Getting Lost, Learning Lots

So it's been a couple days since I've updated this, but I've found that it can be quite difficult to routinely do something in a fairly un-routined schedule.....but I will try to get better.

So I have been extremely lucky to be in the situation that I'm in now. I have an awesome place with a maid for about $200.00 a month. That covers the utilities and the maid. And just recently I was lucky enough to get a bike. My roommate Jo has been in Shanghai for about 5 years and bought a bike to get around. She locked it up a couple years ago and lost the key, so her solution was to go out and buy a new bike. Jo told me if I could get the chain off, I could have a bike. So I went and bought some bolt cutters for $8.00 and got a new bike.

I decided to then take my bike on a little adventure by going out and exploring the city a little bit. I forgot however that the city is a little bit bigger than I thought and proceeded to get lost for about 6 hours. There are a lot of streets that are only one-way for bikes and I would repeatedly find myself in a crowd of 50 bikes and 10 seconds later after an intersection I would be the only bike on the road and people would be staring at me. Which brings me to my next point, since I'm white, I can apparently get away with anything.(Not that I'm going to try mom. :-)

So while getting lost, I stumbled into the People's Park which houses a ton of statues and people just lounging about. It was a great break for my butt which had been sitting on a tiny bike seat for 4 hours.

Also, babies don't ware diapers. They just kinda cut a hole in their pants and whenever "old faithful" is about to erupt, the parents just kind of hold the kid over the nearest trash can.



Onto the job situation. Originally I was going to be teaching business out in Nanchang which is about 3 hours by Maglev (Magnetic Levitation Train that can travel around 350 mph), but some people very familiar with China said that it was a much smarter move to stay in Shanghai. So that's what I'm going to do. Yesterday I interviewed with a company called Learn-First who organize private tutors for the people in Shanghai. It's only been one day, but they really like me and already set me up with 3 students. I'll let you know how that goes once I start on Monday.

Now introducing Ezra's.....What I've Learned Today.

What I've Learned Today.....

1. Spitting is a national pastime here.
2. There are little old men who walk around and who's sole pleasure in life is to pump up bike tires. I learned this when one of them ran at me at a stop light grabbing for my bike wheel. Thought he was mugging me.
3. The Metro is awesome. Clean, fast, efficient. Everything that American public transportation is not.
4. Lots of chinese girls are looking for "big American boyfriend." That's a story for another day.
5. I love dumplings.
6. There is thing here called long lasting milk which can be stored in warm temperatures for 6 months unopened. Don't know how they do it.
7. Cereal is the most expensive thing here and is probably gonna make me go bankrupt because I love it so much.
8. I miss everyone at home an unhealthy amount.
9. This store on the right made me laugh because there aren't too many of them if you get my drift.

Love,
Ezra