I've been in Shanghai for one month - time flies!

So here I am, yet again, sat up late on my Sunday evening reflecting on another week in Shanghai. Time literally flies, I cannot believe that September is almost over and I've been in Shanghai for a month already. As the weeks have gone by I've gradually gotten increasingly settled & back into routine. 

Last week was a pleasant week of teaching. The highlight of my week has to be my second school, that I teach at on Wednesday's and Thursday's, in which we had our first ever English Corner. My heart literally MELTED, as the children were so passionate to sing and constantly volunteered so many songs to sing & perform to me! 

I also saw the best name-cards the next day in my grade two classes! One being "DON" and another "DICK". I often wonder who cooses the students names and how they come about. Ultimately, I had a wonderful, amusing and successful week of teaching! 

Fortunately, I have Friday's off work so I made it a productive one. Money has been very tight this month what with payday not being until this Friday 30th September (so excited for payday), so I had to ask my company for a slight advance in my pay, in which they supportingly agreed. So, Friday morning I got up and headed to my company's office. After collecting the money, I had two hours until my Chinese lesson, so I decided to stop off at "zoo coffee" and do some writing/lesson planning/work. I then headed to my Chinese class. 

I'm really getting into Chinese, especially in contrast to last year. I have this strong desire to learn to read/write/speak Chinese. At the moment, I don't feel completely confident in my speaking. My aim is to gain this confidence and living in China provides me the best opportunity to learn this amazing language. So let's see how I get on as the weeks go by! 

After my one hour Chinese class, I headed to my tutoring family's home in which I would tutor their four beautiful daughters English. At the end of the lesson, they always cook a beautiful, home-cooked, Chinese feast! There's always something quite "different" in it too. This week, I was eating what I thought were mushrooms... until the mother said to me; "Do you know what that is?" She then proceeded to tell me it was the stomach of the pig. Not completely absurd.. but it did sort of put me off eating that dish again. 

The past couple of weeks I've been genuinely shattered, and so I haven't been out that much at all. So that evening, I decided to meet lots of friends at C's bar, & have a few drinks and a catchup. It was a fun evening seeing old faces and having a laugh! 

The next morning I woke up early as I had plans to take a trip to Shanghai's only "mountain" - She Shan. I met my friend Sarah on the way, and a bunch of Teach English in China friends at the She Shan metro station for 10:30am. It was a beautiful, hot and sunny day - perfect for this walk! 

I cannot describe to you how beautiful, green and natural the She Shan National Forest Park was. We began on the West Side, walked to the large Cathedral on top with a pretty great view. It was such a calming and spiritual experience for me - I loved it. 

On the side I saw an artist painting his surroundings. I stopped to speak to him in Chinese/English. We ended up exchanging we chat's and he has offered to teach me  Calligraphy and how to paint in his studio! I'm constantly meeting new people and making friends in China - I love it!

After this we headed towards the East side of the mountain in which we explored even more beautiful views, a fire tower and temple. We stopped for lunch, chatted about life in Shanghai. Most of us who come out here, we're all quite like-minded people in that we want to explore the world, maybe aren't quite sure or ready to settle into "normality". 

After lunch we found a beautiful bamboo route, stopped off at a beautiful fountain with a temple, further explored and finally finished our day & headed back to the metro station for around 3pm. It had been a wonderful day but we were all pretty shattered! I craved a good old nap! 

It had been a wonderful, natural and amazing morning/early afternoon. I went home, had a shower and an hour's nap. I woke up to do some lesson planning and preparation for a small meeting I had the next day with the Global Times newspaper. That evening, for dinner, I met up with a Japanese friend of mine that I hadn't yet seen since coming back to Shanghai. We had a lovely Chinese BBQ not far from my home and then I came home, watched Eastenders & passed out to sleep!

 Before sleeping I ate a fruit that I haven't had in England before and absolutely love here! I have no idea what its name is but it's so cool to eat. You have to literally crush it with your hands to open up its juicy delightful inside! It's honestly the tastiest, sweetest fruit ever! 

The next day (today) I woke up and had a productive morning of lesson planning. After this I went to Jing'an Temple to chat with the Global Times who I will be writing for soon! After this I met up with my beautiful Spanish friend, Sara, for a catch-up over a cold drink. Following this we both decided to head together to the fake-market to do some shopping. Sara needed a bag, and I needed some converse and also a bag. I managed to get both for under twenty pounds - get in! 

It's been a great week, I'd better sleep now as I've got to wake up early for work tomorrow. However, I will be happy and motivated all week because at the end of the week is the... NATIONAL HOLIDAY! On Friday I will fly to Seoul in South Korea for 6 nights, joining my friend Sunaina out there amongst other friends! I cannot wait! I'll be in touch! 

Sabrina xxx