R.O.A.R.: Shanghai - Without A Position

26th June 2009

This may well be my last report from Shanghai as the semester is almost over. After a number of job applications, 5 interviews, a couple of rejections, two job offers (neither attractive propositions) and one still to be decided I am still without a postion for next semester. The undecided one is stuck on a bureaucratic issue related to my academic qualifications. However, should it come through I won't be teaching English but a Business Diploma in a university in Fuzhou.

I'll be trying to see more of the sights of Shanghai in the next week, time permitting. Tonight I went to see the renowned Shanghai Circus, thinking I might come across one or two foreigners, only to find that approx 90% were foreign tourists: we sat amongst a group of 20 or so Victorian school teenagers! The show was well worth seeing: acrobats, jugglers, contortionists and a finale of 8 motorbikers zig-zagging inside a round cage of no more than approx 5 metres in diameter - quite a feat!

Whilst Shanghai is the most westernised of the Chinese cities, two things that I constantly see are most unwestern - certainly things that I never even witnessed in Wuhan during my 5 months there:

people using motorbikes, pedal tricycles and carts to carry unbelievably huge loads on main roads. Refer the photos of a rubbish removalist and a man pulling a cart containing some 40-50 chairs (albeit light chairs).
Men and women happily wearing their pyjamas around the streets, even in the restaurant where I eat! I've been dared to wear my pyjamas to the restaurant on my last week but I can't see me doing it!

Although last Friday was the last official school lesson, yesterday I held a voluntary 2-hour revision session for anybody who wanted to attend, prior to next Wednesday's final exams. To my surprise some 50-60 students (out of 115) turned up. As always, the better students were all there; many others have all but given up. Just like my Wuhan students it's sad to have to leave them, although some I hope to see in Melbourne next year and some others I will hold fond memories through some of the photos that I have taken (refer photos).