somehow i forgot to mention the fact that i went to the dvd store today and purchased the entire series (seasons 1,2,3,4,5 and 6) of Sex and the City. this had been one of my goals in China, and hey, less than 2 weeks and i've accomplished it. how much did it cost?

133 rmb. that's less than $17. for the whole series. 6 seasons. 19 discs.

china is awesome.

apparently i have a lot to say

...even my 'short' entries are long.

anyway, i just wanted to let you know that i got a cell phone today. if you want the number, ask me for it. hopefully i won't have any problems with it cause the instruction manual is all in chinese.

also, i've created a new place for me to share my photos with anyone who wants to see them. go to www.kodakgallery.com and sign in using stephanie.fajuri@gmail.com and the password: stephanie

tomorrow is my first day of teaching. i have one class, which is 6th grade english for non-native speakers. i'm pretty nervous. eeek!

i love technology

i could write about the million things that have been going on (the amazing/hilarious/terrifying banquet we had last night to celebrate the end of orientation...with the principal of the school...and some very very interesting teachers) or how i'm nervous to start teaching tomorrow (6th grade non-native level english is the only class i have tomorrow, and i'm still freaking out), but instead i just wanted to write a quick note about how wonderful technology is.

i'm sure at some point during the school year i will write an entry about how much i hate technology because a power point presentation didn't work in class or a projector fell on my head or something...but for right now, it's wonderful.

it's obviously a scary thing to move all the way to China, not knowing anyone here. but it is so incredibly reassuring to know that i have so many different ways of staying in contact (very close contact, at that) with everyone at home. i really, really don't understand how people managed before the internet. Phones are fine, but the two phone calls i've made with phone cards here have had bad echos on the other end, making it difficult to actually have a real conversation. and email is obviously wonderful. obviously. and then the various messaging programs...if one fails, you've got another as a backup. and i'm going to get a cell phone today, which will make it even MORE possible to stay connected. and skype? oh my god. about a million times better than that phone and it's free!

i think one of the things i was most nervous about with moving here was missing people at home. i obviously still miss you (all), and, shockingly, i've only been here for A WEEK AND A HALF, but it helps take the edge off a bit. the real question is....where is the teleportation device? It's 2006, people. Shouldn't someone have invented one by now? I don't think it's too much to ask for....

oh, and as awesome as technology is...old school letters and/or packages are more than welcome! one of the girls has a boyfriend back home and he sent her flowers two days ago. It was probably the most adorable thing ever.

i'm sure i'll be up late tonight freaking out and trying to think of things to do with my class for 50 minutes, so maybe i'll post more later. oh, and i might actually start uploading my photos onto a photo-sharing site. i'll obviously post the link when i do that.

lots more...

aaand i'm back. one thing that really sucks is this time of day, when i have down time and want to talk to people at home but am fully aware that everyone is sleeping. i'm signed into AIM, yahoo messenger, and skype...and no one is around. oh well.

So, as I mentioned, we've been in orientation for the past couple of days. Orientation has basically consisted of us sitting through a lot of speeches made by administrators and/or returning teachers. I'm sure a lot of what they are saying is actually really useful, but it's so hard to sit and pay attention for so long. We also have 'workshops,' which have thus far only included the returning teachers telling us the way the rules and stuff actually work here. For example, the local division of Shanghai High School is a public school with many rules coming from the government in Beijing. So we're technically supposed to conform to those rules, including 'morality' rules about visitors spending the night. Monika told us that we're not technically allowed to have anyone other than blood relatives stay with us...but she's more understanding about how ridiculous that is. She told us that we're just really not allowed to have one night stands spend the night. I laughed, but then was told that apparently last year or 2 years ago some guy brought back a couple of prostitutes to his dorm room....

So anyway...we got into our workshop yesterday and Andrew told us that even though they say that only blood relatives can stay with you, all you have to do is tell them that your visitor is a cousin. Your boyfriend or girlfriend is coming to visit you? Cousin. Your friend from home? Cousin. Your friend from home who is of another race and clearly not related to you? Someone else's cousin.

Last night we went downtown for a farewell banquet with the rest of the people from the Marshall Program. Again, the food was not delicious. How disappointing. But, after dinner we went to this bar by the Jin An temple called 'Windows" and had an excellent time. It was just like college, minus Kat. Oh, and the fact that drinks were ridiculously inexpensive (Bacardi and coke was 10 rmb, or about $1.25) was totally awesome/dangerous.

Today we found out our class schedules, and I almost had a breakdown. Getting the schedule itself was fine, although I didn't expect to be teaching the classes that I am. I'll be teaching 4th grade ESL, 6th grade English to non-native speakers, 6th grade history, and a 5th grade MUSIC CLASS. yeah. music. i haven't gotten a syllabus for it and I really don't know if i will. I don't think i'm required to teach them instruments or singing or anything, and according to one of the other teachers who taught music last year, the class is a total joke to the students. Half of them didn't even turn in their midterm project and she failed them. I guess the optional classes don't count towards their GPAs so they just don't care. Any suggestions for things for me to teach them? I knew I shouldn't have sold back my "History of American popular music" book!

The breakdown came later, when we got our teacher editions of the books from the library and were given the syllabi for some of our classes. When I got the syllabus for my 4th grade ESL class, I noticed that the books listed on the syllabus were not the books given to me by the librarian, and that those books hadn't been listed for me at all. The next hour or so involved me talking to both Helen and Monika, trying to figure out what the problem was, since my name hadn't been listed on another sheet of paper that had the groups of teachers listed on it for the the different classes. It's all sort of complicated...for each class being taught (let's say, 4th grade english), there are a certain number of teachers teaching the same class. Those teachers are put into groups (2 or 3 people) and the administration arbitrarily assigned a group leader. I'm the group leader for my 6th grade non-native english class. Anyway, I wasn't listed in any of the groups for 4th grade ESL, and it turned out that there had been a mistake because one of the returning teachers had switched to teach something else. I guess they usually have 2 foreign teachers in a group and two Chinese teachers in a group for ESL, but apparently they weren't able to find enough Chinese teachers...so when this whole mess was worked out, I was told that I have been paired with one of the Chinese teachers from the local division.

I seriously started freaking out...because everyone else is in groups with other foreign teachers. The deal with the groups is that since you're teaching the same class with the same materials, you work together on exams and on planning the lessons and stuff so that the kids are all on the same pace and so that you don't have to do so much work on your own. I clearly don't read Chinese characters, so when Helen told me that I was paired with Ms. Yao and pointed to 3 chinese characters on the page, I almost burst into tears. It almost happened again when Monika told me "I think she speaks pretty good English."

But, thank god, Helen helped me find her and Mr. Zhu explained things to both of us. She looks very young, but I have no idea if she's my age or in her 30s. Chinese people do not age. She also studied at a university in Australia, and has a lovely Australian accent and speaks great English. I'm so relieved...cause maybe we will be friends too? It would be nice to have some Chinese friends. This entire debacle sound so stupid and trite now that I've written it down...but when you're exhausted and hungover and nervous about starting school anyway, it's no wonder I almost had a meltdown. Now I have to prepare a 15 minute lesson to present tomorrow on anything I want from my books. I'm pretty nervous.

Oh, and I chipped my tooth at the bar last night. You can't see it (thank god....that would be such a horrible nightmare) but the little rough edge is driving me crazy.

I think that's more than enough for now.

oh china

so i've now been gone for a week. it already feels like it's been a month.

this weekend has been sort of crazy...i mean, the whole week has been super busy, but since we started the orientation here at Shanghai High School i feel like i've barely had a chance to just sit by myself and think. maybe that's a good thing, cause if i wasn't busy i'd probably be more homesick or culture shocked or something.

one of our interesting experiences this weekend was the medical examination on Saturday morning. in order for us to be able to stay in the country for 10 months and teach, we need to get "Expert Certificates" that supplement/change our visas. When Mr. Zhu explained it to us, he told us not to worry about the fact that we are not, infact, experts. How reassuring. Anyway, in order for the school to apply for the expert certificates on our behalf, we had to have a medical examination here in Shanghai at a clinic that caters exclusively to foreigners. We had been told what to expect, but I still found the experience absolutely ridiculous. Most medical exams tend to include blood pressure, listening to your heart, maybe a little poking and prodding. Not so with this one. From the moment our numbers were called, we were shuffled through a series of 8 or 9 rooms in a matter of an hour or so. in the first room, we changed out of our regular clothes and put on a robe. Then we were weighed and measured, and sent to another room. In these various rooms, they proceeded to give each of us (one at a time, of course) an ultrasound (for gallstones and kidney stones?), an x-ray of our chests, an EKG, an eye exam (the woman actually laughed at me. maybe i should have worn my glasses...), they drew our blood, took our blood pressure, and listened to our hearts. It was a well-oiled machine, but incredibly invasive. And they told us we weren't allowed to eat or drink beforehand, so the nurse ran into some trouble trying to draw blood from me, since my veins are quite small. Luckily, when we got back to the bus, monika, one of the women from the school who is in charge of us, provided a breakfast of an interesting bread that was really sweet and also had onions and ham on it...and a little juice box of warm milk that i think was 3.5% considering it said 3.5 on the box. Needless to say, I had a sip of the milk and almost promptly threw up.

This orientation process has really started to show me more about the difference between Western culture and Chinese culture. Everyone always talks about culture shock, but it isn't until you start to feel it that you actually believe that it exists. Here's an example of a difference that I noticed:

When Mr. Zhu talked to us at the orientation, he mentioned what his job is (he used to be the director of the foreign affairs office), and mentioned our bonus system ($2600 at the end of the year, but money is deducted from the bonus for any infractions like being late, dressing inappropriately, etc). But he also mentioned that if we don't do a good job, HIS bonus is affected. He actually went on for a little while about how he gets more money if we stay at the school, more money if we do a good job, less money when we make mistakes or have problems. Then, when Monika was explaining her position to us yesterday, she mentioned that she has two small children and that Helen (her partner in the foreign affairs office) also has a small child, and that the more work we cause for them makes it difficult for them to be able to spend time with their children. I can understand Monika and Mr. Zhu's concerns, but I feel like in the US we don't say those types of things out loud. It made me feel guilty, which I guess is probably the point-- because of the sense of community in China, the point is that if you make a problem or mistake, it lets other people down. Interesting.

I've realized that this is could be a very long post. i'm going to take a little break and discuss yesterday and today in a new post. oh man.

hungry?

i guess it would be silly to try to document what i do every single day i'm in China. but, some interesting things have been going on this week, obviously, because it's my first week here. so i'll do my best.

I guess one thing that you might be interested in is the food. I believe I already mentioned the ridiculous amount of oreos i've consumed. I'm running dangerously low on them and have started rationing them. Today I bought some bread and peanut butter (Chinese skippy brand?) so hopefully that will tide me over until i'm able to actually go grocery shopping for real. Although...I just busted it out and the bread has a really, really strange taste. Good thing I brought a thing of multi-vitamins....

Anyway, the Chinese food so far has been good, although we've had a bunch of things that I didn't particularly enjoy. At our orientation at the hotel downtown on Thursday night, we partook in a Chinese banquet. I really love the idea of having everything being family style, with lazy susans in the middle of the table...but you've got to be really aware of what everyone else is doing before you try to spin it around to shovel something onto your own tiny plate. And I love (yes, LOVE) using chopsticks. I haven't used any other utensils since I've been here (well ok, i used a Chinese spoon once) and it's working out really well. I've only made a few messes on the table clothes....

The food at the banquet was overall pretty good, but there were a couple of tofu dishes that were pretty gross...and I tend to like tofu. Apparently it is tradition to serve soup as the second to last thing at dinner, and we were lucky enough to get some disgusting dessert soup that looked like egg drop soup but was REALLY sweet and had big tapioca balls in the bottom of it. needless to say, it didn't go over well. I made a point to try it, but...no thank you. Imagine a thick, eggy, sickeningly sweet bubble tea. At our other dinner at the hotel yesterday there was something that we all thought was a dumpling....but it wasn't. It was something slimy and unpalatable, but my friend and I decided not to pull and America's Next Top Model and spit it out. That would have been poor form. Honestly though, I don't know if I've ever eaten something with such a disgusting texture before.

As for breakfast, I haven't actually had a real chinese breakfast yet, and I sort of doubt I will any time soon since I'm responsible for my own breakfast here in my apartment before school starts. I didn't partake in the breakfast served at the hotel yesterday morning because it wasn't open when my roommate and I went down there. I did hear that they served some sort of dumpling, a hardboiled egg, rice gruel, and a plate of pickled eggs and pickled vegetables. Actually, on Wednesday morning, this girl Shannon that i've become friends with and I went to one of the street vendors in our area and got a sort of egg/green onion flat bread thing. it was sort of spongy in consistency, and very thin. I have no idea what you call it, but it was good even though it was really greasy. and it didn't upset my stomach at all, so that was a plus. Actually, I haven't yet had any incidents with things making me sick. I'm prouder at this feat than I probably should be, because I'm sure that something horrible is going to hit me any day now.

Today during our orientation here at school, we ate in the cafeteria. Since we live on campus, the school allows us to eat lunch for free in the cafeteria during the school days. Some of us decided to try it out, and aside from the fact that we were told that everything has loads and loads of MSG, it really wasn't that bad. It wasn't that good either, but I am obviously not someone who will easily pass up free food. Obviously.

I realized that this post has been mostly complaining about the food. I don't mean to, because I really have eaten a lot of good things. It's just harder to describe them because half the time I didn't even know what kind of meat I was eating. I will assume it wasn't cat or dog, but who really knows. We ordered one dish of sauteed pork in a garlic ginger sauce that was really delicious.

Hopefully things will just keep getting better....

hello (ni hao)

So, I started a blog. This brings me back to my livejournal days, about which I am trying not to shudder. But after more than a few requests and the realization that it gets sort of old typing the same thing to every person who asks, here it is. I can't guarantee that it will be super interesting, but you asked for it.

It's funny how the fact that I was moving to China for 10 months didn't really hit me until the ride to the airport. It was about at that point that the tears were pretty much uncontrollable, and that continued for at least the following 24 hours. The plane ride was miserable, and my feel are still swollen (either that or they just got FAT). But, there are a few things that were reassuring right off the bat. One of those things was the fact that Anchorman was on the movie channel when I was getting ready for bed the first night. Nothing like falling asleep to a little Will Ferrel that really makes you feel at home. Also, we had been told that there would be water and 'snacks' waiting for us in our rooms when we arrived. The 'snacks' consisted of 2 packages of oreos. I've eaten more oreos in the past 3 days than I have in the past 5 years combined. When you've got nothing to eat in your kitchen, you'd be surprised at what a good breakfast oreos make. Or maybe you wouldn't. This is probably a lot like college.

The other people on the program seem pretty much normal, at least from my first impression of them. I'm sure it will be weird working and essentially living with the same 40 people for the next 10 months, and it's not hard to tell who is going to get on my nerves faster than others. But, right now I'm quite pleased and am feeling MUCH more comfortable than when I got off the plane. And it's still early...so I'm trying to keep as open a mind as I can, even though I've probably been judging half of these people since they friended me on facebook. And I'm sure they've been doing the same about me.

Also, everything here is REALLY inexpensive (we had lunch on wednesday for about a $1.25 a person, and it included 2 meat dishes, rice, and tea!) and it is really, REALLY hot and humid. Thank god my apartment on campus has air conditioning. I also have a rather large tv in my apartment, which has 9 channels total, 4 of which are English. Not that I'm planning on watching much tv, but it's nice to know that it's there. Actually, here are some pictures of my apartment from the first night, before I even unpacked. I'm not good at this uploading photos to blogger thing but here are 2:

I also have a bathroom and kitchen and balcony. The hallway to the bathroom and kitchen is to the right of where the foot of my bed is. It's a really nice size for one person. So...I guess my first impression of Shanghai is that it's less...Chinese than I expected. It's frustrating not knowing how to communicate with anyone and feeling totally helpless, but I'm sure once I start learning some Chinese that will be at least slightly less difficult. I almost had a nervous breakdown the first morning trying to get my phone card to work so I could call my parents. It's stupid shit like not even knowing how the use the telephone that really makes you feel like an outsider.

On Wednesday we had our free day and almost all of us went to this store called "Trust Mart" which is a lot like a Wal-Mart...we bought a lot of stuff for our apartments like kitchen equipment and alarm clocks, etc. I was nervous at how full my basket was, cause I wasn't sure if they would take credit cards and i didn't think I was going to have enough cash....but it turned out my entire bill was only about $20. My awesome alarm clock that speaks to me in Chinese was only $3. So was the Hello-Kitty watch that I bought so that I could finally stop feeling so disoriented.

By the way, Kat and Mike, I apologize that I cut and pasted portions of the emails I sent you guys and just put them here as my blog. I'm really lazy and didn't feel like finding yet another way to retell my first two days here. Anyway, I'll try to be good about updating and stuff...there are still a million more things to tell but I've been so busy since I got here (except for that 7 hours i spent online as soon as I hooked up my internet....). Looks like I start teaching next Friday (September 1). yikes...