Can you believe I've only been here two weeks? Am feeling so much better having Internet, plus I got the best thing ever last Thursday. I now have hot water! Yup, the real deal. My bosses were 'working' on the problem and I got up Thursday and thought I just couldn't do one more none hot shower. I went to the secretary who found this apartment for me and said, 'Good morning, how are you? I realize how busy you are helping to get ready to start the school year, but I just cannot do one more cold shower. I need help." She asked questions and was applauded that I had gone this long and hadn't come to her sooner. Well, she asked what time I was going to leave for home and that she and the electrician would go with me. They did and a half hour later I had hot water! While they were there I showed them the freezer door that wouldn't close and the freezer drawers (the freezer consists of 4 drawers) that were frozen shut with a block of ice holding them all in place. Well, they pulled the refrigerator/freezer away from the wall, shut it off, and started pouring hot water over the ice. Most of the stuff had melted when they said the rest would melt into a drawer so I wouldn't have much to clean up. They wanted to make sure I was able to put the drawers in and out at the necessary angle to catch the sliders and then left me with a firm warning that this had occurred because the freezer door was not shut all the way and to be sure I closed it all the way after the rest of the ice had melted.
Two hours later I finished cleaning up the water, and re-plugged in the refrigerator only to hear a horrible beeping noise. I did my best to close the freezer door; it simply would not close completely. So, I unplugged the refrigerator simply to stop the noise and on Friday I went back to the same secretary and told her what happened. Long story short, I had to wait in my apartment today until the electrician came to fix the problem. I was grateful he didn't come in the morning when I had my readings, however, I had wanted to explore today and couldn't leave, as he didn't show until 5 p.m. But, I have a freezer whose door now closes.
Friday after work we were treated by the administration to Champions bar at the local Marriott hotel with a buffet dinner of the Chinese version of hamburgers, hot dogs and all the trimmings. The hamburgers were 1.5 inches in diameter and the hot dogs the length of my middle finger. The best part though were the six large television screens showing different Olympic events. Wow, my first glimpse. Have heard many stories from teachers who have gone to some of the events, but I got to watch some. Shanghai is gearing up to be the host to the 2010 World's Fair and has such, the Olympic competitions that this city is hosting are considered warm ups for a larger crowd in the future. One of the teachers who went to a recent game and has lived here for 7 years mentioned that they took the subway to the games and were the only foreigners on the subway car. People got up to offer their seats to them. They laughed as she said, that never really happens and the people were asked to be extra polite to all foreigners at this time.
The taxi driver got lost taking me home from the Marriott, which was to my advantage as he accidentally showed me a really cool area that isn't that far from me. Am excited to go exploring in that direction tomorrow. Other great news is that my daughter is coming to see me for Winter break and we can go exploring together. Yahoo. : )
Students start Monday. Yesterday was Open House for all new students. I saw so many families! Think each and every new student showed up with siblings and parents. All wanted answers on how challenging I was going to make the class. Was I going to give enough homework? Was the classroom set up in a way that their child could succeed? Forgot what it was like to have truly interested parents in the classroom. Back to School night on Sept. 9th ought to be really interesting. Am nervous about my IB class, but I guess we'll just have to see what happens.
Oh, four years ago when I was at the Shanghai zoo I was amazed that people just dropped their trash everywhere and we were walking on nasty stuff. There were people hired to just sweep continually a small section of the sidewalk and put the trash in containers. Was amazed that no one used the trashcans even though they were right there. Not the case anymore... neat as a pin. Just amazing and no one is hired to sweep up after others.
Did you know that if you are one in a million in China there are 1300 people just like you? Will leave you with that though. Have a great weekend.
