Cheers?

Life has been crazy in China and things haven't really gone according to plan. I ended up staying less time in Shanghai than I expected. I really liked the place and definitely plan on going back. I ended up making it to one dance class, rather than the few days of classes planned. It took a lot of work to get there and I almost missed the chance to take class. My friend that I am traveling with has close family friends in Shanghai and I guess they liked me enough to send a driver and their son to accompany me to the dance studio. We found the studio but outside the building was a banner that said all the buildings in the area were being torn down to be rebuilt, and a stranger told us that they had moved already. But we took a chance and talked to one other person who said it was their last day of classes there! I ended up taking one contemporary jazz class. I enjoyed it, especially since I got to take it all by myself. I guess they didn't have many students because of how their schedule works. My teacher's name was Yorkie and she came from the Netherlands. I liked her class, and only found a few differences from American style of dancing. She was only a substitute there so making a connection to the studio didn't really happen. But she wanted to keep me longer and gave me her numbers and email address so that I can contact her!


I haven't figured out the whole work thing for when I get back. I had planned on coming back to having another dance job at Collette's dance studio but I guess they couldn't switch the day of the class. My friend told me she sounded excited about having me and was going to give me a call. But I can't really receive calls here on my cell phone, and I can't change the times that I work at Pulse. I was hoping to just teach instead of finding another job unrelated to dance! Boy do I wish:)

Yesterday we went to a park and there were tons of people! I think the park is a place for the elderly to go when they retire. They were sitting on rocks and playing cards or majan (I can't spell that). Some had their grandchildren and others were getting exercise by doing some fan dancing. Kids were playing badminton and we had a mentally ill but gentle old man stand in front of us and stare for a few minutes. We also went to the supermarket so that I could buy some toothpaste, lotion, hair dye, and oreos.

I had my hair dyed in Shanghai and it turned out awful! I don't recall if I have already written this but my hair is streaked with ORANGE! Blech! After the hairstylist had finished hitting on Liz and me he showed me my hair and it had spots! I don't know if the guy that died my hair knew what he was doing. I should have said something when I saw his shaking hands, look of deep concentration, and the action of licking of lips every time he touched my hair. But then again I probably wouldn't make any sense . . . "bu hao! bu hao!". I've never had my hair dyed before. The dye I bought at the store looks brown, and hopefully it won't turn out too light and unnatural. I'm hoping that my hair will be okay by the time I get back.

I don't know if I had actually communicated my distaste if he would have been offended. I don't really understand how things work here. I know that in the US if you don't like it you can say something . . although I don't always do so. I think that I may have already disrespected somebody without meaning to. Liz's third uncle (or fourth, or sixth . . .) took us out to lunch and his wife had made a toast saying in English Cheers! But before that she had used the Mandarin word for it and I had repeated it to be polite. So when she said the English version it didn't register that it was English and that I actually knew the word so I repeated what she said again trying to match her tones. I never realized it was English until Liz said that I was being disrespectful later that evening! I tried to explain to her what happened while trying to understand understand the situation myself. I really didn't mean to offend or mock anyone. Liz doesn't believe me though. Oh well, there are a lot of things I need to ignore on this trip to get along peacefully. It's not fun being misunderstood though (especially in your own language).