Too Exciting to Write

Tuesday, January 6, the USAC group from Chengdu visited us in Shanghai. We went to dinner with them, and it was only alright. Usually when we go out to eat with our program director, You Sha, she takes us to the most phenomenal restaurants. However, this was the first "miss" of our trip. However, there was a sweet and sour dish that was to die for. A full size fish, the exact type I can't be sure, was filleted and drenched in this amazing sauce. To top the dish off, shrimp was sprinkled over the top.

After dinner, we went to the acrobatics show. It was a lot like Cirque d'Solei shows in Orlando, except less polished and more Chinese... The male acrobats all had uber funky hair styles. There were no nets and the stunts were awesome. I was literally on the edge of my seat the entire time. Everyone around me had to listen to me ooh and ahh the whole time.

Wednesday was the first day of class for me. Since our class didn't start until 1 pm, a group of us decided to venture out to Nanjing Road, a signature shopping street. Our goal was to find a spectacular, somewhat rumored, market. We later came to realize that the market is on Nanjing Road West and we were on Nanjing Road East. Personally, I was in the market for a large purse. I really only brought one and it's quite small, definitely not built to carry all the things that a life in Shanghai requires; including, but not limited to toilet paper, hand sanitizer, chopsticks, napkins, immodium, camera, map, cell phone, phrase book.

We wandered the street for a quite a while. We had no success finding this "fashion market." As foreigners on Nanjing Road, locals are constantly coming up to you asking if you want bags, wallets, watches, etc. After we couldn't waste any more time wandering around, we decided to follow one of these Chinese personal shoppers that had approached us.

He led us several blocks behind Nanjing Lu Dong (Nanjing Road E.) to back neighborhood stores with brightly lit secret showrooms, designed to mimic the luxury stores. One such store was actually a hotel room that had been redesigned to resemble a store. Another was by all street appearances a children's clothing store. However, when you went in, a shelving unit was actually a door to a back room containing tons of imitation luxury goods.

These shops require serious haggling. For 200 kuai, after a starting price of 800 kuai, I bought a red leather Chloe bag. It's actually really nice and huge! (thankfully, as I really needed to carry so many things around with me)

On our way back, we got confused and ended up taking the wrong train home. By the time we realized our mistake, the damage had been done. We were over a half an hour late to class. Luckily, as we're quickly learning, the classes here are not very strict at all. Our professor was very understanding that we are not well acclimated to the area yet.

The class itself is actually going to be very interesting. Super easy compared to a class back in the United States. As most of the class ended up being a discussion, we asked the professor any and all questions about China. The professor seemed to relish the opportunity to speak English and ask questions about America. She studied in England and worked at an old folks home, interestingly enough.

Wednesday evening we headed out to a nightclub, M2. M2 was a bangin' club. In my effort to pack very few things, I managed to bring no clothing for going out. As an American, the dress code is debatable. The DJ was great though. He played a great mix of songs from "SexyBack" to Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive." Everybody had a great time. No real sloppiness... one guy lost his coat, but I think that was just because he was inexperienced with club etiquette, not so much a reflection of his coherence.

Wednesday was the first day that I got any sense we were in a communist country. For us, as Americans, it's like a dreamland here. It's all we can consume from food to alcohol to goods. Chinese people, like our professors and the people we meet paint a more realistic picture for us. Life in the cities is manageable. However, so many things are manipulated in China by guan xi or "connections" and "relationships," that corruption is commonplace. The corruption limits true freedom. And, from all accounts, life is worse in the rural areas.

Thursday began with my first real illness since I've been here. I woke up and went for a run. There is so much pollution here. I haven't seen a blue sky in the week that I've been here. But since I was breathing in a lot of the air, I could only run about half of my normal distance. I came home and threw up. I grabbed lunch, went to class, came back and got sick. Afterwards, I was feeling a little bit better, so a few of us went and got massages and took our second stab at locating the marketplace. We met up more people for dinner... dumpling soup. We came back and tried to watch a movie, but I ended up falling asleep. From the 30 minutes that I saw, Valkyrie was pretty boring.

By 9 am this morning, we were up and at an expatriate sports bar called Bubba's Texas BBQ to watch the National Championship. The bar was so great. I got American food and my first full stomach of Shanghai. We met several Gators at the bar. It was a great game, great atmosphere, especially after we won, there was a bar full of people to celebrate with.

After the game we met up with the group. The were touring some sights around Shanghai today, which unfortunately we missed. I definitely plan to visit the sights on my own time though. We did meet up with everyone just in time to take a river boat cruise on the Huangpu River, which is the main river that cuts through Downtown Shanghai. Interesting fact, if a person falls into the Huangpu River, then the standard procedure is that they must be hospitalized for at least 3 weeks. You could probably guess... it's pretty brown.

I have been on and off sick since Thursday morning. I felt okay today, but just now I've been so nauseous that I can't even stand. I'm very disappointed, because I couldn't go out with everyone. I take comfort in the notion that there will be plenty more nights here in Shanghai!