Nearly a Month in Shanghai!

Wow... a month!?!?!?! 

Firstly, I want to apologize for my lack of posting. I've been adjusting to a new country and new people and it has taken me some time to compose my thoughts! So to compensate for all my missed time. Here is a ton of photos and a ton of words to go with it. 😇

The view from outside my hotel!

Eating a ridiculously long fried dough stick called Youtiao

World of Warcraft poster in Chinese!!!

  After nearly 2 weeks long induction to my new workplace, I set off to my center which is in the Minhang district of Shanghai! It is in a nice little town with lots of little shops and tons of nature. I am about a 40 minute train ride from the city proper, could be more depending on rush hour. I moved into my apartment by September 4th and started work by the 6th. I work 5 days a week, with Wednesdays and Thursdays off (China time). I do not have access to calls or messages from my American phone, so if you need to reach me I highly suggest you get my phone number, use my email, or contact me via: skype, we-chat, or messenger. Sorry if my responses are slow sometimes, between the time difference and my schedule, it may take me a bit to get back to you!

                            My room!! 

My bathroom! Slowly adding more things!

I spent my first week in my apartment crying over trying to repair everything, but things are slow here. 😅😭 I also spent my first week crying over how work was hard and I didn't feel like I belonged. 😭😭  Luckily, in my first two days I had the help of my lovely co-worker Kelly who is an amazing lawyer from South Africa! She is so down to earth and cool and I am so happy I made friends with her so quickly. She helped me get my apartment started and we even lifted a shopping cart over some barriers so I could take my stuff outside. No we didn't keep the shopping cart, don't worry!!! 

In my first week, my air-con broke, my room was not cleaned before I moved in, and my internet is grindly slow because there are 5 people in my apartment trying to use a 5 Mbps internet. You name it, I had to deal with it moving in.
It is super humid here in Shanghai and the mosquitos were and still are eating me alive, deet or not. They are ruthless.

Since then, I have gotten my air-con fixed, my room has been cleaned and I have employed a cleaning lady to help assist me with my room every once in awhile to make sure it is still clean without grime. My internet is still not up to par and I am working with the landlord and my agent to get this fixed. I have been ordering packages from our local "amazon" like entity Taobao and have been making my room more homey as my days continue.

My all too friendly ac repairman.

My first breakfast in my apartment!

My bug bites from my first week in my apartment.

I have had so many experiences with things I am not used to since I've been here. I thought I would have a lot less culture shock, but it is okay! I am here to learn. While I may cry and feel depressed some days, I know there is always something to look back on as I survived that. Between people spitting in the street, lovely taxi rides, and angry cashiers trying to ask me for proper change, I've definitely had my fair share of experiences. Not all have been bad! I have met a decent amount of locals who have shared their culture and good tips and tricks about living in the area/ Shanghai as a whole. Shanghai is so big and I haven't explored very much of it yet! I am so excited! 

Looking back to a few days ago, one of my funniest experiences was sitting in the grocery store and looking at the milk for about 15 minutes. Here is a picture of what I saw: 

The dates are for production and manufacturing, then a line for when it was shelved.

As you might recall, America has drink by etc. dates so I walked into the milk section and went, "OMG ALL THE MILKS HAVE GONE BAD!" I quickly texted all of my chinese local friends questioning why a grocery store would sell bad milk. Lo and behold, it was something entirely different and I wasn't able to look it up because my phone hadn't been set up with a Chinese to English dictionary yet. Unfortunately for me, this hasn't been the only weird grocery store encounter. I've had confusing cashier looks and "you can't buy this because it doesn't have a sticker on it" looks. Apparently, in the store by my house, if there isn't a sticker on it, there is this little lady with a scale you bring it to so you can buy it. Otherwise you get to the checkout counter and they won't let you buy it! :( I have walked around whole grocery stores looking for flour and ran into a double sided aisle with just sugar. Definitely strange, but I am getting the hang of it! There is a place nearby my house that is a more international store that sells imported goods from countries like Germany, France, Japan, America, etc.

There are three whole aisles of imported goods from everywhere from Germany to India!

The Mall nearby my apartment!

Since I've been here, we have had a few small holidays such as Teacher's day. Students give teachers flowers, candy, and cards to show their appreciation for their education! It is so sweet. I watched a number of my colleagues get these items and our work made sure to pass us each out an apple and a card! 

Congee, chinese rice porridge. Also known as Zhao.

Onto the fun part, I've had a load of fun encounters and interesting food! From breakfast food to interesting meals. Here are some of the foods I've eaten!

KFC: the little tart is an egg tart. Pretty common in China. Yummy!

These are various breakfast foods from the area. Dabing (flaky bread can be sweet or salty, usually no filling), youtiao (fried dough sticks), tea infused egg (yummmmyyy),  and not pictured was soymilk called Doujiang, kinda tastes like playdough to me. Not sure why...

Hot pot with my co-worker Kelly!! Awesome gal!

All in all I've had a really fun time so far and can't wait to experience more of Shanghai and have more classes! As for my school, I've had some good days and bad days of teaching, but I feel like I am really catching my stride quickly! I enjoy many of the kids and love teaching! I don't know if I could do it for the rest of my life, but it is certainly great right now. I got a cold from a student already. I now know some of the struggles of teaching younger children! Hopefully I will post more often. I need more pictures. When I get some pictures with my co-workers, I will post them!!! Also can't believe my birthday is 2 days from now. Doesn't feel real.

That's all for now! Check back in sometime soon and hopefully I will have some updates!