The end of my first week in 上海 (Shanghai)!

The Acrobatics show was amazing. Absolutely fantastic! I should mention I was in the front row!! I almost giggled with enjoyment. After the show, Emily, Lucy, Beverly, Lauren and I went out for dinner at a Singapore restaurant and then decided to go out on the town for a girl’s night. We went to Muse and Sky. Muse is definitely an upscale place. We walked in and they never took their eyes off of us as if we were going to steal their cocktail glasses or something. The one plus was their bathroom! Here it is a hit or miss with bathrooms, whether they are nice or not. Muse had a towel lady in the bathroom that handed your paper towels when you finished washing your hands and they supplied TP and it was Western toilets (vs a squat)! After one drink and getting tired of being watched we decided to go downstairs to Sky. We had a blast. The drinks were expensive so we decided not to buy any, but the DJ was so thankful that we were on the dance floor he bought the five of us a drink. Dancing in China is different than in the states, but when we got out on the dance floor the Chinese girls decide it is okay and we come too. We met some amazing people and danced all night long. The girls included Kelly from California and Lisa from Shanghai and more. One nice thing about places like this in China is the guys don't come up and try to dance with you at all. 95% of the people on the dance floor are girls or couples. Thankfully this means a girls night can really be just a girls night! Girls night = success! We stayed until the club closed and then got a taxi back to campus. The taxi drivers only take us to the front gate and then leave us there. It is about a 10-minute walk through campus to the dorm and on the way back we pass the Mao statue in the middle of campus. We were told during orientation to be smart when going out because a CIEE student one year couldn’t get back to the dorm he was so drunk and the security guard found him the next morning sleeping at Mao’s feet… We thought it was such a funny story that we decided every night we go out we are going to take a picture of us pretending to sleep at Mao’s feet but never being drunk like the former student! First picture = priceless.

Acrobatics Show

Acrobatics Show

 

Acrobatics Show

Acrobatics Show

Acrobatics Show

Our new friends at Sky

      

Thursday was the first day that we didn’t have any orientation events planned until our Welcome Dinner in the evening. Needless to say almost everyone took advantage of the free time to catch up on sleep and get over the lingering jet lag. By evening we were all feeling great and ready to go to dinner. The entire group met at the Mao Statue at 6pm and went to a dinner and show. The dinner was a Sichuan restaurant and “face changing” show. The dinner was fantastic. The CIEE staff came along and John Tai, my academic director, sat at a table with Chelsea, Charae, Cameron, Isse, and more. It was great food and a fun, slightly strange show. Basically it was a man dressed in a traditional outfit dancing around wearing masks that changed frequently. After dinner everyone decided to go to SOHO. Probably 30 people from the program were there. We learned to play a betting dice game that the locals play in all the clubs and bars. It is also the same game that they play in Pirates of the Caribbean. Peter taught Lucy, Emily, Lauren, and I how to play. It was a great time for the program participants to bond and get to know each other outside of orientation "ice breakers".

            Friday I woke up at 8am to Skype with my parents and Christopher, but to my frustration the internet in our room didn’t work. I spent all morning trying to figure out how to get it to work with no success. We ran to the study center to check our class schedules, get our books, and find out our language placement. Thankfully Tang laoshi (teacher) came to her senses and placed me in the intermediate II class. I already have homework this weekend and a quiz on Monday during my first class! Yuck. I came home and decided to hook into the internet in the study room down the hall so that I could Skype with my family. I was very determined because it had been a few days since I had a chance to talk with anyone and it was Eli’s birthday. While I was very frustrated with the internet, I had a “awe” moment when it comes to technology because in one hour I was able to watch my brother open his birthday presents and blow out the candles on his cake, watch football on ESPN3, and send pictures to Walmart for mom to pick up today, all from the other side of the world! Fantastic! After being a part of Eli’s birthday celebration it was time to go to the World Expo. I was so excited, but coming out of it I was a little disappointed but at least I get to say I was there. It was raining for the first half an hour that we were there and the pavilion lines were 3+ hours long. Needless to say we didn’t go in any of the individual pavilions. We did make it into some of the continent pavilions with some of the smaller country displays inside. The architecture of the pavilions was amazing enough to keep us occupied for a few hours (the pictures are of some of my favorite pavilions). We decided to look into getting VIP passes and try to go back another day. From the Expo we were on our own to get back to campus or do whatever we wanted. Lauren, Lucy, Emily and I decided to have a dinner and movie date. It was very very muggy so we decided to check out the movies and sit in an air-conditioned theater for a few hours. We saw Inception at a theater back in XinTianDi (we decided we really like it there). Lauren and I both saw the movie in the states, but decided that we should see it again to see if we missed anything the first time around. We did. It was as amazing the second time, as it was the first if not better. Plus since I had already watched it once I was able to try to read the Chinese subtitles instead of try to figure out what the heck was going on with the plot. After the movie we found another great little restaurant down a side street from XinTianDi. None of us can afford to actually eat dinner in the French Concession, but we like to walk around it and pretend we can. After dinner we came back to the dorms for an early bedtime. 

Charae, Lucy, Emily, Me, and Lauren at the Expo

Russia Pavilion

Algeria Pavilion

Romania Pavilion for Raluca

Australia for Ellie and Emily

Ireland for Chris (although it had very boring architecture, basically it looked like a semi-truck on a grass hill)

Thailand Pavilion

UK Pavilion (by far the best at the Expo)

Downtown Shanghai

The buildings may rival the lights in Vegas...

The trees lining the roads are always lit up like Christmas!

            Today, Saturday, was the Amazing Race Shanghai. Basically we had teams of 4-5 people and we were given a clue at the lobby of the dorm and we had to use public transportation, but no taxis, to find the destination. We had to take a picture at each destination and then show it to a CIEE staff member at a nearby location. Each staff member would give us another clue. After about 3.5 hours and 6 destinations we made it to the end. It was exhausting but at least we can say we finished and we know how to get around Shanghai. It rained off and on throughout the competition but at one point there was what I can only describe as a monsoon. Lauren, Emily, Lucy, Kyle and I were the 6^th group to finish and we are just hoping there were at least 7 teams! We made our way back to campus and had some down time/study time before we go out for dinner tonight and to a Karaoke Bar!!