Too Much Excitement

It's only been about a week and a half since my last post but I feel like I have so many things to cover! It feels like we have had activities planned for almost every day... I'll go in chronological order. But first order of business... I bought a bike!





It's the one on the left. The pink one is my roommate Jasmine's. I bought it for 240 RMB (about $35). I can get 100 RMB back if it's still in good shape at the end of the summer.

At this point I have more experience riding on the back of the bike than actually riding it; my friend David usually drives me around because he does not have a bike on campus. About 75% of the bikes you see on campus have someone riding on the back.

This is a picture of Darren and John demonstrating the technique. It's a little scary because the person on back can pretty much determine which direction you go by leaning one way or the other. But I think I've got the hang of it now (being the rider, anyways...haha)





Thursday, May 7th:





We went to a bar called De La Coast. It had gorgeous views of the bund (see last post) and an open-bar for 100 RMB for guys and 50 for girls since it was ladies' night (about $15/7.50). I think it's safe to say that we made a pretty strong American first impression on the place. (And probably would not be invited back.)





Friday, May 8th:



A couple of us went to a market that sells fakes purses, sunglasses, etc. When you would ask for Coach purses or any of the well-known brands they would bring you to the back of the store through a secret door in the wall to a room with all the designer purses. Pretty sketchy. I didn't get any pictures because I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have liked that too much. I also had my first experience bargaining, which turned out to be pretty successful.

We stopped at a Chinese fast-food restaurant on the way though, and I did get pictures there.

I got some noodles with shrimp for about $3.50.


The best/most interesting meal of the group had to have been Adam's... it consisted of a cream-colored jello concoction with mushrooms and some pickle-like things.

Saturday, May 16:

We had a whirlwind tour of many famous places in and around Shanghai. We started off at Xin Tian Di, which was where the first meeting of the communist party took place. It actually reminded me of California.

Along the way we were attacked by small Chinese children wanting to take our picture.

Next we went to Tian Zi Fang, which was an older town that had a lot of art galleries. The galleries were expensive and kind of boring so we just wandered around and got lost in some of the alleys.

Walking around in the alleys was really eye-opening. I felt like it was my first glimpse into the of "real life" of some Chinese people.

Next we went to the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum. There was a to-scale model of Shanghai which covered almost an entire floor. It was crazy...

Then we went to Yu Garden... aka Trinkettown. There were vendors everywhere selling every type of Chinese trinket you could ever want in your entire life.

There was a Dairy Queen there! I was excited...

Yu Garden is famous for the xiaolongbao dumplings. They are filled with crab and other types of meat and vegetables and have a sauce on the inside. You bite them and suck the sauce out then eat them. They were delicious!

We ended our day with a nighttime boat cruise on the Hangpu River. The view was beautiful. Needless to say, we were exhausted at this point.

Sunday, May 10th

We had a welcoming party with our SJTU buddies. We played games and learned to write our names in Chinese. This is me and my buddy Frank. On the right is my name, on the left, his.

May 11th - 14th

Well, I don't have much to say about these days... I just went to class... boring!

Friday, May 15th


As part of our Chinese culture class we ate lunch in a Chinese restaurant in Qibao and had some traditional Chinese foods. This is the restaurant we ate at and my professor Weiqi. In China a lot of women carry umbrellas because pale skin is traditionally considered more beautiful.

More pictures of Qibao...

Appetizers: chicken feet! aka the feet of the pheonix in Chinese...

The entire time I was attempting to eat these I couldn't get over the feeling that that is what it would be like to eat your own pinkie finger. At one point I was instructed to bite it at the knuckle in order to be able to rip it apart. Overall, it wasn't bad tasting, just really salty.

The next course: duck tongue! The part on the left is actually the duck's beak and the part in the middle is his tongue. I actually liked this, minus the fact that the meat was very tough.

The full spread. We also tried yellow and white Chinese wines. The white was 52% alcohol and tasted a lot like alcoholic soy sauce. The yellow was less intense but didn't taste very good either.

The main course, a soup with a whole fish in it and every other sort of seafood imaginable.

Dessert... some sort of sweet rice mixture. Literally the stickiest thing I have ever eaten. I'm pretty sure there was a layer of it on my teeth when I left.

On the way out we saw this sign (Sophie had commented about this in my earlier post). My culture professor explained that it's supposed to mean something along the lines of 'slippery when wet' or 'steps, be careful' but something was lost in the translation...

Next we wandered around Qibao... there were some shops selling some really gross bugs. (Mom, I don't think you want a cricket house, I would've had to buy the cricket along with it which was about 3" long and GROSS)

Saturday, May 16th

We had a 'scavenger hunt' with some students from SJTU at Oriental Land. Oriental Land was seriously a strange place. I don't even know how to describe it. It was part military training zone, part golf course, and part lake. In addition to families and us, there were students there completing government-mandatory military training but mostly I just saw them walking around eating ice cream. There was also a bunch of statues and 'fun bridges' over the water that you could play on which, had they been in the U.S., were begging for lawsuits.

The scavenger hunt was set up like the Amazing Race where we had to run around and complete tasks in the shortest amount of time. My group came in last... haha. I was pretty miserable because I chose the wrong day to break in a new pair of shoes that were way too small for my feet.

The time after the scavenger hunt was the most fun. We crammed 6 people onto a bike made for 2 and rode around the park.

We also went in 'hamster balls' on the river. This was my favorite activity of the day because 1) I got to take off my terribly uncomfortable shoes and 2) it was hilarious. You couldn't stand up for more than 3 seconds and it was so funny to watch everyone try and run in the balls. I spent almost half my time just sitting because I was laughing too hard to get up.

Going in the water... and... 2 seconds later.

Everyone in the 'hamster balls.'

We are planning a trip to Beijing in two weeks and I'll update one more time before then. We are planning on seeing the Olympic stadiums and the Great Wall. I am so excited!

Well, seeing as it is almost 2:30 AM, I guess I should go to bed...

Check back soon!

Katie