Shanghai Living

HEY YALL!!!!! Over 1000 hits to the blog.

Niiiiiiiiice!!!!! Yall Make me Smile 🙂 Seriously

Quick Recap – I am sure if you’re following you already know, but there are a few newbies. I am in Shanghai, China for 14 months working for Disney English teaching English to young learners. I am not on vacation, although a 14 month vacations sounds amaaaaaaaazing!

I am 2 weeks in to my time in Shanghai. I have moved into my apartment and I am getting settled nicely. I am slowly trying spicy foods as they really like spice here. Yall know I can barely handle spice, but little by little am having foods with spice in it. Its rough yall.

DISNEY!!!! I am going to Disneyland Shanghai – this is work so I am not complaining. Pretty cool, huh? As far as the teaching part???? I can’t legally teach until my resident permit has arrived. Once in China us foreigners who are in the country on a Z-Visa staying for more than 30 days have to turn in their Visa’s/Passports and you get them back with a  resident permit. This allows you to legally work and to leave the country as you please within your contracted employment time. Most tourist visas do not allow this. I am currently doing classroom observations, and trainings with the team who arrived at the same time as me.

Anything Yall Wanna know? Respond and let me know. I do plan on seeing THE GREAT WALL which some people have asked me about. I have to plan that trip as it is in Beijing and not Shanghai. There is lots to see in Shanghai and I have not even begun to see it all. I have been working on getting my apartment, settling in, learning the Metro system, and finding foods that I can eat.

For the past two weeks when I wake up, I’m like – “WHOA BABY I AM IN CHINA. I AM LIIVING IN SHANGHAI”!!!! What an experience of a lifetime. Thanks Yall for following my journey.

 

 

MISC:

-Personal space is not a thing here. They roll up on you like they know you- or don’t. Shove into you and don’t even care. Taking the Metro is an experience in and of itself. Shanghai is a huge city with so many people and their manners, for the most part= nonexistent.

-Asians – stare and gawk at us. I know were magic, but were also real! Ha. I am getting use to the staring, but does one ever get use to it? I don’t like it. It’s annoying – and I gotz to be honest that sometimes I stare back. They also sneak and take pics and videos of you (like we don’t see them). Yo! I see you. I just really wonder what are they doing with these pictures, what do these captions say, where did you post them, ugh! It’s the worst. My Non-African American friends on my team have noticed it when they are with me, and they’re like “I saw someone take a picture of you, they don’t take pictures of me. Why are they taking pictures of you?” I don’t have much of a response for that, besides “Black Folks Are Amazing”…. But really after two weeks I’m over it and it aint stopping!

-People can also be very nice. GOOGLE TRANSLATE has been my best friend while out and about. It is an app where you can translate what you are saying. You can do speech to text or text to text. Sometimes I am out and I use this app to find locations of places I am going to and even an employee in my local supermarket shopped with me the whole time as we communicated with my app. That was extremely helpful and I was able to find everything I needed. Well – just about everything, cuz this aint America and there is no Kroger or Tom Thumb near by!

-We had a Halloween Party at work. I dressed up as Polly – the once Disney character no one knew

-When you eat out here are no substitutions with your meals. Yall know I’m the Queen of ‘I want this- not with this- but please add this’ I. Am. Struggling. They over here like ‘We make it the way it is on the menu’ …. OhMyGosh!!!!

-I have started a “#PantherPrideGSU “group here in Shanghai! Would you believe there’s a bunch of GA State Alum here?!?! We are planning a get together really soon!

 

…. Its Friday morning here and Thursday evening in USA …. Pictures and videos to come next week to the album….

NOTE: PayPal is still open. You can always support financially:

godschile7@yahoo.com-Karla Gurley

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I am excited about life! I am filled with Hope. I am overwhelmed with JOY! 

I am going to do my best to live by the ‘Glad Texts’

(one of my favorites is–Psalms 98:4) — Did you know that there are over 800 Glad Texts in the Bible?!?! More than one for each day of the year for me to live by.

#FearlessinShanghai #KMarieTakesChina #BlackGirlMagic #KarlaGirlLivingLife #BlackGirlJOy #LivingMyLifeLikeItsGolden #ChinaorBust #ChinaAintReady #LookOutWorldHereComesKarla  #KarlaGirlJoy

“life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all”  – Hellen Keller

*I choose ADVENTURE*