Shanghai el Primero Vez

My first time in Shanghai was a memorable experience, if somewhat mixed. I was met at the Shanghai South Station from Jiaxing by a friend of some family friends, Jenny, who had invited me to stay in her home. Really nice woman in her 40s, her and her husband, although she spoke better English. My foster family, so to speak, had a nice apartment on the 30th floor of a building right in in a busy part of town. Many many skyscrapers, this was for sure. Jiaxing is only 45 minutes from Shanghai by train, and only just over 3 USD for a one way ticket, so pretty easy overall.

I hit the Expo that first afternoon, but I'm going to do a separate post on that. Wow though. Pretty incredible. Don't think I've ever seen so many people in one area ever. I'll get more into that in another post though.

The rest of the trip was really good with the exception of some technical issues. That evening Jenny took me out to dinner with some of her friends, got to practice more Chinese, and she bought a really good Sichuan meal for me. She was very, very kind overall and look forward to seeing her again. She had a co-worker tag along with me that night who spoke really good English, and we hit up one of Shanghai's most famous nightclubs, No. 88 Bar. A single table there cost 800 RMB, over 100 USD. Not including any drinks.

Thought I was doing well, negotiated a time to DJ there the next night after talking to a few of the music directors. Next day was a nightmare though, my computer was giving me tons of problems. Wouldn't start Windows at all, kept having to restart it, and only four months old. Long story short, scrambled all day trying to fix it, downloading music, researching an alternative DJ method, and failing. I completely bombed after a minute onstage that night, since I didn't know how to use the foreign software (Serato), and was pretty bummed. The rest of my experience was good though. Had really good Thai food and pizza, all courtesy of Jenny. The DJ thing was pretty upsetting but I tried to put it behind me. Back to Jiaxing the next day was a bummer too, Shanghai was a million times more fun.

Jiaxing / Peach Blossom Island

I arrived back in China just over a month after I had left, August 25th. Was driven to my town, Jiaxing, from the airport by a senior teacher and driver. Briefly glimpsed Shanghai but being only 45 minutes away by train I wasn't concerned. Apartment was really nice and spacious, nicer then some places I lived in Boston. Everyone at the school was nice and friendly. Focused on acclimating, etc, getting used to learning how to teach/observing classes/etc.. Busy few days, but we all got to relax on the staff holiday shortly after.

The whole school staff, some 40 people, took off on a Monday for coastal China somewhere. We crossed over the world's largest bridge among other crazy landscapes. The beach was really chill, reminded me of Thailand a bit. Great weather, frisbee and beers on the sand, ocean swimming, the works. Definitely good times. Next day we hit a Chinese movie set place, really just a bunch of interesting old Chinese buildings. Really beautiful hiking around there as well. Great introduction to the school in general and getting to know the staff better. I definitely get along with every single person from the school and genuinely like them all, with maybe one or two exceptions. 15 or so foreign teachers, 4 local Chinese girls, plus the local Chinese sales/class monitor staff.

Beijing / Great Wall

My time in Chengdu was brief to say the least. I choose not to talk about it much, but suffice to say Peace Corps was definitely not a good fit for someone like me. All expenses paid trip back to the States was in my future, but lucked out slightly coming back. Due to a travel delay, me and a staff member had 24 hours to kill in Beijing. The next morning before our flight, we hired a car to go to the Great Wall. Incredible, spectacular, jaw dropping are a few ways to describe it. I'm sure you might agree from looking at a few photos.. Didn't get to say any of Beijing otherwise though sadly. Future visit is in order..

Executive Mission Statement Blah Blah

Due to a few requests for updates on my times here out East, I decided to start a little photo blog. Gonna try to keep the writing to a minimum, but hopefully can give you a bit of an idea of what's going on behind the shots. Hope you enjoy..

Part One: July 2010