Golden Week

As the first day of Golden Week approaches its end, I wonder to myself how I manage to still be tired during the holidays. I get my regular 8 hours of sleep a day, I eat well, and exercise on occasion, but I guess Shanghai is just too much of a fast-paced city for me!

Last night, most of the program students left for Guilin, a scenic province 2 hours away by plane. The remainder of the IES students went out for real, American burgers last night! We went to People's Square (basically, downtown Shanghai) and ate at this place called Malone's. The burgers were huge, and everyone was so full and satisfied by the end of the meal, even though the food was expensive (compared to Chinese food here).

Afterwards, we just walked around People's Square and enjoyed the cool weather. These past couple of days, Shanghai has cooled down and it's no longer stuffy or humid! What does that mean for me? No more mosquitoes!!

Today, I went to Qi Pu Road with a bunch of friends, and bought presents for people back at home. Qi Pu Road really sucks the energy out of me though. I have to push through huge crowds, and deal with vendors harassing my American-looking friends. But, I guess it's understandable because everyone is trying to make a living here.

I'm getting ready to head out tonight and go bowling with some friends, so I'll leave this post with a couple of pictures:


My Shanghai Metropolis group in front of the Urban Planning Exhibition Hall


Inside the exhibition


Love for "Gumbi" (aka: the World Expo mascot)


Some classmates from Metropolis class


Somewhere by People's Square, after Malone's

Update on School

Hey everyone,

Sorry my last update was a while ago. I haven't had much time now that school's picked up to do much of anything. Everyday, I always feel pressed for time. For the majority of the week, I have 8 AM classes, and don't finish until around lunch time. After that, I get lunch and then go to my second class. Usually, the second class finishes around 4 PM, so from then until I go to bed, I do various activities...

I will eat dinner (of course), do homework (usually before bed; this takes up a huge chunk of my time), go for a night run, hang out with friends (usually while doing homework, hence, the huge chunk of time for homework), and do laundry. Thinking about everything makes me tired already!

This upcoming week is the national holiday week for China (Golden Week). I thought there was a whole story and history on Golden Week, but I guess all it is is the Chinese government trying to encourage tourism around China. Well, they get it! Mostly everybody in my program is going outside of Shanghai and traveling around China. Originally, I wanted to go to Xi'An (where the Terrecotta soldiers are), or Beijing, but booking tickets was too much of a hassle or they were all so out, so I just decided to stay in Shanghai for the week. Two of my friends are also staying behind. We have been planning various trips and activities to do around Shanghai so we won't be bored while we're here.

We get a whole week off of school, but our program is making us go to school Saturday and Sunday to make up for the days that we're taking off. It's a bit lame, but I guess education comes first, right?

The following pictures are from Mariko's 20th birthday celebration. We went to this really cute cafe/bar where the food was delicious. [[DISCLAIMER]] The last picture is kind of disgusting though. I just wanted to show people how many bug bites I've gotten here. There are actually a lot more over my body, but my leg looked the most gross, so I put a picture up. Enjoy =)


Girls in the dorm lobby


The handsome boys


Our whole group in front of Mao


My bug bite-infested leg =(

Zhou Zhuang--The Venice of China

This past weekend, our program arranged for whomever wanted to take a trip to Zhou Zhuang to stay there for a whole day. Zhou Zhuang is supposedly known as "The Venice of China", where a village resides on a flowing body of water (I'm not sure which body of water it is though). I had a great time, despite the ridiculous humidity and heat. I bought some souveniers, but mostly for friends.

School has been going well. It's hectic, even though we only have most classes once a week. The only exception to that is Chinese class, which we have four times a week. Our teacher, Lilian, is bilingual and fluent in English as well as Chinese. She grades very easily on us as well, compared to the other Chinese teachers. All my friends in the lower level classes complain about how their teachers give them so much and grades really hard. I like our class too--we're really small and condensed, so the pace is set up for all of us.

The other classes I'm taking are: Shanghai Metropolis, Political Economy of China, and Religions of China. They all sound like really interesting subjects, but every professor relies too much on Powerpoint and basically just read off of the slides. It's not something I prefer, but I guess it's understandable, since they aren't native English speakers, and need a tool to help them with lecture.

It's currently 12:30 AM, and I need to get some sleep so I can do well on my Chinese quiz tomorrow morning, so I will leave you with pictures from Zhou Zhuang:


Laverne, me and Jen in Zhou Zhuang


Pretty lilly pads


Caroline (my RA) and I on a bridge


The "ferry"/boat we took to get to the little village. It was literally a boat with wood chairs as seats!


The Venice of China


Our English speaking tour guide. I still couldn't understand what he was saying half the time...


Three of us during lunch


Shen's House? We visited exhibitions of these old houses that existed during the Qing Dynasty


Ann, our student coordinator and I at Shen's House. It was so hot that day, so I bought a fan =)


Caroline, Scott, Wendy and Jen on our boat ride


Me, Abe, Laverne, and Nate on our boat ride


This was our boat rower! He was such a jolly man, he even sang for us!


I think this was at a teahouse, but this girl's playing the pi pa? I'm not sure what instrument this is....

More pictures to come soon!

Hospital Visit

Hey Everyone,

Sorry I haven't been updating the blog lately, but I've been caught up in a whirlwind of things! Happy belated Autumn Festival! We didn't have school yesterday because it was Autumn Festival, and we went to a teahouse to hang out and eat mooncakes.

But, I actually want to rewind a couple of days and talk about what I've been doing. Posted below are pictures of IES (my study abroad program) students as well as Fudan students. Ada and I had planned a big group dinner for her friends and my friends, and we had a wonderful time at this little cafe/restaurant across the street from the international students dorm.

Fast forward a couple of days after that dinner... and we come to Sunday morning. I woke up with hives and rashes all over my body and I thought, "Oh no, not again". I've had this same kind of thing back in the States, and I have no idea what triggered it. I totally forgot to take an allergy test before I left for China, so it was too late. By lunchtime, my whole body felt so heavy and achy because of the hives, and I decided it was serious enough for me to go to the hospital.

My RA, Caroline, went with me to the United Family Hospital of Shanghai, where our insurance is accepted. The place was really nice and clean. It was an enjoyable experience (aside from the hives), and I even got my first IV inserted through my forehand. The IV took about 45 minutes, and Caroline and I were doing homework while I took the IV. Then, we got back to the dorms at around 10:30, and I took Benadryl and slept the whole night.

I woke up the next morning, and my hives were gone. I thought it was okay for me to go out that day, so I decided to go to Qi Pu Road (nicknamed "Cheap Road" for its cheap, but stylish clothing. You have to know how to bargain for it though). I went with Laverne, Jen, Hope and Wendy, and on the metro, I already saw a couple of pocks that would soon turn into another breakout of hives.

I took two doses of Benadryl, but that didn't seem to make it better. It had only stopped spreading, but I was still covered in some hives. It wasn't extreme enough for me not to go to the teahouse, so I went anyway. The rest of the night, the hives just got worse and worse. We finally left the teahouse around 9 PM and I went to bed after doing homework once we'd gotten back.

I had been planning on going to the hospital again this morning, to get another dose of IV. But, when I woke up this morning, my hives were gone. I'm still taking Benadryl though. To this point, I still don't know what I'm allergic to, but I think it could have been a new brand of soap I bought at Wal-Mart here. It was a P&G brand, but maybe I'm allergic to some sort of ingredient in there. I have switched back to Dove soap, and hopefully, this won't happen again.

Thanks, everyone, for all your concern. It's a bit hard dealing with this when I'm not at home, but it will only make me stronger and more independent. I leave you now with these pictures:


Having dinner with Ada and her friends


Judy, Wendy, Jen, and Laverne


Jen D., Mariko, sad Abe, Christina


Michele, Jess, Ada, me


Mariko mesmerized by Abe's new tat


My favorite picture ever, haha. Dance party!


A night out with some of the girls


I loved the music this DJ played!


When we left the club, there was a gorgeous Lamborghini parked outside


Beautiful rims!


Sooo pretty!


Abe falling asleep at the diner!


The girls before Qi Pu Road, pigging out on McDonald's


Turtle Dragon?!


Elephant!


Some of the IES boys at Yu Garden


At the teahouse (this place existed during the Qing Dynasty!)

With Good Comes Bad

The theme of my entry today is "with good comes bad". Why? Well, as much fun as I am having being in China, there are some downs that I've encountered so far.

These past couple of days, I have been having problems with eating the food. Normal Chinese food has made me feel sick lately... but it's not like I've been throwing up or anything, so I guess that's good. I guess my stomach and my immune system are both still trying to adapt to my new environment.

The second problem I've been having with is my "new bike". I bought a bike with 6 other classmates the other day off a street vendor (big mistake). We all knew that the bikes weren't of very good quality, but we decided to buy them anyway because they were cheap, and we're only going to be here for 4 months anyway, right? Well, after we haggled for 3 hours for 7 bikes, and then waited another hour for them to put the bikes together and make sure everything was okay, the owner said we could all come back to his stand if we had any problems with the bike. On the first day, Marcus's chain broke, and his pedals fell off. On the second day, my chain broke, and Laverne and Abe's pedal fell off. We went back to the guy, and his stand was gone!

We asked around, and found out that he had "skipped town", basically. I was so angry that we got taken advantaged of, but there was nothing we could really do.

After class today, I saw a street vendor who looked like one of the guys who helped the bike vendor. I walked up to him and started asking him questions about the bike vendor. He kept denying that he helped sell any bikes, and then he finally admitted to it. I was so angry and I wouldn't stop harassing him (not very mature, I know... but I was REALLY angry). He told me his "boss" went to another school to sell bikes. But, there was basically nothing I could do, so my friends and I left.

Although being in China has been a fairly great experience so far, I've learned that locals tend to take advantage of foreigners... so lesson #1: Try not to look like or act like a foreigner!

This was just one long rant, so I'm going to leave this post with some pictures of karaoke night, and group field trip to People's Square:


Marcus; this is just a taste of the craziness within each other we have to endure


Jen and I are matching! (Kind of)


Before karaoke


Karaoke! SO cheap! Equivalent of $1.80 per person for all you can sing until 6 AM!


Some friends...


Judo Hello Kitty outside the karaoke bar


Visiting Ona's high school... in front of a rock that Mao carved


View from Ona's high school--in the middle of the financial district. This picture reminds me of an AT&T commercial (raising the bar)


Ona's high school


Shanghai City Council


We went to a tourist place where all the shops are shaped like temples


With moon festival characters


Eating soup buns! These weren't as good as the xiao long bao though...

I will be updating with more pictures soon! Stay tuned!