Scrap Paper

So we were co-teaching a class and it came time to group the students. We decided that it would be good to randomize the groups so the co-teacher found some scrap paper, tore it into small pieces and gave a piece to each student to write their names on, fold it up, and put it into the hat.

It wasn't long before a perplexed student, having closely examined her scrap of paper, raised her hand, "Teacher, this is my Chinese homework!"

The photo shows an attempt at fitting it back together.

Valentines Day Dinner

This is what our dinner looked like on Friday night:

Cheese fondue with steak, sausages, chicken and veg, followed by chocolate with strawberries and blueberries. What more could you want?

I had to use night mode on the camera, which uses a super, mega, high ISO (or something) so it can get the photo with very little lighting. I thought it came out looking good. She wasn't impressed.

That was the start of the weekend; it's Sunday evening now and I'm ready to go to bed. This weekend went by way too fast. A hard 6 weeks of teaching prac is ahead of me so I guess I'd best get an early night tonight.

Fresh Air

"Winter's OK, you can always put more layers on." Bollocks! It's cold here, and the apartments have the most insignificant heating systems so you're permanently "a bit cold". That doesn't sound too bad, but it is when it's in your home, where you watch TV, and and make your dinner, and write you blog.

I'm not complaining, the cold spell lasted for about 3 days, and it's warm enough to be comfortable now. This winter's been pretty good in truth. Mind, it's still weird to me to be in a place where people might go their entire work day without taking off their coat.

 Regardless of the outdoor temperature there is an odd obsession in this country with "cleaning the air". It's the idea that you need to open the window, or keep them open all day whatever the weather, so you have fresh air. Fresh, Shanghai air.

Chinese Parks

China's different from England. Obviously. But not in the ways you'd expect. If you want to see Chinese culture first hand you just need to go to a park early in the morning. You'll be surrounded by people hitting trees, clapping their hands, shouting at random, and, as you can see here, dancing. This pair were amongst a a whole group of people, some of them dancing alone, to music blasted from someone's loudspeaker. I always want to know how this stuff gets arranged; does one person just decide to bring his amplifier and mp3 player on the off chance a group of formal dancers want to come along and have a little shuffle around?! He wouldn't be the only one. Sometimes, more often than not, you get audibly assaulted by more than one song spewing out from different dancing groups on the scene. The thing that surprised me most in Shanghai, and still continues to amaze me, is the absence of being self-conscious. If you suggested to your friends that they go to the park and have a dance they'd probably cringe at the thought. "In front of everyone? Nee chance!!" Not here, do what you want. Everyone's watching, nobody cares. Just in case I forget for a split second that I'm in China, there's always people doing Tai Chi:

Cooking at home

Laura decided to cook some bread the other day. I decided it was a good time to get the camera out. When photography's your hpbby it's sometimes hard to find ways to do it at home so this gave me the excuse I was looking for.
She made a traditional plaited bread, but added a some pesto, garlic and cheese, then more garlic, and then finally a touch extra garlic. After she'd finished plaiting it the raw product looked like this:
I set up a couple of lamps on the other side of the kitchen which gave it that sparkle. It was too dark otherwise and I point blank refuse to use the flash. I don't think I've once ever taken a photo with a flash that I thought came out looking nice. Anyway, after some time in the oven the finished cooked bread came out like this:

I can tell you it tasted even better than it looked.

Endless Shanghai

It never ceases to amaze me just how big Shanghai is. The photo shows what is actually the tiniest most minute fraction of this city. They say that, in China, anything less than a million people is a "village"; Shanghai has over 20 million people in it.

Getting around is always a trial; most journeys take around 7 metro stops plus a transfer, or a cheap taxi ride with the risk of serious traffic delays. Walking never feels like an option; for public transport I usually opt for the metro and stay underground, so I never know how to get from A to B by foot even though I've been to A and B a hundred times. This being said, of the entire 6,340 square km this city takes up (yes, six thousand, it's not a type-o) you only tend to stick to your 4 or 5 square kilometres. Yes, I should walk places more, I'd probably get more photos.

And sorry for the kilometres, I've been away from Blighty far too long!