Having lived in places that rarely see temperatures below 50 degrees for the past 10 years, you can imagine how poorly I am adapting to the "frigid" climate here in Shanghai. Today it was 10 degrees Celsius...which I think roughly translate to 50 Fahrenheit. I bundled up with a winter coat and gloves to bike to work and still found it unbearable. I honestly do not how how I will survive once it gets really cold.
Apartments here have no central heating or insulation, so its typically colder in my apartment than it is outside. Luckily I have found a space heater, portable radiator, and an electric blanket to help keep me warm. And hopefully I won't burn my apartment down in the process.
Besides complaining about the cold I have been keeping myself quite busy. Two weeks ago I took 30 9th grade students to a Miao village in rural China for a week. It was an amazing experience, but we were very excited to get back to civilisation after 4 freezing nights with the water buffalo.
Beigao, the village we stayed in, is up in the mountains of Guizhou provence southwest of Shanghai. To get there, we flew into the capital of Guizhou and drove an hour to a "small town" of about 600,000 people. From there, we had to hike four and a half hours up the mountain to get to the village. It was challenging and cold, but we had a lot of fun. We spent the next four days living with the villagers who welcomed us with eager, open arms.
Miao people are extremely friendly, but they live a completely different life from us city folk. In Miao culture, water buffalo are considered sacred, so most of the families kept one in their home. The buffalo usually slept downstairs and the people had rooms upstairs. I was lucky enough to stay in the teacher's house. He didn't have a buffalo but he did have several pigs. I had to walk through the pig sty to get to the bathroom, which was pretty interesting. Most of the boys, though, had to share their bathroom with the livestock so I consider the pigs a blessing.
We all shared delicious meals together and the students spent time working on building an irrigation system for the villagers. They built their very first road into the village last year and needed some help building a drainage system to keep the road functional. The students also got to try fishing in the freezing cold rice patties, and helped an elderly lady prepare food for her animals. (They removed corn kernels off the cob....they were not impressed.) The best day was when we hiked to a neighboring village and our students taught the locals English for the day. It was great to see them all interact together.
Here are some of my favorite photos from the trip:
My room in the village. Notice the sweet poster of the Chicago Bulls from 1993:
Village life
And our students showing off their smartphones and taking selfies with the locals
The following weekend I took some more students to an Model United Nations conference in Hangzhou, about an hour's train ride outside of Shanghai. It was a great trip and the students did well, but I had been with kids for a week straight and had a whole new week to look forward too.
This past weekend I had my New Staff Retreat, which meant I had to work on Saturday and spent my 15th day in a row working. Sunday was a much needed rest day.
Now I have Thanksgiving to look forward to. Tomorrow I'll be celebrating Cajun style with some of my American and Canadian friends. We've found a Cajun restaurant that is putting on a feast for some of the expats and we are all excited about the deep-fried turkey, grits, and other Cajun delicacies that we'll get to experience. I'm also going to a potluck on Saturday with lots of friends from work and around Shanghai, so I'll be lucky enough to have 2 Thanksgivings this year. I'm certainly not complaining!
Hope everyone at home has a great holiday and enjoys a lot of pumpkin flavored deliciousness and some honey glazed carrots.
xoxo
Apartments here have no central heating or insulation, so its typically colder in my apartment than it is outside. Luckily I have found a space heater, portable radiator, and an electric blanket to help keep me warm. And hopefully I won't burn my apartment down in the process.
Besides complaining about the cold I have been keeping myself quite busy. Two weeks ago I took 30 9th grade students to a Miao village in rural China for a week. It was an amazing experience, but we were very excited to get back to civilisation after 4 freezing nights with the water buffalo.
Beigao, the village we stayed in, is up in the mountains of Guizhou provence southwest of Shanghai. To get there, we flew into the capital of Guizhou and drove an hour to a "small town" of about 600,000 people. From there, we had to hike four and a half hours up the mountain to get to the village. It was challenging and cold, but we had a lot of fun. We spent the next four days living with the villagers who welcomed us with eager, open arms.
Miao people are extremely friendly, but they live a completely different life from us city folk. In Miao culture, water buffalo are considered sacred, so most of the families kept one in their home. The buffalo usually slept downstairs and the people had rooms upstairs. I was lucky enough to stay in the teacher's house. He didn't have a buffalo but he did have several pigs. I had to walk through the pig sty to get to the bathroom, which was pretty interesting. Most of the boys, though, had to share their bathroom with the livestock so I consider the pigs a blessing.
We all shared delicious meals together and the students spent time working on building an irrigation system for the villagers. They built their very first road into the village last year and needed some help building a drainage system to keep the road functional. The students also got to try fishing in the freezing cold rice patties, and helped an elderly lady prepare food for her animals. (They removed corn kernels off the cob....they were not impressed.) The best day was when we hiked to a neighboring village and our students taught the locals English for the day. It was great to see them all interact together.
Here are some of my favorite photos from the trip:
The following weekend I took some more students to an Model United Nations conference in Hangzhou, about an hour's train ride outside of Shanghai. It was a great trip and the students did well, but I had been with kids for a week straight and had a whole new week to look forward too.
This past weekend I had my New Staff Retreat, which meant I had to work on Saturday and spent my 15th day in a row working. Sunday was a much needed rest day.
Now I have Thanksgiving to look forward to. Tomorrow I'll be celebrating Cajun style with some of my American and Canadian friends. We've found a Cajun restaurant that is putting on a feast for some of the expats and we are all excited about the deep-fried turkey, grits, and other Cajun delicacies that we'll get to experience. I'm also going to a potluck on Saturday with lots of friends from work and around Shanghai, so I'll be lucky enough to have 2 Thanksgivings this year. I'm certainly not complaining!
Hope everyone at home has a great holiday and enjoys a lot of pumpkin flavored deliciousness and some honey glazed carrots.
xoxo
