Xi'an, Shaoxing, Ningbo, Oh My!

Each time I look at my blog, I realize how far behind I am ! Keeping up with all the exciting stuff that happens here is quite a lot of work and these days I am limited on time. This is largely due to all the traveling I’ve been doing.

Two weeks ago my program had a weekend trip where we went to the nearby cities of Shaoxing and Ningbo. It was nice to get away from the city for a bit and enjoy some beautiful scenery and fresh air. The highlight of the trip was easily the national park that we visited. We hiked through the valleys and the guys especially liked climbing the mountains. Lunch was also quite nice as we had a meal made by the one family that lives in the valley. 

 

In both of the cities, we visited different historical sites and saw old architecture. We also went on a boat ride according to the traditional style of the region. Here, the person rowing the boat uses his legs instead of his arms to row!

 

 

This past weekend three of my friends and I decided to go to Xi’an. Now Xi’an is not very close to Shanghai; in fact, it’s almost 15 hours away. In order to be back for class on Monday morning we took two overnight trains and only stayed one night in Xi’an. While it was definitely a short trip it was very much worthwhile. 

One of the main reasons we wanted to go to Xi’an was to see the Terracotta Warriors. I’m still not entirely sure of the history, but essentially an emperor in China about 2,000 years ago wanted thousands of statutes of soldiers and horses to be buried with him. 

The pits with the soldiers were not discovered until 1974 and since then the Chinese government has been excavating them. Within the four pits, most of the soldiers remain buried in order to best preserve the statues. Those soldiers that are visible are quite impressive. Each statue has its own facial expression and for being more than 2,000 years old most are remarkably intact. 

Another highlight of our trip was our bike ride around the city wall. The day was remarkably warm and sunny and we were able to fully enjoy it with a two hour bike ride. It was a great way to get a feel for the city.

The hostel that we stayed in was also really nice and had a cool atmosphere. This was my first experience at a hostel and I really liked it. I hope to stay in one again on my next trip. I even met a girl who knew someone I had gone to Seton Hall with. It really is a small world!

Just before we left I was able to meet up with Darren, the Director of the Alliance program in Xi’an. I had met him last year in Beijing and since I knew he was now in Xi’an I contacted him to meet up. Unfortunately our previous plans fell through and we were only able to see each other for about 15 minutes before we caught our train. 

The train ride itself was quite the experience. In China, there are different classes of seats on the trains which are divided between hard and soft class. For overnight trains, like the one we were on, they also have hard sleepers and soft sleepers. Hard sleepers have six beds per compartment without any doors while the soft sleepers have four beds within a closed-off compartment. Since we were traveling with four people we were able to get a compartment to ourselves. On Friday we left at 8pm and got into Xi’an around 10:30am the next morning. While the bed was a little hard and the train was sporadically noisy I was still able to get some sleep.

When we had told our teachers about our plans to go to Xi’an everyone had been skeptical and worried that we wouldn’t be in class on Monday. Needless to say we were a bit tired come Monday morning after getting in at 7:15am, but we all made in to class. (Well, Morgan at least made it for the second period after taking a shower.) I even came 10 minutes earlier than I normally would have!

So that’s a pretty good summary of my two recent trips. In total I may or may not have taken about 1,000 photos… Needless to say, I’ve been seeing a lot. Even better, a week from now I will be in Hong Kong! It’s going to be quite the trip. 

P.S. If you would like to see the rest of my photos from my trip check out my Picasa Web Album. Here is the link: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/myphotos

Calligraphy Lessons and Xitang Trip

 I had mentioned in my last post that I am now taking Chinese painting lessons. There is an interesting story as to how this came about. On a Friday afternoon, my friend Maggie and I had decided to play badminton at another University just across the street from our dorms. As we were walking through the campus on our way back to our own university, a friendly old man started to talk to us, asking us where we were from and how long we have studied Chinese. I couldn’t resist striking up a conversation!

Once he found out a bit about us he asked if we liked Chinese painting and calligraphy. When we said yes, he very proudly told us that he is a teacher of painting at the university and then he asked if we would like to see some of his paintings. At first we thought he was going to take us back to his classroom, but alas, he actually took us back to his apartment. As soon as we walked in he began to pull out photo album upon photo album of pictures of the students he has taught. Apparently, he specializes in teaching foreign students. Around the door frame in his living room are flags of every country that he has had a student from. 

So long story short, my friend and I are now taking painting lessons twice a week. For an hour and a half lesson we pay our teacher about $8. Let me tell you, having an actual teacher definitely beats trying to learn from YouTube videos! 

In addition to painting, classes, and my internship I have found some time to go on little excursions around Shanghai and outside of it. Two weekends ago, I took a trip to Xitang, a town about an hour and a half away from Shanghai. As with most of the towns outside of Shanghai, it is known for its canals, scenery, and souvenir shopping. My friends and I had a great time exploring, although we somehow missed most of the “tourist attractions”. There was plenty to do just walking down the streets. To end our day, we even went on a little boat ride down the canal.

 Last weekend we also went a similar type of historic town, but this one is actually located on the outskirts of Shanghai. While not as impressive as Xitang, it was still nice to see and eat some of the snack food. Since it was a Sunday, it was also quite crowded. It was hard to move while walking down the main street. I’m surprised my group managed to stay together.

Since pretty much all of my posts touch on some of the food I eat here, I have to mention this wonderful restaurant that I found. It is called Julie’s Food Experience and it specializes in Canadian food! We first went because we heard they served breakfast food, but that is not all. You can get pretty much any type of American food you can think of. So far, I have had quesadillas, pasta, pancakes, and hummus (not all together though!). Last time I also had a slice of carrot cake which may have been one of the best I’ve ever had. Only problem with Julie’s is that it is kind of expensive; especially since it’s very, very difficult to restrain yourself from ordering more than one dish on the menu.

 
On Wednesdays I have my internship so I end up going out to eat with my coworkers. I have to say, this may be the highlight of my work day. Each time they take me out to a different place. First it was a Noodle restaurant, then the company cafeteria, and today was the best of all. We went to IKEA! The office building is just down the street from the IKEA in Shanghai and apparently it’s super popular among the Chinese, particularly for lunch. I had great Swedish meatballs and a fresh salad. Now I have never eaten a full meal at IKEA before, but I definitely want to go back. I was trying to explain to my coworkers that in American people go to eat at IKEA because it’s so cheap. In China, the meal, which cost me about $4, is actually considered expensive.

Talking with Strangers

I am sorry it has been me so long since my last post; the days go by too quick! In addition to all the time I spend going to my classes and doing my Chinese homework, I now have an internship which eats another 10 hours of my week;14 when you factor in transportation. 

So far, it has been a great experience. I am interning at a Chinese company called VanceInfo which specializes in IT Outsourcing for companies such as Microsoft and Lenovo. They are definitely growing fast and opening up offices around the world. The department I work for is the HR and Training division. So far my duties have consisted of holding phone interviews to test applicants English, creating PowerPoint presentations for the new training program the company wants to develop, and grading English writing samples. 

My first day was a bit overwhelming as my boss and coworkers only really spoke to me in Chinese. They have been using more English since then, but interning here is definitely going to be a test of how much Chinese I know.  They are much more comfortable if they can use Chinese so I try my best to follow along. So far they seem to like my efforts though! I even went out to lunch with a few of them last week. Once again, it was a crash course in Chinese. I felt like I was being thrown into the deep end without fully knowing how to swim. 

While thinking back to the highlights of the past few weeks, I began to notice that quite a few of them began with talking to strangers. In China it is so easy to start talking with the other people that you encounter. Being a foreigner certainly helps since many people are quite curious and ready to ask you where you are from and see if you can speak Chinese. 

Last Friday my Chinese class took a field trip to a nearby park which is a popular hangout place for the older generation of Chinese. Our task was to interview different people and find out how often they came to the park, why they came, and ask them a little about their lifestyle. While a bit intimidating, my classmates and I definitely had a lot of fun. It turned out that pretty much everyone said they come to exercise, chat with friends, and enjoy the atmosphere on a daily basis. I really wish parks were this energetic in America. When you walk through it in the mornings you can really understand why these people love coming here every day. 

Talking with strangers also incidentally led to my first ride on a Moped; quite the experience! Every Monday a Western Sports Bar has a special on burgers and fries so needless to say most of the group was planning to go. I was coming from my internship and decided to try and meet them at the restaurant. 

The only problem was that I only had the address and when I got out of the subway I had no clue where to go. I saw two people with jackets that said “Traffic Assistance” so I decided they would be a good place to start to ask for directions. Once they figured out where I was trying to go, the guy gestured to his Moped and said “Don’t worry, I’ll take you”. Before I even knew what was happening, I found myself flying down one of the main streets in Shanghai, weaving in between lanes, cars, and bikes. Well you may think this sounds somewhat scary, it was actually quite exciting! While I would never want to be the one driving, riding with someone who knows what to do seems to be the way to go. I don’t think I will be repeating this experience anytime soon, but I am definitely glad I it happened!

Much more has happened, but its getting late and I need to finish up some more homework. I'll be sure to write later this week about my weekend trip to Xitang and the story behind how I how I obtained a private Chinese Brush Painting teacher. Once again, this involves meeting a stranger and striking up a conversation. 

Zaijian, 

Rachel

  

Welcome YOU International Students

So many things happen every week that it’s hard for me to pick out what to share with all of you. Since I last posted here, I’ve done a lot more exploring throughout the city, continued to eat great food (for the most part), and hung out with my friends here. Also, the other international students are starting to arrive on campus. It’s kind of strange now that we aren’t the only foreigners in the neighborhood. 

 
On Saturday we had a type of scavenger hunt where we were divided into groups and had to visit two landmarks in Shanghai. My group ended up going to the Shanghai Railway Station and the Shanghai Museum, pretty much just because they were the closest to get to. It was still pretty fun as I got to know my roommate even better. After the activity, I went with a group of the students and some of the Chinese roommates to a nice Western food restaurant that serves great sandwiches and salads. It was fun to see how our Chinese friends enjoyed the food. While a little pricey by Chinese standards, I think it was definitely worth the $14 for a sandwich, fresh orange juice, and dessert. 

Another exciting place I visited a few days ago was the Old Town area. This place is the ideal location to buy souvenirs. It has pretty much any iconic “Chinese” object you can think of from tea and t-shirts to lucky gold cat statues and panda stuffed animals. While we were there we stopped at what is apparently the best Xiao Long Bao restaurant in Shanghai. While quite tasty, I didn’t think they lived up to their hype. I prefer to go to the place right beyond my school where you can get 8 for 5 kuai instead of 25!

My friends and I learned a very valuable lesson the other day: Don’t Trust Chinese Burger Restaurants. Needless to say, it was not very good. I think the meat (if it was even meat) was only about a centimeter thick.

Today was really exciting as I went to a Fabric Market where you can get clothes made to order. The place is really overwhelming at first with suits, jackets, scarves, and Chinese dresses hanging everywhere. My list of what I wanted to buy just kept growing with each booth that I passed! In the end I decided to start with buying a grey pinstriped business suit set which comes with a jacket, pants, a skirt, and a blouse. All custom made of course. I ended up getting it for about $115 after some intense bargaining. I’m quite excited. I’ll be sure to post photos when I pick it up next week. I think a nice spring trench coat is up next. My goal is to get it for $40.

After the market, we went to the lobby of the Park Hyatt in the World Financial Center on the 87th floor as the sky was actually somewhat clear. We treated ourselves to some hot chocolate and éclairs- quite delicious! The skyline was absolutely beautiful, especially when the lights came on.

 

Whenever I visit the financial center of Shanghai, it recharges my desire to be successful in international business. It would really be a dream come true to work in one of these buildings overlooking this wonderful city!
 

New Chinese Friends and More Great Food

My first week of classes has now finished and I am glad for it to be the weekend. Overall, Chinese class hasn’t been too bad but three hours of classes can be quite trying. We do get two ten minute breaks which leave us just enough time to run to the nearest baozi (steamed pork buns) shop! The nice thing is that if I have any questions about my homework I can just ask my roommate or any of the other Chinese students. I do have to write an essay this weekend on top of my other homework but at least I have a few days to complete it. Our teachers are also quite helpful. My conversation teacher is always trying to give us suggestions about where to go in Shanghai and tell us about important aspects of the culture. She even brought us chocolate for Valentine’s Day. 

Besides the Chinese classes, I am taking a China as a global market class and a class about the Chinese economy. Both really don’t seem like they will be too bad. I think all the tests are open book and homework is kept to a minimum. If anything, it will mostly be reading from the textbook. I do have to complete a research project and within the next few weeks I have to come up with a topic. Hopefully something will jump out at me soon!

I am still trying to secure an internship for the semester. My program director said that he should have an interview set up for me next week, but as of yet I do not know where I will be interning. I am just hoping it all fits together. It would be great to have the experience.

Over the past few days my friends and I haven’t really ventured out too far into the city. With all of our homework and classes we mostly just limit ourselves to going somewhere for dinner. On Tuesday we found this great Korean restaurant where we sat on the floor and could have cooked the meat at our table. Unfortunately, we couldn’t really understand what the waiter was asking and they ended up cooking it for us instead. We did though have great Kimchi fried rice!

In general, cheese is something that is hard to come by in China, unless you can find a New York style pizza place! A girl had seen the restaurant in her guide book and we decided to take some of the Chinese roommates to get true American food. We ordered four huge thin crust pizzas and they tasted great. My favorite by far was the barbeque chicken pizza. Some people also enjoyed the milkshakes that they had to offer. I was happy to drink Snapple. 

It’s been really great to interact with our new Chinese friends. The funny part is that they know that I speak some Chinese so whenever they don’t understand what we are saying in English or they don’t know the word in English they want to use, they look at me to help them. However, most of the time I am no help at all! The roommates are all so nice and really eager to learn about American culture and practice their English. The reason that they are in our program is because they will be studying abroad in either American or England. Hopefully I will be able to see some of them when they come to the US! 

On a side note, the English names of our roommates are quite creative. There are the normal names like Sara and Thomas and then the not so often used names like Ike and Betty. The best ones though are those that you would never think could be actual names. My favorites so far are Seven and Grubby!

 

Tonight we are celebrating the Lantern Festival that marks the end of the New Year festivities. We are going to a restaurant with our roommates to eat some of the traditional food for the holiday. Apparently scallion pancakes are on the menu so I am quite excited.

Also, I now finally have internet in my room, so I should be able to post a bit more frequently. Thanks everyone for reading!

Class Time and Pizza Hut

My Chinese classes have officially started with today being the first day. It seems like it will be quite intense. We cover two lessons per week and have a dictation every class. I can tell that these 3 hours of Chinese class will be pretty tiring, but I am sure my Chinese will be getting better quite soon. There are only five students in my class so we get plenty of attention. Another nice thing is that I have already studied quite a few of our vocab words so not everything is completely new. I already spent about three hours today doing homework, and this was only the first day! 

Since I last wrote quite a few things have happened here. First of all, I now am living with my Chinese roommate. Her English name is Sara and she is really nice. Her English is also really, really good. Everyone in the program is paired with a Chinese student and it has been great to interact with all of them. For a bonding activity, our director held a dumpling making competition. It was a lot of fun, but I must admit that I am a horrible dumpling maker. Luckily the Chinese roommates knew what they were doing. Somehow we ended up in second place!  

It’s been really fun to walk around outside the campus with the Chinese students. They love showing us different stores to shop at and explaining the names of our favorite dishes.  

Speaking of food, I really feel that this trip is going to revolve around all the wonderful food I am eating. Every day my friends and I stop by different restaurants. Luckily most of the restaurants either have English on their menu or have pictures which we can point to. From beef noodles, to dumplings, to eggplant there is always something new to try. I’m also falling in love with milk tea. Thus far the caramel flavored one has been my favorite. 

I did finally get a cell phone and it’s great to be somewhat connected again. I ended up getting another HTC phone that is very similar to the phone I have at home. It is great because it is unlocked so I can pretty much use it anywhere in the world. Even better, I got it at Walmart! Walmart in China is so much cooler than in America. First of all its three floors and its reputation is much higher with its goods being considered pretty good quality. 

Tonight was one of my friend’s birthdays and in true American fashion we decided to go to Pizza Hut for dinner. We were lucky to fit our group of 15 into one corner of the restaurant, and on Valentine’s Day no less. It was definitely a great way to relax after our first day back at school! Cheese is something that is not really part of the Chinese diet. It’s a real treat to have it one in a while. When we sang Happy Birthday I think the entire restaurant must have been looking at us.

On a side note, the cold outside is continuing and it even snowed for a bit today. One of my favorite purchases thus far has definitely been my big fluffy earmuffs. They are a great way to keep warm while walking around. My friend Madison and I have matching pairs!

This really is a great group of students and I can already tell this is going to continue being a great semester. Hopefully the actual studying part of this study abroad won’t consume all of our time. There is just so much to see!

Tour Guide Rachel

Nope, the comforter was definitely not warm enough. Luckily the next day we went to a large department store and I bought a new blanket and pillow. I was quite proud of myself talking to the salespeople trying to find the best ones for the lowest prices. 

I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to post here. We moved into the dorm two days ago, but we still lack internet in our rooms. They said it should be installed soon but apparently the company is run by the government and there is no incentive for them to move quickly since there is no competition for them. For now I’ll just have to make do with the internet in the lobby of our classroom building. 

Today has been quite exciting and definitely a lot of fun. The morning wasn’t too great since I spent more than 2 hours taking an incredibly difficult Chinese placement test. It just seemed like it went on forever. Towards the end I wasn’t even really trying. I just wanted to get it over with. I’m hoping to be in the advanced level here but I still haven’t found out where I placed. This semester is definitely going to challenging. I’m looking forward to it!  

So the fun part really started after lunch. Our assistant director Han Lu took us on walking tour of the area close to our school. There is this awesome park about ten minutes away that has outdoor exercise equipment, a lake, and plenty of nice scenic paths. 

An awesome Chinese man who wanted to eat with us

The people in the park were also great. Foreigners are quite a novelty here in China. Some will even come up to you and ask for a photo or will try out the few English words they know. For instance, this one old man came up to us holding a song book asking us where we were from and if he could sing for us. Even though we said we were American he was like, “Ok, I’ll sing in Italian!” While not the best of singers, I have to admire this man’s spirit. He just seemed like he was enjoying life to its fullest. I really hope to have more encounters like this!

After our tour a few other girls and I went to explore the area behind campus known as the “back streets”. I’m really enjoying where our school is located. It’s surrounded by little stalls and shops with all different types of goods. When I am walking around it I really feel like I am experiencing an authentic part of China. We had heard there was a good bakery a few blocks away and went out in search of it. Along the way we saw someone making scallion pancakes on the street. I have to say, I think these pancakes may have been the best tasting food I’ve eaten thus far, and believe me, I have some good dishes. The best part is that they only cost about 15 cents! 

Another wonderful part of the day was finding the stands that sell all of the bootleg DVDs. I have to admit that I’ve already bought three Asian dramas and I plan to be buying quite a few more during my time here. Those three in total only cost $4! So much better than eBay where I pay about $30 for each one. I’m just hoping the quality won’t be too bad. 

After walking around and getting quite cold in the process we decided that noodles would be a good idea for dinner. When we stopped back at the dorm we rounded up a few more people who liked our idea and we all ventured out in search of food. Thus far all of our meals have been arranged by our directors. This was the first time we actually had to fend for ourselves and let me tell you it was an experience. 

As I mentioned earlier, there aren’t too many people here who have taken a lot Chinese. In our group of about 12, there was only one other guy who had spent some time in China and could get by somewhat. In fact, about half the people are complete beginners. It ended up being our job to get everyone satisfyingly fed. It didn’t help much that I could barely read the menu and there were no pictures to act as guidelines. Luckily the woman at the counter was really helpful and patient with my stumbling Chinese. I would name a food that I knew how to say, like dumplings, and then ask if she had them. When I asked about noodles, she pointed to this long list of about 20 different types, most of which I couldn’t understand what the ingredients were. Instead of trying to specify the types, I just told her give us the best! Surprisingly, this method worked pretty well. I’ll have to remember to use it in the future. 

Only problem with our meal was that we definitely ordered too much. It was a small place and there were a lot of us. Even though we had ordered some people didn’t realize it had been for everyone and they asked for more. I think we ended up with about eight bowls of soup. We probably would have been fine with just three or four! Oh well, food is so cheap here that it really doesn’t make much of a difference. Our total bill wasn’t more than $15 US dollars.    

 

While the group has now been in Shanghai for three days, they really haven’t seen much of the city center at all. I was able to play tour guide taking them downtown to the Bund and Nanjing Street which is known for its high class shopping. Since I had come a week early, I already knew my way around the subway system and the main tourist attractions. It was fun to see how excited everyone got when we went out into the bright neon lights of the shopping district. The area that our school is in is so completely different from the financial centers of the city. I couldn’t resist and I took them into the gorgeous Peace Hotel to use the fancy bathrooms and get some coffee. The best part was we actually ended up running into some other students from our program who I had told where we were going, but since none of us have cell phones, we thought we’d never meet up. 

The Bund was amazing at night as it’s all lit up and there are brightly colored boats on the river. Shanghai really is a wonderful city and I’m so excited to be here. I’m ready to keep exploring and keeping trying out my Chinese. I can tell this is going to be an awesome semester. The students are all really nice and so far we get along great. It’s been kind of fun for me since a lot of people are relying on me to get them around the area. It puts some good pressure on me to improve my Chinese! 

Ok, it’s time for me to get to bed. Luckily my room in finally starting to warm up. I may not need to wear my hat to sleep tonight!