Creepy or flattering?

You decide! Which are these?

-A student's mother offering to let me live in their home so I can teach her child
-Students repeatedly trying to slap my bottom for fun
-Young students assaulting me with full contact hugs, oblivious to the fact that their faces are right at crotch level
-(My personal favorite) A student saying that her dream party would be "at Tom's house, because I want to eat Tom." She's 8.

Yeah, I went with creepy too.

Street food is best food

This greasy, messy, delicious pile has been my go-to meal of choice after work for the past couple months. The noodle vendor and grilling vendor operate in the same parking lot, so I combine their products. The white things on the left side are made of rice that's mushed together into a cake. After being greased up, grilled, and seasoned, it's delicious and crunchy on the outside, and satisfyingly chewy on the inside. The whole thing is incredibly substantial, for $2.50.

I just ate it and I already want seconds.

If I ever need motivation to go to work...

...I'll just look at these pictures again. His English name is Tom, so of course we bonded immediately. He was attached to my legs for a few minutes the first time I met him, until I carried him around upside down for a while. Then he gave me candy.

Photographic Evidence

One of the perks of working for a bigger company is the free stuff we occasionally get. The 'regional team building' event from a few days ago, for example, was a cowboy-themed all-you-can-drink extravaganza. Everyone dressed up, played pool, drank on EF's dime, did some line dancing, and rode the mechanical bull. Good times.

Shifty Bull

Tonight, on my first try, I successfully rode a mechanical bull for over a minute, at which point they powered it down.

Three to five beers later, I successfully rode a mechanical bull for over 15 seconds, at which point I was gracefully bucked off in a dignified manner.

Great success.

Corporal punishment, reporting in.

When I was first teaching at my school, I didn't know how much disciplinary power I had over my students. Am I allowed to make them sit outside the classroom, for example, or to even dismiss them entirely? After all, they're paying good money to be in these classes. (The answer, by the way, is yes.)

A big part of dispelling my fears came from my first round of PTMs, or parent teacher meetings. All of the parents wanted to know that their kids were behaving well and paying attention. There was little to no sense of entitlement from the parents of students with disciplinary issues.

The other part came from seeing the parents interact with their children. A great many still use physical punishment on their kids for acting up. Mostly it's a slap on the wrist or something, but once in a while I'll see a mother being quite forceful with her child's backside/thighs.

Now, I remember being spanked (once?) as a kid for acting up in church, and I'm sure I deserved it. No problem. But these parents are much more cavalier in dishing out smacks, and are not afraid to do it in front of other students, parents, and teachers. From what I can see, it's not effective as a long-term solution.

Kids are wily. As soon as their parents/teachers aren't watching, they'll act up again. In my experience, though, if you teach them why they shouldn't act up and provide incentive for good behavior, it'll stick.

100% effective? Nope. More effective than hitting them often enough that they don't care anymore? Damn right.

Mystery meat

It's common in Shanghai to see raw vegetables, fish, fruit, fungus, and meat just sitting on trays in front of street food vendors. You just give them the skewered ingredients, and they'll grill it, add it to noodles/rice, or cook it in spicy broth for soup. It's delicious!

Most of the time, I have no idea what sort of meat I'm getting. It's small seasoned bits that usually end up being chicken meat and innards. Last night, though, I got some crunchy-chewy giblets that were really confusing to my mouth. I ate them all, though, and figured it was some animal organ that I hadn't tried before. It tasted fine, but had a bizarre texture. So, I went and asked them what it was!

Through a series of pointing and confused looks, I found out.

It was balls. Yes, testicles. I ate them. Not sure which animal.

On the bright side, it was one of the funniest hand-gesture conversations I've ever had! They thought it was hilarious.