Wednesday, January 16th, 2007
It’s been almost a month since I’ve been back in the US from my study abroad semester in China. Since then I’ve taken more of a notice of my surroundings and I’m constantly comparing everything to the way I had it in China. Now that I’m back at school, things just seem too different and I don’t seem to like it. It’s still early and I know it takes myself awhile to adjust but I miss everything I had back in China. It was definitely the people I met there that made such the difference. I could relate to them in ways I’ve never been able to before. I seemed to have built a bond with people that I’ve never gotten to do with friends I have here. I’m not bashing any of my friends, but rather relating. It seems that I had built a family in China that I could talk to about anything and they’d understand. It could be of background, location, or experience. I’ve met people that have accomplished so much in their lives and seen so many things. I feel the people I know are more grounded to their surroundings and not ready to experience new things or change. I feel people here at Washington and Jefferson College put too much of their time in the greek life and don’t realize there’s so many opportunities out there. It’s not the end of the world. It’s just the beginning.
It’s just hard adjusting, even now, to the days when I’d ride a bike everyday to class. Now I just walk and it seems to take so much longer. We use to eat out everyday at restaurants of our choice or run to the first floor to grab a snack. Here, I’ve hardly ate any lunches. There just doesn’t seem to be people around that I’d feel comfortable eating with. Well, it’s not even that. I’m not sure how I’d express how I feel in that sense. Or maybe I just miss the jokes that were constantly said when we would be around each other. I don’t really have that close connection I feel with anyone here on campus. And the food is different too. I’d pick Chinese food over any of these foods that they serve any day. But I am thankful for being able to eat.
And around Washington, PA, nothing is convenient. There doesn’t seem to be anything to do. Well I guess where we were located in Fudan, we had to go into the city to do things. But at least I was with people that wanted to explore. Honestly, I haven’t seen anything in Pittsburgh during my 2.5 years here so far. But for the majority, everyone lives in Pittsburgh. I’ll have to explore a little myself though. I know our school is offering The Lion King tickets for Valentine’s Day this year for $10. That’s a pretty good deal. I keep forgetting to buy a ticket. Hopefully I’ll remember tomorrow.
Things just don’t seem to be the same. And they aren’t. It’s just another change. I like change because I get to experience different area’s and see more. But I don’t like change when nothing seems to be good of it. But who knows, maybe if I stayed in China for another semester with the people around me, I wouldn’t have liked it. That’s what happened here. I was suppose to leave my second semester at W+J and transfer to a school in Boston but since I liked my surroundings so much I didn’t. But know look. I hate being here. Maybe if I transferred I’d still be fond of this place. Don’t anyone take offense to my writing here. I’m just expressing my feelings. I’m looking for an internship in a city this summer, other than NYC since I was there last summer. That’ll be another change and another experience and I’m looking into studying abroad in the fall in Europe. Another change and adjustment I’ll be making. These experiences can only lead to a wider knowledge of what’s out there and discovering more of myself. Something I am looking forward to. I suppose this will be my last blog here. But to stay tuned to the event of my life, you can continue reading at http://shartron.blogspot.com/. I’ll probably end up posting one more on here though of my picture album when I get that finished. So long for now!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Back in the United States of America
Saturday, December 22nd, 2007
And how it feels so weird! My plane from Shanghai left on 12/19 at 6:30pm and my flight landed in JFK at 7:30pm on the same day, so I really only lost an hour. The first thing I saw when I came into the US on TV was that Britney Spear’s 16 year old sister was pregnant. How surprising…
I left China in tears. I spent my last night out to dinner with friends at Element Fresh. Afterwards we went clubbing for the last time at Richy’s. As my last meal in China, we went to dim sum for lunch. I couldn’t be more thankful for those that I’ve met in China and the friendships I’ve made. The hardest thing about leaving China was leaving some of the greatest people I’ve ever met behind. Most of them from the US, so I’m hoping we’ll reunite one day. I’ve come to realize during my semester in China that international business might not be for me. From my experience with spending a semester there, speaking and interacting with the locals, and attending and speaking with a representative from Deutche Bank, I don’t know if I could stay in China for long term. It might be different if I got a job there, then I could say if I could really work there or not. We’ll see. I’m currently looking for internships in Asia along with major cities in the US, so China isn’t ruled out yet.
When I got back to the states, it took me about 2.5ish hours to go through customs and get my luggage. My dads friend met me at the airport and then we met my mom in Chinatown. It was weird being back but it was nice I suppose to see they city all lite up and all the snow on the ground. We just had snowfall earlier that day. I drove halfway home in our brand new car, so nice! It was nice finally being able to drive again. It was nice that when I was in a car I wasn’t being jolted everywhere like the taxi’s in China. When I got home I wasn’t tired so I got on skype and got to talk to some of the people in China. It felt nice. I really miss them. Afterwards, I opened up some mail from the last few months. I got my last paycheck from my summer internship! It feels nice nice to have money in my pocket.
The next morning, my brother woke me up when he woke up to go to school. He’s grown so much! The first meal I had since I was back was Chinese noodles from Chinatown for breakfast. I’m not sick of Chinese food and never will be! hah First show I watched after having no TV for the last few months was Saved By the Bell, love that show! But apparently the writers in Hollywood went on strike a few weeks ago and there haven’t been new shows since. Everything on television has been re-runs. I haven’t really done much since I’ve been back. I’m pretty jet lagged so I spent my first day sleeping. Yesterday I went to the dentist and caught up on some e-mails before I fell asleep at 6:30pm. Then I woke up and ate dinner and watched some tv before falling asleep again. Now it’s 2:30am and I’m awake again.
My sister comes home from school tomorrow. I haven’t seen her in so long besides the few days in August before I left. I missed her completely in the summer since she was doing an internship in Singapore. I need to apply to more internships and get some things done around the house. I don’t have a phone yet so I can’t call anyone to say hello, sorry about that! I only have a couple weeks before I have to return to school in January. It’s so close! I can’t believe just a couple days ago I was on the other side of the world and now I’m sitting in my room. As I hit more shocking moments during my return, I’ll be sure to share.
And how it feels so weird! My plane from Shanghai left on 12/19 at 6:30pm and my flight landed in JFK at 7:30pm on the same day, so I really only lost an hour. The first thing I saw when I came into the US on TV was that Britney Spear’s 16 year old sister was pregnant. How surprising…
I left China in tears. I spent my last night out to dinner with friends at Element Fresh. Afterwards we went clubbing for the last time at Richy’s. As my last meal in China, we went to dim sum for lunch. I couldn’t be more thankful for those that I’ve met in China and the friendships I’ve made. The hardest thing about leaving China was leaving some of the greatest people I’ve ever met behind. Most of them from the US, so I’m hoping we’ll reunite one day. I’ve come to realize during my semester in China that international business might not be for me. From my experience with spending a semester there, speaking and interacting with the locals, and attending and speaking with a representative from Deutche Bank, I don’t know if I could stay in China for long term. It might be different if I got a job there, then I could say if I could really work there or not. We’ll see. I’m currently looking for internships in Asia along with major cities in the US, so China isn’t ruled out yet.
When I got back to the states, it took me about 2.5ish hours to go through customs and get my luggage. My dads friend met me at the airport and then we met my mom in Chinatown. It was weird being back but it was nice I suppose to see they city all lite up and all the snow on the ground. We just had snowfall earlier that day. I drove halfway home in our brand new car, so nice! It was nice finally being able to drive again. It was nice that when I was in a car I wasn’t being jolted everywhere like the taxi’s in China. When I got home I wasn’t tired so I got on skype and got to talk to some of the people in China. It felt nice. I really miss them. Afterwards, I opened up some mail from the last few months. I got my last paycheck from my summer internship! It feels nice nice to have money in my pocket.
The next morning, my brother woke me up when he woke up to go to school. He’s grown so much! The first meal I had since I was back was Chinese noodles from Chinatown for breakfast. I’m not sick of Chinese food and never will be! hah First show I watched after having no TV for the last few months was Saved By the Bell, love that show! But apparently the writers in Hollywood went on strike a few weeks ago and there haven’t been new shows since. Everything on television has been re-runs. I haven’t really done much since I’ve been back. I’m pretty jet lagged so I spent my first day sleeping. Yesterday I went to the dentist and caught up on some e-mails before I fell asleep at 6:30pm. Then I woke up and ate dinner and watched some tv before falling asleep again. Now it’s 2:30am and I’m awake again.
My sister comes home from school tomorrow. I haven’t seen her in so long besides the few days in August before I left. I missed her completely in the summer since she was doing an internship in Singapore. I need to apply to more internships and get some things done around the house. I don’t have a phone yet so I can’t call anyone to say hello, sorry about that! I only have a couple weeks before I have to return to school in January. It’s so close! I can’t believe just a couple days ago I was on the other side of the world and now I’m sitting in my room. As I hit more shocking moments during my return, I’ll be sure to share.
If I Could Do China Again
Thursday, December 13th, 2007
If I could do China again, I’d probably…
1. get a Chinese tutor-I took the intermediate Chinese class here and I didn’t learn anything. We had class twice a week and at least one of those days we would be watching a movie. The movies were good, but we didn’t seem to have any structure to our class.
2. hang out with more international and local students-I was pretty diverse with the people I met but for the most part I hung out with students from UC. I’ve met some great people from Mexico, Italy, Mongolia, Korea, Australia and other countries as well that I hope to keep in touch with. But I wish I hung out with them more. Hopefully one day we’ll see each other again!
3. be more involved in student activities-I wanted to join the foreign students volunteer program but our times didn’t seem to match up. The international students here at Fudan went to a migrant worker village and taught the students there English and planned activities with them. I know a lot of people that were in the program and they said they had a great experience, I wish I had that experience as well.
4. Get a job or internship-It would have been a great experience. I’m not sure if it would be legal or not, but it’s worth a try, whether it’s paid or not, it would have been a great experience.
That’s all I can think of right now. Maybe more to come later.
Things I would recommend doing while in Shanghai.
Places to go to and things to do:
1. Yuyuan Gardens-and try the xiaolongbao! Apparently they’re the best in Shanghai.
2. the aquarium-I like water…but I thought it was magnificent! You get to glide through the tunnel and watch all the fishes and sharks and everything go over your head. I loved it!
3. Nanjing lu-went there a million times in the beginning of the semester, it’s pretty nice except for all the people trying to sell you their crap.
4. the Bund-magnificent view of the river
5. KTV-they are all over! We go to the one at wujiaochang a lot. The one next to Wal-mart but there’s a lot. Definitely a lot of fun, singing Chinese and English.
6. Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall-it’s actually quite impressive and I believe it’s the third floor where have a model of shanghai that takes up the whole floor, definitely something worth checking out.
7. Shanghai Science and Technology Museum-I went there for a scholarship trip for my program but I liked it. Some say it’s catered for kids, but hey I like learning in that kind of environment and sometimes it’s even more fun!
8. Fabric Market-get suits and jackets tailored to you. If you don’t want to bargain, go to store 383 on the third floor. Tell them you know me, how to tell them? Just describe how I look I guess…glasses…tall…from the US…or just bring a picture. Tell them I’m good friends with them cause I brought them at least 4 guys there to make suits. Or tell them, I brought them the really crazy American there who went crazy in the store and then bought 3 suits and 5 shirts. Whatever they tell you, you should be getting your suits for 400rmb there, no more. The address is No. 399 LuJiaBang Rd
Traveling wise…I’ve traveled China before so I’ve seen a bunch of these places before but I’ll jot them down anyway along with the ones I traveled to this semester…
1. Suzhou
2. Hangzhou
3. Huangshan-never got a chance to go there because our schedules never clashed but I looked at pictures and their magnificent if you like scenery. Climb the mountain and watch the sunrise!
4. Nanjing
5. Sichuan-we flew there and spent 5 days there going to Chengdu, Le Shan, Jiuzhaigou. I think this may be one of my most favorite places in China, it was just too beautiful.
6. Guilin and Yangshuo-we spent about 7 days here for National Week, definitely a great trip
7. Beijing
Places to eat at:
Around Fudan…
1. Muslim Noodles-they are a must! Hand pulled noodles right in front of your eyes! We go there a lot after class. It’s cheap and good. Located on Handan lu right next to the intersection where the Brazilian buffet restaurant is.
2. No. 8-right outside the gate to the right across the street. They’re known for their hot pot but I go there for their friend rice. I really like it.
3. Skewers-down Korean street. If you make a left out the gate and go to the intersection, cross the street and then make a left. Do down til you see Korean street on your right and turn in. The skewer place is on the left. The lamb skewers are delicious!
4. Fat Brothers-it’s in the same plaza as No. 8. When we first came, their service was horrible and so was everything else but after National Week they got a new owner and since then, we’ve really liked it. Eat family style and it’s pretty cheap. Or get their specials which are the menus under the glass tables.
5. Teppanyaki’s-it’s in Wujiaochang. Japanese all you can eat and drink for 150rmb. Enough said.
6. Ciao Café-if you’re looking for American food like pizza, sandwiches and pasta, Ciao is pretty good. I’ve had their tuna sandwich, chicken sandwich, and a few of their pizza’s. They deliver too so when you don’t feel like leaving the dorms.
7. GiGi Wonton’s-I think that’s what it’s called. If you make a right turn right out of the gate and walk down for a little, it’s a little wonton shop. I like their wonton noodles.
8. Street food-comes out about around 10pm every night. It’s literally right outside the gate. I like everything out there for the most part. The fried rice, noodles, Chinese hamburgers, squid, soup, chicken, potatoes, dumplings, dan bing
9. Dim Sum-there’s an all you can eat dim sum place for 30rmb out my crown plaza if you’re heading out towards building 6. if you know where club 173, it’s right in front of there.
10. ING-Korean food, I don’t eat there much, but they deliver til 5am
In Shanghai…
1. Simply Thai-never made it there but I heard it’s a great restaurant to go to, especially on Monday nights when everything is half off. Why would you go any other night?
2. City Diner-it’s American food, so if you’re craving it, they have a pretty good selection
3. Indian Kitchen-it’s in the French Concession
Clubs to Hit
1. Attica-there’s a cover on the weekend but if you know people you can get in free, just ask around in the dorms. From the small hip hop room there’s a great view out. There’s always a lot of people there. Paris Hilton went there when she was here and Next Top Model was filmed there too I believe.
2. Guandii-I like their selection of music, usually no cover
3. Park 97-nice but has a small dance floor, usually no cover
4. Zapata’s-mexican bar, free tequila on ladies night
5. I love Shanghai-never been there but heard it’s decent
6. Muse-pretty good music and plenty of room to dance
I’m not done yet but this is what I have so far. Hope it helps!
If I could do China again, I’d probably…
1. get a Chinese tutor-I took the intermediate Chinese class here and I didn’t learn anything. We had class twice a week and at least one of those days we would be watching a movie. The movies were good, but we didn’t seem to have any structure to our class.
2. hang out with more international and local students-I was pretty diverse with the people I met but for the most part I hung out with students from UC. I’ve met some great people from Mexico, Italy, Mongolia, Korea, Australia and other countries as well that I hope to keep in touch with. But I wish I hung out with them more. Hopefully one day we’ll see each other again!
3. be more involved in student activities-I wanted to join the foreign students volunteer program but our times didn’t seem to match up. The international students here at Fudan went to a migrant worker village and taught the students there English and planned activities with them. I know a lot of people that were in the program and they said they had a great experience, I wish I had that experience as well.
4. Get a job or internship-It would have been a great experience. I’m not sure if it would be legal or not, but it’s worth a try, whether it’s paid or not, it would have been a great experience.
That’s all I can think of right now. Maybe more to come later.
Things I would recommend doing while in Shanghai.
Places to go to and things to do:
1. Yuyuan Gardens-and try the xiaolongbao! Apparently they’re the best in Shanghai.
2. the aquarium-I like water…but I thought it was magnificent! You get to glide through the tunnel and watch all the fishes and sharks and everything go over your head. I loved it!
3. Nanjing lu-went there a million times in the beginning of the semester, it’s pretty nice except for all the people trying to sell you their crap.
4. the Bund-magnificent view of the river
5. KTV-they are all over! We go to the one at wujiaochang a lot. The one next to Wal-mart but there’s a lot. Definitely a lot of fun, singing Chinese and English.
6. Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall-it’s actually quite impressive and I believe it’s the third floor where have a model of shanghai that takes up the whole floor, definitely something worth checking out.
7. Shanghai Science and Technology Museum-I went there for a scholarship trip for my program but I liked it. Some say it’s catered for kids, but hey I like learning in that kind of environment and sometimes it’s even more fun!
8. Fabric Market-get suits and jackets tailored to you. If you don’t want to bargain, go to store 383 on the third floor. Tell them you know me, how to tell them? Just describe how I look I guess…glasses…tall…from the US…or just bring a picture. Tell them I’m good friends with them cause I brought them at least 4 guys there to make suits. Or tell them, I brought them the really crazy American there who went crazy in the store and then bought 3 suits and 5 shirts. Whatever they tell you, you should be getting your suits for 400rmb there, no more. The address is No. 399 LuJiaBang Rd
Traveling wise…I’ve traveled China before so I’ve seen a bunch of these places before but I’ll jot them down anyway along with the ones I traveled to this semester…
1. Suzhou
2. Hangzhou
3. Huangshan-never got a chance to go there because our schedules never clashed but I looked at pictures and their magnificent if you like scenery. Climb the mountain and watch the sunrise!
4. Nanjing
5. Sichuan-we flew there and spent 5 days there going to Chengdu, Le Shan, Jiuzhaigou. I think this may be one of my most favorite places in China, it was just too beautiful.
6. Guilin and Yangshuo-we spent about 7 days here for National Week, definitely a great trip
7. Beijing
Places to eat at:
Around Fudan…
1. Muslim Noodles-they are a must! Hand pulled noodles right in front of your eyes! We go there a lot after class. It’s cheap and good. Located on Handan lu right next to the intersection where the Brazilian buffet restaurant is.
2. No. 8-right outside the gate to the right across the street. They’re known for their hot pot but I go there for their friend rice. I really like it.
3. Skewers-down Korean street. If you make a left out the gate and go to the intersection, cross the street and then make a left. Do down til you see Korean street on your right and turn in. The skewer place is on the left. The lamb skewers are delicious!
4. Fat Brothers-it’s in the same plaza as No. 8. When we first came, their service was horrible and so was everything else but after National Week they got a new owner and since then, we’ve really liked it. Eat family style and it’s pretty cheap. Or get their specials which are the menus under the glass tables.
5. Teppanyaki’s-it’s in Wujiaochang. Japanese all you can eat and drink for 150rmb. Enough said.
6. Ciao Café-if you’re looking for American food like pizza, sandwiches and pasta, Ciao is pretty good. I’ve had their tuna sandwich, chicken sandwich, and a few of their pizza’s. They deliver too so when you don’t feel like leaving the dorms.
7. GiGi Wonton’s-I think that’s what it’s called. If you make a right turn right out of the gate and walk down for a little, it’s a little wonton shop. I like their wonton noodles.
8. Street food-comes out about around 10pm every night. It’s literally right outside the gate. I like everything out there for the most part. The fried rice, noodles, Chinese hamburgers, squid, soup, chicken, potatoes, dumplings, dan bing
9. Dim Sum-there’s an all you can eat dim sum place for 30rmb out my crown plaza if you’re heading out towards building 6. if you know where club 173, it’s right in front of there.
10. ING-Korean food, I don’t eat there much, but they deliver til 5am
In Shanghai…
1. Simply Thai-never made it there but I heard it’s a great restaurant to go to, especially on Monday nights when everything is half off. Why would you go any other night?
2. City Diner-it’s American food, so if you’re craving it, they have a pretty good selection
3. Indian Kitchen-it’s in the French Concession
Clubs to Hit
1. Attica-there’s a cover on the weekend but if you know people you can get in free, just ask around in the dorms. From the small hip hop room there’s a great view out. There’s always a lot of people there. Paris Hilton went there when she was here and Next Top Model was filmed there too I believe.
2. Guandii-I like their selection of music, usually no cover
3. Park 97-nice but has a small dance floor, usually no cover
4. Zapata’s-mexican bar, free tequila on ladies night
5. I love Shanghai-never been there but heard it’s decent
6. Muse-pretty good music and plenty of room to dance
I’m not done yet but this is what I have so far. Hope it helps!
Fire at Fudan
Thursday, December 13th, 2007
As I was going to class on Wednesday, I saw a fire break out on campus. The fire was in the art building which was next to building 5 and 6. I had my international political economy class in building 6. Apparently the fire was on the top floor of the art building and you could see a massive amount of smoke fuming out of the windows. By the time I got there, it looked like the smoke had been coming out for awhile because it looked so heavy. I guess it was also kind of hard to tell since it was also rainy and foggy that day. I couldn’t really do anything. There were already spectators, so I’m sure someone called 911. What would you call in China anyway? It’s probably not 911…something I should have probably looked up. So I just carried on with my business and went to class. I didn’t start hearing the fire trucks come until a little after I got into class. I’m not surprised, it’s China. Throughout our whole entire class I could hear the sirens get louder and louder and then stop. I never saw fires blazing but a local student sitting in front of me told me that her friend inside the art building text her asking to get help, but not to send anyone that wouldn’t be helpful, like students. We didn’t know what to do, nor was there much we could have done anyway. By the time I got out of class, nothing was there. It looked like the fire didn’t exist at all, so I guess it wasn’t that bad. I hope no one was hurt but since we’re in China, I’m sure we’ll never find out that kind of information.
I’m basically done with all my finals except for the one tomorrow afternoon, but it’s going to be a take home final anyway. Our history class doesn’t end until January but since all the Americans are leaving, he’s giving us a take home final that will be due sometime Saturday afternoon. I had a final last Wednesday and then this Monday and Tuesday. They weren’t bad, especially if you studied. Since Tuesday, I’ve just been doing little things. Monday night we had a Secret Santa celebration. It was basically with all the students from University of California (UC). I’ve grown to be very fond of the UC kids. They’re pretty sweet. The event was a great success and everyone had a great time. Tomorrow night the UC students have their graduation dinner. I’ll probably work on my final during that time. Afterwards we’re going out to this place called Creek Art. There’s a Christmas party with swing jazz there so I’m looking forward to it. I’m not too sure what I’m doing Saturday yet. But Sunday night we’re having a birthday dinner for 3 people from UC. Their birthdays are 3 days in a row at the end of the month. Then after that, we’re going to KTV.
I can’t believe I’m leaving Wednesday night. It’s definitely way too soon. I’m really going to miss the people I’ve met here.
As I was going to class on Wednesday, I saw a fire break out on campus. The fire was in the art building which was next to building 5 and 6. I had my international political economy class in building 6. Apparently the fire was on the top floor of the art building and you could see a massive amount of smoke fuming out of the windows. By the time I got there, it looked like the smoke had been coming out for awhile because it looked so heavy. I guess it was also kind of hard to tell since it was also rainy and foggy that day. I couldn’t really do anything. There were already spectators, so I’m sure someone called 911. What would you call in China anyway? It’s probably not 911…something I should have probably looked up. So I just carried on with my business and went to class. I didn’t start hearing the fire trucks come until a little after I got into class. I’m not surprised, it’s China. Throughout our whole entire class I could hear the sirens get louder and louder and then stop. I never saw fires blazing but a local student sitting in front of me told me that her friend inside the art building text her asking to get help, but not to send anyone that wouldn’t be helpful, like students. We didn’t know what to do, nor was there much we could have done anyway. By the time I got out of class, nothing was there. It looked like the fire didn’t exist at all, so I guess it wasn’t that bad. I hope no one was hurt but since we’re in China, I’m sure we’ll never find out that kind of information.
I’m basically done with all my finals except for the one tomorrow afternoon, but it’s going to be a take home final anyway. Our history class doesn’t end until January but since all the Americans are leaving, he’s giving us a take home final that will be due sometime Saturday afternoon. I had a final last Wednesday and then this Monday and Tuesday. They weren’t bad, especially if you studied. Since Tuesday, I’ve just been doing little things. Monday night we had a Secret Santa celebration. It was basically with all the students from University of California (UC). I’ve grown to be very fond of the UC kids. They’re pretty sweet. The event was a great success and everyone had a great time. Tomorrow night the UC students have their graduation dinner. I’ll probably work on my final during that time. Afterwards we’re going out to this place called Creek Art. There’s a Christmas party with swing jazz there so I’m looking forward to it. I’m not too sure what I’m doing Saturday yet. But Sunday night we’re having a birthday dinner for 3 people from UC. Their birthdays are 3 days in a row at the end of the month. Then after that, we’re going to KTV.
I can’t believe I’m leaving Wednesday night. It’s definitely way too soon. I’m really going to miss the people I’ve met here.
Jin Mao Tower
Tuesday, December 11th, 2007
This past weekend a bunch of us went to the Jin Mao Tower in Pudong, the third tallest building in the world, tallest in China. The building was quite impressive and compared to Twin Towers and the Empire State Building, there was hardly a waiting line. We took 3 different elevators to get to the 87th floor where we went to Cloud 9, the bar. The view was magnificent as it always is from the top of a skyscraper. They’re actually building another building next to the Jin Mao that’s taller. It seems to be almost done. Up in Cloud 9, which I thought to quite the creative name for the bar, you have to order at least 120 rmb. It’s a really nice place, just a little stuffy but that could also because there was 9 of us sitting at a booth table made for 6. The evening was quite relaxing. Before we went to the Jin Mao tower we went to a Thai restaurant in the Superbrand Mall called Thai Thai. First time I ever had thai food I think.
Actually! I also just had a tuna sandwich for the first time, thanks to my friend Mike. It actually wasn’t as bad as imagined. My sister use to get tuna all the time as lunch meat and I thought it smelled horrible so I never tried it. And here in China, what do ya know, I actually try tuna and it ain’t all that bad. I’ve tried so many new things in China and learned so many new things. Quite the experience!
A huge group of us did Secret Santa and we had our little exchanging last night. I was really happy to see everyone participate or come down and celebrate. It was so joyous! With about a week left until I head back to the states, I’m getting pretty sad. I’ve had such a wonderful experience with the people here I don’t want to leave.
But studying in China did make me realize that I may not be suited for the international business position, or at least not in China. Just communicating with the locals and traveling around, I don’t know if I could ever live in China for an extended time. I just feel that Chinese people are so rude and inconsiderate among other things, and yes yes, I know I’m Chinese. But it’s different, I was born in the US. There’s a major difference between someone who’s born in the states and someone straight from China. We’ll see though. I just don’t think I’d enjoy it. But who knows what the future brings!
This past weekend a bunch of us went to the Jin Mao Tower in Pudong, the third tallest building in the world, tallest in China. The building was quite impressive and compared to Twin Towers and the Empire State Building, there was hardly a waiting line. We took 3 different elevators to get to the 87th floor where we went to Cloud 9, the bar. The view was magnificent as it always is from the top of a skyscraper. They’re actually building another building next to the Jin Mao that’s taller. It seems to be almost done. Up in Cloud 9, which I thought to quite the creative name for the bar, you have to order at least 120 rmb. It’s a really nice place, just a little stuffy but that could also because there was 9 of us sitting at a booth table made for 6. The evening was quite relaxing. Before we went to the Jin Mao tower we went to a Thai restaurant in the Superbrand Mall called Thai Thai. First time I ever had thai food I think.
Actually! I also just had a tuna sandwich for the first time, thanks to my friend Mike. It actually wasn’t as bad as imagined. My sister use to get tuna all the time as lunch meat and I thought it smelled horrible so I never tried it. And here in China, what do ya know, I actually try tuna and it ain’t all that bad. I’ve tried so many new things in China and learned so many new things. Quite the experience!
A huge group of us did Secret Santa and we had our little exchanging last night. I was really happy to see everyone participate or come down and celebrate. It was so joyous! With about a week left until I head back to the states, I’m getting pretty sad. I’ve had such a wonderful experience with the people here I don’t want to leave.
But studying in China did make me realize that I may not be suited for the international business position, or at least not in China. Just communicating with the locals and traveling around, I don’t know if I could ever live in China for an extended time. I just feel that Chinese people are so rude and inconsiderate among other things, and yes yes, I know I’m Chinese. But it’s different, I was born in the US. There’s a major difference between someone who’s born in the states and someone straight from China. We’ll see though. I just don’t think I’d enjoy it. But who knows what the future brings!
Can't Believe It's Already December!
Sunday, December 2nd, 2007
Can you believe it? 3 months have already passed by! I can’t believe I have less then 20 days here before I have to head back to the states. My semester ends the 14th and my plane leaves the 19th. Turns out I won’t be able to travel around afterwards:( And intersession starts the 3rd? Why would they do such a thing?! I thought it started the 7th, oh well. With the semester winding down, finals are coming up. I have a quiz today, final wednesday, and paper due Friday. That’s only this week. Next week I have a final on Monday, Tuesday and Friday and then I’m done.
I think the one thing I’m going to miss most about being here are the people I’ve met. The one thing I’ll miss about China I guess would be how cheap everything is. I bet when I get back to the states I’ll start comparing everything to rmb. But I’m really going to miss the people. They’re some of the most wonderful people I’ve ever known and it won’t be the same without seeing them almost everyday. But we won’t get into it now or I’ll get upset.
Today we’re actually going back to the fabric market to pick up the suit and peacoats we got made for ourselves. They’re a lot cheaper here than the states so I would recommend getting them tailored to fit you and made in China if you’re here! I guess that’s it for now until I think of something new to say:)
Can you believe it? 3 months have already passed by! I can’t believe I have less then 20 days here before I have to head back to the states. My semester ends the 14th and my plane leaves the 19th. Turns out I won’t be able to travel around afterwards:( And intersession starts the 3rd? Why would they do such a thing?! I thought it started the 7th, oh well. With the semester winding down, finals are coming up. I have a quiz today, final wednesday, and paper due Friday. That’s only this week. Next week I have a final on Monday, Tuesday and Friday and then I’m done.
I think the one thing I’m going to miss most about being here are the people I’ve met. The one thing I’ll miss about China I guess would be how cheap everything is. I bet when I get back to the states I’ll start comparing everything to rmb. But I’m really going to miss the people. They’re some of the most wonderful people I’ve ever known and it won’t be the same without seeing them almost everyday. But we won’t get into it now or I’ll get upset.
Today we’re actually going back to the fabric market to pick up the suit and peacoats we got made for ourselves. They’re a lot cheaper here than the states so I would recommend getting them tailored to fit you and made in China if you’re here! I guess that’s it for now until I think of something new to say:)
Quick Note!
Tuesday November 27th, 2007
I thought I’d just mention that Paris Hilton was also in Shanghai this past weekend. And there was also a Jay Chou concert. And my shower water turned cold this morning, not fun. That’s all!
I thought I’d just mention that Paris Hilton was also in Shanghai this past weekend. And there was also a Jay Chou concert. And my shower water turned cold this morning, not fun. That’s all!
Thanksgiving and the Shanghai Marathon
Sunday, November 25, 2007
As we all know, they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in China. But we did anyway! We played football and had a dinner and basically hung out. It was a good social time. I just wanted to thank everyone I’m in China with and how greatful I am for having met you. The people I’ve met here are some of the most amazing people I’ve ever met. So thank you for that!
Today was the Shanghai marathon. There were 7 of us that registered for the 4.5k race and one that planned on ditching that and running the half marathon, Mike. Then there was Jon who didn’t sign up for anything and just came to jump into the half marathon, who would know? Then there was me. I planned on running the 4.5k but probably 2 min. before the half and marathon started, I changed my mind. It may have been a smart move, may not have. I didn’t train for the half at all. I was just in Sichuan for 5 days where I didn’t run and then came back and ran maybe 4 miles tops, not 13. But I did it anyway.
The beginning wasn’t bad cause the 3 of us stuck together for awhile. It wasn’t until 5k that I think we all split up. I was behind of course. I can’t even tell you how I felt during the race. I don’t even remember running the 10k to the 15k, or maybe they just didn’t have mile markers there. But I do remember after the 15k I started to go into a lot of pain. My toes felt like they were bleeding, and they still do. I started cramping in my left leg so I walked for a min. or so and then started jogging again. I tried to walk as little as possible. What killed me though and kept me going was watching little kids, maybe 8 years old running the half marathon. And there were multiple! I would never make my kids do that! But all I thought was, your going to let an 8 year old beat you? Crazy, but yea I was going to. But the kids kept me going. If they can do, I have to be able to. A little less than 2 hours later I crossed the finish line. My legs and feet were dying but it felt so good to be able to do that. I’m still in shock that I ran half a marathon today. It’s a crazy thought but I’d say it was quite the accomplishment:)
I want to say congrats to Mike and Jon for running the half as well! And congrats to Nick, Cat, Peter, Storm and Ian for running the 4.5k. I’m so glad and thankful that you guys all came out to run! And big thanks to Adrea and Jacy for coming to watch us and carry our stuff! Wouldn’t have been possible without you guys!
As we all know, they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in China. But we did anyway! We played football and had a dinner and basically hung out. It was a good social time. I just wanted to thank everyone I’m in China with and how greatful I am for having met you. The people I’ve met here are some of the most amazing people I’ve ever met. So thank you for that!
Today was the Shanghai marathon. There were 7 of us that registered for the 4.5k race and one that planned on ditching that and running the half marathon, Mike. Then there was Jon who didn’t sign up for anything and just came to jump into the half marathon, who would know? Then there was me. I planned on running the 4.5k but probably 2 min. before the half and marathon started, I changed my mind. It may have been a smart move, may not have. I didn’t train for the half at all. I was just in Sichuan for 5 days where I didn’t run and then came back and ran maybe 4 miles tops, not 13. But I did it anyway.
The beginning wasn’t bad cause the 3 of us stuck together for awhile. It wasn’t until 5k that I think we all split up. I was behind of course. I can’t even tell you how I felt during the race. I don’t even remember running the 10k to the 15k, or maybe they just didn’t have mile markers there. But I do remember after the 15k I started to go into a lot of pain. My toes felt like they were bleeding, and they still do. I started cramping in my left leg so I walked for a min. or so and then started jogging again. I tried to walk as little as possible. What killed me though and kept me going was watching little kids, maybe 8 years old running the half marathon. And there were multiple! I would never make my kids do that! But all I thought was, your going to let an 8 year old beat you? Crazy, but yea I was going to. But the kids kept me going. If they can do, I have to be able to. A little less than 2 hours later I crossed the finish line. My legs and feet were dying but it felt so good to be able to do that. I’m still in shock that I ran half a marathon today. It’s a crazy thought but I’d say it was quite the accomplishment:)
I want to say congrats to Mike and Jon for running the half as well! And congrats to Nick, Cat, Peter, Storm and Ian for running the 4.5k. I’m so glad and thankful that you guys all came out to run! And big thanks to Adrea and Jacy for coming to watch us and carry our stuff! Wouldn’t have been possible without you guys!
A Korean in Sichuan
Sunday, November 25th, 2007
I’m not really Korean but everyone in China seems to think I am. And at some points when I try to tell them I’m Chinese, they think I’m lying. Now it’s just an on going joke we like to play, so I’m Korean!:)
So I’ve been a little slow on my blogs, I know. Last weekend…actually from last Friday to Wednesday, there was a group of 12 of us that went to Sichuan. Sichuan is in the southwest of China, near Tibet, but we went to the eastern part, including Chengdu, Jiuzhaigou, and Leshan. The trip to Sichuan may have been one of the nicest trips I’ve ever been to, meaning it was GORGEOUS! So I departed Thursday night, after spending the day at a hospitality expo which was fabulous and an experience! I got to be a VIP with DKSH. I tried a lot of things and also spoke to a lot of the companies at the expo. But anyway, back to Sichuan. There were 5 of us flying to Chengdu that night. We took the metro and the maglev to the airport. The maglev was super fast! It reached a top speed of 301 km/h and it took us about 8 min. to reach the airport, so fast! We met everyone at the hostel we were staying at and the next day we went to the Panda reservation. The panda’s were so cute! We got to see the big ones being fed and the babies in the nursery. I also got to hold a red panda for 50rmb. If you wanted to stand next to a big panda, just stand, it was 400rmb and if you wanted to hold a panda it was 1000rmb, crazy! Here’s a picture of me holding the red panda.
red panda
After the panda’s, we headed to the bus station to go to Jiuzhaigou but when we got there, we found out that the bus drivers went on strike. One point for China. We were told the bus drivers went on strike because of the oil prices, not good for us. So we ended up having to figure another way to get there since they didn’t know when the bus drivers would go off strike. Luckily, there was another bus station in Chengdu so we ended up getting tickets there but they were for the next morning. So for the rest of the day we basically chilled at our hostel and then just went out on the town. We had dinner at a hotpot, which Sichuan is known for. Their spicyness! But I stayed on the side that wasn’t spicy. Dinner was pretty good and it was all you can eat. Super!
The next day we got up early and headed to the bus station. Bus for 14 hours or so isn’t that much fun. At one of our stops though, we got to ride a camel! Camels are quite soft actually, who would have known! I’d have to say this trip was full of experiences and adventures. It snowed on our way to Jiuzhaigou at night and we ended up getting stuck in the snow so the ride took a little longer. Snow was wonderful though, it looked quite pretty. After we finally got to our hotel in Jiuzhaigou, we settled and then had dinner.
The next day, we went to the part where it was magnificentally beautiful. It was so hard to believe that there’s a place with such blue water and beautiful waterfalls.
img_5031.jpgIt was a day well spent. I really couldn’t believe how blue the water was. It looked so fake and that we were photo shopped into the pictures.
img_5126.jpg If you ever go to China, I would definitely recommend going there. Not only did we get to see the gorgeous scenery but we also had snowball fights, it’s been too long! The day was absolutely beautiful and I was so thankful that I had this opportunity to go.
The next morning we wanted to head back to Chengdu, only to find that the buses on this end also went on strike. China gets another point. This was really inconvenient since we all had to catch flights. Some of us went shopping for taxi’s which was an adventure. We ended up getting 3 taxi’s for 1000rmb each. That was 250rmb per person. A bus ticket to Chengdu is 120rmb. But it was our only choice. So our 10 hour drive began around 1pm and since there were 12 of us, it was 4 to each car. We were cramped and uncomfortable the whole time, but there wasn’t much we could do. We spent the ride talking and sleeping and eating at times. It was one heck of a long drive. Especially on the mountain and with crazy Chinese drivers that make you quizy when they drive. We finally got back that night and went to bed. We were beat.
The next day we went to Mt. Emei Shan and Leshan to see the mountain and the biggest Buddha in the world. How about that? I got to see the BIGGEST Buddha in the world! Not only have I seen the biggest one in the US but in the world! And it was huge. 2 of me could probably fit in it’s year alone. Imagine that. I don’t really have good pictures of the Buddha cause by the time we got there it was dark but I’m going to get some from a friend. We also got lost inside the park cause we didn’t know which way was out. But that’s okay. It was fun. Afterwards we just went back to the hostel and ate dinner and hung out with the owner. He was really cool so we enjoyed learning from him.
The next day I didn’t have much time before I had to catch my flight so I went to a monastary at Emei Shan and then headed back on a bus to Chengdu and caught my flight. My trip was done and I had to face reality. Lots of work. Ew.
I’m not really Korean but everyone in China seems to think I am. And at some points when I try to tell them I’m Chinese, they think I’m lying. Now it’s just an on going joke we like to play, so I’m Korean!:)
So I’ve been a little slow on my blogs, I know. Last weekend…actually from last Friday to Wednesday, there was a group of 12 of us that went to Sichuan. Sichuan is in the southwest of China, near Tibet, but we went to the eastern part, including Chengdu, Jiuzhaigou, and Leshan. The trip to Sichuan may have been one of the nicest trips I’ve ever been to, meaning it was GORGEOUS! So I departed Thursday night, after spending the day at a hospitality expo which was fabulous and an experience! I got to be a VIP with DKSH. I tried a lot of things and also spoke to a lot of the companies at the expo. But anyway, back to Sichuan. There were 5 of us flying to Chengdu that night. We took the metro and the maglev to the airport. The maglev was super fast! It reached a top speed of 301 km/h and it took us about 8 min. to reach the airport, so fast! We met everyone at the hostel we were staying at and the next day we went to the Panda reservation. The panda’s were so cute! We got to see the big ones being fed and the babies in the nursery. I also got to hold a red panda for 50rmb. If you wanted to stand next to a big panda, just stand, it was 400rmb and if you wanted to hold a panda it was 1000rmb, crazy! Here’s a picture of me holding the red panda.
red panda
After the panda’s, we headed to the bus station to go to Jiuzhaigou but when we got there, we found out that the bus drivers went on strike. One point for China. We were told the bus drivers went on strike because of the oil prices, not good for us. So we ended up having to figure another way to get there since they didn’t know when the bus drivers would go off strike. Luckily, there was another bus station in Chengdu so we ended up getting tickets there but they were for the next morning. So for the rest of the day we basically chilled at our hostel and then just went out on the town. We had dinner at a hotpot, which Sichuan is known for. Their spicyness! But I stayed on the side that wasn’t spicy. Dinner was pretty good and it was all you can eat. Super!
The next day we got up early and headed to the bus station. Bus for 14 hours or so isn’t that much fun. At one of our stops though, we got to ride a camel! Camels are quite soft actually, who would have known! I’d have to say this trip was full of experiences and adventures. It snowed on our way to Jiuzhaigou at night and we ended up getting stuck in the snow so the ride took a little longer. Snow was wonderful though, it looked quite pretty. After we finally got to our hotel in Jiuzhaigou, we settled and then had dinner.
The next day, we went to the part where it was magnificentally beautiful. It was so hard to believe that there’s a place with such blue water and beautiful waterfalls.
img_5031.jpgIt was a day well spent. I really couldn’t believe how blue the water was. It looked so fake and that we were photo shopped into the pictures.
img_5126.jpg If you ever go to China, I would definitely recommend going there. Not only did we get to see the gorgeous scenery but we also had snowball fights, it’s been too long! The day was absolutely beautiful and I was so thankful that I had this opportunity to go.
The next morning we wanted to head back to Chengdu, only to find that the buses on this end also went on strike. China gets another point. This was really inconvenient since we all had to catch flights. Some of us went shopping for taxi’s which was an adventure. We ended up getting 3 taxi’s for 1000rmb each. That was 250rmb per person. A bus ticket to Chengdu is 120rmb. But it was our only choice. So our 10 hour drive began around 1pm and since there were 12 of us, it was 4 to each car. We were cramped and uncomfortable the whole time, but there wasn’t much we could do. We spent the ride talking and sleeping and eating at times. It was one heck of a long drive. Especially on the mountain and with crazy Chinese drivers that make you quizy when they drive. We finally got back that night and went to bed. We were beat.
The next day we went to Mt. Emei Shan and Leshan to see the mountain and the biggest Buddha in the world. How about that? I got to see the BIGGEST Buddha in the world! Not only have I seen the biggest one in the US but in the world! And it was huge. 2 of me could probably fit in it’s year alone. Imagine that. I don’t really have good pictures of the Buddha cause by the time we got there it was dark but I’m going to get some from a friend. We also got lost inside the park cause we didn’t know which way was out. But that’s okay. It was fun. Afterwards we just went back to the hostel and ate dinner and hung out with the owner. He was really cool so we enjoyed learning from him.
The next day I didn’t have much time before I had to catch my flight so I went to a monastary at Emei Shan and then headed back on a bus to Chengdu and caught my flight. My trip was done and I had to face reality. Lots of work. Ew.
Adventures of Nanjing
Thursday, November 22nd, 2007
November 11-13th, a group of us went to Nanjing. It was my first taking a train! Quite the fabulous experience, besides waking up super early, but it was worth it! I’m writing this more than a week past the event so I’m looking through pictures to retrace my thoughts. When we first arrived in Nanjing, we took the public bus to our hostel which ended up being pretty nice! And there was a bobba stand attached to it in the front which had the best bobba I’ve ever had, I would have to say. At the hostel we settled and went to the roof to relax a little before continuing our day. We ended up playing with a dog that I was not too fond of for awhile. After that, we walked the streets of Nanjing leading to the Confucius temple. I lite some candles for the family, quite marvelous! From there, we went to the park. It’s a funny story if you ever want to hear it. I don’t think it would be wise to write about it though hah. The park was really big so we spent the rest of our day there. We also spent a lot of time taking pictures there and being funny, like trying to take pictures as we jumped. It was really relaxing and nice out. From there we went into the city of Nanjing, taking their excellent and clean subway system! We spent the rest of the night walking around the city, grabbing dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant and then going to a bar to relax.
The next day we went to the Purple Mountain. We climbed to somewhat the top and then went in another direction and took a cable car to the top. The cable car was quite the delight. Very relaxing as we took in the autumn colors of the trees. It was quite beautiful. At the top of the mountain we didn’t have a lot of time so we saw the Buddha and walked around a little before heading back down. As we rode down we watched the sunset…so BEAUTIFUL! *sigh* I’m taken by these beautiful moments. After that we headed towards Nanjing University and walked around before finding a restaurant and eating dinner there. Afterwards we went to a cafe for tea and coffee and played card games and talked. Very relaxing night. I left Monday morning to go back to Fudan so make it for class. But in all, it was a great relaxing weekend. Oh beautiful Nanjing!:)
November 11-13th, a group of us went to Nanjing. It was my first taking a train! Quite the fabulous experience, besides waking up super early, but it was worth it! I’m writing this more than a week past the event so I’m looking through pictures to retrace my thoughts. When we first arrived in Nanjing, we took the public bus to our hostel which ended up being pretty nice! And there was a bobba stand attached to it in the front which had the best bobba I’ve ever had, I would have to say. At the hostel we settled and went to the roof to relax a little before continuing our day. We ended up playing with a dog that I was not too fond of for awhile. After that, we walked the streets of Nanjing leading to the Confucius temple. I lite some candles for the family, quite marvelous! From there, we went to the park. It’s a funny story if you ever want to hear it. I don’t think it would be wise to write about it though hah. The park was really big so we spent the rest of our day there. We also spent a lot of time taking pictures there and being funny, like trying to take pictures as we jumped. It was really relaxing and nice out. From there we went into the city of Nanjing, taking their excellent and clean subway system! We spent the rest of the night walking around the city, grabbing dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant and then going to a bar to relax.
The next day we went to the Purple Mountain. We climbed to somewhat the top and then went in another direction and took a cable car to the top. The cable car was quite the delight. Very relaxing as we took in the autumn colors of the trees. It was quite beautiful. At the top of the mountain we didn’t have a lot of time so we saw the Buddha and walked around a little before heading back down. As we rode down we watched the sunset…so BEAUTIFUL! *sigh* I’m taken by these beautiful moments. After that we headed towards Nanjing University and walked around before finding a restaurant and eating dinner there. Afterwards we went to a cafe for tea and coffee and played card games and talked. Very relaxing night. I left Monday morning to go back to Fudan so make it for class. But in all, it was a great relaxing weekend. Oh beautiful Nanjing!:)
What a Week!
Friday, November 9th, 2007
I can’t believe it’s Friday already! It’s definitely been a hectic week. I’ve been trying to write another blog but just haven’t made it that far. I’ll start with Sunday. Sunday was the Foreign Students Dormitory Olympics. We met downstairs to leave around 7:40am. The event was actually pretty interesting. Fudan didn’t hype it up at all but the event consisted of the foreign student programs in the Shanghai area. I would say there were at least 10 schools there. There was an opening ceremony with the lion dance, martial arts show and other demonstrations as well. The actual Olympics portion consisted of tug-a-war, an obstacle course, jump rope, javelin, and I believe there was something else but can’t quite remember. We lost the tug-a-war but it was a great effort. How do you expect a bunch of college kids to go up against people training in the military? Do we need to think about that? It was still fun and interesting to watch other school come up with strategies at the last minute to win the tug. Some of the teams were pretty surprising. I competed in the obstacle course. The obstacle course consisted of jumping over hurdles, crawling under a net and then sprinting and jumping over these things, all with 3 kilo’s in your hand. It was a bit difficult for the girls but the guys didn’t have any trouble. We won our heat which was great! We didn’t stay for the rest of the Olympics, but we weren’t in the lead anyway so it was okay. We also got sweatshirts for going. Who doesn’t like free stuff? After that, they also gave us a really nice lunch. It was about 9 courses and very fulfilling. After that, I went back to my dorm and took a nap for a couple hours, then got up and studied for my midterm.
Monday I had my last miterm out of my classes in international marketing. My studying paid off because it seemed really easy, but we’ll see when I get my grade back. I was really happy. I was so relieved after finally finishing midterms. And just in time too! All the UC people came back after I finished and we went out to all you can eat sushi. It was first time really eating sushi. It actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I don’t know if it counts, but I really liked the shrimp ones.
Tuesday I met with my language partner Latios. I wasn’t really sure how to pronounce his name. We had a rough schedule that day so the only time we could meet was of course when I had to register for classes for next semester. So, we had our session in my room while I was registering for classes, or at least trying to. It was good practice though. For the 2 hours or so, I tried to explain to him in Chinese how our scheduling works and what classes I wanted and needed to take. Of course he was watching me freak out cause I didn’t get all the classes I wanted but it was good practice and also change of topic. Latios is also a dancer, cha cha in particular. He competes against other students and that night they had a rehearsal for their competition next month. I told him I would come watch and he got really excited. I think it would be rather interesting. He also told me that some popular shows that the students watch here are Prison Break, Heros, House, Lost, Boston Legal and 24. He also said that it’s said that while you’re in college, you’ll complete the following 3,
1. find a tutor
2. have your bike stolen
3. fall in love with someone of the opposite sex
I was his tutor! Cool right? He said he’s had his bike stolen and he’s also fell in love. So basically his college is done right? Oh, we could only wish. Wednesday was quite the stressful day. My laptop adapter died and I needed information on my computer, or just a computer to work with. Thanks Mike for letting me borrow yours again! But it took me about all day to figure out that it was my adapter that was broken. I thought it was my room because in the beginning the power on my adapter would work in other rooms besides mine, but after that it just stopped. I went to a big electronic store today and they tried to charge me 400rmb for a new one. Crazy! And it wasn’t even the right one. Instead, I just went across the street from the dorms to this smaller electronic store and bought it for 130rmb. I was sick of being lost without a computer for 3 days. Imagine life without a computer. Rough I’d have to say.
I also met with another language tutor yesterday afternoon. His name was John. He’s a junior and he is majoring in economics. Our conversation mainly consisted about internships and working. Some topics were where we want to work, what do we want to do, and what our dreams are. I learned a lot of vocabulary, a lot I have to study in order to remember as well. It was about a 2 hour conversation, pretty productive. I guess it’s a good quality when I keep talking.
This weekend I am going to Nanjing with 4 other people. We leave at 5am tomorrow morning to catch our bus, so early! So I’m off to bed now and I’m sure I’ll have stories for you again when I get back! I know my entry was pretty disorganized, sorry! Hopefully not too hard to follow. Have a fabulous weekend:)
I can’t believe it’s Friday already! It’s definitely been a hectic week. I’ve been trying to write another blog but just haven’t made it that far. I’ll start with Sunday. Sunday was the Foreign Students Dormitory Olympics. We met downstairs to leave around 7:40am. The event was actually pretty interesting. Fudan didn’t hype it up at all but the event consisted of the foreign student programs in the Shanghai area. I would say there were at least 10 schools there. There was an opening ceremony with the lion dance, martial arts show and other demonstrations as well. The actual Olympics portion consisted of tug-a-war, an obstacle course, jump rope, javelin, and I believe there was something else but can’t quite remember. We lost the tug-a-war but it was a great effort. How do you expect a bunch of college kids to go up against people training in the military? Do we need to think about that? It was still fun and interesting to watch other school come up with strategies at the last minute to win the tug. Some of the teams were pretty surprising. I competed in the obstacle course. The obstacle course consisted of jumping over hurdles, crawling under a net and then sprinting and jumping over these things, all with 3 kilo’s in your hand. It was a bit difficult for the girls but the guys didn’t have any trouble. We won our heat which was great! We didn’t stay for the rest of the Olympics, but we weren’t in the lead anyway so it was okay. We also got sweatshirts for going. Who doesn’t like free stuff? After that, they also gave us a really nice lunch. It was about 9 courses and very fulfilling. After that, I went back to my dorm and took a nap for a couple hours, then got up and studied for my midterm.
Monday I had my last miterm out of my classes in international marketing. My studying paid off because it seemed really easy, but we’ll see when I get my grade back. I was really happy. I was so relieved after finally finishing midterms. And just in time too! All the UC people came back after I finished and we went out to all you can eat sushi. It was first time really eating sushi. It actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I don’t know if it counts, but I really liked the shrimp ones.
Tuesday I met with my language partner Latios. I wasn’t really sure how to pronounce his name. We had a rough schedule that day so the only time we could meet was of course when I had to register for classes for next semester. So, we had our session in my room while I was registering for classes, or at least trying to. It was good practice though. For the 2 hours or so, I tried to explain to him in Chinese how our scheduling works and what classes I wanted and needed to take. Of course he was watching me freak out cause I didn’t get all the classes I wanted but it was good practice and also change of topic. Latios is also a dancer, cha cha in particular. He competes against other students and that night they had a rehearsal for their competition next month. I told him I would come watch and he got really excited. I think it would be rather interesting. He also told me that some popular shows that the students watch here are Prison Break, Heros, House, Lost, Boston Legal and 24. He also said that it’s said that while you’re in college, you’ll complete the following 3,
1. find a tutor
2. have your bike stolen
3. fall in love with someone of the opposite sex
I was his tutor! Cool right? He said he’s had his bike stolen and he’s also fell in love. So basically his college is done right? Oh, we could only wish. Wednesday was quite the stressful day. My laptop adapter died and I needed information on my computer, or just a computer to work with. Thanks Mike for letting me borrow yours again! But it took me about all day to figure out that it was my adapter that was broken. I thought it was my room because in the beginning the power on my adapter would work in other rooms besides mine, but after that it just stopped. I went to a big electronic store today and they tried to charge me 400rmb for a new one. Crazy! And it wasn’t even the right one. Instead, I just went across the street from the dorms to this smaller electronic store and bought it for 130rmb. I was sick of being lost without a computer for 3 days. Imagine life without a computer. Rough I’d have to say.
I also met with another language tutor yesterday afternoon. His name was John. He’s a junior and he is majoring in economics. Our conversation mainly consisted about internships and working. Some topics were where we want to work, what do we want to do, and what our dreams are. I learned a lot of vocabulary, a lot I have to study in order to remember as well. It was about a 2 hour conversation, pretty productive. I guess it’s a good quality when I keep talking.
This weekend I am going to Nanjing with 4 other people. We leave at 5am tomorrow morning to catch our bus, so early! So I’m off to bed now and I’m sure I’ll have stories for you again when I get back! I know my entry was pretty disorganized, sorry! Hopefully not too hard to follow. Have a fabulous weekend:)
Oh Californians...
Saturday, November 3rd, 2007
It’s the weekend after Halloween and I’m being “lame,” as Big Nick would say. Big Nick, by the way, is someone I met through couchsurfing.com before I came to China. Since then, we’ve met up a few times and have had dinner. He’s met my people and I’ve met his, hah. He’s been working in China for the last year and a half or so and plans to stay for another 4 or so. What does he do? Sorry…I kind of forget. Something about his own company though. I remember that, which is pretty impressive. I’ve also met a few of his friends that are also from the states that are working here. It was actually really good to get the perspective of some people who work in China. More to ponder about…
So this weekend I haven’t really done much. All the people from UC are gone on a trip to Dalian this weekend, until Monday, and have left me here stranded. Well, not exactly. Yesterday after class, I hung out with my language partner Sophia, more of a shopping partner I think. We went to a discounted part in wujiaochang to go shopping. I got a few running apparel, yay! It’s all real, and a whole lot cheaper! I got a Mizuno track jacket for 80 rmb when it’s originally is 260rmb. It’s wonderful. I also got a few more things as well. We also had dinner there as well at a cafe/restaurant. During our trip, I learned a lot about her. First of all, she’s a freshman and she’s not originally from Shanghai. Her parents are divorced and she has a younger step sister in the states. She loves to dance, especially hip hop. She lives with her grandmother. In middle school, her first boyfriend was her dancing partner. Sometimes she would skip school to hang out with her boyfriend and when her grandmother found out, she made her stay at home, I’m not sure for how long. Her grandmother also doesn’t like the dancing that she does, but hey, neither do my parents. She’s had three boyfriends, but none at the moment. These girls…they like to date. She said she’s sad because she doesn’t have a boyfriend right now and the boys at Fudan don’t like her because she’s not traditional enough for them. The boys here apparently want a girl very traditional and will listen and do what they want and be with them all the time. Over National Holiday on her plane ride home, she said she met this gentlemen who was about 20 years older than her. She told him she was 23. Apparently he “liked” her or so that’s what he told her. She said she only knew him for a couple hours but thinks she still likes him. During that conversation, all I wanted to say to her was…are you serious? She said she still thinks about him. Oh my…she needs to learn…he doesn’t really like her…he just…well, you know the rest.
I also asked her what she did for fun and if she likes to go to KTV. She said she went to KTV when she was in middle school and one of her friends died so she doesn’t go out or to KTV anymore. I was like…holy crap! Apparently he was fighting over a girl, she got really upset about it when she was telling me about it. She wasn’t sure what about the girl was fantastic or why they were fighting over her, but just the fact that was the result of his death. He was beaten to death by other boys I suppose. She said they called the police but the police don’t come right away. They wait about 20 min. and then call you back and ask if there’s still a problem. If there is, then they’ll take another 20 min. to arrive at the location, very different than what happens in states. It was a sad story. But on a happier note! Here’s a picture of her down in the shopping plaza.
sophia
Also while we were there, we saw a commercial being filmed. I think it was for coke because they had coke products there. It was pretty cool. It was also pretty cold though.
Also a few days ago we were going to the skewers place, we haven’t been there in so long!, and right outside there were the police confiscating motorcycles. Apparently the Koreans who owned them were driving without licenses, figures. They’ve been warned before as well, along with being told that there should be no drinking and driving! But they don’t listen. There were a lot of motorcycles being towed away. But skewers…yea, their service got worse! We had to wait over an hour for our lamb, not a fun deal.
So last night I didn’t go out. There was a foreign students Halloween party at 173, where my friend Ben DJ’s. I was too tired though. I had stayed up til 5:30am the night before working on my mid-term. Yea, I know, I procrastinate. So I slept at 5:30am and then got up for class and then right after class I went shopping with Sophia, so no time to nap. No nap=passed out. I wish I went though. I saw pictures and it looked like a lot of fun, but I was waaaaaaay too tired.
Today I actually got up pretty early, 8am. From then I applied for internships, writing my cover letter or whatnot. It took me about all day to do, considering I hate writing cover letters so I did everything possible instead of it, which is why it took me all day. I’m hoping I get at least one interview, but they’re really good companies, like Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, UBS, along with other companies as well. I also hung out with Gabriel, who is from Korea. He helped me get a internet card since mine ran out and then we hung out for bit. We also just grabbed street food. Yum! He was telling me about how spicy is taste different in Korea and China. In Korea, spicy food hurts your tongue, in China, in hurts your lips. Therefore, when he eats spicy in Korea, its spicier so he has to drink more water.
Tomorrow is the foreign students olympic games or something like at. I guess I’ll check it out, see what I can do. The only thing that sucks about it is that it’s 7:40am, so early! But hopefully it’s worth it. And I guess it’s good too. Since we should be back by 12:30pm, then I can study for my international marketing mid-term. Sweet! Well I think I’m going to pop in a movie and then go to bed. Night!
It’s the weekend after Halloween and I’m being “lame,” as Big Nick would say. Big Nick, by the way, is someone I met through couchsurfing.com before I came to China. Since then, we’ve met up a few times and have had dinner. He’s met my people and I’ve met his, hah. He’s been working in China for the last year and a half or so and plans to stay for another 4 or so. What does he do? Sorry…I kind of forget. Something about his own company though. I remember that, which is pretty impressive. I’ve also met a few of his friends that are also from the states that are working here. It was actually really good to get the perspective of some people who work in China. More to ponder about…
So this weekend I haven’t really done much. All the people from UC are gone on a trip to Dalian this weekend, until Monday, and have left me here stranded. Well, not exactly. Yesterday after class, I hung out with my language partner Sophia, more of a shopping partner I think. We went to a discounted part in wujiaochang to go shopping. I got a few running apparel, yay! It’s all real, and a whole lot cheaper! I got a Mizuno track jacket for 80 rmb when it’s originally is 260rmb. It’s wonderful. I also got a few more things as well. We also had dinner there as well at a cafe/restaurant. During our trip, I learned a lot about her. First of all, she’s a freshman and she’s not originally from Shanghai. Her parents are divorced and she has a younger step sister in the states. She loves to dance, especially hip hop. She lives with her grandmother. In middle school, her first boyfriend was her dancing partner. Sometimes she would skip school to hang out with her boyfriend and when her grandmother found out, she made her stay at home, I’m not sure for how long. Her grandmother also doesn’t like the dancing that she does, but hey, neither do my parents. She’s had three boyfriends, but none at the moment. These girls…they like to date. She said she’s sad because she doesn’t have a boyfriend right now and the boys at Fudan don’t like her because she’s not traditional enough for them. The boys here apparently want a girl very traditional and will listen and do what they want and be with them all the time. Over National Holiday on her plane ride home, she said she met this gentlemen who was about 20 years older than her. She told him she was 23. Apparently he “liked” her or so that’s what he told her. She said she only knew him for a couple hours but thinks she still likes him. During that conversation, all I wanted to say to her was…are you serious? She said she still thinks about him. Oh my…she needs to learn…he doesn’t really like her…he just…well, you know the rest.
I also asked her what she did for fun and if she likes to go to KTV. She said she went to KTV when she was in middle school and one of her friends died so she doesn’t go out or to KTV anymore. I was like…holy crap! Apparently he was fighting over a girl, she got really upset about it when she was telling me about it. She wasn’t sure what about the girl was fantastic or why they were fighting over her, but just the fact that was the result of his death. He was beaten to death by other boys I suppose. She said they called the police but the police don’t come right away. They wait about 20 min. and then call you back and ask if there’s still a problem. If there is, then they’ll take another 20 min. to arrive at the location, very different than what happens in states. It was a sad story. But on a happier note! Here’s a picture of her down in the shopping plaza.
sophia
Also while we were there, we saw a commercial being filmed. I think it was for coke because they had coke products there. It was pretty cool. It was also pretty cold though.
Also a few days ago we were going to the skewers place, we haven’t been there in so long!, and right outside there were the police confiscating motorcycles. Apparently the Koreans who owned them were driving without licenses, figures. They’ve been warned before as well, along with being told that there should be no drinking and driving! But they don’t listen. There were a lot of motorcycles being towed away. But skewers…yea, their service got worse! We had to wait over an hour for our lamb, not a fun deal.
So last night I didn’t go out. There was a foreign students Halloween party at 173, where my friend Ben DJ’s. I was too tired though. I had stayed up til 5:30am the night before working on my mid-term. Yea, I know, I procrastinate. So I slept at 5:30am and then got up for class and then right after class I went shopping with Sophia, so no time to nap. No nap=passed out. I wish I went though. I saw pictures and it looked like a lot of fun, but I was waaaaaaay too tired.
Today I actually got up pretty early, 8am. From then I applied for internships, writing my cover letter or whatnot. It took me about all day to do, considering I hate writing cover letters so I did everything possible instead of it, which is why it took me all day. I’m hoping I get at least one interview, but they’re really good companies, like Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, UBS, along with other companies as well. I also hung out with Gabriel, who is from Korea. He helped me get a internet card since mine ran out and then we hung out for bit. We also just grabbed street food. Yum! He was telling me about how spicy is taste different in Korea and China. In Korea, spicy food hurts your tongue, in China, in hurts your lips. Therefore, when he eats spicy in Korea, its spicier so he has to drink more water.
Tomorrow is the foreign students olympic games or something like at. I guess I’ll check it out, see what I can do. The only thing that sucks about it is that it’s 7:40am, so early! But hopefully it’s worth it. And I guess it’s good too. Since we should be back by 12:30pm, then I can study for my international marketing mid-term. Sweet! Well I think I’m going to pop in a movie and then go to bed. Night!
Minnie Mouse in China!
Thursday, November 1st, 2007
Happy Halloween! Maybe a little late…but that’s okay. For Halloween this year I was Minnie Mouse:) This is a picture of my friend Nick and I. I was Minnie Mouse of course, and he was a runner.
minnie
Chinese people don’t really celebrate Halloween, like the whole trick or treating thing. Fudan actually did though. I didn’t get a chance to go to the party on campus because I had class but I did bike past it. There was a big pumpkin out in front and then I heard music playing. I was talking to my language partner about it yesterday and he said that no one really dresses up but they do dance. Halloween was fun though. Everybody dressed up and we went out. Here’s a group of some of us all dressed up.
everybody
We had a panda, runners, peter pan, chinese dolls, lady bug, togas, and ect. It was a lot of fun. Maybe the best Halloween I’ve had in awhile! But Halloween in China has come to an end and November has come. Happy November! I can’t believe how fast this semester is going by. Too quick! If I had the power to slow it down, I would.
So I met with another language partner yesterday. His name is C, or at least that’s what he told me to call him. He’s 23 years old and this is his last year at Fudan. He’s studying computer science but he doesn’t like it. He said the coding and everything is really hard so he’s going to give up. That stinks. But he said next year he’s going to Peking to study law. Which ones harder? Law or computer science? I’m not sure. He was really nice and helped me with my reading for my Chinese class. My reading is horrible. When you don’t study it for a summer, I basically forgot almost everything.:( I need to study my Chinese more. Oy. I also learned that all the students here, since the majority of them are required to live on campus, have a curfew for their dorms at 10:30pm. I tried inviting him out with us but he said if he isn’t back in his dorm by then, he can’t get in. That stinks. That ruins the social life. But he said he hangs out with the people in his dorms which is pretty good I suppose.
I went to this language partner meeting the other day and came out with 3 language partners. Their all freshman and their names are Stella, Ratha and Trista. They’re all girls but I don’t really think they want to be my language partner. They more of wanted me as a friend to go shopping with so I guess that’s fine. Then that night, I went to Chinese class and my teacher had gotten me 4 language partners. She only knew 2 of them were boys so I was going to give the other 2 to someone else. But the 2 guys I know that are looking for a language partner only want girls, apparently it’s weird if they have a guy language partner. So now I have 4 additional and their names are C, John, Kevin, and Latios. The only one I’ve met so far is C, but I’m meeting the others sometime next week. So now I have 8 language partners, also Moon who I met 2 weeks ago. Hopefully my Chinese will get a lot better by it because I’m not really learning anything in my Chinese class. And if anyone is reading this and wants one of my language partners, be my guest! Just let me know and I’ll hook you up:)
Today I don’t really have class but I do have a lot of work to do. I need to do my take home mid term for Modern Chinese History, start studying for my surprise mid term for International Business (which is definitely not cool Prof. Chisholm, who also gave us a surprise paper, but that won’t be due until December 7), and apply for internships. I don’t really have a problem filling out the applications, I just need to write my cover letters. Ugh, cover letters, those ugly things. So I guess I’ll get on that. I should have a lot of free time this weekend. Everyone in the UC program is going away this weekend to Dalian. I hope you guys have fun! So less people to distract me, but I’ll still go out. Hoping to hang out with my Australian, French, and Italian friends this weekend! But we’ll see! Hope all is well:)
Happy Halloween! Maybe a little late…but that’s okay. For Halloween this year I was Minnie Mouse:) This is a picture of my friend Nick and I. I was Minnie Mouse of course, and he was a runner.
minnie
Chinese people don’t really celebrate Halloween, like the whole trick or treating thing. Fudan actually did though. I didn’t get a chance to go to the party on campus because I had class but I did bike past it. There was a big pumpkin out in front and then I heard music playing. I was talking to my language partner about it yesterday and he said that no one really dresses up but they do dance. Halloween was fun though. Everybody dressed up and we went out. Here’s a group of some of us all dressed up.
everybody
We had a panda, runners, peter pan, chinese dolls, lady bug, togas, and ect. It was a lot of fun. Maybe the best Halloween I’ve had in awhile! But Halloween in China has come to an end and November has come. Happy November! I can’t believe how fast this semester is going by. Too quick! If I had the power to slow it down, I would.
So I met with another language partner yesterday. His name is C, or at least that’s what he told me to call him. He’s 23 years old and this is his last year at Fudan. He’s studying computer science but he doesn’t like it. He said the coding and everything is really hard so he’s going to give up. That stinks. But he said next year he’s going to Peking to study law. Which ones harder? Law or computer science? I’m not sure. He was really nice and helped me with my reading for my Chinese class. My reading is horrible. When you don’t study it for a summer, I basically forgot almost everything.:( I need to study my Chinese more. Oy. I also learned that all the students here, since the majority of them are required to live on campus, have a curfew for their dorms at 10:30pm. I tried inviting him out with us but he said if he isn’t back in his dorm by then, he can’t get in. That stinks. That ruins the social life. But he said he hangs out with the people in his dorms which is pretty good I suppose.
I went to this language partner meeting the other day and came out with 3 language partners. Their all freshman and their names are Stella, Ratha and Trista. They’re all girls but I don’t really think they want to be my language partner. They more of wanted me as a friend to go shopping with so I guess that’s fine. Then that night, I went to Chinese class and my teacher had gotten me 4 language partners. She only knew 2 of them were boys so I was going to give the other 2 to someone else. But the 2 guys I know that are looking for a language partner only want girls, apparently it’s weird if they have a guy language partner. So now I have 4 additional and their names are C, John, Kevin, and Latios. The only one I’ve met so far is C, but I’m meeting the others sometime next week. So now I have 8 language partners, also Moon who I met 2 weeks ago. Hopefully my Chinese will get a lot better by it because I’m not really learning anything in my Chinese class. And if anyone is reading this and wants one of my language partners, be my guest! Just let me know and I’ll hook you up:)
Today I don’t really have class but I do have a lot of work to do. I need to do my take home mid term for Modern Chinese History, start studying for my surprise mid term for International Business (which is definitely not cool Prof. Chisholm, who also gave us a surprise paper, but that won’t be due until December 7), and apply for internships. I don’t really have a problem filling out the applications, I just need to write my cover letters. Ugh, cover letters, those ugly things. So I guess I’ll get on that. I should have a lot of free time this weekend. Everyone in the UC program is going away this weekend to Dalian. I hope you guys have fun! So less people to distract me, but I’ll still go out. Hoping to hang out with my Australian, French, and Italian friends this weekend! But we’ll see! Hope all is well:)
Dog...mmm...
Saturday, October 27th, 2007
So tonight for dinner, you’ll never guess what I tried. For all those people out there that make jokes and are like, do you eat dog? I can now say, yea! I have had dog! and guess what! It actually tasted pretty good!
But we’ll start from the beginning. I guess I wasn’t that productive today. Woke up at 10:30…finished a movie…did some reading…tried to go to the library…and ran. After running a wonderful workout (thanks Mike) we showered and then all went to dinner at a Korean restaurant. There was about 10 of us and we each ordered our separate dishes and then ordered an order of dog soup. Sounds great doesn’t it? The dog came out last. They probably had to go out back and find one, then slaughter it and then cook for us. I wonder what kind of dog it was and if all dogs taste different. I wouldn’t know how to describe the taste of dog. I feel like I’ve had it before…somewhere. But that’s impossible…unless I was tricked into it. It was tasty. It doesn’t look any different than other meats I would say. Mike took a picture of it with his cell phone so when he loads it, I’ll load it on here.
Other than dog for dinner, it’s the weekend before Halloween and there’ s 6 of us here playing Starcraft and mafia and chilling basically. We wanted to go out but it didn’t work too well because we don’t have Halloween costumes and we’re cheap. So when that happens, we sit in and play computer games. But it’s fun, which is all that matters:)
So tonight for dinner, you’ll never guess what I tried. For all those people out there that make jokes and are like, do you eat dog? I can now say, yea! I have had dog! and guess what! It actually tasted pretty good!
But we’ll start from the beginning. I guess I wasn’t that productive today. Woke up at 10:30…finished a movie…did some reading…tried to go to the library…and ran. After running a wonderful workout (thanks Mike) we showered and then all went to dinner at a Korean restaurant. There was about 10 of us and we each ordered our separate dishes and then ordered an order of dog soup. Sounds great doesn’t it? The dog came out last. They probably had to go out back and find one, then slaughter it and then cook for us. I wonder what kind of dog it was and if all dogs taste different. I wouldn’t know how to describe the taste of dog. I feel like I’ve had it before…somewhere. But that’s impossible…unless I was tricked into it. It was tasty. It doesn’t look any different than other meats I would say. Mike took a picture of it with his cell phone so when he loads it, I’ll load it on here.
Other than dog for dinner, it’s the weekend before Halloween and there’ s 6 of us here playing Starcraft and mafia and chilling basically. We wanted to go out but it didn’t work too well because we don’t have Halloween costumes and we’re cheap. So when that happens, we sit in and play computer games. But it’s fun, which is all that matters:)
Evil China
Saturday, October 27, 2007
So yesterday I went with my friend Storm to the track on the other side of campus. He’s a sprinter for UCI and I’m just…training for the 4.5k for the Shanghai marathon, which is less than a month away! But anyway, we ran to the track because we wanted to do speed workouts. Well, I ran, Storm biked. Along this his bike, he brought his book bag with him that had his cell phone, wallet, money, some clothing, and some other valuables in it, along with our room keys. At the track, I did 800’s and he did 200’s. All is fine and dandy, and it’s getting dark out but we’re still doing our workouts. Afterwards, we head back to his stuff, only to find that it’s gone! Someone stole his bag! What in the world is wrong with these people?! Everything was replaceable, which is good, but it’s the whole principle of the fact! He also had sweat pants that he put with his bag along with his water bottle. While I was running past every time, I saw a black blob which I assumed was his bag, but it wasn’t. It was just his black sweat pants. We had a great workout, so at least there was something to be happy for. He also left his bike key in his bag, so he couldn’t get his bike back. He walked back to our dorms and told the front desk. They had to open our rooms for us and then we had to pay 50rmb for a new key card. I guess that isn’t bad, but I still can’t believe someone stole his bag! Stupid people.
But anyway…after we got into our rooms, we took a quick shower and then met up with everyone for dinner. All the UC students finished their midterms yesterday so we went out to dinner and then to a club called Muse to celebrate. Dinner was great! We went to this all you can eat and drink Japanese restaurant for 150rmb where they cook in front of you! I’ve never had food cooked in front of me before! I thought it was amazing:) And at Muse there was a Hong Kong popstar there but I don’t know who he was. Something Chen…but of course right after we leave he sings. Oh well.
fire
Overall, it was a fabulous night. Good food, good dancing. Now time to study:( Maybe another wonderful night tonight!:)
So yesterday I went with my friend Storm to the track on the other side of campus. He’s a sprinter for UCI and I’m just…training for the 4.5k for the Shanghai marathon, which is less than a month away! But anyway, we ran to the track because we wanted to do speed workouts. Well, I ran, Storm biked. Along this his bike, he brought his book bag with him that had his cell phone, wallet, money, some clothing, and some other valuables in it, along with our room keys. At the track, I did 800’s and he did 200’s. All is fine and dandy, and it’s getting dark out but we’re still doing our workouts. Afterwards, we head back to his stuff, only to find that it’s gone! Someone stole his bag! What in the world is wrong with these people?! Everything was replaceable, which is good, but it’s the whole principle of the fact! He also had sweat pants that he put with his bag along with his water bottle. While I was running past every time, I saw a black blob which I assumed was his bag, but it wasn’t. It was just his black sweat pants. We had a great workout, so at least there was something to be happy for. He also left his bike key in his bag, so he couldn’t get his bike back. He walked back to our dorms and told the front desk. They had to open our rooms for us and then we had to pay 50rmb for a new key card. I guess that isn’t bad, but I still can’t believe someone stole his bag! Stupid people.
But anyway…after we got into our rooms, we took a quick shower and then met up with everyone for dinner. All the UC students finished their midterms yesterday so we went out to dinner and then to a club called Muse to celebrate. Dinner was great! We went to this all you can eat and drink Japanese restaurant for 150rmb where they cook in front of you! I’ve never had food cooked in front of me before! I thought it was amazing:) And at Muse there was a Hong Kong popstar there but I don’t know who he was. Something Chen…but of course right after we leave he sings. Oh well.
fire
Overall, it was a fabulous night. Good food, good dancing. Now time to study:( Maybe another wonderful night tonight!:)
Hrm...
Thursday, October 25th, 2007
So, continuing on from yesterday…
How’s the weather you must wonder. Well it’s been on and off I suppose. I wasn’t really well prepared to come to China, packing wise. I basically just threw clothes in a suitcase and left. While I was packing I asked my dad how the weather was in the winter here and he said it was just like summer. Not even thinking about that, I just threw summer clothes in my suitcase. But when I went home one last time before I left for the city again, my mom asked me why I wasn’t bringing a jacket. I told her my dad told me it would be summer while I was in China and basically called us crazy. So then I ran up to my room, grabbed some winter clothing and threw them in my suitcase. If I could go back , I would have definitely put a little more into packing! The weather is getting kind of cold here…or just colder. High 60’s, low 70’s, which really isn’t bad. Just a little colder than we were use to from the sweating heat, like when we would just go for a walk outside and come back drenched with sweat, oh, those were the days.
Let’s see what else…youtube has been blocked! They say it’s because the US is givng the Dalai Lama an award. Here’s an article about it, http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2197690,00.html. Yea…so we found out youtube was blocked this weekend. Not that it’s an essential part of our life or anything, but rather nice when we don’t feel like doing much of anything else. Wikipedia is also blocked in China. But when in China, anything can happen, so we still get our resources.:D
On Tuesday, the international students were given the chance to go to the Volkswagon Factory and the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The Volkswagon Factory was about an hour and a half away from Fudan. It was actually pretty cool to be given a tour of the factory, or just parts of it. They didn’t allow photography during the tour so no pictures:( It’s rather interesting to see how each part is made and actually see the car being assembled. I don’t have a Volkswagen but I’m sure cars are assembled similarly. An interesting fact that we did learn was that everyday, 2000 Volkswagen cars are produced from their 3 factories. Interesting right? I thought so. Afterwards we went to the Shanghai Stock Exchange, which is nothing like the stock exchange in New York by the way. It was rather empty actually, but that also could have been the fact that we got there kind of late. But even then, the guy that gave us a tour said that the employee’s hardly come in anyway since we’re so technologically advanced, everything is done on the computer.
Hrm…I guess that’s all I’m pondering about at the moment. I don’t really have any classes today so I watched Life is Beautiful, applied for some summer internships, and updated my blog. But the days not over! I’m going work on my group presentation for International Political Economies and revise my paper for Westerners in China. This wasn’t as interesting as I thought it may be, but I hope you enjoyed anyway! I’m sure I’ll write sometime after the weekend since it’s going to be Halloween galore. So, have a good weekend!
So, continuing on from yesterday…
How’s the weather you must wonder. Well it’s been on and off I suppose. I wasn’t really well prepared to come to China, packing wise. I basically just threw clothes in a suitcase and left. While I was packing I asked my dad how the weather was in the winter here and he said it was just like summer. Not even thinking about that, I just threw summer clothes in my suitcase. But when I went home one last time before I left for the city again, my mom asked me why I wasn’t bringing a jacket. I told her my dad told me it would be summer while I was in China and basically called us crazy. So then I ran up to my room, grabbed some winter clothing and threw them in my suitcase. If I could go back , I would have definitely put a little more into packing! The weather is getting kind of cold here…or just colder. High 60’s, low 70’s, which really isn’t bad. Just a little colder than we were use to from the sweating heat, like when we would just go for a walk outside and come back drenched with sweat, oh, those were the days.
Let’s see what else…youtube has been blocked! They say it’s because the US is givng the Dalai Lama an award. Here’s an article about it, http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2197690,00.html. Yea…so we found out youtube was blocked this weekend. Not that it’s an essential part of our life or anything, but rather nice when we don’t feel like doing much of anything else. Wikipedia is also blocked in China. But when in China, anything can happen, so we still get our resources.:D
On Tuesday, the international students were given the chance to go to the Volkswagon Factory and the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The Volkswagon Factory was about an hour and a half away from Fudan. It was actually pretty cool to be given a tour of the factory, or just parts of it. They didn’t allow photography during the tour so no pictures:( It’s rather interesting to see how each part is made and actually see the car being assembled. I don’t have a Volkswagen but I’m sure cars are assembled similarly. An interesting fact that we did learn was that everyday, 2000 Volkswagen cars are produced from their 3 factories. Interesting right? I thought so. Afterwards we went to the Shanghai Stock Exchange, which is nothing like the stock exchange in New York by the way. It was rather empty actually, but that also could have been the fact that we got there kind of late. But even then, the guy that gave us a tour said that the employee’s hardly come in anyway since we’re so technologically advanced, everything is done on the computer.
Hrm…I guess that’s all I’m pondering about at the moment. I don’t really have any classes today so I watched Life is Beautiful, applied for some summer internships, and updated my blog. But the days not over! I’m going work on my group presentation for International Political Economies and revise my paper for Westerners in China. This wasn’t as interesting as I thought it may be, but I hope you enjoyed anyway! I’m sure I’ll write sometime after the weekend since it’s going to be Halloween galore. So, have a good weekend!
Oh Chinar...
Wednesday, October 24th, 2007
Oh China…and where to even begin! I know it’s been awhile since I last posted an entry, it’s been a hectic time considering it’s midterm week and whatnot. I just had my first midterm today in International Political Economy. It went alright I suppose, not as good as it should have been though but we’ll see. It’s only surprisingly worth 10%, so hopefully it wont be bad.
So let’s see, where do I even want to begin? I don’t really have any one thing I’d like to discuss so I’ll just blab and you let me know what find interesting. Sweet. Well, I’ll start off with that I’m sick, and it sucks. My throat feels like it’s going close up…well, not really, but it aches! Coughing hurts my chest at times. Because of my small bladder, drinking the massive amounts of water that I have been having makes me pee a lot. That’s not too great when I’m other places than 我的房间 (my room) because I don’t enjoy using the squatters. I like the western toilets, so appreciate them cause I certainly do.:) I also bought cough drops from the convenient store that is on our first floor today, well I actually bought whatever was left in the box, which was 3 little sets of Halls. So while I’m in the elevator going back to my room on the 十八 (18th) floor, this girl in the corner of the elevator asks me, did you buy your cough drops in the convenient store downstairs? In my hacky voice I tell her I did but I bought the rest of what was in the box but tell her I’m sure they’ll refill. I’m thinking…good way to start a conversation so then I also add that my name is Sharon. I guess she didn’t like the fact that I bought the cough drops because when I told her my name she said, no you’re the Halls stealer. What do you say to that? She wouldn’t tell me her name because I cough drops. As she leaves the elevator I just tell her, sure that’s okay, I can be known as the Halls stealer if that makes you happy. But seriously, what do you say to that? I was speechless. I can’t believe she got fussy over that. Her loss!
Moving on. Just a side step back to my previous entry about rude students, the other day while I was in class, this local students phone rang and she picked it up and started talking on the phone in class while our professor is giving a lecture. Rudeness. That’s all I have to say. But I guess that’s China. Talking about locals, I finally got a language partner last Friday but she wasn’t really helpful. I basically helped her with her conversational English the whole 3 hours that we met. She lives in Shanghai, not far from Fudan and she walks to class everyday. I asked her why she didn’t have a bike and it’s because the past 3 she had were stolen so she gave up on that, I don’t blame her. She’s a Japanese major but she wishes she was English. She said she couldn’t be an English major because she didn’t score high enough on the test to enter Fudan as one. I was kind of surprised by that, I didn’t realize you had to place for certain majors. Unlike us, more than half of college freshman probably enter school undecided. I also learned that she seems lonely because she’s not dating anyone at the moment. Apparently a big thing in China, or at least at Fudan is dating. Most of her friends are dating and they like it because it takes up time and the comfort I suppose. I think that’s horrible! Dating a necessity? But sure, whatever China says. So I showed her some pictures of some guys and she drools for you American men. You’re all quite charming to her! So I didn’t really learn anything except a lot about Moon, the English name she gave herself. I was hoping to get help on my reading and speaking but I’m looking for another language partner now. No one said I only had to have one! So if you’re a Fudan student and your by chance reading this and would like to be my language partner, swell.:)
I also have these 2 local boys that I work with as a group for my Westerners in China class. Let me tell you, I’m not too fond of their work ethic. We met Sunday night to discuss the reading we had to present to the class on Tuesday and guess what, they didn’t read. I was a bit frustrated because they called the same thing on my last time. Then they asked to give them a summary and do the presentation. Arg. And then felt the need to tell them the answers on the midterm! Like I had the questions?! Crazy. But then they asked questions about me and my dorm room. But I went up to Nick’s room instead (谢谢 Nick for that!) But comparing our rooms to their dorm rooms, we’re living the life. They’re rooms are just a little bigger but they fit 6 people per room. That’s a lot! Plus no air conditioning. But I kind of figured that. They also had community bathrooms versus how we get our own bathrooms in our room. So we’re living a pretty nice life. I appreciate life a little more.
I’m not done with this discussion, but I’m off to Wally world to buy some goodies, like a microphone so I can skype! yay! But I shall continue my thoughts later. Good day!
Oh China…and where to even begin! I know it’s been awhile since I last posted an entry, it’s been a hectic time considering it’s midterm week and whatnot. I just had my first midterm today in International Political Economy. It went alright I suppose, not as good as it should have been though but we’ll see. It’s only surprisingly worth 10%, so hopefully it wont be bad.
So let’s see, where do I even want to begin? I don’t really have any one thing I’d like to discuss so I’ll just blab and you let me know what find interesting. Sweet. Well, I’ll start off with that I’m sick, and it sucks. My throat feels like it’s going close up…well, not really, but it aches! Coughing hurts my chest at times. Because of my small bladder, drinking the massive amounts of water that I have been having makes me pee a lot. That’s not too great when I’m other places than 我的房间 (my room) because I don’t enjoy using the squatters. I like the western toilets, so appreciate them cause I certainly do.:) I also bought cough drops from the convenient store that is on our first floor today, well I actually bought whatever was left in the box, which was 3 little sets of Halls. So while I’m in the elevator going back to my room on the 十八 (18th) floor, this girl in the corner of the elevator asks me, did you buy your cough drops in the convenient store downstairs? In my hacky voice I tell her I did but I bought the rest of what was in the box but tell her I’m sure they’ll refill. I’m thinking…good way to start a conversation so then I also add that my name is Sharon. I guess she didn’t like the fact that I bought the cough drops because when I told her my name she said, no you’re the Halls stealer. What do you say to that? She wouldn’t tell me her name because I cough drops. As she leaves the elevator I just tell her, sure that’s okay, I can be known as the Halls stealer if that makes you happy. But seriously, what do you say to that? I was speechless. I can’t believe she got fussy over that. Her loss!
Moving on. Just a side step back to my previous entry about rude students, the other day while I was in class, this local students phone rang and she picked it up and started talking on the phone in class while our professor is giving a lecture. Rudeness. That’s all I have to say. But I guess that’s China. Talking about locals, I finally got a language partner last Friday but she wasn’t really helpful. I basically helped her with her conversational English the whole 3 hours that we met. She lives in Shanghai, not far from Fudan and she walks to class everyday. I asked her why she didn’t have a bike and it’s because the past 3 she had were stolen so she gave up on that, I don’t blame her. She’s a Japanese major but she wishes she was English. She said she couldn’t be an English major because she didn’t score high enough on the test to enter Fudan as one. I was kind of surprised by that, I didn’t realize you had to place for certain majors. Unlike us, more than half of college freshman probably enter school undecided. I also learned that she seems lonely because she’s not dating anyone at the moment. Apparently a big thing in China, or at least at Fudan is dating. Most of her friends are dating and they like it because it takes up time and the comfort I suppose. I think that’s horrible! Dating a necessity? But sure, whatever China says. So I showed her some pictures of some guys and she drools for you American men. You’re all quite charming to her! So I didn’t really learn anything except a lot about Moon, the English name she gave herself. I was hoping to get help on my reading and speaking but I’m looking for another language partner now. No one said I only had to have one! So if you’re a Fudan student and your by chance reading this and would like to be my language partner, swell.:)
I also have these 2 local boys that I work with as a group for my Westerners in China class. Let me tell you, I’m not too fond of their work ethic. We met Sunday night to discuss the reading we had to present to the class on Tuesday and guess what, they didn’t read. I was a bit frustrated because they called the same thing on my last time. Then they asked to give them a summary and do the presentation. Arg. And then felt the need to tell them the answers on the midterm! Like I had the questions?! Crazy. But then they asked questions about me and my dorm room. But I went up to Nick’s room instead (谢谢 Nick for that!) But comparing our rooms to their dorm rooms, we’re living the life. They’re rooms are just a little bigger but they fit 6 people per room. That’s a lot! Plus no air conditioning. But I kind of figured that. They also had community bathrooms versus how we get our own bathrooms in our room. So we’re living a pretty nice life. I appreciate life a little more.
I’m not done with this discussion, but I’m off to Wally world to buy some goodies, like a microphone so I can skype! yay! But I shall continue my thoughts later. Good day!
World's Clashing
Saturday, October 13th, 2007
I’ve noticed it before but never really wrote about it…at least I don’t think I have yet. Sitting in class today I realized how diverse our class was; Americans, Chinese, Mexican, and Swedish. Since we all grew up in different area’s, of course we’re not all the same. I’m not pointing anyone out in particular, but as a group. So today in International Political Economy, our Mexican professor decided to change his syllabus, yet again. It’s been more than a month into the semester and we still seem not to be doing much. He doesn’t seem to have control of his class, or it’s just not well organized. It just doesn’t seem as structured as I am use to back in the states. And I also noticed that the Mexicans are what I consider rude. Not all, but some. A lot of them would be holding their own conversations and not paying attention to the point where it was hard to hear the professor because conversations overrode his voice. They don’t seem to pay attention, it’s more of a social event. In that kind of atmosphere it’s hard to pay attention and be concentrated. The Chinese students are rather quiet, some falling asleep. They don’t seem worried about the class at all. I on the other hand, I’m trying to listen to what he has to say…but at times I can’t make sense of it. Overall, there doesn’t seem to be much structure in the day to day classroom.
I also have a lot of respect for all students except for the Americans. It seems like all the other students are at least bilingual, not perfect, but proficient enough. If I was in…say France and I had a choice of taking a class that was taught in French or English, I would definitely take the one in English. Here, the Chinese students take the English classes to improve their understanding. I’m very impressed with the vocabulary that they know of in the English language. I took French for 6 years and there’s no way that I could sit in an economics class in France and understand what was going on. Not only the Chinese, but the Mexicans and Swedish as well. They know their own languages very well and they know English. Some struggle but overall, everything is understandable. To fully know and understand multiple languages is quite impressive. Yea I can understand Chinese pretty well I think, but my reading and writing doesn’t nearly compare. I wish I realized at a younger age how much learning would benefit me now. So for all you youngsters out there, if any are reading, my advice is to soak up as much as possible!
I’ve noticed it before but never really wrote about it…at least I don’t think I have yet. Sitting in class today I realized how diverse our class was; Americans, Chinese, Mexican, and Swedish. Since we all grew up in different area’s, of course we’re not all the same. I’m not pointing anyone out in particular, but as a group. So today in International Political Economy, our Mexican professor decided to change his syllabus, yet again. It’s been more than a month into the semester and we still seem not to be doing much. He doesn’t seem to have control of his class, or it’s just not well organized. It just doesn’t seem as structured as I am use to back in the states. And I also noticed that the Mexicans are what I consider rude. Not all, but some. A lot of them would be holding their own conversations and not paying attention to the point where it was hard to hear the professor because conversations overrode his voice. They don’t seem to pay attention, it’s more of a social event. In that kind of atmosphere it’s hard to pay attention and be concentrated. The Chinese students are rather quiet, some falling asleep. They don’t seem worried about the class at all. I on the other hand, I’m trying to listen to what he has to say…but at times I can’t make sense of it. Overall, there doesn’t seem to be much structure in the day to day classroom.
I also have a lot of respect for all students except for the Americans. It seems like all the other students are at least bilingual, not perfect, but proficient enough. If I was in…say France and I had a choice of taking a class that was taught in French or English, I would definitely take the one in English. Here, the Chinese students take the English classes to improve their understanding. I’m very impressed with the vocabulary that they know of in the English language. I took French for 6 years and there’s no way that I could sit in an economics class in France and understand what was going on. Not only the Chinese, but the Mexicans and Swedish as well. They know their own languages very well and they know English. Some struggle but overall, everything is understandable. To fully know and understand multiple languages is quite impressive. Yea I can understand Chinese pretty well I think, but my reading and writing doesn’t nearly compare. I wish I realized at a younger age how much learning would benefit me now. So for all you youngsters out there, if any are reading, my advice is to soak up as much as possible!
Journey's During National Holiday Break
Saturday, October 6th, 2007
Let me just start with…this entry is going to be very very long. This past week was National Week and I haven’t blogged in a week, so there’s lots to share! National Week is like July 4th to us, so it’s a big holiday where we don’t have class! YAY! So, for National Week there was a group of 4 of us that decided to travel together go to Guilin and Yangshuo. These places are known for their scenery and mountains.
We began our travels by flying to Guilin Friday afternoon, which was September 28th. I had to skip my first class in order to make it to the airport. Oh tsk tsk me on that. I don’t really like flying, so the flight wasn’t that enjoyable. Especially when we hit turbulence and our plane took such a drop that people fell our of their seats. Thank goodness I drugged myself. It made the ride a little better. When we arrived in Guilin that evening, we settled at our hostel which actually wasn’t that bad! It was actually my first hostel ever, so a good experience. After we got settled, we went out to the night market and met up with the other group that also went to Guilin, but they went on a tour. We also got to see this HUGE map that was actually on the ground.
Here I am standing on Fuzhou, which is where my parents are from.
fuzhou
Our first real day in Guilin, we spent about the whole day at the 7 Star Park. The park was HUGE! And there was so much to do. We climbed mountains, went into a cave, dressed up in traditional dress, saw monkeys, camels, and the best of all, PANDA’S!!!
This is inside the cave.
cave
(There’s more pictures I’d like to post, but the blog says that I’m up to my limit again…hopefully that’ll be fixed soon and I’ll put more pictures up, sorry! )That night we also saw a show on an outside stage of singers and dancers and acrobatics. It was very impressive to see how they could bend in all sorts of ways. There was also a hotel next to it that had a man made waterfall come off the hotel. It was about a 15 min show but well worth it. We also checked out some of the hostels in Guilin with out hostel roommates. The clubs there are…interesting. The Chinese like a lot of techno and their way of dancing is very…weird. If you’d like to learn some of their moves, ask me next time you see me. We shared our hostel with these 2 other girls that were actually also studying in Shanghai but at a different university. They were a little crazy for us but very humorous. One was from New Hampshire and the other from Oklahoma City. We also met a guy from Spain that was just traveling. He was a very interesting person and also learning about his travels.
The next day we spent in Guilin, we actually rented a taxi driver for the day for 50rmb. I liked her at first because she seemed very friendly, helpful, and less crazy than the other drivers we’ve met. And oh! If you ever go to Guilin, you can bargain the taxi fare! That was a good deal. We first went to the river for a bamboo rafting tour of 10 mountains on the Li River. It was very relaxing and peaceful. On the raft we also stopped at this rock island where we tried some of the fish from the river. It was pretty good. I like fish. We were brought upstream first and then floated downstream. It took about 80 min. I believe. I really enjoyed the bamboo rafting. Afterwards we went to Solitary Park, which is university within a park. There was a great deal of history at the park, involving Sun-yat Sen, concubines, trees, and characters. We climbed a mountain that had the largest written characters on it. It was also a difficult climb because the stairs were similar to the great wall, very big. After Solitary Peak, we tried to go to the Thousand Buddha Cave but that’s when our taxi lady went coo coo on us. We told her we wanted to go there but she kept trying to tell us that it was closed and we should go somewhere else. But we kept telling her to bring us there so she said we did. Until we got there and it wasn’t Thousand Buddha Cave. It was a different place that she thought she could pass us as Thousand Buddha Cave, but we knew better. She couldn’t fool us! So then we got back into the taxi and made her take us there. The Thousand Buddha Cave doesn’t seem to have a thousand Buddha’s unless it’s a hide and go seek game. There were only about 50 but it was still pretty neat to see them. We also got to sit on the stone seats and watch the Li River and people swimming in it as well. After that, we headed back to our hostel and got dinner as well. That night we met up with the 11 others that were on the tour group and went to KTV with them. The place where we went seemed kind of sketchy because at least half the building was abandoned. Good thing we traveled with a bunch of people.
On our last day in Guilin, we actually joined the tour group to go to Longji. Longji is known for their beautiful rice terraces. We got to spend about 2 hours there before to started heading back to Guilin to catch the bus to Yangshuo. We had a traditional meal in Longji, drinking wine with the locals. The rice wine tasted a bit…sweet. I’m not sure if I liked it or not, but a lot of people seemed to. It was an experience though. We were driven up part of the way of the mountain where we then got out and hiked up to the top. It was actually pretty fun to run up the stairs of the mountain, and a good workout! It was beautiful there, I wish I could post some pictures. Soon enough. We made it to the top and it was a breath taking moment to be at the top and see all the terraces. On our way up we also saw men who carried people up in those king like bamboo chairs. They seemed so old, yet they were so strong. Ladies were also carrying bamboo baskets on their backs, offering to carry bags and luggage up the mountains. I felt bad for them. To be so old and to still be working like that. They must be in great condition. After the terraces, we headed back to Guilin just in time to catch our 8pm bus ride to Yangshuo. It was about an hour and a half ride to Yangshuo on a bus that didn’t have air conditioning, or at least never turned it on, so it was very hot.
When we finally got into Yangshuo, we had great difficulty trying to find our hotel. We tried asking some locals, but they didn’t seem that nice because they wouldn’t stop to help us. We finally did find these 2 girls, who thought we were French, that help direct us in the wrong direction. They told us to go on this road which we ended up walking forever ending until we randomly found our hotel. If we walked on the road we were and just turned right, we would have gotten to our hotel in 5 min. Oh well. While we were walking around, we also saw other hostels/inns/hotels that had vacancy so we checked them out to see if they were cheaper than ours. We found some that were cheaper so we wanted to get them for the next days that we were going to be there, only the problem was that we had already made reservations as the hotel we were staying at. But there was another problem, there was 4 of us and the hotel only let 3 of us in, so we snuck the 4th one in. They obviously knew in the morning because they said something about it when we were trying to get out of staying there for the next few days. Of the complexity of it all. We finally did get out of it through a third party, thank goodness. For our first day there we basically just hung out and did some shopping and lots of bargaining. We met up with 2 other guys from Fudan that were also in Yangshuo. While we were in Yangshuo, we went rock climbing, kayaking, to the mud cave, biking, and a lot of hanging out. It was really relaxing. Rock climbing was quite adventurous. It was my first time climbing with all the gear and everything. I climbed 3 different routes. It was actually pretty fun. It was hard at times and frustrating when I wasn’t able to find the places to put my hands and feet. On the last route I was thinking about giving up because I couldn’t reach the rock I was suppose to pull myself up to but my friends and the rock climbing people kept encouraging me, which made me want to try even harder. It was a great feeling reaching the top point. I think the scariest part was coming down. When you come down, you’re basically in a sitting relaxed position and your trust is in the guy at the bottom of the mountain with the rope. I had trouble with that the first couple times, but I had more trust as I climbed more. I have a scar on my leg, but that’s where the stories come into place:)
The mud cave was…”beyond anything I’ve experienced before”, according to my friend Adrea and I couldn’t have put it in better words. The first thought we had when we thought mud cave was something like sounds like fun! We got a great deal bargaining for the tickets and bikes to get to the mud cave. It was about a half an hour bike ride to the cave from town. From there, we took a bus to the actual cave. To physically get into the cave we have to take a boat. It really did feel like a real cave. We had to duck our heads and crawl, it was quite exciting. We knew we were going to go into the mud so we didn’t bring any camera’s because we didn’t want to get them dirty, wish we had someone to take pictures for us though because every picture was 10 rmb. We got 3. Getting into the mud was…a weird feeling I suppose you could say. It was thick, almost like getting into a pool of pudding. Very thick. Trying to sit in the mud was actually hard. It was so thick, you would just float. It took a lot of pressure for us to push each other into the mud. The mud was also very heavy in my hair. It was a lot of fun though, just took a little to get use to it. We had some mud wrestling and mud fights. It was definitely an experience and if you’re ever in Yangshuo, I would definitely recommend going to the mud cave.
Kayaking down the Li River was very relaxing. We enjoyed the scenery and mountains as we floated down the river. The river was very calm. On our way to the kayaking place was a little shady though. I felt like I had been tricked and I was being led to the back of the town where people would be waiting to slaughter and eat us, but hey that’s China. Of course that isn’t really what happened or else I wouldn’t be here writing this right now. Kayaking was really nice though, I’d love to do it again. We got to see so much on the way down. We were also very close to water buffalo, to the point that you could probably get out of your kayak and sit on one, but that probably wouldn’t be safe. We also made some friends on our flow down. There were children that would shout, “Hello! What’s your name?” and that’s the extent of their English. I tried talking to them in mandarin but they didn’t understand that as well. They spoke a village dialect. But I got to take pictures of them and as we flowed down, they ran by our sides until they could no longer go. I imagined that kind of thing only happened in the movies, but it actually did and it was a great feeling.
About half way down the river we also stopped in a village to take a rest where we walked around the town. Walking through the village made me kind of sad to see people live in such poverty. It made me appreciate life more than I normally do. This kind of thing happens every time I come to China and go to the villages. I know poverty is there, it just reminds me of how grateful I am. My parents always remind me of how thankful I should be to be born in the United States and have the chances I have. Now that I think back, I do things that I regret doing, not thinking about others. I just needed to be reminded of it sometimes, and I shouldn’t have to be. What really frustrates and annoys me is those who do walk through the villages and see the poverty but don’t think about it at all. They still complain about what they have is enough and don’t think about what the others don’t. If you just had a little heart and looked at the children, the families and thought about what it would be to be in their place, you would enjoy life a little more and not complain about the small things. We went bike riding on our last day in Yangshuo before heading back to Shanghai. During the bike ride I stayed a little behind the group to fully sink in my thoughts and enjoy my life a little more. Even now, just think about what your life would be like without all the luxuries you have. Next time you think about complaining about being tired or wasting food, think about those that have less than you do and work a lot harder. Be greatful for what you have and a little more thoughtful.
Let me just start with…this entry is going to be very very long. This past week was National Week and I haven’t blogged in a week, so there’s lots to share! National Week is like July 4th to us, so it’s a big holiday where we don’t have class! YAY! So, for National Week there was a group of 4 of us that decided to travel together go to Guilin and Yangshuo. These places are known for their scenery and mountains.
We began our travels by flying to Guilin Friday afternoon, which was September 28th. I had to skip my first class in order to make it to the airport. Oh tsk tsk me on that. I don’t really like flying, so the flight wasn’t that enjoyable. Especially when we hit turbulence and our plane took such a drop that people fell our of their seats. Thank goodness I drugged myself. It made the ride a little better. When we arrived in Guilin that evening, we settled at our hostel which actually wasn’t that bad! It was actually my first hostel ever, so a good experience. After we got settled, we went out to the night market and met up with the other group that also went to Guilin, but they went on a tour. We also got to see this HUGE map that was actually on the ground.
Here I am standing on Fuzhou, which is where my parents are from.
fuzhou
Our first real day in Guilin, we spent about the whole day at the 7 Star Park. The park was HUGE! And there was so much to do. We climbed mountains, went into a cave, dressed up in traditional dress, saw monkeys, camels, and the best of all, PANDA’S!!!
This is inside the cave.
cave
(There’s more pictures I’d like to post, but the blog says that I’m up to my limit again…hopefully that’ll be fixed soon and I’ll put more pictures up, sorry! )That night we also saw a show on an outside stage of singers and dancers and acrobatics. It was very impressive to see how they could bend in all sorts of ways. There was also a hotel next to it that had a man made waterfall come off the hotel. It was about a 15 min show but well worth it. We also checked out some of the hostels in Guilin with out hostel roommates. The clubs there are…interesting. The Chinese like a lot of techno and their way of dancing is very…weird. If you’d like to learn some of their moves, ask me next time you see me. We shared our hostel with these 2 other girls that were actually also studying in Shanghai but at a different university. They were a little crazy for us but very humorous. One was from New Hampshire and the other from Oklahoma City. We also met a guy from Spain that was just traveling. He was a very interesting person and also learning about his travels.
The next day we spent in Guilin, we actually rented a taxi driver for the day for 50rmb. I liked her at first because she seemed very friendly, helpful, and less crazy than the other drivers we’ve met. And oh! If you ever go to Guilin, you can bargain the taxi fare! That was a good deal. We first went to the river for a bamboo rafting tour of 10 mountains on the Li River. It was very relaxing and peaceful. On the raft we also stopped at this rock island where we tried some of the fish from the river. It was pretty good. I like fish. We were brought upstream first and then floated downstream. It took about 80 min. I believe. I really enjoyed the bamboo rafting. Afterwards we went to Solitary Park, which is university within a park. There was a great deal of history at the park, involving Sun-yat Sen, concubines, trees, and characters. We climbed a mountain that had the largest written characters on it. It was also a difficult climb because the stairs were similar to the great wall, very big. After Solitary Peak, we tried to go to the Thousand Buddha Cave but that’s when our taxi lady went coo coo on us. We told her we wanted to go there but she kept trying to tell us that it was closed and we should go somewhere else. But we kept telling her to bring us there so she said we did. Until we got there and it wasn’t Thousand Buddha Cave. It was a different place that she thought she could pass us as Thousand Buddha Cave, but we knew better. She couldn’t fool us! So then we got back into the taxi and made her take us there. The Thousand Buddha Cave doesn’t seem to have a thousand Buddha’s unless it’s a hide and go seek game. There were only about 50 but it was still pretty neat to see them. We also got to sit on the stone seats and watch the Li River and people swimming in it as well. After that, we headed back to our hostel and got dinner as well. That night we met up with the 11 others that were on the tour group and went to KTV with them. The place where we went seemed kind of sketchy because at least half the building was abandoned. Good thing we traveled with a bunch of people.
On our last day in Guilin, we actually joined the tour group to go to Longji. Longji is known for their beautiful rice terraces. We got to spend about 2 hours there before to started heading back to Guilin to catch the bus to Yangshuo. We had a traditional meal in Longji, drinking wine with the locals. The rice wine tasted a bit…sweet. I’m not sure if I liked it or not, but a lot of people seemed to. It was an experience though. We were driven up part of the way of the mountain where we then got out and hiked up to the top. It was actually pretty fun to run up the stairs of the mountain, and a good workout! It was beautiful there, I wish I could post some pictures. Soon enough. We made it to the top and it was a breath taking moment to be at the top and see all the terraces. On our way up we also saw men who carried people up in those king like bamboo chairs. They seemed so old, yet they were so strong. Ladies were also carrying bamboo baskets on their backs, offering to carry bags and luggage up the mountains. I felt bad for them. To be so old and to still be working like that. They must be in great condition. After the terraces, we headed back to Guilin just in time to catch our 8pm bus ride to Yangshuo. It was about an hour and a half ride to Yangshuo on a bus that didn’t have air conditioning, or at least never turned it on, so it was very hot.
When we finally got into Yangshuo, we had great difficulty trying to find our hotel. We tried asking some locals, but they didn’t seem that nice because they wouldn’t stop to help us. We finally did find these 2 girls, who thought we were French, that help direct us in the wrong direction. They told us to go on this road which we ended up walking forever ending until we randomly found our hotel. If we walked on the road we were and just turned right, we would have gotten to our hotel in 5 min. Oh well. While we were walking around, we also saw other hostels/inns/hotels that had vacancy so we checked them out to see if they were cheaper than ours. We found some that were cheaper so we wanted to get them for the next days that we were going to be there, only the problem was that we had already made reservations as the hotel we were staying at. But there was another problem, there was 4 of us and the hotel only let 3 of us in, so we snuck the 4th one in. They obviously knew in the morning because they said something about it when we were trying to get out of staying there for the next few days. Of the complexity of it all. We finally did get out of it through a third party, thank goodness. For our first day there we basically just hung out and did some shopping and lots of bargaining. We met up with 2 other guys from Fudan that were also in Yangshuo. While we were in Yangshuo, we went rock climbing, kayaking, to the mud cave, biking, and a lot of hanging out. It was really relaxing. Rock climbing was quite adventurous. It was my first time climbing with all the gear and everything. I climbed 3 different routes. It was actually pretty fun. It was hard at times and frustrating when I wasn’t able to find the places to put my hands and feet. On the last route I was thinking about giving up because I couldn’t reach the rock I was suppose to pull myself up to but my friends and the rock climbing people kept encouraging me, which made me want to try even harder. It was a great feeling reaching the top point. I think the scariest part was coming down. When you come down, you’re basically in a sitting relaxed position and your trust is in the guy at the bottom of the mountain with the rope. I had trouble with that the first couple times, but I had more trust as I climbed more. I have a scar on my leg, but that’s where the stories come into place:)
The mud cave was…”beyond anything I’ve experienced before”, according to my friend Adrea and I couldn’t have put it in better words. The first thought we had when we thought mud cave was something like sounds like fun! We got a great deal bargaining for the tickets and bikes to get to the mud cave. It was about a half an hour bike ride to the cave from town. From there, we took a bus to the actual cave. To physically get into the cave we have to take a boat. It really did feel like a real cave. We had to duck our heads and crawl, it was quite exciting. We knew we were going to go into the mud so we didn’t bring any camera’s because we didn’t want to get them dirty, wish we had someone to take pictures for us though because every picture was 10 rmb. We got 3. Getting into the mud was…a weird feeling I suppose you could say. It was thick, almost like getting into a pool of pudding. Very thick. Trying to sit in the mud was actually hard. It was so thick, you would just float. It took a lot of pressure for us to push each other into the mud. The mud was also very heavy in my hair. It was a lot of fun though, just took a little to get use to it. We had some mud wrestling and mud fights. It was definitely an experience and if you’re ever in Yangshuo, I would definitely recommend going to the mud cave.
Kayaking down the Li River was very relaxing. We enjoyed the scenery and mountains as we floated down the river. The river was very calm. On our way to the kayaking place was a little shady though. I felt like I had been tricked and I was being led to the back of the town where people would be waiting to slaughter and eat us, but hey that’s China. Of course that isn’t really what happened or else I wouldn’t be here writing this right now. Kayaking was really nice though, I’d love to do it again. We got to see so much on the way down. We were also very close to water buffalo, to the point that you could probably get out of your kayak and sit on one, but that probably wouldn’t be safe. We also made some friends on our flow down. There were children that would shout, “Hello! What’s your name?” and that’s the extent of their English. I tried talking to them in mandarin but they didn’t understand that as well. They spoke a village dialect. But I got to take pictures of them and as we flowed down, they ran by our sides until they could no longer go. I imagined that kind of thing only happened in the movies, but it actually did and it was a great feeling.
About half way down the river we also stopped in a village to take a rest where we walked around the town. Walking through the village made me kind of sad to see people live in such poverty. It made me appreciate life more than I normally do. This kind of thing happens every time I come to China and go to the villages. I know poverty is there, it just reminds me of how grateful I am. My parents always remind me of how thankful I should be to be born in the United States and have the chances I have. Now that I think back, I do things that I regret doing, not thinking about others. I just needed to be reminded of it sometimes, and I shouldn’t have to be. What really frustrates and annoys me is those who do walk through the villages and see the poverty but don’t think about it at all. They still complain about what they have is enough and don’t think about what the others don’t. If you just had a little heart and looked at the children, the families and thought about what it would be to be in their place, you would enjoy life a little more and not complain about the small things. We went bike riding on our last day in Yangshuo before heading back to Shanghai. During the bike ride I stayed a little behind the group to fully sink in my thoughts and enjoy my life a little more. Even now, just think about what your life would be like without all the luxuries you have. Next time you think about complaining about being tired or wasting food, think about those that have less than you do and work a lot harder. Be greatful for what you have and a little more thoughtful.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Happy Moon Day!
Thursday, September 20th 2007
Yes, yes, I know I’m a few days late, but it’s better to say it now than never! Happy Moon Day! Moon day was Tuesday but let me start with Sunday.
On Sunday, since I am considered a scholarship student, but I’m not here on a scholarship, I’m an exchange student, I went on the scholarship trip provided by Fudan. We left around 1pm for the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum . This museum is very well known for their under ground shopping center where bargaining is your job. It’s a workout. When we went to the museum, we toured inside and also saw an IMAX film, “Walking on the Moon.” It was my first IMAX movie, but I was kind of tired:/ Some of my favorite things in the museum are displayed in the following pictures:)
bugs
Here are some human sized bugs!
proof
Something for you smarties!
robot
My favorite picture of all! The piano robot! It played the songs automatically on the piano, my dream bot.
After the museum, we went to Binjiang Avenue for dinner and some shopping. That’s basically where we went to the Super Brand Mall and ate dinner and some shopping. The mall is about 10 stories high or so, probably a little less. But it has an ice rink at the top along with a movie theater! Pretty sweet I’d say. After that, we got to go up the Oriental Pearl Tower! Isn’t that amazing? The site was pretty nice, kind of like if you were on top of twin towers or the empire state building. Here are some views.
img_3556.jpg
img_3562.jpg
After the Pearl Tower, we headed back to campus and returned around 9pm. It was quite a long day.
Tuesday was Moon Day, also known as mid-autumn festival. To read up more on the holiday, go to http://www.chinavoc.com/festivals/Midautumn.htm.
moon
The moon!
It was a long day of classes and working on projects for me. Fudan did throw a party for the festival on campus, but I had class during that time so I was unable to attend. But after class, which ended a little after 8pm, a bunch of us went out to dinner and then to a house party where we hung out and ate lots of moon cake, the best part! Haagen-Dazs was also very busy around this holiday. Haagen-Dazs is considered a luxury here in China, very expensive. They actually made a cake in the form of a moon cake that was extremely expensive, not sure how much, but there was also a very long line for this event. The night was very relaxing and fun. It was great to be spending time with friends for the night.
Besides the scholarship and Moon Day, what else interesting has happened? I got into my second bike accident, not something I’m proud of. It was a hard core run in, but I’ve survived. I had also spoken to one of my friends that had witnessed a car/motorcycle accident. Apparently a bike was trying to pass a car on the left side but didn’t realize the on coming traffic and was ran over by the on coming car. He said he helped pull the victim out from under the car…I don’t think his legs are looking too good.
Yesterday was the first time I played rugby. There was a bunch of us that played with the Australians. They were pretty hard core. It took me a little while to learn the game, but it’s actually pretty fun. I need to get in better shape. But it was a great experience and I hope to play again. Have I also mentioned that I plan on running in the 4.5k race in Shanghai during their marathon and half marathon? I’ve recruited some guys to run as well, but I’m still looking for some girls.
Tomorrow we leave for our vacation for National Week. There’s a bunch of us going to Guilian, but actually, there’s about 11 people going on a tour group then coming back to Shanghai then going to other places. I’m going with 3 other people and we’re going to go down to Guilian for a few nights and then going to Yangshuo for a few more. Hopefully the trip will take about 7 days. We’re just going on our own but we do have things that we want to do in mind. We will be flying out at 5:30pm tomorrow afternoon and arriving in Guilian around 7:30pm. The tour group people are flying out at noon, so we might try to meet them for dinner, we’ll see. We plan to go on the boat tour (of course!), rock climbing, biking, hiking, hot air balloon, bamboo boat tour, ect. It should be great! There’s a lot of people going all over including Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Tibet, Mongolia, Beijing, ect. I can’t wait to hear about everyone’s experiences when we get back! I wish I could go to all those places as well, maybe one day. So have a great week everyone and I’ll blog when I return from National Week!
Yes, yes, I know I’m a few days late, but it’s better to say it now than never! Happy Moon Day! Moon day was Tuesday but let me start with Sunday.
On Sunday, since I am considered a scholarship student, but I’m not here on a scholarship, I’m an exchange student, I went on the scholarship trip provided by Fudan. We left around 1pm for the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum . This museum is very well known for their under ground shopping center where bargaining is your job. It’s a workout. When we went to the museum, we toured inside and also saw an IMAX film, “Walking on the Moon.” It was my first IMAX movie, but I was kind of tired:/ Some of my favorite things in the museum are displayed in the following pictures:)
bugs
Here are some human sized bugs!
proof
Something for you smarties!
robot
My favorite picture of all! The piano robot! It played the songs automatically on the piano, my dream bot.
After the museum, we went to Binjiang Avenue for dinner and some shopping. That’s basically where we went to the Super Brand Mall and ate dinner and some shopping. The mall is about 10 stories high or so, probably a little less. But it has an ice rink at the top along with a movie theater! Pretty sweet I’d say. After that, we got to go up the Oriental Pearl Tower! Isn’t that amazing? The site was pretty nice, kind of like if you were on top of twin towers or the empire state building. Here are some views.
img_3556.jpg
img_3562.jpg
After the Pearl Tower, we headed back to campus and returned around 9pm. It was quite a long day.
Tuesday was Moon Day, also known as mid-autumn festival. To read up more on the holiday, go to http://www.chinavoc.com/festivals/Midautumn.htm.
moon
The moon!
It was a long day of classes and working on projects for me. Fudan did throw a party for the festival on campus, but I had class during that time so I was unable to attend. But after class, which ended a little after 8pm, a bunch of us went out to dinner and then to a house party where we hung out and ate lots of moon cake, the best part! Haagen-Dazs was also very busy around this holiday. Haagen-Dazs is considered a luxury here in China, very expensive. They actually made a cake in the form of a moon cake that was extremely expensive, not sure how much, but there was also a very long line for this event. The night was very relaxing and fun. It was great to be spending time with friends for the night.
Besides the scholarship and Moon Day, what else interesting has happened? I got into my second bike accident, not something I’m proud of. It was a hard core run in, but I’ve survived. I had also spoken to one of my friends that had witnessed a car/motorcycle accident. Apparently a bike was trying to pass a car on the left side but didn’t realize the on coming traffic and was ran over by the on coming car. He said he helped pull the victim out from under the car…I don’t think his legs are looking too good.
Yesterday was the first time I played rugby. There was a bunch of us that played with the Australians. They were pretty hard core. It took me a little while to learn the game, but it’s actually pretty fun. I need to get in better shape. But it was a great experience and I hope to play again. Have I also mentioned that I plan on running in the 4.5k race in Shanghai during their marathon and half marathon? I’ve recruited some guys to run as well, but I’m still looking for some girls.
Tomorrow we leave for our vacation for National Week. There’s a bunch of us going to Guilian, but actually, there’s about 11 people going on a tour group then coming back to Shanghai then going to other places. I’m going with 3 other people and we’re going to go down to Guilian for a few nights and then going to Yangshuo for a few more. Hopefully the trip will take about 7 days. We’re just going on our own but we do have things that we want to do in mind. We will be flying out at 5:30pm tomorrow afternoon and arriving in Guilian around 7:30pm. The tour group people are flying out at noon, so we might try to meet them for dinner, we’ll see. We plan to go on the boat tour (of course!), rock climbing, biking, hiking, hot air balloon, bamboo boat tour, ect. It should be great! There’s a lot of people going all over including Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Tibet, Mongolia, Beijing, ect. I can’t wait to hear about everyone’s experiences when we get back! I wish I could go to all those places as well, maybe one day. So have a great week everyone and I’ll blog when I return from National Week!
America Day!
Saturday, September 22nd, 2008
Today we celebrated America Day! For America day, we, about 9 of us, basically hit up the restaurants that we would find in the US. We started the day off with lunch at McDonald’s. Last time I came to McDonald’s in China was when I was about 8 years old. I had gotten a fish fillet sandwich and it was horrible! Ever since then, I’ve always said that McDonald’s tasted horrible in China, even after just one fillet. 12 years later here I am, at McDonald’s. I ask myself, do you think it taste the same? There was only one way to find out! So I got the fillet. It was 15 rmb for the meal and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Actually tasted decent. Way to go McDonald’s!
McDonalds
Then we took the metro downtown somewhere. It was packed so it wasn’t too much fun being squished, but it was alright. Taxi’s seemed to be a pain to find today. It was also raining so that probably didn’t help. But our next stop was Starbuck’s. The prices at starbucks were pretty much equivalent to what you would pay in the US. I got the caramel frappachino because they didn’t understand what a caramel mocha was. It was good though. We ended up doing the starbuck’s thing and chatted for awhile before we hit up our next destination, KFC.
I wasn’t really hungry at KFC so I didn’t really get anything. The prices are also equivalent to US prices as well.
kfc
After KFC, we walked around the stores. It was a touristy area, so the stores were rather expensive. We enjoyed looking at the expensive price tags and not buy anything, it was great! We also say restaurants for Oktoberfest. It’s during our National Week, so we won’t be in the area to celebrate. Instead I’ll be in Guilian!
After KFC, we know it’s not American, but we went to this French bakery called Paul. It was very crowed and everything seemed to be expensive but I tried someone’s bread and it was very tasty.
img_3510.jpg
Our final destination for dinner was Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut here is surprisingly very nice. It’s treated as an upscale restaurant where we had to wait 45-ish min. for a table and the tables were set and everything. The menu’s were pretty as well. Very fancy I’d have to say.
pizza hut
And our pizza was also very tasty, along with our seafood pasta which had squid in it! It tasted so good!
pizza
Definitely too much American food in one day though. I think that can last me until I get back to the US, but it was a great day of just hanging out and eating. Oh eating, its so wonderful.
Today we celebrated America Day! For America day, we, about 9 of us, basically hit up the restaurants that we would find in the US. We started the day off with lunch at McDonald’s. Last time I came to McDonald’s in China was when I was about 8 years old. I had gotten a fish fillet sandwich and it was horrible! Ever since then, I’ve always said that McDonald’s tasted horrible in China, even after just one fillet. 12 years later here I am, at McDonald’s. I ask myself, do you think it taste the same? There was only one way to find out! So I got the fillet. It was 15 rmb for the meal and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Actually tasted decent. Way to go McDonald’s!
McDonalds
Then we took the metro downtown somewhere. It was packed so it wasn’t too much fun being squished, but it was alright. Taxi’s seemed to be a pain to find today. It was also raining so that probably didn’t help. But our next stop was Starbuck’s. The prices at starbucks were pretty much equivalent to what you would pay in the US. I got the caramel frappachino because they didn’t understand what a caramel mocha was. It was good though. We ended up doing the starbuck’s thing and chatted for awhile before we hit up our next destination, KFC.
I wasn’t really hungry at KFC so I didn’t really get anything. The prices are also equivalent to US prices as well.
kfc
After KFC, we walked around the stores. It was a touristy area, so the stores were rather expensive. We enjoyed looking at the expensive price tags and not buy anything, it was great! We also say restaurants for Oktoberfest. It’s during our National Week, so we won’t be in the area to celebrate. Instead I’ll be in Guilian!
After KFC, we know it’s not American, but we went to this French bakery called Paul. It was very crowed and everything seemed to be expensive but I tried someone’s bread and it was very tasty.
img_3510.jpg
Our final destination for dinner was Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut here is surprisingly very nice. It’s treated as an upscale restaurant where we had to wait 45-ish min. for a table and the tables were set and everything. The menu’s were pretty as well. Very fancy I’d have to say.
pizza hut
And our pizza was also very tasty, along with our seafood pasta which had squid in it! It tasted so good!
pizza
Definitely too much American food in one day though. I think that can last me until I get back to the US, but it was a great day of just hanging out and eating. Oh eating, its so wonderful.
No Typhoon Afterall
Friday, September 21st, 2007
What a week! So the typhoon did hit parts of Shanghai, like downtown on Nanjing lu, but it didn’t end up hitting us on campus. Classes weren’t canceled:( I still had to bike to class while it was raining and windy out. I got a purple poncho, but it didn’t seem to do the job well on those days, I still got wet. According to Cat, I looked like a molecule, so if you can imagine that…they say it was pretty funny. It was disappointing, but it was also good that we weren’t hit.
So what else has been going on this week. The National Holiday is coming up next week, so everyone is planning their vacations and where to go and whatnot. There are a bunch of us that are going to Guilian, known for it’s river and mountains. It should be very pretty. We originally tried getting a tour package, but it was complicated. Some of the students did get one for 4 days and 3 nights in Guilian for 2400 rmb. There’s 5 of us that decided to be difficult and wanted to form our own way. Instead we will be flying down for 980 rmb and taking a train back to Shanghai, hopefully in a sleeper. It’s about a 25ish hour train ride. But it’s cheap. About 300 rmb I believe. we’ve also booked hostels for 5 days, so that should be exciting! I’ve never stayed in a hostel before. When more details come about our trip, I’ll be sure to write about it. As of now, we know our plane leaves next Friday at 5:30pm, so we’re going to go to half our class on Friday afternoon and then take a taxi to the airport. I’m still in vacation mode…
So another bike experience, I was biking to the travel agency today and I was also on the phone talking to various people trying to get our flight information worked out. And let me tell you, cell phone and bike might be as deadly as car and cell phone. But then again, I’m not that coordinated. I swerved a lot and almost hit people. I didn’t get into an accident with anyone though! Just hit the sidewalk. But it’s very hard to multi task on a bike. You should try it!
Tomorrow we’re celebrating American Day, I believe. The guys came up with this holiday in appreciation of American fast food. Their plan is to hit up the fast food places and eat all day. Im beginning to think that’s all we do, eat. I’m pretty sure that’s where the majority of my money has gone, it’s crazy! We eat way to much…maybe about 3-5 meals a day. We’re crazy, but it’s China! If not American Day, we shall be traveling to the amusement park here. Pretty excited!
What a week! So the typhoon did hit parts of Shanghai, like downtown on Nanjing lu, but it didn’t end up hitting us on campus. Classes weren’t canceled:( I still had to bike to class while it was raining and windy out. I got a purple poncho, but it didn’t seem to do the job well on those days, I still got wet. According to Cat, I looked like a molecule, so if you can imagine that…they say it was pretty funny. It was disappointing, but it was also good that we weren’t hit.
So what else has been going on this week. The National Holiday is coming up next week, so everyone is planning their vacations and where to go and whatnot. There are a bunch of us that are going to Guilian, known for it’s river and mountains. It should be very pretty. We originally tried getting a tour package, but it was complicated. Some of the students did get one for 4 days and 3 nights in Guilian for 2400 rmb. There’s 5 of us that decided to be difficult and wanted to form our own way. Instead we will be flying down for 980 rmb and taking a train back to Shanghai, hopefully in a sleeper. It’s about a 25ish hour train ride. But it’s cheap. About 300 rmb I believe. we’ve also booked hostels for 5 days, so that should be exciting! I’ve never stayed in a hostel before. When more details come about our trip, I’ll be sure to write about it. As of now, we know our plane leaves next Friday at 5:30pm, so we’re going to go to half our class on Friday afternoon and then take a taxi to the airport. I’m still in vacation mode…
So another bike experience, I was biking to the travel agency today and I was also on the phone talking to various people trying to get our flight information worked out. And let me tell you, cell phone and bike might be as deadly as car and cell phone. But then again, I’m not that coordinated. I swerved a lot and almost hit people. I didn’t get into an accident with anyone though! Just hit the sidewalk. But it’s very hard to multi task on a bike. You should try it!
Tomorrow we’re celebrating American Day, I believe. The guys came up with this holiday in appreciation of American fast food. Their plan is to hit up the fast food places and eat all day. Im beginning to think that’s all we do, eat. I’m pretty sure that’s where the majority of my money has gone, it’s crazy! We eat way to much…maybe about 3-5 meals a day. We’re crazy, but it’s China! If not American Day, we shall be traveling to the amusement park here. Pretty excited!
TYPHOON!
Tuesday, September 18th, 2007
So yea, there’s a typhoon coming and it’s said to be the worse one in 10 years. If you could only imagine. So we’re going to stock up on food just in case we get locked in here for the next week or so! I’ll keep you updated on the weather!
So yea, there’s a typhoon coming and it’s said to be the worse one in 10 years. If you could only imagine. So we’re going to stock up on food just in case we get locked in here for the next week or so! I’ll keep you updated on the weather!
Rain + Wind = Accident
Tuesday, September 18th, 2008
It’s Tuesday…which means 8am class…ew. There’s only 12 of us in the class because it’s so early. Greatness. It’s also been raining all day and it hasn’t been pretty. I tried to do the whole bike and holding umbrella bit today but that didn’t really work. I couldn’t really hold my balance on my bike along with holding an umbrella in the other hand. That takes skill, which I have not yet mastered. So instead, I just pedaled to class in my sweatshirt and got completely soaked. Imagine sitting in class drenched and soggy. It’s not a good feeling. So I’m glad it’s suppose to rain for the next 6 days…that’ll give me plenty of time to master the bike and umbrella. I’m not really looking forward to it. On my way back to the dorms, as I’m getting drenched, I got in my first bike crash. I went to go right and she went to her left to get out of my way, but instead we just hit each other hard on. It kinda hurt. How many more accidents will I get in do you think? I’ll start taking bets. But now that class is over, I got to get a nice warm shower. mmm.
Now it’s time for the best thing in China, feeding time! There’s this place around the Korean corner that we always go to late at night for some cheap food and a good time. If you ever come, go to the skewer place! They serve great lamb!
It’s Tuesday…which means 8am class…ew. There’s only 12 of us in the class because it’s so early. Greatness. It’s also been raining all day and it hasn’t been pretty. I tried to do the whole bike and holding umbrella bit today but that didn’t really work. I couldn’t really hold my balance on my bike along with holding an umbrella in the other hand. That takes skill, which I have not yet mastered. So instead, I just pedaled to class in my sweatshirt and got completely soaked. Imagine sitting in class drenched and soggy. It’s not a good feeling. So I’m glad it’s suppose to rain for the next 6 days…that’ll give me plenty of time to master the bike and umbrella. I’m not really looking forward to it. On my way back to the dorms, as I’m getting drenched, I got in my first bike crash. I went to go right and she went to her left to get out of my way, but instead we just hit each other hard on. It kinda hurt. How many more accidents will I get in do you think? I’ll start taking bets. But now that class is over, I got to get a nice warm shower. mmm.
Now it’s time for the best thing in China, feeding time! There’s this place around the Korean corner that we always go to late at night for some cheap food and a good time. If you ever come, go to the skewer place! They serve great lamb!
It was right around the corner...
Monday, September 17th, 2007
I would have to say that this weekend was quite productive…or maybe just yesterday. Saturday I pretty much just bummed around. But yesterday, Sunday, after we went to the Tibetan cafe and ordered expensive pizza, well maybe not really expensive. It was 68rmb so that’s about $9 US, but compared to my usual 8rmb meals, it was expensive. But afterwards, Adrea, Huy and I took the metro to the Shanghai aquarium. We rode our bike to the metro and then took the metro to the aquarium. It was about a 40 min. ride I think, with just one transfer, beats the taxi fare! But when we got out of the metro, we looked at the map and decided to walk in the wrong direction for awhile, thinking we had to cross the street. But we didn’t know how to because there was a gate in the middle. So instead, we decided to get a taxi and the taxi driver literally said, oh it’s right there. Right there as in on the other side of the metro. So we basically walked in the wrong direction the whole entire time and the aquarium was literally just around the corner…we’re so smart! It was definitely something to laugh about though.
When we finally got the the aquarium, the tickets are 120rmb per person, which is about $16US. 120rmb just sounds so expensive, but it’s totally worth it!!! The Shanghai aquarium is most known for their underwater clear viewing tunnel. You feel like you’re actually in the water with them and their swimming on all sides of you. Its pretty much amazing and I’d encourage anyone that gets the chance to to go to the aquarium. The exhibit we were most fascinated with was the sharks! They were so big and had such sharp teeth and we were so close to them. There’s also a moving platform that you can stand on and it takes you through the tunnel. Let me warn you though, don’t put your sandals near the corners of it, or it’ll get eaten because that’s happened to me. I wasn’t sure what to do! It caught onto my sandal and curled it up and then spit it back out. I was a little terrified I’d have to say, but it’s okay. After the aquarium, we went to find the China Sex Culture Museum. In my handy Shanghai tour book, it says Bund Sightseeing Tunnel, but we didn’t know that it meant inside the tunnel. So we probably walked around for a good half hour, at least, trying to find this museum, and we were literally standing outside the door. We’re really smart hah. But it was really pretty to walk on the promenade at night.
So finally when we went into the tunnel, the ticket to the museum was 20rmb and that also included the rare aquarium exhibit. The sex museum was…interesting. A little awkward I would say, but very interesting. And the artifacts were in such great detail. I’d show pictures, but they didn’t allow any photo’s. The rare aquarium exhibit was very depressing. The cages were so small that it didn’t seem like any of the animals could move, and it didn’t look very well kept.
After a long day, we went to KTV with a bunch of people until the late morning. KTV is also known as karaoke. It was a lot of fun and my first time! I was just really tired but it was a blast. And now back to reality…classes. I had international marketing today and I have an 8am class tomorrow for which I still need to do about 100 pgs. of reading. boo.
I would have to say that this weekend was quite productive…or maybe just yesterday. Saturday I pretty much just bummed around. But yesterday, Sunday, after we went to the Tibetan cafe and ordered expensive pizza, well maybe not really expensive. It was 68rmb so that’s about $9 US, but compared to my usual 8rmb meals, it was expensive. But afterwards, Adrea, Huy and I took the metro to the Shanghai aquarium. We rode our bike to the metro and then took the metro to the aquarium. It was about a 40 min. ride I think, with just one transfer, beats the taxi fare! But when we got out of the metro, we looked at the map and decided to walk in the wrong direction for awhile, thinking we had to cross the street. But we didn’t know how to because there was a gate in the middle. So instead, we decided to get a taxi and the taxi driver literally said, oh it’s right there. Right there as in on the other side of the metro. So we basically walked in the wrong direction the whole entire time and the aquarium was literally just around the corner…we’re so smart! It was definitely something to laugh about though.
When we finally got the the aquarium, the tickets are 120rmb per person, which is about $16US. 120rmb just sounds so expensive, but it’s totally worth it!!! The Shanghai aquarium is most known for their underwater clear viewing tunnel. You feel like you’re actually in the water with them and their swimming on all sides of you. Its pretty much amazing and I’d encourage anyone that gets the chance to to go to the aquarium. The exhibit we were most fascinated with was the sharks! They were so big and had such sharp teeth and we were so close to them. There’s also a moving platform that you can stand on and it takes you through the tunnel. Let me warn you though, don’t put your sandals near the corners of it, or it’ll get eaten because that’s happened to me. I wasn’t sure what to do! It caught onto my sandal and curled it up and then spit it back out. I was a little terrified I’d have to say, but it’s okay. After the aquarium, we went to find the China Sex Culture Museum. In my handy Shanghai tour book, it says Bund Sightseeing Tunnel, but we didn’t know that it meant inside the tunnel. So we probably walked around for a good half hour, at least, trying to find this museum, and we were literally standing outside the door. We’re really smart hah. But it was really pretty to walk on the promenade at night.
So finally when we went into the tunnel, the ticket to the museum was 20rmb and that also included the rare aquarium exhibit. The sex museum was…interesting. A little awkward I would say, but very interesting. And the artifacts were in such great detail. I’d show pictures, but they didn’t allow any photo’s. The rare aquarium exhibit was very depressing. The cages were so small that it didn’t seem like any of the animals could move, and it didn’t look very well kept.
After a long day, we went to KTV with a bunch of people until the late morning. KTV is also known as karaoke. It was a lot of fun and my first time! I was just really tired but it was a blast. And now back to reality…classes. I had international marketing today and I have an 8am class tomorrow for which I still need to do about 100 pgs. of reading. boo.
Women's World Cup
Saturday, September 15th, 2008
What are the odds of going to the FIFA Women’s World Cup game in Shanghai? I’m not sure, but I was most certainly there! I went to the game with a bunch of students also from Fudan. I had bought tickets Wednesday afternoon, and there we were Friday night. We bought the cheapest tickets which were only 50 rmb for a double header game and our seats were in the 8th row! I’d have to say they were unbelievable, so close! But I guess the more expensive the tickets, the higher up because that way you can see the whole field, but I liked my seats. I thought they were wonderful! The first game at 5pm was Argentina vs. Japan and the second game at 8pm was England vs. Germany. The first game was lacking…they didn’t seem to play very aggressively. But Japan did score in like the last 2 min. of the game. The England vs. Germany game was a lot more face paced. Even though the game did end in 0-0, it was very exciting to watch. Sitting around a bunch of Germans also helped. They got so into the game, shouting chants like “DEUTSCHLAND!” And for the people that attended the game, you remember the wave? That was my section! They seemed to have done it a lot so I think it was a little over done but it’s the enthusiasm that counts right? The night was an overall success. The only thing that bothered me was the people who were inconsiderate to the people around them and felt a need to smoke every 5 min. So selfish. I felt bad for the little boy who was surrounded by the men who smoked. We’re all going to die from cancer at this rate. Rude.
Getting home after the game as quite difficult. We were going to take the metro, except the way we needed to go closed down. Then they locked us in the station so we had to be escorted to the elevator to go outside. Then we had to walk a ways in order to get a cab. You have to fight for your cabs here. We may be standing closest to the cab but if you don’t have your hand on the door, you still haven’t claimed it.
Last night was also the foreign students welcoming party at club 173. It was alright, really pretty inside I thought though. But I’m also bias because I like lights. But on our walk home from the club, we noticed something. And this is something I am starting to notice more and more on campus. I was given the impression that Chinese people did not like to show PDA (public display of affection). Well I’m wrong. If you know me, I’m not fond of PDA. People are waaaay to public here about it. We heard rustles in the bushes, saw couples lying on the ground, and this is pretty late at night. When I go to classes and walk around campus, you’ll see couples holding hands, arms around each other and laying on each others shoulders. There’s actually a field in front of the 2 tower buildings were once the sun is setting, its make out session. Have they heard of privacy? And, on the streets, every few blocks, you’ll see condom dispensers that are refilled regularly. Have we heard of morals? I’m impression on their dating lives here has totally changed. Geez, what has this world come to…
What are the odds of going to the FIFA Women’s World Cup game in Shanghai? I’m not sure, but I was most certainly there! I went to the game with a bunch of students also from Fudan. I had bought tickets Wednesday afternoon, and there we were Friday night. We bought the cheapest tickets which were only 50 rmb for a double header game and our seats were in the 8th row! I’d have to say they were unbelievable, so close! But I guess the more expensive the tickets, the higher up because that way you can see the whole field, but I liked my seats. I thought they were wonderful! The first game at 5pm was Argentina vs. Japan and the second game at 8pm was England vs. Germany. The first game was lacking…they didn’t seem to play very aggressively. But Japan did score in like the last 2 min. of the game. The England vs. Germany game was a lot more face paced. Even though the game did end in 0-0, it was very exciting to watch. Sitting around a bunch of Germans also helped. They got so into the game, shouting chants like “DEUTSCHLAND!” And for the people that attended the game, you remember the wave? That was my section! They seemed to have done it a lot so I think it was a little over done but it’s the enthusiasm that counts right? The night was an overall success. The only thing that bothered me was the people who were inconsiderate to the people around them and felt a need to smoke every 5 min. So selfish. I felt bad for the little boy who was surrounded by the men who smoked. We’re all going to die from cancer at this rate. Rude.
Getting home after the game as quite difficult. We were going to take the metro, except the way we needed to go closed down. Then they locked us in the station so we had to be escorted to the elevator to go outside. Then we had to walk a ways in order to get a cab. You have to fight for your cabs here. We may be standing closest to the cab but if you don’t have your hand on the door, you still haven’t claimed it.
Last night was also the foreign students welcoming party at club 173. It was alright, really pretty inside I thought though. But I’m also bias because I like lights. But on our walk home from the club, we noticed something. And this is something I am starting to notice more and more on campus. I was given the impression that Chinese people did not like to show PDA (public display of affection). Well I’m wrong. If you know me, I’m not fond of PDA. People are waaaay to public here about it. We heard rustles in the bushes, saw couples lying on the ground, and this is pretty late at night. When I go to classes and walk around campus, you’ll see couples holding hands, arms around each other and laying on each others shoulders. There’s actually a field in front of the 2 tower buildings were once the sun is setting, its make out session. Have they heard of privacy? And, on the streets, every few blocks, you’ll see condom dispensers that are refilled regularly. Have we heard of morals? I’m impression on their dating lives here has totally changed. Geez, what has this world come to…
Student Activites Fair
Thursday, September 13th, 2008
It’s Thursday and I don’t have class until 6:30pm tonight! Yay! The class is intermediate Chinese. Tonight we actually have to take an evaluation exam which includes, oral, reading, and writing. My troubles will come when writing comes my way. We have to write an essay with 100 characters describing Shanghai. I’ll begin cramming soon since I forget how to write a lot of the characters. I guess I should have started that over the summer, right?
Well besides tonights class, I woke up at good ol’ 10:30pm and went to the activities fair. I made a video of a tour of some of campus on my lovely bike, but it’s too big for youtube so it’s posted on facebook because that seems to be the only place that will let me post anything. But send me an e-mail if you’d like the video as well, sharonshi21@gmail.com. I’m trying to figure out how to go about making it smaller and posting it but I haven’t been receiving the responses I’ve been waiting for, go figure. But here is a clip of a group at the fair.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0kZTyrKRZdI
I found out most of the music groups have already formed and they are mainly at the fair to sell tickets to their events. I was disappointed because I wanted to join the modern dance group but they were selling tickets. And I believe tickets were 100rmb. But I have received fliers that are directed more towards international students. For example, the Euro-North American Foreign Association. The association basically lets students know about sporting events, working opportunities, parties, nightlife, shopping, dinning, flight ticket discounts, charity organizations, Chinese language partners, foreign student legal aid and company field trips and so on. So I think I’m going to check that out.
Last night, a bunch of us went to this Japanese restaurant called Tairyo in the French Concession for our friend Jonathan’s birthday. The great thing about the Japanese restaurants here is that they have an all you can eat and drink buffet. The one we went to was 150rmb per person. But it’s totally worth it if you’re a big eater. Out of the 20-ish of us, I think only 5 of us got the buffet, but we enjoyed it very much! We had a chance to choose anything we wanted. The service was kind of slow and they never really brought out my lamb or chicken steak but I also took this time to eat as many fruits as possible. It was quite a delicious meal. We’re thinking about going there or somewhere similar for an eating contest. Wouldn’t that be great?!
Classes are getting in depth and I’m slacking because I feel like I’m on vacation. I’ve decided on my 4 classes. International marketing, Westerners in China 1600-, International Political Economics, Modern Chinese History, along with taking Chinese.
Besides that, Shanghai is also having a marathon on November 25th. I’m in no shape for the marathon or the half, but I’m hoping to run the 4.5k, which is less than 3 miles. I’ve printed the registration form, now it’s just a matter of filling it out and figuring out where i am suppose to go to turn it in. The FIFA Women’s World Cup is also being held in Shanghai. There a bunch of going to the game on this Friday. The game is a double header, starting with Argentina vs. Japan at 5pm and England vs. Germany at 8pm. When in a lifetime do you get to go to the world cup? Yes, it’s womens…but it’s still going to be great! Well I suppose that’s it for now. I’m off to cram some Chinese for the next 3 hours!
It’s Thursday and I don’t have class until 6:30pm tonight! Yay! The class is intermediate Chinese. Tonight we actually have to take an evaluation exam which includes, oral, reading, and writing. My troubles will come when writing comes my way. We have to write an essay with 100 characters describing Shanghai. I’ll begin cramming soon since I forget how to write a lot of the characters. I guess I should have started that over the summer, right?
Well besides tonights class, I woke up at good ol’ 10:30pm and went to the activities fair. I made a video of a tour of some of campus on my lovely bike, but it’s too big for youtube so it’s posted on facebook because that seems to be the only place that will let me post anything. But send me an e-mail if you’d like the video as well, sharonshi21@gmail.com. I’m trying to figure out how to go about making it smaller and posting it but I haven’t been receiving the responses I’ve been waiting for, go figure. But here is a clip of a group at the fair.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0kZTyrKRZdI
I found out most of the music groups have already formed and they are mainly at the fair to sell tickets to their events. I was disappointed because I wanted to join the modern dance group but they were selling tickets. And I believe tickets were 100rmb. But I have received fliers that are directed more towards international students. For example, the Euro-North American Foreign Association. The association basically lets students know about sporting events, working opportunities, parties, nightlife, shopping, dinning, flight ticket discounts, charity organizations, Chinese language partners, foreign student legal aid and company field trips and so on. So I think I’m going to check that out.
Last night, a bunch of us went to this Japanese restaurant called Tairyo in the French Concession for our friend Jonathan’s birthday. The great thing about the Japanese restaurants here is that they have an all you can eat and drink buffet. The one we went to was 150rmb per person. But it’s totally worth it if you’re a big eater. Out of the 20-ish of us, I think only 5 of us got the buffet, but we enjoyed it very much! We had a chance to choose anything we wanted. The service was kind of slow and they never really brought out my lamb or chicken steak but I also took this time to eat as many fruits as possible. It was quite a delicious meal. We’re thinking about going there or somewhere similar for an eating contest. Wouldn’t that be great?!
Classes are getting in depth and I’m slacking because I feel like I’m on vacation. I’ve decided on my 4 classes. International marketing, Westerners in China 1600-, International Political Economics, Modern Chinese History, along with taking Chinese.
Besides that, Shanghai is also having a marathon on November 25th. I’m in no shape for the marathon or the half, but I’m hoping to run the 4.5k, which is less than 3 miles. I’ve printed the registration form, now it’s just a matter of filling it out and figuring out where i am suppose to go to turn it in. The FIFA Women’s World Cup is also being held in Shanghai. There a bunch of going to the game on this Friday. The game is a double header, starting with Argentina vs. Japan at 5pm and England vs. Germany at 8pm. When in a lifetime do you get to go to the world cup? Yes, it’s womens…but it’s still going to be great! Well I suppose that’s it for now. I’m off to cram some Chinese for the next 3 hours!
Crazy Taxi Drivers
Saturday, September 8th, 2008
So what are the odds? After 5 long years, I actually get back in contact with one of my cousins, and the crazy part is, she was in Shanghai today! So of course, I went to meet her and her husband! On my way downtown, I forget to factor in traffic, but that’s okay. The scary part of my taxi drive down there today was that the car kept stalling. He would turn it off, and then try to start it up again. And at times, we would just be on the road for like a couple minutes before the car started up again. I also took a look at the gas…which there was none of, so I’m like great! It only took us almost an hour to get down there. It was pretty crazy, on top of the traffic. Oy.
But! I got to meet up with my cousin and her husband and we went to the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall in downtown. It was amazing. I had no idea how Shanghai had been developing and what their aim for the expo is. It was interesting to also see the structure of how Shanghai is built and structured today vs. what it use to look like and what they are aiming for in the future. I’d load pictures but the blog says I can’t. And I’d like to load them on the snapfish, but the government seemed to have gotten a hand on that because I can no longer open it. Hopefully I’ll be able to figure it out soon. They exhibit was amazing. I’d also like to come back to Shanghai in 5-10 years or so to seem how they have come about their plan.
After the exhibit we went to Nanjing Road and took a stroll down. After that, we met their friend for dinner at this very nice restaurant. The food was excellent. It was great having dinner with them and seeing how they were, in their young 30’s and how much they’ve accomplished. I need to get on that! My cousin’s friend Catherine is also on a Gallic football team, so that might be something I may look into. It sounds pretty interesting. They are also have the FIFA tournament very close to campus and the tickets are quite cheap as well, so that would also be a great opportunity. And I was also looking at my Shanghai tour guide book (thanks again Julie!) and realized that there’s actually a marathon in Shanghai in November! Now, I know I’m not exactly fit enough to run in it, even though that would be amazing, but I think it would be great to get a chance to watch it since I missed the one in NYC:( So I’m also going to check that out. Well, I suppose that’s it for now! Zai jian!
So what are the odds? After 5 long years, I actually get back in contact with one of my cousins, and the crazy part is, she was in Shanghai today! So of course, I went to meet her and her husband! On my way downtown, I forget to factor in traffic, but that’s okay. The scary part of my taxi drive down there today was that the car kept stalling. He would turn it off, and then try to start it up again. And at times, we would just be on the road for like a couple minutes before the car started up again. I also took a look at the gas…which there was none of, so I’m like great! It only took us almost an hour to get down there. It was pretty crazy, on top of the traffic. Oy.
But! I got to meet up with my cousin and her husband and we went to the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall in downtown. It was amazing. I had no idea how Shanghai had been developing and what their aim for the expo is. It was interesting to also see the structure of how Shanghai is built and structured today vs. what it use to look like and what they are aiming for in the future. I’d load pictures but the blog says I can’t. And I’d like to load them on the snapfish, but the government seemed to have gotten a hand on that because I can no longer open it. Hopefully I’ll be able to figure it out soon. They exhibit was amazing. I’d also like to come back to Shanghai in 5-10 years or so to seem how they have come about their plan.
After the exhibit we went to Nanjing Road and took a stroll down. After that, we met their friend for dinner at this very nice restaurant. The food was excellent. It was great having dinner with them and seeing how they were, in their young 30’s and how much they’ve accomplished. I need to get on that! My cousin’s friend Catherine is also on a Gallic football team, so that might be something I may look into. It sounds pretty interesting. They are also have the FIFA tournament very close to campus and the tickets are quite cheap as well, so that would also be a great opportunity. And I was also looking at my Shanghai tour guide book (thanks again Julie!) and realized that there’s actually a marathon in Shanghai in November! Now, I know I’m not exactly fit enough to run in it, even though that would be amazing, but I think it would be great to get a chance to watch it since I missed the one in NYC:( So I’m also going to check that out. Well, I suppose that’s it for now! Zai jian!
Take a Tour
Saturday, September 8th, 2008
Video’s don’t seem to work on this blog, so I’ve come to the next best thing. Pictures! And you all know how much I love to take pictures! Besides, who wants to hear my commentary anyway? But I have taken lots of pictures of a tour of my dorm! Since the gov’t here restricts everything, all the photo things I’ve used to show have been blocked. The only one I’ve found that works is snapfish. And it sucks, but if you want to view the pictures you have to make an account. It’ll only take like one min.
http://www1.snapfish.com/photolibrary/t_=105576392
I’m hoping the link works, if not, please let me know!
Video’s don’t seem to work on this blog, so I’ve come to the next best thing. Pictures! And you all know how much I love to take pictures! Besides, who wants to hear my commentary anyway? But I have taken lots of pictures of a tour of my dorm! Since the gov’t here restricts everything, all the photo things I’ve used to show have been blocked. The only one I’ve found that works is snapfish. And it sucks, but if you want to view the pictures you have to make an account. It’ll only take like one min.
http://www1.snapfish.com/photolibrary/t_=105576392
I’m hoping the link works, if not, please let me know!
Mail!
Thursday, September 6th, 2008
Also, sorry for spamming everyone before. But I finally found postcards and I’m in the process of writing them…and when I mean in the process, I mean I’ll start soon. But if you would like a postcard, send me your address via e-mail or something. My e-mail is sharonshi21@gmail.com. And if anyone wants to send me mail:) my address is,
Sharon Shi
Room 1835, Foreign Students Dormitory, Fudan University
Wudong Road 57#, Yangpu District, Shanghai, China 200433
Thank you! And miss you all:(
Also, sorry for spamming everyone before. But I finally found postcards and I’m in the process of writing them…and when I mean in the process, I mean I’ll start soon. But if you would like a postcard, send me your address via e-mail or something. My e-mail is sharonshi21@gmail.com. And if anyone wants to send me mail:) my address is,
Sharon Shi
Room 1835, Foreign Students Dormitory, Fudan University
Wudong Road 57#, Yangpu District, Shanghai, China 200433
Thank you! And miss you all:(
The Pain of $10 Puma's
Thursday, September 6th, 2008
60 rmb is pretty cheap for a pair of good looking red puma’s, but when they start giving you blisters in the back, that’s a whole different story. You would say, why didn’t you change your shoes? Well funny thing is, I forgot my key in my room and I was running late for class. I swore to myself that I would never take 8am’s while in school, and up until now that worked out. Of course when I get to China, I would be forced to go to 4 8am’s. Oh life. Classes started on Monday. I have 12 classes to choose from. In China, or at least Fudan, you’re allowed to attend as many classes as you would like for the first 2 weeks. After getting for a feel for the professor and class, you can then decide which classes you would actually like to take. So this week I’ve had the privilege to attend 9 classes so far, 3 tomorrow. The classes we are offered are different from the ones we were actually told, go figure. Our choices are,
Strategies for International Marketing
E-Business
Logistics
Market Analysis in China
Westerners in Early Modern China: 1600-
Modern Chinese History
Introduction to Buddhism
History of Chinese Thought
History of Diplomacy in Modern China
Regional Scenario: Asia Pacific
International Political Economics
Comparison of Foreign Policies
Each class is offered once a week for 2 hours a day. That’s not too bad. For regular students, the schedule is the same except theirs is for 3 hours a day. I guess that’s just about the same as the schedule at WJ. Instead of spreading it out 1 hour for 3 days, its just taken all at once. So after tomorrow’s classes I’m going to try to figure out which 4 classes I will be taking and then go to them next week. Along with the 4, I will also be taking a Chinese language course, but I don’t get the assignment for that until tomorrow. As we normally take 4 or 5 classes, the Fudan students actually take from a range of 12-15 classes a semester. That’s a lot! I was shocked when I heard that. But they are also not involved so much in extracurricular activities. The professors here aren’t bad. I haven’t met my business prof. yet because he’s been having visa problems, but he’ll finally be here tomorrow. The main one I’ve had my classes with is with a prof. from Mexico and his method is through presentation and lots of participation. Kind of reminds me of Prof. Murphy’s. This weeks there’s a lot of students in the classes because it’s trial period, but next week will probably be less. Here’s a picture of one of the classrooms.
Classroom
They’re kind of weird since the seat nor desk move. But it’s adjustable. Today I also made a tour of the dormitory but it doesn’t seem to be working.:( So I’m still working on that. Camera’s, oy.
This week, since I’m still in the deciding factor of what classes I want to take, there hasn’t been too much studying yet. So, the great person that I am, I decided to jump on the UC wagon and go on the tour to the Shanghai Museum, the Yuyuan Garden and the boat ride. Since you all know I’m bad at names, yea it’s a bad habit, if I’ve made any mistakes, please correct me. Thanks!
museum
Lots of historical exhibits. My favorite were the Buddha and the calligraphy. I just tried loading the pictures but it says I’ve maxed out on my picture uploads. That’s weird. I’ll have to try to make a album on a website and link it to there. Boy, these blog things can be so complicated. But along with the museum, we went to this famous garden near old town. If I could show you pictures, I would. Also at Old Town, we have the famous Shanghai dumplings. mmmm! they were so good! After that, we went on a boat ride down and up the river. It was really pretty because it was dark and we got to see all the lights. Oh, how romantic!
And of course I have a confession to make. While we were on the Bund, I got season 4 of the OC, and now I’m addicted. But don’t worry! I’m almost done. This weekend there’s a lot of people going to travel but one of my cousins is actually going to be in Shanghai! What a small world right? I haven’t seen her in so long, and we’re finally going to meet up in China! But I hope everyone has a good trip, and bring back lots of pictures! I’ll try to get those pictures and video’s figured it in the mean time. Until next time, zai jian!
60 rmb is pretty cheap for a pair of good looking red puma’s, but when they start giving you blisters in the back, that’s a whole different story. You would say, why didn’t you change your shoes? Well funny thing is, I forgot my key in my room and I was running late for class. I swore to myself that I would never take 8am’s while in school, and up until now that worked out. Of course when I get to China, I would be forced to go to 4 8am’s. Oh life. Classes started on Monday. I have 12 classes to choose from. In China, or at least Fudan, you’re allowed to attend as many classes as you would like for the first 2 weeks. After getting for a feel for the professor and class, you can then decide which classes you would actually like to take. So this week I’ve had the privilege to attend 9 classes so far, 3 tomorrow. The classes we are offered are different from the ones we were actually told, go figure. Our choices are,
Strategies for International Marketing
E-Business
Logistics
Market Analysis in China
Westerners in Early Modern China: 1600-
Modern Chinese History
Introduction to Buddhism
History of Chinese Thought
History of Diplomacy in Modern China
Regional Scenario: Asia Pacific
International Political Economics
Comparison of Foreign Policies
Each class is offered once a week for 2 hours a day. That’s not too bad. For regular students, the schedule is the same except theirs is for 3 hours a day. I guess that’s just about the same as the schedule at WJ. Instead of spreading it out 1 hour for 3 days, its just taken all at once. So after tomorrow’s classes I’m going to try to figure out which 4 classes I will be taking and then go to them next week. Along with the 4, I will also be taking a Chinese language course, but I don’t get the assignment for that until tomorrow. As we normally take 4 or 5 classes, the Fudan students actually take from a range of 12-15 classes a semester. That’s a lot! I was shocked when I heard that. But they are also not involved so much in extracurricular activities. The professors here aren’t bad. I haven’t met my business prof. yet because he’s been having visa problems, but he’ll finally be here tomorrow. The main one I’ve had my classes with is with a prof. from Mexico and his method is through presentation and lots of participation. Kind of reminds me of Prof. Murphy’s. This weeks there’s a lot of students in the classes because it’s trial period, but next week will probably be less. Here’s a picture of one of the classrooms.
Classroom
They’re kind of weird since the seat nor desk move. But it’s adjustable. Today I also made a tour of the dormitory but it doesn’t seem to be working.:( So I’m still working on that. Camera’s, oy.
This week, since I’m still in the deciding factor of what classes I want to take, there hasn’t been too much studying yet. So, the great person that I am, I decided to jump on the UC wagon and go on the tour to the Shanghai Museum, the Yuyuan Garden and the boat ride. Since you all know I’m bad at names, yea it’s a bad habit, if I’ve made any mistakes, please correct me. Thanks!
museum
Lots of historical exhibits. My favorite were the Buddha and the calligraphy. I just tried loading the pictures but it says I’ve maxed out on my picture uploads. That’s weird. I’ll have to try to make a album on a website and link it to there. Boy, these blog things can be so complicated. But along with the museum, we went to this famous garden near old town. If I could show you pictures, I would. Also at Old Town, we have the famous Shanghai dumplings. mmmm! they were so good! After that, we went on a boat ride down and up the river. It was really pretty because it was dark and we got to see all the lights. Oh, how romantic!
And of course I have a confession to make. While we were on the Bund, I got season 4 of the OC, and now I’m addicted. But don’t worry! I’m almost done. This weekend there’s a lot of people going to travel but one of my cousins is actually going to be in Shanghai! What a small world right? I haven’t seen her in so long, and we’re finally going to meet up in China! But I hope everyone has a good trip, and bring back lots of pictures! I’ll try to get those pictures and video’s figured it in the mean time. Until next time, zai jian!
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