First Impressions

Well, Sophie was right. The river that you fly over coming into Shanghai is very big, very brown, and very dirty. But the airport itself was very clean, and very empty... I'm not sure why. The flight wasn't too bad after the fact... but about halfway through (7 hours) I actually thought I was going to explode. It didn't help that I had a window seat, and got up to use the bathroom 5 times while the guy next to me went to the bathroom once (over 14 hours!). I read New Moon and watched two movies, Bride Wars and He's Just Not That Into You. I thought the movies were both very stupid but I liked New Moon. I guess I should've went for something more prestigious, like Gran Torino.

Once we landed in Shanghai, a very interesting thing happened. The flight attendants told us to stay in our seats because Chinese officials were going to board the plane and distribute a survey dealing with the swine flu. At this point I was practically vibrating--after 14 hours of sitting my legs were ready to run a 5k. Also, my flight had been delayed an hour in Chicago and I had arrived at 2:50 PM with the pickup time at 3:00, meaning I had ten minutes to clear customs, pick up my bag and find the group. A survey, I thought, okay... fair enough. The surveys had a couple questions--have you been in contact with anyone with the flu, have you been in contact with pigs... etc, etc. But then the Chinese officials board the plane and they are wearing biohazard suits. I mean, full on hazmat biohazard suits. They used some sort of infrared gun to test everyone's temperature and then sent everyone on their way. I don’t think anyone was quarantined. My first example of culture shock… I guess.

At this point I was sure I had missed the group, because my luggage was also delayed. It was around 4:30 PM (4:30 AM Michigan time… meaning that I had been awake for almost 24 hours) that I finally left the baggage area. I walked out and saw a kid holding a sign that said ‘UM-JI Students.’ I told him I was from the group and he told me I was the last one to arrive from the 3:00 PM group. I was very relieved that they had someone to pick me up and that I would not be left until the next pickup at 10 PM! We took a taxi to the campus (a rather terrifying ride) and as I got out of the cab there were about 5 Chinese students cheering for me, one of which was my buddy, Frank. Frank graciously carried my 50.5 lb suitcase up the 5 flights of stairs and showed me to my room. My roommate Jasmine had not arrived yet. At that point, around 6:30 PM, I was very tired so I just went to sleep. (This is a feat I have not been able to do so easily recently, because I have come to realize that my mattress is actually just a brick disguised as a mattress.)

The next day we had a tour of the campus, which consisted mostly of walking all around campus and eating in one of the dining halls (canteens). On Monday I started classes. My Chinese class is divided into two components, language and culture. On Monday I had the first lectures for Chinese language and Introduction to Circuits. My professor for language is a Chinese professor, for circuits it is a professor from the University of Kentucky. Classes here are pretty different from classes in the U.S. First of all, the students begin to arrive about 30 minutes early to reserve their seats and the front and middle rows are the first to fill up. Students are not afraid to ask to get by someone if it means getting a better seat. Secondly, the class is much more high-energy than class in the U.S. The students are almost always talking, even when the professor is speaking. I could tell the professor was distracted by it and tried several times to make the class be quiet but it never really worked.

Monday night almost the entire group took the metro downtown and went to some bars. We were led by some of the Chinese students from campus. They told us it is VERY rare for a Chinese student to go out on a Monday night, so we were gracious for them taking us. We went to a couple Western bars that were pretty expensive, I paid about $4.50 for a beer when I have seen the same brand on campus for about $1.

The rest of the week we have just been going to classes and trying to figure out what to eat in the cafeterias. I realize now that I left out a few details that will be of interest to everyone:

Bathrooms: The bathrooms in the dorms are pretty gross. There are two ‘squat’ toilets and one western toilet. Towards the end of the day, they smell like an old outhouse. The water from the sink is not clean to drink, so I have to brush my teeth with bottled water. We have a ‘Drink the Water Machine’ in our room for water.

Food: I find the food similar to Chinese food in the U.S., but with more variety. There are lots of stir-fry style choices in the canteens, all served with white rice. Dumplings or potstickers in a broth are popular, as well as fried rice or noodles. In the canteens, you just point at what you want to eat and they serve it to you... most of the time I have no clue what I am eating. Sometimes the Chinese students will translate for me though. I think the food must be very salty—I am thirsty all the time. There are only chopsticks, but I find them pretty easy to use.

Wow, this entry was SO long! In the future they won’t be as long—I’ve got all the basics down now. This weekend we have a tour of downtown Shanghai that I am excited for, more to come on that later.

Katie

This is actually Korean food from a Korean restaurant on campus. The Chinese food is similar.

Noodles with tofu. This is my favorite thing to have for lunch.

The new library. Most of the campus was built in the last 15 years, so it is very modern.

Inside the library--it is beautiful!

Bikes, bikes, and more bikes... I haven't decided whether I am going to buy a bike or not.

Chinese kids love basketball (and bikes).

This isn't a great picture; its the view from our window of the dorms. There are no dryers so the students hang their clothes outside to dry.

The drink the water machine has two options--hot and room temperature water.

My Chinese cell phone.

This picture doesn't really belong here but this is the view from the bar we went to last night, De La Coast. It was gorgeous! More to come on that later...