The Wilderness (and Shanghai) Must Be Explored!

你好 from Shanghai!! Did you miss me?? (I know, I know, I have not been good about regular blog posts. My future as an influencer is RUINED.)

Much has happened in the time since I last wrote (…in early October….I am SORRY) so I cannot write in my usual Madison fashion and include every tiny detail – even my mother would get sick of reading a post that long. Instead, I’ll try to give a highlights reel of my last few months getting settled into my new home in China. And then I’ll set myself reminders on my phone to actually write new blog posts every two weeks or so, rather than waiting three months in between each one…

First up: exploring Shanghai! This city is HUGE, and there is so much to see and do. I’ve been here almost three months, and still have only just started to scratch the surface of what Shanghai has to offer. While I was still living in my temporary housing in Hongqiao, my friends and I would often walk over to Lao Wai Jie – or “Foreigners Street” – for dinner and drinks. This narrow street used to be a train station; in the 1970s, the Mao Zedong 101 trains stopped here after Nanjing on their way back to Beijing. Nowadays, however, this long alley features restaurants with many different cuisines: Thai, German, Greek, Italian, Mexican, American, French, Indian, Japanese… Signs outside each restaurant advertise special deals and discounts as they all compete for expats’ attention: Happy Hour every night from 4:00-11:00! 20% off tacos on Wednesdays! BOGO burgers on Mondays! Though I personally started to tire of going over there (I didn’t move across the planet to eat burgers, after all) if you ever want to grab a meal somewhere you know there will be a menu written in English and foods that you recognize, Lao Wai Jie is a solid choice.

The next big step in my exploring became exploring my way into my new apartment! For many of my colleagues, finding an apartment was a long and exhausting experience. They saw dozens of apartments all along the Line 10 metro stops and were struggling to find the right place that really felt like home. For one reason or another, the stars aligned for me and I found my dream apartment on my second day of looking. There are many things to consider when looking for a place: convenience of the location, how long the commute to work will be, the size of the apartment, how many flights of stairs you need to climb to reach your front door, which metro stop you are closest to… When speaking with my agent, I told him the things that were important to me: I wanted a home with character and color, an active neighborhood with lots of things to experience, and (in a perfect world) space to store some art supplies and have people over. I did not want to live on the 20th floor of a high rise apartment building, and I cannot stand houses that are all white and modern looking. (Give me something quirky, please!!) I looked at four apartments on my first day hunting, and definitely could have been happy in a few of them, but then on the second day, as we were walking into the building, my agent turned to me and said, “I think you’re really going to like this one.” I walked into the door and immediately said, “Yep. This is it.”

I live on the 3rd floor of an old lane house that was built in the 1920s; you can clearly see that all electrical appliances and lighting were added in after the apartment was built. The stairs are steep, the floors are creaky, you can hear absolutely every sound coming from the construction company underneath the living room, and I love every single thing about it. In my wildest dreams, I could not have imagined myself a place like this to live in. I am the only expat living in my building, but I’ve met a few of the little old ladies who live below me. Though we’ve only been able to exchange basic hellos thus far (my Mandarin needs a lot of work…), I am excited to continue getting to know them. Because of the high turnaround of people moving to and from Shanghai, many apartments come furnished; when I moved in, there was already a bed, table, couch, tv, dresser, and a few shelves ready and waiting. (This was very strange for me – in the States, every place I’ve ever moved in to has been completely empty.) The past few weeks have been about slowly starting to make this home my own, bringing in some color and starting to really make it feel like me. I’m not in a rush; I have no desire to just go buy a bunch of stuff from IKEA for the sake of having the apartment filled. I’ve slowly been collecting pillows or art or little pieces from small markets and local businesses as I find them, and though it has been stressful at times, this process of starting to fill a home completely from scratch has been exciting. Stay tuned to see what else I end up collecting from my travels that finds its way into my house!

Since moving in, I’ve been able to continue getting to know my way around the city. Though Shanghai LOVES its delivery services (we have Taobao, Baopals, Epermarket, Sherpa’s, etc etc etc — basically, you needn’t ever leave your house if you don’t want to, anything and everything can be delivered to your front door) I have been actively making a point of going out somewhere when I want to get something. In doing so, I’ve found some really cool places! A few arts & crafts stores, an awesome English bookstore, multiple stands within the Hongqiao Flower Market where I have become a regular… One of my favorite activities has been to go out for a Wander. Wanders are different from Walks in that Walks have a purpose, a Point B to reach from Point A. On a Wander, I can end up anywhere – I just let my feet carry me wherever they choose. Though I could probably write an entire blog post dedicated to the cool things I’ve observed on my Wanders, for now, a small assortment of pictures will have to do.

Next up on the highlights reel: school! Though I’ve technically been teaching there (albeit online) since March, these past few months in person have been SO much better. I could brag about my students all day (and I often do) but the short version is this: I am inspired daily by their creativity, their willingness to jump in and take risks, and their enthusiasm. I’m currently finishing up a Mask unit with my Year 7s and a Musical Theatre unit with my Year 8s, and I am amazed by the work that they’re doing. For many of them, what we do in my class is very out of their comfort zone. My underlying intention for both of these units is, yes, to teach them about this style of performance and give them experience working in this way, blah blah blah, but really these units are about embracing vulnerability and jumping headfirst into the unknown. Putting themselves in situations where they feel uncomfortable, and giving it their all anyways. As I’ve told them many times, there is no failure in my class – the only failure is to not even try. We celebrate and cheer when someone’s voice cracks while they’re singing because that means they went for a note they weren’t sure they could hit. After we celebrate the risk-taking, we work towards building the skills to overcome the challenge. My drama classes would have terrified me in middle school. Shy, awkward, self-conscious Madison would have been mortified being asked to risk a voice crack while singing in front of the entire class. But this is why I teach this way – if I can help even one of them to challenge that self-judgement and fear of failure before it really locks itself in, it makes all the difference.

Another aspect of working in the school in person that I have enjoyed has been getting to participate in all of the extra activities – homeroom competitions, special events, and fun school-wide activities. Two of my favorites so far have been the costume day for Halloween and our Global Perspectives Week. Though I only had about a week and a half outside of quarantine to prepare my Halloween costume (which, as some of you may know, is not NEARLY as much time as I usually allow myself), as it was my first in-person event at school I was determined to go all in. Using some clothing I already had, and my handy dandy craft supplies I had brought along, I threw together a costume of Russell from the Disney Pixar movie Up. In true Madison fashion, I walked around school all day with a small notebook, reading out “Good afternoon. My name is Russell, and I am a Wilderness Explorer in Tribe 54, Sweat Lodge 12. Are you in need of any assistance today, sir?” (My offers to “assist the elderly” didn’t get me far, but I kept trying!) I was not the only one who took the costume contest seriously – we had students coming in wearing all sorts of creative costumes! Inflatable Pikachu suits, handmade Peppa Pig heads, a huge variety of anime characters… one of my students spent months sewing a dress and constructing an intricate creepy mask and clawed gloves! Because we are a private school and the students are usually required to wear uniforms, it was fun to have a day where they were able to really express themselves and their own creativity through their costumes. During Global Perspectives Week, each homeroom was given a country to represent. We researched the country, learned about their culture and history, and then decorated our classroom with games, activities, and food! We had an entire afternoon where the students were able to wander the halls with their “passports” to visit the different countries throughout the school. My Year 7 homeroom chose Egypt as their country, and we decided to turn our classroom into the inside of a pyramid, an eery pharaoh’s tomb. We put purple gels over the windows and lights, brought in some lanterns, pulled up an underground pyramid tour video on the screen, and constructed an Egyptian mythology photo booth. It was really fun to see all of the hard work everyone put in to their classrooms!

As I begin to pass the three month mark, my life here has started to feel less like a trip and more like I actually live here, which still surprises me sometimes. I have a favorite bakery, and a go-to train car to stand in during my metro rides. I have a group of friends that know me enough to say “that’s so you” when choosing home decorations, and have found various new classes around the city to sign up for. I’ve started using road names to give directions to my apartment, and can (sort of) say “hello,” “thank you,” “excuse me,” “I don’t understand,” “want/do not want,” and count to 10 in Mandarin. I finally have a bank account! Though there are certainly times when I feel a bit homesick (after decorating my Christmas tree alone I immediately started crying, so this next week may be interesting), I really am so happy to be here. It feels a bit like a dream when I talk to my friends back in the States still in quarantine. [FOR GOOD REASON. WEAR YOUR MASKS AND STOP SEEING PEOPLE, DAMN IT. I WANT PEOPLE TO BE ABLE TO COME VISIT ME!!] I do not take for granted that I am able to go out to bars, see live music and go dancing, explore Christmas markets, give hugs and pile on a couch snuggled up with friends. But in what could have been a very hard, very lonely transition from one side of the planet to the other, I am very happy to have found such a warm and welcoming home 7,419 miles away from home. And now, for good measure, some food pictures. Everyone always likes food pictures.

Next up on the blog: Christmas in Shanghai! Finding decorations, getting a tree, venturing out to various markets around town, attempting to track down Christmas packages from home, and finding ways to blend old and new traditions. Bonus features: my 90-something-year-old neighbor lady trying to help me lift this tree up 3 flights of stairs to my apartment. Stay tuned…