Shanghai Walks- Jewish Museum

After Eric read an article about a Jewish man telling the experience of his family during World War II when they fled the Nazis and came to Shanghai, we were both interested to learn more about this little piece of history. We learned that apparantly Shanghai did not require visas and had no quotas on the number of Jews that could come- unlike most other countries at the time. Between 1933 and 1941, over 30,000 Jewish refugees from Europe escaped to Shanghai.

We then discovered that there is a museum in Shanghai dedicated to telling their story. So of course, we set out to find it. It is in the Ohel Moshe Synagogue which was built while the Jews were staying here.


A really beautiful doorway leading into part of the museum.

Inside the synagogue.

This might be a little hard to see, but it is a Star of David with a chapter from Genesis etched in Chinese on it.

This man's name is Dr. Feng Shan Ho. He was the Chinese Consul General to Austria from 1938-1940. He was very instrumental in helping Jews go to Shanghai.

Eric and I like this drawing- it is a pair of elderly Jewish men walking in front of a Chinese temple in Shanghai.

These are some of the buildings the Jews lived in while in Shanghai. It was sometimes called 'Little Vienna.'


Here is a link if you want to read more. Ghosts of Shanghai

Friends and more Shanghai pictures

About a week and a half ago Eric got the day off, which doesn't happen too often with his job. What made it even better was that it happened to be the exact day that some of our friends from when we were in Nanjing would be in Shanghai. Patrick and Maren were dropping in from Qingdao to pick up Maren's mom before running all over China. And Cherrise, Momo, and Didi were here for the day before Ryan came down also and then they were headed for Hong Kong and the temple. While we were jealous of all the fun traveling they were going to be doing, we were so happy to see them. I especially missed playing with Momo- he is really the cutest kid. And Didi is growing so fast, he is adorable! It was so good to see you all!


Eric and I took them to a spot we had discovered earlier that morning where you could get an amazing view of the Pudong side of Shanghai without walls of construction blocking your view. It was beautiful. Eric and I live just minutes from those buildings.

Shanghai Walks- The Bund

Eric and I (and a lot of the times, just me on my own, or with my good friend Courtney) like to walk around and just explore this huge city we live in. There is no way that we are going to see anywhere close to everything here in the short time we will be in Shanghai, but we are trying! A couple of days ago, Eric and I revisted the Bund which is the old financial district of Shanghai. We had gone there back in October when we came to Shanghai for the weekend. We had just quickly walked up and down with out looking too closely so this time we came prepared. We had our trusty tourist map which had descriptions and a little history about each building.

We were also able to go inside a couple of them. Most are used as banks now which unfortunately means they wouldn't let us take any pictures of the insides. Unfortunate because the interior of these buildings was gorgeous.
Here are a couple pictures of the outside of some of the buildings though:




We also stumbled upon this building.

We saw people on the roof and so we went with the intention of seeing if we could do the same. Then we discovered that it is an old post offices built in 1924 and still is used as a post office. It also has a pretty interesting museum (and free!). And, of course, a great view.

This guy was part of the museum. Eric made me sneak over the rope to get the picture. :)
The tower had some really nice looking statues.

Grad School Update

I think Eric has already told a lot of you, but he found out a couple of days ago that he got accepted into the Johns Hopkins SAIS program. We were super excited to hear that! Now he is in at his two top picks- San Diego and Johns Hopkins. And where will we go? We wish we knew! :)

Teaching English

I had a post all written and ready to go about the English classes we taught in Nanjing and never actually posted it. So, a month later, here it is! :)

Class is over! For now…

It seems I can never get away from teaching English. First on my mission- teaching weekly classes in the community and at different high schools and universities, and now here- teaching preschool, elementary, and university classes. Funny how people keep thinking I know anything about teaching English.

Today was my last day teaching at the university. I have been teaching two classes a week for the past few months. For the most part it has been really fun. It took a lot of time figuring out lesson plans and sometimes I had the hardest time getting them to stay focused and listen to me. But I think they had a good time and hopefully their English is at least a little better!

My class (well, one of them):


Last week Eric and I taught our last class at the elementary school where we have been volunteering since being in Nanjing. It is an elementary school for children of migrant workers. China has some rule where if your residency is not with the city you actually live in your children cannot attend the normal schools. The government gives no funding to the schools like the one where we have been volunteering and in order to keep the costs low for the students attending, they rely a lot on donations and volunteers. That’s us! We have been teaching English for one hour a week in a fifth grade class.

The class, for the most part, has been really great. The first couple of weeks were a nightmare though. I think I’ve posted already about that- let’s just say that I would not wish the experience of those first weeks on anyone!

We were sad to have to say goodbye to our class. It’s been a great experience!

Here are a few pictures of our class.




(notice my backwards peace sign. In China 6 months and I still can't get it right! :)

So I am done with teaching English. For now. Who knows what I will get roped into when we are in Shanghai…?

**I remembered this post because I am actually probably going to be started some English tutoring soon. I guess as a foreigner who doesn't speak Chinese, what else can I do? :)

Strawberries everywhere

Ok, I am pretty sure strawberries are usually in season during the summer, right? Well, I guess they come early here in Shanghai. Strawberries are everywhere and for so cheap! I bought a huge bag-full (maybe 8 cups worth) the other day for only about 50 cents! It is wonderful. Although the weather seems to keep changing its mind on whether it wants to be spring or winter (we had a beautiful day of 70 degree weather and then the next was back to rainy, 40-something degrees), all these strawberries make me feel like it is spring.


With all these strawberries around, of course I have to buy tons. And of course that means more than Eric and I can eat. Which logically leads to me searching for great recipes to try. Here is my new favorite strawberry recipe.

Sweet Strawberry Bread
from sisterscafe
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 1/4 cup canola oil
2 cups fresh strawberries, cut small

Mix flour, soda, cinnamon and salt in bowl. Add eggs, sugar, oil. Mix until moist, carefully add strawberries. Batter will be thick. Spoon into greased and floured loaf pans. Bake at 350 for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Cool in pans 10 minutes then remove.

Anyone have a favorite strawberry recipe? Send it my way!

All these berries also made me think of one of my favorite childrens' books- Jamberry by Bruce Degen. Great book!

Year of the Tiger

As many of you probably know, just this past month was the Chinese New Year holiday, ending last week with the Lantern Festival. I was waiting until after the Lantern Festival to post about it all, hoping I’d get some great pictures. Little did I know that Lantern Festival is not celebrated here as we had expected- with floating lanterns being set off by the dozens and hundreds. Apparently, it is against the law to set them off. Some nonsense about fire hazards…

We brought in the New Year by spending New Years Eve with Eric’s boss and his wife. She cooked a traditional New Years eve dinner with lots of fish (the word for fish sounds like the word for 'excess' and is always a part of the New Years Eve dinner) and it ended with a big bowl of dumplings (shuijiao) which symbolize wealth. After watching part of the broadcast of the National New Years Eve celebration (which consisted of lots of singing dancing, and long skits that of course went completely over my head) we headed home so that we could be sure to catch some fireworks.

My goodness, I have never experienced anything like that. I was expecting Fourth of July type fireworks but this was like Fourth of July times a million. The sound was deafening, especially as midnight approached. As we ventured out of our apartment to find somewhere higher to watch fireworks from, I seriously was afraid for my life. It was like walking through a war zone. People on all sides were setting off firecrackers. And not just the nice pretty ones that stay on the ground, but the huge ones! These are blasting into the air all around us and it seemed like every single family was putting on their own aerial fireworks show. But it was beautiful. And just as midnight hit, with an enormous increase in sound and fireworks, snow started to lightly fall. Unfortunately none of my pictures came out but this will give you an idea of how it was:


And the fireworks did not end there. Nope, every day during the two week long holiday, we were sure to hear fireworks going off every night, and during the day too. (I guess some people just can't wait!) On the fifth day, though, Eric and I were surprised by how many fireworks we were hearing. It seemed like another New Years Eve. After doing some research we found out that on the fifth day, people set off fireworks to welcome in the Wealth God so that they will be prosperous during the coming year. How many of them actually still do it for that reason, I don't know. Sometimes I think that they just like the noise. :)

Eric and I stayed in Shanghai during the holidays, taking time to settle into our new place and explore Shanghai together before Eric started his internship. But here are some pictures of old Shanghai which was all decked out for the New Year:




We made dumplings one night with our friends Aaron and Courtney. Dumplings are traditionally made during the New Year, especially on New Years Eve.


Hard at work!


Yum!!

Two weeks after the start of the Chinese New Year, or the day of the first full moon, is Lantern Festival. I had been really looking forward to this after hearing Eric's stories of what he saw on his mission. Traditionally on this day lanterns are hung everywhere, and at night, floating sky lanterns are let off which are large lanterns with a small candle inside. People write riddles on the lanterns before setting them off. Another tradition for Lantern Festival is to eat tang yuan which are sweet glutinous rice balls filled with different flavored pastes. The round shape symbolizes unity. And they happen to be quite yummy!


The lanterns that we were able to see:


But here is what the real thing would have been like (not my picture). Isn't it beautiful?!

Happy year of the tiger everyone!