Photo Blog

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Here's a bunch of pictures taken over the past month! Yes, it's been a month---actually a month and 3 days since I arrived! 😊

Read the picture captions for details.
Enjoy!

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Photos

Kung Fu
Me as Kung Fu Panda :)

Garbage Cart
hehehee.....this is a chinese garbage cart! It's exactly like the one we sat on in order to get across the canal of water at the subway station (that I talked about in my very 1st entry).
So...there are no fancy garbage trucks like we have at home. Here, someone comes with a cart attached to their bike...and they just empty the garbage collection bins into their cart and take the bags of garbage somewhere....

laundry as window decor?
Everyone hangs laundry out on their balcony or outside their window. It's a pretty interesting view when you look up at an apartment building and you just see rows upon rows of laundry poles/lines.

Park 1
Public park in my area: I don't know what the name of the park is because it's in Chinese. sorry..ehehe....but it is a beautiful park with different paths to walk through and water and lots of people doing morning exercises in large groups.

Park 2
Reminds me of Monet's waterlilies!

Park 3
People doing a fan dance. There were several other different exercise groups going on throughout the park--tai chi, chinese "hip-hop" dancing, running, etc....

Skymall
This is the mall closest to my apartment. It is a brand new mall; there are still LOTS of stores that are yet to open. Skymall has our beloved Carrefour as well as Best Buy, Haagen-Dazs, Dairy Queen/Orange Julius, Parksons department store, a movie theatre, bakeries, etc..... (p.s. Sephora is opening Thursday of this week!!!!) There are also lots of wonderful restaurants at our mall!! :) If I'm not mistaken, there's a chinese sign that says that there will be 20 world-famous restaurants at the mall!

Skymall poster
Cute mall ad, eh? We're in China...you'd think they could get a picture of a Chinese/Asian baby. But it seems that other than famous Chinese celebrities, they only like to use Caucasian models for their ads/posters here.

donuts!
I found a donut & coffee place at Skymall. It's called Bapple and their donuts are awesome (kind of like Krispy Kreme, but better)! They have a WIDE assortment of donuts and each one has such a beautiful design on it. This one is their blackberry donut. yummy!

Chinese restaurant
Chinese restaurant at Skymall: first dinner out with co-workers! We had some dim sum and some other nice chinese dishes. Left to right: John, Alex, my mom, me, Genelle (my housemate), and Jessica (one of my other co-worker's wife)

Tick Tock
At Chamate (a restaurant at Grand Gateway): they put a sand clock on your table right after you order...if the sand runs out and you still haven't received your food, your meal is free! Such a creative idea! I noticed that the people next to us tried to shake their sand clock to make the sand go down faster....so tricky (but they weren't successful in getting a free meal)! We got our meal pretty quickly...I suppose the sand clock does a pretty job to motivate the restaurant staff to provide faster service!

Teachers
One of the bouquets of flowers I received on Teachers' Day (Sept. 10). I was happy to see how teachers are appreciated and respected here. I don't recall having such a big celebration for teachers in Canada. I felt so touched to receive gifts and cards from my students...only after having taught them for a week!

karaoke night
Inside the KTV/Karaoke rooom...sitting with some Chinese staff and one of the English teachers (Alex). To my left is Ivy, one of my Chinese co-teachers. Unfortunately, my other Chinese co-teacher was sick that day so she couldn't join us for dinner/karaoke. But I'm sure I'll get a picture with her soon!

at Julie's
Me and my housemate (Genelle) at Julie's, the Canadian restaurant where we had breakfast! :)

group pic at Julie's
We took quite a few pictures at Julie's! hehee...anyway, this is one of our group shots. On the left: me and Genelle; on the right: Lizzy (a 07 con-eddie from Queen's who's teaching at a different campus) and Aaron w/ his ADORABLE baby who's looking at me :)

at Julie's: Mountie Salute!
O Canada!

Comments

[queens]

i throughly enjoyed your pictures!!!! though i got to say.. the poutine at Julie's.......... YOU HAVE TO COME BACK TO CANADA TO HAVE POUTINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i didn't even see any cheese on the poutine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.. thats the WHOLE point of a poutine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and your mommy looked really happy :)! how long did your mommy stay with you??!! i wanna be a teacher in china now:(!!! flowers and gifts?!! anytime of the year is good for tat! i miss you here in rainy canada!!.. yes.. i did say .. rain.... i know, it sucks! plus... i'm sick AGAIN!!!!!!!!! I've calculated...i get sick every other month..its terrible!!.. cos the last time i got sick was mid of july.. before then was beginning of may and so on... agaaaaaaaahhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa... btw. feel free to mail over a bapple donut!:) :P

[Laibakah]

oh queenie!
I'm glad you like the pictures :) Yes I know the poutine in Canada is much better....Bubba's in Kingston is superb!! So maybe you should mail me some Canadian poutine and I'll mail you a Bapple donut...deal??? ehhee. It's actually been rainy the past few days here in Shanghai....and EVERYONE is getting sick. Lots of my kids have been absent! But I'm pleased to say I'm healthy. okie, well you get better soon! Rest up!