Well, it’s been nearly a week since we landed in Shanghai,
and what a week it’s been. I hardly know
where to begin! I’m writing you while flying to Chengdu from Shanghai. We will
be at Southwest University for Nationalities very soon!
There were five of us on the group flight to Shanghai. Finding
the transferring flights was a breeze and going through customs in China was
quite painless and easy. Once we got through customs, we were greeted by the
USAC coordinator for Shanghai, You Sha. From the airport we took a private van
to the Shanghai University campus. I didn’t see much driving into Shanghai
since it was an overcast day and the windows were pretty fogged up. We pulled
up in front of the Shanghai University hotel, which is where we stayed for the
majority of our time in Shanghai.
I was told the campus we were staying on was one of three.
It looked pretty similar to any other university campus in the US, tree lined
side-walks and brick buildings. The hotel was nicer than I was expecting. The
beds were pretty hard, but that seems to be pretty common here. In every hotel
we’ve been in there have been little boxes with toothbrushes and tiny bottles
of toothpaste, which I think is a great idea instead of just the normal shower
cap and shampoo.
We all had roommates while we toured Shanghai. Mine was
Hannah from UNLV, who is super nice and a great roommate. I am kind of sad that
we won’t have roommates in Chengdu, hopefully it won’t be too lonely. I chose
to stay in the dorms rather than a shared apartment, so we’ll see how that
goes. The apartments are a 15min walk to class, I hear. But you get a kitchen,
more space, and roommates.
Anyway, after we got settled into our rooms, a group of
Shanghai students and Chengdu students were going to the store to buy cell
phones and other supplies. I was pretty jet lagged by this point (I got 4 hours
of sleep on the plane), but I needed to stay awake and I wanted to see more of
Shanghai.
The store was not that far away. Crossing the street, we got
our first experience with traffic in China. Getting hit by a car or motorcycle
in China is a real possibility, so you have to pay attention. We were told the
best way to cross the street was to not hesitate. Once you’ve decided it’s safe
to cross, don’t look back, and don’t look at the cars coming towards you. Any
sign of hesitation is a sign of weakness.
Once we got to the store, we went upstairs to the phone
section. I found out that it was a better idea to buy a phone in Chengdu so I
wouldn’t have a Shanghai number when I got there. So instead I bought a 5L bottle of water and
some peanut mochi. You cannot drink the tap water in China without boiling it
first, so that’s why I decided to get such a large bottle. It was pretty cheap,
only 7 yuan (divide by 6 to get a rough estimate of USD). China is much cheaper
than the US, but Shanghai tends to be a bit more expensive. For example, some
students went out for drinks along the Bund one night (a very touristy area)
and paid something like 100yuan for a drink. You can haggle in many (if not
most) places to get a better price, but it takes a while to figure out what a
good price should be.
After we got everything together and went back to the hotel,
it was nearly time for dinner. We ate at a Sichuanese-style restaurant, so the
food was spicy. I liked everything I tried, it was really delicious. We ate family
style, with a big lazy-Susan type of thing in the middle of the table with all
the dishes on it. One student told everyone to use the opposite end of your
chopsticks to get food out of the dishes and put it on your plate, which didn’t
sound right. It’s not. Do not do that or Chinese people will laugh at you.
The restaurant was pretty classy. After dinner, some of the
students decided to but a round of shots. We had heard that a drink called ‘bai
jiu’ (pronounced like: bye Joe), which is equivalent to tequila in America. It’s
pretty strong and smelled…interesting. Some of the students ate numbing peppers
before drinking it, which I can’t imagine made it any better. Numbing peppers
are a whole different kind of spicy. It feels like electricity in your mouth.
They aren’t painful, but they are HOT. I’m going to try to bring some back to
America for people back home to try because they are kind of hard to describe.
After dinner we headed back to our hotel to go to bed.
Unfortunately when I’m jet lagged, it sometimes makes it hard for me to fall
asleep and stay asleep. I ended up waking up at 5:00am the next morning, which
wasn’t ideal, but I survived.
USAC (the program I am studying with) did a great job at
fitting a lot into the short time we were in Shanghai. We began our day at the
Bund. The Bund is a famous river running through the city and separating New
Shanghai from Old Shanghai. For much of Shanghai’s history, it has been a
colony belonging to Britain. Because of this, there has always been a large European presence there. The buildings
along the Bund are all built in a European style. It really feels as if you
were suddenly transported to a street in France. On the other side of the Bund,
you see the Pearl Tower. Everything in this area across the river is less than
20 years old. The Pearl tower is easily the most recognizable landmark along
the horizon. It’s an impressive building.
After spending some time along the Bund, we drove to the
Pearl Tower. The area surrounding the tower was very beautiful and festive,
with colorful flags lining the plaza and giant lanterns hung from tall
archways.
Well… I have to go to bed, so I’ll finish this post soon!
Sorry for the wait!
