Smooth Landing

I'm here!

After a grueling farewell to my family and friends (that might have consisted of a tear or two) and a cramped 12 hour flight, I landed at Pudong Airport in Shanghai.

We were picked up by Laverne's family acquiantance and taken to the Crowne Plaza across from Fudan University. We spent the night there since we couldn't check in to the school until Sunday. The hotel had an AMAZING breakfast buffet (I didn't get any pictures of that though).

After we dropped our stuff off at the hotel, we went to the main street that had shopping malls and food so we could eat. Because this was our first time all by ourselves, we didn't know where to go... so we ended up going to a shopping mall and eating at KFC (don't get mad at me, mommy!).

Then, we went to Watson's (this convenience store that has everything for women's needs) to buy some shampoo and lotion to bring back to the hotel.

By 9PM, we were both pooped out and decided to go back to the hotel. We tried to stay up as late as we could and Skyped our parents, then went to bed.

Early Sunday morning (and I do mean early), I woke up around 5AM and couldn't go back to sleep, so I woke up and hung around the room until it was time for breakfast (6:30AM). The breakfast was so amazing! It was the largest and most delicious breakfast I've ever had! But it was kind of weird mixing Westernized and Easternized breakfast together... haha.

We decided to go straight to the school after that, so we gathered our stuff and checked out of the hotel. Once we got to school, we checked into our dorms (see pictures of my dorm below) and started to unpack. The whole process took about an hour and half, but we needed to buy a lot of stuff for the rooms. We went to Wal-Mart, but I had to leave since my mom's friend took me to the bank to open up an account at Bank of China.

Later that night, we had dinner with everyone from the IES program and went to a market to buy toilet paper, water, and other essentials. There's still a long list of things I have yet to purchase, but so far, I can still live off of what I have =)

On a random side note--China's roads are scarier and more indimidating than Taiwan's! Sitting in the taxi was so nerve wracking! Walking on the roads as a pedestrian feels even more scary... living in America, we value personal space; but there is none of that in China. You either get out of the way, or you get hit. It's scary, but I'm trying to get used to it. There's so much honking around here as well. The drivers here don't honk as an act of rage, but do so to warn others to get out of the way. I guess it's kind of the same way in Taiwan, but when you're living in a room that faces the streets, it's pretty annoying to hear honks at all times of the day!

I woke up around 5AM again this morning, and decided to update my blog and share some pictures. I have to go downstairs in about an hour to get orientation week started. They have the whole week filled up for us, and I hardly have any time to myself... but I'll try to update as much as I can! Hope you all enjoy the pictures.


Our beds at the hotel were SO comfortable


As we were unpacking...


Pretty computer chair


Outside a shopping mall


The district with all the shopping malls near Fudan


Paris Baguette in one of the malls! This is for my friend, Tammy, whose brother manages a Paris Baguette in Santa Clara


The view from our hotel room


Hotel lobby


My bed in the dorm


My closet


TV


The balcony outside my room


The view from my room


My desk


View from the front door of my room

REAL Packing Woes

Countdown: 3 more days...

Wow, it's happening so quickly!! I'm not even done with summer school and I have to leave already. Summer school is a bit stressful at this point--we have a huge group project due for English up to the day we leave, another project for Finance and I have to take my Finance final a day before I leave =(. I hardly had time to pack today!

Everything is so crammed in, and I feel guilty for not leaving a bit more time to see my friends before I go. I'm sorry, guys! I'll make it up to you by bringing you goodies when I come home =)

I have already finished packing all of my clothes, and am getting together miscellaneous items in this one big luggage. Clothes took forever. I had to take out a bunch of clothes in order to fit everything in one luggage =(. It was so hard to decide which ones had to stay and which ones had to go. Shoes were like that too... I'm still not done packing yet, so I might have to take out even more things *tears*. I don't believe in surviving on the bare minimum! I need all my stuff to create variety!

Other than packing, I guess I should talk about leaving in general. I'm really scared that I'll start to cry at the airport when my mom and whole family comes to see me off. I'm going to miss my mommy... I hope she'll be okay while I'm gone. Sometimes, I still feel insecure when she's alone by herself because I don't want her to be lonely. That's the whole reason I stayed at home for college. But, I chose to go to China thinking my dad would be home by the time I left, but he's still in Taiwan. Hopefully, he'll be back to spend time with my mom before I get back.

Speaking of Taiwan, I just found out that our program is taking us on a field trip to Taiwan at the end of October! I'm so psyched for that! I get to see my family =)

Well, I should be studying for my final right about now. The next time I blog will probably be in Shanghai!