Tutoring

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A teacher at our primary school (Helen) has been pressuring me to tutor grade 1 students. So a few weeks ago I started tutoring on Thursdays after school. I told her that the only other day I am avaliable is on Tuesdays. So last Tuesday she said that she has a job for both Alex and I to tutor a kindergarten girl and a grade 1 girl. After school we got in a taxi and Helen took us to their place. It really opened our eyes to how some people live. They live in a very private community in the heart of Shanghai. Once we got in it felt like the states. These were the first houses I've seen in Shanghai. They're still all crammed together and don't have yards, but they are very nice! Even very wealthy businessmen all live in apartments. Apartments can be up to $10,000/month US. So I knew that this wasn't a place where many locals lived. Some homes were white with brown trim like in Germany (or Leavenworth from my experiences). The first corner we took two older white women were walking their dogs and yelled at our taxi for going too fast. Yep. It didn't feel like China. The mother of the children speaks very little English so Helen was there to help her interview us. They had two maids, and an elevator in their house. We taught in the loft which was the girl's playroom. The girls were very shy, but liked playing rock paper sissors. After tutoring Helen's husband drove us home in his Passat. It was the first time since August that we've been in a car other than a taxi. He had a beatle's CD in and took us the long way home. It was really relaxing and made us feel at home... until we got out of the car and almost got hit by bananas that our corner fruit stand was getting rid of. (by throwing them in the street) I don't really know how much money some people make here. They're definately not english teachers. The people that clean streets and open doors get paid about $170/ month, and from what we've heard that's average. It's amazing that the people can be so diverse yet live so close.

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