A fabulous week exploring Shanghai, keeping fit and cooking Chinese food!

Hey!

I’m currently tucked up in bed, with a hot water bottle, reflecting on another fabulous week in Shanghai. My working week was pleasant and busy as usual. I’ve only got two weeks left of work before I break up for holidays so I’m making the most of my lessons, bringing fun and encouraging for lots of speaking English in my classroom!

After work, last Monday, a friend of mine who takes the same metro and bus as me on Mondays and Tuesdays showed me to the local vegetable market in our area. I’ve been meaning to find it as it is quite tucked away, and boy oh boy I’ve never been more excited about vegetables! It’s amazing, a huge market area for fruit, vegetables, clothes, everything you can think of… and for unbelievably cheap prices! I’m definitely going to be mainly cooking now until Christmas!

One of many highlights of this week is the booking of our Christmas dinner! A bunch of us TEIC friends who work for Pacican have booked a scrumptious Turkey Feast at a restaurant for Christmas Day dinner – it’s going to be amazing!

Another highlight of this week is that I’ve finally SUBMITTED my PGCE application. It’s been on my to-do list for ever, and it’s such a relief to finally have it sent off. It’s just a nerve-wracking waiting game now!

So, in order to prioritise and get that PGCE application submitted I skipped MMA on Wednesday night. Thursday night my coach was busy with a dance show so I had a chilled evening studying Chinese. To make up for this lack of training (I only trained MMA on Tuesday), I dedicated my early morning on Friday (before my Chinese lesson at 11) to the gym! My coach met me there at around 8am and we trained for about an hour and a half. It was an amazing start to the day. My coach showed me some great ways to get my arms and upper body stronger, which I plan to dedicate myself to (various weights and pull up exercises). After this, we worked on my striking, boxing and kicking. It was a great session and I learnt so much. I always feel so inspired by Ramsey, my coach. He not only trains us physically but also mentally, and in the heart – I think that’s what makes the best coach. He told us about a saying his grandmother kept on a scruffled piece of paper on her fridge;

 “Live simply. Give much. Expect little.”

It’s so beautiful, and I want to live like this.

Anyway, after a great gym session, I showered up at the gym and headed to my Chinese lesson which is pretty close to where my gym is. I had a great lesson. I’ve started my HSK 2 book now (still waiting on the results for HSK 1) and it’s going good! So this was a super-productive Friday. After my Chinese lesson I headed to the Foreign Language Book Store (of course) to study and get some books. I’m currently reading Shanghai Girls by Lisa See because I’m really enjoying these Shanghai 1930’s novels. It takes me back to Shanghai’s history, which I love. After this I had my regular tutoring class (this time a two hour long one to make up for me going away this weekend) and a chilled night in – I was exhausted by the late evening!

This weekend has been FAB. On Saturday, I was up and about by 10am. I went to buy a gopro stick (mine broke) and then met my friend, Furkan, to study some written Chinese before we headed out for the afternoon to explore Shanghai. Furkan showed me a great method for learning and memorising the Chinese characters. I’m really going to commit to this method and get learning! Just comment if you’d like to know the method!

After studying Chinese and grabbing lunch, we headed to the Waitan/The Bund to explore. I have my Explore Shanghai book which gives a detailed walking route, with explanations and history. We decided to follow it and had an amazing afternoon exploring the bund. People are so quick to just go to the bund and take a picture infront of the sky scrapers and say they’ve been to the bund. I hadn’t really been to the bund until this day, purely because I entered each building which all had so much different history and story behind it. Ranging from the Old Shanghai Boy’s hotel in which important political decisions were made, to Roosevelt’s House, the Palace, Art Deco buildings and Peace Hotel. It was simply wonderful! We also entered, what was once the Cathay Hotels, level 9 rooftop café, which was so lovely. I definitely plan to return for some afternoon tea.

After this, I went to meet another friend of mine, Layla, in my area – Beixinjing Station. She’s Chinese and offered to help me cook traditional, Chinese food together that evening! It was incredible. We headed to the vegetable market I told you about earlier, picked up lots of vegetables and ingredients, and then headed back to my place to cook! My kitchen is VERY small, but we made it work. She showed me how to a rice cooker which has been in my room since I moved in but I haven’t used it. It’s INCREDIBLE, can also cook vegetables at the same time as the rice, as the water steams it! Anyway, we cooked amazing food. I really love Chinese food. We cooked broccoli, lotus, onions, potato, tomato and eggs! It was scrumptious!

After cooking and eating to the point of complete FULLNESS, we headed out for a drink. We met up with Andru and Sarah at a Japanese bar on Weining/Xianxia Road. It was a nice finish to a splendid Saturday.

Today, after such a lovely day yesterday, I had to be productive again. I cleaned my room this morning, tutored from 1-3, had a Chinese lesson at 4-5 and then lesson planned this evening! Now I am going to pass out to sleep. I’m so tired! THIS THURSDAY-SUNDAY I WILL BE IN HARBIN with my fellow TEIC friend Matt, who is in Wuhan!

I’ll be in touch!

Sabrina Xxx