Blogs from Pudong, Shanghai, China, Asia - page 8

Really. I've eaten delicious Peking duck, excessive amounts of beef and pork, plenty of seafood, and every once a while even chicken. But I've hardly caught the faintest whiff of turkey since landing here. If it wasn't for the Desautels, an American family I've been staying with for the past 5 days, I might have had to forgo turkey even on beloved Turkey Day. But you can all exhale. Chris was well fed this last Thursday, having been served a meal complete with gravy, imported cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, turkey and one delicious apple pie. We even said a nice meal prayer. I guess the Chinese don’t know what they are missing. … When I last posted I was staying with Vince and Kitty, and they definitely deserve more than a word here, as they supported ... read more

Teacher C Sorry about the delay folks-- it has not been of lethargy or a lack material; rather a profusion of material and a lack of time. "You are who you pretend to be."  --Kurt Vonnegut "Fail, fail again, fail better."  --Samuel Beckett Somehow I ended up Here. Here: I am writing this on a  wonderfully efficiently subway, riding clear across Shanghai to the closest thing I have to home for several thousands miles in any direction: Vincent and Kitty's roomy apartment in the Pudong district.  My throat is sore. My hands are caked in chalk. My mind is chiefly concerned with lesson plans for several hundred different students.... That's right-- hundreds. Indeed, how is it that I can peer down at a buttoned shirt and jeans and say that it is now a teacher, albeit ... read more

Back in Action again... I promised my mother and grandmother that I would be better about keeping up with my blog this semester. I have been neglecting it for the past couple of weeks purely because I was too busy to even think about it. Finely though, we are getting back into the swing of school and so I now have a little time to think and reflect on being in China for another year. I must say that packing for the second time around was not as easy as I had hoped it would be. I still did not sleep the night before I left but it all turned out to be fine. I had a fine trip over though I would not venture to say it was comftorable, and as soon as I touched ... read more

After a long night of last minute packing, I was somewhat dreading the almost 15 hour flight ahead of me. I really love to travel but I hate the lengths it takes to get there. I stayed up till 1:00 am on Sunday packing, don't know why I do this every time and always end up regretting it. I woke up three hours later to get ready and head out to the San Antonio International Airport for my 7:00 am flight. The airport at 5:30 am was completely packed and chaotic and it didn't help my stress level. After waiting in a really long line to check my luggage, the Delta attendant had to check to make sure my documents were correct and I was allowed to leave the country. He actually told me that my ... read more

Wow... it's finally sinking in. We live in China now! Such a surreal concept! We arrived on June 15th. Everyone did great on the 13.5 hour flight. Kaelen took exceptionally well to business class by immediately reclining her seat, getting her movie screen out and ordering an orange juice! Such a diva, even in China! LB stole the hearts of all of the flight attendants so he got away with everything... I think they even let him fly the airplane! He was (surprisingly) very well behaved and slept or watched Toy Story most of the flight. It was pretty rough getting everyone to sleep on Shanghai time, but I think we may be getting the hang of it finally! The apartment is nice but something to get used to. Feels oddly like college living again but ... read more