Before I talk about the weekend, I figure I should mention a few things that have happened at the end of last week. First, I ended up breaking up a fight. Two Grade 9 boys ganged up on a Grade 8 boy. I was wondering why the crowd had gathered and hung around to see. Sure enough, just like Canada, the three boys started punching, kicking and, yes, slapping. I ended up getting one off of the other and got another student to go get other teachers. I wasn’t expecting that when I came here! Turns out teenagers throughout the world share the same emotions.
I have been working on a movie unit with my Grade 7s and on Friday I asked them their favourite movie. I was so excited when one of them said Mr. Bean and everyone got excited! Because he doesn’t talk, the humour is universal. I thought that was pretty neat.
This weekend brought saw us Qingpu girls heading into the big city again. We went straight to a mall we knew had H&M because 1) we need more than our cotton travel clothes in Qingpu as everyone is so so fashionable 2) the girls wanted green for St. Patty’s Day and we knew H&M would have decent prices and our sizes (luckily, I brought green by fluke). We knew the day was going to be fantastic when we stopped for lunch and got delicious BLTs WITH CHEESE on soft, homemade whole grain buns for less than $3. It was something we needed dearly after eating the same foods on loop in Qingpu.
After shopping for a while (at H&M and a GIANT Forever 21), Alyssa and Sara decided to head to the apartment we were staying at to drop off their stuff before heading to the bar. I decided to stay out and keep exploring and shopping – and am I ever glad I did! Not only did I see more of Shanghai, including a skating rink on the 6th floor of a shopping mall, but I had an unbelievable run-in on the subway. There I was, minding my own business. I heard some English, which always throws me off now, and the accents sounded familiar. Being nosy, I craned to look around some of the other passengers and nearly died. Standing there was Marty (Martin Mitchell), a classmate of mine from Dalhousie. In the most populated city in the world, I ran into someone I knew from Canada! All onlookers, including non-English speakers, got a kick out of my reaction to seeing him. Turns out he has been in town with some co-workers (who were also shocked and amused) for 2 weeks for work and has been working out of none other than Qingpu itself! THAT, my friends, was the luck of Irish.
I spent my St. Patrick’s Day Eve (as some call it, St. Practise Day) at a bar called O’Malleys. Twelve of the thirteen of us ended up going out to celebrate together – and celebrate we did! Earlier in the day, we were talking about foods we missed the most. Mine may be goat cheese and I expressed this. We showed up at O’Malleys at 5 for supper and I was over the moon to see that they had goat cheese pizza! I am happy to report it was as good as I could imagine. The Chinese girls with us did not agree, however haha. Their faces looked like mine surely did when I smelled these little green gunk cakes with brown gunk in the middle that someone gave to us as a treat (I’m sure if you get by the smell, they are fantastic haha). The rest of the night was spent dancing to live music, meeting people from all over the world (including a guy whose mother is from Baddeck!), getting some male attention (pickings are slim, I guess), and chatting up some kids who were at the bar all night with their parents. Apparently there is no age limit at bars in China. Sara, three engineers from the States, an engineer from France, the guy with Cape Breton roots and I eventually left around 2 and headed to what we thought we was another Irish pub – The Blarney Stone – around the corner. Turns out, they moved locations and reopened that day. Instead, we went to Shanghai Brewery where we had a Duncan MacLeod (STRONG) and some other free drinks (compliments of the Americans). From there we tried to get in a cab and get food. We tried EVERYthing would could think of for him to take us to a restaurant. We rhymed off every food item we knew in Chinese (rice, noodles, beef, pork, vegetables) before trying “McDonalds” and “KFC”. Nothing. I left the cab and ran back into the Brewery and found out there was a kabab place down the street so we abandoned the cab and walked. Along the way, we found a cool looking bar so we strolled in. It was the strangest place I have ever been. The décor was very space-agey and there were giant bubbles and white curved walls and ceilings. We did a loop, then tried to walk into the VIP section before strolling out. Think we may need to return to that one at some point! We concluded the night at a kabob place that had pizzas and, yes dad, donairs!
It was a great weekend with our fill of Western food (we had a brunch that included a salad, wrap, french toast with MAPLE SYRUP, bacon and sausage), new friends (we got contact info for some of them!), dancing, drinks (Qingpu is a pretty dry city with not a bar to be found) and memories (one friend MAY have gotten a little sick in a squatter. This friend will remain unnamed). Looking forward to the next one already!
I have been working on a movie unit with my Grade 7s and on Friday I asked them their favourite movie. I was so excited when one of them said Mr. Bean and everyone got excited! Because he doesn’t talk, the humour is universal. I thought that was pretty neat.
This weekend brought saw us Qingpu girls heading into the big city again. We went straight to a mall we knew had H&M because 1) we need more than our cotton travel clothes in Qingpu as everyone is so so fashionable 2) the girls wanted green for St. Patty’s Day and we knew H&M would have decent prices and our sizes (luckily, I brought green by fluke). We knew the day was going to be fantastic when we stopped for lunch and got delicious BLTs WITH CHEESE on soft, homemade whole grain buns for less than $3. It was something we needed dearly after eating the same foods on loop in Qingpu.
After shopping for a while (at H&M and a GIANT Forever 21), Alyssa and Sara decided to head to the apartment we were staying at to drop off their stuff before heading to the bar. I decided to stay out and keep exploring and shopping – and am I ever glad I did! Not only did I see more of Shanghai, including a skating rink on the 6th floor of a shopping mall, but I had an unbelievable run-in on the subway. There I was, minding my own business. I heard some English, which always throws me off now, and the accents sounded familiar. Being nosy, I craned to look around some of the other passengers and nearly died. Standing there was Marty (Martin Mitchell), a classmate of mine from Dalhousie. In the most populated city in the world, I ran into someone I knew from Canada! All onlookers, including non-English speakers, got a kick out of my reaction to seeing him. Turns out he has been in town with some co-workers (who were also shocked and amused) for 2 weeks for work and has been working out of none other than Qingpu itself! THAT, my friends, was the luck of Irish.
I spent my St. Patrick’s Day Eve (as some call it, St. Practise Day) at a bar called O’Malleys. Twelve of the thirteen of us ended up going out to celebrate together – and celebrate we did! Earlier in the day, we were talking about foods we missed the most. Mine may be goat cheese and I expressed this. We showed up at O’Malleys at 5 for supper and I was over the moon to see that they had goat cheese pizza! I am happy to report it was as good as I could imagine. The Chinese girls with us did not agree, however haha. Their faces looked like mine surely did when I smelled these little green gunk cakes with brown gunk in the middle that someone gave to us as a treat (I’m sure if you get by the smell, they are fantastic haha). The rest of the night was spent dancing to live music, meeting people from all over the world (including a guy whose mother is from Baddeck!), getting some male attention (pickings are slim, I guess), and chatting up some kids who were at the bar all night with their parents. Apparently there is no age limit at bars in China. Sara, three engineers from the States, an engineer from France, the guy with Cape Breton roots and I eventually left around 2 and headed to what we thought we was another Irish pub – The Blarney Stone – around the corner. Turns out, they moved locations and reopened that day. Instead, we went to Shanghai Brewery where we had a Duncan MacLeod (STRONG) and some other free drinks (compliments of the Americans). From there we tried to get in a cab and get food. We tried EVERYthing would could think of for him to take us to a restaurant. We rhymed off every food item we knew in Chinese (rice, noodles, beef, pork, vegetables) before trying “McDonalds” and “KFC”. Nothing. I left the cab and ran back into the Brewery and found out there was a kabab place down the street so we abandoned the cab and walked. Along the way, we found a cool looking bar so we strolled in. It was the strangest place I have ever been. The décor was very space-agey and there were giant bubbles and white curved walls and ceilings. We did a loop, then tried to walk into the VIP section before strolling out. Think we may need to return to that one at some point! We concluded the night at a kabob place that had pizzas and, yes dad, donairs!
It was a great weekend with our fill of Western food (we had a brunch that included a salad, wrap, french toast with MAPLE SYRUP, bacon and sausage), new friends (we got contact info for some of them!), dancing, drinks (Qingpu is a pretty dry city with not a bar to be found) and memories (one friend MAY have gotten a little sick in a squatter. This friend will remain unnamed). Looking forward to the next one already!