Went out to the house of a friend of a friend last night to play some poker. Lost about 50元 ($8), but it was a good time. The main problem with the whole thing, was that the house was home to 3 cats. I am quite allergic to cats, but also love them to death, so as soon as I walked in, without thinking I picked one up and was cuddling it. For the next hour or so I was sneezing like a fiend, much to amusement of everyone else at the table. We also played with monopoly money instead of chips, which was surprisingly fun. (more…)

So it has been a while since I have thrown a real update my blogs way. I have been busy I guess, but also lazy. Many times have found myself thinking I should write something, but never getting around to it. Just really need to make blogging a habit, if my sister is any indication, a little habit might soon turn into an addiction.

But anyways, back to the subject at hand, my life and its progression in Shanghai. As I was saying to Tim just last night, when October 1st hit over a week ago now (holy shit!) I could not believe that a month had passed so quickly. I don’t know if it is the business everyday or what, but time is really flying over here. It is a bit monotonous I guess, not that I am not having fun, but class + work can get a little repetitive. Of course I am still telling myself I need to get out an explore more, and it is still not happening. There is always next weekend…

I joined a website for hooking up people for language exchange from all over the world (I think originally started by people in China, but in no way China specific) called italki.com. Got a lot of hits off of that from mostly Chinese people wanting to learn English from me. Have made a few friends though, some in Shanghai, some not. Hung out with one girl, Mandy, during the National Holiday vacation last week. We ended up having dinner at her friend’s parent’s restaurant so that I could speak English with her friend (Mandy’s English was quite good, all things considered). It was a fun time, and lots of good food, though there was, of course, the awkward, “Yeah, I really don’t like that…” after they brought out all the food without ever asking anything I might dis/like. On the upside I didn’t have to pay, so why am I complaining.

Finally, in non-school/work news, was my trip to a nearby sports bar this past weekend on both Saturday and Sunday morning to watch MLB games. Seeing the Sox on a nice big TV, with the English commentary blarring through the empty bar and a beer in my hand, while the Chinese employees looked at the TV with no idea what was happening, was just freaking awesome. Every time I would erupt in elation or dismay at a play I would then have to explain in broken Chinese/English whether I was happy or sad, and why that was the case. Plus the Sox won, and went on to take the series. Good times. I will definitely be back at a bar this coming weekend.

Side note: I can not find shoes in China. I have been to many, many stores and no one cares anything about a US 10.5. This could soon become a real problem. Must find the hidden shoe man that caters to the 老外 (foreigners).

So I moved to China a few weeks ago, Shanghai specifically.

I am here teaching English to little kids – mostly Koreans (the company, Readingtown (RT) is run by Koreans and caters to them at their many locations worldwide) – and taking Chinese classes at a local university. Everything has been going well so far, minus the vicious leg infection I got within my first week here that led to a delay in starting to post, as well as almost anything except going to work and laying in bed.

I think I can say that being here is really starting to have an effect though, as for the first time in my life I had a dream that included spoken Chinese last night. I don’t remember the specifics at all (I’m not much of a dreamer and remember little to nothing of them) but I do remember waking up this morning and finding it so odd that my dream had included people talking to me in Chinese and I believe me responding in Chinese. I took a little Chinese (as well as Spanish) during various levels of school and always remembered teachers saying that once you started dreaming in the language it was some big step. Had never happened to me though, as I usually only had exposure to the language in my classes and even then it wasn’t that much. I guess this whole “emersion” thing isn’t overstated!

Besides that, not too much to report thus far. Like I said the injury/infection has kept me mostly home/neighborhood bound for these first few weeks. Certainly heard about a lot of cool things to check out, but have yet to actually get to many of them. Hopefully this weekend I will be heading to Moganshan, the main contemporary art district of Shanghai to check out a few galleries. My roommate/fellow teacher Tim was over there last weekend, and found that a few of the galleries recommended by our mutual friend Daniel (also a teacher at RT) were closed. So it is back there this weekend to see if we can find them open. Last weekend was a holiday, so I’m assuming that is why they were closed, though Daniel has also mentioned that many things in China (or at least Shanghai) seem to have very odd hours. He meant this more for events I think (gallery talks/openings), but did say that for our work hours (about 3:30pm to 8:30-9pm daily) they were incredily inconvenient. Have to see how that develops.

Finally, discovered that very close to my apartment is the “best location for a solid burger in Shanghai” as related to my by an older man from Florida I met while at the ex-pat hospital for my leg. It’s called the Blue Frog, and while expensive for China, is about nothing outragous for the quality of the food and decor (about $25 for a good burger with fries and a few beers). Definitely not an every day or even every week sort of thing, but good to know it’s there.