Lately...

Well its been a weird couple of weeks for me...and it isn't quite over yet. Two important Chinese holidays have just passed (mid-Autumn festival and the Chinese national day) and they have thrown my whole schedule into a bit of a funk. I've had some time off work but the catch is that I have to make up quite a bit of it by working weekends. This isn't just for me or my school either...the whole country is going off to work on Saturday and Sunday. I've been trying to imagine what Canadians would say if the government decided one day to try to send everyone off to work on the weekend. I think "no WAY!" would be a resonable approximation of the response most people would give. Anyways, today was day one of my first seven day long work week. Sigh.

The week long holiday I've just had for the national day has given me the chance to do some more in depth exploration of Shanghai. Plus I finally made it to the Expo yesterday (pictures of this will have to wait unfortunately, until I can get them off my roommate). I had kind of hoped to do some travelling outside of Shanghai but unfortunately I was sans passport (need it for checking into hotels...is this true everywhere or just China??) and a little light on cash (surprise! I had to pay three months rent this month). As it was I contented myself with doing some touristy stuff; going to the aquarium and checking out the popular Yuyan Garden. I also had a lovely teppanyanki dinner with some of my fellow foreign teachers from Xiwai. I ate more meat there than I have in a while...I'm going a bit vego since I've been here.

The roomie and I at teppanyanki.                                     



                                                                                                            The lovely Yuyuan Garden.