Mike In China

I'm alive! Don't worry I didn't get killed, I just haven't had the internet. I did write though and have posted the three letters I wrote while I didn't have any internet. This is the most recent one so I reccommend starting down two posts. Enjoy.

It’s Monday night in Shanghai. I’m sitting on my balcony on the 27^th floor overlooking Time Square and most of the skyline of Pudong. I would be sitting in the nook in Pablo’s room that looks at the two famous towers of Shanghai but he has crap there because he hasn’t finished unpacking yet. Everyone else went to go get dinner from street vendors but I did that earlier today. So far Shanghai is pretty sweet. I was slightly worried about living downtown and having it not feel like China but there are still plenty of side streets, alleys, street vendors and people you need to talk to that only speak Chinese. The funny part is that I’m trying to learn Chinese and starting out with basics at restaurants and shopping but the people that work here get really exited to see an American so the can practice their English and speak to you in broken English the whole time?! Bastards. I took the smallest room in the apartment so I could pay less, I’ve never really cared about how big my room is as long as I have a bed and a place to put my clothes. I don’t really need a desk because I just have my laptop and in all honesty I prefer typing out on the balcony. Hopefully tomorrow we can get internet so I can actually send some of these emails. Pablo didn’t work this morning and was supposed to take care of it but didn’t so now myself and Phoebe are going to go tomorrow with the “girlfriend” of one of the high up guys in the company. She is super nice and is the one that helped us out finding the apartment, which we got for a steal. I’m paying $250 U.S. a month in rent. Absolutely ridiculous how cheap living here is. Today was my first day of teaching. Phoebe and I teach at the same school on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings so its nice to have a friend to ride the train and take cabs with. I teach four 40 minute English classes to 2^nd Graders, have a lunch break and then teach one class of 3^rd graders. Next week I will start having two more classes of 1^st graders at a different school on Monday through Thursday. That’s right, no Fridays. However, we have lame ass staff meetings Friday afternoons so its not even a full day off. Then, because we are contracted to work five days a week I have to teach a 3 hour block in the afternoon on Saturdays. Apparently it is more of a students sign up and pay for it separately thing so hopefully no one will sign up and I will only work 4 days a week. The training for this company sucked. They didn’t really tell us a whole lot about what they wanted. Basically they told us that they wanted us to be clowns and give out a lot of candy to the kids. I think it’s going to take me a week or two to get used to that teaching method and I’m supposed to go watch one of my fellow teachers who has been here for awhile to get a better feeling for things. I do enjoy teaching. I liked the 2^nd graders more than the 3^rd graders because they were better behaved. The kids are at the stage where they love their teachers and since I’m foreign that makes me even cooler. I’m still waiting for a real bed to come. Right now I have a jenky ass futon that we are going to try to keep somewhere for guests (hint hint). I really just want to finish moving in. It’s crazy when I think that I’ve already been here for more than a month. Then it’s even crazier to think I will be here for another ten maybe more. We had to sign a lease for 12 months so we don’t know what we are going to do with the extra time but I know I’m not staying here until next September. Did you know this is going to be the longest held job I have ever had? Kind of scary. It sucks right now too because we have to slum it for awhile because we had to pay a month advanced rent and a two month security deposit. I had to borrow money from my parents for that one and I still don’t have that much to live off of this month. I will just have to make it work. Stay in touch.