A Sunday Bike Ride

A few weeks ago the weather was still marvelous considering it was mid-December. The sunny, mostly warm days were nothing to scoff at if you've ever experienced a Shanghai winter. Wanting to make the most of the unusually great weather, myself and a couple of friends (Mark and Alex) decided to spend our Sunday afternoon on a wandering bike ride.

Our first stop was an old Daoist Temple hidden in the recesses of Chinese side streets and housing. It took us a few tries, but we finally wound our way back and through to where the old operating temple stood. While the incense burning and chanting to giant statues that were flipping us the bird (literally) was a little much, it did offer some fun photographic opportunities.

We continued to wind our way up wooden flights of stairs and narrow hallways until we came across this bell:

And this drum:

Alex couldn't resist the temptation to at least pretend to hit the drum.

He walked away before his urge to also strike the bell got the best of him.

After the temple, we continued down a small street/canal-side frontage road that my friend John A says you can follow all the way to the ocean. Well, as the sun was setting and the day was turning cold, we never made it all the way to the ocean, but I was able to capture a serene photo of this barge heading up the canal. I was actually surprised to see a boat this large traveling along it.

We made it back to the LQ just as dusk was setting in and the novelty of a warm winter day was turning into the reality of a cold winter night. What a great way to spend a day off!

Felix my Muse

It's amazing how as soon as I start riding scoot scoot (aka "Felix") through the streets of Shanghai, I suddenly get flooded with blog ideas. It must be something about the pureness of smog-filled air blowing through my helmet, the constant honking of other scooters, bikes, and cars, the low-rumbling fear that an oblivious pedestrian will suddenly step in front of my bike causing me to be flung onto the sidewalk—that clears up the mind and allows it the safety to roam. Everything strikes my brain in this state, and if there were a typewriter in my head, this blog would be updated far more often!:
"Look, the camera attached to the traffic light just flashed at me as I scooted by. Is Big Brother tracking my every move? Maybe the same technology they used at the Olympics is being used here... face recognition, real Jason Bourne stuff!"
"Why are all the scooters, bikes, people, AND strollers, in the bike lane, while the side-walk is empty!?"
"How am I going faster than that gas powered scooter."
"Look at all these HUGE villas that are being built.... where did all the people who used to live here go?"
"Does a disc break lock really stop someone from stealing a scooter?"

And if non of the above ideas seem worthy of a blog to you, remember, of course, the above ideas are just the floaters... the ones that aren't smart enough to hide again as soon as the scooter-ride is over. The best ideas remain hidden in the recesses of my scooter-powered imagination, only allowing themselves to come out when my mind is truly free to contemplate all the things in life—when the honking and bustle of Shanghai rattles them free into my head where I can once more ponder them, and think about how, if only I weren't busy not crashing, I would type it up forthwith!

World Expo Opens in Shanghai

photo from guardian.co.uk


Today I got an e-mail from my mom saying that she saw the fireworks for the opening of the World Expo in Shanghai on National News, and asked if I had seen them. unFORTUNATELY, I was not actually in Shanghai for the opening of the World Expo---Which led me to investigate via the world wide web what the opening was like----which led me to this and this article, in which I discovered some interesting information:

1. "Temperatures in Shanghai today reached 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit)"
What!? Before I left it was not "freezing" at worst, and almost "warm" at best. Ok, so that may be exaggerating a little. The day we left was almost nice. But I'm saddened to think that we may have had only 1--ONE--day of spring :(

2. "The broadcaster, a unit of government-owned Shanghai Media Group, also called on visitors to obey rules set out by expo organizers as it showed footage of people cutting in line, trash littering the grounds and visitors circumventing a barrier to pick flowers off a tree on display."
This just makes me giggle to myself. People not standing in line? People not using trash cans? People ignoring barriers to take flowers from a display? None of this would EVER happen in day-to-day C-land, I can't imagine why it's happening at the Expo. I'm just wondering why they left out "kids peeing on the sidewalk."

3. "China’s richest city estimates 70 million people will visit the six-month long World Expo, more than 10-times the number who traveled to Beijing for the 2008 Olympics. To ensure smooth operations for the fair, Shanghai has deployed armed police to patrol the Expo park, restricted sales of knives and given local residents a five-day holiday through May 4, during which they’ve been asked to say at home as much as possible." Yeah! that's me, we got our holiday extended by 2 days... Happy World Expo... I'm in Kunming....... woops... I must have missed the part where we were supposed to stay home as much as possible.

4. "Six people who protested about having their homes destroyed to make room for the Expo have been sent to labour camps, the Hong-Kong based Chinese Human Rights Defenders were quoted as saying by AP." It is amazing how C-land is able to "get 'er done." The Expo site is along prime property along the huangpu river in the center of Shanghai, not exactly "open" land. Very convenient for those attending the Expo, very inconvenient for those who used to have a home.

5. The expo breakdown:

Theme is "Better City, Better Life"

70 million visitors expected, mostly Chinese

192 countries and 50 organizations on show

20,000 cultural performances

First Expo in a developing country

Site is 5.3sq km, twice the size of Monaco

China says cost is $4.2bn - others say costs reached $58bn

Standard day ticket costs 160 yuan ($23: £15)

Runs from 1 May to 31 October

In related news. My roommate and I are thinking that this is prime time to do some apartment letting and pay of any remaining student loans. :D We think that we can beat the quality of "The Olympic Experience Hostel" in Beijing!

He is...Happiness

"He is....Happiness." This is how one of the Chinese teachers described him to me; and, it is a statement that although it may not be exactly grammatically correct, is the only way to describe him.

Psalm 127:3

Behold, children are a gift of the LORD

His name is Jasper. He is somewhere between his 3rd and 4th year of life. He gives the best hugs out of any of my Kindergarteners. When he is sad, you can see it in his whole body (even if his face desperately tries to be happy), and he gives even better hugs. And when he is happy, he is happy with all that he is. When he's excited, he is the most excited. Sometimes he just can't control his excitement, the will of every atom in his body to LIVE—and then he gets in trouble for not sitting nicely :( He is genuine. He tries so hard to be good. He repeats anything you tell him louder, and with a bigger smile. He yearns to be loved. His name is Jasper.

Recently, my P1 students have been learning the dialogue:
"I'm sorry!"
"That's okay!"

At John's suggestion, I had 3-4 students form a line. Starting with the first student in line, I shuffled him backwards until he lightly bumped the student behing him. At that point, he would turn around and say: "I'm sorry!" And the other student would reply: "that's okay!" We would continue down the line until each student had bumped the student behind them and put this dialogue to use.

We hadn't reviewed this dialogue for about a week (which was also about the length of time that Jasper had been missing from class) and so I had slightly forgotten about the activity. Then, one morning, as all of the students were lining up on their dots, and forming two lines, I was walking along the line and talking with the children. Jasper was stading on the dot next to me, and I saw him moving over toward me, then promptly turn, and every so carefully, stick out his bottom until it bumpped my knee. He then swung around and with his shoulders shrugged (like I had forgotten I taught them) his high pitched voice calls something to me. I look at him and smile, and then continue to talk to the other child (Jasper often says things that no one can understand—not even the Chinese teachers). But then, he did it again. I'm a bit confused, as I still can't figure out exactly what he is saying after he so carefully knocks me with his bottom. Well, the third time was the charm. Finaly, I caught the muffled words "I'm sorry!" thrust from his mouth. At this I heard a click in my head (gears turning) and I reponded, "that's okay!" Jasper, content to finaly have gotten what he came for, then moved on to the next student who he walked straight at, did an about face, carefully bumped with his bottom, did another about face, and called "I'm sorry!" the entire time, being completely overjoyed that he knew just what to say after purposely bumping into people with his bottom. :)

And that, is just one of many Jasper Stories.