Week 6

Well hello again!

The time seems to be flying by. I can’t believe I’ve been here over a month and half already. Part of me feels like I’ve only been here a week or so, and another part of me feels like I’ve been here for forever because I feel so comfortable here in Shanghai. Yes, it smells bad, I get stared at all the time, and people often try to rip me off because I’m foreign, but I really love being here.

As of right now, my consistent schedule allows me to go to all three meetings of church every week, which is just awesome. Christine says it might change in about a month, but hopefully I will continue to have Sunday mornings off. So, I’ve been teaching Music this past week. It’s been going...well it’s hard to say. Some classes have been great, really successful, and everyone enjoys them. Others though, haven’t gone as well. Not horrible, they were ok, just not great. It really depends on the kids in the class, the parents, and even which level I’m teaching. Christine will be observing some of my classes this week so she can give me feedback on how to improve, so that will be good. As for Play, Christine really wants me to be trying on Lead parts in a week and be full-on leading in two. It’s sort of frustrating because I haven’t been teaching Play much at all lately as I’m busy with Music and I’ve also been busy with this Yoga Fun class (I’ll explain later). This week I will be especially busy because Leona went out of town so I’m covering almost all of her Music classes, and she teaches Music quite a bit. We will also be opening up the new Music room this weekend so I’ll have some brand new classes. It’s exciting, but stressful still. Hopefully Christine will be understanding, she usually is.

Oh, so this Yoga Fun class! We’re having some Summer Camp classes during the month of August and so we’ll be having a Yoga Fun class. Christine paired Sara and me up and also put Jessie and Sherry together to design a class format and lesson plan for the class. We worked on them for two weeks and then presented/taught the classes to the instructors and the consultants. Christine really liked ours, and parts of Jessie and Sherry’s; we got some great feedback. Apparently there are already some Yoga Fun lesson plans but Christine wanted to see our ideas before she gave them to us. So now, she wants to put me sort of in charge of combining the new ideas with the original class format and put together the Yoga Fun class for the Summer Camp. It will be fun, but I don’t have much time and am feeling overwhelmed with this, combined with pressure to be a Lead and also taking so many Music classes. I think Christine forgets I’m still pretty new and pretty young and inexperienced. Although, it’s cool to know that she trusts me enough to give me so much.

Christine is so funny; when she suggests something or has an idea, she doesn’t just say “Hey, that would be cool if you did this...” She just tells you that it’s better if you do it her way. For example, this week she turned to me and said, “Alyssa, I think it’s better if you stay one year. Six months is too short. Yeah. It’s better you stay one year.” So yeah, I’ve been discussing with her and will be discussing with Paulina about the possibility of staying a whole year. I would still want to come home for Christmas though. I would go home as if my contract were over, renew my Visa, and then go out again for another six months as if I were the new intern. Gymboree wouldn’t be paying any more money to send me home and send me back, but actually saving money because they wouldn’t have to send me to training at Home Office like they would a new intern. No details have been worked out and I haven’t even decided if I want to for sure or not, but it’s definitely a possibility. Thankfully I don’t have to decide until September, so I have time.

I got to meet my new, beautiful niece this week! Skype is a wonderful thing. I was able to meet Vanessa Nicole Escalante via video chat when she was only 3 hours old. I had to wake up at Midnight to do so, but it was so wonderful. Most of the family was at the Hospital so I got to chat with them as well so it was way fun. She is such a beautiful baby! I can’t wait to meet her in person and hold her in December! She’ll be so big by then! Skype is so great! I’ve been able to see and say hello to Grandma and Grandpa, siblings, and friends this week. My mother and I Skype pretty much every day, just so she knows I’m safe and well :)

Chris, Nate, and I went to see Transformers 3 last week. It was in English with Chinese subtitles, and in 3-D. It was pretty good; I’m a fan of Transformers. Nate bought the wrong time though so we didn’t get to go in until super late. The movie theater was in a mall so we had dinner, window shopped, and bought ice cream to kill time. That meant we didn’t get home until really late though, so I was really tired the next day. I don’t know what it is about living abroad but I hate staying up late when I’m out of the country. When I live at home, it’s hard to go to bed before midnight, but here I hate staying up past 10. It’s great actually. Oh, the mall we went to is near my apartment, just one subway stop away. IT IS HUGE! We’re talking 11 floors, and each floor is plenty big. It has everything from restaurants, to Cold stone, to Nike, and even grocery stores. I went there on my off day just to eat and look for some new pants, but I had no idea it was so big. I was there for 3 hours and didn’t see even half of the mall, it’s ridiculous.

The weather here is so funny. It has been so hot this past week, just killer. It’s been about 35 degrees which is about 95 degrees Fahrenheit, and so very humid. Sunday I was running a little late in the morning and didn’t grab my umbrella. I actually didn’t grab it on purpose because my bag on Sunday is so heavy with scriptures and books and things for work. Also, I looked out the window before I left and there were almost no clouds and it was extremely sunny and hot. When I left church and got on the subway it was also still very hot and sunny, with just a few clouds, but that’s common as we live by the sea. By the time I got off the subway near my work, it was definitely raining. There were no taxis, no umbrella stands, and I was already going to be late. It wasn’t raining too hard, so I got out my little plastic fan, covered my hair, and started running to work in my Sunday clothes. Not even half a block on my way, it started to downpour! By the time I got halfway, I literally looked as if I had jumped into a swimming pool. When I got to work I had to ring out my dress and my co-workers had to bring me towels. I had dry clothes to change into and they put my clothes in the dryer but my hair and underwear were still pretty wet. I had to teach a class at 2:00 and by the time it was over, my underwear had soaked through my uniform and I had some pretty awkward wet spots on my clothes. It was pretty embarrassing. I think the parents knew what it was though, as my hair was still very wet and they knew how hard it was raining. By the time I got off work it has stopped raining and was extremely hot again. I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to this weather.

Oh, one other fun note. Sara and I were walking home from work the other day when she wanted to stop by a little noodle stand and get a snack. Next to it were some guys with a cooler selling drinks. I wanted to buy a juice so I asked how much it cost in Chinese. He told me, and I paid him. He then tried to talk to me in Chinese but I had to tell him that I didn’t understand. Sara translated for me and he said that I had a very good Chinese accent so he thought I spoke it fluently. He also thought I was from Russia and when Sara told him I was from the states, he continued to insist I look Russian. I was very flattered that he thought my Chinese is so excellent, and I’m continuing to work hard to learn more Mandarin! It’s hard, but a way cool language. So yeah, the drink guy was very nice, but some men are not so nice. I went to buy some cherries another day and the guy totally ripped me off because I’m foreign. He was trying to take basically all the money in my wallet, about 80 RBM for a stupid bag of cherries. Thankfully Sara was there and I called her over to help me figure out what was going on. He still ended up charging me too much and I should’ve just walked away without the cherries, but I’ll be honest, they were some pretty fantastic cherries. Another benefit of possibly staying a year here in Shanghai would be that my Mandarin would get pretty good and hopefully things like that wouldn’t happen anymore.

I’m so excited to hear that Trent and Noel and family are back in the states safely! I’m excited to see them in December! I’m also excited for Mike and Jodi as they take off on their way to Connecticut today! I’ve been able to Skype with them a couple times this past week before they left, which is great because it might be a while before I see them again. I’m so excited for this new opportunity for them and I hope all goes well.
Living in China is wonderful but definitely has its challenges. I miss you all and want to thank you for your love, prayers, and support. May God be with you.

Love,
Alyssa
...or Gah Liu Liu ;)