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Week 4 in China

Challis Hackley
Oct 30, 2017
3 min read

What I Learned in Shanghai

Bring your student I.D.

The people here all really value education and they think really highly of that. So, if your in any kind of school, you can get a student discount for a lot of things. Just make sure to bring your I.D. It will get you like a fifty-percent discount.

When in doubt, do as the locals do.

When you don’t know exactly where you are going or what you do next walk with confidence and follow the locals.

Be careful when you order off of a menu translated into English.

Some of the translations are off and a little weird. There also may be words that you don't always understand. Just because it says beef and that's a word you understand, doesn't mean that it's the beef you're used to.

The people here are really helpful and you can make friends fast.

Don't be afraid to try and ask for help or directions. There is a language barrier but there are apps for that and a lot of the people here speak enough English to guess at what you're saying at and point you in the right direction.

What I Learned in Nanjing

It's not like the soy sauce you know.

It's different here, more like vinegar and less like what we are used to. Just be aware and don't dump it all over your rice before you taste it.

Muslim Noodles are awesome.

I didn't name them, that's just what everyone calls them and they really are so-good. Some of my friends have taken to ranking things on a scale of China-Good, Home-Good, and Better-than-Home Good. The McFlurries and egg-waffle ice cream cones are better-than-home good and these Noodles are definitely home good.

What I Did

Tuesday

It was the first day I was teaching kindergarten kids and it was also the first day back from our weekend trip. We were supposed to get our lesson plans sometime during the weekend so that we could look over them and get ready to teach but we never got them so

I am past the phase where I think all the teachers in the world mayst be saints. Now I just think that all of them must me masochist or insane. Or both as it may be.

Wednesday

Another day of teaching Kindergarten and I still didn't have lessons but after a long day of winging it we went out to and got some of the Muslim Noodles that we've heard so much about. They were really good and we went to get egg-waffle ice-cream right afterwards so it was a good night.

Thursday

Saw a really cool car that day. I had seen it before when all the parents were dropping there kids off for the start of school and was worried that I wouldn't see it again. But when I came home from teaching there it was parked on the sidewalk.

Friday

My classes are getting better and a couple of times now they have gotten through everything I had planned and so they get to play games. I probably like watching them play as much as they like playing it.

Saturday

Nobody had done anything all week, as you can tell from the post above, so we all had a little bit of Cabin Fever and decided to go downtown and check out Fashion Lady and explore a little bit. Fashion Lady is like an underground mall with a lot of boutiques interspersed with food stands. Pretty cool.