Happy Christmas!

Professor B made a surprise visit at our school at our holiday assembly just before vacation, and gave all the students a little tour of the new building that will be opening on campus next year:

Happy Hannukah!

The small contingent of Shanghai American Jews got together for a little Hannukah party last week. We're small in numbers, and even in the minority at the hannukah party! That was actually a nice surprise though, since so many of our non-jewish friends showed up to celebrate with us. In this picture, our friend Michelle is teaching a group of our friends' kids (who are also some of my students) about the meaning of Hannukah.

We had some potato latkas that couldn't be beat and din't get up until the next mornin'.

Chinese Hannukah Gelt!

Mini Me

The fifth grade is doing a "Space Webquest" for their science class, and are planning a trip to Mars. They put together little presentations that include dioramas of what their facilities on Mars will look like. They'll be doing little 'video tours of the diorama' but weren't really understanding how we were going to make it look like they were small enough to do a 'walk through'. This is my little demonstration video.

The Winter Ball

SAS has a big "Winter Ball" event every year. It was fun. I don't have a great deal to say about it- there were good people, good food, and good wine. I really just wanted to take this opportunity to show off my beautiful wife.

Crabs

These Suck!

Today's post is about some interesting things that you can drink through a straw. The first, which Kim is holding there on the left is "Bubble Tea" (also known as "Pearl Tea", or "Milk Tea with Sago", or "Tapioca Tea" depending on where it is ordered). Bubble Tea isn't anything new to us, as we'd often go out of our way to get one from downtown Flushing when we were living in Queens. However, it comes from this part of the world and if you haven't made it to your local Chinatown (or if you're living here in China) to taste one of these - do yourself a favor. Basically, its a drink made of tea, milk, and very large balls of tapioca. The drink comes with a wide straw for the tapioca to fit through. Very delicious!

The second thing that Kim is holding is a "Soupy Dumpling" - instead of a bowl, this soup is served in a dumpling, and usually has a big piece of pork in it as well. When you order a big one (like the one pictured here) it comes with a straw so that you can drink the soup before you eat the rest of the dumpling. There's a trick to eating the smaller ones - you place the dumpling in a spoon with one hand, and hold it steady with chopsticks with the other hand. Then you bite off a bit of the dumpling skin in order to let out the steam. At this point you can pour in some vinegar and/or soy sauce (might I recommend the vinegar?). In a few seconds, its cool enough to eat.

Yuey's Suzhou Video

This is the video that my friend Yuey took when we went to Suzhou a few months ago. Here you'll see something that is very rare to find in my own videos: me.

Yogurt and cigarettes

Here's an interesting promotion: Free ashtray with your purchase of 6 yogurts! Yeah, nothing goes together quite like Yogurt and Tobacco. Anyway, we saw this little gem of a deal on our grocery shopping expedition last night. Let me tell you, its hard to find stuff for a Thanksgiving dinner in Shanghai. No sweet potatoes! And I thought the sweet potato was from here originally. I'll have to check my horticulture facts. Anyway, we decided to purchase some Durian, which we tried for the first time. Durian (or Jack Fruit) for those of you who don't know, is a large spiky fruit. Sort of like a watermelon from hell. We've been told that its the kind of fruit that you either love or hate, and tonight we found out why.

It smells vaguely of rotten eggs in baby diapers. However, it tastes like vanilla pudding.

that's not a joke, that's really what it tastes like. The smell is terrible, but once you get it in your mouth, its actually quite nice. I remember being warned by my friend Toan about the smell, and so I held my nose when I tried it. Not bad. Second try, I tried it without holding my nose. Kinda gross. Third try - nose held. Pretty good. After that, I got past the smell pretty quickly. In fact, its hard to believe that there is anything that occurs naturally with such a complex and interesting taste. So, yes, I'm one of those who have found that they do indeed love the taste.

Who knew? Baby diapers and vanilla pudding. They go together like yogurt and cigarettes.

The Empire Strikes Back When Aprill Comes to Visit

Kim and I had our first visitor in Shanghai last weekend! Our friend Aprill was here on business, and we went to have dinner with her at the Jingmao Tower, where she was staying. We hadn't been there before, although we've seen it- here's the photo that I posted early on in the blog:

The Jingmao Tower is the tallest building in China. However, it will soon be succeeded by another building not too far away, which is slated to take the title of "Tallest Building in the World". It doesn't look as tall as the Pearl in this picture (the funky looking building with the spheres) because its a little farther away here.

As impressive as it is from the outside, the inside is even more so. Here are Kim and April in front of the 40-story drop which makes up the hotel portion of the building.


Standing at the top of the drop, you cannot resist the desire to reach your hand out and (in your best James Earle Jones voice) say, "Luke, I am your father"...

Hope to see you back in Shanghai soon Aprill! There's lots more to see!

Happy Halloween

Our school celebrated Haloween on friday (not a bad idea), and Kim and I dressed as the "Small Critters Market" (a.k.a. the cricket market) and the Flower Market respectively. Some of the kids and teachers really go all out here though- they have entire costumes made for them at the Fabric Market! I'll try to post some video on that later.

Somewhat Strange Shanghai

Last week I was wandering around the city picking up pieces of my Halloween costume. Here are two interesting things I saw on my journey:

A painted dog for sale at the cricket market:




The cafe where, apparently, the devil goes for his coffee.

Mundane Shanghai

Looking over my blog, it appears quite obvious to me that I've been focusing on all the differences- the strange, the unexpected, and the unusual. Perhaps I've been misrepresenting what living in Shanghai is really like:


California Pizza Kitchen.
Tony Roma's.
Haagen Dazs.
All within 10 feet of each other.

In the end, that's probably a better description of Shanghai.

There's also a "Starbucks" about 50 feet away.


But you probably guessed that.

The Gelato Revolution!

No, this isn't China.

I just found these great pictures of our school trip to Italy last year over at Gabby's Blog. Theres me in my Statue of Liberty pose, with Amy's 15 scoop ice cream cone and my belgian waffle. Which reminds me that I never put my Italy photos online. Bad Teacher! No apple! Man, look at those bags under my eyes. That trip kicked my butt.

Thanks for the memories, Gabs!

"Thumbs Up" Behavior!

Here's a video on bus safety that I put together with Robbie, the Vice Principal of the elementary school. The school loved it, and Robbie really got into the part, so I think we'll be seeing some more of Professor Broekman in the future.

Medicine

So, while we were wandering around Yangshou one day, Kim and a few friends decided to go get a massage. When I meet up with her later, she tells me that I just have to come with her because the woman who she went to is not only a masseuse, but an accupuncturist, an herbalist, and a licensed medical doctor. I hadn't been feeling well, you see, and Kim thought the doc might have something that could help me out.

So we go visit Doctor Lily, and her shop is quite interesting, to say the least. It was like something out of a book. Yes. That is a very large and very dead snake in a jar. Here's the interesting thing, it requires a little back story:

There is something wrong with my liver. Its not a big deal, nothing serious, but it makes me feel bad from time to time. I thought it was my stomach, and for 10 years in the states, no doctor has been able to tell me what is wrong with me. I go to China, have my required physical exam the day after entry, and BAM they figured it out, its my liver. In other words:

American Doctors + 10 Years = No results.
Chinese Doctors + 5 Minutes = Got my answer.

So, fastforward to Dr. Lily's office. The doctor looks in my eyes and says "You've got the fire inside". I took that to mean she knew I had a fever. Believe me, it wasn't a come-on. Then she takes my pulse. After 15 seconds she says, "Hmm, thin pulse. Your liver's chi is off".

Lets review:
American Doctors - 10 years and nothing.
Chinese Government Doctors - 5 Minutes.
Dr. Lily - 15 Seconds.

So Doctor Lily prescribes some herbal remedy for my fever. She used the word "Tea" to describe her cure, but this concoction was as much "tea" as a dead rotting cow is a "hamburger". Let me tell you, this was the most disgusting stuff I have ever tasted in my life. I had to hold my nose and gulp it down - a lot of it. The first time I didn't hold my nose and it almost came right back up. Good lord was that bad.

But my fever went away.

Doctor Lily also prescribed some tea for my liver. Two months worth.

Then we'll see how that Chi is doing.

Tilt Shift Yangshou

I apologize for not coming through with any posts about our trip to Yangshou, but this has really been the busiest week at school I've had so far. However, I've been working on a cool online game for the 5th grade to play as they study about explorers and colonization, and the assistant principal Robbie and I made a cool video on Bus Safety. I'll put that up online soon, but in the meantime, here are a few more tilt-shift photos. I took these on a little boat ride that Kim and I took down to the small village of Fuli from Yangshou.

We Needed a Fokin Bowl.

So we bought a Fokin Bowl.

Not China

Homesickness is setting in a bit, and I've just been getting some email from former students, so I just put this picture up as my desktop wallpaper. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of all my students together. I love this shot though- it really captures the personalities of everyone. Well almost everyone. What's up with Zombie Tom? And why is Ryan trying to bite my ear off? I should have kept a camera in my room. Its pretty revealing to see what was going on when my back was turned. Note to self, and other video teachers: use your resources.

My former students- I miss you guys!

Yangshou

Kim and I spent our first break from school in Yangshou, a small town about an hour south of Guilin. The little panorama above was taken from the Silver cave, about 20 miles outside of the town. Those small mountains, or karsts, pop right out of the landscape, none of this gradual incline nonsense or messing about with foothills. I'll be writing about our fun time there over the next few days, and Kim's got some swell pictures over at her blog as well.

More Photos from Tong Li

The last photo is of a Cormorant fisher with her birds. The cormorants are tied to posts on the boat, and the woman gives them a little shove into the water with a pole she carries. She smacks the water with the pole (I'm not sure why, maybe it attracts fish, or maybe it scares the birds) and the birds dive down into the water. When they come up with fish in their maw, she grabs them out of the water, reaches into their beaks and pulls out the fish. She repeats this process with all four of her birds.

Tilt Shift Tong LI

This post doesn't really have to do with Tong Li as such, although it was the perfect place for me to try out some tilt shift photography (which you may have read about on my other blog). Basically, with a little help from our little friend photoshop, ordinary photos can be made to look like miniatures. Seems to work best with landscapes, although I do like the way the boats came out.







Oh, and do check out the video of the fish in the last post if you haven't yet. I'm quite pleased with the way it came out, and man- those fish were weird!

Tong Li Part II: Fish!

The fish.
The mad rush of gils and fins.
A constant struggle for survival,
for dominance
in the small pond
of life.
The horror.
The horror.



The horror.




Video Fish!:

Music:Bathtime in Clerkenwell by The Real Tuesday Weld

Tong Li Introduction (Part I)

There's a lot to show and tell about our visit to Tong Li, a small watertown near Shuzhou, and this is already a busy week for me (and its only Sunday night). So I'm going to blog about Tong Li in smaller bits - 'bite sized pieces', if you will.

On Saturday morning, we arrived in the second place near Shanghai that claims the name "The Venice of the East", and this did hit a little closer to the mark. Tiny roads run along the banks of small canals which are criss-crossed by stone bridges. The town has three main bridges (or only three bridges?) which are supposed to bring luck to whoever crosses all three. It seems that there's a lot of things that we found you can do here to bring luck; so if you didn't get a chance to hit every bridge, there is surely a rock nearby that you can rub for an equal amount of good karma.

Tong Li is the second town that Kim and I have been to (the first being Clovelly in England) that has an entry fee to the town for tourists. That struck me (both times) as a bit silly, especially when the tourists usually bring in a lot of money in other ways anyway. However, it was well worth the price of admission, but we'll find out why in part II...

Shuzhou Montage

This video shows a few scenes of Shuzhou, the small water town of only five million people that I wrote about in an earlier post. As you will see, Shuzhou is famous for its canals and gardens. I've also once again included my now favorite dinner time activity (besides eating): the "Lazy Susan Cam".

I somewhat hesitantly chose to use the Seu George cover of Bowie's Life On Mars for the background music. Even though the lyrics are fully irrelevant, this song has always communicated to me a sense of distance and unfamiliarity. Shuzhou, unlike Shanghai, does not have the feeling of being in a western city. However, if the odd combination of Portugese lyrics from an American song in a Chinese City is too much to deal with, you may turn off your volume before hitting 'play'. I just like to think of it as a Multicultural Video.

Toy Mall!

The big styrofoam relief Transformer Dinosaur was our tip off to the existence of the "Toy Mall" in Shanghai. Four Stories of action figures from your favorite anime, plagiarized playstations, stickers, dolls, and even anime-inspired clothing. One cool store was full of little vending machines that contained everything from Black and White Classic Mickey Mouse figurines and Nightmare Before Christmas Paraphanalia to tiny educational 'invisible man' anatomy miniatures.




One cool store was full of little vending machines that contained everything from Black and White Classic Mickey Mouse figurines and Nightmare Before Christmas Paraphanalia to tiny educational 'invisible man' anatomy miniatures.


There was even a vending machine selling tiny toy vending machines.

Police Raid!

The funny thing about this police raid at the knock-off market on Nanjing Lu is that every other store in the multi-storied complex is also selling counterfeit goods. I wasn't sure how the police would react to my taking a picture of their work in action, so I kept the camera at hip level, and snapped the photo without looking as I pretended to examine some fake Nikes.

Please, Save the Bumf.

Won't you think about the bumf?



(Hat tip to Rachel who took this picture)

Shanghai Montage

Suzhou!

Shanghai is great, but one month in a city without leaving is a little much for me. So Kim and I took a trip with a few friends down to Suzhou, also known (quite inaccurately) as the "Venice of the East". Don't get me wrong, Suzhou, like Venice is beautiful (and touristy), but a city has a few canals and then all of a sudden its "The Venice of the (fill in the blank)". More memorable than the canals are the beautiful gardens with scholars' stones big enough to walk through and small ponds and streams filled with koi. In the picture above I'm standing in front of the "The Temple of Mystery". Don't I feel stupid for forgetting my fedora and bullwhip. Although the temple has an adventurous sounding name to the Western Ear, it is actually a Song Dynasty Daoist Temple. Three 55 foot giant golden statues greet you as you enter, and there are numerous other beautiful statues of Daoist deities around the periphery.

The Master of the Nets gardens are supposed to be the most beautiful in Suzhou, and I don't doubt that claim. Here are some pictures:






This is our friend Sue, the PE teacher in a maze of scholar stones.



This is a statue outside the "Temple of Mystery":



...and this is a guy on a boat.

One Month in China

It doesn't quite feel all that long even though we've already established a few favorite restaurants and a bit of a routine around here. Last night we celebrated our first month with a short cruise down the Huang Po river through Shanghai. Well, it wasn't really in celebration, but it was a nice chance for a bunch of us new teachers to get together and act like tourists while we still can.

Here's Kim with some friends. In front, our friend and colleague Misao who works with me in the tech department. The woman on the right, we met on the boat - coincidentally, she is moving to Astoria (!) to go to F.I.T. (Kim's Alma Matter!) next week. Small world.

Afterwards, we headed out to get a late dinner. Impressively, we managed to find the one Chinese restaurant in all of Shanghai that was out of rice. After much deliberating with the waitress and amongst ourselves, it was decided that we would go next door and get some take-out rice to bring back. I think we ended up with two confused sets of restaurants staffs, but we got to enjoy our dinner in the end.


Yogi, going out for rice.

DIY Ride

Walking home from school yesterday, I saw this dude driving a car that looked like he'd made it himself. The engine was all exposed in the front. The front seat was right in back of the engine, the guy could have been sitting on a stool or small bench. The wheels stuck out oddly and the back looked like it was from some kind of cart, patched together with scrap metal.

I was very impressed.

I wish I could make a car.

Do you have any of those uh... those crunchy salty desert lizards....?

Traffic

We were well warned about the traffic here and the high rate of accidents. We've watched near misses involving cars, trucks, buses, and pedestrians on a daily basis. However, today we passed a horrible accident in which a guy on a bike was hit by a truck. Everybody on the street had gathered around, but no one was doing anything. It was pretty horrible.

The Cricket Market

Kim has a good description of the Cricket Market over at her blog, but she described it as her least favorite market. Is she kidding? What could be better than a cricket market? Check out these pictures:



Fighting crickets! My money is on the one on the left.


This woman is preparing lots of tiny dinners for the crickets tonight. Mmmm... looks yummy!


I keep calling it "The Cricket Market", but its actually the "Cricket and Bird Market", because of course, crickets and birds go together like... peanut butter and... something that eats peanut butter. Anyway, they also sell kittens, dogs, fish, and turtles, making the market even more inappropriately named. I guess the "Pet Market" doesn't sound as cool.