Saturday, January 12, 2008 – 1st day in Shanghai, China!

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Well hello!

I know it's been a few days since you've heard from me. Honestly, I haven't been anywhere. Some kind of extremely long-lasting unusual fog set in on the east coast of Asia, we heard all the way from North China down to Thailand, some 3,000 miles was covered in fog. We arrived close to Shanghai 4 days ago, 2 days early even, and anchored about 20 miles off the coast. Then the fog set in, and we couldn't go anywhere. I mean you literally couldn't see the water looking straight down off the side of the ship it was so dense. I've never seen anything like it! The city had to close its airports and all of its seaports. So then 2 days ago came, and we were supposed to go into Shanghai, but were stuck out here. We kept hearing reports that the fog might clear, but instead we waited and waited and waited. Last night the fog finally cleared enough that we could come in. We started moving around 11pm or so, and when I woke up at 8 this morning, we were docked in Shanghai. I walked about 2 miles to the main shopping district and bought a warm coat, because it's about 45 degrees (F).

Because of the delays, they canceled our trip to Beijing, and a lot of people were upset. Well we still have all day tomorrow free, so me and 3 others are taking an overnight train there tonight, spending all day there tomorrow, and taking the overnight train back tomorrow night, in time for our classes that start Monday morning. Going to Beijing is no small feat. It is 915 miles north of here, and the train moves up to 100mph at times. The total time should take 12 hours exactly. The distance is roughly from Jacksonville, Florida to New York City. We just checked the weather in Beijing, and it is 12 degrees (F) there. A lot of people in the group are going to be jealous when they find out we went! But I don't care if people think I’m crazy, going to see the Great Wall is one of the reasons I wanted to come on this whole trip! The train ticket is only $70, and there is no hotel involved. The group rate we were going to have to pay to all go together was $420. And I would probably spend $70 staying here tomorrow anyway. We don't know what else we'll have time to do besides see the Great Wall and Tian’enman Square and the Forbidden City, but I don't really care. You can't come to China and not see those things! We'll still have some free time to see Shanghai when we get back, so I'm not worried about that either.

Otherwise, life on the ship has been pretty good. I was incredibly sick all week. My fever came down after the first day of it and all I was left with was a bad case of bronchitis and a really bad cold, but the runny nose is almost gone now, and all that’s left is just a mild cough. Classes are great- our discussions are wonderful! But the reading is not. A few of our classmates have already dropped out and switched to other majors or dropped down to undergrad classes because Post-Graduate International Relations is so difficult apparently. But I still think I can do it. :-)

These last 2 days that we just sat on the ship when we were supposed to be in Shanghai felt like snow days back home. We had no classes, just watched movies and waited for the fog to clear. They organized all kinds of tournaments, and I write to you now as the fooseball champion of the ship, pulling a stunning upset of Sandro, the previously unbeaten Spaniard. He's fancy and got lots of moves, and he had previously beaten me multiple times on earlier days, but my solid fundamentals and consistency was too much for him in the championship game. The whole thing was videoed, so you might see it on the TSS website if they put new ones on there. Then last night we had a big trivia contest among students, staff, and faculty. There were 9 student teams, a staff team, and a faculty team. We were supposed to organize ourselves according to our residential communities (the people who live around us), and our team was mostly those people. But I organized our team from the beginning, and picked up some other key people I though could help. The faculty team and our team ended up in a shootout, and we won! We beat our own professors! It was amazing. And as they were announcing the winners, the boat started moving, and then everyone went into an uproar!

And that was the end to a great day for me. I'm back on the boat right now from shopping, leaving in 20 minutes for the train station. I won't have my computer there, so you probably won't hear from me for another few days. I'm not doing any school in Thailand in 2 weeks, so I'll for sure be able to sit down and check all my email and stuff then. Anyway, I know this whole thing was completely random, and I'll try to do better starting soon. If you want to email me, send it to [e-mail], and that would be much easier for me. It's a long story to explain why, but if you send me anything, send it to me there. Bye for now!

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