I should start this story by letting everyone know that I have currently been looking for a more stable job. Right now I am tutoring 3 kids and that's enough for food and travel costs, but not enough for a sustainable income. So a recruiter of Westerners gives me a call yesterday about some interested schools who are looking for teachers and asks me to come in and meet with him. I end up traveling go the school he is recruiting for instead of his office, which is on the exact opposite side of the city. Stupidly, I hop in a cab and give the address to his office not realizing it's on the other side of the city and the cab fares turns out to be a 30 minute cab ride for a whopping 140 Quai!!!! Then I realized that's only about $20.00 and that's how much it costs to ride a mile in a cab in NYC.
This recruiter tells me about a private English school and I go and interview with them later that day. Here's where the networking comes in. The Principal of the school is the very jolly 70 year old man who looks like he's 35 and before I leave, he likes me so much that he invites me to start playing Texas hold-em with him and his other principal friends. Plus the recruiter that I met earlier texts me after seeing how big I was and asks me if I want to join his rugby team!
Of course I haven't exercised in a couple months, so I say yes and go to their fitness practice last night that was on the roof of this skyscraper downtown. This giant ex-marine named "Angus" (That's his real name, I'm not kidding) runs us through an intense workout of sprints, push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, and very nearly throw-ups. Needless to say, I'm extremely sore today, but I met a bunch of pretty cool British guys who say "cheers" after everything, a New Zealand guy who wishes he was British, and a couple french guys who all the British guys make fun of. My new nickname is puberty because I'm the youngest guy on the team.
I also did a little bit of sightseeing yesterday. I went to the Jing an Temple which is one of the oldest religious sites in Shanghai. I found out a little information about it from walking around. Apparently it was destroyed during the cultural uprising in China and it's been under construction for about 30 years. Skyscrapers can be built up around it in under 3 weeks, but it takes 30 years to restore a medium sized temple. I felt really weird taking pictur
es of this place because there were people all around me praying.
There were a couple smoke statues where you purchase some sticks, light them on fire and pray as the smoke rose to heaven.
Some of the other things at the temple that were very intriguing were....
a parade of monks who would walk around playing music and praying,
a bunch of statues of Buddha and other deities, a giant 200 foot pillar with golden lions of them, and huge walls where people would hang little slips of paper to remember their loved ones. I guess that's why I haven't seen too many cemeteries. The temple really seemed to represent Shanghai, 5% original, 95% new.
Go ahead and visit my flickr account at http://www.flickr.com/photos/41655931@N06/ to see all the pictures from the temple and my other pictures from around Shanghai.
What I've learned today....
- Rugby guys are really athletic
- All car windows are tinted here, never noticed that before.
- There is a very disturbing market next to my apartment, more on that later.
- About 1 in 10 people still wear masks over their faces, whether to protect from dust or disease
- There are people dressed all in blue who just walk around and sweep up the streets with some of the most poorly crafted brooms I've ever seen. Just pretty much small sticks attached to a bigger stick.
- People don't look away, even if you catch them staring at you. I got in a staring contest with a really old lady today on the subway...she won.
- It always takes twice as long to get anywhere than how long you normally think it should take, and four times as long if you get lost, which I normally do.
Love,
Ezra
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