It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The hardest part about working in China--I just now stopped typing and considered deleting this because there are about a million things that make working in China difficult, so let me clarify--the hardest part about working in China at this time of the year is not having the standard U.S. break. The days after Thanksgiving are always a little hard to get through as excitement for the Christmas season really kicks off, but you can rest easy knowing that you only have to make it through a few more weeks before a bigger, better rest lays on the horizon. Mike and I are over here saying, "okay, only a month left, only a month left." Yikes! A month! A month? Actually, when you consider how much is scheduled in those four weeks, it seems scary that it's only a month away.

For better or worse (and let's be honest, it's for better), we will be getting on a plane and leaving behind Shanghai for almost three weeks! In the meantime, I'm listening to Spotify's "Oldies Pop Christmas" playlist, drinking lots of hot chocolate, watching terrible, terrible Christmas movies on Netflix and Hulu (you know, the ones that inevitably involve a soldier in the military; a letter that does or doesn't get delivered; a wise, sweet grandpa-like man who is actually Santa Claus, etc.) while I grade stack upon stack of essays and using more hair oil than usual because it somehow smells like Christmas trees and cinnamon candles (I know, I have no idea). Next on my list is watching Family Stone because I keep hearing Frank Sinatra's "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and thinking of the scene in the movie where the father sees his grown daughter watching "It's a Wonderful Life" while her own daughter sleeps on her lap, and I become all teary eyed. Better to watch it, cry like a baby, and get it out of my system.

Since my last post, my baking has really taken off. I found measuring cups at a little Japanese store and learned that the Taobao market will deliver things on the same day if I order before 11 am, so sugar, flour, and anything else I might need are only a few clicks away. I think the ordering of our Thanksgiving meal also introduced me to a number of online western grocery stores, and now I order groceries every two weeks or so, and I can pretty much find anything I need. My next baking undertaking will be a coconut cake with a coconut cream cheese frosting. I am excited about it because I like coconut in desserts but Mike doesn't and I can't make an entire cake for myself (can I?), so I never make any at all. But my coworker Lynn tried coconut cake for the first time when she brought our eleventh grade students to the U.S. this past summer, and she's been dreaming of it ever since. Chinese cakes are usually beautiful but pretty tasteless, and coconut cake isn't really a thing her anyway, so I promised I'd make it happen. I should probably finish grading the monthly tests first though....

I turn 30 in twelve days. I didn't think it would feel much different, but it does seems that it is sort of marking an extra level of adulthood in my life. I think a lot of that stems from my forever-growing work responsibilities and the realization that if I want something, I'm ultimately responsible for getting it. Mike and I often talk about these two years in China as a stepping stone to something greater, but these two years aren't simply a time-out from life; they're still very much two years of our lives. This is why cooking and baking were added back into our routines and why I am taking a painting class next Sunday!

Becoming skilled in painting is one of the things on my bucket list. I always loved art class when I was in elementary and that creative urge never really went away, but I suppose finding the time to create something and then the fear of being graded on my ability sort of steered me away from doing any other classes. I actually took theater in college for my fine art credit because I was terrified by the thought of being graded on a sketch or painting. Ha! Somehow being graded on performing in front of people on a stage seemed less intimidating, which is a funny thought (but perhaps supports my sometimes ham-like nature). Anyway, after I did a paint night with my aunt last year, I bought a few basic paints and brushes and experimented  a little, but I never signed up for a class to really learn the art of painting.

Last night as I was wandering around a well-known market in the city that consists of narrow alleyways woven together, I came across a cluster of galleries. One of my favorite things to do in a new place is learn about the local art scene, probably because it usually leads to talking to people and a really memorable experience. I talked to a few of the owners and painters, and then I saw a gallery that had canvases set up with what looked like student work. I scanned the WeChat code, which turned out to be the owner's personal handle, and before I knew it, we had set up a class together! The painting we will be working on is an incredibly beautiful (and very professional-looking) fall landscape, and I can't wait to get started.

I've made it about halfway through the essays I have to grade, and there are a number of other things on my to-do list, so until next time...

Nicki

October and November Updates

As I mentioned in my last post, Mike and I traveled to Taiwan for a week in October during China’s national holiday. I think this is probably evident to most of you, but I am a very nostalgic person. Even things that seemed impossibly hard at the time will evoke a sense of nostalgia when I think back on them. I think part of this may be due to the fact that I also have pretty high standard and hopes for future events. I’ll think ahead to where I think I’ll be in two years or even the feeling of accomplishment and relief I expect to feel when x is completed and push through whatever challenge I’m facing. I’ve often found, however, that when I arrive at that next stage, things aren’t quite what I expected them to be. More than that though, I think that my nostalgia is a product of the fact that I am generally a happy person. I try to do as much of the things that make me happy as I can and hold on to memories of those things. 

I was elated to be going back to Taiwan. When we finally landed in Taoyuan, we caught a bus right away to take us from the airport to the high-speed rail (HSR), and as soon as we were on the road, it was amazing to see how much greener everything was. It was so comforting to set foot in the rail station and see some of the restaurants I used to frequent and remember what it was like to be a 22-year old girl living in Taiwan.

We had lunch at MOS, a Japanese fast-food chain that specializes in rice patty “burgers” of various types. I remember thinking it was weird the first time I had it, but it became one of those things that just grows on you and reminds you of the local food scene. I had a spicy seafood burger and Mike ordered a teriyaki mushroom burger, and our meals came with fries and deliciously cold sweet tea; as expected, the temperature in Taiwan was quite warm.

We boarded our train shortly after and settled into our seats, excited to take in the beautiful view of water-flooded farms as we made our way down south. Our flight had been scheduled to the leave the night before at 10, but thunderstorms in the east had delayed us for a good hour and a half, so we didn’t arrive to our transfer point until about 1:30 am. In China, you have to check in for each leg of your trip, so we had to wait in the departure hall until we could check in for our next flight at 8 am. With no proper space to sleep, it was a restless night. Needless to say, we saw about 15 minutes of the beautiful scenery before completely conking out.

When we arrived in Kaohsiung, the temperature was even warmer! Ah, southern Taiwan: steamy as always. Julianna came to pick us up at the HSR station and take us back to Wenfu, the school where we co-taught together. As soon as I saw her, it was like no time had passed at all; she was always picking me up and dropping me off at the station.

As soon as we arrived at the school, I saw many familiar faces. Some of the staff had moved on, but I saw many teachers with whom I had previously worked. One of them was Joey, a homeroom teacher of one of the grade 5 classes. I remembered Joey as a sweet, but slightly shy woman who was not entirely confident in her English ability, but the woman who greeted me was so open and fluent in her communication. I commented on this and she beamed with delight; apparently a trip to Iceland had given her the push to use English and had really made a difference in her ability to communicate in English. We spent a good while catching up, and then Mike and I visited Julianna’s new classroom and chatted for a while before dinner.

For our first night in Kaohsiung, Peiwen made reservations for us all to go to dinner at a restaurant located next to Lotus Pond. Lotus Pond is one of Kaohsiung’s most scenic spots and a place that I would go often with Julianna and her family, so it was a great choice for dinner.

Julianna had gone to pick her son Stephen up from school and then came back to get Mike and me. When I last saw Stephen, he was a gangly nine year old with a cute little boy haircut. Even though Julianna had shown me a recent picture of him so that I wouldn’t be totally shocked, I couldn’t believe how grown up Stephen looked! His older sisters pretty much look the same (one is almost done with graduate school and another just graduated from college), but he looked entirely different. But I soon found that he was still the same sweet boy I had spent Wednesday afternoons with while he waited in our office for Julianna to finish teaching. When we said goodbye that night, he unexpectedly pulled out an old joke from all those years ago. When Julianna used to drive me to the station, Stephen and his hilarious friend were often with us, and they'd always yell "b-y-e, b-y-e" and wave whenever we parted ways. Hearing that again made me so incredibly happy, because it made me feel like I wasn't the only one who had held on close to those memories. 

The other big surprise, of course, was seeing Yuki in person after 6 years! As excited as I was, a part of me was nervous—children change a lot between the ages of four and ten. Yuki was a little quiet when she walked in, but she gave me a hug right away, and I figured she’d open up once we had all settled in. Her brother Akira, however, was very much not excited to be meeting foreigners. Again, I was hoping this was something that would pass after a bit, and when I offered to let him take a sip of my sparkling mango juice, we became best friends. He even climbed out of his chair on the far side of the table as he announced that he wanted to sit with me. I was proud to have won over another four-year old, but I quickly realized why Shengrong, Peiwen's husband, had said “good luck” when I told him how excited I was to meet Akira. Akira is an incredibly *spirited* little boy. By the time we had gotten back to Peiwen’s house where we were staying, Akira had warmed up to us and started sobbing when Peiwen informed him that he could not, in fact, sleep in our bed with us.  

The next morning Mike and I walked to the traditional market near Peiwen’s home and ordered rice rolls and breakfast toast sandwiches. The combination of ingredients is a bit bizarre, but again, it’s one of those things that you just learn to love as a local specialty. After breakfast, we hopped on the subway and went to my old neighborhood near the Cultural Center. We walked around a lot and eventually wandered into the tea house where I used to have Chinese lessons to take a break from the intense sun and the 90-degree heat. I went into the restaurant where I purchased my favorite piece of art to see if I could track down the seller again, but the owner said he hadn’t seen him in a long time, and when he tried to call him, the number was out of service. I thanked him for trying, and we ended up having lunch at my favorite bakery next door since I found that the Thai restaurant I had loved so much had closed down.

As good as it was to see my old neighborhood, it reminded me that so much of what makes a place special is the people we share it with. Without the other Fulbrighters or the familiar faces of the guards and shop owners, the Cultural Center seemed a little lonely. Life is always changing, so it would be nearly impossible to imagine that everything there would have stayed the same. Still, I was thankful to be there again and remember all the ways that the area had been important to me.

Over the next few days we visited the school again, cooked dinner at home with Yuki and Akira (and almost had heart attacks when we saw Akira was in charge of chopping vegetables), ate “dinner” at a night market (probably Mike’s favorite experience of the trip), took Yuki and Akira to a fruit market (Akira rode on Mike’s shoulders and thought it was the coolest thing ever) and had to explain to the other customers that, yes, the kids were in fact Taiwanese and we were just out for a walk while their parents were cooking at home, and had one last gathering with both families over a potluck-style meal at home. I couldn’t believe how much Yuki opened up after our first night. When I first met her, she knew the words of some colors in English. We had extensive conversations this time around about the environment, school, families—everything in English. Even Peiwen said she was shocked to learn how comfortable Yuki was communicating in English. It was amazing.

On our last full day in the city, Frank, Julianna’s husband, took Mike to Fo Guang Shan, the largest Buddhist temple in Taiwan. I had agreed to give a presentation to my former Chinese teacher’s college class and then we had plans to go out for lunch afterward. She took me to Tasty, a well-known steakhouse, and I almost died when we ordered the five-course lunch. The food was good, but everything was incredibly rich. Even the milk tea had tiramisu syrup and caramel corn on top! I had stayed up way late the night before prepping, so I wasn’t quite prepared for such an elaborate meal, but the restaurant was quiet, the food was *tasty* (that one's for you, Mer), and I was happy to have so much time to talk with my teacher.

I had a bit of extra time after lunch, so I took the subway to a department store near the house and browsed for a bit. Department stores in Taiwan and China are much more expensive than they are in the U.S. and often house luxury brand stores, so I was really just window shopping. I happened to come across a little jewelry stand that was having a sale, and that’s where I purchased the key necklace that I posted a picture of on Instagram and Facebook. It seemed very appropriate to have such a symbolic reminder of Kaohsiung and my return trip there. After purchasing the necklace, Mike and I headed back home for our final dinner with everyone. We all gave hugs at the end of the night and said goodbye, but thankfully Peiwen and Shengrong are planning to visit Shanghai over the western new year, so we’ll meet again soon in Shanghai!

These days, the weather is much chillier in Shanghai (I had to order fleece pajamas for both Mike and me), and although it doesn’t really look like fall in terms of the scenery, there’s definitely a more festive feeling in the air. It occurred to me that we had neither plans nor the proper equipment to prepare a Thanksgiving feast, but it seems that we will be ordering a spectacular spread from a restaurant that we can have delivered to our apartment and inviting our fellow American colleagues over for a celebration. Wherever I have lived, I have always held fast to preparing a Thanksgiving feast! In Taiwan it was IKEA meatballs, lingonberry, cream cheese mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole. My first year in Indiana, Andrea and I prepared a feast for all of our international student friends. It was so fun to share an important American custom with them, and in the process, I learned that what each person thinks of as traditional Thanksgiving food can greatly differ (I’m winking at you, Andrea). The following year in Boston, Mer and I turned out an impressive vegetarian feast with over thirteen dishes for just five people. Bobby Flay’s roasted Brussels sprouts with vanilla pecan butter and a pomegranate glaze was everything I had dreamed of, and, you guys, if you have any doubts about green bean casserole please try making it with all fresh ingredients! It totally revolutionizes the dish! So, even though I’m not cooking this year, you can bet that I’m going to gather everyone together and make sure they have plenty of food and wine. It’s the American way.

As many of you saw from the pictures we posted on Facebook, last weekend Mike and I ventured to the tailor market to purchase some custom made warm clothes. I didn’t pack a warm coat (and thank goodness, because my bag weighed 69 lbs, and the fee goes up to $100 at 70 lbs), so I knew I was going to be shopping for that, and Mike wanted to have a few nice blazers and suit jackets made. Luckily someone had already done the leg work and wrote an article about the vendors that offer quality work for a good price, so we were able to walk right in and get to work. I’m not very good at bargaining; once I decide I want something, I mean I love it, I gotta have it (bonus points if you get the movie reference), and I am honestly just really bad at knowing how much something should cost, because it’s all so much cheaper than you would pay in the U.S.! I think Mike’s and my approach to it is, if we think it’s a reasonable price, we’re willing to pay the money even if we could haggle them. Speaking Chinese helps, and joking with them about my unwillingness to bargain helps too. The thing is, most of them speak enough English to understand when Mike and I are discussing an offer, so that can make it difficult to secretly discuss what we think is reasonable. At the end of the morning, however, Mike had purchased three jackets, one of which is a traditional Chinese-style jacket (think Bruce Lee), and I had designed a wool winter coat, and purchased a cashmere belted sweater, a mid-length wool skirt, and an ultrasuede skirt. We pick them up this weekend!

After our shopping adventures, we decided to check out a Hunan restaurant that has been on Mike’s list of places to eat. It was voted the spiciest restaurant in Shanghai in 2009, and it’s no surprise given the amount of red chili peppers and chili oil contained in each dish. We ordered steamed taro balls, a dry-fried fish with garlic and chili seasoning, a delicious stewed eggplant and green bean dish, and a five-spiced tofu dish with chilies. Everything was tasty, the atmosphere was really cool, and it’s definitely a place we’d take any visitors—if they can handle a little heat, that is!

This was midterm week for the students, which has actually been a bit of a relief given how busy the past few weeks have been. The school always has a big Halloween party organized by the students, but since I’m the advisor for library council, and the council held a scary story contest, everyone assumed the library council (and me) was throwing the party! Given how hard we have to push for some things we consider to be basic necessities at school, it was a bit comical to see the student affairs staff suspending a giant disco ball from between the two main buildings and setting up fog and bubble machines. This is an excellent example of how Chinese culture often tends to value appearance more than other quality-related aspects of things. Regardless, the students had a great time, and the teachers were happy that the students could get back to concentrating on their classes. The week was a bit hellish given that I had a lot of Halloween party prep stuff to do in addition to writing my midterms and teaching my usual classes, but this week has been much more low-key. In fact, Monday is even another day off because there’s apparently a school-wide fieldtrip to an amusement park. I would have been happy to have a true day off as most teachers will, but Mike volunteered to chaperone because he wants to ride roller coasters, and I got cornered in the stairwell and asked if I, too, was going since my husband had already agreed to go. I was a little embarrassed and said that I was concerned about rain, but they assured me that it will only rain on Tuesday, not Monday (ha!), so I said that I would go. I'll be sure to take copious notes on the differences between American and Chinese theme parks!

I am off to Sephora (I know, I couldn't believe Shanghai has Sephora either!) to buy some moisturizer and to explore a bit, but I promise that my next post will come sooner. 

And feel free to leave comments or ask questions--you can always email too!

Oh, happy day!

So much to say. I feel like I should start with where I left off, but the there are exciting things awaiting us, so I must start there. WE LEAVE TOMORROW FOR TAIWAN!

Today is the first day of our week-long vacation for China's National Day, and there was only one place I wanted to go this holiday. It's been 6 years since I've seen Julianna, Peiwen and their beautiful families. Six years since I arrived in Taiwan fresh from college and excited to explore a career in teaching and independence living on my own in a Chinese-speaking party of the word. I think everyone knows how special Taiwan is to me, but even so, it is very hard to put into words the profound impact that those two years had on me. I feel like I'm finally getting to visit the long-distance relatives I only get to see every few years; I feel like I'm going home.

Mike and I have no other plans than to spend as much time as possible with these wonderful people who were my family when I was so far away from my own. Julianna is going to pick us up Monday afternoon and take us to the Wenfu where she and Peiwen still teach. Peiwen is organizing a dinner that night, and I can't wait to hear all about what's happened at the school since I've been gone. Yuki, who is now 10 (10!), is a student at Wenfu and very involved in the environmental protection club. I've watched videos of her giving speeches, and she's really quite impressive. I haven't met yet little brother yet, but it excites me to think that he is just a little older than Yuki was when she and I first met. While everyone is at work, I have plans to take him to the neighborhood where I used to live and show him the places I know so well. I have been dreaming about the rose tea, pumpkin soup, and delicious pasta dishes at the little cafe that sits catty-cornered from my old apartment building, and if if we walk down a little further, I can show him the tea house where Professor Li and I met for Chinese lessons once a week. Around the corner and through an alley is the Bird's Nest Cafe, which is where I first saw the stunning fall landscape that is my second favorite piece of art I have ever bought (and as Mike can attest, there's a good amount to choose from). I asked the people at the cafe if they knew the artist's information, and they handed me a business card for a gallery. I called the owner, and because I didn't know the area very well, he offered to give me a ride to the gallery (as I type this I know my aunt is probably thinking, "oh, geez...", but Taiwanese people are just so friendly!). It was at the art gallery that I met his business partner Chel, a woman who would become a good friend of mine. I was so open when I went to Taiwan that I just met people everywhere I went and amassed this amazing group of friends. It's something I'm thankful for every day.

Speaking of building friendships, this year's Mid-Autumn Festival turned out to be an excellent celebration! The typhoons that hit Taiwan were making their way up the coast, so it rained non-stop for the first entire day of vacation. Luckily, Mike had figured out that we can access our Hulu account on our computers if we do it just right, so I spend THE WHOLE DAY catching up on the rest of the summer shows that I hadn't seen before we left. It was like being at the spa for a day. The next day, we took a cab over to Ben and Emily's to have a festive lunch with them and a few of their good friends. I immediately liked Josh because he looks a lot like Grant, Trisha's husband, who is like a brother to me, and his wife Inez is very laid-back and fun. I loved talking with Oli because he works in the chemical industry here and is the only foreign person at his company, and I was absolutely fascinated and stunned at all of the dangerous situations he finds himself in. We had a Harry Potter movie marathon, which was fun since Mike and I have never seen the movies or read the books though Mike has since decided he ought to read them and has made it through the first book. Emily and I played with baby Chloe who has really seemed to take a liking to me (I think she was confused by my appearance and newness at our first meeting), and then we played games and talked for the rest of the afternoon. Eventually it became dinner time, and although we had all gorged ourselves on the delicious spread that Ben and Emily had prepared, when Josh and Inez took it upon themselves to order hot pot delivery for the group, no one complained! It had begun raining quite hard again, and when the delivery guy arrived, the lighter and every single match he had brought was complete soaked through and wouldn't light. We all danced around the table trying to light both wicks and then successfully place them in bottom of the pot until someone saw there was a designated spot designed to do that very thing without burning yourself. We unpacked trays and trays of fresh meat, greens, other veggies, and noodles, and ate until we could eat no more. We watched more Harry Potter, passed around the leftover brownies Ben had made, which were seriously the best homemade brownies I've ever had, and snacked on a bag of gummy bears. It was such a chill day and the best one we'd had in a while.

The week that followed after was long since whenever you get a weekday off, you have to make it back up by working a full day on Sunday. Officially the worst policy ever. But, the students have continued to open up, we're almost through with Act 1 Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet, clubs have gotten off to a good start (I supervise the Library Council and we're hosting a spooky story contest for Halloween this year!), and everyone is feeling a little more settled. I spent all of last Sunday preparing lessons at home, which made this week feel a lot less crazy, and when Ben and Emily invited me out for dinner and some games at a local sports complex/bar, I was able to say yes! It's amazing what a couple of rounds of batting cages, corn hole, and an authentic burger/beer/fries dinner can do for your soul!

We've got more comfort food on the menu, too! Mike and I have taken to having our groceries delivered, which allows us to easily purchase both Chinese and foreign products, and we got all of the ingredients to make hearty veggie nachos tonight. They were out of shredded cheese, so I'll be finely slicing mini Babybel cheeses into the closest I can get to shreds, but hey, cheese is cheese! Good ol' American tortilla chips topped with refried beans, black beans, avocado, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and even a green chili salsa! We purchased a rice cooker and we're slowly starting to build a mini pantry, but our cooking will be pretty simple here. Some spices and measuring spoons are a bit hard to come by, and our days are pretty long as it is, so we have less energy to experiment in the kitchen. Mike's been whipping up some excellent stirfrys and Japanese-style curries. Occasionally we'll do pasta and pick up some mini garlic loaves from the bakery on our way home. It's nice to be able to have some of the things we made together back home.

I'm off to get a pedicure (at this point you're probably thinking, "yeah, rough life, Nicki, rough life"), but at some point soon I'll try and upload some of the pictures we've taken on our phones! We've posted some on Facebook, but wouldn't want those without it to miss out!

Happy weekend, everyone!

The Brighter Side

As Nicki indicated in her last post, we have been very busy since school started last week. So, since I have 40 minutes before I need to go supervise the students’ evening study hall, I’ll write a quick update.

The challenging things I mentioned in my last post haven’t been a nearly as much of an issue. A cab driver assured Nicki that the spitting lady was probably not expressing disapproval of my existence. I’ve also seen the apparently angry guy from the elevator a few times, and he has been cordial. (He even said “good morning” in English to us recently.) I feel much more comfortable around our neighborhood now. It helps that I’ve been walking to and from the school almost every day; I think people are starting to recognize me, at least as “that foreigner with the neckties.”

The language challenges are still there, of course. Despite having no functioning Chinese, however, I have started to get familiar with Shanghai. It feels good to be able to find my way to things on my own, even if that involves relying heavily on map tools in English. I’m also developing a list of places in the city that I want to visit. Topping the list is Inferno, a bar and concert venue that seems to be the center of Shanghai’s metal scene. As soon as I see a promising show on a weekend, I’m going to check it out.

I’m adding to my list of responsibilities at work. In addition to teaching math, I’ll also be helping to coach badminton this year. I don’t know the sport at all, and I was only a mediocre (at best) tennis player in high school, but I was promised that the school would arrange for a proper head coach so that I can be an assistant and learn as much as possible myself.

I’m also doing what I can with college counseling here. One of my personal goals in this job is to ensure that our students are aware of the full range of college and university types in the U.S. When I ask them about their plans for college applications, most of them list what amounts to the U.S. News college rankings: Harvard, Princeton, MIT, etc. More power to the students who get into those schools, but I want to help our kids cast a wider net and to find institutions that will best fit their circumstances and needs. I’ve been in touch with some people at places where I have taught, and I hope to arrange some visits from staff at a variety of American colleges and universities to keep our students fully informed of their options.

Right now, though, my focus is mainly on figuring out how to adapt to a high-school setting. I meet with both of my classes every day, which is quite a bit different from the twice-or-three-times-a-week university classes that I’m used to teaching. I decided quickly that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with grading if I give daily homework assignments, so today, I gave my students their first weekly homework to do. That’ll give me a bit of breathing room to prepare lessons before the homework gets turned in next Monday. It might also give me time to blog a bit more frequently, so I’ll check in soon with more updates.

Mid-Autumn Festival

Wednesday is our last day of class for the week as students and teachers will be packing their bags and heading home for Mid-Autumn Festival. The holiday is very much like Thanksgiving in the United States; throngs of people return to their hometowns for the chance to celebrate togetherness and admire the beautiful moon. When I was living in Taiwan I posted about how a very successful barbecue sauce commercial that originally aired around the holiday had resulted in the tradition of barbecuing under the moon. Families and friends gift one another with moon cakes filled with all kinds of goodies from red bean and chestnut to roasted pork and salted egg yolk. It's a beautiful holiday, and it often marks the beginning of deliciously cool and breezy weather that resembles Fall.

And now, a confession. Being in China has been complicated for me. Each time I traveled abroad before it was strictly the result of a very clear choice I had made to further my knowledge of Chinese language and culture. My time in Taiwan was so great and so unique because of the amazing opportunity that landed me there, that being back in China has set off this internal dialogue about what I am doing here now. I will always love any teaching position I have, and my greatest hope for this position is that I'm able to help students grow immensely in their their ability to use English while building self-confidence and developing their creativity. Long work days, frequent adjustments, figuring out how to develop critical thinking skills in ninth graders, and adapting to a Chinese school environment are tough. I often feel like I will never be fully prepared even though I'm nearly always working.

Mike and I worked very long hours in the U.S.; we had six part-time jobs between the two of us! But we also had semi-flexible schedules that would allow for weekends away, dinners with friends, and time to visit with family. Fall had always been my favorite season, but in the past couple of years, it was the very best part of the year. It meant trips to Bloomington, the pumpkin patch, spending Thanksgiving in Michigan, celebrating Aunt Jenny's birthday, and  just enjoying cozy meals and quiet nights at home with a pooch.

As the weeks go on and we adapt to our workload (and the weather finally cools down), I'm sure we'll find more time to relax. We'll have holidays to explore new parts of China and other countries on our list. But for now, as I'm trying to stay afloat and all my Chinese colleagues excitedly await their trips home, I  find myself feeling sad that I can't spend my favorite season with my favorite people back home. So this Mid-Autumn Festival, when I look up at the moon, I will remember those perfect Fall days.

We Made it Through the First Week!

The first, and hopefully hardest, week of teaching is over! What a week it was! We actually worked a six-day week instead of the usual five because students and their parents came to campus last Sunday for orientation. Mike and I had spent all of the previous week at school prepping, including Friday and Saturday, so when 4:30 rolled around yesterday afternoon, I immediately felt a wave of relief.

It's hard to explain what our school is like, but I will give it a try. North Cross, the American half of the partnership, is an independent school based in Roanoke, VA. It strives to cultivate curious, independent, hard-working students who understand the importance of community, good-citizenship and the global world we live in. Mike and I were impressed with the student counselors we worked with at North Cross this summer. They were intelligent, kind, patient, and incredibly hard-working. The North Cross staff are all incredibly excited about this partnership with China because they believe in the educational goals of North Cross, and building connections across cultures is a cornerstone of their global studies curriculum.

Xinhe, the Chinese half of the partnership, is a private middle school that has now opened a high school program exclusively with North Cross. This high school program is in its second year, but, already, we have students in grades 9-12. Middle school in China consists of grades 7-9, so many of our students have come from other programs and will receive an extra year of high school to accommodate the American-style curriculum. There are dorms on campus so that students from various provinces in China can attend. It is not uncommon for students to move away from home even in high school to attend the best schools and programs; in the public system, students have to take a high school entrance exam that dictates what schools they may go to based on their academic ability.

North Cross  has two faculty members from its Virginia campus who serve as academic and student life directors here at North Cross-Xinhe, and then a number of American staff who have been recruited from the U.S. and abroad. The Chinese faculty are all incredibly welcoming and very hard-working, and I am super happy to be a part of the English department. The Chinese teachers in our department have studied and lived abroad, and all of them are extremely bi-cultural. The management and administrative team also speaks English quite well and has been very welcoming, but as you can imagine, there is some debate about how "Chinese" or "American" our school should be.

The structure of the school schedule is quite Chinese. Students have morning study from 7:40-8:00 in which they read aloud from their vocabulary textbooks and teachers correct pronunciation and cadence. Classes then begin at 8:00 and last for 40 minutes; students have 10-minute breaks between each period except in two cases where they have longer 25-minute breaks. These 25-minute breaks are used for physical exercise among other things; it is quite a site to watch each student retrieve a rope from their cubby and run down to the athletic courts where they jump rope under the direction of a very stern teacher shouting commands.

Although classes end at 4:30, students must be back for night study at 6 pm. Every teacher has to supervise these nightly study sessions from 6-8:45 pm once a week. Mike and I both supervise on Monday, a day I also have morning classes, which makes for our longest day at school. Although it made for a very tiring first day of teaching, it was nice to get it over with early in the week. Teachers also supervise clubs and sports teams since Wednesday afternoon classes are reserved for participation in these activities. It seems Mike will be coaching badminton, and I will be editing the newspaper and possibly doing something else; the extracurriculars have yet to be pinned down.

I am teaching two ninth-grade English classes, so I have the students for anywhere from two to four periods a day. Whereas most teachers teach different grades and content within their department, I am teaching only ninth grade. I really enjoy working with the students so much because I know that I'll get to know them very well and we'll have ample time to really build a solid foundation of English skills. My first impressions of this bunch is that they're intelligent, well-traveled, creative, and a little intimidated. By the end of the first week, however, many of them were speaking louder and more frequently in class. Most of them have broken the habit of standing up to give an answer anytime they're called on. Students also like to correct one another if another student is working out the pronunciation of a word, so I've implemented a "help" and "pass" system. Unless the student I've called on asks for help or decides to pass, other students must remain quiet.

I pretty much dove right into literature with the students since this is what we'd do in an American classroom setting. I chose the poem "Human Family" by Maya Angelou and showed them the "shot on iPhone 6" commercial that aired during the Olympics. I walked students through the structure and meaning of the poem, and we talked about contrast, rhyme, parallelism, and repetition. I showed students how to quote from a poem, and we talked about forming a topic sentence and including evidence from the text when analyzing text. After a few days of discussion, they had to write a paragraph either explaining the meaning of the poem or analyzing some aspect of the poem that they felt was really important. I will be reviewing their assignments this weekend, and I'm really excited to see how they did. It will help me gauge how much more support and preparation they need for this kind of writing analysis activity.

One of the challenges I'm facing is knowing when to introduce key information to the students. I have constructed lists of literary genres, terms, and essay types, but I didn't want to overwhelm them within the first week. Instead, what I chose to do was get started right away with an authentic text, and then talk about some of these elements as they emerged in the text. Now that students have seen some of these devices, I think they'll have a better grasp what literary and rhetorical devices are when I do give them a more complete list of terms. This is my hope, anyway.

Throughout making theses lists, I've also realized that the definitions require some very abstract language, and students may not understand the terms based on the English definitions I've given them. I've included examples that should help, but if a student just doesn't understand, I realized that I wasn't prepared with the Chinese translations for many of these terms. Although my students are great about using only English when speaking to me, what we're tackling is tough, and vocabulary is an important part of being able to analyze literature. So, I've been looking up these terms in Chinese, and I'm going in armed with lists and worksheets galore!

Grammar has been a bit more difficult because our first lesson was a review, but again, much of the work requires understanding the English terms for everything. The textbooks have a lot of drills, but they're dry, and I find that they lack thorough introductions of topics. I've devised a new plan that will entail having a mini worksheet for a warm-up, followed by introductions, examples, and interactive/communicative practice as opposed to relying on textbook drills. The drills can be assigned for homework. Another thing about grammar? Some students live and breathe it because it has traditionally been the focus of tests. You really have to know your stuff and make sure you are accurate and deliberate with your language choice and explanations!

I have one more class that I now teach as of yesterday. The school decided students should have an extra hour of English practice on Friday afternoons, but in order to have homeroom teachers (some of whom don't speak English) lead the activities, the default option was to give vocabulary tests. The English department wasn't in favor of this idea, so I volunteered to teach a creative writing class. Our first session yesterday entailed reading the beginning of a story aloud and then having individual students write their own endings. The results were great! I was so shocked to learn that some students who typically seem apathetic in class LOVE writing. It lead to great individual conversations as I went around to talk with students who had completed their writing, and it helped me truly understand just how distinct narrative writing skills are from analytical writing skills. The class was an exceptionally great way to end the week.

It's now Saturday, September 10, which is Teacher's Day in China. Yesterday, students presented teachers with a single rose as we entered the school gate, and our principal and staff arranged for an elaborate banquet dinner after school. Of course, no Chinese gathering is complete without karaoke, so I gave my first performance since six years ago. I chose a well-known Chinese song, and I think I shocked many of the teachers. There was cheering and loud applause and the circling of various colleagues as they recorded my performance. I expect to go viral any minute now.

I slept in until 8:40 this morning, had a nice leisurely breakfast, and I'm still in my pjs. We plan to run to IKEA once more for a few things and treat ourselves to a nice meal out since weekends are the only days that we actually have the energy and time to travel beyond our immediate area for food. Tomorrow we're going to the Shanghai Circus with Emily and Ben; we've heard great things about it and are really looking forward to it! Next week is Mid-Autumn Festival, so we have Thursday and Friday off! The extra time for lesson prep will be great since we're starting Romeo and Juliet next week!

Enjoy your weekend!

TCB (Nicki)

(This post was originally written on August 27.)

Within our first 24 hours of having arrived in Shanghai we had found an apartment, signed a lease and opened bank accounts. Over the next few days, we moved from our hotel into the apartment, visited our school for the first time and met the amazing staff we’d been in communication with, registered at the local police station, set up internet access in our home, and went shopping to buy bedding, towels, and dishes for the apartment. 

Over the weekend we got to catch up with old friends of mine. It turns out that my friend Angela, who was briefly my language partner in Taiwan before she moved to Shanghai for graduate school, lives in Jing’an, just around the corner from where we were staying. We met her at the entrance of the subway and then walked a bit farther north to the French Concession, an area of Jing’an that’s really popular with foreigners. She took us to dinner at her favorite restaurant, and then we walked around the tree-lined streets, ducking our heads in shops, and taking a look at all the hip bars, restaurants, and coffee shops. We were all feeling a little thirsty, so we stopped in a cozy Italian restaurant that had an extensive drink list. The heat had me so exhausted and thirsty that I opted for a cold, non-alcoholic drink, and I’m so glad I did, because I’m STILL thinking about how delicious it was. I ordered a sparkling water beverage made with strawberry puree and basil, and Mike had sparkling lemonade. We walked around a bit more, and then headed back to the hotel for a good night’s rest. 

Sunday morning was a little hectic as we rushed around town trying to find a bank that would allow us to withdraw the amount of money needed to pay 3-months’ rent plus a 1-month deposit to our landlord, but in the end we were rewarded with enough downtime to enjoy a delicious curry lunch in a food eatery near our hotel. We went back to the hotel and (accidentally) took naps before meeting my friends Emily and Ben at their home in Pudong. Emily and Ben are two of my favorite people. I met Emily on the first day of teacher training in Hsinchu, Taiwan in the fall of 2010. She and I were the most talkative, enthusiastic people in the class, and quickly bonded. We found that we would both be teaching at the same school branch in Taipei, and there we met Ben, a tall, handsome Kiwi (New Zealand native). Emily and Ben started dating and she and I would talk about all things love-related on Friday nights after classes ended at 8pm, usually over a bottle of wine. She and I and the three other teachers were all very close, so we would spend a lot of Friday nights together.

When I moved back home for graduate school, Ben left to continue his travels around Asia, but soon he found himself back in Taiwan to be with Emily. They got engaged and they moved to Nanjing, China, where they began expanding American Eagle schools into China. They got married in March 2014, and Emily had asked me to be a bridesmaid, but my teaching schedule wouldn’t allow me to make the journey to either Taiwan or New Zealand for their double ceremonies. Sadly, she and Ben were unable to attend our wedding as they had just flown out to the States to visit her sister and her new baby. Emily has since given birth to a beautiful baby girl named Chloe, and Mike and I had the pleasure of meeting her and her awesome parents last Sunday at their house for dinner. It was so strange to be together again in China and to feel like no time had passed at all even as we talked about how our lifestyles have changed. It meant everything to me to see them, and Mike and I had to race out the door when we realized the last subway train would soon be arriving.  

On Wednesday I started a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certificate course that I need in order to obtain “Foreign Expert” status and, ultimately, a work visa. It takes me about an hour to get there by subway, so I leave around 7:30am and usually make it home by 6:00pm. Many of the other teachers travel from other parts of the country to attend the course, so we have classes on Saturday and Sunday to make their trip to Shanghai as efficient as possible. I just finished my practicum today, and I was very pleased with my Little Blue Truck lesson. I received positive feedback from the co-teacher present, and most importantly, the students were engaged. It has been a bit draining being in class all day and then coming home to do reading and homework, so I was very happy that my planning paid off and I can rest a little easier for the rest of the course. We have class tomorrow, I have Monday off since the other students will be doing their practicum, and then we have a cultural lesson on Tuesday followed by our final exam.

Meeting the other teachers has been great, and I’ve learned a lot from our co-trainers. They are both very experienced foreign instructors who have been leaving in China for the past seven years. There are only a few of us who can speak Chinese, and I’m the most fluent in the group, so I quickly became everybody’s best friend at lunch time. I’ve introduced the others to all of my favorite snacks and a few dishes that they will hopefully be able to keep in mind for the future when they’re on their own. Since many of us are spread out around China, we’ve all made offers to host each other in the future for the experience of traveling to other parts of the country. I’ve made new friends from Oklahoma, Maine, South Africa, and Cameroon, among many other places. We have such a fun mix of accents!

It’s good to be back in China. I guess I was a little nervous at first—it had been a decade since I’d been to the mainland. Everything seems much easier this time around. There are Family Marts (think of an immaculate version of 7-11) with cold water bottles and snacks in pretty much every subway station and around every corner, no smoking in restaurants (people usually abide by the signs), and the smartphone has revolutionized life in China. I have downloaded apps for navigation, Uber, the Chinese version of Uber that is maybe slightly cheaper, and my personal favorite, the equivalent of Yelp that allows you to order food and have it sent straight to your door. This is so helpful because we don’t always have the energy to go out and find a spot to eat at the end of the day, and even if we do, it’s hard to know what will be good. We’ve had some delicious meals in tiny six-table restaurants and a few disappointing ones in large, more glamorous looking restaurants. The ability to read reviews in key! And, all of these apps are in Chinese, so I feel pretty proud of myself for being able to navigate them all.

Perhaps my greatest confidence boost came this afternoon when I returned a call from our building manager. He asked if my husband was “ethnically Chinese too.” I told him that we were both American, to which he responded, “I know you have American passports, but where were you born?” I realized he thought that I was a 华裔, or an ethnic Chinese who has grown up outside of the country.  I sometimes flash back to living in Taiwan and think that my Chinese was probably at its best then. But then I think about my ability to explain baseball in Chinese to a bunch of ten-year old Chinese students and their Chinese teacher at camp this summer, or how I’ve successfully navigated signing a lease and dealing with a landlord (none of which I had to do in my previous trips to China), and I realize that I’m probably functioning at my highest now. All of the vocabulary I learned when teaching in Taiwan, all of the food names I learned, knowing how to get around and interact with different service providers—I’m getting through everything now because I’ve collected those experiences. I’m learning how to squeeze into small spaces in the packed subway cars during my morning commute, how to bend my knees and assume a surf-like stance in order to not lose balance when the train lurches forward. It really is amazing how you think it isn’t possible to fit any more people on the train and then a new wave comes and you’re suddenly very intimate with the people next to you. The subway commute is only necessary for a few more days until my TEFL class is through, and then we’ll be able to walk the short ten minutes to school. 

When I stepped out of our apartment this morning, the air was deliciously cool. The temperature had miraculously dropped about 20 degrees and a strong breeze was blowing. In just a few weeks, we’ve been told, the temperature will cool down for good. The new semester will start, and my days will be filled with Shakespeare, poetry, TOEFL prep, and I’ll have a whole new group of students to call my own. I’m ready!

First Impressions of Shanghai (Mike)

This post was written at the end of the day on August 24th. I wasn’t able to post it immediately after writing it because we hadn’t yet fully established internet access then, but the particular date is important because it marks my first day of navigating Shanghai without Nicki, who was attending a certification class throughout the day.

As many readers probably know, Nicki’s grasp of Chinese is exceptional, but I didn’t realize until this past week just how much she has mastered the language. Like most people who become fluent in a second language as adults, Nicki speaks Chinese with a bit of an accent. In her case, however, the accent is Taiwanese, not American or foreign at all. Indeed, taxi drivers have had trouble finding us after speaking with Nicki on the phone because they are convinced that she is a native Chinese speaker and have no idea that they should be looking for Americans. I don’t think I’ve met—I’m not even sure there exists—a person who has mastered a second language as much as Nicki has mastered Mandarin.

So, I’ve been relying on her almost entirely so far, not only to do heavy-duty things like opening bank accounts or discussing the terms of our apartment lease with our landlord, but even to get food at restaurants and to explain who we are to the guards at our school and apartment complex. Being on my own today was therefore a challenge.

The experience was mixed. My interactions with people were, for the most part, unsuccessful and even embarrassing. The exception was when I met with some colleagues at the school, but those conversations were in English, and I can presuppose a certain amount of sympathy when I do speak Chinese around them since they’re my coworkers and understand why I came to China without knowing the language.

When I tried to order a steamed bun from a local chain for lunch, I couldn’t hope to understand or respond to the cook’s questions; I think that the conclusion of our conversation was that they didn’t have any vegetarian options available. In any case, I walked away bunless. I did manage to get lunch at a café that had items in cases that customers could take themselves. Even in this place, however, I needed an assist from an English-speaking employee. When I ordered a coffee, I had to specify two things: that I wanted it American-style (i.e., drip coffee rather than espresso), and that I wanted it hot rather than cold. I managed the first in Chinese, but my language skills are nowhere close to being able to understand the Chinese-language question that the woman taking my order asked me. Furthermore, I hadn’t yet learned that rè is the Chinese word for ‘hot’. I know it now, though, and the coffee was good enough that I’ll go back to try again without relying on English.

Something similar occurred later. As I was entering our apartment building, a neighbor was walking in and had his hands full with several boxes. I held the door for him, and we had a basic conversation with stock phrases that I do know (“Nĭ hăo.” “Xiè xiè”, i.e., “Hello,” “thank you”). When we entered the elevator, I gestured that I would push the button he needed so that he didn’t have to put down his boxes. I couldn’t understand his response, though, because I hadn’t learned many number words yet. (It turns out that he needed floor 8, but I figured that out only by waving my hand over the buttons until he nodded.) Again, this motivated me to get to work learning new words, and I’m proud to say that I can now count to 10 in Chinese, but the event that provoked my numerical crash course was a bit embarrassing.

The silver lining of experiences like this is that they serve as anchors to remember the associated words. I’ll easily remember words like rè and bā (‘eight’) because I can recall these times when knowing them would have been useful.

Two other incidents were a bit more curious. Although Shanghai is very cosmopolitan, the area where we live and work doesn’t seem to have as many foreigners as the districts closer to the center of the city. In particular, we’re pretty sure that we’re the only non-Chinese residents of our neighborhood, and I’m not sure what our neighbors think about this.

At one point today, a man was waiting outside the elevator in our building as I was getting out of it. He looked at me and said something in Chinese, but I couldn’t understand him. He waved his hand and got in the elevator, and the tone of his speech and demeanor suggested that he wasn’t happy with me being there. Similarly, later in the day, I was walking along the street outside of our building and passed by a woman going in the opposite direction. At the exact moment we passed each other, she spat on the ground. It wasn’t in my direction, and the timing may have been a mere coincidence, but I have had trouble dismissing the gesture as something other than a deliberate expression of disapproval. Similarly, my encounter with the man at the elevator may have been totally benign—but I find that I can’t consistently think of it as such. I’ve been brainstorming ways to make clear to our neighbors that my presence here is legitimate, e.g., by carrying my keys somewhat conspicuously when walking outside so that I’m clearly on my way to lock or unlock our apartment’s front door. I also hope that, before long, word will spread that two perfectly decent Americans who are teaching at a local school have moved in (and one of them speaks impeccable Chinese). The high esteem in which teachers are held in China is admirable in itself and may also help us to ingratiate ourselves to the neighbors.

Of course, these kinds of hostile reactions are things that immigrants to the United States deal with all the time, and often without the kind of support network that I already have in Shanghai. When this thought struck me after my encounter with Elevator Man, I realized that I ought to be sensitive to this throughout my time in China, and it’s a theme to which I plan to return in future posts.

For now, though, it’s time to get to sleep so that I’ll be ready to finish preparing my syllabi tomorrow. My big Chinese challenge will be when the router we ordered gets delivered. I need to pay the carrier for the purchase when he or she arrives, so I can’t just wait for it to be dropped off at the door. It’ll be a good test of how well I can conduct a phone conversation in Chinese, and I’ll report back if anything interesting happens in the process.