Cold as Ice

Dear people,

Yes I am still alive! But I have to admit, I was close on not being able to talk to you for a loooong time. To be fair, I had some nasty mixture of a flu and tonsillitis. I had to stay in my bed for the whole last week. Some of you might think that would be pretty relaxed but I got to tell you guys it´s not relaxed at all to boil like a crab when it´s cooked. 39.5 degree was kind of too hot. But never the less I am now perfectly alright…with one exception: IT IS GETTING REALLY COLD!

I have no clue why the weather changed so rapidly but it happened too fast if you would ask me. Suddenly whole Shanghai puts out its winter clothes and is running through the streets trembling, me the worst of all. The worst is that it´s not like in Europe where it is damn freezing during the winter but you have heating in every building and you never need to freeze seriously for a long time, noooo every city south of the Yangtze River is forbidden by the government to have heating. So your only “heating” is the air-con and if it´s a rather old one, like I am lucky to have in my room, sometimes it is not working at all. But not only that I am punished by not having a hot room, my office has no, or they won´t turn it on because of something I-have-no-idea-why, air-condition. So practically the warmest time of the day for me is when I am in the metro and that’s just because I wear my thick winter jacket and there are about 10 million people who want to “cuddle” with you during rush-hour.

But why am I acting like a wimpy child. As my father always tells me “What doesn´t kill you just makes you stronger” ;-)

 So right know I am sitting in my office and I practically do nothing. Fortunately just today is like this. Normally I have to do a lot, ok not a lot but something and I even like it. At the moment I have two tasks. On Saturday my organization is hosting a workshop at our organic farm for about 20 UPS-volunteers. The will learn how to plant organically AND my big task is to tell them something about composting. We will actually build a compost heap and this all as me as the man who is in charge. To be well prepared I read nearly everything about “composting” and “how to build a proper compost” available in the World Wide Web. I hope won´t screw things up too bad ;-)

My second task these days is also related to our organic farm. My superior really wants to have the selling of organic food as a solid financing for our NGO. So I have to do a lot of research, share some ideas and experiences and just do everything related to organic food in China or Germany (as a kind of role model). Sometimes it is a little bit boring but I am looking forward to actually help Summer (my boss) to sel the food and so I see the reason behind all the work :-)

So that’s status quo right know in my life. AHH one thing I nearly forgot…tomorrow two weeks ago I was at a “Boys Noize” concert with a really good line-up as starters. It was so incredible good and I had a hell of night…though I had a bad morning after ;-)

Weekend is Halloween and I am very disappointed that I can´t go around the street and ask for sweets :-( Lets all be tensed about what Halloween is going to be like and how I will figure out to compensate the non-“trick or treat” time!

Now I gotta leave…out of the cold office, on the cold street and finally in the warm metro :-)

Cheers

L.

Vital Signs

Hey there everybody! Today I am going to release all of you who were waiting for my new blog-post. I know you couldn’t think of anything else so I am doing you guys the favor so give some vital sign ;-)

As you know I had a week of holiday and I really enjoyed them. Even though I am quite enjoying staying at my host-family (there are ups and downs of course) it was quite nice to see to enjoy the city as long as I wanted to without thinking about “will I be home on time” or “do I have to eat art home”. Wandering to around the streets of one of the most exciting cities in the world, searching for small alleys where you find so many so unique shops or restaurants and of course…exploring Shanghais night-life. Since my last stay in Shanghai 2007/2008 something changed about nightlife. The huge clubs were dominating the scene and small and as well good clubs were seldom to be found. Nowadays it has changed: More and more smaller so called “underground clubs” opened and established. But enough…I don’t want to disappear into enthusiasm for SH´s nightlife.

Something changed at work. I actually have a task!;-) Last Friday was my first work-day after the holiday and I talked with my boss Summer about what I am going to do the following 8 month. The result was that I am going to work with a school project featuring lessons about a newly constructed “Eco pond” and the general awareness for the environment. The “Eco pond” was build with an initiative by “Green Oasis” (the NGO I am working for) and two Shanghainese schools. During this project the schools change their old school ponds into environmental friendly ones.

The main problem of the old ponds was that they getting dirtier over time and it were expensive to exchange the water frequently. The water was getting this dirty in the first place because the feed for the Koi in the pond that they didn’t eat was left in the water. So the non-eaten feed worked like a kind of fertilizer to algae in the pond. So after a while many algae in the pond where “stealing” the fishes oxygen and they were making the water look dirty. AND of course (otherwise it wouldn’t be to consider to change into an “Eco pond”) the costs for changing the water were high.

Long story short…I am going to become some kind of a teacher for environment subjects. I wouldn’t imagined that when I left good old Germany. But you never know, maybe it´s my dream job but I don’t know about it yet…hopefully not!;-) Even though I might won´t be a teacher for my whole life I am looking forward for this task, even when it´s just for having something to do other than writing for my magnificent blog…;-)

Tomorrow me and my boss, who will be teaching with me together if I got it right, will be visiting the school for the first time. So I am going back to high school…again! Thought I left  that s**t behind me…

So be tensed how my day in the school was and what is happening on the weekend! Got a HUUUGE highlight coming up!

Take Care

L.