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:)