Start of School and other stuff

Hi everyone.  We have successfully completed two weeks of school and over one month in Shanghai.  We have experienced quite a few different feelings and emotions so far.  It's been crazy, hectic, exciting, super fun, exhausting, exhilarating, gross, and sad to be away to list a few things.

Christy is adjusting to her overwhelming class of 11 students.  Having an aid has helped her immensely with the stress of handling so many little people at one time.  She is getting used to traveling on the metro and we have worked out a pretty good morning routine where we both leave at the same time.  This is helpful because we obviously can't trust her to cross roads all by herself.  Although our morning routine was a bit messed up the other day when she decided to sleep in and take a taxi with a couple of her friends.  On my way out, either in a morning fog or because she is a lock Nazi, I locked the door.

I didn't think much of it as I made my 10 minute trek to school and settled into my classroom around 6:15.  I had quite a bit to do to prepare for my 14 hour day with Back to School night following the regular day.  Don't feel sorry for me...I knew I would be returning to a freshly cleaned house, washed and hung out to dry clothes, neatly ironed shirts and pants, as well as carefully folded underwear put away in my drawer.  You may be thinking, Wow, what a wonderful wife!...that she is.  However, she never lifts a finger here!  See this was last Thursday and Thursday is one of the days that our maid comes.  Anyway, back to my story.  I got a call around 7:15.  I answered and was surprised to hear crying and screaming.  I made out that it was Christy and struggled to hear her say, "you locked me in the apartment, you *&%$!!!!!!!!!"

Needless to say, I quickly got up and began my return home to rescue my wife.  I passed many teachers going the other direction who were completely miffed by what I was doing.  My quick explanation of, "Locked my wife in the apartment, can't talk", caused mixed reactions of laughter and looks of death from some of the women who already considered me shady that I had managed to not get hit by a car, while my lovely wife was plowed over.  During my short walk back to the house I couldn't imagine how, even in China, they would design an apartment that you could get locked into.  Upon my grand arrival to rescue Christy I glanced at the inside door handle and noticed a sizable key hole.  Yep, the exact key hole that would fit the key Christy carried on her key chain everyday.  I'm glad we both have a sense of humor and that it is already a funny story.

Back to school.  Christy's building is amazing.  The classrooms are huge and everything is designed especially for all the little ones.  However, it is a new building and not all the kinks are worked out yet.  They can't print or make copies yet!  Not an easy problem to deal with while trying to teach.  They don't have all the curriculum materials they need, and they don't have internet.  So basically she is teaching without materials or resources to create or gather some.  Kinda frustrating!

My school on the other hand is wonderful in just about every way!  We have tons of materials, printers, copiers, etc, etc!  But that isn't the best part.  I know it is early but the staff is amazing.  I'm learning so much everyday!  Getting new ideas, planning huge and fun projects, and learning all about the world from stories instead of text books.  Quite cool!  The kids and parents have been wonderful.  Again, it is early but I am extremely impressed by what the 19 (yes only 19) kids are capable of doing.

We took our first trip outside of Shanghai today.  We went to Hangzhou.  Our school has another campus over there and we were offered positions at either one.  We ended up choosing Shanghai but wanted to see what the other area was like.  It is a town built around the West Lake which is supposed to be absolutely beautiful.  We took a trip down one of the rivers that flow into the lake but didn't actually make it to the lake today or to the campus.  That trip will have to come later.  What we saw was gorgeous!  The river was surrounded by mountains and was very picturesque.  We will post pictures in a few days on facebook.

The rafting was a blast.  We went with around 120 people and there were other groups on the river as well.  After getting off the bus we bought Huge water guns (under $2) and headed on our way.  We got down to the river by riding in an ox pulled cart.  Quite entertaining in itself!  We got on large bamboo rafts with benches for seats and headed out.  Right away things got wild as everyone had the large squirt guns.  It ended up being a gentle ride (slow current with a man with a large bamboo pole steering us), but not restful.  It was an hour long water gun fight on open water.  Everyone was drenched and we laughed for most of the hour.  We followed that up with a BBQ of hotdogs, hamburgers and 80 cent 1 liter beers!  The bus ride home was nap time for us (Christy has extended that...as she tends to do, and is sleeping as I type) because we are headed out to Big Bamboo to watch some college football.

Everyone seems to think that it is all paradise over here but we have come upon some issues.  We are currently debating over what to do with dinners.  Christy wants to start having our Ayi (maid) cook for us a few nights a week.  I would like the flexibility of continuing to go out wherever we want every night and order whatever I want and feel like.  So, as you can see, there are some real difficulties here!

More updates to follow!  We'll let you know when we update this again.  Thanks for keeping up with us!  I hope there are not too many typos because this is too long to proof read.  I'm sure Jen will let me know if there are!  Miss you all!

T and C K