new apartment, new job

It has been a little over a week since my last posting. I hope I'm not already starting to fall behind on it. Anyway, I found an apartment! I began my apartment search about a week ago and found many interesting places. I sent off emails letting the landlords and people living in the apartment know that I'm interested. About half rejected me, either because they only wanted to live with a Chinese national or they had already filled the spot. Even one response said that they did not want to live with an American. That was really unfair I thought; but then again, I wouldn't want to live with a person who puts down Americans. "Americans are too pushy and too political," she said. That's not true for every American, but I didn't bother trying to change her mind. But the other half were allowed me to come check out their apartments.

I had looked at four apartments before I found the one I loved! And I got realllllly lucky with the rent price. The apartment I have is in one of the nicest districts of Shanghai and one of the more modern ones. This apartment I have is not typical for Shanghai and the rest of China. It's actually considered a luxury Western-style apartment and fully furnished. It has hardwood floors, leather furniture and big screen tv in the living room; a traditional Chinese dinner table and china cabinet in dining room and 6 bedrooms. Of course, that means I'm sharing with 5 other people. But this apartment is so big, I don't feel crowded at all. I'm living with an Italian guy, Swiss guy, British guy, French guy and another American girl. They all are pretty cool...well, so far at least.

The funny thing is about these roommates, I already knew the British guy, Albert. Albert was staying in the same hostel as I was and we had talked a few times. We knew that we were looking for apartments; one day last week we asked each other what apartments we had found. We discussed what our apartments were like and we realized that our apartments were a little too similar. Then we realized that we actually got the same apartments and will be roommates. It was just the weirdest, most random coincidence ever. I really like Albert a lot, we get along great and we became good friends quickly when we realized we're roommates.

I moved in the apartment last Friday, and all of the guys were already moved in as well. However, Sarah, the other American and the French guy haven't moved in yet. It's now Monday, and they still are not here. Weird. Davide is the Italian one and he seems to be a character. I really like him a lot so far; he wouldn't be boring to live with. He's very Italian, very fancy and very posh. Chris, the Swiss guy, seems very laidback and wants to have a good time. However, he brought 3 German girls and one British guy to stay over with us for the weekend. To be honest, that kind of annoyed me a little bit. I had just moved in and was barely starting to break in the apartment, and he brings all of these people to stay for the weekend. They were a lot of fun; I'm not that pissed off, but i was just annoyed at first. Also, I felt really awkward around them. They all knew each other and I was the odd one out trying to be a part of the group. Sometimes I find Europeans not as friendly as Americans, but they are so much more open-minded than Americans. Plus, it was a little difficult for me to understand their accents when they spoke.

Last weekend was my first real night out in Shanghai. On Friday night, we went over to the French Concession, a nice, pretty, Western-style neighborhood in Shanghai. The French Concession is a well known area for expatriates to live in. My district, Jing'an District, has quite a few expats as well. Shanghai has so many foreign nationals, called expats; so there are many bars that are notorious for expats gathering. There's an American bar near my apartment! Anyway, we went to this bar that was underground and was set up like a dungeon. It was cool and a different setting. They had pretty good music, considering that I wasn't sure what to expect in a Shanghai bar or club. Saturday night, we, Davide, Chris, Albert, the German girls, and the other British guy and myself, all ate at this really nice Japanese restaurant and had lots of food. It was one of the best Japanese food I've ever eaten. It was a little pricey, but so worth it. Considering that this is China, you have to pay a little more to get food quality the same as back home. Afterwards, Albert knew some Chinese girls, one of which I already knew from the hostel, and we met up for Chinese karaoke. Chris and the German girls were not that excited about it; I think they were just being a little stuck up. I was more open to it and wanted to immerse myself in Chinese culture. It wasn't that bad, I watched Chinese pop videos. Some were a little out there from what I'm used to. But of course, we all sang some American and British songs.

That's my weekend. And today was my first day at English First. It wasn't that exciting; I just watched a bunch of powerpoint slides about the company and the school and opened up a bank account. That way I can get paid; that's very important. At least I met the other new teachers, who are all American. At KaiEn, the teachers were more of a British or Austrialian nationalities, but here at EF, they tend to be more Americans and Canadians. I am open to meeting people of other nationalities, but at EF, I feel a lot more comfortable with others than at KaiEn.

I don't mean to judge other nationalities, but sometimes the Europeans can tick me off (as well as other nationalities). I just don't get why they are so quick to insult Americans and our country. "Omg, George Bush is so stupid!" "Americans are so loud and obnoxious!" "Americans don't care about anything except politics." Also, they accuse us of being more closed-minded than other nationalities; however, not all say that. First off, I'm really pissed at Bush for making Americans look bad. Second, other nationalities are judging us based on what they hear in the media; and they also say that they can't believe the stuff the media comes out with because they offer skewed versions of stories. Really? If they really believed that, then they wouldn't judge Americans based on media. Hmmmm... Also, I realized when insulted, Americans usually just shrug it off or say, "Yes, I'm American, hahahaha." If Americans retaliate with something about their nationality or their country, they would hate us forever. It's just not fair to me that they can say shit about us and we really wouldn't care, but when Americans do it, we would be seen as crude and closed-minded. I'm just venting, but when it actually does happen, I just shrug and laugh it off.

The Chinese don't really do it that much, but I've come across some that have. I definitely CANNOT retaliate. Chinese culture is very, very different. There are things that just can't be said, as I wrote in a previous entry, no Chinese politics/government, history, religion, Tibet and anything that bashes on their culture. You can actually be arrested for saying such things. A teacher trainer at EF told us today that sometimes that if a Chinese person hears stuff like that, they might call the police. I don't really know if it's that serious, but I wouldn't do it just to see what happens.

Ok, I've written enough for today.