Before reading on, humor me and check the 5 day weather forecast for Shanghai. Miserable.
Now that I have started classes life is slowing down here and i'm begining to get into a routine. Unfortunately this means that my posts may be a little less frequent (I will try to post every day) and will probably not be as full of excitment/pictures as they were during orientation.
Chinese is going really well so far-
I hate to brag, because i'm sure I will jinx myself, but my teacher, Yi Laoshi, asked me if I have ever taken Chinese before because my tones are very good for a beginner. Apparently having a musical ear is really beneficial in learning and speaking Chinese (thanks dad), as you can more easily pick out and imitate tones, similar to recognizing musical notes and finding them on the guitar or piano. Though my tones may be good, the memorization will surely kill me. I will be learning about 20 new characters a night which is a pretty daunting ammount especially given how alien the characters look (fluency is considered knowing atleast 9000 characters - yikes). Between my 8 hours of class a week as well as tutoring I will hopefully make quick progress, and I've already made a lot since arriving.
I'm no longer an infant in this country, probably more like a toddler. I can eat, go places, and find/use a bathroom by myself but still need a little bit of help with it all.
Thats all for now...
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Class begins
Today was my first day of Chinese class and though i'm a little overwhelmed I'm very excited. There are 5 kids in my class, unlike Spanish classes in highschool and college that generally had upwards of 20. This creates a classroom environment that is intimate and interactive; I really have no chance to zone out because the teacher is 2 feet away from me and furthermore she can devote a lot of time to each of us. The class meets for 2 hours 4 times a week and by the end of the semester I will have the equivalent of a years worth of Chinese at GW. Today we formally learned the 4 tones in the Chinese language, introductions, and classroom vocabulary and sayings (such as "shenme yisi?" meaning "what does that mean?" ).
On top of our rigorous classroom schedule each student is assigned a personal Chinese tutor who we meet for 1 hour twice a week. The tutors are Chinese students here at ECNU, who are eager to help us with our Chinese in exchange for practice with their English. My tutor's name is Sun Likang, and she seems very excited to work with me. Between the 8 hours of class and 2 hours of tutoring per week as well as the infinite possibilties for practical use in Shanghai i'm very hopeful and confident that I will pick up basic language very quickly.
One final note- today we were assigned Chinese names - naturally, I asked if I could be called Yao Ming, but my teacher assured me that there is only ONE Yao Ming in this world and then assigned me a name. From now on wo jiao (my name is) - Shen Jia Xuan.
On top of our rigorous classroom schedule each student is assigned a personal Chinese tutor who we meet for 1 hour twice a week. The tutors are Chinese students here at ECNU, who are eager to help us with our Chinese in exchange for practice with their English. My tutor's name is Sun Likang, and she seems very excited to work with me. Between the 8 hours of class and 2 hours of tutoring per week as well as the infinite possibilties for practical use in Shanghai i'm very hopeful and confident that I will pick up basic language very quickly.
One final note- today we were assigned Chinese names - naturally, I asked if I could be called Yao Ming, but my teacher assured me that there is only ONE Yao Ming in this world and then assigned me a name. From now on wo jiao (my name is) - Shen Jia Xuan.
Bargain hunting
Yesterday morning, my friend Tyler who attends Fudan University (the Yale of China) in Shanghai called me up and asked if i'd like to go knock off shopping. Tyler and I have a lot of mutual friends here at ECNU and easily put a small group together to go out in search of bargains on knockoff designer merchandise. The destination was a street called Nanjinglou which is very similar to Times Square. It is a gigantic avenue with bright lights, massive advertisements, jumbo-trons etc. and similarly it is swamped with tourists. No more than a minute after we had exited the subway station were we approached by a near toothless woman saying in fairly poor english "watches, wallets, ipod?" - this gem was to be our guide through the back alley blackmarket shopping.
Shopping for knockoffs on Nanjinglou is literally the sketchiest thing on earth. Your guide leads you off of the main street into a series of damp dirty back alleyways, vastly different than the modern and clean main street less than 100 feet away. Once in the alleys we followed her into a plain and empty room- then we went through a removable panel in the wall into another room that housed the knock offs. They have literally everything you can imagine - purses, watches, sunglasses, shoes, shirts, ties, phones, ipods, the list goes on and on. As sketchy as the whole process seems, you would believe that these goods were stolen, and in actuality they are, just not in the same sense of the word as when a pickpocket steals. From what I understand, certain factories produce the knockoffs during the night using lower qualities materials as is the case with polo, lacoste, and similar clothing companies. Other factories however are devoted to solely producing knockoffs items such as purses, watches, and ipods; all of this is made possible by the fact that the Chinese have little or no laws regarding copyrights. There are definite moral questions about supporting an industry (a gigantic thriving industry- not just those selling the stuff but those in the factories making it) that exists by stealing the hard labored designs, ideas, and technology of another person whether that be for an Ipod or Louis Vuitton purse. Howeverrrrrrr..... that beings said, these definite moral dillemas were not near enough to keep me from buying an incredible knockoff Tag watch for 175 quai or $25 American (i've justified it by reminding myself that these poor Chinese workers are much worse off than the engineers at Apple).
Todays Vocab Lesson
Tai Gui le (pronounced tie gway luh) - Means "Expensive" We got some good use out of this while bargaining; the knockoff dealers love to try and rip off stupid foreigners; literally, the starting price for my watch was 3000 quai and in the end I paid 175.
Shopping for knockoffs on Nanjinglou is literally the sketchiest thing on earth. Your guide leads you off of the main street into a series of damp dirty back alleyways, vastly different than the modern and clean main street less than 100 feet away. Once in the alleys we followed her into a plain and empty room- then we went through a removable panel in the wall into another room that housed the knock offs. They have literally everything you can imagine - purses, watches, sunglasses, shoes, shirts, ties, phones, ipods, the list goes on and on. As sketchy as the whole process seems, you would believe that these goods were stolen, and in actuality they are, just not in the same sense of the word as when a pickpocket steals. From what I understand, certain factories produce the knockoffs during the night using lower qualities materials as is the case with polo, lacoste, and similar clothing companies. Other factories however are devoted to solely producing knockoffs items such as purses, watches, and ipods; all of this is made possible by the fact that the Chinese have little or no laws regarding copyrights. There are definite moral questions about supporting an industry (a gigantic thriving industry- not just those selling the stuff but those in the factories making it) that exists by stealing the hard labored designs, ideas, and technology of another person whether that be for an Ipod or Louis Vuitton purse. Howeverrrrrrr..... that beings said, these definite moral dillemas were not near enough to keep me from buying an incredible knockoff Tag watch for 175 quai or $25 American (i've justified it by reminding myself that these poor Chinese workers are much worse off than the engineers at Apple).
Todays Vocab Lesson
Tai Gui le (pronounced tie gway luh) - Means "Expensive" We got some good use out of this while bargaining; the knockoff dealers love to try and rip off stupid foreigners; literally, the starting price for my watch was 3000 quai and in the end I paid 175.
Compared to yesterday, today was fairly uneventful. A group of us went and got traditional Chinese massages and then ate at an American diner because we were craving cheeseburgers. The one hour massage cost the equivalent of $15 dollars American even before bargaining and was one of the best i've ever had- safe to say I will be going back quite often (I realize my entry today talked a lot about money - I think now that I am a week in to my stay in China it has really hit me how cheap things are here. Hopefully in the future I won't keep abnoxiously rubbing it in your face - I just need to train my brain to think in RMB and quit converting to dollars). I start classes tomorrow, something i'm very excited about, and i've done some cool readings in preparation for my classes. For anyone interested i've posted links below. Otherwise, enjoy a picture of Tyler and I sporting out new watches and reversable Chinese robes.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,600188,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/20/hilton-china-clinton-us
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/21/business/worldbusiness/21yuan.html?_r=1
Serious Dudes.jpg)
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Everyday is a new adventure, and every night a new party
Yesterday was the first day that it didn't rain since ive been in Shanghai, and though this may be a huge improvement, we still couldn't see the sun through the dense smog (I wake up every morning feeling like i've smoked a carton of cigarrettes). As a group we took advantage of the nice weather though and went to visit the migrant school where we will be tutoring. The facilities are less than ideal, which I expected, but the kids are incredible. The school houses about 600 students in ages ranging from 6-12 and coming from all over China. They have so much personality and with little exposure, if any, to foreigners they were more than excited to see us. After visiting the migrant school, i got a nice break from the polluted hustle bustle of the city in a giant park near campus. The park has a huge pond, botanical garden, some traditional chinese pagodas, and to kick it all off a go-kart track that is not only open until 3 a.m., but also has a bar attached to it.....TIFC.
After a short break, the entire group met up and went to an organized orientation week dinner and afterwards a Chinese acrobatics show. At dinner I sat at the table with my program advisor Andrew, who I mentioned earlier this week. He is currently writing a book about nightlife in Shanghai and gave me some great tips on the music scene here. After the meal we walked a short distance to a theater for the acrobatics show. Needless to say, it was insane - check out some of the pictures and video below. To end the night, we went to a bar called "The Shelter" that is housed in an old bomb shelter and to our suprise, the hip hop group People Under the Stairs were performing there. The venue is small and there is no stage so they literally performed in the crowd next to us- pictures and video below.
One last note - I picked up my class schedule and books yesterday. I'm taking modern chinese history, political development of china, television, film and chinese society, and Beginner chinese 1. Should be interesting!
View of Shanghai from migrant school
Chinese migrant school children in music class
Me and fellow tutors in migrant school classroom.
Ridiculously lit building
Flexibility and balance....
Spinning Saucers
Ball of Death
The entrance shaft of The Shelter
Our table
The DJ booth and "People Under the Stairs"
After a short break, the entire group met up and went to an organized orientation week dinner and afterwards a Chinese acrobatics show. At dinner I sat at the table with my program advisor Andrew, who I mentioned earlier this week. He is currently writing a book about nightlife in Shanghai and gave me some great tips on the music scene here. After the meal we walked a short distance to a theater for the acrobatics show. Needless to say, it was insane - check out some of the pictures and video below. To end the night, we went to a bar called "The Shelter" that is housed in an old bomb shelter and to our suprise, the hip hop group People Under the Stairs were performing there. The venue is small and there is no stage so they literally performed in the crowd next to us- pictures and video below.
One last note - I picked up my class schedule and books yesterday. I'm taking modern chinese history, political development of china, television, film and chinese society, and Beginner chinese 1. Should be interesting!
View of Shanghai from migrant school
Chinese migrant school children in music class
Me and fellow tutors in migrant school classroom.
Ridiculously lit building
Flexibility and balance....
Spinning Saucers
Ball of Death
The entrance shaft of The Shelter
Our table
The DJ booth and "People Under the Stairs"
Uneventful
Compared to the rest of the week, today was pretty uneventful especially as we are making the transition from welcome week into actual school. A a few notable things did happen however, and I thought I would also highlight some interesting things that i've noticed about China thus far.
First off- We had an extracurricular activities fair today, where we could go and talk to reps from all of the different clubs and organizations around campus. I plan to be very very involved in these activities- not only are they a good way to practice language but they offer awesome exposure to Chinese culture, and after all, that is why i'm here. Also, because none of my letter grades this semester will transfer to GW, there is a lot less academic pressure, and so instead of studying all day and night I can be extra involved. A few of the activities that I was particularly interested in were Tai Chi, Kung Fu Classes, and traditional chinese cooking classes.
Second - Today I also joined a program in which for an hour or so one day a week I will be teaching english to the children of migrant workers here in Shanghai. Because of the possibilities for work in Shanghai, millions of people migrate into the city from rural villages across China. For the most part, they are discriminated against, looked down upon and live in utter poverty. As such their children have little access to education - and thats where we step in. This should be an awesome experience!
Third- a few interesting things about China:
- You can bargain for anything, except for food in most cases (but there are exceptions to any rule, TIFC). Seriously though, you can bargain anywhere and everywhere, even in department stores and malls. Imagine going to sears and negotiating the price of your new washing machine. The reason that this is possible is that everyone works off of commition and thus mark the prices way up. Standard practice is to offer about a third of the listed price and work your way towards a happy medium.
- This is the world of knock offs- and not always in a good way. Sure you can buy fake sun glasses and purses on street corners, but the black market in China is not limited to consumer goods. Street venders sell fake food (the infamous fake pickle), and convenience stores will sell fake cigarrettes. Furthermore, it has been found that about 30% of the prescription medicine in China is actually fake; so if I come down with one of my infamous sinus infections I think the best bet for antibiotics will be to have it shipped from home (lets keep our fingers crossed).
- There is no tipping in restaurants or at bars yet the service is phenomenal. Because of the communist system belief that everyone is equal - there is no tipping allowed in restaurants as it would elevate one waiter or bar tender above another. You would think that with the lack of any real incentive service would suck, but it is honestly ten times faster and better than in the U.S. I don't quite understand why but China is a land of contradictions.
Thats all I have today. Remember that there is open commenting on this blog - so if you want to say hi, have questions/advice, or want to hear more about anything that i've done drop me a line. The comment link is right at the bottom of each post.
First off- We had an extracurricular activities fair today, where we could go and talk to reps from all of the different clubs and organizations around campus. I plan to be very very involved in these activities- not only are they a good way to practice language but they offer awesome exposure to Chinese culture, and after all, that is why i'm here. Also, because none of my letter grades this semester will transfer to GW, there is a lot less academic pressure, and so instead of studying all day and night I can be extra involved. A few of the activities that I was particularly interested in were Tai Chi, Kung Fu Classes, and traditional chinese cooking classes.
Second - Today I also joined a program in which for an hour or so one day a week I will be teaching english to the children of migrant workers here in Shanghai. Because of the possibilities for work in Shanghai, millions of people migrate into the city from rural villages across China. For the most part, they are discriminated against, looked down upon and live in utter poverty. As such their children have little access to education - and thats where we step in. This should be an awesome experience!
Third- a few interesting things about China:
- You can bargain for anything, except for food in most cases (but there are exceptions to any rule, TIFC). Seriously though, you can bargain anywhere and everywhere, even in department stores and malls. Imagine going to sears and negotiating the price of your new washing machine. The reason that this is possible is that everyone works off of commition and thus mark the prices way up. Standard practice is to offer about a third of the listed price and work your way towards a happy medium.
- This is the world of knock offs- and not always in a good way. Sure you can buy fake sun glasses and purses on street corners, but the black market in China is not limited to consumer goods. Street venders sell fake food (the infamous fake pickle), and convenience stores will sell fake cigarrettes. Furthermore, it has been found that about 30% of the prescription medicine in China is actually fake; so if I come down with one of my infamous sinus infections I think the best bet for antibiotics will be to have it shipped from home (lets keep our fingers crossed).
- There is no tipping in restaurants or at bars yet the service is phenomenal. Because of the communist system belief that everyone is equal - there is no tipping allowed in restaurants as it would elevate one waiter or bar tender above another. You would think that with the lack of any real incentive service would suck, but it is honestly ten times faster and better than in the U.S. I don't quite understand why but China is a land of contradictions.
Thats all I have today. Remember that there is open commenting on this blog - so if you want to say hi, have questions/advice, or want to hear more about anything that i've done drop me a line. The comment link is right at the bottom of each post.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Putting my camera to good use
Today was incredible!
I woke up this morning feeling great as I had finally had my first full night of sleep. After showering and eating a quick breakfast I rushed off to a Survival Crash course in Chinese language. In this class a handful of Chinese Students from ECNU taught me and my fellow beginers some very basic and very useful Chinese phrases, such as:
Where is the bathroom? - ce suo zai na
I'm sorry - dui buqi
Thankyou - xie xie
My name is - wo de ming zi shi....
Of course, the words all have tonal variances (4 tones - up, down, flat, and down up) making them much more hard to pronounce then to type. Though it was hard, i feel like my first little lesson was an overall success.
After the crash course, we met up with our program advisor, Andrew Field, and explored Shanghai for the remainder ofthe afternoon. Andrew is an awesome guy; in his own words he is 38 going on 20 and he proved it with flying colors today. Our destinations were Xin Tian Di (where I had dinner the other night) and another area called Tianzifang, and we made use of public transportation to get there- both bus and metro. Xin Tian Di and Tianzifang are both old converted parts of what is known as the French concession, an area that in the late 1800's/early 1900's was politically and economically dominated by French traders. The French concession still maintains a distinct European influence today and many ex-pats frequent the area. In recent past, the Chinese government decided that the historical French concession should take on a new economic purpose and sought to create a hip sheik shopping and eating district throughout. Though Xin Tian Di and Tianzifang share a similar past, and ultimately similar future the manner that the Chinese government delt with them differs greatly. In Xin Tian Di, the Chinese government decided to tear down historic French concession buildings and rebuild with their rubble - they hired the architects of Faneuil Hall in Boston to take on this project. In doing this however the displaced all of the residents of Xin Tian Di, a topic that is still a sore subject for many Chinese. In the Tianzifang area the Chinese left the historic buildings standing and allowed the residents to remain, however they did add many shops, bars and restaurants in the lower levels. After exploring Tianzifang for a while, our program director and a handful of people in the group stumbled upon a thai restaurant with an impressive cocktail menu- needless to say we missed our bus back to campus and soon learned that Andrew Field is “one of us”.
Below are some pictures from Xin Tian Di, Tianzifang as well as some other random shots from the city. Enjoy!
Part of the city
.jpg)
Xin Tian Di
Fountain in Xin Tian Di
Cool Bar in Xin Tian Di
Jake and I at the communist museum
More Xin Tian Di
I woke up this morning feeling great as I had finally had my first full night of sleep. After showering and eating a quick breakfast I rushed off to a Survival Crash course in Chinese language. In this class a handful of Chinese Students from ECNU taught me and my fellow beginers some very basic and very useful Chinese phrases, such as:
Where is the bathroom? - ce suo zai na
I'm sorry - dui buqi
Thankyou - xie xie
My name is - wo de ming zi shi....
Of course, the words all have tonal variances (4 tones - up, down, flat, and down up) making them much more hard to pronounce then to type. Though it was hard, i feel like my first little lesson was an overall success.
After the crash course, we met up with our program advisor, Andrew Field, and explored Shanghai for the remainder ofthe afternoon. Andrew is an awesome guy; in his own words he is 38 going on 20 and he proved it with flying colors today. Our destinations were Xin Tian Di (where I had dinner the other night) and another area called Tianzifang, and we made use of public transportation to get there- both bus and metro. Xin Tian Di and Tianzifang are both old converted parts of what is known as the French concession, an area that in the late 1800's/early 1900's was politically and economically dominated by French traders. The French concession still maintains a distinct European influence today and many ex-pats frequent the area. In recent past, the Chinese government decided that the historical French concession should take on a new economic purpose and sought to create a hip sheik shopping and eating district throughout. Though Xin Tian Di and Tianzifang share a similar past, and ultimately similar future the manner that the Chinese government delt with them differs greatly. In Xin Tian Di, the Chinese government decided to tear down historic French concession buildings and rebuild with their rubble - they hired the architects of Faneuil Hall in Boston to take on this project. In doing this however the displaced all of the residents of Xin Tian Di, a topic that is still a sore subject for many Chinese. In the Tianzifang area the Chinese left the historic buildings standing and allowed the residents to remain, however they did add many shops, bars and restaurants in the lower levels. After exploring Tianzifang for a while, our program director and a handful of people in the group stumbled upon a thai restaurant with an impressive cocktail menu- needless to say we missed our bus back to campus and soon learned that Andrew Field is “one of us”.
Below are some pictures from Xin Tian Di, Tianzifang as well as some other random shots from the city. Enjoy!
Part of the city
.jpg)
Xin Tian Di
Fountain in Xin Tian Di
Cool Bar in Xin Tian Di
Jake and I at the communist museum
More Xin Tian Di
Alley in Tianzifang
Another cool alley in Tianzifang.JPG)
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Trying to unwind
For the first time since basically Friday night i'm getting bit of time to rest and unwind. I know i've only been in Shanghai for 2 days but I could honestly write a book about everything that I've seen and done so far as well as all of the amazing people I have met.
Yesterday, I went with a few other kids to pick up some toiletries and other essentials at Chinese equivalent of Wal-Mart. The building was two stories tall with a sloped escalator for shopping carts and it had everything from fresh fish to motorskooters. The shoppers there were ruthless, they make going to H-E-B on a Saturday look like childs play. Since there is no such thing as manners in China (which is so awesome!!) the shoppers literally shove, bump, and grab items right out of your hands; not to mention there are about a million freaking people there. All the while they play blaring advertisments over the loudspeaker system- the theme song to one of these ads was the song "flight of the bumblebee" - talk about fitting.
For dinner, my friend Carolyn and her parents took me and a few other friends to a very nice ethnic Chinese dinner in a section of Shanghai that we had not yet seen. If you imagine that Shanghai is like New York City (New York on Steroids that is), our university is in Brooklyn and this restaurant was in the equivalent of Manhattan. The skyline of downtown Shanghai is unrivaled; ridiculously large sky scapers everywhere, all of which call for your attention with brilliant night time light shows (as if the architectural feats themselves weren't enough to have you mesmorized). When we arrived at the restaurant, called XinJishi , Carolyn's dad and mom were waiting for us and had already ordered. As soon as we sat down the servers started bringing out dish after dish of food. I consider myself very adventurous when it comes to eating, and this meal definitely put a few notches on my belt; I ate jelly fish, bamboo, and fish head and loved it all. After dinner we took a brief stroll through Xia Tian Di, which is an ultra modern and very sheik part of Shanghai. While soaking up the ambience of Xia Tian Di I heard live jazz coming from inside a trendy lounge, so I think it is safe to say that I will be returning there sometime very soon.
Not much else to report for now. We are still going through orientation and welcome week meetings and in about one minute i'm going to register for classes. Below are a few pictures I've snapped. Sorry that there aren't more but i've been so caught up in everything else that photography hasn't been the foremost thing on my mind.
Thats my roommate Jake in our dorm room.
Statue of Chairman Mao in the center of campus
The street and shops outside the back gate of ECNU
Street shot from campus.
Our favorite restaurant (a total dive)
Dinner! By necessity I've become quite good with chop sticks. I can pick up a dime thats laying flat!
Yesterday, I went with a few other kids to pick up some toiletries and other essentials at Chinese equivalent of Wal-Mart. The building was two stories tall with a sloped escalator for shopping carts and it had everything from fresh fish to motorskooters. The shoppers there were ruthless, they make going to H-E-B on a Saturday look like childs play. Since there is no such thing as manners in China (which is so awesome!!) the shoppers literally shove, bump, and grab items right out of your hands; not to mention there are about a million freaking people there. All the while they play blaring advertisments over the loudspeaker system- the theme song to one of these ads was the song "flight of the bumblebee" - talk about fitting.
For dinner, my friend Carolyn and her parents took me and a few other friends to a very nice ethnic Chinese dinner in a section of Shanghai that we had not yet seen. If you imagine that Shanghai is like New York City (New York on Steroids that is), our university is in Brooklyn and this restaurant was in the equivalent of Manhattan. The skyline of downtown Shanghai is unrivaled; ridiculously large sky scapers everywhere, all of which call for your attention with brilliant night time light shows (as if the architectural feats themselves weren't enough to have you mesmorized). When we arrived at the restaurant, called XinJishi , Carolyn's dad and mom were waiting for us and had already ordered. As soon as we sat down the servers started bringing out dish after dish of food. I consider myself very adventurous when it comes to eating, and this meal definitely put a few notches on my belt; I ate jelly fish, bamboo, and fish head and loved it all. After dinner we took a brief stroll through Xia Tian Di, which is an ultra modern and very sheik part of Shanghai. While soaking up the ambience of Xia Tian Di I heard live jazz coming from inside a trendy lounge, so I think it is safe to say that I will be returning there sometime very soon.
Not much else to report for now. We are still going through orientation and welcome week meetings and in about one minute i'm going to register for classes. Below are a few pictures I've snapped. Sorry that there aren't more but i've been so caught up in everything else that photography hasn't been the foremost thing on my mind.
Thats my roommate Jake in our dorm room.
Statue of Chairman Mao in the center of campus
The street and shops outside the back gate of ECNU
Street shot from campus.
Our favorite restaurant (a total dive)
Dinner! By necessity I've become quite good with chop sticks. I can pick up a dime thats laying flat!
Monday, February 16, 2009
TIFC
You've heard the saying "When in Rome, do as the Romans", well there is a saying with a similar sentiment here in Shanghai. TIFC - "This Is F*ucking China."
I've been here for less than 24 hours and TIFC seems to be just about the only way to sum up my experience so far. I arrived in the Shanghai airport yesterday at around 5:30pm and proceeded to make it through customs in record time, especially considering how long the rest of the travel process took (I'll skip telling all the travel details - it was long and I don't want to re-live it). After heading through customs, me and 3 other kids from my flight made our way towards bag claim and looked for our study abroad representative. It still hadn't hit me that I was in China- the airport looked like any other airport with the exception of Chinese characters alongside English words on all of the bulletin boards. We met our rep and a handful of other kids from our group and soon after loaded on to a bus to head towards East Normal Chinese University or ECNU for short. For the first half of the bus ride everyone went through the standard introductions - name? university? what level Chinese? - I am one of the few zero level Chinese students and the looks of suprise when I told kids this were not exactly reassuring.... apparently it's not a "normal" decision to pack up and move to China when you don't speak the language. Soon enough though the bright lights of the Shanghai skyline drew most of our attention away from getting to know eachother as we sat stupified by the view. As we drove into the city it was dark outside and lightly raining. If you've ever seen Blade Runner, then you've seen my first view of Shanghai. Chinese Characters illuminated in bright neon lights, seemingly endless rows of broken down skyrise apartments , alien looking vehicles speeding along, and slummy people wandering in alleys and pandering food or knockoffs- all of this shrouded in mist and darkness. This was my first impression of Shanghai. This is f*cking China.
Fast forward through an hour or so of paperwork, unloading baggage, and more introductions and i'm in one of the most modern, clean and incredible dorm rooms ever. It freaking awesome- and i'm rooming with Jake another GW student and really cool guy. After unpacking, the two of us, his buddy Evan, and a few other kids we've met so far decide to get dinner. I have never felt so helpless as when we first tried to order at this restaurant (a little dive near campus). The staff spoke literally no English- and though some of the other kids with us have some Chinese under their belts we all soon learned that practical Chinese is way different than what you learn in the classroom. After a lot of sign language and help from some students on the year program we finally ordered. I've heard a lot of talk about how the Chinese food in China is not the same as in the U.S. and that is true- but it's better here. Beef, chicken, duck, noodles, dumplings, rice - you name it and we ordered it (sort of) and then devoured it.
After dinner two of the year course guys gave us no option but to go out drinking with them - which after 24 hours of traveling they didn't really need to do much convincing. We cabbed to a local bar called C's which was essentially over run by kids from our program. We stayed there for the rest of the night making our introductions and drinking cheap beer. I won't go into too much detail here because I promised I would stay pg13 on the blog, but lets just say that I had a blast. The total expenditure of the whole night including dinner, cabs and drinks cost less than 18 dollars American, TIFC!
2 more quick fun facts:
-The chinese do not have toilet paper in the bathrooms, anywhere - and in some cases have squatters which I dont think I need to explain the concept.
- I have Mau Zedong's pretty face on my 10, 20, 50, and 100 dollar bills (excuse me RMB bills)
Vocab word for the day : Beer= 啤酒 pronounced Pee- Joe.
I've been here for less than 24 hours and TIFC seems to be just about the only way to sum up my experience so far. I arrived in the Shanghai airport yesterday at around 5:30pm and proceeded to make it through customs in record time, especially considering how long the rest of the travel process took (I'll skip telling all the travel details - it was long and I don't want to re-live it). After heading through customs, me and 3 other kids from my flight made our way towards bag claim and looked for our study abroad representative. It still hadn't hit me that I was in China- the airport looked like any other airport with the exception of Chinese characters alongside English words on all of the bulletin boards. We met our rep and a handful of other kids from our group and soon after loaded on to a bus to head towards East Normal Chinese University or ECNU for short. For the first half of the bus ride everyone went through the standard introductions - name? university? what level Chinese? - I am one of the few zero level Chinese students and the looks of suprise when I told kids this were not exactly reassuring.... apparently it's not a "normal" decision to pack up and move to China when you don't speak the language. Soon enough though the bright lights of the Shanghai skyline drew most of our attention away from getting to know eachother as we sat stupified by the view. As we drove into the city it was dark outside and lightly raining. If you've ever seen Blade Runner, then you've seen my first view of Shanghai. Chinese Characters illuminated in bright neon lights, seemingly endless rows of broken down skyrise apartments , alien looking vehicles speeding along, and slummy people wandering in alleys and pandering food or knockoffs- all of this shrouded in mist and darkness. This was my first impression of Shanghai. This is f*cking China.
Fast forward through an hour or so of paperwork, unloading baggage, and more introductions and i'm in one of the most modern, clean and incredible dorm rooms ever. It freaking awesome- and i'm rooming with Jake another GW student and really cool guy. After unpacking, the two of us, his buddy Evan, and a few other kids we've met so far decide to get dinner. I have never felt so helpless as when we first tried to order at this restaurant (a little dive near campus). The staff spoke literally no English- and though some of the other kids with us have some Chinese under their belts we all soon learned that practical Chinese is way different than what you learn in the classroom. After a lot of sign language and help from some students on the year program we finally ordered. I've heard a lot of talk about how the Chinese food in China is not the same as in the U.S. and that is true- but it's better here. Beef, chicken, duck, noodles, dumplings, rice - you name it and we ordered it (sort of) and then devoured it.
After dinner two of the year course guys gave us no option but to go out drinking with them - which after 24 hours of traveling they didn't really need to do much convincing. We cabbed to a local bar called C's which was essentially over run by kids from our program. We stayed there for the rest of the night making our introductions and drinking cheap beer. I won't go into too much detail here because I promised I would stay pg13 on the blog, but lets just say that I had a blast. The total expenditure of the whole night including dinner, cabs and drinks cost less than 18 dollars American, TIFC!
2 more quick fun facts:
-The chinese do not have toilet paper in the bathrooms, anywhere - and in some cases have squatters which I dont think I need to explain the concept.
- I have Mau Zedong's pretty face on my 10, 20, 50, and 100 dollar bills (excuse me RMB bills)
Vocab word for the day : Beer= 啤酒 pronounced Pee- Joe.
Friday, February 13, 2009
I'm Leaving Tomorrow!
But that's not the same thing as being there....
I have a daunting day of travel ahead of me. Leaving Balcones Woods Drive at approximately 5:00 am February 14 and arriving in the Shanghai/Pudong International Airport at approximately 5:45 pm on February 15.
This evening, while having my final American meal (at Chuy's Tex Mex) I tried to wrap my head around the implications that crossing time zones and the international date line would have on my actual time in the airplane versus estimated time from door to door. Further confusing my efforts was an interesting little factoid I recently learned about China: The entire country of China has only 1 time zone. Ultimately, I settled on the estimate that it will be a long f*cking flight. Needless to say i've packed some entertainment and hopefully between my book and roughly 9.5 hours worth of Dudley and Bob podcasts on my ipod I will be able to keep from going completely crazy.
My next entry will be from Shanghai, wish me luck!
I have a daunting day of travel ahead of me. Leaving Balcones Woods Drive at approximately 5:00 am February 14 and arriving in the Shanghai/Pudong International Airport at approximately 5:45 pm on February 15.
This evening, while having my final American meal (at Chuy's Tex Mex) I tried to wrap my head around the implications that crossing time zones and the international date line would have on my actual time in the airplane versus estimated time from door to door. Further confusing my efforts was an interesting little factoid I recently learned about China: The entire country of China has only 1 time zone. Ultimately, I settled on the estimate that it will be a long f*cking flight. Needless to say i've packed some entertainment and hopefully between my book and roughly 9.5 hours worth of Dudley and Bob podcasts on my ipod I will be able to keep from going completely crazy.
My next entry will be from Shanghai, wish me luck!
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
It's so close I can taste it......
And it tastes like General Tso's.
I can hardly believe it, but in just three more days I'll be heading towards (drumroll please)-- SHANGHAI CHINA -- to study/travel/party for 3 and a half months. If you haven't spoken to me about it in person already, I can tell you now that I am more than excited about this trip- i've been thinking, talking, and reading about China (a great book that my Uncle Neil sent me called oracle bones) almost nonstop since I was accepted to this program! I even made a failed albeit half-assed attempt to learn some language via-podcast.
All that being said though, I honestly have no idea what to expect- im excited but clueless. I remember feeling the same way 3 years ago before I took my backpacking trip to Europe and I was totally blown away by the experience. I can only imagine that spending time in China will have the same if not a greater effect on me then that trip.
While I'm in China, I hope to use this blog as a semi-personal journal, not only to allow you to follow my travels and adventures but also to discuss some of my daily activities, conversations, thoughts, jokes, pictures, etc. so that years down the road I can look back at it all. I'll try to keep all of my public entries Pg-13 and I'll look into creating a private feed for all of those rated R stories (sorry mom- but I am in college). I also enabled open commenting on the blog and encourage everyone and anyone who reads it to drop me some advice, ask me questions or just check in and say hi.
I will also be updating my travelblog that I used while I was in Europe (i've posted a link to it on the right margin at the top) everytime I travel somewhere in China. It has a cool interactive map and I will probably add majority of the pictures I take to the albums on it.
More to come.....
I can hardly believe it, but in just three more days I'll be heading towards (drumroll please)-- SHANGHAI CHINA -- to study/travel/party for 3 and a half months. If you haven't spoken to me about it in person already, I can tell you now that I am more than excited about this trip- i've been thinking, talking, and reading about China (a great book that my Uncle Neil sent me called oracle bones) almost nonstop since I was accepted to this program! I even made a failed albeit half-assed attempt to learn some language via-podcast.
All that being said though, I honestly have no idea what to expect- im excited but clueless. I remember feeling the same way 3 years ago before I took my backpacking trip to Europe and I was totally blown away by the experience. I can only imagine that spending time in China will have the same if not a greater effect on me then that trip.
While I'm in China, I hope to use this blog as a semi-personal journal, not only to allow you to follow my travels and adventures but also to discuss some of my daily activities, conversations, thoughts, jokes, pictures, etc. so that years down the road I can look back at it all. I'll try to keep all of my public entries Pg-13 and I'll look into creating a private feed for all of those rated R stories (sorry mom- but I am in college). I also enabled open commenting on the blog and encourage everyone and anyone who reads it to drop me some advice, ask me questions or just check in and say hi.
I will also be updating my travelblog that I used while I was in Europe (i've posted a link to it on the right margin at the top) everytime I travel somewhere in China. It has a cool interactive map and I will probably add majority of the pictures I take to the albums on it.
More to come.....
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