The Plot concludes.

This last week has been a whirlwind of adventure, fun, and emotions.  My last week in Shanghai was full of final papers, presentations and final exams in Chinese. Wednesday we ended our morning classes to find it snowing outside. I emailed mom to tell her that it was snowing but that it probably wouldn't stick... I was wrong. By 5 o'clock there was at last an inch on the ground and a snowball fight happening on the third floor. You would've thought we had never seen snow in our lives. 

Thursday was our Chinese final exam and our last day of class. We went to our favorite restaurant out the back gate, Xue You, for dinner one last time. It was fantastic. We told the waiters and the door lady that we were returning to the United States and wouldn't be coming back for a while. It was the first of the emotional goodbyes! That night we went to M1NT a fancy lounge for a "birthday party" for Blair (who's birthday is actually in March) just because we wanted a reason to celebrate and go out. It is always fun to have a reason to get dressed up and see the boys in ties! Friday morning was our Farewell & Graduation Ceremony and we had "talent show" with performances from the different Chinese classes and talented students. Our class attempted to sing the theme song from the Beijing Olympics, Beijing Huanying Ni, but that was more of a joke than anything else. We were given diplomas and pictures and watched a slide show from the year. To end the ceremony, Chelsea and Charae sang "Friends Forever" and got the whole group singing. It was a great way to remember the semester we had together. That evening Lucy, Emily, Dan and I went to Tianzifang Art Street. This area is full of small alleys that are filled with art galleries, shops, and restaurants. We spent some time shopping until we were too cold to go on and then got some Vietnamese dinner in the warmest restaurant we could find. 

Snow in Shanghai

Our last meal at our favorite restaurant "Xue You"

Rob, Me, and Henrik before M1NT

Singing at the Farewell ceremony

A night on the town- Tianzifang Art Street

 Saturday was our last day in Shanghai and it ended up being one of my favorites as well. We went to M on the Bund for brunch to celebrate Emily's 21st Birthday. Happy Birthday Emily!! After an amazing brunch we went out on the balcony and took pictures of Pudong for the last time. It was a fantastic start to a great day. From there we went to my favorite little teashop and had some tea and finished our last minute shopping. We split into two groups and James, Min, Laurie and I went over to Pudong and up into the Bottle Opener. We wanted to go up to the observation deck but found that it was over 20 dollars a person!! Instead we went to Blue Frog and had happy hour drinks, 2 for about 8 dollars. Much better! We came back to campus, ate our last dinner in the caf and then went to the House of Jazz and Blues for our last night out. 

The last day in Shanghai, looking out at Pudong from the Bund

Emily's birthday brunch at M on the Bund

The Financial Center

Sunday morning I woke up and had to say my goodbyes. The van was leaving at 10am so I woke up and got showered and gave myself about 30 minutes to say my goodbyes. Bawling as I climbed in the van, I was ready to go home, but not ready to leave my Shanghai life and friends behind. Everything went smoothly through check-in, boarding, and then not for take off. We didn't even make it away from the terminal. One of the generators wasn't running so they cancelled the flight, but it took an extra hour to get off the plane because the government had to "approved" our entrance to the airport... 3 hours later they let us back inside, where we had the joy of going back through customs were they cancelled our visa stamps. Luckily I was with Dan because if I had been alone I would've been miserable. We met up with James, Drew and Emily at the entrance of the airport. Their plane had been delayed 6 hours and wasn't going to leave until 11pm. When Dan and I went to the United Airlines counter they told us our flight had been scheduled to leave the following day at 3pm and they would put us in a hotel until then. Shanghai has no other flights to the states after 5pm each day, but fortunately the American Airlines flight the other group was on had been delayed. After James and Dan finagled with the United workers for about 30 minutes or so, we got switched (for free) to the AA flight to Chicago. We had about 5 hours before our plane was going to leave, so James took us to the first class lounge were we relaxed with comfy chairs, free foods and free drinks. After a few glasses of champagne we made our flight to Chicago with about 15 other CIEE students. We got a hotel voucher for our long layover in Chicago and made our flights home to our final destinations. About 40 hours after my goodbyes in the CIEE dorm lobby I made it to PDX. Mom, Dad, Chris, Ellie, and Grandpa were there waiting for me. It is amazing to be home, but it is sad to leave. My first night home I fell asleep around 8pm and woke up around 1pm the next day. The jetlag is going to be difficult, but being home is worth it. 

Lounge at the airport during 40 hours of traveling

On other note...

Leaving for Shanghai I had no idea that I would be returning to the United States with so many more important people in my life. I had the honor of meeting some fantastic people and making some amazing friends. I wanted to take the opportunity in this last post to share with you some of the most important people from this trip. This list does not include everyone or give anyone enough credit, but these people made my trip worth every minute and every penny.

Drew- My teddy bear.

Laura- My beautiful smart fellow wineo.

Chelsea- A huge heart and full of spirit. 

Elliot- A fellow duck. I am so glad I get to see you so soon!

Min- The funniest person on the trip (don't tell James)!

Blair- Beautiful and fun. 

Lucy- The love of my life. 

Laurie- My adorable roommate and BFF. 

Robert- My little brother and fellow duck and Oregonian. 

Emily- My lovely, fun, fantastic friend.

James- Honorary duck fan. My best friend. <3

Brandon- Place holder until we have a picture together. Loudest kid on the program. ;-) Miss you!

Kevin- Another fellow duck and always a good time.

Thank you to all of you for taking care of me and being so important in my life.

Partyworld Karaoke, it couldn't get better than this.

A favorite evening pastime in China is Karaoke. This is their drinking culture. We obviously didn't participate in this culture, but they do know how to do it. Our Chinese class paired up with the Intermediate I class and went out for an evening of karaoke. We had a private room with couches and a giant tv that showed the music videos and words to the songs. We started the night with "Beijing HuanYing Ni" which was the song for the Olympics and we all practiced it in class so we would be ready. After that we got dinner at the buffet and brought it back to the room. Emily barely finished her dinner before she was back at the mic. It was a great time. We sang Chinese pop songs and of course the traditional English karaoke songs. Living on a prayer, Can you feel the love tonight, Hey Jude... The list goes on for 3-hours so I will stop there. It was a great way to start the weekend and by far one of the better CIEE organized events!

Beijing Huanying Ni (The song for the Olympics)

Elliot, Me, and Beverly

California Gurls with Liu laoshi!!

Can you feel the love tonight??

Getting the most out of the end of this adventure.

You may not have noticed but I decided to change the title of my blog. After this weekend I realized that my trip here in Shanghai has been nothing but shenanigans. Shenanigans ranging from silly mishaps to fun nights out to getting lost in Shanghai to speaking another language to losing track of time and finally to creating new friendships. Don't worry Mom and Dad, I have had plenty of time in between shenanigans to attend some classes and learn a few things. 

Last week I had a minor (compared to some I have had in China) panic attack. I realized that I had less than 20 days left in Shanghai and there were so many things that I still wanted to do. I decided to start accomplishing some of these things on Wednesday. I went back to the fabric market, went to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants and then went to Dada. Our night at Dada was one of my favorite nights out in Shanghai so far. This place played 1950s dance music all night long. They didn't play a single song from the last 40 years. It was so much fun! We danced all night long and my favorite part of the night was when I got Ding to swing dance with me! It is hard to get the Chinese roommates to come out with us even though we really enjoy their company. Ding decided to come out with us this night and I am so thankful he did. Not only did he come with us, but he DANCED with us!

Dada with Laura, Henrik, Ding 丁 and Lucy

Swing dancing with Ding 

Friday I spent the day in Shanghai by myself. I know that Mom and Grandma are both yelling at me while they read this. But in the middle of the day in the most ex-pat populated part of Shanghai I feel pretty safe. My goal was to go to a teashop near the Bund that I had been to earlier in the term with an owner that I really liked. He only spoke a few words of English, but he was so helpful and friendly and his prices were comparable to the tea market, which is supposed to be the cheapest way to buy tea. I went in knowing (or so I thought) what I wanted. When I told him, he said I needed to taste each tea before I bought it. I sat down while he made tea for me and he suggested different kinds of tea for me to try. Before I knew it I had been there for over an hour just chatting (in Chinese!) with this man and his friend and drinking tea. When I finished I walked down to the Bund just as the sun was beginning to set. It was beautiful. Looking across the river at Pudong is one of the best city skylines I have seen and the lighting made it a perfect picture opportunity. I took pictures, played peek-a-boo with a little kid, and then walked along the river for a while.

Tea with the owner and his friend

My favorite teashop

The sun setting on Pudong

The Bund

Saturday was a lazy day. Laurie and I went shopping for "tailgating food" for the game that night. A group of us decided to watch the Civil War that night at 4:30am and I promised to cater the event. We got the makings for 7-layer dip and chips, popcorn, and mixed nuts. Making true tailgating food is a challenge in China. While at the grocery store looking for cheese for our dip we found a Brie. Oops. We couldn't pass it up so we decided to have some girl bonding over white wine and Brie. Perfect. We followed the bonding by meeting up with a couple of the boys on the Bund for a drink before dinner. For dinner we went to an all you can eat and drink Indian restaurant called Punjabi. It was amazing food.  Sunday Robert and I spent the day out in Shanghai and at the Fake Market. 

Today Laurie and I spent the evening trying to get ahead on our papers and homework for the rest of the term at Starbucks. Three hours later and two dead computers we made our way back to the dorm and haven't worked on homework since. Writing this blog is still being productive right??

Homework date at Starbucks (星巴克）

A Mess of Things

In my earlier post I forgot to mention one of my favorite places I have been to in Shanghai. The House of Jazz and Blues. Right off the Bund this small bar has live music almost every night. Some of the boys went here one of the first weekends in Shanghai and talked so highly of it that I can't believe didn't go there now. We went on a Wednesday night to help Elliot celebrate his 21st birthday. Elliot's Aunt, Cousin, and Sister were all here in Shanghai for a week and at the same time Kevin's parents were also here. About 6 boys and myself met up with Elliot, Kevin and their families and listened to a live band from the states over glasses of wine and beer. It was a great break from school during the middle of the week. And of course James didn't let Elliot go through his 21st without a shot of Jose. Happy 21st Elliot!

House of Jazz and Blues

Birthday Tequila Shot

Last Saturday we had another visitor from the states. Issei's girlfriend, Emma, came into Shanghai on Saturday afternoon and we wanted to take her out for her first night in the city. We went to dinner at a restaurant that was rated Top 10 in the world by the New York Times in 2008. It did not disappoint. We followed this with a evening in XinTianDi and had a fantastic time. We also used her as an excuse to get all dressed up one night and go to some of the fancier places that we hadn't been to yet. After getting all gussied up, we went to what we like to call the "bottle opener". This picture doesn't illustrate the bottle opener effect very well put a picture in a previous post should. At the top of this building is a lounge that happened to have a live band. We spend most of the evening there and then went to Cloud 9, which is supposed to be the highest lounge in the world... We didn't stay long because they have a minimum charge that we weren't willing to pay. Instead we looked at the view and then called it a night. There is nothing I enjoy more in Shanghai than seeing the city at night. It is beautiful.

"Bottle Opener" Building
(aka Shanghai World Financial Center)

 Thursday was Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, living in a country that doesn't celebrate the holiday means you still have to go to class. Luckily my long class, International Relations, coincidently got cancelled because Professor Zheng was at a conference in the states. Thank the lord! Laurie and I got really excited in Chinese class about the holiday and decided to show Liu laoshi (Chinese teacher) how to draw turkeys out of the outline of our hands. We decorated the whole chalkboard and got on the discussion about dinner that night. Liu laoshi told us that she didn’t know how to do her make-up so Laurie and I told her to come down to our room and we would do it for her. After class we played Pandora Christmas music setting the mood while we got ready and did laoshi’s make-up. Dinner was at a hotel called the Crowne Plaza and it was buffet style. The dinner was better than expected but nothing like Thanksgiving back home.  There was a variety of American thanksgiving food along with Chinese food, sushi, burritos, pizza, a desert bar, etc… I had turkey, "mashed potatoes", green beans (cooked Chinese style), apple and walnut salad, rolls, and sweet potatoes (again cooked Chinese style). The desert was good but not Thanksgiving desert. They had ice cream and their version of apple and pumpkin pie which was more like a bar cookie with some topping. The boys made it a point/competition to see who could go through the line the most often. After one helping I was stuffed. After dinner we took pictures and then some of the group headed out while the rest of us (only a few of us) went back to campus on the bus to sleep off our food intake.

Thanksgiving Dinner in Shanghai

Laurie, Shao 邵 (a Chinese roommate), and I

Myself, Liu laoshi, and Laurie

Half of our Chinese class

Friday morning we got up and packed for Nanjing. We got on the bus at 12:45 for a four-hour trip to Nanjing. The worse part of the whole ride was when our tour guide, Hot Dog (sadly that is really the English name he gave himself), got on the bus. He immediately grabbed the microphone and began shouting into it to wake us up. Bad move Hot Dog. He now had 40 grumpy hungry college students that did not have a good first impression of him. He followed this mistake with another, he told us we were going to make a tourist stop before dinner instead of going straight there like we had planned. Hungry, tired college students then went up a mountain to see the mausoleum of Sun Yat-Sen only to get to the top and realize it was closed. I don’t know how he figure it would be open considering at 5:15 at the bottom of the mountain he kept saying “we must hurry, it closes at 5:00. Please follow me closely, like a bunch of bananas.” Bananas?? His Chi-nglish was not so good. We proceeded to walk back down the mountain to the bus and on to dinner. Dinner was in the basement of a restaurant were I am pretty sure they had the air conditioner running even though it was about 45 outside. The waitresses were in winter coats! We got used to great meals in Beijing were we were fed so well we always left stuffed with leftovers on the table. The laoshis’ that were with us on this trip obviously don’t have as big of appetites as John Tai. We left hungry. We got back on the bus with the intentions to boycott the “comedy show” (in a dialect we wouldn’t understand) that we were supposed to go to next. In Beijing we had quite a bit of control over what we did, and if no one wanted to go somewhere they wouldn’t make us. This trip was different. No one on the bus wanted to go to this comedy show, yet Hot Dog had already made reservations and he was not about to let us skip it. Strike 3 for Hot Dog. Dan, Matt, and Kyle got called up on stage and Matt ended up having to "marry" a Chinese woman on stage. He was asked to say a few words to the audience about his marriage and all he said was “For the love of God please don’t tell my girlfriend.” The entire CIEE group went into an uproar of laughter. It made the entire show worth it! That night we discovered that the internet in the hotel was fabulous, so Rob and I decided that we were going to skip out on the museums the next morning and watch the Duck game instead. I woke Rob and James up at 8am on the dot and Rob streamed the game live on his computer. The quality was great and with the W it made for a perfect morning. After the game, Drew, Robert, James and I met up with the rest of the group and took an hour bus ride to a hot springs resort. It was far more crowded than the one we went to in Sanya and less appealing. Having 40 CIEE in one place though always makes for a good time. We made the best of it. After the hot springs we went back to the hotel and had the evening to ourselves. We took naps (James and I caught up on some Prisonbreak, which I am now obsessed with) and then looked for a place for dinner. A group of 13 of us decided to go out in search of a high rated French restaurant. The food was amazing. I had 2 glasses of wine, smoked salmon loks salad, shrimp with mashed potatoes and veggies, and chocolate lava cake for around 20 dollars. It was a splurge but it was fabulous and totally worth it. The next morning we checked out of the hotel and got on the bus to head for Shanghai, although we had to make a stop along the way. Mudu, a watertown. We rode in little Chinese gondolas down the river and then got out and went into a garden where the boys played tagged for about 20 minutes while Laurie and I watched. We had an awful lunch were I think some people in the group were served dog. We got back on the bus and headed for Shanghai. I brought a nasty cold back to Shanghai with me and have been miserably trying to make it to classes and get through the homework successfully. 

Chinese Gondolas

Twins

 Monday we had two field trips. The morning trip was with John Tai to the Propaganda Art Center. It was awesome. I got to see the Big Character Posters that I am so fascinated with! I loved it! These posters are supposed to be originals from during the cultural revolution and era of Mao Zedong. I was fascinated that a man could collect these pieces and quietly show them to the world from the basement of an apartment building. After Chinese class we got on a bus and headed to the Bund to meet Amy Goldman for a tour of the Shanghai Gallery of Art. This time we were seeing art from a contemporary Chinese artist's point of view. Again it was amazing and a great way to start the week, especially when I haven't been feeling well sitting in the classroom is the last thing I wanted to do. 
 

Shanghai Propaganda Art Center 

Big Character Posters

Shanghai Gallery of Art

"Miracle on 中山 Street" starring Laurie and Sarah

As it gets closer to the holidays I am beginning to realize how much I took them for granted in the past. I am really starting to miss the holiday enthusiasm back home. Thanksgiving is tomorrow here in Shanghai. Luckily, since our entire program is from the states, CIEE is taking us to a huge Thanksgiving dinner at an international hotel. There is supposed to be turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce. While the intentions are fabulous, the expectations aren't high because most "western meals" always end up with some sort of Chinese twist. We are making bets on whether or not we will be asked to go around the room and say what we are thankful for like we had to do in elementary school. CIEE seems to bring all these activities back into our lives whether we like it or not (most of the time I love it!). I was also pretty bummed that unlike back home, we have class on Thanksgiving. I thought about starting a sit-in at the dorms in protest, but then my IR professor let us know that he will be out of town and class tomorrow is cancelled! YAY! While I know that this Thanksgiving won't be anything like spending the day with my family back home, I am thankful that I have made some amazing friends that will make it feel as close to a family holiday as possible. As I mentioned in my previous post, I found a store in our mall that had a section of Christmas decorations, this to me is a miracle. I never thought I would find decorations in China except in the French or British concessions. They were by far the most expensive Christmas decorations I have ever seen. And no, the santa's and snowmen are not Asian, despite what my mother thinks they look just like santa back home. I woke up yesterday to new of snow in Salem and Eugene and hundreds of pictures already on facebook of everyone playing in it. I was so jealous and it really started to make me "holidaysick." One of my friends has his girlfriend in town for the week and unfortunately she gets pretty bored while he is in class. I decided that I needed to get something to bring up my spirits and get her out of the dorm. We went to the mall and the Christmas store. I bought myself a single Christmas decoration for our room and to lighten my spirits. It worked. I decided to make a list of all the holiday activities that I wish I was home to partake in for future self-reference. 

~ Eating too much and watching football on Thanksgiving

~ Giving thanks and spending time with my family

~ Helping mom put up Christmas decorations

~ Putting up the Christmas trees while drinking egg nog and listening to Christmas music

~ Playing in the snow whenever possible

~ Buying Christmas presents and wrapping them in mom's themed papers

~ Mom making cookies throughout the entire month of December and getting to steal a few when she isn't looking ;-) 

~ Cuddling with my puppies in front of the fire

~ Christmas movies (Miracle on 34th Street & The Grinch)

~ Visiting friends that are home from school

~ Steak and Lobster with Chris's family

~ Christmas eve night at the Essers

~ Looking for Santa Claus and Rudolph in the sky on the way home

~ Christmas morning cinnamon rolls

~ Being with my family and thinking of those that can't be with us

The winter holidays are the best time of the year. I am thankful for them and those that I have to celebrate them with. Happy Thanksgiving!

Our one and only decoration

A Girl's Day Out and a Boy's Day Out (with a girl tag along)

Friday morning Laurie and I decided to have a girls day. We went to Zhongshan Park 中山公园 which is the giant mall about a 10 minute bus ride from campus. We went to Starbucks which has just started serving their holiday drinks in their holiday cups. Yay! I had an amazing Toffee Nut Latte and for the first time felt like the holidays are coming. We wandered around the mall and found an interior decorating store full of Christmas decorations. I finally felt like I wasn't totally secluded from the holiday scene and I loved it! After perusing H&M and coming out empty handed we decided to get our nails done. We found this adorable little salon called Sweet Nails. They were really reasonably priced and the shop was adorable. It was a red and pink with hearts theme. We each had two women working on our nails and got pampered for about two hours. It was exactly the way we wanted to spend our girls day out, we of course wouldn't have been complete without a bottle of red wine and gossip! ;-)

Starbucks Christmas cups even in China
Toffee Nut Latte. Yay for the holidays!!!

Mani/Pedi at Sweet Nails!

Pink and Purple

 Saturday I needed to go back to the fabric market to pick up the things I had ordered last weekend. Drew, Robert, and James were already planning on going out there so I tagged along. When we got there we met up with more of the CIEE boys. Unfortunately the suit I had made for myself didn't fit very well so I had to leave it behind to get in another week. The other suits and the jeans that I had made all were finished and hopefully all fit! Robert and James both got fitted for suits and jeans as well. This market it truly overwhelming and unreal. Stall after stall are lined up with different articles of clothing to sell. You can get anything made such as jeans, suits, coats, formal gowns, costumes, dress shirts, silk robes, and traditional Chinese clothing. Three floors of fabric and custom tailors at our disposal for a very inexpensive price. The quality of the clothing that comes out of this place is surely not up to par with something we would buy back home, but the price is so much cheaper that it is silly not to purchase something while we are here.

The Fabric Market (Robert getting fitted)