Better Watch Out, It's Halloween Night!

Look at all the spooky sights!

I don't know if you know this, but between the title and the first line above, I'm quoting a song I sing in class.

Along those same lines, one of the teachers at school said that being around me is like being in a musical because there's always an applicable song being sung.

Oh dear...

ANYWAYS!

On to the real story:

We had our Halloween Carnival last Friday. I goofed and didn't bring my camera and my phone was dead (surprise!), but I'm glad I didn't; I'm not sure it would have survived the excitement!

Here are a few pictures to show what was going on:


I really didn't mean to look so awkward with my photobomb, but I didn't know when they would be taking a picture. Luckily, Darren decided to help me out...

Say hi to the Canadians!

Marginally better, right??  

And yes, they were providing "adult beverages" at this event. 

The highlight of the carnival was the face changing guy, who also spat fire. 

He's fast as lightning! That explains the blur. 

A split second later, he has a different mask on. 

Trick or treat indeed!

Eat lots of candy, everyone! 

Finally Sleeping Easy

We have an ayi who comes three times a week to do laundry and general tidying while we're working. She also makes dinner for us on Monday and Wednesdays.
One of the things that she does is make the bed for us. We never had that on her to-do list, but it's just something that she does.

Usually, we come home to this:


See the white under the pillow on the left? That's our comforter. Yep. Under the sheet.
Three times a week, for the last two months.

We've always just giggled and redo it, untucking and retucking as needed. We've even gone so far as to make the bed before we leave for the day to show her what's normal for us. Every time, though, we come back and the sheet is on the comforter.

That really makes you wonder: what thoughts are going on? Is she thinking that these are the craziest sleepers she has ever met to totally flip the coverings around? Is she showing us that the comforter under the sheet makes it so that the comforter would never fall off? Did she like the darker color of the sheet more?


We may never know.


Last week, we've had a breakthrough:



No idea as to the cause of this phenomenon, but definitely a weird highlight of our week!

Sweet dreams!

And you thought convenience store food was bad in the US!

We stopped into a Family Mart the other day to grab water. This is a convenience store that is everywhere in Shanghai, and they all play the same little theme song that plays every time the doors open. (Mark has it figured out in all keys so if you want to know what it sounds like, ask him!  I've been blocking it out.)

Waiting to pay, we see this tempting display of snacks. 

A closer look at the menu... 

Oh, I don't know... What looks tasty??

Oh dear... Maybe I didn't need a snack after all!

There are merchants, but this isn't quite Venice!

I'm making pretty good friends with the librarian aid, Ada. She's a local gal and super friendly. We keep going to massages where she teaches me some words in Chinese and I teach her some words in Spanish. She's also very kind to take me on field trips to see things that I didn't know I wanted to see. One of these trips was to this little water town area, made to look old, but still very interesting.

That's Ada and her husband. I think his name is Adam, but she says "Ed-man." Who knows??

That's my head. :o)

Ada says that this area is a bit of a tourist destination for Chinese. I would concur, seeing how many people where in this place. It was knick-knack stores packed together, but mostly it was food stalls. Whoa, that's one thing that is interesting around here: the amount of pungent smells no matter where you go. These food stalls and waterways? No exception. 

A dear friend asked for a photo of me. This is as close as I got. ;)

I told you it was crowded!

Be on the lookout for the Dora the Explorer balloon; 

Ada was worried we'd get separated so she bought a balloon. 

 Remember those smells I told you about? I think these are "preserved eggs."

This lady is making a cookie by plopping batter on a hot spinning contraption.

The super thin wafer (still pliable), is then quickly folded into an easily-bagged square. 

Break up the crunchy wafer for ultimate enjoyment!

Hi Mark!

We weren't adventurous enough to try the boat rides, but maybe next time.

Now if I can only remember what the place was called...

Whoops!

Fight on, you stalwart Ram team!

Wandering through the clothing at the fake market, we stumbled upon some Colorado sweatpants.  !!  How exciting!  And which university did they promote???

Colorado State University!!

Go Eagles!


Wait, what?

United Nations Day of Peace, a post-script

Today was Day One of Parent/Teacher Conferences.

Want to know the crazy thing? I was home by 4.

Yes, my fellow teacher friends. I meant to type 4. Not 8.

Students were dismissed at 11:30, and we closed our doors at 3:30.

...I'm still shocked.


Anyways, between parents visiting to tell me about their music experiences (or that of their family members), I looked at some pictures from the year so far that people have put on the shared drive. I found some nice ones of my 2nd-5th grade kiddos performing their song for the United Nations Day of Peace.

Look at all those cutie pies!

Definitely couldn't fit everyone in the picture.

Do you see me??

Yep. I went the cowboy route to represent the good ol' USA. 

Apparently sweatpants and Crocs aren't a good representation of my "home country."

Who knew?

:o)

Just trying to fit in...

I know it's well-known that around here, people will carry the largest loads imaginable on the smallest vehicle possible. Like, enough styrofoam to fill a dump truck somehow lassoed onto and transported on a tricycle. Don't be too impressed, it was a grown man on an adult tricycle. (I tried my hardest to get a picture of it, but the bugger was going too fast for me!)

This leads to the day I bought at juicer and had it delivered to school (since the office staff can help me talk to the delivery guys).  The not-as-smart idea was that I rode my bike to school that day. 

I knew the juicer was going to be a bit bigger in the box, but I wasn't prepared for it to take up an Ikea bag. I had thought I could hang the bag from my bike's handlebars, but just lifting it, I knew it wouldn't work. There was also no way that I could balance it on top of my basket and still look out for traffic. 

So, in that "I can carry anything"attitude that prevails around here, 

I came up with a workable solution:

I apologize for the blur, I wasn't exactly steady on my feet.

For your entertainment, I invite you to picture me on my bike, swerving through the Emerald (remember that this is the ritzy neighborhood around here), being stopped by a sweet mom who offered her driver to take me home, making it over the speed bumps, down the street, and all the way home. 

You know, I really thought I was doing as the locals do, but considering how many giggles I passed by, I'm not sure I succeeded...

Anyone want to stop by for some excellent apple juice??

Holy moly! It's been awhile!

I'm so sorry for taking so long to catch up!

Last week was "grades due on Friday" week, but it was more that our comments were due. For my teacher friends out there, I had to write 300-500 characters per student, individualized for their strengths and "to-work-ons." It was nice to be able to communicate these things, but WHOA it was time consuming to do that for 165 kids. (In case you were wondering, classroom teachers had to do 3,000 characters and have 12-15 kids.)

I'm alive!

On to the post!

update: this was actually written LAST Monday, but I posted because I thought my teacher friends would get a "kick" out of the report card info...

Guest Post: China Trips

Last week I took 50 seventh graders to Yaolinzhen as part of the outdoor lab-esque program called China Trips. Every student from grade 6-12 visits a different region of China depending on their grade. Most of the trips are service oriented so that the experience can fulfill part of the IB curriculum requirements. The 6th and 7th graders however get an outdoor education trip that is focused on team building and comfort zone challenges.

Yaolin is 4 hours and 30 minutes southwest of Shanghai and we made the trip in the pouring rain of Typhoon Fitow. When we left the school it was just starting to rain, but as we drove south if started to let loose. Each town we passed was more flooded than the last. 

When we got to the hotel we had to present all 50 kids and 5 adults with matching passports in order to check in to our rooms. Surprisingly, this only took about a half hour because not one person forgot their passports. It was a miracle! After dropping our things in the room we got back on the bus to head to the campsite for introductions. 

notice the standing water...

 a short walk up this trail to the campsite...

After a few hours of getting muddy in the field we went back to the hotel for a great meal and an early bed time... for the kids.

The next day we split into two groups. One group, my group, would camp on Tuesday and the other would camp on Wednesday. We ate a big breakfast and packed lunches before heading back to the campsite. The day was filled with three main activities.

1. Archery... awesome!

2. Wilderness Skills... boring and long

3. How to build a fire... with tissues and a lighter.

After a short break and a snack we set up our tents. Setting up a tent can always be a challenge but doing it with 25 7th graders who have never set one up before was borderline impossible.

The day ended with a camp fire and a giant spaghetti dinner.

Day three consisted of a hike with some nice scenery.

Day 4: Repelling, rock climbing, and laser tag.

On Friday we woke up and checked the kids out of the hotel. We got all the bags and kids into the lobby only to find out that the bus was going to be late. How late? 3 and 1/2 hours. We played every version of tag known to man before checking out two rooms at the hotel for movies. The bus finally came and we made it home just in time for happy hour. Thank god!