here, there, everywhere

Things from the last 72 hours:

1. 24 hours before we were all set to leave for our summer camp job, we got an e-mail from our recruiter saying that, due to a newly imposed restriction, recent arrivals to China are *not* allowed near schools due to the swine flu risk, so, no job for us. The harried recruiters then graciously spent the next 24 hours trying to find us alternatives - including one city 16 hours away by train and another in what only seemed to be described as "one of the three hottest cities in China in the summer," and we started seriously considering fleeing back to Vietnam to look elsewhere. Finally, after advising us to buy tickets to said hottest city, they realized we'd in fact been in China long enough, and - several hours after our original train left - told us to jump on the next train and take our original jobs.

2. So, against a number of odds, we figured out the glitzy Shanghai train station and arrived in town yesterday afternoon, where we were picked up by two incredibly friendly teaching assistants who'll be working at the camp with us, and were whisked to an abandoned middle school campus which is flanked by about a million tiny world flags fluttering around a "HAPPY INTEGRITY PROGRESS" and lots of rainbows. There are a number of other teachers, some of whom, fortunately, speak fluent Mandarin, otherwise none of us would have any clue what was going on, but for the next two weeks I'll be up to my ears in very small children who speak an indeterminate amount of English, and we have absolutely nothing in the way of materials, aside from a xeroxed sheet of possible 'conversation topics' - including how to fill out a job application, and the differences between learning British and American English - burning issues for the average eight year old. So it's a bit odd, but nothing I don't think I can handle, and certainly not nearly as overwhelming as...

3. The camps "Opening Ceremony" tonight: after being told only to show up by 7 pm, we were then lined up and marched out of the school to realize we were standing underneath the HAPPY INTEGRITY PROGRESS banner in front of the entire camp (500 kids? 600?), who, in their neat lines with their neat (and fitted) uniforms, looked a fair bit more presentable than the teachers in their too-large shirts (the camp had only ordered XXXL and XXL) and who had no idea they were going to be on display. After some welcoming speeches by various camp directors, with the kids clapping and shouting "WELCOME!" at appropriate intervals, and also including an incredibly cute speech by a little girl who looked to be about eleven and who had amazing English, and an improvised speech from one of the teachers (so I guess some of us knew what was going to happen), they then set off about some massive, earsplittingly loud fireworks on either side of the school. For the next four or five minutes, the incredibly cute kids in the audience covered their ears and stood there looking back and forth and back and forth as the fireworks exploded to the left and to the right, and then, finally, we got the signal to move offstage.

4. Only, as I started to follow Iain, one of the camp directors flagged me down and asked if I didn't mind being interviewed for the news (!!), so for then next few minutes, I awkwardly smiled and tried to figure out who I was supposed to look at (the guy with the camera? the woman translating? the guy asking the questions?) and babbled about where I was from, how I'd never been to China but how I had taught in Vietnam before, how I was really excited to learn all about China from my students and tell them all about San Francisco and how I would really focus on teaching my kids how to communicate (I didn't mention the filling out job applications part.) So I might be in the news! Somewhere. Maybe.

5. So: we are here, with jobs, and - for the next two weeks, at least - internet access in our lovely hotel room! The other teachers seem nice, the town seems chilled and not unpleasantly hot, and I have no idea what to expect tomorrow, but that's all that's going on for now.

6. Except for one last thing: China has seen fit to block Facebook in addition to Blogspot lately, which has been surprisingly depressing - I miss at least knowing what people are doing while I'm so far away, and there's a lot of people I can't get in touch with otherwise! So I'm incredibly sorry in advance if I'm more out the loop than usual, but at least Gmail still works for now if you need me.