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It has been an exciting week, the conclusion of which brings me to the four month mark! 

On Monday, we got to make 饺子 (dumplings) in our culture class! It was fun to cook with the cafeteria Ayi's again, and the dumplings were simply delicious! 

Tuesday was the Christmas Eve assembly (晚会 or "party")  in which I performed with the choir, singing "This Love", "Silent Night", and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". There was about 3 hours in total of IB Chinese performances including dances, plays and comedy routines. It was awesome to see some of the hidden talents and passions of my schoolmates. 

That evening, we got to watch a movie during our normal night study time (6:30-9:15). We watched the Bollywood film "Three Idiots". Even though it isn't directly related to anything christmas-y, in my opinion, it is one of the best movies in existence. Luckily my NSLI-Y classmate Paris shared this sentiment and bought the DVD at a local video store. Everyone on planet earth should watch this movie. Period. 

We also exchanged our NSLI-Y "Secret Santa" gifts! Brady got me the perfect gift: a t-shirt that he had seen me eying when we were at TianZiFang. See the design of super cute pandas performing all the 太极拳 (Taiqi) moves below.

Our Resident Director Shasha also made us all "granola bars" (basically oatmeal cookies with tons of oatmeal in them), which were great! And Tilden's grandmother also hand-knitted us all socks! They are pure coziness! 

Wednesday (Christmas day), the school treated all the international students to an amusement park trip. We went to Happy Valley (欢乐谷), which is the biggest theme park in Shanghai at the moment (they're currently working on a Disneyland that'll be larger). It had some pretty wicked roller coasters! There were also some bizarre themes such as a haunted house and old mining town which were all a riot!  We also met a man from Djbouti dressed as a Santa selling sticks of honey-covered fruit who tried to convince me he was Russian because he thought I was. 

It was all in all a great time: I enjoyed some really wonderful tears-of-laughter and front-row-hands-up-roller-coaster screams. 

Wednesday evening, we all got to go to KTV (a private karaoke room) and sang and danced our hearts out. It was rad to hear Smiley (from Korea) rap the entirety of Gangam Style and Eric, the Norwegian go hard to "Livin' on a Prayer". Such a blast! 

Friday was the international student speaking performance, where Luca (from Italy) and I were the hosts.  

There were so many great essays  and poems written in Chinese on the topic of our "impression of China". 

I ended up reading my poem 五味中国 (The five flavors of China)!

Saturday, I went back to the XinTianDi Y+ yoga studio for a workshop taught by Jessica and Stéphane (friends from the U.S.) and translated by Duoduo. It consisted of an excellent physical practice based on the five elements (土，火，水，风，空间：earth, fire, water, wind, and space) and then a great sutra lesson on the 8 limbs of yoga with relation to Buddhism. 

It's always was very enjoyable for me to study these philosophies, but it was even more cool to do it in Chinese! 

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There was a lot of rain at the beginning of this week.  Although it felt cleansing, it was also a little unfortunate because it was also accompanied by a huge temperature drop and I'm not a huge fan of damp cold. However, it made me greatly appreciate my tea and fried-egg-and-vegetable noodle soup every morning:

it also provided me with the opportunity to snap this cool shot in our school building's lobby: 

The weather cleared up on Wednesday for our 月考 (YueKao: monthly test), which went well! 

Thursday, during our culture class, we got to make and taste the traditional Chinese dish: 火锅 (huo guo: hot pot). Because the city of Chengdu (famous for its huo guo) was my first Chinese home, I have a special love for this spicy spicy dish. Although it wasn't as good as Chengdu, it was pretty great! It was also fun to get to go back into the school cafeteria kitchens and help the "ayi's" ("aunt" is what everyone in China uses to respectfully refer to cleaning/cooking staff as well as middle-aged female strangers in general): 

(Reo, Carmen, and Maike)

(Yasu): 

Thursday we also had a fire drill, which was an interesting experience. They actually had fake smoke and we had to run from the dorms with a wet towel pressed to our faces. They also had a fire extinguisher demonstration after we all successfully "survived". 

This week we wrote middle-school-esque essays about The Kite Runner for our Writing teacher. They're going to put them up on the wall too which is kind of embarrassing, but I am also surprisingly proud of my work because this type of thing is a kind of a language milestone in Chinese. Next up is my semester research project presentation, which will take place on the 30th of December! 

On another note: I mentioned before, I have discovered a new love of jazzercise while in China. I want to share the best jazzercise song that my PE teacher plays for us. It could just be the best song, period. Enjoy! 

加油歌 (jia you ge or "go go song") 

Also I wanted to share some evidence of the burgeoning recycle system:

I'm so proud of the Chinese IB Roots and Shoots Club! 

This Saturday I went to bustling shopping district XinTianDi （新天地）for another NSLI-Y outing. We got to visit a museum that exhibited the gorgeous intersection of historical Chinese/French style architecture and interior design:

I then took Tilden to a flow hour class at the Y+ Yoga Studio at XinTianDi, which was awesome. 

After class, we celebrated the Solstice with some delicious apple crumble pie and explored some. We found a lot of really excellent street art: 

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The pollution finally cleared up this Tuesday with the onset of some pretty frigid weather! 

I have never been so happy to see a blue sky and breathe fresh air! :) 

Even though I hope I won't be needing it again any time soon, I also received the special mask with a PM2.5 filter that our teachers ordered for us. It's purple and quite stylish! I guess I've also never been so excited about the fashionable qualities of a face mask...New emotions and experiences in China everyday! 

In choir this week, we prepared for our Christmas concert at the assembly which will take place either next week or the week after (I'm never quite clear with the timing of events here). 

I'll be singing the alto part in a "Silent Night" harmony along with a smaller group of IB Chinese girls (Chenglu, Xieyi, Francis and Miu) as well as "This Love" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" with the whole group. 

I want to congratulate Miu (one of the cutest, most fashionable and kind people I know) on her acceptance to one of her top college choices: School of the Art Institute of Chicago. 恭喜恭喜！

I'm also really excited though because I found out that Xieyi runs the "Roots and Shoots" club, which I wanted to join at the beginning of the year but couldn't because their meetings coincided with my classes. Although I still can't attend meetings, I've starting helping with the school's recycling program, which is the club's main objective this year! I'm excited because I hate seeing how much material is wasted at our school. 

This week we watched The Kite Runner in our Chinese character class! I know it's pretty random, but I'm not complaining. 

It's such a devastating story though. 

On Saturday, my host sister came along with me on our NSLI-Y excursion to TianZiFang (a famous architectural site and shopping area in Shanghai), which we were supposed to visit last weekend but couldn't because of the pollution. 

It was nice that my host sister came. We had good Chinese discussions on the metro about hairstyles, astrology, and child adoption and then she got to practice her English with the other Americans. 

At TianZiFang, we walked around in the maze of little shops and ate some really delicious and genuine pizza! 

The NSLI-Y crew is also holding a "Secret Santa" Exchange on Christmas Eve, so it was a great opportunity to buy our gifts for that. I'll certainly be returning there to buy gifts before I come home to the States in June as well! 

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I can't believe that we're already a week into December! 

We have a Christmas Day trip planned for the 25th (not sure where they're taking us, but last year the students went to a roller coaster park and went out for a Chinese classic: hot pot). 

Our research project presentations will also take place at the end of December. I'm basically done with all my research and just need to neaten it up and practice presenting it. 

We'll have three days off in total for New Year's Day (元旦 yuan dan), but I'd actually rather not because the government makes up the missed days by taking away our weekend (having two weeks straight of school with no break does not sound fabulous to me). 

After we take our finals (early January) and the HSK on January 11th, we get our month-long break for the Chinese New Year or Spring Festival (春节 chun jie), for which I am totally stoked. 

The air pollution this week was horrendous. We saw the most severe levels that Shanghai has ever had. 

Levels of PM2.5 (particulate matter of 2.5 nanometers) were above 500 (0-50 is good; 50-100 is moderate; 101-150 is unhealthy for sensitive groups; 151-200 is unhealthy; 201-300 is very unhealthy and 300+ is hazardous). 

Check out this website if you'd like more information and for a real-time air quality index of Chinese cities. 

Notice that the track is closed due to the air. Although it may look like morning mist, it's not. The first picture above was snapped just outside my dorm.

Although some schools closed down completely because of the pollution, Jiao Da Fu Zhong marched on (our track was closed though and our daily morning exercises and flag raising were canceled due to the conditions). 

I've been wearing my scarf wrapped around my face as a mask, but our teachers are ordering us special masks with filters for the future. Luckily, the levels are a supposed to go way down after this weekend though. 

Because of the pollution, of course we spent our PE classes this week indoors: we've been playing ping pong, learning a kung fu sequence and I have now come to realize how unbelievably fun jazzercise can be. I love our PE (jazzercise!) teacher. She also asked me teach yoga to the class and is just the coolest. 

Also due to the pollution, our NSLI-Y excursion to Tianzifang this weekend was canceled (everyone was encouraged to stay inside), so I'm taking this weekend to study and chill out a little bit. 

I'll be working on my first Chinese poem (for a speaking competition in late December that is happening along with a photography competition in which I'll also compete)! 

Although the air quality has been pretty disturbing, I feel like it's a very real Chinese experience and one that is so important in tangibly understanding why we need to act in ways that sustain and protect our environment--the consequences of not doing so are very severe. 

That being said, I have been very lucky in my life not to have been directly exposed to environmental hazards or injustice and still feel lucky to be living in a city now where this is at least not the norm, compared to many other cities in China.

Stay safe everyone!