Charming Chinglish

The Weekend in Review

For any of you that may be curious what my typical Shanghai weekend looks like, here we go:

 

Friday

7pm - I arrive home from teaching a business English class at the Shanghai headquarters of an American company. I really enjoy teaching this group; they participate so actively! Tonight though, I'm frantically searching for my phone because on the metro earlier I realized I didn't have it with me and one of the pockets of my handbag is open. Did I forget it or was I pickpocketed? I finally find it under some clothes on the bed.

9:15pm - I attempt to phone for a taxi (in Chinese) and must have gotten it right somehow as a car pulls up a few minutes later and my roommate and I hop in. We're headed to Windows Too, a sportsbar by Jing'an temple, where we're meeting a few friends for a coworkers birthday celebration.

12:15am - A couple beers, a couple tequilas and a dance competition later (I wasn't involved but suffice to say that yes, my coworker whose birthday it was did do the worm on the floor of the bar) and I'm back in a taxi and on my way to Richy's, a Chinese club* nearby. We stop off for a couple of sticks of street barbequed meat and veggies along the way.

12:30am - We're denied entry to the club, more than likely because my friends are too western, too male, too noisy, and by this time just a bit argumentative, so we head across the park to the aptly named Park 97. Dancing ensues.

3:30am - My feet are so tired and I have to teach in the morning so it's time for the last taxi ride of the evening. Home. Bed.

 

Saturday

9:30am - Feet hit the floor, gotta get ready for my first student.

10am - Let the lessons begin. On Saturdays I normally have 4 individual lessons with students in my apartment. Two children, two adults. I really like all of them and enjoy the variety it adds to my week. Not to mention the extra cash. Today one has canceled so I'm finished by 3pm.

3pm - I walk my last student, a ten year old girl, out and hop on my bike. Late lunch at Amokka here I come! Yum.

3:30pm - I order a mixed greens, goat cheese and almond salad - it's my favorite salad in the city - with a small latte. I read a few articles from this month's edition of Time Out Shanghai and pencil a couple of events into my planner for the week.

4:30pm - I'm back on my bike and pedaling fast for H&M. Gotta find something to wear tonight!

5:30pm - Purchases, a dress and a sweater, tucked under my arm in a bag, I make my way back home.

6pm - Hot bath. A girl's gotta relax at some point.

6:30pm - Where did I put that red bull I bought in the family mart? I need some energy for going out tonight!

7pm - I have no clothes! I have no clothes! I decide that I hate what I bought at H&M so I put it back in the bag to return another day. Instead I cut the neck off a black turtleneck making it a scoopneck and pair it with a purple silk skirt from last year.

7:45pm - Call taxi. Where are my keys?

8pm - WHERE ARE MY KEYS? They must be hiding out somewhere with the red bull. I grab the spare key to my apartment and run out the door. I was supposed to be at the restaurant for dinner by now.

8:30pm - Taxi drops me off in the wrong spot so I have to walk part of the way. I arrive at the restaurant where we're celebrating another friend's birthday. Xinjiang food. It's my first time eating this type of cuisine but I've heard many good things so I'm excited.

*vegans skip this part*

9pm - They start bringing out the lamb dishes. There are about 20 of us so we've ordered an entire lamb. The food is amazing. Even the bread is delicious.

*vegans continue*

10pm - So full.

10:15pm - The Uyghur** music begins and I'm pulled onto the dance floor by one of the dancing waiters. Somebody should start a Uighur dance class for aerobics. This is exhausting!

12:15am - I'm getting texts from one of my girlfriends to join her at a club down the road. Everyone else is going to a house party but since the club is only a few hundred meters away, I run down the sidewalk to meet her.

12:30am - More dancing.

2:30am - Taxi home. Bed. Sleep.

 

Sunday

7:30am - Time to get up 'n' at 'em. I throw on some clothes, do a last minute review of my lesson plans and fling open the curtains. My keys!!! There they are sure enough, cuddling up to the red bull on the windowsill. I must have put both things there when I got back from shopping yesterday and then closed the curtains when it got dark. Silly me.

8:10am - I bike halfway to the children's language center where I'm teaching today and take the metro for the other half. It would be an hour away if I biked the whole thing and while I want some fresh air, I don't think I'm quite up for an hour long bike ride at this time of morning.

9am - Arrival at the school. I grab a coffee from family mart and watch as the "beauticians" in a "beauty parlor" come out for their group morning synchronized exercises. (photo). You can see all their clients who have come tumbling out after them on this Sunday morning standing in the back. One or two are pretending to join in.

9:30am - Class begins. At this particular school I do one Sunday a month of lessons with the children so that they have a native English speaker at least some of the time. The other Sundays their teachers are Chinese. My three classes today consist of 10 year olds, 5 year olds and 8 year olds. In that order. The 5 year olds are definitely the cutest little people you have ever seen in the world and the 10 year olds are pretty sharp. Lunch is the highlight of the day, when I sit and talk with the Chinese English teachers. They are all really passionate about learning English and want to improve their speaking abilities. I wish I could spend more time with them. In the afternoon the 8 year olds are completely wild. I'm tired.

3pm - Once again I'm out the door. I backtrack on the metro to find my bike.

4pm - I spend about an hour preparing some things for the week and then it's DVD time. Right now I'm on Season 5 of the Wire. A couple episodes later I stop to write some emails to people in the States, make a phone call home. Lights out. Tomorrow I'll be running around again from 7am until at least 8:30pm. It never stops.... but then I certainly wouldn't want it to!

 

*Chinese club - In Shanghai there are nightclubs that cater more to Westerners, with English speaking staff and marketing in English. Then there are clubs whose clientele is majority Chinese. This is what I mean when I say "Chinese club." In both of these types of nightclub, however, one can find a mix of Chinese and Western people.

**Uyghur - The Uyghurs are a Turkic ethnic group living in a part of southwest China called Xinjiang. In modern times, they have been marginalized by the Han (majority) Chinese in much the same way that the Tibetans have. Largely due to the fact that Uighurs are Muslim, their situation has not received the same level of international attention that the Buddhist Tibetans have. Read more here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyghur_people

Not a fun day in China

Today, April 21st, was an official day of no fun. Any venue in the city providing any sort of entertainment (movies, dancig, plays, music, etc) could be subjected to hefty fines if they provided their usual services for patrons All televion programs were cancelled and news was broadcast instead. Even the standard Chinese websites for illegal movie viewing; Tudou, Youkou, were mostly blocked and only allowed access to a select few news broadcasts. The reason for the severity? A day of government-imposed mourning for the victims of the Yushu earthquake. It's the thought that counts, right?