Finding New Life

One of the bonuses to living in a place that feels bitterly cold for several months each year is how absolutely wonderful it is when Spring begins to arrive!  Ahhh!  I love it!  The contrast of the bright, new flowers to the ugly, dead, grey landscape is so cool!  Watching what appeared dead come to life so brilliantly is really inspiring.

We've needed some inspiration this week ... our most challenging student decided to sneak out of the dorm on Saturday night.  Luckily, we found out and we were able to get him back without too much hassle; but this week there has been a lot of back and forth with him, his parents and the co-principals at our school trying to find a reasonable consquence/solution.  He's two months from graduation, so wasn't really a smart move on his part.  I struggle the most with the fact that he left two doors unlocked in the middle of the night, endangering the safety of everyone else at the dorm.  I don't trust this person and I cannot resolve the fact I am responsible for the other children at the dorm while this person who cares nothing about them may be able to continue to live here and put them at risk...

And so, I am happy to find something beautiful to gaze upon.

  

The pride of a parent

Last night, Jason and I got to go to our school's "Battle of the Bands" competition.  We were really excited to be able to go out at night, but mostly because one of our dorm students was entered in the competition.  It turned out to be an awesome event -- there are so many talented (& very brave) students at our school.  There were bands from each grade level, from 6th all the way up to 12th.  (And, the majority of the songs were ones I actually knew/liked so I didn't feel completely OLD)  Really cool! 

For the past year and a half I've been able to go to speech competitions, Christmas musicals & sports events to support our students and I've been amazed at the burst of pride I feel while watching them perform/compete. 

Our student, Frank, plays guitar and this was my first time to get to hear him play.  I have to say, his band totally rocked!  At the end of the night though, they did not walk away with the 'best band' award and I found myself genuinely surprised because I really felt like they'd been the best ... and then I had to wonder if this was a common syndrome with parents, always thinking their kid is the best???

A "special" treat

Jason & I have been fighting nasty coughs for the past week and spent most of our time indoors hacking our lungs out (and feeling super grateful for jobs that allow/require us to stay at home). 

The dormitory ayi (means "maid" and also "auntie" -- not sure on the correlation there) has been really sweet and excitedly shared a special treat with us on Thursday in celebration of the last day of the Chinese Spring Festival which began on Chinese New Year.

Seeing the coloring, we both assumed that these little globules were filled with red bean paste (which is pretty decent tasting).  Jason popped one into his mouth and was completely surprised by what was inside instead!

What was actually inside was a sweet, black, grainy mixture that we had never tasted before.  Having dissected one, I tried a whole one and it wasn't too bad, just really different than we'd expected.  I described this to one of our students who thought it was sesame ... don't be too jealous ;-)

On a more fun note, Olivia (my friend Natalie's baby) turned one month old this week and is already rocking a very cute style!

The Last Hurrah!

We took our kids on our final dorm outing this weekend.  Feeling a bit worn down from things over the past few weeks, it was a stretch for us to really feel motivated to want to do something nice.  But, we rallied and were able to have a nice evening together; stopping at the lovely Lost Heaven for dinner and then on to a very, very large video arcade where they ran around for two hours shooting things, driving race cars and being kids.  Only one of the nine kids we took out will be returning to stay at the dorm next year, so it was fun to have a farewell party.

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).

Are we having fun yet?

Our monthly dorm outing this month was to Happy Valley Amusement Park about an hour away from our house.  Taking 11 teenagers to a place like this was a lot of fun, but it was also exhausting!

To add to the adventure of the day, we used public transportation to get there and back instead of a school bus.  Many of our students have never taken a public bus or the subway here in Shanghai -- even though they've lived here longer than us and also speak Mandarin! 

Look what we found in the trash this morning!

Jason was throwing out something in the living room trash this morning and noticed one of these casually laying in the bin ... a quick check of bedroom trash bins resulted in two more in two separate rooms!  Although I doubt there is any legal drinking age limit here, it is strictly prohibited at the school & in the dorm.  Knowing our students, I found it really hard to believe that any of them would be this brazen or this naive...

After a quick interrogation (kidding) tonight, we did find out that a student brought empty bottles to the dorm to use as water bottles.  Hmmm.  A bit odd?.  Another student admitted that he had drank a tiny bit, but didn't think it was a big deal since it had such low alcohol content.  Unfortunately for both students, it is a big deal for the school - the principal & parents will be notified.  Just the fun of our evening :)

It's What's for Dinner

Every weekend, we are extremely blessed to have a cook come to the house to cook for the students and us.  Having household "staff" is still a very weird feeling for both of us, but we aren't complaining (at all)!!   

I do find myself a bit startled on occassion by the smells and sounds that are emitted from the dorm kitchen when the cook is here.  I am especially astonished by what I will see sitting around in giant bowls and pans waiting to be cooked up.  This is what was on the menu last Saturday...

Anyone interested in joining us next weekend???

In all fairness, these foods that look so strange to me are usually cooked up into a dish that is surprisingly tasty.

Back to "normal"

It's always surprising to me how quickly a new place can become a home. Often I don't realize it is home to me until I've left and I find myself missing those things which have become "normal." Last year, normal was traipsing around in the jungle, living in a tent cabin, boiling drinking water over an open fire, living alone at the edge of the world with only the sounds of nature. This year normal is living with 10 kids in a 3-story house, having a full-time maid & weekend cook while living in the midst of 15 million other people and the incessant clanging of man-made noise. It is a good to be home and back to normal :)

A picture of our family on a bowling outing together & then one of my favorite canals near our house ...

Sport Day

Last week, our students had a day off from classes and got to compete in all kinds fun activities instead. They'd asked us several times if we were going to come watch, so we headed over to school and enjoyed cheering them through sack races, tug-of-war and a few games we'd never seen before.

Jaruwat showing off his team spirit! (yes, that's red hairspray paint in his hair!)

Resident Artist

The school's art department does a fashion show each year and this year the students are supposed to use recyclable materials. Our dorm student, Jaruwat, is designing an entire outfit out of cardboard juice & milk boxes. He brought home part of his masterpiece last weekend ... I was pretty impressed! He's now working on pants or a skirt, plus a hat and a logo and just found out that he will be on the cover of the school's art publication which is something he'd really been hoping for. Props to Jaruwat for his creativity & hard work!

A Date with Eight

On Saturday night, we had our first monthly weekend outing with our kids. They'd chosen to go go-karting (spelled with a "k" here) and out to dinner afterwards. What could be a typical American date-night. Although, most people don't take 6 teenagers with them on their dates! We only had 6 out of our 9 students which was really nice for our first activity with them. Everything went really well ... with the exception of one of our students ordering an alcoholic beverage to drink with dinner and then later trying to set her entire napkin on fire at the table!


Our chariot awaits (how many people get to go to date night in a school bus?):

Nuttanicha (from Thailand) and Michelle (from Italy)

Coco (from Hong Kong) and Jaruwat (from Thailand)

Ready to drive!

Nuttanicha, Michelle, Nuttanutcha (twin sister of Nuttanicha, from Thailand), Jaruwat & Jeff (from Hong Kong)

Students chose to eat at Element Fresh which Jaruwat had been talking about basically since the first week (he loves it!). It was in fact quite delicious!

A little carousing before hopping back onto the school bus and heading home ...