The "Lawlessness" Of Shanghaii on the street

I continue to be AMAZED at the "lawlessness" and craziness on the roads

I walk them every day. I feel stupid for tripping at school. My injury should have been from being hit by a car/truck/bike/scooter. My dear colleague William is recovering at home after being hit by a car while travelling on his scooter.

New bandages 13 days after fall. Fresh, clean bandages- Yeah!!!!- 17 days to go and it's off!

These are the finishing touches. The "work" is belwo:

WooHooo. Only # and a bit weeks to go. None of my jackets fit over this cast and it's gotten a little "cold" in the mornings for Shanghai.....Worst to come in a month ( so they tell me....)

Getting so very tired of this....Everything takes twice as long.............

October 17th is the date I have for this to be removed. I am counting down the days. My bandage is filthy, can't hold chop sticks very well- (rice and other food ends up in my cast - yuck!) Have to bring a plastic bag when it rains outside - can't get it wet. Typing takes forever..............Yes, I'm "winning" - as my Russian friend calls it. We call it "whining".....
Opps- didn,t know it was on video mode....oh well.....you get the idea...

Chinese mailbox....and walking home from Saturday walk and restaurant

Chinese mailbox....walked by them each day and didn't know.....

A Lovely Saturday Afternoon Walk with a colleague

Because I am in the second week of a six-day work week, I had a lazy Saturday morning and a lovely late afternoon walk with a colleague to a place I had never bee. A "park" housing heritage residences. And a Cesar's Salad - wonderful- at the Koala Guest House & Eucalyptus Cafe.

Bus ride home -in snippets. Friday afternoon rush hour traffic- ugh!

The traffic was so bad, the bus got stopped several times, so I took the video in "snippets.

Friday September 27- Stamps & Shopping.....

In Mandarin: " 20 stamps for Canada - xei xei (thank you)

A "Cinese" hair dryer ( so tired of having only ONE converter for electrical equipment) kiwis (yeah!), almonds for my desk at school ( I am always hungry here??????) salad ( of course!) peppermint tea, potatoes ( got a hunkering for boiled potats), peanuts in the shell (which I ate in be last night while watching a movie- yikes - shells crumbs in bed....)

Friday September 27- My Pre Junior (Grade 6 ) class in the morning

This is my bus ride home....wish there were more scooters...more realistic

HOPE THIS WORKS...IT'S FROM MY CELL.......

Students at Shanghai Foreign Languages School

I think I may have re-posted this....opps!

September 26 Some photos

Lunch  at the Canteen. They begin with rice and you point to the trays of food you want. There are about probably eight different choices of vegetables, fish, tofu and meat- usually some kind of pork. Some of the vegetable dishes also have slices of pork in them. I eat those
This was tofu, pieces of pork and celery, bok choy. I certainly enjoy the canteen food. I have a card that I swipe for the year. Each meal I eat is about 5 yuan- less than a dollar Canadian

Hope this video works!

My desk in my shared office

Where I get my bus each morning.

Pictures from Work........be patient

I bring my cell phone to work each day, but I have been told that taking pictures of the school might be frowned upon because it is rather shabby. I have to be discreet. And, adding to this difficulty is the fact that it takes forever (days, anyway) for my pictures to arrive to my gmail account from my phone (?). So, using my digital camera is more efficient. It is also more "visible"- unlike a cell phone- which everyone has here (except for the Pre-Junior students - Grade 6)

I am told that taking pictures of my students in the classroom is an "okay" practice, as long as they agree. I am waiting for another week before I bring my digital because my right hand/arm is weak

So you will just have to make do with a couple trying out beds in IKEA. My Russian colleague was most offended by this- I told her we do this in Canada. You are SUPPOSED to try out the beds

IKEA pictures - Visited on Saturday September 21st- Shanghai

Look familiar?

I orderd the Smoked Salmon and Bean salad- it was delicious! My Chinese colleagues tell me that eating at IKEA is very popular because the food is good and it is inexpensive. Monday through to Friday, "Seniors" have FREE coffee and it acts as a reality "dating" service " for the 50+ crowd. This was verified by three people- ( Triangulation- for the 

anthropologists it the crowd.....) Yes, China has "dating sites" online. But these are not popular with this crowd- how sweet!

Our Dorm is under construction - so lots of dust and dirt. But, the women who are the caretakers of our floor are quite wonderful. Floor is washed each day and I come home to blu-ish suds in my toilet- both waste baskets emptied and water coolers/heaters replaced. The dorm is old and stained and yellowed, but they keep it as clean as possible.

So, while I was suing a plastic up to wet and rinse my hair in the bath each night, I came home to a 'SUGGESTION" I believe, from the women who clean our rooms. They were very sympathetic when they saw my cast one week ago. I think they figured out I was splashing - somewhat ineffectively with a plastic beer-sized cup. So, they reminded me ( I think) that  I could use the shower spout......it worked beautifully!

Tuesday September 24/12 @ 7:55 a.m.

Here I am ready to go into my 8:00 a.m. and I am tired already. I have a teacher ( Sunshine -yeah!) coming to class at 11:30 a.m to do and "observation". My first one. Matt has had 4 teachers in his classroom already. Then I will go and "register" my cell phone. Something I didn't know I had to to..................it's China, right? That's why it has not work for four days- yikes!

My Neighbourhood- on the other street- pics

Sunday after a long day of classes- going for a quick walk around the other corner of the neighbourhood- for snacks and fruit

You can buy ONE banana and three tangerines. These are some of my favourite snacks here.

Walking back to my Dorm. It gets dark here at 6 pm. I'm always surprised!

My dorm building is next- including the elevator and assorted other pics

Teaching onSunday, recent purchases, varia

So, we are back to school for a six-day stretch- Sunday to Friday. Today was a friday schedule, so it was not too bad. Mondays and Thursdays I have 5 classes with few break, so these are my most difficult days.
Imet the second of my two Junior 2 (Grade 8) classes- and they are both incredibly unruly. The res to my 16 groups of teaching are lovely. I can't figure it out? Hormones? I was so determined to get control today that I did a "dictation" - which I know they hate- and I made it up as I went along. It was about how del-behaved Canadian students are; how they do not talk in class; they respect their teachers; etc; etc. You could hear a pin drop...............wish me luck with these two 40-minute classes for the rest of the term....sigh........
Random pics

My current reading material. The school has a "resource Room" where we can borrow materials to use in our classrooms. It is 99% Mandarin with a very few exceptions.
Recent purchases

Reading bedside lamp- yes- a necessity. Alarm clock and watch. I ran over in two classes last week and had teachers knocking on my door. Sometimes the school bells ring to change classes and sometimes not. So, I bought a watch- there are NO clocks in the hallways, classrooms or offices. And yes, it is a "money" watch - year of the monkey, don't you know!

IKEA goodies- pillows candles and blanket. IKEA photos are on my cell and it is re-charging - will post soon.

The closest to American gum I can find- the rest is chemical-fruit-tasting luckiness. I ate through my stash of Tylenol last week before I visited the hospital and got pain-killers. Nice to find a replacement pack for my "medicine cabinet". (It's the "little" things that make my days....little, tiny finds....)