With many feelings circulating in my mind, this Mid-Autumn festival gave me the break I’d needed for some time. To gather my thoughts and put them into perspective...

Locking up my tarnished bicycle and walking the three steps into school, I sighed. I had nothing planned for my time off yet every day I did and found something new and then my six days were over and I was back to the old.
“I say, you say” every child engaged as we learnt today’s new phonic. Their faces changing to a bright pink as they laughed uncontrollably while I joked ‘teacher wash her face?’ as spit sprayed from most mouths in class whilst they said the phonic ‘f’ and that’s when I heard it. No not their clever little minds telling me “Ff, finger” but laughter. Pure genuine laughter right from the bottom of their stomachs. I joked again asking 6 year old Katie if she needed the bathroom as her face went beetroot! The room roared.
I needed this holiday. I needed it badly to remind me how much I love what I do and who I love being around; teaching and children!

* I’d rather lose myself in passion than lose my passion *

A lady coughed discreetly until her coughs made me turn my head. With long stained finger nails the smoker just pointed to the other side of him. She put a hanker chief to her mouth. He then shouted for her to move. He was quite bewildered. What was her problem? If she didn’t like his smoking habits on a public train with signs pointing out ‘NO SMOKING’ then she should move across so the smoke didn’t go in her direction! And so she finally did and they smiled at each other and strangely at that it seemed like they were real smiles, both concluding ‘Oh, I’m glad we sorted out that situation!’
I was on my way to Xitang. A river town with a history of over 900 years not that I would of realised with the shops adorned with ‘American merchandise’ signs and squeaky rubber chickens being sold every where I looked. After 2 hours I’d had enough. I didn’t walk around yet floated as the crowd carried me in whatever direction they were going. I was worried that standing for just one second to take a photo of something that looked remotely old I’d be pushed into the river directly next to every path way. I finally found an exit and walked. I walked and walked. I walked until the only noise I could hear was my own footsteps. The area I’d stumbled across was abandoned. Old houses with windows smashed that hadn’t made the cut into the Xitang travel guide. Vegetables and plants grew around door frames and a rusted basketball hoop. Instead families had moved onto river boats and allowed their farm animals to roam these areas. With nothing left to do I slept in the train station for 3 hours only to be woken by “waiguo ren” being repeated as people walked by this red headed foreigner.

Cargo ships bellowed loudly ‘honey I’m home’ or perhaps even ‘honey I’m coming home’ A stray white bird sat on a rock, as murky water flowed by. Apart from the calm rooms of my apartment I’d finally found a secluded place far away from the millions of noisy people during this mid-Autumn festival. I stood for a while on the out skirts of Shanghai letting my imagination make up vivid stories about the many ships.

4 year old Lisa, my shy student of 5 months sat on her Grandmothers lap as I talked through an i-pad translator application to her mother as we made our way to Sheshan Botanical Gardens. Made to be just another family member we spent all day together. “Laoshi Emma, laoshi Emma” constantly being called from Lisa as she grabbed her teachers hand wanting me to pick her up or hold her hand as we walked past exotic plants. Shy no more! Our wonderful day ended with dinner. Bird stomach, the inside of chicken feet, water chestnuts… But it wasn’t these dishes that made me make a scene at the table, it was the half jar of mayonnaise that Lisa’s Grandfather mixed into our now not so healthy fruit salad! They were confused that we crazy foreigners would use mayonnaise on vegetables. Yup?!

* The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common, simple things *

With LOVE!