http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Bobb in Shanghai/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Bobb in Shanghai en-us Fri, 05 Dec 2008 11:25:49 UTC Fri, 05 Dec 2008 11:25:49 UTC Hello all. This is just a quicky but I'm losing my internet connection today. I will be traveling to Qingdao on Sunday to enjoy some beer and beaches and just a week after that I'll be back Stateside. Its been a wild ride and its ending all too soon but with the promise of a new semester and new challenges I'm sure life will be just as fun back home as it is here.I will be looking for i http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-291833.html Hello all. I know its been a while and I have a few free minutes so I thought I'd write a quick update. The past couple of days have been rainy and the past week and a half I've been working pretty steadily on researching my wushu's history. I've found that my Chinese language skills are helping me to understand my history much easier. The names make more sense to me and I can better formula http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-281006.html The 9th Shanghai World Grand Wushu Festival was hosted on May 14 2008. I was invited to compete in this annual event and I signed up to demonstrate three forms. The first would be a Taiji form that I learned from Zhou Laoshi my Taiji teacher here in China. The second two were to be representative of my true love Chen Jia Wushu which I have learned back in America. I signed up for a Gun F http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-276439.html The 9th World Grand Wushu Festival 2008 Shanghai is coming up next weekend. I am competing in two events. One is the traditional bare hand category where I will be representing Chen Jia Wushu by performing a form Taolu that I learned in America from Sifu Tom Akers and DaiSiHing Robert Sheffield. I am nervous about this one because I remember most of the form but not all and I'm still wa http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-270406.html Below is an excerpt from a letter I recently wrote to a friend of mine. I thought my subscribers would like to read some of itMy language skills have greatly improved. I have a few Chinese friends and the taji class is very helpful for me because I always hear the language being spoken. My responses are still very slow because I have to think about what I'm saying and it takes a while for the http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/blog-266329.html I know I know. I need to update more. Its hard man I have ADD and I'm lazy. Writing is difficult for me and I don't like doing it. Anyone who has written me an email and had to wait 2 weeks for a response... I'm sorry. But you're not the only oneNow for an update I'm still alive I have almost fully recovered from my surgery with only small amounts of pain when I'm working out. And http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-264023.html I know the title of this blog will worry many of my friends and family but those who know my past history understand that I have special insight into long distance relationships which become serious. I have noticed a phenomenon here in Shanghai there are two friends of mine who have become engaged while staying in Shanghai. Through Facebook I know that another friend is in a similar circumsta http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-264014.html Hello everyone I am very sorry for the long wait for an update but life here has been kinda hectic yet mundane at the same time. As some of you already know I was hospitalized for 4 days recently. My appendix was the culprit I went into emergency surgery to have it removed shortly after arriving at the hospital.The stay in the hospital was boring and I didn't even have access to the interne http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-258915.html Traveling abroad has been an interesting experience to say the least. I'm in Shanghai China and I don't speak the language. Granted I'm better than most tourist with one semester under my belt but there's still so many things I'm confused about. Right now I'm pretty sure that my laundry is being washed in dish soap. Oh well. At least I got all the bleach powder out first...Its all coming http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-250470.html Just a quick update Nothing special has happened for the past day or so. I met one of my neighbors a Jewish German Israeli named Nir Meyers. Apparently my Schneider lineage is Jewish who knew We hung out for a while last night. Looks like Irsquom going to have a friend to get into trouble withhellipThis morning was a good one. Woke up early for breakfast then went to see Wang Zheng http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-250216.html Today has been a great day. This morning I went to McDonalds and had the weirdest breakfast sandwich ever. It was a hamburger bun roundedprocessed egg with cheese ketchup and mayonnaise. At least it was easy to order lsquoYirsquo pronounced lsquoeersquo which means onehellip Then I went to Carrefour a supermarket and bought a prepaid mobile. Now I can call the two friends I ma http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-250215.html Irsquom really frustrated right now. I would kill to have someone to talk to but that proves to be more difficult than expected. I bought a phone card this morning. See there are two phones in my room and both have ring tones. After dialing more than 4 digits on one of the phones I get an error signal. The other phone has a card slot and my documentation tells me to go buy a 201 card f http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-250214.html I watched the Bourne Ultimatum last night to help me stay awake a little longer. I want to adjust my timer to where I wake up between 6 and 8 AM. The movie didnrsquot help. My night though much warmer and more comfortable than my first night was full of vivid chase dreams. Irsquove woken up twice now both times because my dreams took a wrong turn they were exciting like the movie. I http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-250211.html Its 630 PM on my second day in Shanghai. This morning after making my first entry I had a lot of stuff to go and take care of. First was breakfast. After asking two guards and one other person where I could find lsquocanrsquo pronounced lsquotsanrsquo I finally found the lsquocan tingrsquo cafeteria. I watched the cook boil noodles in a very large wok then he added potatoes http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-250209.html Yesterday was the longest day of my life. Not that anything bad happened to me it just was a long day. I watched the sunrise from my flight from Charlotte to Chicago. That was right around 600 AM EST. Thatrsquos the last thing I remember before waking up during our landing at OrsquoHare International Airport. From there I found my next gate to begin my 3 and half hour wait before board http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-250161.html Two weeks from today I will be on a plane on my way to the other side of the world. Yet I'm not nervous about it at all. I've been hanging out with as many friends as I can and even developed some new ones in the past weeks. My life feels pretty normal except for this big looming adventure that I'm about to face. As I travel around my hometown I'm paying more attention to architecture art http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-243182.html My name is Bobb Shields and my Chinese name is 358742027120043 Xie Bo Zhi. I am traveling to Shanghai International Studies University for a semester in China I leave in the middle of February and won't be back until early July. My intensive study will include reading writing and conversing in Mandarin which spoken by over 1.1 billion people in the world. That's more than double http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-236445.html