Shanghai Shenanigans: Someone will be hit by a car, bus, moped, bicycle, etc before we leave...

Monday we had a full day of orientation meetings and then supermarket shopping. The orientation is a bombardment of information and at times a little overwhelming and really boring. The CIEE staff is very nice and helpful and they have great Chinese students helping us find our way around. We had a group lunch in a small restaurant on campus. Everything here is shared family style and “double-dipping” is not an issue. The served us around 15 different dishes on a lazy susan in the middle of the table and we had just enough to experience everything. I have fallen in love with eggplant after just two meals. I also tried jellyfish and decided it wasn’t for me, at all. It is very bland and has the strangest texture. After lunch we were taken on a campus tour by a Chinese student who mainly just showed us the bank, post office, and study center. Then he took us shopping. We took the bus to a shopping center. We decided that during the four months of our stay, someone will in fact be injured by a transportation accident. The traffic here is crazy!!! The warning people gave me does this place no justice. Wow. Shopping center here means upscale mall + supermarket all in one. The Carrefour is an overwhelming unorganized supermarket that takes up two partial floors of the 7 story Zhongshan Park Shopping Center. We bought bus passes, cell phones, and then headed to Carrefour for the necessities. I, of course, bought myself a mattress pad that makes my board now feel like a board with one inch of padding on top. I also got shampoo, etc, and some snack food and fruit. After the 3-hour shopping trip outfitting everyone with the necessities, we headed back to campus to unload and then go out to dinner. Lauren and I met up with two students who were also on their way out for food and we walked out the back gate to a hot pot restaurant. Hot pot is basically a big bowl where they fill it with the ingredients you want and then put it on a hot plate at your table for you to eat out of. This meal was a little more expensive than the first night. Food for four and a beer was 113 yuan (17 dollars, for FOUR!). I can definitely get used to the prices of food. Again I came home after the meal and crashed on my new lovely mattress pad.

my rock hard bed

dorm hallway

view from my window

my already messy desk

Tuesday was more orientation. We had a program specific meeting from 9-12 and they gave us the spiel about language classes and the language commitment. We had a group lunch again but this time in the liwa cafeteria. The lunch was okay but it was so overwhelming trying to figure out how to order that I just pointed and we given what was closest. Beef Noodles. After lunch we had more orientation meetings from a local doctor and a women from the consulate. I didn’t think they were going to ever stop talking. By 5 o’clock when we finished I almost shouted with joy and amazement that I hadn’t fallen asleep. Lauren, Emily, Lucy and I went to the closet supermarket, Trust Mart, for a few more forgotten necessities. The four of us came back to unload before heading out to look for a snack. It was Charae’s birthday so we all went to dinner but not until 8 so we needed snack food. Emily and I found some “lemon water”, virtually lemonade but better and then we got fried beef dumplings and spring rolls. They can in 4 so there was just one of each for each of us, it was enough to hold us by until the birthday party. We had a surprise shindig in the kitchen on my floor with a cake and like 20 CIEE students before heading out for dinner. Lulu took us to a Chinese restaurant for Charae’s birthday dinner. We had 14 of us all around one table trying to decide what to order and eventually Lulu ordered for us. We had a great time until the cockroaches showed up. Charae and I almost came out of our skins and definitely out of our seats. We decided when it started to head towards us that dinner was over. Check please!

CIEE Study Center

This morning was our Chinese Language Placement Exam. After going 3 months without hearing or speaking a word of Chinese, I was more than slightly nervous. Making the hike across campus to the study center, we were welcomed by the air-conditioned classrooms. At 8:30 in the morning it is about 90° already. The written test was awful, but at least I wasn’t the only one who thought so. They wanted us to translate “The one child policy is one of the most controversial topics in China” which is hard to do when the vocabulary I have learned is all about my dorm room, family titles, or how to use the train… While the written part was horrible, I was more nervous about the oral part. The teacher that “interviewed” me was the advanced level teacher and after the exam she said I should be in Advanced 1(the lowest of the 3 advanced classes). I told her I strongly disagree. My ability is nothing near advanced, but she asked me to try it for a week and then switch down if I wish. I am glad to know that she thinks I can do advanced, but terrified at the same time. After the exam today we had the day free until 6:15. We walked around campus and took some pictures, specifically for this blog and then Lauren, Lucy, Yana, Emily, Mara, Zeke, and I went to Xin Tian Di (pronounced Sheen Tee-an Dee), which is also known as the French Concession. We are quickly getting to know the public transportation system by trial and error. Luckily today we had no errors. The subways are fantastic, fast and air-conditioned. We got right to where we wanted to be and were starving for food of any kind! We had lunch at a great little Chinese restaurant in Xin Tian Di. Again, not disappointed by the food. We walked around the concession before heading back to campus for a nap. Tonight we get to dress up and the program is taking us to an Acrobatics show and then we are going to go out on the town exploring the city.