Shanghai Museum and A Visitor

A busy week as usual at school.  On Tuesday, I went on the year 4 trip to the Shanghai Museum, which has some lovely sculptures, statues, pottery and masks from throughout Chinese history.  Some kids love it and some find it really boring!  I, of course, love museums, so i'm always happy to go, even though it's exhausting.  I still had to teach a lesson before we left and as soon as we got back, so I was very busy. Plus I then had my Archaeology club after school.  Tuesday is normally my quiet day!

Otherwise in the office, it's been business as usual.  Our wigs and crowns arrived for our costumes for the quiz that's coming up in a couple of weeks. I wanted to go for a Cher look with mine.  I'm pleased with it, although it does look exactly like my colleague's actual hair from the back! 

Anyway, we spent a fun half hour trying on all the colours.  We are going to look great for the quiz!

My friend from when I worked at the MCA in Southampton is in Shanghai for business this week, so we arranged to meet for dinner at Sichuan Citizen (of course) on Friday night, where Amy was introduced to our lovely friends and to the wonderful cocktail Basil Drops!

On Saturday, we planned a whistle-stop highlights tour of Shanghai, since it was Amy's only free day to sightsee. We really packed things in, and weren't put off by the cold and rain.

We started at Jing'an temple, with a lesson on how to use Amy's new DSLR camera.  Then we went to the fake market and some lunch, then back to Amy's hotel to drop off her many purchases...

This was followed by a walk to the Yuyuan Gardens and Bazarre...

Then onto the Bund.  Unfortunately, the sky scrapers were almost entirely covered by clouds. It was very cold by this point, so we stopped for hot chocolate and cake in Costa Coffee.  By the time we'd warmed up, the weather was starting to clear...

We decided to take the inappropriately named 'Sightseeing tunnel' under the river to the financial district.  The tunnel is all neon light and glow in the dark sharks.  I loved it! So tacky!

Then a few photos around the Pearl Tower and the skyscrapers, before heading up Jinmao Tower to the fabulous Cloud 9 bar, where we had our birthday party back in August.  The weather cleared, and we had prosecco overlooking a fantastic view of the bund.  Then Yang's Dumplings for dinner, before heading home. I was out for a good 12 hours!

I'm exhausted today!  I can't believe how much we packed in on Saturday! Amy enjoyed herself and I did too, gaining back a bit of enthusiasm for Shanghai in the Winter.  It's amazing what a difference seeing the city through a newcomer's eyes can make.

Matt had a lazy Saturday with the cats (also known as Caturday), before going out in the evening to a sports quiz in a bar with a few of his friends.  He's been very sociable this week, going for a catch up on Thursday and Friday evenings with various friends.  Today, he's out playing football with his England team.  The pollution has been bad all week, so his student's football match was cancelled on Friday. At least it cleared up for the weekend, so he was able to play today.  The rain tends to clear out the pollution quite well.