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!