Teenagers will be ... well, teenagers

Jason and I are rapidly approaching our summer break (officially: 7 days and 14 hours until we depart our house for our journey back to the U.S.) and during the past few weeks, our students have been letting us know in not so subtle ways that they too are ready for a break.

Two weeks ago, an actual physical fight broke out between two of our 15 year old students (a boy and a girl). Posessions were broken and the boy ended up with at least 20 scratches on his arms. Lovely.

Last week, Jason notices that our 17 year old student needs to spray cologne before allowing Jason to enter his room. Just a little suspicious. Next morning, we do a thorough room check and find cigar trimmings in the trash and a full can of beer in the drawer. The student's father flies into town to have a "chat" with him the next day. The very next night, the student is supposed to be sleeping at a friends house, but is instead picked up from a bar on suspicion of using drugs -- not too bright since we're in CHINA where this is grounds for deportation or worse!

And finally this past Monday I simply remind our set twins of a dorm rule they failed to follow and they've basically not talked to me since...

So, we've been busy playing peacemaker and investigator and fighting off colds which hasn't left much time for fun exploration.  But, I do have two fun pictures scenes to share of Shanghai life...

We know when we see fruit being pulled around the city in carts like these that they are officially "in season."  Yum, it's cherry season.

We stumbled across this row of bird cages when walking through Old Shanghai and it just struck me as beautiful.  The people of Shanghai love their birds so much, they bring the cages to the parks in the morning so that the birds can socialize with each other (& so can the owners).