The plan has always been to go to Xintandi for New Year's Eve, but tonight we managed to talk ourselves out of that. I'm pretty happy with that decision. Part of me feels like I SHOULD be wanting to go out and party out 2009 in Shanghai, but most of me does not want to deal with the crowds and the cold and the noise. It does not help that I slept poorly last night (always an issue with hotel rooms with thin walls) and got up early. We already dealt with some rush hour crowds on the way home from the train station and have done our share of fruitlessly trying to hail a taxi, so it's hard to muster up enthusiasm to go out and deal with that all again. Especially since Cheveda has a cold and I have developed a fun runny nose. We have a big day of last minute shopping and bath housing planned for tomorrow, we need to be rested up for that.

The West Lake was beautiful. And large. One of the guidebooks said that it takes a good five hours to walk around it and I can well believe it. We walked maybe a quarter of it last night before giving up and heading back into Hongzhou for dinner. We took approximately a million photos each, so expect to see many lake sunset pictures on Facebook next week.

Happy New Year!

Su Yi raises an interesting point, re: the yen vs RMB exchange rate, and that buying the stupidly expensive scarf with any leftover cash I have on Saturday is practically an economic investment. I like this girl and the way she thinks, although that may be the many drinks consumed tonight speaking on both parts.

Chevy spent the day resting at home while I wandered around getting lost looking for the Longhau temple. I eventually found it, along with the accompanying park and pagoda, so that made for a pleasant afternoon as I wandered around/read on a park bench.

Tonight we went out for dinner at a posh Mexican restaurant (dinner for nine people at a post Mexican restaurant in Shanghai, including drinks: only slightly more expensive than the scarf) and then four of us went out for more drinks at a club that features a band doing R&B covers. (Multiple drinks for four girls at a club: significantly less than the scarf) and then Su Yi's own personal driver took us home (money I'd have saved on cab fare in a week and a half if Chevy had her own personal driver: wouldn't even cover a down payment on the scarf. Also, once again: I am in the wrong damn line of work.)

Tomorrow is an early start as we head off to the train station to spend the night at Hongzhou, seeing the sights and breathing non-smoggy air, so now I have to go hop in the shower to get the smell of cigarettes and whatnot out of my hair. Yum.

Guide books will warn you about all kinds of dangers when you travel. Watch out for scams. Don't let the taxi drivers charge you too much. If a pretty girl approaches you on the street, probably she's not overwhelmed by your good looks/charm. Don't fall off the elephant. Etc, etc. What they almost never mention is "don't forget that it's not play money." A few days ago Chevy and I were exploring a maze of chi-chi artists shops when I spotted a gorgeous silk and cashmere pashmina. The saleslady demonstrated all the various (super stylish) ways it could be worn. Of course, I coveted it. The price? 1280 RMB. That is around 17 000 yen, or $190. For a scarf. Would I pay that much in yen or dollars for a scarf? Hell no. Would I pay 1280 RMB? Why not? It's not real money.

(Please note that I didn't actually buy it, but I gave it much more serious consideration than I would have had the price been in a different currency.)

I seem to have broken Chevy. I dragged her out for a massage yesterday and she hasn't recovered. Also, she's developed a runny nose and a cough and it appears that I will be on my own tomorrow. Bad guest.

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone is having/has had a great day. Chevy and I started off with sleeping in, french toast, and mimosas, which is a great way to start any day, really. There were even presents. We lounged about until well after noon, then hit up some book stores. So, really, my ideal Christmas Day.

Crossing the street has become a bit less terrifying, although it's certainly not something I'm in danger of becoming complacent about. Got a fair bit of shopping in the past few days...Shanghai is not a cheap city, but there is some fun shopping to be had, and you can often bargain. We went to the pearl market yesterday, and that WAS a good deal cheaper than anything you'd find in Japan. I was going to try my bargaining skills (poor), but the prices I was quoted were so low that they sort of took the wind out of my sails. Of course I did not settle for the first price, but I didn't exactly haggle to the death, either. Probably it helped that there were not a lot of people around...one lady's sale pitch went that I was her first customer of the day and so she wasn't going to quote me a high price and scare me off. Any business is better than no business! My theory is, if they're willing to sell to me at a price I quoted, they are clearly making a profit, so it's a win-win situation. (My personal favourite was buying some pictures at the tourist market and being given the "girlfriend" discount. Because the sales girl and I were so clearly BFF.)

Tomorrow we are going for a dim sum brunch and I am very excited. Brunch! And dumplings! All at once! Life is good.

So far Shanghai is very exotic, but not in the way you might imagine. It's the massive consulate-paid apartment with the housekeeper and the doorman and the central heating (!!) and the eating out at fancy restaurants...and, of course, the way you risk your life every time you cross the street. It's all very anti-life-of-an-English-teacher and I suspect that, aside from the Russian roulette of street crossings, something I could get used to. Certainly I'm enjoying the whole not being cold all the time thing.

Speaking of which, I had been worried about the weather, but although it is technically colder than Japan, it feels a lot warmer. The utter lack of biting Siberian wind probably has something to do with that, although the fact that going indoors gives you a chance to warm up is also probably helpful.

So far I haven't really done much. I lounged about this morning with the computer and some maps and tried to make a plan, then met up with Chevy to change some money at the bank and have lunch, after which I walked down the road a bit to a shopping area. It was mostly malls, though, and not unlike Japan, so I didn't dwell. After Chevy got off of work I met up with her and got to go inside the American consulate (after offering up my passport, cell phone - she got me a cell phone! - and camera. Her co-worker then gave us a ride to the Ritz Carleton, where he lives (seriously, I am clearly living the wrong lifestyle) and we went for burgers. I feel a bit guilty that I haven't yet had Chinese food, but on the other hand, I can get Chinese food in Hamamatsu. I cannot get thick juicy hamburgers with blue cheese in Hamamatsu, on the other hand.

Chevy is working again tomorrow, but now I am armed with money and a general idea of how to get back to the apartment, so I am going to attempt to do something more touristy. Wish me luck.

Leavin' on a jet plane, etc etc.

You know how sometimes you put on a jacket you haven't work in a while, stick your hand in the pocket, and find money? And how you go "Woo hoo! Ten bucks!" and do a happy dance?

Well, this afternoon I was cleaning out the bag I am going to be using on the plane tomorrow. I even checked in the zippered pocket that I never use and there I found my change purse. "Oh ho!" I said, "there you are!", for I had been looking for it for quite some time. I was intrigued to notice that there was something in it. Old receipts, maybe, or expired coupons, or if I was very lucky, some money. It turned out to be money. 100 000 yen, to be exact. At today's exchange rate, that's just over $1100 Canadian dollars.

Um, what?

Eventually I remembered what happened. Back in September I met up with Yukie to discuss our upcoming trip. This was back when we were still thinking of going to Okinawa, and if we had been able to agree on the details, we were going to buy the tickets that day. So I grabbed a bunch of travel money and headed downtown. As it turned out, we were unable to decide on a plan that day, so I tucked the money away safely and headed off to Shizuoka for the weekend.

Which explains why I forgot about it initially, but how did I not notice it was missing? I did notice that there was some missing from the travel fund, but I thought it was more along the lines of 30 000 and chalked it up to overspending on my birthday. I tsked at myself and made a frowny face, then concluded that the massage had been worth it and hey, you only get one birthday a year, right?

It also gives me a really great incentive to finish packing, since who knows what else I may find?

The new computer honeymoon did not last long. The disc that is jammed in there is now making continual attempts to escape, which I would not mind, except that it sounds like someone put a bunch of metal bits into a coffee grinder and there is no way to stop it. The downside to the sleek elegance of the iMacs is that it is virtually impossible to take the entire computer apart (special suction cups are needed) and even more difficult to get them back together. So Andrew is thinking to just give it to a friend to tinker with over the holidays to see if he can get it out, and is also talking about just buying a new computer altogether, specifically the Mac Mini, since he has a (24 inch LED) screen at home. If this comes to pass, I might spend more time at work oohing and ahhing over the nice big screen and the fast fast internet. We shall see.

Also: it is cold. 10 degrees, to be exact. And yes, that's indoors.

Andrew brought me an early Christmas present. Or a late birthday present, if you want to count how long he's been talking about it. My computer at work was 10 years old and really slow. If I tried accessing things like Facebook (to show pictures, of course) it would freeze and crash and attempting to watch videos was near impossible. He had an old-but-still-newer-than-that iMac at home that he wasn't using any more, partly because the disc drive is jammed and you can't use cds or dvds in it. Since the disc drive on my ancient Mac tended to hold on to any disc inserted and not let go unless you took the cube apart, I didn't really see this as a drawback. He finally got around to bringing it to work and setting it up. The screen is huge, the speed is about a gazillion times faster, and best of all...oh, happy day...it has a Photo Booth application. I wish I'd known about that when Liam and Ewan were there earlier, I'd already have six million pictures to share.

As I sit here in December with the window wide open (even after the sun has gone down!) and a big bowl of fresh strawberries to snack on, it is a little hard to remember that climate change is big-picture bad. Before you all start sending me hate mail instead of Christmas cards, though, let me assure you that the forecast calls for a sudden drop in temperature mid-week, and by Friday they are calling for lows in the minuses and possibly even SNOW. And also, and I cannot emphasize this enough, my apartment has no insulation. The good news is that you will all be spared my complaints of how cold it is, because experience has taught me that it will be too cold to type. A) because it will be too cold to go gloveless and B) because the keyboard gets so cold it hurts. I plan on curling up on the couch with an electric blanket and catching up on tv.

Or packing for China, because that is coming up really quick. Eek.

I've been slacking in the cookie-making department this year, which is really sad. On the other hand, I got a candy thermometer and successfully made coffee toffee (twice!), so yay. The nice thing about the toffee is that it will fit nicely into the gadzillion pretty little Christmas-themed Mary's Chocolate tins that both I and the school have collected over the years. They are too small for candy, too pretty to just toss, but now I can finally use them. Plus it makes my homemade Christmas gifts look a bit more presentable.

Pictures shamelessly stolen from the SurfQuest site.

It's a really fantastic spot for yoga. I tried to view the constant sand in the face as an exfoliation experience. Who needs a spa?



This is all the garbage we collected after the yoga session. On the plus side, less than in summer. On the minus side, someone just dumped a tv.



Then we all stood around and looked at the garbage. Good times.

You know how people say "it's not the heat, it's the humidity"? You can say something similar about doing yoga on the beach in December in one of the windiest cities in Japan. "It's not the wind, it's the sand. But also, it's the bloody wind." I have sand in places that absolutely baffle me, given that I was wearing long pants, two long sleeved shirts, and a hat. The meditation poses were quite nice, and as always, savasana was the best part, in this case because I was able to put a blanket over my head and have a respite from sand blowing in my face. The balancing poses were quite difficult (woosh, gust of wind! sand in the eyes!) and transitions were made difficult by the fact that the yoga mat kept blowing about so instead of just going straight into down dog I had to stop and sort that out. Overall it was nice, though. Afterwards we picked up trash from the beach and then went back to Mike's place for fooooooooood. (I was hungry by that point.)

I need some help with something. We are finally getting a school webpage, and I need to write a little introduction about myself. Masami isn't sure how long it needs to be, as it sort of depends on how much the others write and how much we can fit into the page, but a nice basic introduction of who I am and why I enjoy teaching. How does "I'm from northern Canada and have been living in Japan for nine years. I enjoy teaching children because of how easily they are convinced of the most ridiculous things, and the looks on their faces as I persuade them that I am over 100 years old or that they are eating spiders really makes my job worthwhile. In my spare time, I enjoy baking. Every holiday, I will stuff your children full of sugar and then send them on home to you." sound?

Masami says that Liam is enjoying his Christmas present, re-usable Thomas stickers. Yay!

Ewan liked his Santa hat about as much as I thought he would.




Two fine Christmas traditions: playing with the ribbons from presents, and torturing your brother by putting hats on him.




Paper is the best part of getting presents.


Hey there, Santa baby.

Ewan's figured out who is the boss in our relationship, and it ain't me. His mother can plop him down with some blocks and he'll sit there and happily play away until I walk into the room, at which point all toys are flung aside and he MUST be picked up right now. Apparently I have a "sucker" stamp on me somewhere that is only visible to small infants. I tried convincing him that playing with his blocks was more fun than being carted around like a sack of potatoes while I washed the tables, but no dice.

Today was not my most strenuous working day ever. The kindergarten was pretty normal, but then at the school in the afternoon I think I did about 30 minutes of actual teaching in the entire day. The first class was doing a test, so I spent their class testing their ABC skillz, then the second class spent half of the time filling out an envelope for their Santa letters (they will be mailing them to Finland, if their mothers feel like spending the 110 yen on stamps) and I got in about 20 minutes of actual teaching, the third class made the gingerbread house, I had an hour and a half break, and then one student showed up for the last class so we played Scrabble after making a token showing of studying her grammar book. (I think probably she would have preferred an hour of that. Playing Scrabble with the kids is a form of torture for them.)

Not surprisingly, it turns out that 10 year old girls make for good gingerbread house designers. The amount of thought that went into the placement of each and every candy was astounding. Once they left, I used up the rest of the icing filling in blank spots and creating snowdrifts.