Getting my medical

So we had to go in to get medically cleared in order to get our visas extended. It's something that everybody has to do, and people talked it up to being a real annoying experience. Anyways, we finally find this place and stand in line for a long time, then are told to go upstairs for several tests. One of them was a blood and urine test, and as we're standing in line for the walk up blood test, there's another American guy we see turning in his small cup at the other end of the counter, while holding a cotton ball against his skin with blood dripping down his arm. He's laughing his ass off while Pat and I are standing there laughing with him at the absurdity of this situation. Anyways, we basically just laugh our way through this whole ridiculous process, which included getting an ultrasound for whatever reason, and got medically cleared.

Observation:
Pat and I were stuck in traffic trying to get to work today at around 3:30 in the afternoon. In the taxi in front of us, a man sticks his head out and starts violently puking out of the window, then takes a look back at our cab, and settles back in as the taxi pulls away

Moved in

So we finally moved into our apartment, which is awesome. It's in a brand new complex so there's lots of construction going on in the buildings around us, but we're excited to have finally gotten settled. We also got the internet set up this morning, which took forever because the guy didn't speak a word of english and couldn't understand our computers. Whatever though, the place is great and in an awesome location, across the street from several of our favorite restaurants that we've found here, as well as walking distance from a great bar and a 24 hour mcdonalds. It feels great to have finally moved in, no longer living out of our bags.

Work is going well, we are just getting our new schedule with all of the classes we'll be starting. Yesterday after a staff meeting we all went out to dinner and then went bowling, which was pretty hilarious and a great time. The people we work with are from all over the world and are very fun people, all very interesting.

Observation:
Chinese couple sitting on a bench with a fresh bag of grapes. Man holds up grapes next to face and poses for a close up picture. Then switches hands for another closeup with the grapes. Then puts the grapes back into the bag on the bench, and women snaps a few more shots. They were having the time of their lives

settling in

So I haven't written a post in over a week now. The Chinese government really puts in a lot of effort in blocking blog websites, probably because they are very dangerous, right? Anyways, we've started actually teaching, as well as still observing some classes. So far they have all been good, none of the kids have really acted out, they find absolutely anything we do to be hilarious, and they go crazy for the games we play. Overall it's not that difficult and it's fun. Everyone we work with is pretty cool also which makes it much easier. Our biggest work days are on Saturdays and Sundays though which is kind of miserable, but then again that's pretty much everyone here's biggest workdays so it works out just fine.

On another note, Pat and I found an apartment in a pretty great location. Brand new building in a nice complex, with a garden and streams running through it. The landlord had to furnish the place so we can't move in until sunday or maybe monday, we'll see. There is also a McDonalds open 24 hours that's about 2 blocks away, which I find to be absolutely incredible, adding priceless value to our apartment.

Anyways, I'll try to update this more frequently, it is kind of annoying to do so because it takes forever to load, but we'll see how the internet at our new place will be which should help. Oh and I've also found a website that streams live sports, which is huge because missing the football season is one of the hardest parts of being here. We were able to catch the end of the Steelers-Titans game which was awesome, in case you missed it

Alright so since there have been issues taking out enough money in a single day, we had to hold out on moving into our apartment because they ask for like 5 months rent in advance, which makes a lot of sense. On the day we finally had this, we were told that they had given our apartment to someone else, so here we are again, still stuck squatting at Ross and Greg's place. Today I think we're going to be shown a few apartments, so hopefully we'll be moved out, I'm starting to feel bad about holing up here. We've gone out two nights here in Hangzhou, and for the most part the bars that the expats and teachers hang out in are pretty legit, and the beer is usually around 2 or 3 dollars. Last night we went into a Chinese rock and roll bar, and this foursome was bellowing out John Bon Jovi's "It's my Life" to great cheers from the crowd, which I found to be absolutely hilarious. One downside is the fact that a very large mouse ran over my foot at the first bar we went into, which made me want to cut my foot off or dip it in bleach. We start teaching today which should be very interesting because we kind of have no idea what we're going to be doing. A couple of the other teachers at our school had visa issues and have to go home to fix them, so they're throwing us right in to substitute. For those that remember my job as a camp counselor at Happiness Is... for the Winnetka park district, I think my skills with children speak for themself, so I'm not that worried about it

My First Post

Alright so here's the blog that I promised I would write when I got to China. I know it's been a week but things have been pretty hectic since we got here, and we're only now kind of settling in. Pat and I got to Shanghai on the same flight and made it to our buddy's apartment with no hassle. James, who has basically set us up with everything here, was more than welcome and showed us around the city for a few days. Shanghai is pretty ridiculous, like unbelievably large and smoggy, with stuff going on 24 hours a day. The first thing we did was treat ourselves to some foot massages, which felt incredible after the long commute. James showed us more of the city and some of the bars and clubs over the next couple days, which were all great. The food is really good also, there are tons of little vendors on the streets where you can get skewers with chicken, beef, vegetables and spices, all of which are good. One thing I have noticed is that almost no one speaks English, and the people that do speak English don't speak Chinese. Luckily James had somewhat of a grasp on it, so that definitely helped. The buildings in Shanghai seem to go on forever, a lot of the sky scrapers are really impressive. The TV tower, which has become an easily recognizable symbol of the Shanghai skyline, is right in the heart of the business district which is very cool. It kind of looks like a spaceship.

Anyways, after a few days in Shanghai we were ready to move on and head to Hangzhou, which was about an hour and twenty minute train ride south. A friend of James, a very good looking Chinese girl names Julia, picked us up in her huge BMW at the train station, and took us to the apartment complex we plan on living at. We're still working out some of the details on that, and currently we're staying at another friend of James. Hopefully we'll have the apartment worked out soon. The place is really nice, like very modern looking and in a great location in the city.

We went into BEAR, the school we'll be working at, yesterday, to meet some of the staff and get a little tour. Dace, who runs the foreign teachers department, showed us around and gave us our contracts. There is still a bunch of little things we need to do before we're completely settled in, but hopefully that won't take much longer. Getting anything done is very difficult, like getting passport pictures. We finally found the place to get those done and went in and took our pictures, and tried to tell them we needed 16 each. We tried to show with our hands what a headshot would look like, outlining our heads with our hands Dace told us it would be the equivalent of about 4 dollars, so when they told us we needed to pay about 100 dollars, we knew something was lost in translation. What we realized was that they were about to make 16 huge prints of pictures of our faces, which would obviously not work for us.

Anyways, we're working out the kinks and settling in. This city is awesome so far, and we really haven't seen much of it at all. We've got a lot of things we need to do, and its nice that we finally met up with our buddy Ned, who we went to Miami with and has been living here for the past year. Hopefully he'll be able to show us around today and get it done.

Sorry this is a long one, but figured I'd try to get a bunch down because I don't know how often I'm going to be able to update this thing. I hope everyone at home is doing well, wish me luck out here. This place really is like another planet