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!