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Post by stringypoo on Jul 6, 2022 23:48:18 GMT -5
I’m slaying this thread lately! Lol!
I guess this is an exciting time for me because I’m finally going through a meaningful transition with my finishing work in Kunshan and soon starting at the other school in Shanghai. But things got interesting, as the school I just finished at wish to still have me represent them as an ex-music teacher it seems. They asked if I would do an online interview with a famous piano professor from the Royal Academy of Music next month. I had mixed feelings about it but as an individual who also had multiple experiences with higher levels of professionalism in the field of classical music performance, I found it hard to turn down a chance to interview such a figure. I hope this isn’t part of some tricky scheme to get me in trouble with my new school, although I don’t really see how it would work if so. Anyway, this should be interesting.
Magic the Gathering starts a new set in less than 10 hours, and I can’t wait! Nerd mode engaging!
Triangle Strategy is a damn fine game! The plot is really good, and the decisions I made yesterday felt super heavy and gave me a feeling of guilt and challenged my own convictions. That’s powerful for a game to trigger that. Really cool!
Shanghai life is a continuously twisting and turning storyline. One day we’re totally fine. Next day, there are Covid cases in bizarre places. It puts a damper on the life sometimes, but since I’m generally fine with just being home with my family, it doesn’t bother me much. Hope everyone else here is doing well!
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Post by windsofdismay on Aug 7, 2022 20:48:15 GMT -5
Haha sorry guys!! Haven't forgotten about you it's just ~covid depression~ also I'm 23 now and nobody likes ya when you're 23 That’s when you tell ‘em to go fuck themselves and you gonna have a fucking glorious 23. ok i'm sorry it's been ages again man idk it's been pretty true so far, especially the cops and my (now former) work don't like me this year! hope y'all are feeling gooooood though <3
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Post by stringypoo on Aug 8, 2022 0:32:28 GMT -5
That’s when you tell ‘em to go fuck themselves and you gonna have a fucking glorious 23. ok i'm sorry it's been ages again man idk it's been pretty true so far, especially the cops and my (now former) work don't like me this year! hope y'all are feeling gooooood though <3 Whoa! Great to see you again! Come by more often~ Hoping things get better soon!
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Post by windsofdismay on Aug 8, 2022 13:36:14 GMT -5
ok i'm sorry it's been ages again man idk it's been pretty true so far, especially the cops and my (now former) work don't like me this year! hope y'all are feeling gooooood though <3 Whoa! Great to see you again! Come by more often~ Hoping things get better soon! I will try!! heard about the recent-ish Shanghai lockdowns and thought of you, were you and the fam affected? hope not too greatly. there was some scary stories coming out of the area x
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Post by stringypoo on Aug 8, 2022 18:05:26 GMT -5
Whoa! Great to see you again! Come by more often~ Hoping things get better soon! I will try!! heard about the recent-ish Shanghai lockdowns and thought of you, were you and the fam affected? hope not too greatly. there was some scary stories coming out of the area x Oh yes, the Shanghai lockdowns, or at least the big one we had here...that one belongs in history books. I fled Shanghai the moment cases started rising, which I was able to do because back then I was still a teacher in Kunshan, a neighboring city, and the school provided me an apartment in Kunshan those 4 years I worked there. But the rest of the family didn’t come too, so it became 4 months of me being stuck in Kunshan before I could see my family again. I finished out my school year contract and then waited until the last day of my school apartment lease to take the chance getting back to Shanghai. Even in Kunshan I was locked down a good 7 or 8 weeks, but Shanghai was locked down a bit longer. And as a result, school in Kunshan stayed online and I had to teach online for a grade total of 14 weeks. Gross. People of Shanghai had it bad. Food shortages, illegal rising of prices on necessities, frequent inability to manage to buy any groceries. I mean, think about it: 26 million people live in Shanghai. You’re competing with that many people for groceries when you open your phone and try ordering groceries to be delivered. Often you would build a shopping cart and tap the purchase button hundreds of times before your order goes through, and then when your order is delivered to your apartment, you only get one item from the list of things you thought you ordered, because the supplies are so depleted. A great many people in Shanghai were traumatized by the situation, and even though we have finally gone past those struggles, many people still have high anxiety that it will occur again. At the same time, various people say it will never happen again because Shanghai took such a massive economical hit that it will never truly recover and therefore cannot afford to have that happen again. I guess time will tell. Shanghai is an incredible city. It was heartbreaking for me to see daily videos of upset locals fighting with medical staff daily. Seeing people who volunteered as Covid testers wearing the hazmat suits being frustrated by the situation every day and sometimes even seeing them lose their patience and fighting back. It was a civil war in some ways. Rioting on the streets as well as in the homes of those who refused to get tested although they were required. But anyway, enough rambling. I got through it fine and am not damaged from that experience. I just missed 4 months of family time, that’s all. My boy turned 3 while I was away. That was the hardest moment. But I was home a week later.
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Post by stringypoo on Aug 13, 2022 8:34:19 GMT -5
Been quite a week for me. I started my new school job at one of the oldest international schools in Shanghai. No students yet, just a week of new teachers orientation meetings so far. Students start August 22nd. Because of the lockdown in Shanghai, more teachers left this school at the end of last semester than ever in the history of the school, so I’m one of 25 new teachers as opposed as the usual 4 or 5.
What’s crazy though is how much this school likes to spoil its teachers. They’ve got money and they’re not afraid to show us, it seems. They apparently have deep ties within the Shanghai community, as they were able to book us into paid dinners all last week at extremely high class venues and restaurants. We ate at this secluded spot behind a gate which led to the most beautiful greenery I’ve seen my whole time in China, a restaurant deep within that is famous as a spot where world diplomats frequently meet for high class dinners. No idea what the cost was per person, but we filled that place up and ate and drank really expensive stuff. It was pretty sweet! Coming up soon is a brunch buffet that the school is paying for again, but also this time they’ll pay for your spouse as well! Bringing the wife. Each person is a little over $100 US. I’ve never been spoiled by a school like this before. It’s a strange feeling.
At the same time, I absolutely love the school culture. They’re a very tight community and also a very progressive one. Our principal talked about her removal of the word “girls’” from the student handbook when addressing appropriate length of skirts because some boys identify as girls and all that. She said she actually had a parent last year complain to her that they saw a boy in the school wearing a skirt. Our principal responded “yes, you did. And what any student wears is none of your business. The mind and body are separate entities and what any members of our community feel they identify as is their business, and not your place to judge.” We all just clapped after her heated memory of that response. Haha
Glad to be a part of a school teaching team with a deep history in Shanghai and a progressive mindset. The spoiling is nice too. Lol!
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Post by stringypoo on Oct 5, 2022 7:00:34 GMT -5
Today I enjoyed a new exploration which I had only heard about for a few years while living here in Shanghai. The place is called Cages. It was always described to me as a sports bar at which you can play baseball via the batting cages, shoot some hoops, and take part in other sports activities.
Well, it sounded like a bizarre fantasy land to me but I went and everything I was told was true! Plus, it was nice being able to enjoy some quality craft Goose Island IPAs among others. Coming to China didn’t have to mean the sacrifice of so many things that made me who I was. It just took time to find the exciting things I missed. And in the case of Cages, here’s something more that I never expected. This is cool!
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Post by v9733xa on Oct 9, 2022 18:35:31 GMT -5
I might be absent a little while after I get my bearings straight following my gallbladder surgery. I'm having it removed Tuesday morning and my Dad will be here tomorrow to hang around with me for a couple weeks. So on one hand it'll be nice being off from work, but I'll be laid up a while recovering so it's not like I have a vacation or anything.
At least Dad and I will have Phillies playoff baseball to watch, so that's exciting!
So, if I'm not on tomorrow, maybe I will be, I'll see you all in a little bit.
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Post by stringypoo on Oct 9, 2022 23:18:34 GMT -5
I might be absent a little while after I get my bearings straight following my gallbladder surgery. I'm having it removed Tuesday morning and my Dad will be here tomorrow to hang around with me for a couple weeks. So on one hand it'll be nice being off from work, but I'll be laid up a while recovering so it's not like I have a vacation or anything. At least Dad and I will have Phillies playoff baseball to watch, so that's exciting! So, if I'm not on tomorrow, maybe I will be, I'll see you all in a little bit. Hey, doesn't sound like a bad scenario. Family catchup time and sports sounds good to me. Hope the recovery is smooth.
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Post by The Matt Reptar on Oct 10, 2022 7:02:04 GMT -5
I might be absent a little while after I get my bearings straight following my gallbladder surgery. I'm having it removed Tuesday morning and my Dad will be here tomorrow to hang around with me for a couple weeks. So on one hand it'll be nice being off from work, but I'll be laid up a while recovering so it's not like I have a vacation or anything. At least Dad and I will have Phillies playoff baseball to watch, so that's exciting! So, if I'm not on tomorrow, maybe I will be, I'll see you all in a little bit. I had my gallbladder removed in 2015 due to a liver disease I have called PSC (Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis). Also had part of a bile duct cut out due to a blockage and reattached. Was in the hospital for about a week after and was back at work in 3 weeks. I was up and walking around after that first week. You won't be bedridden the whole time. If your just having your gallbladder removed, then you'll probably have a quicker recovery time than I did. Either way, good luck. Honestly, watching your Phillies get rocked by the Braves this week might be more painful than the surgery.
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Post by v9733xa on Oct 12, 2022 17:53:12 GMT -5
Hi! I'm here! I survived and Dad said I'm recovering speedily. Thanks a lot for your well wishes. Still very very tired and man my belly hurts from this incisions, but I'm doing okay.
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Post by tao on Oct 12, 2022 19:00:53 GMT -5
Happy to hear, v9733xa! Just keep relaxing and get better soon!
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Post by stringypoo on Dec 10, 2022 7:28:05 GMT -5
Well, things are getting interesting here in China. Rather quickly, attitudes towards the virus are shifting, and with it I found myself stumbling across sights today that gave me lots of feelings. I got a very dark mood while approaching Tim Horton’s for my weekly Saturday morning coffee fix as the plaza which had been guarded heavily and surrounded by metal barricades to prevent undetected entry for several months was being removed. The messages from medical experts and government show clear that they now identify the virus as having weakened a bit, and now it is time to face a new stage in living with this virus in which we are told we are likely going to get it during these next 3 to 4 months. But I suspect it won’t be the end of the pandemic 4 months later. I am unclear if their perspective is that it’s not deadly enough to worry anymore or if they even think after 4 months we will be rid of it. Probably not the latter notion.
But perhaps this is in response to overwhelming desires by the people for change in how things are running with the virus here. People are tired of being locked down so easily and quarantined by close contact situations and more.
I don’t know...maybe I’m just different...but now I worry more quite suddenly since today. And this weekend two of the teachers I work closely with tested positive for Covid. And instead of reacting in fear and seeing that the school will go virtual, the school is now responding differently, as in teachers who test positive will be staying home and classes with positive cases will stay home while other classes continue to go to school. All the other foreign teachers I work with seem to be overjoyed by the sudden change, as they longed for life to open up more like back home. But in my mind, why wish for the foreign country you currently live in to be the same as your home country? China is China. It shouldn’t become a copy of home just because we live here. But aside from that personal thought or judgment on others I work with, I guess I realized very quickly today that I have different values. I’d rather give up social freedoms than lose protection. So for me, now I feel I’m entering a scary time period.
Cases are ramping up quickly now. And hospital directors seem to be encouraging constant washing of hands and wearing the best masks (N95), but also suggesting we will all be infected at some point these next few months, and that the goal is to try not to all get infected at the same time. Well... I just hope everyone knows what they’re doing...that’s all...
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Post by v9733xa on Dec 10, 2022 12:16:48 GMT -5
Well, things are getting interesting here in China. Rather quickly, attitudes towards the virus are shifting, and with it I found myself stumbling across sights today that gave me lots of feelings. I got a very dark mood while approaching Tim Horton’s for my weekly Saturday morning coffee fix as the plaza which had been guarded heavily and surrounded by metal barricades to prevent undetected entry for several months was being removed. The messages from medical experts and government show clear that they now identify the virus as having weakened a bit, and now it is time to face a new stage in living with this virus in which we are told we are likely going to get it during these next 3 to 4 months. But I suspect it won’t be the end of the pandemic 4 months later. I am unclear if their perspective is that it’s not deadly enough to worry anymore or if they even think after 4 months we will be rid of it. Probably not the latter notion. But perhaps this is in response to overwhelming desires by the people for change in how things are running with the virus here. People are tired of being locked down so easily and quarantined by close contact situations and more. I don’t know...maybe I’m just different...but now I worry more quite suddenly since today. And this weekend two of the teachers I work closely with tested positive for Covid. And instead of reacting in fear and seeing that the school will go virtual, the school is now responding differently, as in teachers who test positive will be staying home and classes with positive cases will stay home while other classes continue to go to school. All the other foreign teachers I work with seem to be overjoyed by the sudden change, as they longed for life to open up more like back home. But in my mind, why wish for the foreign country you currently live in to be the same as your home country? China is China. It shouldn’t become a copy of home just because we live here. But aside from that personal thought or judgment on others I work with, I guess I realized very quickly today that I have different values. I’d rather give up social freedoms than lose protection. So for me, now I feel I’m entering a scary time period. Cases are ramping up quickly now. And hospital directors seem to be encouraging constant washing of hands and wearing the best masks (N95), but also suggesting we will all be infected at some point these next few months, and that the goal is to try not to all get infected at the same time. Well... I just hope everyone knows what they’re doing...that’s all... Welcome to reality. This is what the rest of the world has decided as the recent variants are far less deadly. The problem is that the vaccine most people received in China is of poor quality, and not enough of them got better boosters after those initial doses. This is just what we're going to have to accept at this point, I'm afraid.
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Post by stringypoo on Dec 10, 2022 18:15:24 GMT -5
Well, things are getting interesting here in China. Rather quickly, attitudes towards the virus are shifting, and with it I found myself stumbling across sights today that gave me lots of feelings. I got a very dark mood while approaching Tim Horton’s for my weekly Saturday morning coffee fix as the plaza which had been guarded heavily and surrounded by metal barricades to prevent undetected entry for several months was being removed. The messages from medical experts and government show clear that they now identify the virus as having weakened a bit, and now it is time to face a new stage in living with this virus in which we are told we are likely going to get it during these next 3 to 4 months. But I suspect it won’t be the end of the pandemic 4 months later. I am unclear if their perspective is that it’s not deadly enough to worry anymore or if they even think after 4 months we will be rid of it. Probably not the latter notion. But perhaps this is in response to overwhelming desires by the people for change in how things are running with the virus here. People are tired of being locked down so easily and quarantined by close contact situations and more. I don’t know...maybe I’m just different...but now I worry more quite suddenly since today. And this weekend two of the teachers I work closely with tested positive for Covid. And instead of reacting in fear and seeing that the school will go virtual, the school is now responding differently, as in teachers who test positive will be staying home and classes with positive cases will stay home while other classes continue to go to school. All the other foreign teachers I work with seem to be overjoyed by the sudden change, as they longed for life to open up more like back home. But in my mind, why wish for the foreign country you currently live in to be the same as your home country? China is China. It shouldn’t become a copy of home just because we live here. But aside from that personal thought or judgment on others I work with, I guess I realized very quickly today that I have different values. I’d rather give up social freedoms than lose protection. So for me, now I feel I’m entering a scary time period. Cases are ramping up quickly now. And hospital directors seem to be encouraging constant washing of hands and wearing the best masks (N95), but also suggesting we will all be infected at some point these next few months, and that the goal is to try not to all get infected at the same time. Well... I just hope everyone knows what they’re doing...that’s all... Welcome to reality. This is what the rest of the world has decided as the recent variants are far less deadly. The problem is that the vaccine most people received in China is of poor quality, and not enough of them got better boosters after those initial doses. This is just what we're going to have to accept at this point, I'm afraid. Yeah, we were told the strength of the vaccines here is weaker but also have less potential side effects and whatnot. Who knows? But unfortunately I never found time in my crazy schedule to get the boosters. I’ve had two vaccinations here in Shanghai, the second one about a year ago, so I don’t feel like I’m very well protected at this point. It’s also challenging to find the right place to do vaccines sometimes when you’re a foreigner. Been a long while since I looked into it now with how busy my new school is, but I’d really like to know what options are out there during this upcoming winter break. As a music teacher, I’m in the special subjects department at my school, and the 5 of us (music, PE, and art) frequently eat together and talk each day. Two out of the five of us have been positive with the virus since Friday. I was really relieved last night to get my negative test result.
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