CHRISTMAS IS HERE

Since, I've been so horrendous with posting on here (sorry, dad), I decided I owe everyone at least two posts today.  Christmas has arrived in Shanghai, and let me tell you it is almost more commercialised than in the states.  Not only are Christmas decorations found everywhere, but there are insane amounts of markets and deals going on in many stores all over the city.  I have been trying to be as festive as possible, because I am used to decorations all around the house at this time.  Our apartment is not very decorated yet, we are considering buying stockings, however we have been partaking in many festive events around the city.  I also plan to decorate my classroom very soon and I am currently having my writing students compose persuasive letters to Santa explaining why they deserve to be on the nice list..... boy are their letters funny.  I can't wait to show their parents the things they have written :)  There are many Christmas markets in Shanghai, as I'm sure there are in many large cities.  I had never heard of such a thing, but then again Mechanicsburg isn't that big of a city ha ha. I attended a medieval festival that was beautifully decorated and let me tell you.... Mulled Wine is absolutely HUGE here.  For some reason everyone believes that Americans love to drink mulled wine and eggnog during the holidays..... I'm not sure about everyone else but I've never had either nor do I consider it to be THAT important during the holidays.  The reaction I get from people when I say that is hilarious.  I've had my fair share of mulled wine though, which is something I had never had before (hot wine with cinnamon, spices, and fruits added).  It's delicious and perfect on a chilly night! Below are some pictures of festive things I have been doing lately, I'm pretty fortunate to have had awesome weather (never below the high 50s) so far.  However, I've heard that PA has been having some amazing weather too.... Here's to a very merry and WARM Christmas :)

Surprise Surprise.....

Welp, to get right down to it I was pickpocketed on the metro last week on my way home from work.  Luckily, they only got ahold of my iPhone (a new 6 that is with no cracks) and I walked away with my crappy China phone.  I hate to say it was bound to happen, but I kid you not everyone that I know here has had it happen to them.... I guess it's like a rite of passage??? (trying to make myself feel better).  The good news is now is the best time for this to have happened, because Tim's coming in 2 weeks (I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!) and he's able to bring me some things from home, new iPhone included.  At first I was extremely distraught thinking about having to pay for a brand new phone, and all of the things I had lost on that one.  However, I realize that life happens and unexpected costs are something you obviously can't plan for but should always be prepared for.  I'm also thankful that I send most of my pictures to Tim (excessive amounts that I'm sure he just LOVES), so I was able to get most of the pictures from the last month that I hadn't had the time to back up to my computer.  ANYWHO I would like to update you on the latest in my life.... I found a new apartment and am living with the two girls from my last flat, Cornelia and Sofia, and now we have added a new member, Jill from Thailand.  She is very nice however, she's not around often.  Thanksgiving came and went.... mind you I celebrated not one, not two, but THREE Thanksgiving's here.  It was more than enough turkey to satisfy me for the year!!!! I was extremely pleased with the mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie as well :) I have salvaged pictures from two of my celebrations and have put them below to show you how similar it was celebrating in China.

Thanksgiving #1 (with some coworkers and friends)

Thanksgiving #2 (all coworkers)

LIFE UPDATE

*** Time for an update on the seemingly endless chaos I call my life***

The night of Halloween was supposed to be spent dressing up in costumes and celebrating, but instead my roommates and I spent it panicking, because our landlord had informed us that she will be selling our apartment.  At first, she told us we had one week to find somewhere new and move everything...... so naturally, we spent that night in a panicked frenzy, desperately searching for new apartments.  However, after much complaining and one dramatic episode, (by a roommate that shall remain nameless) we were able to get two more months out of her.  So, December 31 will be my last day in this apartment, and then it'll be onto a new adventure, living somewhere else in this awesome city! Rather than being sad and angry, we've decided to take a positive outlook on this situation and are going to have some fun finding a new flat together (the three girls are planning to stay together).

Last thing!!! On November 1, my roommate Cornelia (South African) had planned a barbecue at our house (or as the South Africans call it a brie??).  It was awesome and perfect after such a crappy day, the day before.  Many of her South African friends came over with lots of great food to cook on the small barbecue that Cornelia owns (pictures and a video of the bbq below) and it was amazing!!!!!  (I know what you're thinking...... I have gone from extreme vegetarian to straight carnivore..... there is simply no explanation that I can conjure).  I think Cornelia is my favorite person in this city, not only is she great company, but she reminds me of my mom (anal about cleaning, an awesome cook, and a loyal and supportive friend).   That's all for now...... toodles!

Miss Natalie's Room: Halloween Edition

Well, it's been a hell of a past two weeks! I figured it was necessary though, after being here for over 2 months to give you all a look into my second home in China, my classroom!! I want you all to have a look at my humble little abode as well as introduce you (at least through pictures) to some of my coworkers.  For the first few weeks of teaching, I was moving around from room to room without a place to call my own, but our school is expanding and we moved onto another floor... FINALLY I have my very own room.  Naturally, I went all out with the halloween decor.  I always get lots of "wow, this actually feels like a classroom" from my coworkers; I try to act like I know what I'm doing sometimes :)  Teaching is my honest passion and working with non native speakers is something that has been growing on me since college.  I think I've finally found my niche, and I can't wait to learn as much as I can!! Anyways, our school celebrated on the 31st for halloween (happy birthday shout out to my dad :).  It was a big hit and many of my students wore their costumes. Many of our students intend to study in American schools whether it be in the near future or not until college, but I think it's essential to incorporate different cultural celebrations as it provides a learning opportunity and insight into a different way of life.  I'm excited to show off my many pictures of my classroom!! You'll see there is a sign that I made (I'm extremely proud of my monster drawing, yes I drew that by myself), but this is a place that my level 1 students' work is slowly being hung up on the wall as they complete their assignment of creating a monster (drawing and writing) where we focused on adjectives!

~Side note... if you haven't already figured it out, clicking on any of the pictures make them much bigger and clearer!!

Flatmate Bonding :)

The past two weeks have just flown by, work is very hectic as we are preparing for Halloween as well as getting new materials prepared for the spring semester (it's coming faster than you think), and on the weekends I have been spending lots of time with my 4 flatmates (yes, this number includes our puppy). **** BREAKING NEWS ABOUT THE PUPPY... We were just informed by a vet that he is in fact a pomeranian and the pet shop owner lied about what kind of dog Zephyr is.... lucky enough for him we have all fallen in love and find his small size to be rather convenient for the flat. **** Back to the main topic of the post.  Bonding time!!! Two weekends ago (Oct 17), the annual Shanghai International beer festival took place, and of course we decided to all go and celebrate (after I got off work at 5:30).  Luckily, two of my roommates are veterans and have been in Shanghai for a few years now, so they knew exactly where to go and what to do upon arrival.  It was in the "Bund" area which is the place where you will see most pictures of the Shanghai skyline are taken.  This is right on the Huangpu river and on a clear night, the view of the skyline is just breathtaking.  The event itself was highly catered to foreigners with beer from all over the world and many different kinds of food! My new favorite thing to eat is kebabs, which is famous in Turkey.  I must say the one I ate at the festival was absolutely fantastic!! I also was able to try many different kinds of beer, some free, and others very cheap! They had lots of live music and games going on for entertainment, and the funniest part were the people dressed up in all sorts of costumes. By the end of the night, my roommate had found himself in a costume as well...... The only complaint about the even was the bathroom situation.  As you can imagine, porta potties were necessary for the large number of people, let me tell you all about porta potties in China. Most people think porta potties in the U.S. are disgusting and only resort to using them in dire emergencies... MOM I'm looking at you.  In China, they are absolutely repulsive... at least 10 times more gross then in the States.  Paint this picture for yourself, they look the same however there is not toilet when you walk in but rather a hole in the ground... You must squat... there is no sanitary place to set your things because drunk people have peed all over the floor... the smell is worse than you can imagine AND there is no toilet paper.  OH and keep in mind this is a drinking event, where might I add, you find yourself needing to use the bathroom more often than not....... so yeah that part of the night was not pleasant, but hey it's China...

Chickenboobs, anyone????

Matthieu, my roommate.... ha, ha, ha

Federer to win Rolex Tennis Masters..... what a DJOK(e)

As if traveling to Hong Kong for less than 24 hours wasn't enough excitement, I attended the Shanghai Rolex Tennis Masters Tournament the next day (Tuesday, October 13).  This was something I had planned to do even before arriving in China and was a greatly anticipated event by many in Shanghai.  Little did I know, Federer is a beloved man here in Shanghai.... but I'll get into that a little more later. Getting to the tournament itself was quite the journey!! They were advertising shuttles from one of the metro stops near the Qizhong Tennis Center (where the tournament was held) on the website, however upon arrival to the metro stop there were very small signs that I almost missed pointing me in the direction of the bus station.  Here, I was lucky to find two foreigners (one who spoke Chinese as well as English) who were headed to the tennis tournament as well.  I had never ridden on a public bus in China, they are rather intimidating because the drivers speak only Chinese, there is no way of knowing where you are unless you have previously looked up the route of the bus, and the buses are labeled in Chinese.  The one foreigner that I met thankfully, was able to read Chinese characters and found the bus we were to get on.  It dropped us off right in front of the center and my god was center court huge!!!! It looked like a football arena from the road.  As we exited the bus, crowds of local Chinese men swarmed the doors trying to sell/buy tickets, which was quite the nuisance.  I made my way through quickly and walked through the entrance and security.  Finally, I had made it (an hour and a half after leaving my apartment).  I had never been to a professional tennis tournament and although this was not one of the slams, and there were only men playing, I was still overwhelmed with excitement.  There were many games occurring at once and at first my goal was to make it to a little bit of all of them... quickly I found out that just isn't possible if you want to actually enjoy a match, so I made my way to where Sock (the American) was playing.  Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to just walk right in while they were playing, we had to wait for a break in play and the security guards didn't quite have the right idea as to when that was.  Rather frustrated, I walked around the area and by coincidence bumped into a very tall body guard of DJOKOVICH!!! He wasn't playing that day but I caught him on the way to practice!  Naturally, swarms of people started to realize who he was and like a mob we followed him to his court just to get glimpses of him practicing.   After this, I went to a different court, which was not too crowded (granted it was during the first rounds, and this wasn't center court).  It just so happens that Gasquet and Muller were about to start and Gasquet being a French man, had quite a large crowd of fans (there are tons of French people in China, especially male engineers).  The match was extremely exciting, Gasquet was favored but Muller put up a great fight.  In the end Muller ran out of gas and Gasquet pulled away in the second set (they only played best of 3).  I walked around and enjoyed some sponsored games and food (PAPA JOHNS ;)  and then settled into center court for the "match of the night".  I am not kidding you there were groups of Chinese people that had Federer shirts, signs, hats, and banners.  I had no idea that they loved him so much.  The best part was the cheers the groups would do that were broken English or just plain Chinglish (poorly translated).  The chairman of the match was getting very frustrated during this match, because they tried to make it more of an entertainment show then a tennis match, and many people were breaking the rules of talking, standing, walking around, during playtime.  The players even complained several times.  Federer's match vs Ramos ended up going into 3 sets and was so exciting!!! I was obviously routing for Ramos out of pure satisfaction of pissing the extreme Federer fans off around me, but he honestly played the game of a lifetime.  In the end, Federer choked and Ramos won 7-6, 2-6, 6-3.  Would you believe that the fans of Federer literally started to cry at the end..... they did, and dramatically too.  I've never felt worse second-hand embarrassment.  I even took videos ha ha ha. There was another match to follow that Tsonga was playing in, but I was exhausted and left early.  He ended up winning easily, so I wasn't too bummed about it.  WHAT A WEEKEND IT WAS!!!! (sorry for the extremely long post) OH and Djokovich won the tournament!