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Published: August 7th 2007
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Jiao Tong University
This part is their "Quad" area. Not too bad, although most of the classroom buildings are old. Let's see... what have I been up to since the last time I blogged?
Chinese class Busy! I've been busy with school the past week and hanging out with some visitors. For my Chinese class, there are two teachers who alternate teaching. I recently decided that one of the teachers for my Chinese class is annoying. She chats too much during class - which is fine since I'm taking a spoken language class, but I'd like to learn more textbook, formal Chinese. I somewhat think she's too lazy to teach. So when it's lazy teacher's day to teach, I go to the other class (same level). It's a bit of running around, but I'm not paying to listen to someone chatter all day long! Anyway, the class is going well and I'm learning a lot of words that I don't know how to use. Many of the phrases and words are pretty formal.
Last weekend I decided to go out with my classmates. We went over to Norwegian classmate's company apartment and then went out. It was fun to go out all together, but I admit that it's hard to communicate/connect when we don't all speak the same tongue!
Xujiahui
Day time in Xujiahui Vistors A long time acquaintance and his friend came to visit Shanghai this past week. E and I went to the same elementary, middle, high school and college, and our moms hang out together all the time. He and his friend have stayed all week - a bit longer than I expected, but it's fine to have some company. I'm glad that they can make use of my extra space and can save a bit of money from hotels. Together, we've gone out to eat a few times; I took them to the fabric market to make shirts, went to Cheng Huang Miao to eat xiao long bao. They are mainly entertaining themselves in the sweltering heat. The two of them were really jet lagged and tired too.
One night we went to Xintiandi to eat tapas at Luna (Tai Cang Road, No. 16, Unit 1) - a bit overpriced and so-so tasting and not recommended. Afterwards we went to this live music place (think House of Blues) and there was a Chinese rapper on stage, and this Chinese girl singing Shakira and Mariah. Not bad, but pretty funny. Yesterday we went to this hot pot place across
Xintiandi
I met up with J (we saw her in Beijing a few weeks ago) and we went to Din Tai Feng in Xintiandi. Yummy dumplings! the street from my apartment. I've been wanting to eat there, but last time I walked in alone and the hostess told me hot pot wasn't for singletons. She meant that it was too expensive for one, but I felt slightly rejected. E really liked it. He said, "This is the best hot pot I've eaten in my entire life." Woah.
DATES - sorry dear readers, not those kinds of dates! 😊
It was pouring rain last week and I got stuck walking my bike back in the rain. I rode a little but the street was so flooded I was afraid of falling. I was drenched. So now when I think it might rain I take a taxi/walk. Yesterday I saw an accident while I was walking. There was a guy on a tricycle bike who was hauling a large flat of fresh dates (green/brownish looking fruit). Then there was a truck that either lightly hit him or nearly hit him and his bike flipped over (he was fine), but his thousands of dates fell on the ground, in the street. That's when I was walking by and then about three dozen bystanders crowding around the guy -
Tricycle
I hope he doesn't tip over! It's just one guy bicycling this load. and the guy was so upset because all his dates are unsaleable! He starts screaming, lifted up his empty flat and threw it on the ground. I thought he was about to cry. I felt really bad for him. Truck driver should pay him some money. I bet he had to prepay for all the dates and he was counting on selling them for a small profit - his income for the week! Bummer. Funny how a bunch of people (including myself) crowd around without saying or doing anything. I wanted to take a picture of all the dates on the floor, but I didn't want to get into trouble. I was five minutes late to class for watching the drama. 😊
Who's teaching whom? On Saturday, I taught English to a group of adults through Hands On! It was fun - the topic I presented was "My New Home" and we dicussed household vocabulary and house buying dialogues. Since the students are still beginners I had to use a lot of Chinese to explain things to them. I have to say I had to look up a lot of words ahead of time, and some things they had
Hot Pot at Xiao Fei Yang (Little Fat Sheep)
One side super spicy! This is the hot pot you order - you cook your ingredients in their pre-made secret soup. to teach me! Ironically, teaching English gives me the opportunity to speak Chinese. All the students are eager to learn! The class is supposed to be for disabled persons in the community. A separate organization screens the students (to apply and make sure they are really disadvantaged), but they don't appear to be disabled. Two people have limps, but nothing too outwardly tragic. Anyway, it was a fun morning and I hope they learned something.
Here are some pictures of things I've been doing and places I've been going. 😊 Enjoy.
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wow. 12 coffee bean's in shanghai. any unusual flavors?