-(ad)venturing abroad-

I Left My Heart in Shanghai

2008-12-23T19:51:00.000-08:00

I've been home for a good two days now, and I can't help but feel nostalgic and depressed. Of course I'm glad to be home and am enjoying the comforts of being at home... but I miss my friends and the connections I made back in Shanghai. Before I left for Shanghai, I never imagined I'd meet such a great group of people. The first week was full of awkwardness and silence between everyone. Little did I know, I would make life-long bonds with the other 25 students who journeyed with me to China. But, enough of that! I promised myself I would stop being sad... and it's time for me to do a little reflection on my whole experience in Shanghai!

Friends

I lived in a shell before I decided to go study abroad. I was hardly social since I spent most of my time with my ex-boyfriend and his group of friends. I didn’t live on campus for college; an integral part of college life. I think I was always in the mindset that I’d get in college and graduate in three years… trying to cram so hard that socializing never crossed my mind. Living the dorm life gave me a taste of what college could have been had I decided to go somewhere else for school, or had I decided to spend an extra $10,000 on housing for a school 10 minutes away from where I lived (yeah, right). But, it was so convenient to just have your friends a couple of rooms down, or a couple of floors apart. Walk a couple of steps, and you could knock on your neighbor’s door to see if they wanted to get lunch or dinner.

It was also nice being able to bond with these people these past couple of months. If we ever needed each other for anything, we were only a phone call or a knock away. I think being in a foreign country with a bunch of kids like yourself really gives you that extra boost of energy. We were always looking out for each other—whether it was making sure everyone was eating right, or taking each other to the hospital when we were sick, or making sure we weren’t dead after a night of hard-clubbing.

I’ve made connections with people that will never be severed. Saying good-bye to everyone when we were all leaving was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do in my life. I have never cried so much in such a short span of time! It was like a dominoes effect—one by one, we walked each departure out, and one by one, we would all start to bawl. It just goes to show how deep our relationships with each other are. I can truly say that I’ve made lifelong friendships during this trip, and I am so glad that I got the chance to meet such wonderful people.

Lifestyle in Shanghai

Living in China is so different than living in the States (duh). I kind of expected it to be like life in Taiwan, but it was different from that as well! Adjusting to life there was a bit hard at first, and I don’t think it got any easier as we moved forward during the semester. Having my own room was definitely a plus, because I got my own privacy and space. I felt a lot of freedom, being able to do whatever I wanted to do in my own room, and I cleaned it more often than I clean my own room at home!

Eating was one of the hardest parts. Although there are delicious foods in Shanghai, my stomach (and my skin!) had trouble adjusting to oily Chinese foods. Even though it got progressively better throughout the semester, there would be times where I’d break out in a massive stomach-ache and had to make mad bathroom runs. I’m so glad to be going home and finally eating foods that I’m used to, especially SALAD (this doesn’t seem to exist in China). But, I’m going to miss the accessibility of street food and the cheap prices of xiao long baos or shen jien baos!

Currently, Shanghai is remodeling itself to prepare for the 2010 Expo, so the city is a hot mess! The roads are full of construction, and there are fences everywhere, blocking off random parts of the road. It seemed to get progressively worse as the semester went on. As if traffic wasn’t bad enough… every time I got in a cab, I would see new bumps in the road and would sigh at the deafening construction drilling right below our international dorm. I hope Shanghai will be cleaned up for the Expo, and be as pretty as Beijing was when it remodeled itself for the Olympics (although, Beijing was a bit creepy because nobody would be out on the roads past 10 PM). I look forward to seeing the differences pre-and post-Expo.

One thing I’m not going to miss is taking cabs. It’s so hard to live in the city and not be able to drive yourself. Of course, I don’t think I would ever drive myself if I lived somewhere like Shanghai. Public transportation was something different, and I really enjoyed taking those long subway rides to get to places as far as Pudong. However, I missed driving, and I missed having the freedom to go anywhere I want, anytime I want. Plus, I always felt like I was getting ripped off when I sat in cabs—especially during the first few months we got there and we had no idea where to get anywhere!

I will also not miss the occasional rude Shanghai people. I think most Shanghai people are just inherently rude. They don’t even realize it because they’re just so numb to their lifestyle. Crowds are the worst, people bump into you really hardly and there is no such thing as personal space! I always hated going into non-upscale stores because the customer service was always terrible. When I go to Watson’s, and it takes forever for me to find something, I always have to ask around. The service people are always rude and look at you like you’re an idiot when you ask them where something is. They’re not really helpful either—when I ask where something is, they make no eye contact whatsoever and just point in the general direction. When you ask again, they do the same thing. Oh, but sometimes, customer service is just too much! I hated it when people would follow me around in stores, suggesting which clothes would look good on me. Again, personal space issues. And the staring? Yes, I'm foreign! Stop staring at me! It wasn't as bad for me as it was for my friends who actually look foreign, but whenever I would speak in Chinese, the natives could tell I wasn't from around there.

I won’t miss being pick-pocketed. That was the worst! Being in a crowded place like Qi Pu Lu seemed exciting and fun the first two times, but it just got draining after that. But, I learned my lesson with that fiasco— don’t take all your things out with you when you’re going to someplace like that, especially in Asia. Going through with reporting my stolen passport, credit cards, etc… and having to replace my passport as well as my visa was way too much of a hassle. I never want to have to go through that again! But hey, at least now, I know the Shanghai metro system very well! I even had a bit of trouble getting through customs back in the States, but they let me through after questioning me for a while.

Shanghai

I will definitely miss Shanghai, the city. It sucks that I won't be able to hop on the metro and within half an hour's time, I'll be on the other side of the city (Pudong), looking at the skyline. I will miss the street food that comforts our stomach when we're in desperate need of something to fill our stomachs at 12 AM in the morning. I will miss my Chinese teacher, and the IES staff who worked so hard to accommodate our needs. I will miss walking around in the city (because back at home, no one walks anymore... we're too reliant on cars!) and seeing strange sights like people getting into fist-fights or children peeing on the streets. I've had a great experience abroad, and despite some hiccups during my trip, I will never, ever regret going to China! In the end, it's about the memories that I made... and oh boy, have I made memories! =) These memories can only be captured through pictures--and lots of them!

Great view and great friends

Watching Lucho and Taylor's soccer match against each other

Happy birthday, Michele!

Eli and I at the Thanksgiving dinner

Chinese 401 girls <3

The whole IES crew + parents at the Thanksgiving dinner

Eating dinner and drinking at Yu Hai's house... and watching him whistle! That man can carry a tune pretty well

A group of us with our homestay girls, Jojo and Summer

Us inside the Jin Mao tower

Happy birthday, Joe!! We love you!

Laverne, Jess, me, Mariko and Saitavius at Bon Bon

Jen, Laverne, Saitavius, Lisa and I at the Christmas party

Phil and Abe at the Christmas party in the IES office

Laverne, Saitavius, Jen and Hope at the IES Christmas party

Hope, Wendy, Sarah, Laverne, me and Jen before a night out

The girls at Jean-something's for dinner

We were lucky enough to be escorted by these handsome men =)

In front of the Christmas tree at the restaurant

Eli and I in front of the Bund

Girls at the Korean bar, celebrating Abe's 22nd!

Happy birthday, buddy!

Jess, Michele, me, Mariko and Laverne at the graduation dinner

Me, Jess and Cao Laoshi at the graduation dinner (isn't our teacher beautiful??)

Matt, Phil, Eli and Joe making a thank-you speech

The girls saying good-bye to Matty as he departs for Mumbai =(. You can probably tell that we'd been crying (not just for Matt, but for everyone who left that day)

Scott, Wendy, Laverne and Derek at Hard Rock Cafe... our last dinner together in Shanghai =(

Hope, Taylor, me and Scott at Hard Rock

Scott, Laverne, Derek and I at the Pudong airport

These guys went to Hong Kong and Macao for three days, while Laverne and I went home

Laverne and I at the airport... this was the last picture I took in Shanghai =(

I will always remember Shanghai, and I look forward to attending the 2010 Expo in two years (just about)! Thanks for the great memories, guys... I love you all!

Goodbye Shanghai

2008-12-20T07:20:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I'm leaving Shanghai in almost 12 hour's time. I haven't been very good about keeping up with my blogging because the last month in Shanghai was full of work (and fun, of course).

I wanted to do a reflection entry, but I realized that I want to spend my last hours here with the friends who haven't left yet.

I promise I will make a reflection entry once I get back home. Stay tuned.

-Claudia

Getting Pickpocketed & Going to Beijing

2008-11-24T17:49:00.000-08:00

Well, the title says it all. The day I left for Beijing, I went shopping for some nice, warm, Winter clothes at QiPu Road (this overcrowded building with tons of clothing stands). I had just exchanged US$300 for shopping and my trip to Beijing, and had around 2,000RMB in my wallet. I knew I should have taken some money out and left it in my room, but I was in such a hurry that day because we were on such a time crunch that I didn't bother. Silly me, thinking that my wallet would be safe in my hoodie pocket because I would keep my hands on it at all times. I stopped to look at something with Laverne and Mariko and took my hands out. We proceeded to walk a couple of steps and once we stepped out of a crowded aisle of people, I reached into my pocket and realized my wallet was missing.

I freaked out and told Laverne and Mariko. I hadn't even thought about my passport until Mariko asked where it was. Double whammy... I'd put my passport inside my wallet. D'oh! We stayed in the building for a good 15 minutes until I could figure out what to do. We went back and forth the aisles, hoping that I'd just dropped it. But, it was impossible to find because 1.) there were just too many people there, and 2.) I'd definitely been pickpocketed.

I called our program admin, and she had me call the American Consulate. From there, I went back to school to report it to our campus police. But, I had to go back to QiPu Road because the campus police said I had to go back to the "scene of the crime". Long story short, I ended up having to go to three different police stations, telling my story three times. But, I finally got my police report and headed to the train station with Laverne to go to Beijing. I needed an official police report in order to prove my passport was stolen to the Exit/Entry Bureau. Then, I have to go to the U.S. Consulate in Shanghai to apply for a new passport.

I was worried that I couldn't go to Beijing because I needed my passport in order to stay at the hostel we booked in Beijing. But, there were 17 of us going, so it was really easy for me to sneak in. The hostel we stayed at was so nice! I wish I'd taken pictures of it, but we were only there for two days, and those two days were jam packed with activities.

We went to Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, ate Peking Roast Duck, ate on a street full of weird food (my friends ate small scorpions, big scorpions, silk worms, snake meat, cockroaches). The only thing I dared to eat was a starfish!

I really enjoyed my time in Beijing. I think my two most favorite sights were the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. To be in a place that was constructed thousands of years ago was absolutely breathtaking. I couldn't believe I actually walked up that thing (believe me, it was tiring) and trekked a good part of it. We spent a good two and half to three hours just walking up there. But, we didn't have the energy or time to walk down, so we took a gondola down.

The Forbidden City was also breathtaking, just because of the sheer size of it... I think it would have taken me a good 10 hours to actually walk through the whole thing and observe every little room and detail. There were so many people visiting the Forbidden City when we went, so I didn't bother pushing my way through the crowds to look at every hall, but I snapped a couple of pictures of the halls that I thought were cool.

We also had Peking roast duck in Beijing! It was delicious! I tried duck heart and duck tongue (not a fan, but it was all right). Overall, I wish we could have stayed in Beijing for more than just one weekend, but our program doesn't give us many days off. We wanted to plan a trip to Xi'An to see the Terracotta Army, but I don't think we'll have much time left =(. Perhaps, my next visit to China will allow me more time to see different things.

Well, I think that's enough narration--here are some pictures:

Laverne came with me to three police stations to file a report for my lost passport and wallet in order for me to apply for a new passport. We're sitting inside a police car in this picture, haha.

Me, Laverne, Jen D., and Lisa eating lunch in Beijing

Me, Sarah, Laverne and Wendy on a bridge, in a garden, on our way to Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Square

Matt, Eli and Joe

Lisa, Me, Laverne and Sarah

Soldiers marching about

Me with a soldier =)

Monumental statue

Trekking up the Great Wall!

Beautiful view from the Great Wall

Me on the Great Wall

Eli and me

The West coast kids! Scott, Tina, Abe and me

East coast kids (boo!): Joe, Wendy, Luis, Jen D., Derek, Eli

The Forbidden City

The longest stone carving in the Forbidden City

One of the courtyards in the Forbidden City

Silly friends making a pyramid in the middle of the Forbidden City

Eating Peking roast duck! It was delicious

The group of us and Wendy's relative

Posing in front of Chairman Mao's words

At the Olympic stadium. We got there too late, and all the lights were shut off, except for these buildings, which are supposed to look like a diving board

Even though the lights were turned off, we managed to had a great time... we played freeze tag, capture the flag and red rover (in FREEZING temperatures)

We went back again the next morning to actually go inside the Bird's Nest

Me in front of the Bird's Nest

Sarah, Lisa, Wendy, Jen D., Laverne and I inside the National Stadium with the Olympic mascots

37 Days Left in Shanghai

2008-11-13T04:28:00.000-08:00

The title of this post makes me a bit sad. I can't believe I've been in Shanghai for that long! Thanksgiving is in exactly two weeks, and the weekend before Thanksgiving, a big group of us are going to Beijing--something I'm really excited about.

Shanghai has been getting really cold. I had to buy a big jacket the other day because I only brought one pea coat. Originally, I had packed a lot of sweaters and thick clothing, but my luggage was too heavy, so I threw some things out. I really regret doing that because I actually need those clothes now! It's okay... buying cheap clothes here works for me too =)

I have to register for my Winter classes tonight. I am planning on overloading this next quarter again... but one of my classes has already filled up, so I am hoping to get wait-listed. If I take my 24 units this quarter, I can take it easy with 20 units my last quarter at SCU. I am planning on graduating a year early, but am still unsure of my plans after graduation. I should probably start looking into different career options.

Studying abroad has made me realize how much of the world I still haven't seen. I used to think that I would always stay in California and the Silicon Valley area for work and raising a family. But, I think I should travel to different places while I'm young. I wouldn't mind going to the East Coast or somewhere outside of California to work for a couple of years. But, it all just depends on what options are viable for me. If I can't find anything to do after graduation, should I declare a second major? Thinking about this gets me so frustrated! I'll probably have to take more time to consider my future plans...

The following pictures were taken a couple of days ago, when a bunch of us just randomly decided to go to Hooter's in Pudong and just walk around the Bund. Enjoy =)

Jess, Laverne and I in Pudong

Us in front of the Pearl Tower

The Shanghai Financial Tower and Jin Mao Tower in Pudong

The gang at Hooter's

The gang staring off into the Bund

IES Love <3

Reppin' the TW again =)

The girls taking a leap together

Taylor and Eli hopping like frogs

Back to the Motherland

2008-11-09T03:41:00.000-08:00

Today, I came back to Shanghai after a whole week in Taipei. The best part of the whole trip was being able to see my family almost everyday and hanging out with them as if I'd never been gone. I'm really sad to go, but I enjoyed the time I had with them!

The whole week we were in Taipei, we went to lectures everyday and an excursion trip after every class. The whole week was educating, but I wish we had more time to explore the city in groups. However, I did manage to learn a lot about Taiwan's history, economy, politics, religion and lifestyle than I had known from previous knowledge.

Our program signed us up to stay at the Holiday Inn near Mao Kong, Mu Zha in Taipei. It was such a nice hotel! We slept three to a room, and I roomed with Laverne and Wendy. The beds were so comfortable that I wish we could have brought the mattresses back to our hard-wood Fudan dorm beds.

My family is doing well, and I got to see my Dad! I also got to see my aunt from the States, which was pretty cool because she'd set up her vacation trip so that we could meet in Taiwan (see pictures below).

I think the whole group consensus of Taiwan was that the societal behavior, culture and people are a whole lot nicer than that of Shanghai's. I couldn't agree more. I don't think I ever seriously made a comparison between Shanghai and Taiwan before, just because I had lived in Taipei and I know that it's my favorite place in the whole wide world. But, ever since living in Shanghai and experiencing the lifestyle of a Chinese person, then going back to Taipei, I saw a visible difference between the two societies. People in Taipei are generally more polite and nicer than people of Shanghai. Taipei is also cleaner (subway systems, buses, the streets, other miscellaneous shops). My friends say that Taipei as a whole, is more Westernized than Shanghai... but this is one trait that I couldn't really see. I guess it's because I have family in Taiwan, and they aren't very Westernized.

But, now, it's back to life in Shanghai. I have 43 days left here before I go back to the States... it makes me really sad to have to leave my friends and experience here, but a part of me can't wait to go home for the holidays. For now, I'll just have to dream about a California winter (it's getting REALLY cold in Shanghai!)... and snuggle up in my blankets! Enjoy my pictures from Taiwan.

Lucho, Phil and I eating lunch in the food court of a mall (delicious-ness!)

Jess, Laverne and I reppin' the TW!

My cousin Cathy's cat, Da Lu To (Big Lotto)

My cousin (Barbie) and I. She's morbidly obese =/

English class at an elementary school near Cheng Chi University

Eli, Abe and Scott at the middle school near Cheng Chi University

Me with my aunt Man Lan in Taipei, eating Shabu Shabu

Walking up the stairs to the National Palace Museum (Gu Gong Museum). It was SO hot that day

Eating at a small eatery that Laverne's aunt took us to

View from the 89th floor of the Taipei 101 at night (much more beautiful at night than during the daytime)

Laverne, me and Wendy on top of the 101

The 101 at night

Laverne, Michele and I at a lecture

My cousin, Cathy and I eating at Mo Mo Paradise

Hanging out at Babe after watching 007: Quantum of Solace

Cheers!

At Jing Gua Shi (a former gold mine)

Dinner with Eli and my family the night before I went back to Shanghai

Me and my Daddy =)

Leaving for Taiwan!

2008-10-31T01:12:00.001-07:00

Hey Everyone!

In twelve hour's time, I will be waking up to go to the airport and leaving for Taiwan for a week! Our program planned a whole week for us to be at Cheng Chi University (my uncle's alma mater!).

I'm super excited to see my family, especially my Dad! I should have internet at the hotel we're staying at, so I will post pictures when I have time. I leave you now with pictures from last week's evening events =). Enjoy.

Me and Wendy in the dorm lobby before a night out

Me and Michele at the Shelter

Jess, Sarah, Laverne and I in the lobby before going on the Halloween cruise

IES friends on the boat cruise

Happy birthday, Phil!!!!

Time to Catch My Breath

2008-10-24T01:20:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone!

It's been 10 days since I've last updated. So much has happened within the course of this week and half that I haven't had time to post a new blog with pictures.

Not much has been happening except school work! We've been assigned so many papers in each class that I don't even have time to catch my breath. I've been trying hard to allocate my time amongst each subject, but it just seems like a waste of time because I always end up finishing my papers last minute =P

Since my last update, I've gone to the Shanghai Museum. It had some great stuff, and I really enjoyed my time looking at all the artifacts and calligraphy.

The second most important thing to update is the Wang Lee Hom concert! Laverne and I had bought 360RMB tickets to watch him at the Shanghai Stadium. I wish I'd listened to more of his new songs because I didn't really know a lot of the songs, but I still had a great time.

I'm posting a bunch of pictures up from the last 10 days. Some of them are random and silly =P. Enjoy.

Abe, Eli, Laverne, Phil and Marcus at the Bund

The Bund during the day

Michele and I playing Wii at Jess's godparent's house

Jess's godparent's dog, Yo Yo!

Shanghai Museum

Bodhisattva

Ancient Chinese calligraphy

My Chinese teacher, Cao Laoshi with Chinese face masks

Me, Wendy, Cao Laoshi and Laverne at the museum

Me, Laverne and Jen

Sillies hanging out =)

Laverne and I on our way to the Wang Lee Hom concert

Shanghai Stadium

Wang Lee Hom on the violin!

Hope, Jess, Michele and I at a club

Being silly girls =)

Jade Buddha Temple & School Visits

2008-10-14T10:49:00.000-07:00

Hi Readers!

It's been a while since I've written something meaningful because I've still been pretty busy. It's kind of hard maintaining a blog when you're hardly ever in your room!

I've taken a few field trips since my last entry. On Saturday, my Religion class took a field trip to the Jade Buddha Temple. It was kind of nice being in a familiar setting because my Grandma is a Buddhist and she'd used to take me to temples all the time when I was younger. At the temple, I'd started taking pictures of the Buddhist statues, and then these elderly ladies came up to me and said that it's not good for me if I take pictures of the idols. Apparently, I would be disturbing the statues, so I stopped taking pictures (I am posting what I have though).

On Monday, my Shanghai Metropolis class took a field trip to two schools in the Shanghai district. The first school we went to was an elementary farmer's migrant school. This is an elementary school that exists for the sole purpose of educating migrant farm workers' children. Because their parents moved to Shanghai for work, they cannot enroll into regular Shanghai schools (China has a complicated resident registration system that I still don't understand). These children come from all over China, and have different backgrounds of education. We were lucky enough to sit down with a lot of them and just talk to them for a bit. I wish we'd stayed longer because the children were adorable! This visit made me revisit my dreams of teaching. I love being around energetic kids. I feel like the best occupation in the world is to nourish young minds. It's always been my ambition to become a teacher... but we'll see where that takes me =)

After the elementary school, we headed to a high school that was right down the street from our dorms. Fu Xin High School is a "key" school in Shanghai. This basically means that it's very competitive and hard to get in. Think of it like the Harvard of Shanghai high schools. The facilities on that campus was so nice! I couldn't believe I was at a high school. The students were all very intelligent, ambitious and hard-working as well. It was incredible to see the differences between the education systems in China and in the States. I feel like most Chinese students that are already enrolled in schools are a lot more ambitious than students back in the States. Maybe it's because back in the States, we don't have to take enrollment tests to get into middle schools or high schools. Either way, China's education system is a lot harder than American's education system.

I will be having more field trips coming up soon, so look out for a new entry in the future!

An incense burner. After you're done praying to the idols with your incense, you put your incense in here.

Going into the front yard of the temple

I forget which idol this was

Don't know these two either... there are way too many idols in Buddhism

Mi Le Fo (I nickname him the Happy Buddha)

Instrument god and god of dance?

Guan Yin Pu Sa (Guan Yin Bodisattva)

Going out for Jessica's birthday party (I know this picture is randomly in between my two field trips =P)

The students at the migrant school, curious about their visitors =)

Reciting their textbooks for us

Posing for pictures with us =)

I had brought some candy my mom mailed me from the States, but I didn't have enough to hand out to everybody =(. There are over one thousand students enrolled at this school!

Scott and Lisa posing with the kids

This little girl is so smart and cute! She sang a song for me and Sarah and we looked at her English homework because she had such beautiful handwriting. She's definitely going somewhere in life.

They're playing a game

Fu Xin High School (down the street from our international student dorm)

Their swimming facility. Their whole school was so clean and pretty--one of the best high schools I've seen in Asia

Their track

Our tour guide and MC. He was so nervous, but he did such ab awesome job!

Back To School...

2008-10-09T21:35:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't updated in a while!

Golden Week was Lazy Week for me, I hung around Shanghai and I had the best time relaxing. See pictures below:

Climbing this abstract structure near the Science & Technology Museum

LOVE! Like the signs in San Francisco

Fireworks at Century Park (second best fireworks show I've seen... trailing behind the Taipei 101 New Year's fireworks)

Me, Sarah, Scott and Mariko on the subway

Hanging out at the Shanghai Aquarium

Leopard Sting Ray

I forgot what they're called... but they're not iguanas

Nemo!!!!

Giant Turtle

Big shark, swimming over us

All of our Chinese teachers hanging out at the office

I should have more pictures coming soon!

Golden Week

2008-09-29T04:42:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-26T10:27:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-22T09:10:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-14T18:56:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-11T00:58:00.000-07:00

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!

Scavenger Hunt & The Bund

2008-09-06T20:00:00.000-07:00

Warning: Picture heavy post!

The scavenger hunt was pretty interesting. Our group decided to hop on a random bus, get off at a random stop, and just get lost in Shanghai. We ended up going to Wu Jiao Chan and walked around a bunch of department stores before finally deciding to go to the Metro Station to get a piece of our scavenger hunt. After that, we went to People's Square and the financial district of Shanghai to take some pictures. But, it was raining, so we didn't want to stay there long.

We watched an acrobats show after the scavenger hunt, and that was also pretty cool. It was so modern and beautiful. The only thing I had to complain was the "professional" photography that fans could take with the motorcycle team after the show. They failed to mention each picture taken was 100 yuan, so some of my friends and I had to pay for a stupid, crappy picture.

The day after the scavenger hunt, Wendy took Laverne, Abraham and I to Qui Pu Road, where all the cheap shopping is. It was ridiculously hot and stuffy in there. I had a good time bargaining with shopkeepers, even though I still feel like I lost on my end most of the time. One of my goals in Shanghai is to become a better bargainer!

I've posted pictures below. I'll narrate the whole post through captions...

During the scavenger hunt, one of our goals was to bargain with a shopkeeper. Abe here is bargaining for umbrellas

The four of us (me, Michael, Nate, and Abe) with our new umbrellas! Note Abe's pink, frilly umbrella

We took a picture with the front gate security guards... they were pretty excited when we asked to take a picture with them =)

We were supposed to line up in order of time zones... so Chairman Mao is in the first time zone, then Nate, who lives in Texas, then the three of us live in California

Cool looking float of the Olympic mascots and imitation Gumbi...

Crocs are really popular in China, this lady was wearing pink ones. The other day, I saw a guy wearing all white clothes and pink Crocs (it confused me...)

Street food vendor

After the scavenger hunt, we went to an acrobats show. We shopped around before actually watching the show

In front of Blue Frog--a food chain that's pretty popular in China

Before the show...

The Bund

Laverne and I in our rickshaw. It was our first times, and it was pretty much what I expected--scary, dangerous, but fun!

Wendy, Laverne, Abe and I behind a "Shanghai Landmark" (we're close to The Bund)

Awesome Puma ad with Olympic athletes

The Old Town part of The Bund (it was sooo crowded there!)

The Pearl Tower

A view of The Bund (BEAUTIFUL!)

Beautiful background

Dirty water... polluted with trash (and possibly other things)

Ferries going across The Bund

Pretty girls before a night out!

Homesick?

2008-09-04T08:22:00.000-07:00

Today, I felt a bit homesick. The first three days here were so adventurous and full of excitement, but that feeling wore off today as soon as I started feeling sick.

I don't know if it's the breakfast I ate this morning, or if it's because I didn't each lunch and dinner (because I was already feeling sick), and had 2 coffees and 2 teas during our social mixer. Either way, I feel a bit like crap right now, and want to plop down on my bed and go to sleep.

I tried sleeping it off this afternoon, around 3 PM, but I had a lot on my mind and the traffic outside my window didn't really help either (there's so much honking downstairs... it's ridiculous). Plus, there's a middle school or high school next to our dorms, and I can hear the school bells go off once every half hour. It's 11:30 PM right now, and I just heard another bell go off (confused face).

I talked to my Mommy just now, and I told her how I was feeling, and she got worried. Now I know I shouldn't tell her these things haha, so she won't worry about me. Poor Mommy... I'm worried about her all by herself!

Anyway, tomorrow is our scavenger hunt. IES is going to drop us off in groups somewhere in Shanghai, and I guess we have to find our way back to the school? I'm not really sure what's going to happen, but I guess we'll see! I will leave you now with these pictures...

The cool table during faculty banquet last night

Some of the IES girls :)

Michelle & Wendy

At the Fudan mixer tonight--It also happened to be Taylor's birthday

Ava (a Fudan student I met tonight) and I at the mixer

Some other Fudan students we met at the mixer tonight. These kids are ridiculously intelligent!

Mosquito Bites Galore

2008-09-03T01:46:00.000-07:00

This is my fourth and a half day here in Shanghai, and I've already been bitten by mosquitoes and bugs about 6 times. The mosquitoes/bugs in China are different than Taiwan's... in Taiwan, when I get bitten, the bite leaves a small pock with small inflammation. In China, each big is about an inch and half in width and height, and the whole bite swells up with the core hard and itchy. I wore jeans today to avoid scratching my legs and leaving scars, but it was so hard to resist!

Yesterday, the whole day was filled with orientation stuff. I don't even remember what we did, because it just felt like a blur. But, at night, we ate dumplings with our Chinese language teachers. I placed in Advanced Chinese, but I don't feel like I belong there. I can speak the language, but I have difficulty reading and writing. Our teacher is so sweet though, and I think she will definitely go easy on us, since most of us don't have much experience reading or writing Han Yu.

I do recall today, however... this morning, we woke up early to go to more orientation things. I feel like the whole week, the orientation is just repeating what has already been said: don't talk about touchy topics with the Chinese, don't drink too much, stay healthy, and call your parents. Everything else is just a deviation of those topics.

Tonight, we have a banquet with the whole faculty... so I should be taking some pictures. Stay tuned!

One of the cafeterias on campus

The tallest building on campus (nicknamed the twin towers); Guang Hua Building

This is for you, Steven!!!!! Millions (or what seems like millions) of bikes on campus

Cute little kitty outside our dorm playing with a bike... there are a bunch of stray cats on campus

Condom machine?! It seemed funny, but China (like most countries) is facing AIDS problems

Strong Man brand, haha

Our student coordinator, Ann, with the Director of our program, Li Laoxi, performing a skit about alcohol and what it could do to you when you're taking a cab home drunk. Hilarious

Dinner (dumplings) with our Chinese teachers! This is my class; level 401 (Advanced Chinese). There are only 5 of us, and most of us don't know how to read or write Chinese well... haha. We just know how to speak the language!

Activity at night... my group's awesome poster!

Walking to orientation... we saw a cute little puppy! Its teeth were fully exposed... so I was kind of scared it would bite me. But, it was super sweet!

Picture with the Chairman again (except, with a bigger group)! The guy taking the picture didn't realize we wanted the Chairman in the picture...

...so I told him to take another one.

Orientation Day 1

2008-09-01T16:06:00.000-07:00

So yesterday, we went on a campus tour. Fudan is gigantic, compared to SCU! I was so tired after walking around campus all day! I think I might have to buy a bike to ride around campus to get to my classes this semester... but I hear a lot of bikes get stolen if they aren't locked properly.

During our tour, my group went to eat at this xiao long bao place, which was delicious! We went and toured on the outskirts of the school as well, so we knew where each convenience store or restaurant was. I wasn't paying very much attention, because I stopped trying to figure out where we were half the time. I'm going to need a map everyday to take me to class!

After the tour, a bunch of us went to Wal-Mart to buy our essentials. I've mostly got everything except bleach (to wash the bathroom), a bathroom mat, and a Swiffer type of thing to clean my dorm floor. I've only been living here two nights, and the floor is already dusty and dirty.

After Wal-Mart, we dropped all of our stuff off at the dorms and then headed out for dinner. The walk from campus to dinner was grueling and FOREVER! The soles of my feet were so tight and sore by the end of the night. Dinner was great! The food was delicious, and it was nice being able to mingle with the other IES students. Overall, I had a great time.

We left the restaurant around 9 PM and I was pooped! I just wanted to go back and sleep. But, I tried to stay up for as long as I could so I could Skype with my mom and Steven. I passed out at 11:45 and woke up around 6 AM this morning. I hope this jet lag stays with me. I'm actually getting more things done when I wake up early in the morning. So far, I've hand washed my clothes [I don't have a student ID yet, so I can't use the washing machines =(], cleaned my bathroom, and sort of cleaned the floors. My mom would be proud of me =)

It's about 8 AM now, and I'm going to get ready to head out for breakfast before I take my oral exam this morning. Enjoy the pictures!

Us with our tour guide and a scenic garden on the school campus

Front entrance of the school; us with Chairman Mao Zedong in the background

Around a shopping district. I absolutely love this picture! We're like the kids who live in a shoe!

We were trying to get a picture of the man with all of the plastic bottles in the background... and we didn't want to make it so obvious we were taking a picture of him, so I posed =)

Smooth Landing

2008-08-31T15:18:00.001-07:00

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

2008-08-26T15:57:00.000-07:00

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!

Countdown... 1 Month--Packing Woes

2008-07-30T21:47:00.000-07:00

In exactly one month, I will be boarding on the plane from San Francisco to Shanghai. Quite honestly, I've been keeping myself too busy to think about getting ready to leave. With summer school just starting and working in between, I feel like there are so many things I still have to do.

I think I've bought pretty much everything I need to bring with me. I just need a laptop sleeve for my spankin' new HP laptop. Yeah, I decided not to bring my old Asus with me... just in case it decided to break down while I'm abroad. But, I need to install Windows Office programs on this new beauty, since HP only gives me the trial program.

Today, I went to Target and bought two pillows, a set of bedsheet and a hair dryer--all of which I think I will take with me. Packing is going to be a pain. I can only take two luggages, both of which have to be less than or 50 pounds. Then, two carry ons, which can't really hold much. I've decided to just have one luggage with all of my clothes (I highly doubt I can cram summer AND winter clothes all into one luggage, PLUS all of my shoes), and one carry on with all of my other junk. I will then, stuff one small carry on luggage into an empty big luggage. I'm expecting to bring home lots of gifts, so I will leave the one big luggage for that.

So far, it's working in theory. I bet when it finally comes down to packing, I will have to end up throwing a bunch of clothes out of my luggages... =( that makes me sad!

I don't think I will actually start packing until the week before I have to go. Hopefully, I can allocate enough time for studying since I have to take my Finance final early... we'll see!

Visa Troubles

2008-07-10T12:48:00.000-07:00

I went to the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco last Tuesday with Laverne to get our visas. We took the BART because neither of us wanted to drive, and we ended up getting there around 10:30 AM (BART took about an hour, and we walked from the BART station to the consulate, which took us about 20 minutes). We had to line up outside because there were so many people inside the consulate, and the security guards were totally rude (I understand though, if I were a security guard for a consulate, I'd go out of my mind). The consulate closed from 12-1 for lunch, and by that time, our number hadn't been called, so we went to get lunch. After we got back, our number was called. We got up, and handed our applications to two ladies at the window. I was expecting these people to be nice and really courteous, but to my surprise, they were extremely rude. They whispered to each other and laughed and pointed at our applications after we exchanged a couple of words. It made me really think... this is why I hate speaking English to fobby Chinese people. They just don't understand you!

Anyway, we ended up not getting our visas because we didn't have original copies of our letter of acceptance from the school and our JW202 form (basically, a form that supports the fact that Fudan University has accepted us into their school). My aunt said that due to the Beijing Olympics, the Consulates were getting really strict on who could go to their country. So, we called the admin at IES (our study abroad program) and had them FedEx our original copies over.

We went again just two days ago, and we finally got it. I'm content. Haha, that's one down, a million more things to go until we leave!

Language Proficiency Test

2008-06-30T00:34:00.001-07:00

In order to understand at what level our Chinese is at, the IES program has given each student a written and oral test. I'm done with the written part (with a bit of help with Laverne, my mom, and my cousin... even though the instructions said not to ask for help =P), and I'm doing the oral portion of the test right now. There are 15 questions total, and I stopped at 12 for today.

The way it works is you have to download the questions (they're mp3's) and listen to them. Then, you have to record your answer as an mp3 and upload it for the school. The first couple of questions were pretty straightfoward and plain, but the questions started getting harder and weirder as I moved on. After I stopped at 12, I previewed question 13, and it was the most incoherent question I've heard yet. "What are the advantages for a country hosting the Olympics? In China, testing to get into high school is perhaps the most important task for a student. How is that different in America? What are the pros and cons about America's education system?"

They managed to cram Olympics and the education system into one question. Wow. Haha, The test is taking me a bit of time because I'm writing all the questions down and then all my answers down so I can read from my paper. It doesn't really sound natural, like I'm having a conversation with someone, but I think I'm doing pretty well so far. In one question, they asked about Chinese poetry. I only remember two famous Chinese poets and even recited a poem in my recording. Haha, I thought that was corny, but I hope they're impressed by my answers!!!!!!

Well, I should head to bed. I have work tomorrow. I'm still trying to think of when and how to tell them I'm going abroad... I should probably do that soon!

Sweet, sweet summer

2008-06-14T23:30:00.000-07:00

Finally! Summer is here! I'm done with finals, and I get to relax for a bit before summer school starts. It's weird though, because I'm actually going to be doing a lot of things this summer before I leave for China. On Tuesday, I'm going to Michigan for a week to visit my cousin who's studying to get his phD there, and when I come back, I'm going camping with a bunch of friends for the weekend. I guess I'll get about a three week break from all the going out until my good friend, Steph, and her family comes to visit us in California before summer school starts. Then, summer school starts on July 28th. Then, on the first weekend in August, my parents and I are going to Vegas to celebrate my mom's XX's birthday (I don't think she'd appreciate me disclosing her age on the internet, haha).

After I come back from Vegas, it's more school, and more work... and then leaving for China on August 29th. Crazy!!!!! It's all coming together really quickly, and I'm getting really anxious. I keep getting scared that I'm going to get super homesick after my first week there, and cry because I'll be missing American food, or there're massive cockroaches and mosquitos in my dorm or something... haha. But, I know in the end, it'll all work out because I'm not a big, spoiled brat. I'll live, no worries :)

I'm going to head off to bed to have sweet dreams about big cockroaches in China :) goodnight!

Post-physical

2008-06-01T15:03:00.000-07:00

Let's just say my physical was not fun. I'd donated blood for Stanford Medical Center at school the day earlier, and had a hole in my left arm already. The morning of the physical, I had to go in for bloodwork, and the nurse left a bruise on my right arm. In addition, I had to get another shot, and that one made my left shoulder sore. Worst physical I've ever had! Oh well, at least it's all out of the way now.

Almost all of my forms have been turned in to the IES program. I just need to do the language test and submit that online. That's not due until July, so I have some time... I'll worry about it after finals week.

I wonder if I got any scholarship money from IES. I applied to three scholarships, but I haven't heard back from them yet. It just hit me how expensive the whole thing is going to be. Not only did SCU jack up tuition this year (again... up to $11,650), but I don't know how much I'm going to get for financial aid from the school, the state and the federal government. On top of that, I just paid $2,500 for summer tuition ($250/unit, can you believe that?). Private schools leech too much money off of us!

In other news, completely irrelevant to studying abroad....

Steven departed this morning from San Francisco with the AIDS/Lifecycle bunch in their journey to bicycle to Los Angeles. We had to wake up super early to go to the opening ceremony, but it was totally worth it. I'm really excited for him and really proud that he decided to take on this challenge. If you'd like to send messages of support to him, go to http://experience.aidslifecycle.org/2008/support/ and type a message. His ID number is 1926.

Well, I should get going and start studying for some finals coming up!

Physical... and other forms

2008-05-20T16:19:00.000-07:00

We have to get physicals done before we go abroad, so I called up my doctor's office today to schedule an appointment. Usually, I can get an appointment the day I call in, but he was unusually busy this week. So, I called, but apparently, he was booked for physicals 'til the end of June. Great. My physical form is due on June 2nd... so there was no way I could wait that long. The lady I talked to was a bit rude and kept telling me there was no way she could fit me into my physician's schedule. I was going to get mean, but I had to go back to Finance 121... so I said I'd call back.

While I was driving home from school, I thought of so many ways to reprimand the girl... and was excited to get home and call the office again (that sounds evil, doesn't it?) =P

Fast forward to twenty minutes ago--I called the office and a guy picked up this time. He was a lot nicer and more willing to help me get an appointment. He told me that the office is only allowed to schedule 9 physicals a week (beats me why), and that the earliest I could get scheduled was July 1st. I told him my situation, and he fit me in for next Wednesday, at 8 AM -___-. Granted, it's a bit early, but I guess I should have gotten my physical done when I first found out about it. But he said I would have to do bloodwork for them... and I'm not allowed to eat or drink anything after 12 AM (!??!). I've had tons of physicals before (for high school basketball), and none of them involved bloodwork. So...... I guess going out of the country is different.

Anywho, other than that, I turned in my course approval and my academic advising for studying abroad. Just two in a million forms I have to fill out. I just want to skip to the part where I'm in Shanghai already. The whole process is so tedious, and quite honestly, a real turnoff to the whole studying abroad experience.

I'll update later after I get my physical done =)

EARTHQUAKE!!!

2008-05-13T16:44:00.000-07:00

7.9 earthquake in China yesterday!!!!!! That is some crazy stuff. I hope mother nature doesn't lash out on us when we go abroad. Of course, that's a selfish thing to say because people there have to suffer the consequences of mother nature all the time... but I really hope nothing bad happens while we're there (kidnappings, murders, severe food poisonings, crazy tsunamis all constitute "bad"). I read in the Mercury today that a 7.9 earthquake has a strength that's 100 fold of a 6.0 (or something like that... I don't quite recall).

Today, Laverne and I went to get our courses abroad approved from SCU. We ran around the school, getting different professors sign off on the classes we're taking abroad. IES only offers 5 classes to its students, and most of us are going to take 4... so all the IES kiddies will probably be in the same class. This is what I'm taking:
The Chinese Metropolis: Shanghai in Comparative Perspective
Chinese language class (Intermediate? Advanced? I don't know how hardcore this is going to be)
The Political Economy of China
Religion in Chinese Society

The other class I'm not taking is Marketing to the Chinese. If the other classes get filled up, then I'll probably have to take this one, but so far, that's what my courses look like!

I took a look at the other IES students going, and researched their universities. It seems like mostly every who is going to Shanghai are from well known liberal arts schools. Then, you've got me and Laverne... two students from a school in the Silicon Valley that's known for its business program. I hope that's not weird.

So. Transferring credit is going to be fun. Since Fudan is on a semester system and SCU is a quarter system, we get 1.5 times the amount of one semester system credit. I'm taking 15 semester units... while is the equivalent of 22.5 quarter units. At SCU, a regular quarter load is 16 units. 22.5 is like adding two more classes on to a full load. I hope I'll be able to survive the workload....

Other than academics, I'm really looking forward to a week in Taiwan. We're having this field trip to Taipei to see how the city works, and I hope it's not something where we all have to tour the city with the school. I want to go off on my own for a week and hang out with my familyy! My mom's in Taiwan right now for my Grandpa's one year memorial. I wish I could have gone. But, then I think about the horrible series of events I went through exactly one year ago just to get to my Grandpa's funeral, and I want to scream. Hmm... let's see if I can recall:

My Grandpa had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's about four or five years ago. Since then, my mom had always tried to get at least one trip a year out to Taiwan to see him, but it was hard because she only had limited vacation days. Anyway, last year, on top of Alzheimer's, he had been diagnosed with some type of throat cancer. He didn't have much time to live. So, my mom made an emergency trip to Taiwan to see him, and my brother went as well. I couldn't leave because I had to be in school and I had to look after my aunt who was going through surgeries to remove her breast cancer. Around that time, my neighbor had side swiped my car, and I didn't have my own car for about two weeks. During the time my mom and my brother was gone, I took my mom's car out and some idiot also side swiped her car, but drove off before I could catch them.

Needless to say, I was pretty upset. But, eventually, I got everything fixed. My mom came home a week later, and about a week or two after she got home, my Grandpa passed. We immediately booked tickets back to Taiwan (mind you, this was during my finals week) for one week. The day finally came for us to leave, and when we got to the airport, we find out my passport had expired a couple of months before. My mom was so busy with funeral arrangements and other things that she hadn't even considered my passport. Of course, she was upset, but what could she do? So my brother and my mom left to Taiwan without me. My brother's friend picks me up from the airport, and we try to get to the passport agency in SF to get an emergency passport of some kind. When we got there, not only had the stupid agency moved to a different building, but they were closed (it was 4:30 on a Friday afternoon, and the following Monday was a government holiday). The whole weekend, I was on the phone with the passport people in DC, and made friends with operator 17 ('cause I'd called so many times). On Tuesday, my aunt took me to the SF passport agency, and we got in a LOOOOOOOONG line and waited a LOOOOOOOOOONG time to try and get a new passport (at this time, I was still unsure of whether I'd get a passport or not). In the middle of the day, I was so upset, thinking I wouldn't get my passport that I just wanted to cry. Good thing I got it. Even though I waited in line for over 8 hours, I finally had my passport and left that night (we had to cancel two plane tickets because I didn't get my passport in time). Even when I was at the airport and on the plane, I had no time to relax. I had a huge project due for my religion class, and I was rushing to finish that. I had some other finals to study for, it was just a big mess.

I made it in time for my Grandpa's funeral, and even though it was a horrible, sad day, I was glad I'd made it. I'm glad I'd gone through all of that just to say goodbye to him. I still remember seeing him lying there, so peacefully. He'd lost so much weight since the last time I saw him, I almost didn't recognize him. The whole time I was looking at him, I imagined him sitting up and smiling with his sweet smile, saying to all of us, "Why are you idiots crying?!" Haha...

Well, that was my little snippet down memory lane. I totally forgot the topic I'd talked about at first, but I'm going to leave it at this...

Procrastination... and other distractions

2008-05-06T23:48:00.000-07:00

I set this blog up a couple of days ago and never got around to writing in it. Now, I'm trading up studying for my Finance and OMIS midterms to write in it =). The moral of the story? I always find a way to distract myself from doing what it is I really need to do most.

Okay, so I'm going to China for four months starting in September, to study at Fudan University. Thinking about it makes me all giddy and excited, but I'm also kind of scared that I'm going to be on my own for so long. I've never not lived with my mom or any other familial member for more than a week or two (science camp in elementary school counts, right?), let alone, living in a country I've never been to. Scary stuff! Nonetheless, I am totally psyched and want to leave right now!

Too bad the process of getting there takes FOREVER! I have to turn in so many different forms and waivers and get other things done (such as a physical exam, getting courses approved, taking a language placement test). I booked my ticket yesterday, so that's set... but the thing I'm most worried about is getting a visa. The IES program (the study abroad program I'm attending) just sent us all emails telling us that getting visas will be harder due to the Beijing Olympics. Great.... I'm looking forward to that. I just wish everything could be magically done and all I have to do is board on a plane and get there.

If only life were that easy.... well, I'm going to head to bed. Long day ahead of me tomorrow-work, school (study), class, and then more studying. Midterm week is taking its toll on me!!!