Approaching the final stretch

New York may be the city that never sleeps, but Shanghai is the city where Maria never sleeps! This place is bustling with so much energy; I can't imagine trying to stay here permanently!
Life as a tourist/laoshi (teacher) here is great though. My walk to school takes me down a fairly busy street, but with lots of vendors and small alleyways off to the side where I can get incredible breakfasts for 3-4 yuan (around $0.50), cooked to order. Today I got a crepe-like concoction that had egg, scallions, cilantro, chilis, something crispy, and special sauce. It was quite tasty. Soy milk has become a staple in my mornings, and what's even more surprising to me is that I've become totally hooked on bubble tea and have it at least once a day! I have to say, they make it a lot better here than they do in Boston.
My students are wonderful but they are really demanding. They are all very well informed and interested in the world, so they enjoy debating and asking me hard questions, while needing me to pay close attention to what they're trying to express so that I can provide the vocabulary they need to articulate their ideas. I love it, but by 3PM I'm really drained and have to take an hour or so to recharge before heading back out in the world. My students here also take me to lunch every day to make sure that I try all kinds of Chinese food. There's a special food here called something like xiao long bau, which means little wrapped dragon, and it's basically a dumpling with soup and meat on the inside. If you order a large one, it comes with a straw. Wonton soup is also very popular here, and it's become another staple of my diet. There's much more noodle food here than rice, as far as I can tell, which is different from Beijing. My students are impressed generally with my chopstick skills, but have also been advising me on which foods I'm actually supposed to eat with a spoon. Also, one of my students is looking for a unique english name (She currently goes by Vivian but wants something less common), so if you all have any suggestions, please let me know.
This weekend was great. One of my friends from Beijing came up for the weekend, and we kicked off Friday night by heading across the river to Pu Dong, where the highest bar in the world is located (Cloud Nine), above the Shanghai Hilton. We got drinks up there and enjoyed the spectacular view (if I had a complaint, it would be taht we were TOO high, which is an incredible feeling!). I had a capirinha, which tasted amazing. Funny how certain things taste even better when they pull you out of a world that you've become totally immersed in. We then walked around the area for a bit and heade back across the river to grab a late dinner in a little restaurant near my door. Saturday, I went to the Shanghai Museum and spent a long time in their calligraphy section, which was really cool. Looking at the evolution of characters over the last 1000 years is amazing. I was also fortunate enough to be there with someone who could read a decent amount of the texts, so had an ever richer experience. The jade collection was also pretty incredible. All that looking around made me hungry, so I went out with some friends for Dim Sum, which was quite tasty.
Saturday night I went to a hiphop show, the national DJ competition. It was a lot of fun; the music was really good, there were even a few rap battles (east side west side is Beijing v. Shanghai here), and I got to meet a few of the artists and DJs, which was also pretty amazing.
Sunday I was pretty tired, as the day before had been quite energy intensive. Most of my group decided to go to City Diner, which advertises itself as a 24-hour American diner. The food was pretty good--we ate A LOT--everything from milkshakes, burgers, and fries, to pancakes, biscuits and gravy, nutella and banana sandwiches, and potato latkes. Not something I want to do every day here, but pretty awesome that one time. I have to remember how to use a fork and a knife; I become more accustomed to chopsticks only every day.
Hard to believe my teaching here is almost half way finished. The days are just flying by. Today my students are giving presentations on Chinese pop culture, then we're going over some slang words and they'll be incorporating them into skits, we'll talk about current events for a bit, and then I anticipate us talking about the symbolism and meanings to different colors and animals in Chinese culture. I'm still convinced that I'm learning more than my students are, but I think an opportunity like this that gets them up in front of a group so much is such a great experience. I know teaching here has really helped my comfort level in front of a group.

Speaking of which, class starts in 10 minutes, so I should go prepare. Hope all is well with you all!