Happy Halloween from the World's Hottest Dog




Mommy's little super star

Little dog sent me a Halloween e-mail too.  Please not I DID NOT WRITE THIS.  I am assuming Mickey told my mom what to type since it was sent from her e-mail address.

woof woof grueeeee when are you coming home?? rufff ruffff . I miss you.  lick face kiss kiss bow wow.  I miss you
Mickey



Halloween Horror Nights

When people say they died on Halloween they are usually referring to the fact that they drank a lot.  when I say I almost died on Halloween I am referring to the fact that I woke up next to a fire.  Literally.

Halloween (meaning Friday October 29) started off harmless.  A couple of us female teachers decided to borrow uniforms and dress up as Jin Cai students.  We got an unbelievable amount of gasps and students taking pictures of us. Both administrators and students were shocked by how young I looked and told me I look like a MIDDLESCHOOLER, not even old enough for high school.  When I walked into my first class I literally got a standing applause.  Some of my 11th grade male students told me I look beautiful and the girls told me to be careful.  Instead of making me feel good about myself I was felt embarrassed to talk the halls.

Look I have a pumpkin head!

Teachers dressed like students

Students dressed like.. animals?

Halloween part II was a party at our apartment and it was OUT OF CONTROL.  There were people who none of us knew, friends of friends, and lots of them.  It started at 8:30 and was maybe fun for the first 3 hours.

Cowpeople and John

 

Party people.  You can't really see my costume but I am Batgirl/woman


Anyways, about that fire.  I'd like to say I didn't start the fire but, I did.  Being that I wore very little on Halloween and that Shanghai is actually very cold now, I turned on an electric blanket before going to bed.  BAD MOVE.  I woke up about 45 minutes incredible hot and smelling something weird.  I looked to my left and my bed was IN FLAMES.  My first instinct was to unplug the blanket (like it would stop the fire?) and then I threw water on my bed.  As you can see in the picture, the entire blanket was red before the fire, and afterwards there is a huge whole of just charred wires.  It also burned through my sheets, comforter and expensive IKEA mattress pad.  Thankfully, I was without a scratch, burn, or any sort of mark on me.  Some people sleep through smoke and wind up burned or dead from smoke inhalation but thankfully, I was dressed as Batwoman and adopted her killer instincts.

These were once blankets. when I woke up this was LIQUID hot.  Literally oozing liquid blanket.

RIP matress pad.  I think I will miss you the most.

I've always been very scared of fire.  I used to have this repeated dream that Native Americans were coming to take over a lit my house on fire with flaming bow and arrows and I was too scared to go out so I would hide under the bed.  True story, I had this dream at least 20 times.

So I was too scared to go back to sleep and 4am here is 4 pm in New York so I called my mommy on skype (well first I called Jennifer Tang) sorry I as delusional and have no idea what I said).

My room smelled like smoke so I tried to find another place to sleep.  After one roommate thought some one "stole" his iPod (which he magically found later) he smashed glass bottles in the living room so sleeping on the downstairs couch wasn't an option.  I went to the upstairs couch and found two boys on it.  Then I went into Annie's room to sleep on her window seat and there was a boy there too.  Finally, I told Annie there was a fire in my room and snuck into her bed with her and her visiting friend.  Annie actually thought I made the fire up and just wanted to snuggle.  We'll probably have to snuggle again because my room smells awful.

Basically, I am returning to the dark ages and banning electric blankets, Christmas lights, candles, microwaves, stove top cooking, lights, electricity... anything that can start a fire from the apartment.

I did manage to drag myself to the gym today where I listened to Lady Gaga as I ran and it gave me flashbacks to last year's Halloween on South Beach with Padula, Brittany Baby and Nazia.  I miss you girls and I really enjoyed our necessary hour long visit to the Mcdonald's bathroom and sweet talking our way into the Playboy party at The Shore Club. Till we meet again, xoxo!

London 2012, and Rio 2016 watch out

The school I am teaching at, Jin Cai, actually has two campuses.  I teach at the international division, where the students are mostly foreign. The students pay to attend although it is a public school.  The Chinese government discourages Chinese citizens from enrolling in international schools (after all, our textbooks are all Prentice Hall and filled with American Propaganda, see chapter three, of Economics Principals in Action, which discusses the American Free Enterprise long before basic economic concepts of supply and demand are introduced). However, I do have some Chinese students who are able to attend internation school because their parents may have worked abroad and they attended a western school before, or because they want to attend a western university.

The video below is from Sports Day.  For all the weekends I had to work, one would think the Chinese government does not approve of time taken away from academics.  Nonsense!  Nearly every school in  China, and apparently some businesses, have an annual Sports Day.  Two weeks ago, we had Sports Day on our campus where the English Sections competed against the Chinese sections.  Last Thursday, we went to main campus (which was gorgeous) to compete against them.  Main campus has perhaps three times as many students than us and they are definitely intense.  First, they are more academically intensive as they actually have an acceptance rate below 100%.  Secondly, they can kick our ass in sports. Their students told ours that they  practice every day. Partn of their everyday routine is this stretching exercise in the video below, which was kindly sent to me by my friend/coworker/classmate, Ellyse.

 

I wish Mondays would last forever.

While most of then world hates Mondays, they happen to be my favorite. 

1) I only teach two math classes today, and they are both after lunch :)

2) I have GLEE CLUB as an elective.  This kids are so creative and when they have fun I do.

3) Long intense runs at the gym so I can then...

4) Go to Blue Frog! 
         Blue Frog is our Monday night spot.  Every Monday since I've been there (9 straight weeks) three of my roommates, maybe four if Annie is ever around :( , and perhaps some friends get together for half off burgers.  They also have buy one get one drinks but we decided to take on a whole other beast.  We decided to go for a record and try all 100 of their shots.  If we complete this challenge, we get our names on the wall and a free drink every time we come in.  Our estimated completion date is Christmas, where we try to forget we are not at home and drown our sorrows in weird shots with questionable alcohol contents. Oh and...

5) Ride my bike home after said shots.
        Give the amount of illegal U-turns and respect for pedestrian safety by Shanghainese drivers this could be dangerous.  Thankfully there is a wide bike lane which has become less crowded with the colder weather. Speaking of which, it is now 58 degrees Fahrenheit at 10pm.  That's a big change from the 90+ degree heat when we arrived. On our bike ride home, my roommates made me guess the temperature.  I said 60 and they said 40ish and thought I was living in Miami too long.  Well I WISH I was still in Miami and maybe if I stayed longer I'd be that much smarter than those silly boys. +1 me.

Ni zhu zai Shanghai ma? Weishenme!?

Co-work/classmate Mr. John teaches SAT Prep and had his students do a practice essay with the prompt "Is happiness a choice?".  Funny thing was one of his students actually wrote in Italian and another wrote in Korean.  Mr. John's essay got me thinking, its time to cheer up. After all, I am in it for the long haul.

 

I'll tell you what doesn't help: a couple dozen margaritas.  However, spending the evening at Samantha and Leila's apartment eating homemade enchiladas, baking brownies and buying the entire season of True Blood for $2 is definitely a pick me up. Thank you ladies :)  I love the Wednesday nights ladies nights(in or out).

 

In a mist of a mild breakdown it seemed like a good time to reconsider my reasons for coming here.

 

1. Adventure

When asked at interviews to describe myself in three words, I might switch up the other two but I always include adventurous.  I'm pretty sure they don't hear that one often and that's good. Sometimes, friends like Hilary confuse this with being a hippie.  I shave my legs, wear heels and try to respect the laws of society (especially in China where thousands of people are executed each year).  Not a hippie.  I just like to have fun. 

I consider any atypical journey outside the house an adventure; praying GPS will lead me to a new restaurant, failing miserably to make a short cut to Miami International Airport, , driving one hour for cinnamon buns (Sabrina Ally!) or hiking a mountain.. twice (Brittany).  Needless to say I try to take my friends on adventures but I make some solo trips too (Vietnam).

 

2. Freedom

Freedom is leaving my stubborn little self saying I don't need anyone. Now I am trying to believe it. There are times I want to get away from everyone, including people I love.  As if going to college 1500 miles away was a little too close for comfort, I decided to take on Asia. 

 In my mind this is Asia round two.  Round one was spent on skype/writing e-mails to a boy back home.  So even though I REALLY miss people back home, this will not be a repeat.  I made sure of that.

 

3.  Chinese. 

I FAIL AT THIS.  FAIL FAIL FAIL.  I would tell you how much i suck in Chinese but I don't know how. Chinese would rank higher but really, my thought of going to a Spanish speaking country were too strong for learning a language to take precedence over 1 and 2. Anyways i start 1-1 tutoring on Sunday. woo.  Now I can finally buy bubble tea without getting laughed at.

 

4. MASTERS IN INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

....from some school in Irvine, California.

A useful took when applying for those government jobs.  ::cough:: state department ::cough cough::  Hopefully it has its merits and all these bullshit homework assignments and BLACKBOARD JOURNAL ENTRIES will pay off.

 

5. TEACHING....

more like #9284773657345 way at the bottom of list.

Should schools hire teachers this bad?  NO.   I am too busy with issues 1-4 (ok 1-3) to care.

I really enjoyed teaching my freshman at UM and I thought maybe I could live this journey out globally and leap frog from country to country. I want to travel but I never want to teach math again.  I'd also like to teach somewhere my students didn't act like spoiled  BABIES.

 

 

Now take 24 hours in a day and try to fit in all these reasons.  Can't do it.  That is why I am an awful teacher. 

 

Will I get fired?

No.

Will I still get paid?

Yes.

Will I fail my practicum course?

No.

 

Therefore, nothing will change.