About 10 years and 1 season apart

Let's move on from that bizarre previous post, and get back to travelish-blog land with a "life in Shanghai" post.

Last we left me, it was our summer break. That was a very chill time, partly because it was a shorter break than usual, partly because we spent time visiting the in-laws, and partly because I couldn't leave the country due to COVID-19. But here we are, back in Shanghai, for another work year and everything that comes with it.

  

Somewhat unusually for foreign teaching gigs, most of the staff stuck around this year, which makes any sort of transition pretty seamless. However, I thought I was just going to continue teaching Grade 1, so I was a bit upset when they moved me to Grade 3 without notice - which means I have to re-plan all my lessons. Planning is probably 10% of my overall workload, so it's not a huge deal, just annoying. And to top it off, myself and another teacher now have (marginally) the most hours in our department. So yeah... not happy about that.

 

 

  

But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The Grade 1 team is now combined with Grade 2, so their department is huge, they have meetings all the time, everything needs to be re-planned anyway, and because of my slightly higher hours I get exempted from other admin nonsense. Plus I think I am a better Grade 3 teacher than a Grade 1 teacher. I dunno, I just seem to "fit" better in the role. But something I've tried to tell myself when I'm not feeling great about it is a quote I heard, "Comparison is the thief of joy." But I think that only applies if things are worse now. While I am working harder this year, I try to keep in my mind that I am actually in the classroom, working, about 12 hours a week. Compared to close to 40 when I did IT, things are still pretty good in teaching land.

 

 

Also in teaching land, Ella is resigning from her job. To be honest she really hated these months she spent there, mostly from the very rude and abusive management. But also, they worked her far harder than my school works me. In short, she doesn't have time to get a certification she really needs to be able to work at most schools in China, and with that test coming up in a bit over a month, she decided it was best to invest in her (our) future. The one thing I hopefully won't miss out on though is hanging out with Ella's coworkers. Perhaps because of the batshit crazy manager, they're a really tight group, and I've really enjoyed getting to know them this past month or so. One in particular, lives two stops away from us on the metro, and has really been great to show us around some fantastic places we never knew existed. Just another area of town to hang out in, but I'm eager to see what other things they're hiding over there.

 

Hello, my good friend.

So, what's been happening in Shanghai? It's National Day, which means about a week off of work, that's what! I'd like to say we went to all these amazing places, but for the most part it's been dinners (and drinks) with friends. What has kept me going is an amazing Japanese invention called Pocari Sweat. I don't know who Pocari is and why we drink his sweat, but I have found stopping midway through the night to drink one of these will keep me hangover free the next day. I wish I had this when I was in my 20s. Anyway, Mr. Pocari has been my friend recently, since we were "discouraged" from travel due to COVID-19. While internationally would have been a pain (but possible), domestic travel should have not been an issue unless an outbreak happened. (presently, there's about 100 imported cases in the country, and no community transmission in months) In the end, if we had, it wouldn't have been a big deal - we'd probably need to take a test before coming back to work. But they cost like $14 and you get the results in an hour or two, so I was considering it. But instead, there were so many get-togethers planned, there wasn't a need to go away. A friend's house party in particular, was a great time and reminded me of the many nights at "Camp Nerd", where we spent the night chatting, drinking, and playing video games.

We did manage to venture out to one place, Wukang Road. Wukang is an interesting sort of place not really on most foreign tourist trails, but is quite popular with Chinese tourists. It's part of the French Concession of Shanghai, where back in the day, the French controlled that part of the city. Fortunately France built some really pretty buildings (for themselves instead of the locals, but, well, Europeans liked doing that in Asia). When the French were "compelled" to give it up during WWII, the locals decided that the buildings looked pretty cool and kept them around. Nowadays they're mostly coffee shops, ambassador's homes, and fancy boutique shops. But they're also a backdrop for Chinese girls to stand in cute poses for Chinese Instagram (Wechat's Pengyouquan). Some of the buildings are quite pretty, especially the iconic "Wukang Building", which is a triangular shape, and quite similar to the Flatiron Building in New York. We stopped in a Thai restaurant that supposedly had some of the best Thai food in the city. Nah. Nuh-uh. Well, I guess "best" is subjective, but I think they don't know Thai food. Like, the curry and kra pao moo was not bad, but it was definitely modified, I guess, to cater to local tastes.

 

I wish I had more to say, but we've been so busy with meeting friends, we haven't had a lot of time to be tourists. Speaking of, I had a long conversation one night about where we'd like to go after the world gets over this stuff, and one place that kept coming up is Taiwan. I think I've gone on record before that I think Taiwan is the most fun place to visit in Asia, so who knows, that may happen. I wouldn't mind being a tour guide if it does. But I'm quite biased, because Taiwan holds a special place in my heart. It's where I grew up, stopped being "Cincinnati Weg" and formed my "Expat Weg" identity. Taipei in particular, I explored every nook and cranny, and I know it probably better than any city in the world (including Cincinnati and Bangkok). Although Istanbul and Tehran are higher on my personal list, I wouldn't mind grabbing another Gua Bao and Lu Rou Fan.