Monday, May 15, 2017

Here I am in Shanghai

I feel lost in Shanghai
I feel pretty useless in Shanghai, cheap nfl jerseys, like a retired old woman as I completely lost daily routine and discipline. I don’t feel like writing, I don’t know what physical exercise to do.

I tried to open up Wechat people nearby for promoting my writing subscription, but it is blocked ( I can see people nearby, they can’t see me) which destroyed my high expectation for finding readers in such a big city, how annoyed!!!

Having free meals at my parents' place
Well, I don’t need cook, either. When I got up at 10:00 am, after a while, my husband drove me to parents’ place for lunch, which was exactly like a restaurant; my Dad had already cooked 8 shanghai dishes waiting for us. ( He never cooked in his life, now he enjoys it.)

My favorite Shanghai soup
I would like to catch up with my parents the last day in 2016, therefore, after arriving at PuDong airport, Shanghai, I went straight to their apartment, and I smelt something like soup which was very familiar with.

I asked my Dad: “What are you cooking?”

“Salted pork, which is one ingredient of your favorite soup for tomorrow lunch”.

“Awesome, cheap jerseys, I love it”, the soup is made of fresh winter bamboo shoot, salted pork, fresh pork spare ribs, Chinese lettuce and bean curd sheets. Well, most of the ingredients are not available in Melbourne, so I do miss it, that’s the typical Shanghai taste.

My Niece- a busy girl
My brother’s daughter- YueYue, only in Grade 3, but she’s as busy as someone’s having a PHD degree, which is quite normal in ShangHai, surprising!!!

After arriving Dad’s place for lunch, I was wondering, where’s mum and YueYue, Dad said: “Your Mum is picking up YueYue who’s having weekend classes.” “What? Today is public holiday, New Year’s day!!! She’s still having classes? Unbelievable!!!”

In a while, the door bell was ringing, that’s my niece. It seemed like she’s very much like my daughter as she hugged my daughter tightly.

In the past years, whenever I saw her, she didn’t like eat anything except rice and soup. Today, she’s a very different person, my daughter had one bit of veggie, YueYue quickly picked up the same one, my daughter was having a prawn, she immediately followed up, whatever my daughter’s having, cheap nfl hats, YueYue would never miss it.

I told my daughter: “Wow, you have a royal fan.”

I was very curious about what was my niece doing after school hours?

I was nearly fainted after I heard her after school time schedule: “OMG, is that real?” Here it is:

Normally school hours:
from 8:00 AM to 2:00 pm, 3:10 pm or 4:00 pm

After school classes schedule for a grade 3 student:
Tue. 16:00 to 18:00  English
Wed. 16:00 to 17:00 Piano
Fri.    15:30 to 17:30
         Mathematics
Sat.    8:00 to 10:00
          Chinese Calligraphy
          10:30 to 12:30
          Mathematics
Sun. 8:00 to 10:00 Mandarin
        13:00 to 16:00 English
        18:00 to 20:00
 Mandarin reading and writing

Chinese students vs Aussie students
I’ve got no idea why she studies so much and I’ve been told that  all her classmates are doing exactly the same thing, without hard studying, there’s almost no chance for students enter into a reputable Uni in China, nfl jerseys cheap, so they have to prepare from kindergarte.
Poor kids !!!

Compared to my Aussie colleagues’ children, what are they doing? Helping parents doing housework, attending birthday parties; someone in high school is looking for a part time job gaining work experience and finding a boyfriend or a girlfriend.

My Opinion
That’s a completely different world Chinese students and Aussie students, I can’t tell which is better or worse, I guess it’s better to be average, Aussie students spend a little bit more time on study, and Chinese kids do more housework or leave time for socializing.

Shopping at XuJiaHui
The funny thing was when I asked YueYue: “Where would you like to go with us this afternoon?”

“I wanna go to the library, I wanna buy stationery.” I laughed: “Can we do something else? No study today, ok.”

After lunch, cheap hats, we decided to go shopping at XuJiaHui, on the way, she’s asking a lot of questions regarding Olympic mathematics and she seemed satisfied as none of us could give the answer.

Suddenly, she spoke loudly: “Stationery, stationery, I wanna buy stationery.” After repeating “Stationery” for 2 hours, I’ve got annoyed: “Shut up, girl, could you be quiet? Can we buy something else instead?”

“No, I only want stationery.”

 “I’m over you, girl.”

The stationery thing almost drove me mad as it took us 2 hours to find a bookshop where sell stationeries in GangHui shopping centre.

A typical good Chinese Student
Seriously, is she a typical good Chinese student type? Her mind is full of books, classes, stationeries or library, which reminded me the time I was in Shanghai, I was only focused on study, nothing else was important.

But now I don’t think it is absolutely a good idea, official school hour is enough, students are supposed to do what they like in their free time rather than only for competing with classmates, or preparing for entering into a Uni at such an early age.

Doing housework, learning surviving skills or socializing are also essential.

Anyway, it’s not only one person can change the whole society, cheap nfl jerseys, it is part of the culture and gradually it's becoming a habit.

One thing is good, students concentrate on their future goals and they are always ready for the challenge.