Found myself a Rubik's Cube!

I went out today in search of a new Rubik's Cube.... and I found one! Yayyyy!

I still remember having one when I was a kid and tried to learn how to solve it and ended up peeling off the stickers and replacing them... and that was the last time I ever played with one. 

I didn't start playing with one again until almost 2 years ago when I started my internship at Centre High. My mentor teacher would have one on his desk and he would play with it here and there outside of class. He once passed it to me and asked me to finish solving it for him and I couldn't figure it out. It intrigued me enough to go out and buy one the following so I can learn the tricks to solving it. After a week or so I slowly figured out the algorithm to it and since then, I can solve it from scratch! I use the amount of time to solve it as a timer in class, and students would often want to solve it too. 

Solving a Rubik's cube has allowed me to learn how to be patient, how there can be multiple solutions to solve problems and how to relief stress... and so much more!

Anyways, I went out to a couple shopping centers today to browse around but since I'm not a huge fan of shopping and the headache was still around, I went back to the hotel pretty quickly. (I know, call me boring...) But I spent some quality time reflecting and spending time with the Big G, oh, and I'm almost done reading Crazy Love!! (Yes, my friends... even though I hate reading, I do read)

Well, stay tuned for week 2 of training!! :D

An Introverted Day...

It's finally the weekend and I am sure many would take the advantage of no classes and go out to travel and browse around the city of Shanghai. I woke up with a huge headache this morning and I knew rest was needed, so I decide to take it easy. I didn't do much today and lived a life of a bum -- slept in, went out to get groceries, watched some TV, napped and grabbed food.

For those who know me well, I like to be with people and enjoy spending time with people all the time, but I can also get pretty introverted and "hate" people at times (pretty ironic, right?). It was real nice to spend time all by myself and of course with the Big G today.

Week 1 of training completed

Can't believe week 1 of the teacher training is over already, it's been such a huge learning curve for me since Mandarin isn't my mother tongue. I find it challenging sometimes to express my thoughts since I often have to convert it from Cantonese to Mandarin first, and other times, from English to Cantonese and then Mandarin... I know I still need more practice with speaking the language but I am working extra hard to become better at it. This week has drawn and inspired me in wanting to teach Chinese when I go back to Edmonton, or even getting a degree/diploma overseas in teaching Chinese. (More on this later)

We got to do more 中國結 today, and as you can tell from the picture below, I am slowly mastering it :)) One interesting fact that I learned about 中國結 is that every knot that we make is based on one string, therefore it can be easily adjusted and fixed - neat!!

How spicy can I eat?

That's right - I can eat that spicy!! I normally eat spicy food already, but being in Shanghai and being with people who can eat really spicy, my spice tolerance has also increased significantly. And no, I haven't had any stomach problems yet, thank you very much.

Today for or cultural lesson, we learned how to 剪紙. It looks very simple since all you have to do is cut out patterns (like how we cut out snowflakes when we were kids), but to make crazy patterns, it takes a lot of time, patience and practice. I am not overly talented, but at least I think I am more skilled in this than Chinese calligraphy.... well, maybe not the leaf I attempted to cut out... but I think my bok choi, lantern and butterfly went pretty well ;)

PS. This will be the last post before the weekend, since I have no Internet access at the hotel. Don't you worry, I will still blog over the weekend, it just won't be posted until I can send it out. AND a special thanks to Adoria for helping me update my blog! :)) Have a great weekend, everyone - take care! 

Raindrops from above

In case you are wondering, I am still alive from this extremely hot weather. Apparently this is the longest, hottest month recorded since almost over 130 years ago. My mother even messaged me yesterday to make sure I am taking care of myself as a couple of people died suffering from heatstroke and some still hospitalized. Don't worry lah, I know how to take care of myself! 

As I am sitting in my hotel room resting and blogging, I can hear the thunderstorm that is happening outside. Finally - a break from the heat! I am rejoicing because the temperature cooled down by a few degrees, which makes a HUGEdifference!

Today our class went on a field trip to 車敦影視基地, a place where many famous movies were produced using Old Shanghai as scenery. A pretty cool place with a lot of antiques. Here's a picture of what Shanghai in the 1940s look like, and of course, a picture of my face since you all miss me so much :))

Oh, I finally had the opportunity I meet the other Canadian who arrived yesterday! I told only a few people this, but I crept him a couple weeks ago because I wanted to see if he would arrive on the same day so we can take the taxi together... of course, that didn't happen since he had to finish up his work contract in the States. It's actually really weird speaking English with him since so many people in our class speaks another language other than English... Somehow we ended up communicating in Chinese instead.

Good Providence, PTL

I still remember telling people how nervous I was about this trip, but I can definitely tell you that the Big G is good, all the time, and He always provides. 

Maybe because I am one of the youngest in the group, I am always being taken care of. People would always share food with me, invite me to go to places with them, explain things to me, and of course, they always make sure I don't get run over by buses/cars/bikes when we cross the streets. I am beyond blessed to be in this group of awesome teachers! 

This last couple of days, I have been spending a lot of time with this Korean lady. She is the chairperson and professor for the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at DukSung Women's University. She is well experienced in teaching languages and has taught all over the places, including Hong Kong! Her Chinese is so fluent, it's wayyyy better than mine. I am slowly getting used to speak Chinese everywhere I go, I really miss speaking English though... I guess it's a good thing that I am being immersed in this language, hopefully this will continue to build my skills so I can be competent to teach Chinese upon my return.

I am also slowly getting used to this weather... except my face turns bright red every time we are outside.. and so I was forced to buy an umbrella. I have noticed a trend and it is not uncommon for girls to carry umbrellas with them ALL the time, I guess it makes sense so that their faces don't get burnt...

Oh, during our afternoon class, we did Chinese calligraphy... and I discovered that's one thing I have absolutely NO skill in. I write like a 5 year old, it's quite embarrassing. I can't help with the fact that my calligraphy is so ugly since my hand shakes every time I write with that brush... Seeeee? Meh. I will show you guys my result next time we do calligraphy. 

Good Morning, Shanghai!

Good morning, Shanghai! After a night’s rest, the first day of classes began! We are lucky enough to have a shuttle that takes us to and from the hotel and the East China Normal University (ECNU), or else the walk would have been at least half an hour from the hotel… .and in this +40 weather, I would have died very easily.

The weather is just hot – too hot for words. All you have to do is to go from indoors to outdoors and you’re absolutely done. It’s like a heat wave smacking down on you, multiple times.

I got to meet some of my classmates, a few Chinese who resides in Italy and Germany, and the others are from Korea, Russia, Ukraine as well as Spain. There is another Canadian that is coming soon as well as a few Japanese who will be joining us at a later date this week. I am overly impressed with how many foreigners who are so interested in Chinese and are willing to spread the language and culture to the people in their countries. I hope that this next four weeks will be a unique experience for me as I learn more about my own culture and language in depth with people from all over the world!

During the opening ceremony, I was the first to speak up, of course being nervous and not sure what to say, the big G provided and I managed to go through the “speech”. After I went, a couple of the teachers from my group went… the difference between us… I forgot to thank the school for giving me the opportunity to study here… oopsies. But, no big deal, I got my point through and hey, my Chinese skills ain’t that bad after all!

We got distributed student cards and I discovered the BEST thing ever – the access to Wi-Fi! It’s tough with Facebook and Twitter being blocked in China, but it’s nice to be able to talk to the people that I love. Hopefully once I start bringing my laptop to campus, I will be able to update my blog more often!

For lunch today, we went to the cafeteria nearby, reloaded our meal cards and spent time walking around campus… biggest mistake ever. After lunch, we ran back to our classroom (which is about 15-20 min away from the cafeteria) and rested in the classroom with AC. I am thankful for random AC here and there, if it wasn’t for AC, I would have died a long time ago. Yay for AC!

In the afternoon, we learned how to do Chinese knots…. Still not the best at it, picture to follow, but it’s part of Chinese art and I hope I can master it one day. For those who know me REALLY well, I am not good with crafts… I started crocheting during spring break and gave up after 5 minutes…. I persisted today and made the eye and wings for a dragonfly!

Day 1 of the training finished today, I wonder what is in store for tomorrow!