Springtime for the Wayward Souls

It has now reached the best time to be living in Shanghai--the springtime. It is when the flowers pop up on the peach blossoms, and color returns to the grayness that had enveloped the city.

I realized that this is really the first time I have lived in a place where I have seen all four seasons (real seasons--not like California). Arriving here in August, I got to see the sweltering heat of Shanghai in one of its record-breaking summers. I saw the leaves change in the fall and the rain pour down like it does in Lauren's hometown in Pennsylvania. Then came the winter. Our apartment froze over like Dante's ninth level of hell. Am I exaggerating? No. Ask my roommate who ended up wearing two layers of pants, three shirts, a jacket, two pairs of socks, a knit hat, and her mittens when she went to sleep…and she likes the cold. Meanwhile, I was in my stockings, pjs, robe, and was buried under a pile of blankets. Finally, spring has come into view.

The pink trees that are springing up all over Shanghai are peach blossoms I believe, although cherry blossoms look very similiar so it's hard to be sure. These popped up right outside of my apartment. I wish California had more of these beautiful pink trees around. Soon I will go to the top of the Pearl Tower and see all of Shanghai in its springtime glory. Hopefully there will be a lot of cherry trees still in bloom when I go to Tokyo.  

I am creating another video for City Weekend about teaching in Shanghai, and so I took a lot of pictures of my students during their break. They are the most energetic group of kids I have ever seen. These kiddos are not the easiest to teach, but they will do anything for stickers! I probably hand out more stickers than the rest of their teachers combined.

The number one thing I have learned from being a teacher is that I believe a teacher should make sure that he or she at least looks like he or she is enjoying being there in the classroom with the kids…the more excited the teacher is, the more excited the students are. I have seen a lot of teachers around some of my schools always looking upset and sulking about. This really surprised me…it seems like there is a lot more discipline here than back home in the states. While I agree that some form of discipline in the classroom is a good thing (a classroom isn't productive with kids screaming and running about everywhere), I believe there is a limit. The kids are never going to appreciate teachers that have a poor attitude. The other day, my roommate and I saw a teacher punch this student in the chest, the poor kid. These kids are too cute for that. That would never fly back home.

Other than that, Lauren and I finally went to People's Park in People's Square after working right next to it for months now. The park is really pretty, even for a Monday afternoon, with plenty of people hanging around the lake, fishing and playing mahjong. We wanted to check out the exhibition at MOCA, the Museum of Contemporary Art in People's Park, but the museum was closed. We are going to try again in a few weeks. We did end going to the top of one of the highest buildings in Shanghai, The Marriott Hotel, the top of which is sort of shaped like a claw that has caught a little toy like in one of those old games found in arcades. I have a goal of going to the top of the highest buildings in Shanghai.  

Only three more months left! I now have my flight home as well as a flight to Thailand, a country I have always been interested in going to.
 

View from the top of the Marriott Hotel in Shanghai. People's Park is below.