This week was the bittersweet beginning of classes. I was really looking forward to the learning and the classroom setting (no more than 20 in a class), but the homework is something I could do without. It didn't help that Monday morning there was monsoon rains and I am not joking when I say that living in the Northwest can not prepare you for this kind of rain. Sitting in my first class I was sure that the building was going to float down the forming river in the parking lot. Everyone got a little distracted when the lightning lit up the classroom like a spot light and then the thunder to follow was so loud it shook the windows and set off car alarms in the parking lot. I don't like the "thunder and lightning" (i say that with quotations because I don't believe that is really thunder and lightning after this week) back home, but after this week I have learned that I officially HATE thunder and lightning. I started Monday morning with the 3 hour Globalization in China and then headed to Chinese class. Each of my core classes are once a week for 3 hours, but Chinese is four days a week for 2 hours a day. There are 6 of us in the class and it is intense. We have a quiz every day that we need to learn 20-30 vocab words for, characters and all. After class I met with my tutor for the first time. Her name is Jojo and she is double majoring in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language and Finance. She is only a junior and just finished her finance major last week... She is intense! I have the privilege to have to meet with her twice a week for an hour each time. Tuesday I was fortunate to have just Chinese class, which left some time to catch up on homework and studying. Wednesday morning was Transnationalism in China and Chinese. Thursday was more class, started the day with Chinese and then on to International Relations. IR is my biggest class and I think there are about 18 of us. The course load for my core courses is a lot of reading and then some papers and quizzes. But I am positive that my Chinese class is going to kick my butt! The best part of my week was going to 好又多 (Trust-mart/Walmart) and finding Skippy crunchy peanut butter! It is heaven in a jar and you don't realize how good it is until you go without it and find it again in China!!
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| Heaven in a jar |
Friday was designated CIEE sponsored event day. We started off the morning with a field trip for our Globalization class. We went back to XinTianDi (the French Concession) and toured the museum of the First National Congress of the Communist Party. It was really interesting, but it was early and everyone was a little tired. We were happy to stay downtown and do some shopping when it was over though! Emily and I went to some boutiques looking for something to wear on the river cruise that was to follow that evening. Emily found an adorable dress to wear and I didn't find anything for the cruise but I did find a cute skirt. Together her dress and my skirt were less than 20 dollars! I love this city! After our shopping trip we headed back to campus to meet up with the program and tour a local migrant school. We have the opportunity to volunteer at this school and teach the first and fourth graders English. I was so excited to see so many of our program participants wanting to be involved. The one hour we spent with these children was one of my favorite hours in Shanghai. I watched a bunch of college boys get their hearts melted by the children in this school.
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| Emeca, Mike and Peter at the Migrant School |
These kids are from poor families that are from the rural areas of China and their parents have come into the city looking for work. The kids are sponsored by the government and they don't have to pay for their education at all. Their books, tuition, and supplies are all given to them. The headmaster told us and showed us how enriching this school is for the lives of these children. We got to visit with the kids in simple english and chinese sentences and have them show us around their classrooms. It was a very overwhelming experience and we are all so anxious to go back.
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| Migrant School |
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| Migrant School |
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| Adorable boys at the migrant school |
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| Victor raced some of the boys on their amazing new track |
After the migrant school tour we all went home to get ready for the Huangpu River Cruise. I don't remember who's brilliant idea it was to get all "gussied" up for this event, but I thank whoever decided on it. The cruise wasn't fancy, but we made it as fancy as we wanted. We had as much fun getting ready as we used to for high school dances! Before I tell the best part of the night I have to explain that going anywhere in this city by any mode of transportation other than the subway takes at least an hour if not more. We left the school at 5:30 for a 7:15 cruise... About 30 minutes into the commute Emily, Brandon, Lauren and I realized that we all had to go to the bathroom and we didn't think we were going to make it to the boat. Brandon told the bus driver who replied with "I can't get out of the traffic, sorry." Sorry wasn't going to cut it. As soon as we got off the freeway he pulled into a huge empty gravel parking lot and the four of us got out and just started running, fancy clothes and all. We booked it for the nearest building which thankfully was a hotel. Shouting in broken Chinese for a bathroom we were told the EIGHTH floor. It was the longest elevator ride of my life. And running for the bathroom I was laughing so hard I thought I wasn't going to make it. We went back to look for the buses (yes we had two buses full of CIEE students waiting for the four of us to go to the bathroom) and then got back on the road for the cruise. It was beautiful and so much fun! We took so many pictures and really enjoyed the gorgeous skyline. Shanghai at night looks like a New York and Las Vegas had a baby with gigantism. It is amazing. The night was spectacular and I am so thankful that we have already become such good friends that I can't imagine how it could have been any better beside making it last all night long!
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