World Cup

It's actually kind of interesting being in another country for the World Cup, especially since America is well known for its apathy regarding "the Beautiful Game."  People in China are very mixed about it and I do find a significant number of people that are genuinely interested in watching it and will stay up all night watching their favorite teams.

Qingdao also has more Europeans than it does Americans, so all the bars are constantly playing the matches.  The timing ends up being at 10PM, 12AM, and 2AM so it really works out for the bars here.  I've actually ended up watching a lot of games by simply being out during the weekend.

This is the theme song that you may (or may not) have heard, but I hear it all the time: on the radio, on the bus, on the TV, etc.  It's pretty catchy so listen away!

The little things

After a week of solidly crappy weather, today was really a beautiful day.  Qingdao had clear blue skies, a light breeze and a temperature in the mid-70s.  I even got to enjoy an Americano at Starbucks downtown... outside!

This is the reason I've wanted to be in Qingdao all along and it's really too bad that the weather is only this perfect during my last few weeks here.  I guess it's for the best though because I will have a beautiful memory of a fine city instead of the frigid temperatures that some *cough Jenna cough* left in January. 

I'm pretty over teaching right now.  I'm sick of the lesson planning, the reviewing, the grading, and the constant stream of work.  I just wish I could go home and not have to think about work constantly, but this is all part of the job.  I understand that any line of work comes home with you, but with teaching there is always more lesson planning and more grading to be done at home.  To all the teachers out there -- you are so amazingly hard working and dedicated.  Seriously.  Hats off to you.

I'm going to miss Shandong food.  I just wish I could really learn how to cook the foods I eat here but know it won't taste the same because I lack:

- a large vat of MSG
- peanut oil
- a well seasoned wok
- a huge flame to put aforementioned wok on
- crazy/ yelling/ joyous restaurant owner
- dirt-under-the-nails chefs

My stream of sentimental end-of-semester blog posts have started.  Andd.... 开始!

Woah there.

One month left?! You gotta be kidding me. 

My parents, Mark and Shauna were here this weekend and it was a lot of fun.  We walked around the seaside and May 4th Square, the Old German town, the Qingdao pier, and went to the Qingdao Beer Factory Museum.  And of course, ate a lot of seafood and drank a lot of beer. 

It was a fun weekend and now it's back to the last three weeks of teaching before I start exams. 

Plus, Matt gets here in 34 days (yes I started a countdown) and I cannot wait!

This is all very bittersweet though, because as much as I love to complain about China and its crap (my apartment smells strangely like sewage right now...), I do really like being here.  I'm excited for Matt to come but also at the same time a little sad because it indicates the beginning of the end of Mission: China 2k9-10. 

One of my students was crying during class today because she found out that because she landed the internship at The Beijing Hotel (an awesome 5-star hotel in downtown Beijing), she has to leave next week to start work.  She was just so upset that she had to leave a month earlier than everyone else and miss all the end-of-term parties and hoohah. 

I got a little sad too because I realized that would be soon too. 

So here's to enjoying my last few weeks here with some awesome people, good food and beer, and fantastic students. 

My apartment still smells like sewage and korean seafood though, and that sucks a lot.

What I learned today

Apparently the Chinese have a little custom that if they burn their hands on a pot or scald their fingers on a mug of hot water, they touch the tips of their ears because it is the coldest part of the body.

Why don't we have anything like this?

Current addictions

- NPR podcasts: The Diane Rehm Show, Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me, Fresh Air, This America Life, etc.

- White Rabbit Candy: It might be dangerous and possibly poisonous but, damn, is it good. 

 - 红烧茄子 (hong shao qie zi): braised brown sauce eggplant, an addiction I have fueled since Summer 2007
- My VPN

- Studying Chinese with 田老师

  (borrowed from Liuzhou Laowai)

- Pretending I am in America

- Starbucks in China, pretending I am in America while studying Chinese
- Rob's copy of The Economist that is sent to him from Singapore and passed on to me

- Pretending to DJ for my students during break:  I am determined to make them like more than just sappy love ballads and pop groups from the 90's. 

- Yogurt: The yogurt I get here is so freaking good.  Probably because it's made with whole milk, but I also like to think that since I buy the Mongolian milk brand, it's a little tastier. 

to be continued...

Alone.

I got back to Qingdao yesterday afternoon and ran around the train station for about 45 minutes trying to find my bus after which it took me about one and a half hours to get back to good ol' Qingdao Hotel Management College.  This was only to come back to a frigid apartment because the heat has been turned off on campus because school is out.  So I've basically holed myself up in my bedroom with the door closed, AC/heater and little space heater blasting.

About 31 hours left of this...

It's weird being back here thinking that there is no one on campus besides myself and a few security guards.  All my students are back at their respective homes, enjoying yummy food, hanging out with their friends, and sleeping in their own beds.  Do you remember the first break after coming to college?  It was such a blast meeting up with everyone from high school and comparing notes about our new lives.  It's also strange thinking that Jenna doesn't live upstairs anymore and that I don't know who I'm going to go eat dinner with every night across the street.  I'll just have to see what the new semester brings me, student and coworker-wise.  


Getting my fill of China

I'm probably going to miss being here during the month I will be in America and Ireland.  No, I definitely am going to miss being here.  Yesterday I pretty much set my bags down and immediately went to the grocery store to get food (post-vacation empty fridge, we've all been there) and walked around the aisles thinking about all the snacks and foods that I'd miss and want to share with others when I was back in the States.

Today I ran more errands, including picking up my new qipao (!!), and was wondering about the whole readjustment thing because I am so accustomed to life here right now.  I'm used to getting shoved in and out of buses and being in a constant crowd of people.  America is going to be a weird place to go back to.

And here is the list that will change and grow throughout the next few days and weeks...


Things I will miss:
- street food

- mantou and rice

 

- random music playing on the street corners

- being able to ignore absolutely everything 

- talking about people and them not being able to understand you 

- rice snacks, milk candy, alpenliebe chocolates, hi-chew candies

- everything being so cheap 

- hot soy milk 

Things I am excited for:

- family and boyfriend! 

- Facebook 

- cheese and a real milkshake

- my full wardrobe

- TV

- real sized dogs

- a haircut 

- uncensored internet

It's weird packing right now and trying to figure out what to bring back/ wear in America and what to leave here.  Needless to say, I haven't packed much yet.  I have a growing pile of stuff on the floor and some of my clothes are drying in the next room.  

Oh, and I think Flickr is blocked again in China but I will upload photos from my January Adventure when I get to the US!

 

My new qipao that I will wear to Matt's 100th night banquet at West Point!

My fan page has 500 members

Teaching is for the egotistical.  I mean, who else would put themselves up on a stage or podium to tell others about the alleged knowledge that they possess?  People who think they are awesome.

I think I am pretty awesome.  Clearly I do, since I blog about my life, assuming that I'm snarky and interesting enough for others to pay attention.  And, well, teaching oral English makes you feel pretty freakin' awesome.

It's like having a personal fan club of 50+ students with ten different sections.  They love taking pictures with/of me, saying "Hello teacher!" or "Hello Miss Alison!" on the street, and complementing me on my smile or telling me that I'm beautiful.  If you ever feel like you have a self-esteem problem, come to China and these students will throw so many nice things your way, you will feel like you are a model turned genius.

Here is a picture of my class 15, my highest level that I teach.  They are all pretty great and have a very good command of English.

(and if you are read my earlier post from Brandon/ Pine, he is in the middle, below the guy in the yellow striped sweater, named James)

They think I'm awesome.  Because I am.

New Years in Shanghai

新年快乐！Happy New Year!

I spent my New Years weekend in Shanghai with my friend Max, who is interning at a law firm translating documents and such.  Getting to the city was annoying because not only was my plane 20 minutes delayed leaving from Qingdao because of a late arrival, but the Maglev was broken, so I had to take an airport bus into the city.  Fortunately, I was sitting next to a very nice Chinese man who helped me to figure out which subway stop to take to meet Max for Japanese teppanyaki courtesy of his German roommate, Daniel, and his parents.

Then we went to drop my stuff off and by the time we managed to catch a cab (it was a serious debacle trying to get one and I actually shoved my way into a cab before another guy could), it was about 11:30 PM.  We headed to Kangaroo Bar, grabbed a quick drink and were surrounded by fire torches at the stroke of midnight!

The Modern Shanghai

The next morning I wanted to go to The Bund, but it was closed for renovations for the Shanghai Expo.  I'm still pissed I didn't get to stroll on the famous Bund, which was the only 'must-do' in Shanghai for me.  The expo has seriously taken over the city, with pictures of the little Expo mascot (which looks like a mini-Gumby), countdown clocks, and slogans everywhere.  It's just as crazy as Beijing was about the Olympics.

We walked around on East Nanjing Road, a kind of giant pedestrian mall swarming with tourists and huge billboards.  There was a huge Sephora, Zara, and a huge Nike store with Kobe Bryant on it.

After much wandering around the area, avoiding construction sites and swarming Jan1st tourist mobs, I finally got to take a nice photo in front of the famous Shanghai/Pudong skyline!

Amidst all the development, large malls, and skyscrapers, I was amazed by Shanghai's assortment of public parks.  There are many "little" parks in the downtown area, some complete with little lakes, paddle boats and bumper cars for kids, squares for public ballroom dancing, and places to sit.

And that's about when I concluded that there was nothing that hadn't been run over by hyper-development... so the search for the "real" Shanghai began.

We went to the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Museum in his old house in the French Concession.  I have a lot of respect and love for the man and think he did some really amazing things when he was President of the Republic, including being fluent in English and traveling around the world.  The house was really cool and I totally nerd-ed out looking at old photos and artifacts. 

That evening, we went out to get Korean BBQ with the Germans.  Max and I were really tired from walking around the city all day, so we tried to make it a chill night and go out to a jazz club.  We ended up being too early for the show, so we went back to Kangaroo Bar for a drink or two, and ended up leaving four hours later.  Chinese people are awesome.

In Search of Old Shanghai

The next morning, we headed out to Jade Buddha Temple which houses this GIANT statue of Buddha made out of a single chunk of jade.  It was really neat and the temple was also pretty active.

 

(Not the Jade Buddha.  No pictures allowed in that hall.)

After this, we wandered into a neighborhood not far from People's Square where people (a) didn't live in high rise buildings and (b) weren't surrounded by Western stores.  I love taking pictures of the vendors and stores here and would have taken a picture of every single one if I could. 

 

We also wandered into a pretty cool Daoist temple nearby, which had a ceremony of sorts and some really awesome statues.

 

I find East Asian religions fascinating and always feel a little sacrilegious (read: Catholic guilt) when I take photos in temples.  They are just so intricate and interesting to me that I can't help but take pictures!

Where is Shanghai?

I realize I'm being a huge China snob when I start separating what is "real" and "fake" Shanghai.  But what makes Shanghai, well, Shanghai?  Is it the skyscrapers or is it the old buildings that are being razed to make room for the high-rise buildings?  Or even the Shanghainese feeling that they are superior to the rest of the Chinese?  Maybe it's because I came to appreciate China in Beijing, but Shanghai is just so unlike what I know that it baffles me. 

So that's my "little" post about Shanghai.  I've been really busy this week because it is exam week and I have to grade 500 students!  Next post: Spring Vacation