I have something special to talk about later. But first and foremost this is a travel blog, so let's start with an outing we had recently.

You may recall (or at least, I do) a trip we made to Zhujiajiao, a water town on the edges of Shanghai. To get there, you take the metro towards the end and transfer to another suburban line, that goes quite a ways from the city. There are two more suburban lines on the metro, and we got a chance to try another to visit Lingang, a district waaaay down by the ocean. In truth, it was because they recently built the largest Astronomy Museum in the world there, and me, being a sucker for blankiest blank, was eager to check things out. In truth that was easier said than done. You can purchase tickets a week prior, but Saturday and Sunday sell out almost immediately. I had to set an alarm for the moment they went on sale to grab a spot. Out of curiosity I checked about 30 minutes later, and they'd all been snatched up.

Anyway, after two transfers and about an hour and a half of traveling, we finally got off at the last stop, Dishui Lake. This is a large circular lake at the heart of Lingang District, and I do mean large. It's hard to tell the scale on the map, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. I will say that I could barely see the opposite shore. We'll say 4 kilometers wide? Anyway, despite being the north side being "downtown", this place was very odd. I mean, there are large buildings, at least 10 stories high. And narrowish city streets with traffic lights. But the place was nearly empty. It was almost like Chinese New Year, or a scene out of The Walking Dead. Yet it was Sunday. You'd see a car pass by now and then, but the only people out were people like us, walking from the metro station to the museum. It's not unusual for China to build large satellite cities in the middle of nowhere, knowing that one day, demand will come. But it still feels a bit weird to be in one. It feels like everyone got a memo to get out of town except you, so it was kind of unnerving.

Anyway, I brushed that aside, as I knew it was just my imagination. It seems all the people in this area are here for the museum, because it was pretty busy. First going downstairs to get a snack, we were greeted with the bottom of the theater, which is a giant globe suspended over the bottom floor. Pretty cool! It does seem to just sort of float there, like an asteroid about to impact the Earth. After seeing a few smaller exhibits about Mars and Ancient Chinese Astronomy, we got to the main part. And wow is it impressive. I have to think they hired folks from Disney, because it had that polished, almost "Epcot-like" sort of feel. Lots of models of planets, with a giant Earth in the middle of it, toggling back and forth between a real time satellite view, and a time lapse from its formation to the present. You could "walk" on Titan, touch a real meteorite, and ya know, lots of other things. Later you walked through a model of the space station China just put into orbit recently, which was pretty neat as well.

 

Towards the end you looped back and walked on a catwalk of sort over top all the exhibits from earlier, with models of spaceships dangling nearby. It ended with a scale model of Voyager, and Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" speech, which was really touching. I'm a bit biased, but I'm glad they just added subtitles and let him speak, because I don't think anyone else could do it justice.

So yeah, overall, great experience. I don't know if it's worth traveling so far out of town if you're in Shanghai for a few days, but for me it's absolutely a win. But we didn't come so far to only see this. There's another massive museum down here, the Maritime Museum. Sadly no sea shanties, but the building looked pretty neat from the outside.

And unfortunately that concludes the good things I can say about the Maritime Museum.

 

I kid, but it was a bit... meh? Actually a lot "meh". They did have this old wooden ship you could get on, that was cool. But it was only a small part of the deck, and then what? Well, you can see little models of navy ships that you could buy in any hobbyist shop. Or see all the porcelain recovered from a shipwreck, which when tidied up, just looks like porcelain. Or see a lots of pictures of stuff, and a little info card telling you what you are seeing. In short, I think a Google Image Search would be a better use of your time. Aside from a few somewhat interesting actual things (like the oar of a ship that's like, 1000 years old), there's not much there. So I would say take a pass for this place, unless you're an old salty dog.

Not wanting to sit on a metro for another 1.5 hours straight, we decided to break up the journey to stop off at a new fancy schmancy mall that just opened. It's pretty nice, with even a running track on the roof - one that can track your speed/distance if you want. But it was pouring rain, so that wasn't happening. Its main claim to fame I suppose, is The Cheesecake Factory, only the 3rd to open to China. The other two are bonkers busy, so this was a chance to try it without a giant queue. We got a piece of cheesecake to go, and wow. Does all cake taste this good in America? Has it been that long since I had one? Each bite feels like a billion calories, but wow, it's a nice change from the very light, airy cakes of China.

Anyway, my last update wasn't too long ago, so that's about it for travel. Of course it is Thanksgiving, so I did want to have some turkey. You can buy whole birds, or plop down at least $30 for the spread at a restaurant, but I wasn't up for that much time/money. But then Ella did some searching, and turns out, you can just order turkey on Meituan (think Uber Eats/Doordash, but reasonably priced). And that reminded me that turkey was a thing in Taiwan, and something I ate pretty frequently after I discovered that fact. So we found a Taiwanese place sells turkey with rice, as well as soy sauce and ginger turkey. Not... exactly traditional, but it was turkey, and I really dug it. Taiwanese turkey and rice usually has caramelized onions and a side of pickled radish thrown in for good measure, and it really tasted like life back in Taipei. Which btw, the caramelized onion bits are a big win, and I think we should steal that tradition. Also in true Thanksgiving fashion, I ordered way too much so there would be leftovers. Yet again, my amazing wife saves turkey day, and I get to have more for breakfast (and dinner).

But the main reason I wanted to post today, is that the time around Thanksgiving (specifically the 26th), is a very important anniversary for me. In fact, other than getting married, it's probably the most special anniversary in my life. Ten years ago today, I got on a plane and moved to Asia.

In truth, I had no idea what would come of it at the time. I knew my life was kind of in a "rut" and needed to change. Maybe I'd just do the Asia/teaching thing for a year, or maybe even a month if I couldn't handle it. Instead, it's been a decade. A decade since I completely changed my life, started down the path to a new career, marriage, and everything else. And most importantly, I'm a lot happier. I don't think it's Asia specifically, but it's more that I got to live in cities where things happen, got a chance to re-invent myself, got to meet lots of people, got to travel to several countries, got to have a rewarding career, got to have job security, got to have almost zero worries in comparison to life in the US, and most importantly, got to meet my wife. Anyway, I could talk all day about how important this decision was for me, but I think you get the idea. It's probably more fun if I post a few of my favorite photos. It's an impossible task, sorting through thousands and only picking a few. But, here's my best shot, which is still way too many.

Married!

On The Great Wall

Pura Mengening, Bali, Indonesia. One of the coolest places I've visited.

Hoi An, Vietnam

A happy Ella in Macau

India had so much delicious food and things to see.

How I miss Thailand's night markets!

Looking like video game characters in Yunnan, China

Singapore is the Disneyland of cities. Love it!

The twin towers of KL, Malaysia are really beautiful.

Bagan, Myanmar is a really special place. My favorite place I've ever traveled.

One of our first outings, to Bang Pa In.

Laos has the friendliest locals I've ever met. Really miss that place.

Angkor Wat with good folks!

The white temple in Chang Rai, Thailand is really out of this world.

I didn't love Chang Mai, but I liked these kids celebrating Songkran.

When an ice cream driver gave me a lift and his hat.

A traditional Chinese workout in Shanghai.

A lot of my time in Taipei was spent at Maokong. I love that place.

Still can't believe I went to North Korea, or I thought that beard was working.

Got in the local newspaper for teaching. Hope those kids are doing well.

The first picture I took of China (minus the airport), near my home in Hangzhou. I had no idea what was ahead.

Too cute!

Last we left... me, I wrote about our trip from southern to central China, ending in Xian. Hard to believe that was 4 months ago. I wish I could say that I've done a lot since then, but honestly I haven't been. As always, Ella is studying for something so we've mostly stayed put. There are a few places in Shanghai I want to check out - probably during Christmas. That's the one day of the year where I am sometimes off work while kids are still in school, so I'm going to use that to my advantage. Disney maybe? Or the brand spanking new Shanghai Planetarium, which is still impossible to get tickets for. It is the largest in the world, and I'm certainly a sucker for that.

Anyway, I guess I should talk about my new job. I had previously written that my old job wasn't terrible, and I was willing to stay on. But a new gig came along that offered a higher salary. I told HR "Hey look, I have another offer, if you can come even close to it, I'll stay." Instead they offered a token increase,  so, their loss. Speaking to my old colleagues there, it does seem to have gotten slightly better, as honestly the previous year I was a bit overworked - although the previous previous year was a cakewalk, so I didn't put up a fuss. I say this with a healthy amount of privilege, as I feel incredibly fortunate to be teaching in Asia. I've said before how I consider myself to be semi-retired with the standard teacher workload, and I stand by that. Maybe for some it's too much, but when I consider the hours I put in when I was working in IT... yeah it's no problem.

Balloon cars for science class

So, the job itself. I teach a lot more than just English now, also doing science, humanities, writing (which I guess is still English), and an elective course. Overall it's a little less work than I had last year, but something I really like about this place - it's a standardized US curriculum. I know exactly what I'm going to teach from now until the end of the year, which I can assure you, is not the norm for ESL teachers - Chinese run schools seem to be "seat of your pants" operations, with little info more than a week or two out. And of course, things can change with no warning, so there's not much point in planning far ahead. Here, you can always work on the next week, or next next. I've been burning myself pretty hard early this semester while I have motivation, and now I am about a month and a half ahead of schedule. That's pretty awesome, and I hope to have the entire semester finished in about a week or two. That means easy coasting until the midterms, which sounds really nice. In general, that's always been my attitude with work - hurry up and finish so you can go do the things you like. This is just the first chance I've ever had to do that long term.

But still, this is a departure from my past experience of teaching English, because I'm a regular Grade 5 teacher in an American system. While I can scarcely remember my Grade 5 experience with Mrs. Hall, I do remember her being one of my favorite teachers from my primary school days, so I hope I'm doing as well of a job as she did. It's a different sort of responsibility than I'm used to. In the past, I would show up for 40ish minutes, upload English into kids' brains, and then move on to repeat the same process with another group several times. I was sort of like the class uncle, where I come in and play some games, but I leave the big responsibility to mom or dad. Now, I am dad. I'm the manager of 22 kids, and it requires me to more frequently be the adult in the room than I'm used to. I see them and only them for most of the day, so we've gotten to be close very quickly. Honestly, I feel pretty lucky because all but one are great people. That one... well, they have some anger issues they need to work on. I guess they think that throwing a tantrum will get results, and maybe it does at home. But after having many years experience seeing 100+ different kids each week, believe me, I've seen it all. For him, I can't help but laugh and think, "Is that all you've got?"

Maybe that's why experience demands a premium. It's not that you're better at your job, it's just that you're jaded enough to roll with things.

Actually, that reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend the other day - it was his birthday, and I asked him what he hoped to accomplish in the next year. After, he turned it back to me, which I wasn't prepared for. Grasping at straws, I said I hope to be more chill. He laughed and said that I'm already very chill, so there's not much to improve on. I appreciate the sentiment, but I explained that, like everyone, I have things that upset me. Then these things live rent free in my brain for a while, where I'm usually mad with myself for letting them happen, and just in general it occupies all my thoughts for the next however much time. When I was younger, it was probably measured in hours, and on rare occasions days. But eventually, after mulling it over, I always have a breakthrough moment where I take a mental step back and think "Alright, this ruminating isn't getting me anywhere - how do I solve this?" I've noticed as I get older, the time to get to this breakthrough moment has gotten shorter and shorter, and now it's rare anything upsets me for more than a couple minutes. But I'd still like to get that down to seconds. Maybe that's just something that comes with experience - sort of like a kid who doesn't get an ice cream thinks their world is ending. And we think "Ha, you've seen nothing yet." I guess over time, life just tempers you by throwing bad stuff your way, and you either A) learn how to deal with it, so the next time isn't a problem, or B) experience worse things that make others seem not a big deal in comparison. Hopefully my next year leans more towards the "A" side of things. But both seem not great, so I probably should have come up with a better answer.

Maybe finish a Taco Bell 3-person set by myself. That would be more fun.

Now, it may seem like this would be the end of the blog, and it was for about a month. But it was still too boring to publish, I felt. It needed something exciting like a trip somewhere. But instead something else happened.

This bonkers story begins when we came home one day after work. Walking upstairs, we heard "Meow! Meow!" We thought it was just one of the stray cats outside, except when we get home, there is a black cat parked right in front of our door. None of the strays we know are black. Why our door? Why the big fuss? I have no idea. But we have video evidence of our first interaction thanks to Ella.

 

So my thought is that someone left the front door open downstairs (happens pretty frequently). This stray got in, came upstairs, got hopelessly lost, and is now freaking out. So our plan was to shoo this cat out of the way, get her some food, and then send her back outside. Not wanting to get scratched, we gently nudged her with the door, and she just casually moved out of the way. "Oh right on, this cat is chill!" But then she decided "Nope, I want to be in there." and made a beeline into our apartment. This was followed by a lot of cursing, as she quickly ran to the laundry room where we have some junk from the previous owner.

This has just turned into a thing.

So this terrified cat is in the corner behind an old disassembled bed. We're trying to coax it back out. So I'm standing on a chair, trying to annoy it enough that it will leave. I'm trying to push it with a broom, which I guess is not the best choice. Because as I'm trying to push, the bristles are sliding over her. She seemed to enjoy that a lot, closing her eyes and pushing her head into the broom. Okay, Plan B - we tried leading a trail of kitty treats towards the door. Which she was all too happy to eat the closest of, before running back to her corner. Arrgh! Plan C. I learned that while she was down with kitty broom massages, her butt was not. So I kept poking her around the tail with the other end of the broom. We also removed hiding places, blocked off routes, and eventually, EVENTUALLY, got the thing to go back out the door. We shut it, breathed a sigh of relief, and took a breather to think what to do next. Because of course, she was outside meowing her little head off. For one, we were worried about her, and also, there's no way we or the neighbors would get any sleep if we didn't solve this.

Alright. Next stage. We can do this. Carefully, ever so carefully, we open the door, and with brooms, gently begin to nudge this cat downstairs and back outside. We're making progress, pushing her downstairs one floor at a time. She seems to not love it, but was remarkably polite about the whole thing, all things considered. Well, she wasn't hissing or putting up a fuss at least. As we round the corner to the other set of stairs, we pass by the neighbor's. Who apparently had their door open a crack.

Oh no.

So the cat also sees this, and deciding "unknown new place" is preferable to "two humans with scary sticks", dashes inside. I am gobsmacked. This did not just happen. All the lights in the apartment are off, and nobody seems to be at home. Well. Congratulations to our downstairs neighbor. They now own a cat.

Realizing we're totally out of our league, we left to tell the apartment security guard about the ridiculous series of events that just occurred. While he is quite old, he appears completely unfazed. Apparently, this was not his first (cat) rodeo. He comes back with us to check, and yeah, nobody is at home (but they left the kitchen light on? Weird). During this time we noticed our neighbor had a cat scratching post in their living room, so, good news! They apparently like cats, now they have another one!

But now, this is where I (think) the story took shape. We live right above these neighbors. They probably left for the day, and forgot to close their door. Their cat gets out, then wanders around. Realizes it's lost. She thinks our door, one floor up, is home. Locked out, she starts freaking out. So when we open the door, she dashes into what she thinks is home. She then quickly realizes "Oh my god, everything is different! AHHH!" and hides in a corner. When we pushed her downstairs, to the correct apartment, her kitty brain snaps back to reality and thinks "Oops, that's right. I actually live here. Bye humans!" And then I thought, to top this all off, the owner would come home later that night, completely unaware that their cat has put us in this ridiculous situation. (Alternatively, they come home and are completely confused as to why they have an extra cat.) Anyway, there's more videos on Youtube of the saga if you want to take a look.

Regardless, the cat will probably just take a nap. After that fiasco, I need one too.