Who Would Have Thought?

Okay, so we made it . . . we are in China, in our apartment, and, well, happy . . . Like I expected, some things suck beyond all belief, like I can’t believe how much they suck (one of them being the fact that I can’t get on WordPress with my computer at all and barely with Denis’s), but there is so much that I absolutely love.  Not like the way I loved Japan.  That was like a gentle, kind, happy kind of love, where as China is like a love/hate, rough, damn-you-earned-it kind of love.

The people we are working with seem great.  I truly like a lot of them (and we all know how much I like people : ) There is even another us living right across the hall (Chinese guy, white girl . . . from Brooklyn!)  And another couple (who is our age, too) the girl is a librarian . . . you can’t get better than that.

I am not overwhelmed with my classes . . . I really wanted to teach geography and ESL, but instead I have 2 section of 9th grade English (which would be good, as that is my favorite class to teach from Whippany, but they are all about the textbook here, and for anyone who knows my educational philosophy, it is as far from the textbook as possible), 1 section of 9th grade writing (I think that is going to be a shoot-my-self class), and 1 section of 12th grade history . . . that should be interesting.  So we will see how all of that goes.  I guess I should have realized with my BA and MA degrees that I wasn’t going to get off easy with any fun classes : (

Our apartment sucks and is awesome at the same time.  I JUST FINISHED PUTTING TOGETHER A BED AND A COUCH (and a bench, but that is not as impressive).  I never in my life thought that I would be able to put together an f-ing couch . . . I am quite proud of myself (and in love with my furniture).  The only bad part about that is that Denis was too cheap to get the brown covering for the couch (it was 147 more) so now we have this crazy white one (because it was the cheapest color) and we have a GREAT track record of spilling stuff all over the couch (especially because we don’t have a kitchen table and will be taking all our meals there : )  But our little place is coming together.  It is completely new, but done in a rushed manner, but again, new . . . so that is nice–new fridge, new washing machine, and such, but everything is crazy dirty because 1. it was rushed so that it would be finished when we all moved in and 2. I just don’t think that Chinese constructions workers were that interested in keeping things nice and tidy.  Oh well.

It was funny, I went out to buy a hair dryer when we were staying in Pudong before we moved into our apt.  We were staying in a foreign neighborhood, where a lot of business people live in the hotels for months at a time to work in China.  I walked into Carrefore, (a French store) and as I walked by everyone turned to stare.  Weird.  I got to the hair dryer section and I am looking at the display . . . one sales girl comes up and stands next to me, then another one comes and stands on the other side of me.  Again, weird.  But then two more come and join them . . . and that is it.  They just stand there and stare.  So silly.  I finally walked away and went back later when someone was willing to try and talk to me (well, mime to me : ) instead of stare.

We have some insane Ikea stories, too.  Really good.  Being here is nuts, seriously nuts . . . and I guess that nuts and I mix well because we will (baring anything hideous once we start teaching) will be here for at least two years.  It is so worth it.

I am so excited.

Keep in touch!  If anyone ever wants to mail a letter (or some good ol’ USA provisions!) my address is:

My name : )

Shanghai High School International Division

989 Baise Road

Shanghai 200231

China

I would seriously love a to get something in the mail (or you could just throw me a comment or an email . . . do I sound desperate . . . I am . . . even though I won’t be back until summer and am very okay with that, I miss you all . . . a lot).

On that note, we are having a lot of trouble with WordPress and the Great Fire Wall, so we may be moving to Blogspot.  Just keep looking here.  I will definitely try to finish Japan on this, and then if I can start logging on regularly, keep it, otherwise, I will post a link to the new blog once I start it.

Again, thanks for everyone who came to our going away party, and to those of you who were generous enough to help furnish our apt (!!!!!) the thank-you’s will get to the USA eventually!  And for everyone else who supported us, and gave well-wishes, thank you, we kept them all close to our hearts those first couple of days when it felt like we were getting bitch-slapped by China (and we were : )

More to come soon (with pictures . . . it is too risky right now!)