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!

Moving into the dorm

Well my program has officially started. I am all moved into my room and am currently waiting for my water heater to warm up so that I can take a shower and go to bed. In total there are 41 students attending the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics program. I think I have for the most part met everyone, but I can only remember a select few names at this point.

Here are some of my first impressions: It’s cold. There are very few girls here. Why are all the guys so tall? And is there anyone who has studied more Chinese then me? 

While Shanghai’s weather has been close to 60 degrees over the past few days, it’s gone down to about 40 degrees now. While this is not that bad for Chicago in the winter, it definitely seems a lot colder when the building you are staying in lacks central heating. Each room has a small heating/ air conditioning unit, but it barely heats up the room. I have had it on for the past 8 hours and the room is still quite freezing. I am going to be sleeping tonight bundled in lots of layers! 

As far as my fellow classmates, it seems like it will be a good variety of students. It almost feels like freshman year all over again where everyone is trying to get to know one another and see who they’ll end up being friends with. After dinner we went to a grocery store where pretty much everyone bought some type of alcohol to drink. There was also a group who wanted to go out to a club on the first night. Luckily, many people stayed behind so I didn’t feel left out at all since I was already kind of tired. It was nice to just hang around and talk with the other students, finding out why they had chosen China to study abroad. 

 

 

My next observation is about the number of guys in the program. They must number at least 2/3 of the entire group. I don’t have the exact numbers yet, but girls are definitely in the minority.  

Another thing that I am noticing is that there aren’t that many people with high levels of Chinese. In fact, as far as I know I may be the most advanced person here. I really hope not, but we shall have to wait and see. There are quite a few students here who haven’t even taken Chinese at all! I’m slightly worried that this will hurt my practice of Chinese, but then again we will have Chinese roommates, plenty of Chinese language classes, and *fingers crossed* an internship. 

  

My room itself is pretty nice for Chinese standards. There is a TV, fridge, water cooler, and even a balcony. While the bathroom leaves much to be desired, I think it will be just fine once I get used to it. Only problem I can see that may come from my bed is that the comforter may not be warm enough. Luckily that is an easy fix.

Tour of Jewish Shanghai

Today my dad and I went on a fascinating tour detailing the historical presence of Jewish people in Shanghai. Our guide was an Israeli who has been living in Shanghai for about 10 years and is dedicated to restoring the artifacts associated with the important, yet little known history of this period. Ultimately there three waves of immigration of Jews over a 100 year time frame. The first came shortly after the Opium war in the 1840s when a few Jewish Iraqi businessmen saw Shanghai as an opportunity to grow their companies. These men ended up creating corporate empires, producing much of the early wealth in the city. Our tour began in the Peace Hotel which was owned by the Sassoon family, one of the most prominent names involved in the Jewish history here.

This hotel is absolutely exquisite. It was built in the 1930s and has retained much of its original style. The art deco layout made me feel as if I was stepping back in time and it was also hard to believe that I was still in China. 

Many of the other old style buildings located on the Bund were also associated with the wealthy Jewish families. This area was the center of financial power at the time and the Jews were at the forefront of the innovation. 

The second wave of immigration came from Russia in the early 1900s due to growing persecution in their home country. The amazing part about Shanghai was that it was an open port, meaning that a person did not need official papers to come to the city. These Jews ended up settling in a poorer part of town. With them they brought much of their European lifestyle to the Chinese streets and began to establish their own businesses and community.

 

The third wave is perhaps the most interesting of the three sagas as it pertains to the fleeing of the Jews from Nazi rule in Europe. In the 1930s, the Jews were running out of places to resettle. Shanghai, due to its open port status, was a prime location that if they could get to the city they would be allowed to stay. Our tour guide is something of an expert of this history. He is actually compiling all his research into a book. We walked around the neighborhood that once was the central location for Jewish immigrants and what later became known as the Jewish ghetto during WWII. 

While the conditions in the Jewish ghetto were unpleasant and disease ridden, these conditions did not compare to the situations facing European Jews at the time. The Jews were for the most part confined within their neighborhood, but some were allowed work permits to leave. One of the most helpful parts was that the Japanese who had taken over Shanghai at the time did not possess anti-Semitic feelings such as those that existed in Europe. In fact, the general attitude toward the Jewish people was somewhat positive as they were seen as a way to gain future business connections with the western world. This outlook may have helped saved the Shanghai Jews from the same fate as their European counterparts. The Germans had urged for annihilation, but the Japanese never acted upon their suggestions.

It is estimated that as many as 20,000 Jews escaped to Shanghai during the pre-war period. This large number was greatly due to efforts of a few men who provided travel permits for those wanting to leave. One man in particular by the name of Dr. Ho issued such permits, saving close to ten thousand lives. The unfortunate part is that his efforts have only just been coming to light which research done by his daughter. Throughout his life he never advertised what he had done and no one knew how much he had helped. 

It truly was fascinating to hear about these stories. We were able to walk round the residential streets where the buildings that the Jews once lived in still stand. The tour concluded in an actual apartment that was bought by a Chinese man from a Jewish family in 1947. It was extremely striking to see the extreme poverty present in these tiny rooms; even more so knowing that people in this neighborhood still live like this today.

 

Keep in mind, this area is located only five minutes away from the Bund, one of the wealthiest places in the city.

One of the horrible things about this entire story is that in 1949 with the communist revolution all the foreigners were expelled and their legacy was completely destroyed. Another unfortunate part is that this area is in danger of being torn down to make room for new high rise buildings. Our guide along with the small Jewish community in Shanghai is working to preserve what is left and expose the rich and important history of this area. The Chinese government did allow for a museum to be built dedicated to the Jewish refugees so hopefully some areas of this neighborhood will be preserved, but for how long, nobody knows.