Mike In China

Wow. Sorry I haven't updated my blog for such a long time. I took my camera to my classes one day and have been trying to make a post of my day in pictures but for some reason blogger just hasn't been letting me. Basically I would try every other night or so, get frustrated and give up. So now I will just leave you with some typing instead. Apparently Shanghai is experiencing a really warm fall. In fact, I can still walk around at night with shorts and a t-shirt on. I wore a long-sleeve t-shirt the other day and it was just a little too warm while I was walking around. Its pretty crazy. I hear that back home there has already been some snow. Its really funny because even the locals talk about how warm it still is. I want to grad one of them and say, "LISTEN HERE CHINAMAN, do you see the thick, intense layer of smog over your city? Here's a hint: don't expect the following falls to be any cooler." It really is crazy how bad the smog is some days. Some mornings I wake up and looking out our balcony on the 27th floor we can barely see the buildings two blocks away. Its gross. All the busses, cars and trucks just have the worst exhaust ever, it makes you choke. On a brighter note, the fact that it has been so warm has helped me avoid the fact that I packed clothes planning on living in a tropical climate for a year. Luckily my wonderful parents and grandma have came to the rescue and gave me money to get warm clothes. I was very worried about finding clothes that fit, especially jeans. I finally went on a hunt yesterday and it was quite the process but I came out victorious. And WOW am I fashionable now. Diesel, Dolce & Gabana and some other designer I haven't heard of jeans. Its funny because the cheapest jeans you can find here are all "designer" jeans, aka really good ripoffs. So I got three pairs of really nice jeans for under $50 US. It took awhile to find ones that fit, but I managed to. It was funny because I went with Chi who is Chinese but has lived in Canada and the US all her life and the woman kept asking if we were married. Chi thinks she might have told her yes on accident and then the woman kept telling her how rich she must be because she is married to a white man. That cracked me up. Today was parent's day at one of my school so I had 20 to 30 parents sitting in most of my classes today. It was a little stressful because there was a lot of pressure to do a good job but I got a lot of good feedback and that made it worth it. OH! This Friday our company is having an office Halloween Party! Its crazy because all these Chinese women are trying to plan a Halloween Party but they have no idea what Halloween is and keep asking us for ideas. We don't really know what to say because basically little kids put on costumes and go get candy and grownups put on costumes and go get drunk. I think it is a booze free party and they are trying to come up with a lot of games so we will see how things turn out. I'm having problems finding a costume because obviously its not exactly a big holiday here. I will keep you posted on how things turn out. I will post more often to make sure to not confuse people on whether or not I am still alive.