Just some photos.   I'm looking into changing my blog address due to a spammy comments. =( Boooooo.

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So, I'm laying in bed recovering from another bout of food poisoning, stomach flu, or whatever other strange illness China has inflicted on me this time, and I thought, "Hey! Maybe I should update."  It is Easter, after all.   Happy Easter!

Sorry for the nearly two months of no updates.  I've been crazy busy, inconveniently sick, dealing with dilemmas, and, above all else, very, very lazy.  I'll try to better.  Maybe.

Anyway,  various highlights from the month:

1) Two coworkers left for America in March.  One being my very own Jialing KeJi coworker, Mac =(.  Jacqui, Mac, Amanda, and I went to Whisk to mourn over copious amounts of chocolate.

2) On a more positive note, Dan Dan visited from the UK and it was a blast to have her in town again.   Unfortunately, she returned to her university mid-April.

3) The weather is mostly pleasant, the flowers are in bloom, and Shanghai is awesome.  =)

4) During the Qingming festival, a bunch of the coworkers and I trekked out to Pudong to the Shanghai Aquarium.  Unfortunately, underwater pictures don't turn out great and I miss my lovely camera, so he's a short tour of my day:

Sorry for the absence of posts, but for half the month I was at home in the States, and the other half I had shady internet.  My new place is very small but comfortable.  In a typical Chinese fashion, it's unsealed, and I've already had a couple bad dreams about roaches falling out of the ceiling and invading.  Yikes. 

The new semester started and I've been super busy or super jet-lagged since I got back from the States.  I really miss home so much, but at the same time it's nice to be back here in Shanghai.  My kids have been restless.  The weather is getting better, and they're just aching to get outside. I don't blame them.  The last thing I want to do on a nice, spring day is be cooped up in the classroom, especially after the winter.

It's my goal to update more, read more, and do more in this semester.  I hope someone can hold me to it. 

On Sunday,  Cary's Book 7 class came to my apartment to cook Shepard's Pie and Brownies.  I taught the class when they were book six, so I was familiar with some of the students.

Shepard's Pie, you ask?  Well, our version includes:  a layer of ground beef, a layer of cheese, corn, and topped with mashed potatoes.  Mmmm.  (When I make it for me, it's more like: beef. cheese. corn. cheese. potatoes. cheese.)    We had low hopes for it, as the extent  of Chinese kid's exposure to western food is pizza and hamburgers.

Some of the kids were super sweet (read: Mellisa and Hannah).  They couldn't get enough of helping peel, mix, and mash. Then, there was James.  James was in and out of everything in his reach. Jumping on my bed.  Crawling under my bed (found a couple lost socks and a cup!)  If he'd been a little American kid, I would have gave him a lecture and threatened to call his parents. But, saying that in Chinese isn't as effective, and our boss was helping me in the kitchen (completely enthralled by my western cooking methods.)

A brief tour around the school and some areas you haven't seen before:

Meet some of my youngest, new students in my Beginner Book classes:

Now, here's some (possibly) familiar faces. They've gotten so big!   My second semester with these ones. This is my favorite class and they are so well behaved.  They had better be after being little demons last semester. Meet Book 1, class 3:

Here's some of the book 5 kids.  Can't believe the difference in a 2 year old, 3 year old and a 5 year old.

This is my Gao'An Sunday Morning Class.  this was their last day of Book 1, now I teach them book 2. My facilitator (not pictured) has an elaborate star system for good behavior that we reward with stickers, prizes, and candy. They were pretty awful before we started the system. Now, they're normally pretty well.  It's amazing how much kids love stickers and candy.  Though, I do hope I don't make them fat.

I'll write a short, bulleted post for everyone's convenience. Sorry for the lack of posts, I've been crazy busy these last months. I had intended on writing a Turkey day post and a post on my trip to Zhouzhuang, but forgot my camera for both occasions.

Thanksgiving:
  A couple friends of mine and I went to a nice dinner at Blue Frog on Thanksgiving.  Turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing (that tasted like ground up cornbread), squash and apple soup (mmm...), and pumpkin pie.  Definitely nothing like home made Turkey Day dinner, but better than fried noodles.  The holiday was pretty rough on a lot of the teachers here, myself included.  For many of my coworkers, it is their first holiday season away from home. 

Zhouzhuang
 I wish I had remembered my camera for my trip to Zhouzhuang.  Zhouzhuang is an old watertown near Suzhou, and the weather was perfect, the company was great, and the town was beautiful. 

Everything else
  Generally, everything else has been going alright. Tickets to home have been booked, but I have decided to stay in China with my school longer. 

Happy National Day!!

Our first day of school was canceled!  We had a tsunami day!  Though, the tsunami didn't hit Shanghai until dinner time. The water was up to my knees in the street.  Gross!  But, I'm back at KeJi!  I'm so happy to be back to my old schedule.  The kids are mostly great (even my beginner classes!)  To celebrate being finished at my horrible summer school, here's some pictures of the UK pavilion from the Expo.

 September 10th was not only my birthday but Teacher's Day as well!  Several students gave me cards and flowers.  One student gave me a huge bouquet. They were super cute. =) NB also gave us expo tickets (because we need more?) for Teacher's day. Jacqui brought me a Tiramisu ice cream cake, which we ate during our meeting.  Delicious!

A couple weeks ago, China celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival.  We had a three day midweek holiday (which means we all had to work during the weekend.)  My holiday wasn't anything exciting.  I helped some new teachers explore and caught up on sleep (finally!).  Some of the teachers from Jiaxing also visited Shanghai.    The Mid-Autumn festival date celebrates the full moon around the autumn equinox.  Chinese generally spend the holiday with their family (think Christmas, sorta).  Moon cakes are made or exchanged.  Moon cakes are filled with anything from nuts, red bean, and lotus seed paste to eggs and meat.  I have more than twenty moon cakes sitting in my apartment at the moment.