Lunar New Year of the Rat

It's been a bit of a strange start to the Lunar New Year of the Rat.  The streets of Shanghai are very quiet indeed.  It would have been quiet anyway due to lots of shops and restaurants being shut for new year, but this year it's too quiet considering this is the biggest yearly migration of people in the world.  Everyone in China and it's neighboring countries gets time off for new year, and everyone travels to be with their families.  It's the biggest event on the Chinese calendar.  We went out today for lunch, to a nearly empty restaurant.  Everyone we passed in the streets and in the shops and restaurants and serving us food was wearing a mask.  The coronavirus has really got people spooked.  China is probably over-reacting slightly due to what happened when it under-reacted to the SARS virus back in the early 2000s.  We're not quite at the stock-piling food stage just yet, but there is a shortage of face masks.

Wee're just wearing our face masks and using lots of hand gel and not going to places where we might spread anything, like buffets with the serving spoon handles.  We're just staying in and staying quiet really.  It was always going to be quiet holiday anyway.  We had decided to stay in China, rather than spend lots of money on a holiday somewhere hot.  We wanted a cat-cuddle holiday, and were due to go to Taipei in Taiwan today for a few days.  We decided to cancel it, not wanting to be at the airport or on the airplanes with all the recycled air.  Never mind.

School has announced that they are extending our holiday by two weeks, with e-learning taking place instead.  This is for all schools in Shanghai and is a government order.  Matt has exam classes, so it makes things tricky for him.  For me, i'm not really sure what I can set my students to do, since so much of what we teach is through speaking and giving on-the-spot feedback.  I guess i'll have to pop into school one day next week to pick up my laptop and scan a few worksheets!  All teachers have to be back in China a week earlier than the students, to have a 7 day incubation period.  Who knows what will happen.  The situation may have changed dramatically in the next 3 weeks.  I have a feeling things are going to get worse before they get better, but we will see.

In the meantime, here are some photos of us enjoying lunches out, with our new glasses on that we got from the fake market this week, and the chinese new year lion that was made out of fererro roche chocolates!

Myanmar

This weeks photos are not from me, but from Matt's week in Myanmar on a Data conference.  He left Monday evening and got back very early on Saturday morning.  The conference went well, and his small presentation was a success.  He seems to have done quite a lot of socialising in the evenings, and then had a free day on Friday to lounge by the pool and to visit the famous pagoda in the city centre.

My week was much quieter, spent with the kitties mostly.  I went to Becky and Andy's for dinner of Thursday, but the rest of the week was tiring at school, so I didn't do much in the evenings.  It's only been 2 weeks back at school, but for some reason they seem to have been really hard work and everyone was ready for the holidays when they came around!

We don't have many plans for the holidays; just sorting a few things out in the flat, lots of cat cuddles and a couple of days in Taiwan next week. Sounds lovely!

Shanghai Museum

Well, life continues to zip along in a way we have become accustomed to, living abroad.  One week finished of our final term.  10 more working weeks to go before I am no longer a Travelling TA. Oh, that's made me feel quite sad, typing that!  How unexpected.

Anyway, it's been a good first week back, despite suffering with some pretty bad jet lag, and despite Snowball being so thrilled to see us that he had to inform us of that fact every night at 3am.  Lessons continue as normal, and my students managed to remember how to speak English over the holidays, which is always a bonus!  The students I teach are usually from families where no one else speaks English, so during any holiday they don't speak any English at all.

On Friday, I went to the Shanghai Museum with the year 4s.  I really like this museum, which is full of Chinese artefacts.  The coin room is always a hit with the students, as is the room with all the Tibetan masks.  This time I went in a room i'd not been in before, which had fabulously painted screen doors.  Unfortunately, I got told off when I tried to take a photo of one!

I also spotted for the first time, this gorgeous little ceramic bird feeder (photo below) which was nearly 600 years old.  I love the idea that someone had it in their garden all that time ago.  It was a nice trip.  Some students loved it, like my tricky boy, who had brought his own notepad with him so he could do some sketches and make notes about things he liked (love this!), and some not so much, like my lovely German girl who was heard saying ' what is interesting about this museum, nothing!' to her friend.  I guess we can't all be museum-lovers like me.

On Saturday, Matt was at school all day to do training to become a level 1 rugby coach.  He was very tired when he got home, but he enjoyed it and is now qualified. I spent the day, popping to the hospital to collect my meds, going to the gym, and doing some cross stitch, while the kitties kept me company.

Today, Matt played football in the morning, and I went to watch for a bit.  Now, we're having a lazy afternoon, watching movies and enjoying the smell of chicken casserole slow cooking. Yum!

Happy New Year 2020

Happy 2020!  I've got a good feeling about this year.

We had Jackie's New Years eves eve party as usual, and it was lovely to see all the chums.  Matt and I spend a lovely day in London at the Natural History Museum visiting the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition, which is always fabulous.  We met Mum and Dad for dinner and then met Sam, Amy and Amy's parents at the theatre to watch White Christmas, which was brilliant!

We had a quiet-ish new years eve party at Matt's parents this year, which was nice as it meant I got to chat to everyone.  The last week of the holidays whizzed by quickly, as it always does.  It was full of football matches (for Matt) and trips to garden centers and watching TV for me.  We left for Shanghai on Friday and arrived Saturday morning.  We didn't manage to achieve much over the weekend.  We were just trying to get rid of the jetlag, which is almost impossible coming east.  I've been awake since 4am, but that's an hour better than the night before, and on the plane I think i slept for about 45 minutes!  We just spent the weekend having quality time with the kitties, who were very pleased to see us.  Snowball has been following me around and purring at everything, and Sooty is very chatty and playful.  It's so nice to be back with them.

We're back at school now, but only for 2 weeks before we have another two weeks holiday for Chinese New Year! Can't really complain!