Holy Bao, Batman! It's a post!

(a Bao is a bun or dumping, something "put together." Also, getting something "to go" at a restaurant is "da bao.")

HEY!  I'm back!  Maybe?

We had a wild and wonderful spring and summer, and I'm hoping that this is that start of "back to normal" postings. Heads up: I'm hearing rumblings that VPN's aren't quite doing the job that they used to do, and posting on this blog needs a VPN that works!  Cross your fingers that this is just a blip.

 To recap....

Last spring saw the lower school put on "School Daze" with the 2nd-5th graders. 

We also moved and paid 3 months' rent + 1 month deposit + .5 month for realtor fees in cash!! 

 That's 21,100 RMB right there.

Our new place also needed repairs done on the AC unit.

Why, yes, that's a repair guy climbing on the outside of our balcony with just a rope around his waist.

Why, yes, we do live on the 12th floor.

Yikes!

Mark also put on a music festival at the upper school. Way successful!!

We got to hang with some of our most favorite professors. 

I also got to conduct middle schoolers. 

Way fun!

This summer, we had a new addition to the family....

Meet Maggie!  She's the blonde one in the middle. 

I'm already being replaced... My parents are giving the squirt my stuffed animals!!

Coming back to Shanghai was bittersweet. 

I, for one, didn't like having to travel the long haul by myself. My seat mate didn't let me sleep on him. Imagine that!!

On the other hand, we got to come back and have dumplings. 

YUM!

Now if only it'd stop raining...

Day number 6 of constant rain!

We're missing you at home and wishing for some sun!

XOXO

Happy New Year!

Now that we have our hearing back and have gotten our nerves back under control from being scared by the barrage of fireworks, it's time to talk Chinese New Year!

Xīn nián kuài lè!! ("Shin nien quiy luh") Happy New Year! It's the most magical time of year to be in china because you get to witness the biggest celebration of ever. To the typical Shanghai resident, this would include several days off to travel back to your hometown (since most of the people in Shanghai are from other parts of China), delicious seasonal treats, pay bonuses, and FIREWORKS!! To us music teacher types, CNY signifies crunch time for a thrown-together performance in order to be included in a giant school-wide celebration run by the Mandarin staff. After all, we just finished our winter performances. What else are we going to do with two weeks of class?

...


Jessi's task for the performance was simple enough. We wouldn't want to put any pressure on the new teacher from the States. All she had to do was DESIGN AND CHOREOGRAPH THE GRAND FINALE!! Welcome to China, newbie! She was given two giant dragons that each required nine people to operate and three lion dance costumes that each require two people to operate. She teamed up with our friend John, the P.E. teacher, and together, they knocked out the most important and iconic part of the show! The kids were on top of their game and successfully maneuvered the intricate costumes on and off the stage to the delight of the crowd. As always, I was blown away, and Jessi was just glad to be done.

Picture proof:

Third graders singing.

Small children looking cute.

Chinese acrobats (not students).

Jessi and her Chinese drumline. With kids from Denmark and Norway. 

Kids with the dragon.

Lions.

He was told to look ferocious. 

Confetti of course!

Lower school Mandarin teachers. 

My part of the performance was to coordinate with Tracey, the high school band teacher, to teach and perform Feng Yang Ge, a standard crowd pleaser for CNY. The song was easy and some of the kids had performed it in the past, so we decided to have them memorize it and surround the audience for a more memorable performance. We also added six Chinese drums and a gong on stage as the center piece to really drive home the theme. The kids did great and the bosses were very pleased with the performance! Success!!

Thank goodness those two weeks are over. Time for more fireworks and Cambodia! Did I mention lately that our jobs are amazing!

Ps. A side note about firework...
On any random street in Shanghai during CNY you will be able to see a show almost equivalent to an American city's fireworks display, but without safety standards. We were in our new favorite hangout playing cards when a local man decided to light off a group of shells. The street was about 4 meters, sorry, 12 feet across, and there were cars and pedestrians everywhere. As he lit it and walked away, the block of fireworks fell over and pointed itself into a small closet of a convenience store. The first shell blasted into the shop and narrowly missed four customers. They casually walked out as the shell exploded in a burst of blue and purple! The next man tried to redirect the fireworks again, but instead pointed it directly at us! Thankfully we were behind glass. The shell hit the window of the cafe hard and exploded in red. The man tried again to redirect the still exploding fireworks, but pointed it straight down the street at a taxi and a police car! The rest of the shells (5 or so) nailed the taxi and exploded somewhere down the street. When all was said and done, the street was filled with smoke, and the cars and pedestrians, including the cop, simply went about their business. Amazing! I will definitely be living out some childhood dreams next year during CNY.

Anyone want to join?

Encore!

This is from the middle of the last song in my winter production. Please note the super silly bowing at the end!


Oh, the cutie-pies...

Catch Up!

Looking through my picture collection, there are some pictures that you should see.

Here they are!

Event 1: pictures off of WeChat from the choir friends.

More pictures with my choir friends.

Getting ready before singing the Messiah. 

I got asked way too many times if I forgot to wear makeup.

Yeesh!

The choir singing the Hallelujah chorus led by Dr. Ma (See him in the wheelchair?)

He was an amazing conductor. 

More so for celebrating his 100th birthday that night. 

Cute!

The concert hall. 

Event 2: We were invited to Thanksgiving dinner at a student's house. It was lovely to sit at a table with everything a tummy could ask for. It was at a gorgeous house at The Emerald (that ritzy bubble of a neighborhood next to the Lower School).

These were the turkeys that the kids made. One was vegetable, the other was fruit. Too cute!

Event 3: There's a "Rock Band" ASA ("after-school activity") at the Upper School that needed a drummer so that they could play at the basketball game.  Guess who got to play his most favorite thing ever??  

Just kidding. He actually doesn't enjoy it. :o)

Debbie, I can hear you shouting "No Drum Circles!" from here...

Thinking of you all as we're coming up on Christmas!!

PS-We have some videos of our school performances that we'll be sharing shortly! Pass the word!

There's No Business Like SNOW Business!

I'm here I'm here!

It's been a busy few weeks, starting with our Messiah singing, winter/semester concerts, grades, and staff party/formal. Be prepared to be overwhelmed!

At the lower school, we put on a "winter production." It is one performance that involves all 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. Yep. About 170 cherubs up and singing and grooving on stage. I found a program  neutral enough for the population I have, and we started practicing.

Like I might have mentioned, I learned a great deal:
- While I've learned what to do in terms of preparing my kids, I forgot that my super-stars grew up with me. We knew each other and knew what was needed. These kids didn't, though hopefully we'll do better in the future.
- I also found that though all of these kids have functioned quite fine with our classroom material, faced-paced lyrics are quite difficult for those students in the ESOL program.

Those were the two biggest "AHA" moments of the process, but the end product was quite spectacular. It takes a village, right?

I pushed to have us perform at the beautiful theatre at the upper school (instead of the cavernous lower school gym, Sorry, Maria!). This meant we had a lighting guy, I had a walkie-talkie in my ear for the sound guy, and the entire lower school staff helped rotate the kids backstage.

Start off the show with everyone, 

 Fourth grade professors tell us how to make snow, 

Third grade boys are annoyed because the third grade girls 

are crying over their snow angels being buried by a snow plow, 

(Second graders go crazy with jingle bells about here... the photography team must have been ducking for cover...)

Fifth graders tell us all about snowboarding,

Fourth grade ice fisherman complaining about being cold, 

Fifth graders pull out their instrument skills, 

Second and third graders sing about the trials and tribulations of postal workers,

And then it's time for the finale!

Second and third grade remind us that tobogganing is so much fun (it's a tango!),

Fourth and fifth tell us how much they love hokey, 

even if all of their teeth are knocked out.

There they are!

We even had flashy bows.

This is the calm before the storm of the bows. 

Other photo options were more close-ups and through parents' heads during the standing ovation.

Somehow, we managed to get all of those kids home. These two ladies taught the "actors" their lines for the skits between the songs. See? We were so excited to be finished that we had jazz hands. 

The coolest action shot (of myself) is probably going to have to become a profile picture. This is choreography and singing along the words, I promise... :o)  

Ta-da indeed. 

XOXO

Hallelujah!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Missing you and wishing you uncomfortable waistbands. :o)

We haven't posted the past few nights because we were at dress rehearsal and performance of Handel's Messiah. This explains the "Hallelujah": that we were singing that piece as well as being finished with that. It made for a tiring few days, but well worth it.

To begin the story, I started going to this choir with Tracey, Mark's teaching partner, at the end of September. It's with the Shanghai International Choral League, and it seemed like a good way to interact with locals and join a choir for once.

It's been so much fun!  Especially since we convinced Mark to join as well...

Can you see him right in the middle of the picture?

He has a lovely voice, as you well know. :o)  There are a handful of expats, mostly music teachers at the various international schools. The majority of the choir consisted of local Chinese: the general population as well as some students. I never quite got the whole story, but I think the students are from a local seminary. I could be mistaken however.

I didn't actually make any friends until the last few weeks. After we received seat assignments, I socialized a bit with the gals sitting next to me. One gal was studying for her final exams to receive her bachelors degree in Spanish. It was fun (and depressing) to practice my dwindling skills. Also funny to communicate with someone when both parties are using secondary languages. I also met one of the students, Wang Kang Yuen, who's a 22 year old going to that seminary (possibly).

If I remember the names... It's Bing Bing, Xiao Yue, me, and Kang Yuen

Kang Yuen and I became good friends despite the fact that I can only list colors at her and tell her I want two eggs on my breakfast burrito; she, on the other side of the conversation, doesn't have a lick of English. No worries! You don't need to understand each other's words to race down the stairs. :o)

This was in our final four rehearsals... We finally had our guest conductor from the US in the country, as you can see. He had some amazing credentials... it was ok. 

The obnoxious part started when we had rehearsals with the orchestra and the soloists; reason being that the choir just sat there while the soloists practiced.

The baritone in black.

We aren't sure if it's a culture thing, but the soloists didn't have the best rehearsal etiquette at the first rehearsal: not showing up on time (or at all!), leaving the room for extended periods, didn't actually know their parts...  

Selfies!!  Baritone and Soprano.

During that particular rehearsal, we sat for so long!  One just has to amuse oneself...

Taking our own silly pictures...

Sleepy Steve sleeping for the upteenth time!

Practicing English reading comprehension from exercises in the newspaper...

Sleepy Steve texting on the original Nokia brick phone consistently...

Taking loopy pictures with Tracey...

Saying hi to Didi, a classmate from Desert Vista High School

in Phoenix, AZ!

All of this fun putzing led us to this gigantic concert at the SHOAC (Shang Hai Oriental Arts Center) last night: 

Trying to find the entrance...

The time before the performance is always exciting. This especially so... we got to play with red scarves!  

After the show...

We're so glad that we participated in the choir! It was definitely an amazing experience, and I'm hoping to get to hang with those gals some more. 

I actually have another set of pictures, but I'm not posting them yet. 1) It's after midnight, and I have school in the morning (darn you, "Catching Fire")   2) They aren't loading. Booooo.

I'll tell you more, hopefully in 7 hours. :o)

Happy Thanksgiving again!

Bye for now

xoxo