEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“Oh dream maker, you heartbreaker, wherever you are going, I’m going your way. Two drifters off to see the world……Moon River and me”- Henry Mancini

So there are two dinners that kind of compete against each other. One is Moon River and the other is City Dinner. City Dinner is an area where there a lot of bars and so I have ended up there twice not be choice but because that’s where the group has wanted to go. The second time I went there I got a breakfast at 12:00am with eggs, asparagus, tomatoes and cream cheese. Not too bad. My friend got the carrot cake and it was definitely over priced even for American standards. I was considering ordering a beer with breakfast but they had a one glass policy with a buy one get one free. So my friend kind of challenged me to get a beer with him, but I was like no way, so I had just had about half of pint of his second one. I decided to call my friends who I knew would be tailgating but needless to say they were looking for parking. I was at least drinking with them in spirit and for CAL.

I BIKED 10 MILES TO EAT AT MOON RIVER!!!!! In my adult life I have been on a bike four times total: twice in Thailand, once in Germany, and then two days ago. My friend said it would be like twenty minutes but I didn’t realize it would be 5 miles each way. I told her I go on a bike like once a year and the next I was going to Moon River with her I was taking a cab. I am not a bike person!!! I have no documentation since I let me roommate borrow my camera that day.

“ My heart will go on…..” – Celine Dion

My friends and I went to a house party last weekend. And by house party I am talking about a lady selling books and most of the people there were in their 40s and 50s. So there were six of us in our twenties. At one point we got tired of “networking/talking” to other people so we just were talking to each other. My friend asked me if I had liked the Yue Festival we had gone to. The Yue Festival was outdoors and held on a lovely Friday afternoon. There were techno bands, Chinese rappers and the band Ozmalti from Los Angeles. NOT my kind of music but I made an effort to expand my musical listening. Anyways I said to my friend it wasn’t my genre of music and that I liked Celine Dion type of music. And when that came out of my mouth he immediately turned around. I was like, “What’s wrong with Celine?” He wouldn’t say a thing!!!! And I was like “ #(&# don’t turn your back on me!!” He was acting like he was 4 years old not 24!! And then I listed like five or so other artists. And he finally turned around after who I can’t even remember. Well he received an email with a picture of me in front of a Celion Dion poster in Vegas a few days later. And I said to him “Well I guess we’re not musically compatible!”

Sometimes my roommate and I will break into, “Love songs on the coast… KOST 103.5 …” and we’ll start to sing whatever song has just been talked about. So I’m glad that at least someone appreciates Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Lionel Richie, Richard Marx, type of songs. HAHA. [This is funnier if you were from Southern California]

“Ne hao ma?”

So I am the only Chinese person in my Chinese class and one of only two people without a driver. So when you’re an expat working for a multinational company your family gets a driver. So the wife of the General Manager of the JW Marriott is my class, a stay at home dad whose wife works for Dupont is in my class, the wife of someone who works for General Motors, and another wife whose husband works for some beer company. I have my classes Wednesday and Friday mornings from 10:00-12:30pm and of course I’m like 10 -15 minutes late. It’s a beginner’s class but I know about 70% of the things we’ve studied so far. I really really really hope I can have an intermediate level of speaking by the time I leave China. Trying to learn 1,000 characters might be a little too ambitious.

Well since I teach all day on Sunday from 9:30 -6:15pm with an hour break, my co teacher Peggy is going to do a language exchange with me. And I am going to see about getting my friend’s tutor.

“A-B-C-D…..”

One thing about teaching children who are just learning English, is that you get to name them sometimes. I got a brand new class with seven boys and one girl. Two of the boys didn’t have names. I actually had to think what names wouldn’t annoy me and is there anyone I would want to give a high honor of naming a Chinese kid after. Well I settled on naming a kid after probably my dearest male friend. And then I named another student Peter. I really like the name Sutton but I figured that wasn’t a popular, so I chose not to give that name. Peter is kind of my teacher’s pet. They call me Miss Suda. My mom was like why don’t they call you by your Chinese name and I was like because only my family calls me by my Chinese name!! So I currently have five classes. I teach M/W nights, one class on Saturday and all day Sunday. So supposedly we have 16 hours of teaching time and 8 hours of “preparation time”. They don’t monitor the 8 hours of “preparation time” so hardly anyone does it. I put in like 6 hours a week though. But I mean seriously, how much can you prepare to teach the alphabet over and over again, you have a co-teacher who will do most of the work, and they have the lesson plans developed already. But the kids are very cute and if any “Western” looking friend came to visit I am sure you would be seen as a celebrity if you came to visit my classes. I think if I get to name a girl I’ll name her Julia or Julie. All the Julies, I’ve known have been great people =)

I got my schedule today and almost cried. I am scheduled to teach Saturday from 9:30am- 12:00pm. Okay one class, no problem. But then they were going to have me “prep” from 1:00-4:00pm. Prep…prep for what? Seriously why would I sit there and “prep” when I only have one class. Andy, who is a supervisor, was like well H. basically made your schedule based on what prep time you wanted. And immediately I said, “Why the #$#% would I write that I want to sit on my ##@ and prep on a Saturday? How much “prepping” can you do to teach the alphabet?”

( Andy went to high school and college in the states. No way would my comments fly if he was full on Chinese)

H. the person who is our “head leader” at our center asked us to do our own schedules and said that they wanted to avoid having someone teach one class and sit all day. What b.s. because look what she did to my schedule. Anyways he wanted me to have “prep time” in case someone got sick. And I was like I will come in if someone calls in sick but there is no point for me to sit on my *#) when I only have one class!!! I also reminded him I couldn’t go anywhere because I taught Saturday morning and Sunday all day so I couldn’t really leave Shanghai. And I reminded him I substituted twice already on my days off. Anyways he said he was fine with me being on call. Well I got my way. I finally understand why some people have been frustrated with the administration. Andy is above H. and he was like “okay” as long as you can come in. And I was like I don’t care where I am in Shanghai or who I am with I will be there. Don’t get me wrong but when you grow up for twenty-four years with Saturday and Sunday being days you have no school or work and your “expat” friends have M-F jobs and you want to hang out with them, I will stand up for myself.

I decided to give up on not going out on Saturday nights even though I teach all day Sunday for obvious reasons. Don't worry I won't be doing tequila shots on Saturday nights.

“...Seasons change. So do cities…”- SATC Well August became September which became October……for most things up until October 4, 2007.

Disclaimer: I’m writing this blog because of the people who complained that my 10 page single space word document equivalent emails were too long the last time I was abroad. I am proud to say that some of those biggest complainers are still some of my dearest friends to this day. And I think 70% of you reading this have suffered from mass emails, very long personal emails, or travel itineraries from me. This blog now offers you the option of not filling up your inboxes and it allows you to read another blog/website at work! I’m sorry but this probably won’t be as entertaining as tmz, perez or espn. I can say that some of the postings will be very long and some will be very short. I’m sure there are moments I won’t write about on this blog and ones I will write on and on about. I will post on the 14^th and 28^th of each month. For a reference $1 USD = 7.5 RMB/Kwai. This is a VERY LONG BLOG …because it sums up a month. The future ones won’t be this long…..maybe.

For the lazy people, here are ten highlights.

1) I had an extreme form of poising and it was comparable to feeling about three time worst than the worst hangover over my life. I lost four pounds. I had a health examination two days prior to the food poisoning and weighed myself a few days later after the fp.

2) I live on the 29th floor of a high-rise across from the Shanghai Stadium with two roommates. A guy and a girl who went to college together at Biola . It’s convenient to work and a couple of metro stations. And for the second time in my life I am living about 8 minutes away by foot from Ikea.

3) I’ve never wanted to throw a drink at a guy until some guy tried to convince me that CAL didn’t have a bye week. This guy knew I went to CAL too and who is he to tell a CAL alumni, former football recruiter, creator of a football sign that says Always Believe in CAL which has been on TV a few times, that MY school didn’t have bye week. Still trying to be nice I asked him what school he cheered for. His response was, “I cheer for [his alma mater] or for any good game.” His school doesn’t even play in Division I. According to http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=rules/070905 he broke the first rule of college football. You pick one team!!! What an arrogant man he was. Never argue with about someone’s college football team when you didn’t even go that school. Seriously.

4) I teach in the evening from like 5-8pm so I have a lot of free time during daytime. Teaching is more like babysitting since my students range in age 4-7. I am also trying to look for an internship so we’ll see how that goes. However I think my Chinese class starts this week and it’s near my friend’s work so I’ll be able to stop by and say hi.

5) My roommate and I are dressing up as panda bears for Halloween, we think. She’s thinking of stuffing her costume; however I will might go as a malnourished panda bear.

6) I have yet to hear “Don’t Stop Believin” by Journey on a night out. There are a ton of places with ladies nights so plenty of free drinks.

7) It looks like the crew I maybe hanging out with aren’t the people from the program. They are real expats with real salaries and a M-F 9-5 schedule. People become BFF very quickly and once you meet someone you find yourself hanging out with them and their friends almost every other day. Well that’s what has happened to me the past week and half.

8) If I usually send you postcards, I will be honest at this point I am afraid of the post office because I hear it takes a long time, so don’t be expecting any anytime soon.

9) I almost cried when I was on the subway because there were too many people and it took me three times to get on one car and when I had to walk to switch lines it was like storming a football field/basketball court but with no noise. That was the only time I had to be somewhere during rush hour, for now.

10) I think this year is going to be okay but I’m still going to miss many people and many things. However the year CAL has the potential to actually go to the Rose Bowl and is now currently ranked #2 in the country… I may just have to come home in January…. We’ll see. GO BEARS!!!!

WHAT EXACTLY I AM DOING IN CHINA

I am most importantly working on my Master of Arts in International Studies. As part of the program we complete an internship aka job teaching English. I say more that I am a grad student because teacher’s tend to have bad reputation here.

ARRIVAL

Rushing to write people’s phone numbers when you have ten minutes to go to your gate may not be the smartest idea. And of course I was charged $50 for over weight luggage. And I have to say it wasn’t clothes that I packed but mainly supplies from Costco to last almost a year. Well I flew Shanghai Eastern Airlines or something like that. I asked for an aisle seat but found out that there wasn’t anyone next to me. So that was perfect for my 13 hour and 45 minute flight. The plane didn’t have individual televisions and one of the movies that was shown was from 5 years ago or so. It had Harrison Ford in it! Well I slept for most of the flight and saw the sun setting over Shanghai when the plane started to land. I was picked up by one of the administrators from my work (more on that later). Well I was set up in the hotel and then I went to go look for food. My first meal in Shanghai was actually Japanese food. I knew I had to eat and I ended up having some disgusting noodles.

The next morning I went to work and well I didn’t have any plans because I hadn’t read any of my China/Shanghai books. Sometimes I don’t plan everything in life and well August was just a bit crazy. So I went in and got “trained”. I am working at Scholastic. Yes. It’s the same company as the publishing company in the United States. I chose Scholastic because it’s an American company; people will know it when I return to the United States and when someone is reading my resume…. I mean I am hoping they read children’s books when they were little.

SCHOLASTIC/WORK

My training was done by Christine, who was part of the last group that was here through Concordia. Scholastic loved her enough to put her face on every business card, every poster, and flyer they have through out Shanghai. I was assigned to teach Levels 1-5, basically children who range from four years old to seven years old. It takes them about 48 weeks to go through the entire alphabet and Levels 1-4. Well since I arrived two weeks after everyone else, I had a week before I dove into teaching. We’re all assigned a co-teacher. One of my co teachers is named Peggy. Peggy basically has written out the lessons plans for me and has twice randomly said, “You are very pretty.” The first time she said that kind of freaked me out but I’m guessing she is finds me a bit perplexing since I’m semi an ABC. An ABC stands for American Born Chinese.

As I write this, we are having a week long vacation but I have technically been on a vacation since mid September. I haven’t taught M-F, because some mother did not like how the company switched teachers on her child so she had Scholastic bring back the old teacher. The mother also worked for the government in the education department. So basically I just went into the office to make up my time. Teaching to me here is like babysitting. The teaching schedule that I have has me teaching Monday, Wednesday nights, a training Thursday morning, no work on Tuesday and Friday, teaching Saturday morning, and all day Sunday. Our commitment is 16 hours of teaching and then 8 hours of training. Technically I could go out every night except for maybe Friday night and Saturday night, since I would not want to be hung over teaching children. People go out here a lot during the week so it hasn’t been a problem or anything about not going out on the weekend. More on going out later. Basically I am slightly bored during the day time but I am going to be taking Chinese classes so that I will take up my time and I am also looking for another job but I am trying to get a marketing internship. I hope to get one by the January and do it for at least six months.

APARTMENT/ROOMMATES

So because I came here two weeks after my roommates I basically just showed up to find out what I would find. My apartment is also about an eight minute walk to Ikea. It’s the only Ikea in Shanghai. I guess I have a habit of living near Ikea since I lived across the street from one in San Diego. I live with two people, a girl and guy who went to Biola University. Jacob reminds me of Gumby when he’s dancing. My only tiff with him is that Krysti and I are always cleaning after him and he never washes the dishes. Krysti is super sweet and just graduated from college. She’s working for EF International and works 40 hours a week and is only making 1000 kwai more than me, which is about $133 than me but works a lot more than do. Needless to say for a girl who just graduated, started a graduate program, moved to another a country and started her first 40 hr work job she broke down and sobbed the third week being here in China. And we took her to get ice cream and went out in our pajamas at midnight. We get along really well. She doesn’t drink really but doesn’t mind going out. Jacob and I want to go to a lot of the nice bars together and check out some restaurants, but because he’s Caucasian and I’m not, people probably assume that we’re just another Chinese girl/White Boy couple. The other day we went to one of the nicest Thai restaurants in Shanghai together.

I have the smallest room in the apartment. I have no closet but a dresser. It’s smaller than my single when I lived in my sorority house. I was going to move out and actually end up living with someone who was from Berkeley. But Jacob decided he would end up paying more so thus I am still here. Other than the small room, my apartment is pretty nice for hosting people. I live on the 29^th floor and across from the Shanghai Stadium. After living here for a year I maybe over rooftop bars. I have seen fireworks from the Stadium side of the city and from other parts of the city about half a dozen times already. The other night we hosted a Special Olympics viewing party and we could see our apartment on TV as we were watching the ceremony on TV. WE HAVE NO OVEN!!! The Chinese don’t like to bake I guess so a lot of apartments don’t have ovens here. So no baking cupcakes for a year =(. Our apartment complex consists of about 12 buildings and the there are guards 24/7. My roommates always wave to them, so I think they get a slight chuckle. We have video call system so when someone comes to the apartment we can see them on a video screen, kind of cool. We have an ayi, who basically is our cleaning lady. All though some of you may have a cleaning lady, it seems like everyone here does. And living so close to IKEA; I’ve eaten there about half a dozen times. I can trust that they have a standardized cleaning system and they have salmon! But my roommate and I have been there so many times. We have also lugged our share of stuff from Ikea.

GOING OUT

Well like I said I could go out every night except Friday and Saturday. But waking up with a hangover and teaching children is not like waking up to a 9-5 job corporate job. But all the other nights are fine. It seems to be ladies night as so many places so we’ve slightly tried to stick to those places. I haven’t had paid for an alcoholic drink yet. And when I mean by ladies night the drinks are on the house. A lot of places with happy hours offer buy one get one free or set prices like 25/30/50 kwai for drinks. However going to a standard place drinks can run 60-70 kwai. But there are clubs here that for a set price, something between 80-150 kwai, it’s open bar. And an open bar is deadly for some peopleMy favorite bar so far is called Barabossa’s . It has a Moroccan theme to it and is in the middle of a park with a small lake surrounding it. I felt like I was in Central Park. At night the taxi’s start at 14 kwai, instead of the starting 11 kwai.

CHINESE FOOD

Can you think of your worst hangover in your life? You know the time you probably declared over and over you would not drink ever again, worst headache in the world, almost no memory of the night, dry heaving in the morning, and your roommates/frat brother/sorority sister/ family member/friend forced you to take something so you wouldn’t be in pain ….well times that by three or four. And that’s how I felt for a weekend. Let me tell you about the best diet ever! It will make you lose four pounds! I had some tofu and mushroom soup and some rice for dinner. Krysti had a little bit of the soup as well. That was a Saturday dinner time. With out too much detail to make you stop reading, I had an extreme food poising which according to webmd.com I should seen a doctor immediately. Krysti also was sick too. I didn’t spend most of the night in bed but in the bathroom. On Sunday I slept not a few hours according to my roommate I slept for about 12 hours. And that is very rare for me. But all I can remember was forcing myself to eat something for breakfast, and then waking up around late at night because I needed to translate for my roommate. I really didn’t want to go to the hospital because I figured that the only thing they would do would maybe give me an IV. And I’ve had one before and sitting there for a couple of hours is not so fun. Krysti was fine after a day so I knew I just had it a couple of times worse than her and that it would eventually pass. That toilet was probably flushed two to three dozen times. At one point I was telling myself that I just wanted to quit the program and go home. I knew I wasn’t going to die from it , but if I did I thinking, that I wanted to see my parents one more time and a pretty beach sunset. Needless to say that I won’t be having a tofu/mushroom soup for a very long time. On the Wednesday prior to my fp, my roommates name for food poisoning, I had a health exam. I weighed 52 kilograms (114 lbs) and then when a week we were at IKEA I found a scale and came in at 50 kilograms (110 lbs). I think I’ve gained it back but I’m a little scared to weigh myself.

But other than that my roommates and I eat out a lot. Eating out can mean buying street food, food court, restaurants , etc. I never got how some people would eat out all the time but now I do. First all I am sad I can’t bake, sometimes you just don’t want to spend the time, there’s food choices close to by when you’re leaving the metro. There’s a place called Foxtown and they have about 12 different food options, so I end up there a lot. I am trying to avoid eating Chinese food as much as possible, for now at least so I don’t get sick.

FASHION

I only brought seven dresses with me. But I haven’t been impressed at all with what people wear here. However I have been going to the fabric market. I got one silk dress made and one pair of blue linen pants. I’m going to get a winter coat made and I think I know what type of design I want and have been “looking” at J.Crew for inspiration. Some things are cheaper like getting dress shirts, coats and suits made but I’m finding out that getting dresses made is like paying the same the prices for dresses if you get them in the states. Supposedly it gets into the 20s and 30s here during the winter and the rain is horrible here. Because of my broken Chinese and the fact that when I go to the fabric market I am always with a “western” person who ends up buying something, my dress person has gone down in her prices. But I guess you can expect me to be wearing a lot of the same things in pictures until the spring time.

NETWORKING

To put in mildly, people network here like crazy. I’ve gone to two Cal/Stanford functions already. But I mean also networking and becoming fast friends. For example my friend Sabine I met on a Wednesday. She’s my friend Christine’s, best friend’s former co-worker. On Friday we hung out with a few of my friends and some of her friends. I met her friend Eric, an east coast boy from the states. Over the weekend Eric and some of his friends were going out and invited me but I had plans already. The next Tuesday they came over for a party, then I was suppose to go to a concert with them on Wednesday night but I was too tired, then on Thursday I had a long day entertaining so I didn’t go to Barbarossa with them the funny thing was I was there at Barbossa , but on Friday I went to an outdoor concert with them and then Saturday it was Cici’s birthday. Yes there is having your friend’s friend become your friends but this is on an intense level. Needless to say when I run out of my contact cards from the states I will get some printed with my Chinese phone number. I thinking about joining the American Women’s group here …aka the Junior League for American wives and/or an expatriate women’s networking group. I also tried to register as a free agent for a dodge ball league but we’ll see if they have any openings.

SURVIVING WITH MY CHINESE

If you didn’t already know….Three of my grandparents were born in China. One grandparent was born in Malaysia. My parents were born in Thailand. I was born in California. My father spoke Thai with me growing up but my mom would speak Mandarin [the most common dialect of Chinese] with me. However my mother would throw in English words and Thai words so that’s why my Mandarin isn’t very strong. I would compare it between a five to eight year old in speaking. I don’t have any Chinese friends yet but I will be taking a Chinese class twice a week for ten weeks I think starting next week. I am hoping that by the time I leave China I will be speaking at a high intermediate level and know at least 1000 characters. They say to have basic fluency you need to know about 3000 characters.

PEOPLE IN MY PROGRAM

There are about thirty people in program all through out Shanghai or in the burbs of Shanghai. We all teach for different companies. There about twelve people who are teaching at the same place with me at Scholastic. I could write a lot about some of these people, but to put it mildly, I will later.

WHAT I MISS/AMERICAN THINGS

I met this woman who was from the states and she asked if I was happy here. And I said, “It’s not that I’m not unhappy in Shanghai but that I miss my friends when they miss me or when it’s someone’s birthday.” So the day it’s your birthday I will miss YOU. The day it’s an American holiday I will be missing the states. However it’s reassuring to know that I live with two Americans. For Halloween I think my roommate and I are going to dress up as panda bears. I mean we are in China. Krysti wants to throw a Halloween party before we go out. At first I wanted to put my hair in braids and do some kind of costume. But I’ve been Pocahontas, a German Beer Girl, and a cowgirl. But then someone suggested that I repeat a costume. And the first thought I had I mind was, “Former sorority girls don’t repeat costumes.” And as anyone from any college knows and especially those who were in the Greek system knows, there are lots of times to play dress up. I AM SO HAPPY they have Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf here in Shanghai. They have about 15 locations and I’ve been to five of them. If you want whip cream it’s 5 kwai more!! The price is the same and it tastes the same. They also have a CPK, Tony Roma’s, TGIF and Subway. Subway with a sandwich, two cookies and drink is only 30 kwai so a little under $4! And they have one of my favorite kinds of cookies! Dark Chocolate chip cookies!!! Whoopie!

DAILY LIFE/SUBWAYS/TAXIS/CROSSING THE STREET

Sometimes living on the 29^th floor of a high rise can make you lazy. Granted the metro stop is right behind the apartment complex, sometimes you just don’t want to leave. However when I am out….let’s just say that getting hit by a bus, person on a bike, taxi, car, motorcycle is high possibility. When crossing the street and the countdown starts I start to literally sprint. It reminds me of doing mini sprints in junior high.

RANDOM NOTES

If anyone still has their laptop or computer from college and wrote a business proposal for one of their classes could you email it to me? I have to write one. =( And I hope you have a Halloween costume in mind!!!! The holidays are coming……

Check back in August....

I'll start to blog on this when I am actually in China... until then some of you will still be getting some mass emails from me =)