Expedition Live Life 2

  Sunday, March 31 10:30pm Today Megan and I ventured out of Shanghai to a neighboring village about an hour away by bus. The Zhujiajiao Ancient Town was our destination. On the way, Megan I and I discussed how her school worked in Shanghai. Students that boarded at the school slept 4 to a room, Chinese Teachers slept 2 to a room and foreign teachers, like Megan, had their own room. I asked if this created any resentment between foreign teachers and locals and she felt there was. She also said that the expectations and pressure were much higher for local teachers as opposed to foreigners, which she took offense to. Chinese teachers are observed countless times a year, whereas Megan was only been observed twice a semester last school year and even less this year. She said that their bonuses, yes those things that people work extra hard to earn, are tied to 'satisfaction surveys.' She explained that a part of the bonus comes from surveys from the kids and survey...

  Saturday, March 30 10:00pm Today was an awesome day. Actually, it began last night after my blog post. I got over the shock that I was in and decided to go walk around my area a bit, with the comfort that I knew where I was now. I walked around for a hour or so, taking in life in this part of Shanghai. There are lots of small shops and street food around and a little market that purchased water for $0.23 a bottle!! I also purchased chocolate filled cupcakes, or so I thought. It turns out, that after talking with Megan that its not chocolate filled but instead red-bean mush filled!! I will still try them, but imagine the disappointment if I had bit in thinking delicious chocolate would be filling my mouth!! Today started by meeting Megan at 7:15am at The Camel Sports Bar in the French Concession area to watch some of the NCAA basketball tournament. It was pretty cool that in the midst of everything Chinese, there was this Americanized bar.  ...

  Friday, March 29 7:00pm What a day. I don't evn know where to begin. While at Chicago O'Hare Airport, awaiting the final leg of my trip, I ran into Jason Beghe, the actor from Californication, Last Resort, and Chicago Fire. That was pretty cool. While I knew that the flight from Chicago to Shanghai was going to be long, 15 hours long, I didn't quite realize HOW LONG THAT WAS!! It was eternity!! I watched 4 movies, listened to music, and tried many, many times to sleep without success. I finally was able to sleep the last 4 hours or so, which is the time I normally go to sleep in the US.  I arrived at Pudong Airport and was quickly thrust into the heard of hundreds of people heading to the one line to get into immigration. After getting through with no problems, I headed to the Maglev Train to begin the trip to my hostel. The Maglev reached speeds of 300kph (200mph)!! It was fantastic to experience.  Following the Maglev, I hailed a ...

  ...at 3:30am. Yeah, I know that the adrenaline will kick in soon but this is EARLY!! I'm sitting in RDU now, 2 hours ahead of my flight, because I'm generally a rule follower. This flight will take me to LaGuardia, then LaGuardia to Chicago. After that, it's Game On!! Shanghai, here I come. Last night, I Facetimed with my family for a little while. Along with the general well-wishes, my mom, being a mom and a nurse, made sure I had all the possible medicines that I could need and that i had received the particulate masks she sent me. I think I have 5 pounds of meds in my bag!! I also informed her that I had been religious with consuming Airborne each day for the last week. I bought this "No Jet Lag" homeopathic stuff that I'll try on my flights. I'm not a huge believer in "those" remedies, but I'll try anything to minimize the, fairly certain, jet lag that will accompany my trip. While I was talking with them, my three and a...

Ask me what I've been doing the last few weeks and I have 4 answers for you. 1) Working. Lots of school work getting this new 6th grade up and running. 2) Tennis. That's my release from a tense day at work. 3) Sleeping. I LOVE to sleep. 4) Planning. I need to feel prepared in life so when it comes to visiting another continent, well that just takes planning to an all new level for me. I'm starting this blog here in the US, with the expectation that I personally will not be able to access it while traveling in China. So, I PLAN to email my posts to my friend Molly, who will upload for me each day. Thanks, Molly! This whole idea of visiting China began years ago. I enjoy traveling and taking on new adventures. I've always wanted to visit an Asian country because I acknowledged how seemingly different their culture is. Then, my friend Megan that I taught with 2 years ago, left the US to go to Shanghai to teach. Since she's been in China, it brought ba...