This marks my second full week in Shanghai, my first of classes! Having Chinese every day for two hours is rough-we have a quiz on 15-20 new vocab words and 5-6 old grammar points every day, and I have my first test this Tuesday on Chapters 1 & 2. For as much fun as we're all having, I still think we're doing more work than most study abroad programs! My other classes are all really interesting, even though 3-hour class periods can get rough. A lot of the workload is on your own kind of stuff, which I like a lot more than something super structured.
What do I like even more than my classes? The fact that I will always have a three-day weekend! (I really need to look into this for next year) CIEE sets up a lot of one day trips for us to go on for free, so yesterday they took us to the Citygod Temple in Shanghai. It's Taoist and actually still in use, so people were worshipping there as tourists were walking around, which made us all feel kind of bad for them. It's also probably the biggest tourist trap I've been to so far, with a verifiable maze of streets full of cheap merchandise and delicious food. One of the CIEE tutors found us dumplings and I got my first Starbucks of the trip, so I was happy! Definite food coma =) There are also apparently gorgeous gardens, but we want to wait until spring when everything is in bloom before we go see them.
I guess that's all-this might get a little boring as I get used to the routine of classes, but I'll be doing a lot of other awesome things that I'll try and keep you updated on!
Friday, February 24, 2012
Friday, February 17, 2012
I'm used to this already?
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| The famous Pearl Tower on the Bund! |
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| Mal and Anthony taking a pic with the security guards |
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| Entrance to East China Normal University |
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| Casual Mao Zedong statue in the middle of campus |
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| The next Yao Ming or Jeremy Lin? |
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| Safe drinking water and toilet paper-all you need to survive! |
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| The view from my window |
As far as what I've been up to the past few days, it's been great. We did an "Amazing Race Shanghai" competition yesterday which sent us all around the city, so I am getting much better at navigating how to get anywhere. We've been trying out all the restaurants around campus- we went to one last night called "Ali Restaurant"! Also we've been exploring the nightlife in Shanghai, which is so far all it's hyped up to be. Taxis are super cheap, and most clubs have no cover and are 80 Yuan (like $13 American) for open bar all night! The clubs are wicked fun-all the music is American pop songs and every club has crazy dancers and performances every night! Not that many Chinese people dance, so it's usually mostly us that are on the dance floor (they do like taking pictures of us dancing, though!). A lot of CIEE people like going out, so we're already starting to get to know each other really well and I always have a lot of fun.
I still haven't taken that many pictures, mostly because it's been so dreary until lately, but here are some!
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| My bed! (Not padded at all) |
Monday, February 13, 2012
DA JIA HAO! (Hello everyone!)
Finally in China! And I've finally figured out how to use a proxy to get on here/facebook =)
Where to begin? My 14-hour flight from Toronto to Shanghai wasn't really as bad as I thought it would be. They had a huge movie selection, so I watched Priest, the Lion King, and Happy Feet 2! I ended up having a 6hour layover in Toronto since there was something wrong with the plane, but I met someone else from CIEE so we went to a bar and hung out together for a few hours (on that note, I can legally drink here. awesome). We didn't get in to Shanghai until around 8pm their time, which was crazy since they fed us breakfast on the plane because it was 6am still in Toronto.
CIEE picked us up from the airport and took us all to the dorm on campus. I live on the fifth floor with Jennifer, a Taiwanese student in her last year here. She's not really supposed to speak that much English with me, which is hard because I don't know very much Chinese! She's awesome though, and her English is incredible. As far as the dorms go, almost everyone has a double, some with CIEE students and some with Chinese students, like me. We have a ton of space, and there's a maid service once a week and we can exchange our linens once every 10 days! So basically I'm living in a hotel! The really weird thing is that the bathrooms don't have toilet paper or soap, so you have to bring your own with you everywhere you go (it's one of those things you only forget once)! The beds are super hard for some reason, it's like basically sleeping on the ground, but my pillow is amazing.
This morning and all this week is orientation...getting orientated to the orient? (see what I did there?) Today was safety briefings and health care, then we got split up into groups for lunch and a tour of the biggest mall I have seen in my entire life. There are 3 ND kids in my group so I had at least known of them before coming here, so we get along well. Samantha was the one that taught me how to get a proxy, so you can thank her for this update! What I've seen of Shanghai is that it's very dreary and industrial, but you can just see the potential. I can't wait for spring; it's going to be gorgeous here! There's a track almost literally next to my dorm, so I'm happy. Also near my dorm? A gigantic statue of Mao, naturally haha.
Overall, it's definitely going to be much more of a challenge studying here than I thought it was going to be. Even without the language barrier there are just so many little things you never even think about that are different. Add that to the fact that I'm going from a tiny, Catholic, all-women's school to a huge university (around 30,000 undergrads, I think) in a huge city (pop: 22 million!) that is secular and co-ed, and it's safe to say that I am DEFINITELY out of my comfort zone! I do love it here though, don't get me wrong. Everything is fresh and new and just so exciting, and I can't wait to see what comes next!
Where to begin? My 14-hour flight from Toronto to Shanghai wasn't really as bad as I thought it would be. They had a huge movie selection, so I watched Priest, the Lion King, and Happy Feet 2! I ended up having a 6hour layover in Toronto since there was something wrong with the plane, but I met someone else from CIEE so we went to a bar and hung out together for a few hours (on that note, I can legally drink here. awesome). We didn't get in to Shanghai until around 8pm their time, which was crazy since they fed us breakfast on the plane because it was 6am still in Toronto.
CIEE picked us up from the airport and took us all to the dorm on campus. I live on the fifth floor with Jennifer, a Taiwanese student in her last year here. She's not really supposed to speak that much English with me, which is hard because I don't know very much Chinese! She's awesome though, and her English is incredible. As far as the dorms go, almost everyone has a double, some with CIEE students and some with Chinese students, like me. We have a ton of space, and there's a maid service once a week and we can exchange our linens once every 10 days! So basically I'm living in a hotel! The really weird thing is that the bathrooms don't have toilet paper or soap, so you have to bring your own with you everywhere you go (it's one of those things you only forget once)! The beds are super hard for some reason, it's like basically sleeping on the ground, but my pillow is amazing.
This morning and all this week is orientation...getting orientated to the orient? (see what I did there?) Today was safety briefings and health care, then we got split up into groups for lunch and a tour of the biggest mall I have seen in my entire life. There are 3 ND kids in my group so I had at least known of them before coming here, so we get along well. Samantha was the one that taught me how to get a proxy, so you can thank her for this update! What I've seen of Shanghai is that it's very dreary and industrial, but you can just see the potential. I can't wait for spring; it's going to be gorgeous here! There's a track almost literally next to my dorm, so I'm happy. Also near my dorm? A gigantic statue of Mao, naturally haha.
Overall, it's definitely going to be much more of a challenge studying here than I thought it was going to be. Even without the language barrier there are just so many little things you never even think about that are different. Add that to the fact that I'm going from a tiny, Catholic, all-women's school to a huge university (around 30,000 undergrads, I think) in a huge city (pop: 22 million!) that is secular and co-ed, and it's safe to say that I am DEFINITELY out of my comfort zone! I do love it here though, don't get me wrong. Everything is fresh and new and just so exciting, and I can't wait to see what comes next!
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
So, this is going to be a blog of my exploits as I spend the semester studying abroad in Shanghai, China. To explain the title a little bit more, "SMCNugget" is a nickname my friend Tom invented for a girl who goes to Saint Mary's College, aka me. This is "my journey to the homeland" because my two older sisters have been telling me my entire life that I was adopted from China, like even to the point of suggesting I look for my birth parents while watching the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games...
I don't leave for another four days, but I've gotten to the same point I always get before traveling somewhere: it's not soon enough to actually start packing, but I don't want to get started on anything else and packing is all I can think about. At this point I'm just trying to avoid meticulously laying out possible clothes/shoes/jewelry combinations for the next 3 1/2 months and/or packing a carry-on that I will inevitably empty, repack, and empty again within the next three days. I've already registered myself with the U.S. Embassy and finished watching Mulan, which were the top two items on my to-do list, so basically I'm pretty much ready to go! By the way, did you know there is a MULAN II?! I'm debating whether or not I should watch it, since while it will almost definitely be horrible, I love the first one so much that it seems my responsibility.
Anyways, I'm going to try and keep from dying of over-preparation and boredom. My flight leaves at 7am Saturday, first to Toronto and then to Pudong Airport, Shanghai. I get there around 4pm THE NEXT DAY...hella long flight! I'll try to do an initial "omg-I'm-in-china-omg-I-don't-speak-the-language-at-all-omg-I'm-going-to-die" post once I get there, just so everyone can see the culture shock in action. Until then, this will be my greatest representation of what's coming:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSS5dEeMX64
I don't leave for another four days, but I've gotten to the same point I always get before traveling somewhere: it's not soon enough to actually start packing, but I don't want to get started on anything else and packing is all I can think about. At this point I'm just trying to avoid meticulously laying out possible clothes/shoes/jewelry combinations for the next 3 1/2 months and/or packing a carry-on that I will inevitably empty, repack, and empty again within the next three days. I've already registered myself with the U.S. Embassy and finished watching Mulan, which were the top two items on my to-do list, so basically I'm pretty much ready to go! By the way, did you know there is a MULAN II?! I'm debating whether or not I should watch it, since while it will almost definitely be horrible, I love the first one so much that it seems my responsibility.
Anyways, I'm going to try and keep from dying of over-preparation and boredom. My flight leaves at 7am Saturday, first to Toronto and then to Pudong Airport, Shanghai. I get there around 4pm THE NEXT DAY...hella long flight! I'll try to do an initial "omg-I'm-in-china-omg-I-don't-speak-the-language-at-all-omg-I'm-going-to-die" post once I get there, just so everyone can see the culture shock in action. Until then, this will be my greatest representation of what's coming:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSS5dEeMX64
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