After all the disorganization of yesterday we figured we would “do our own thing” and tour without the group. This didn’t go over well with the staff and we somehow got coerced into staying with the group. Due to some miscommunication one member of our group, Brandon, got left behind. We had told him we would meet him back at the hotel around 2pm but later we found out this was too late and that if we went back to the hotel we would miss our train…so…we left Brandon a note to meet us elsewhere and hoped for the best! THE [View Full Entry]

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THE CITY It’s very modern, with lots of blue glass and tall skyscrapers. Some funky modern buildings are created to look old, but Shanghai is a fairly modern so they definitely aren’t that old. It feels like a huge city that is densely packed but definitely seems large in size as well (compared to say, NYC). There are tons of cranes everywhere. Now I understand what people mean when they say China is going to be the next superpower. On the river I think I could seriously make out more cranes than building. This is maybe only a slight exaggeration. THE [View Full Entry]

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THE PLANE RIDE We arrived in China around 9pm, Chinese time after about 30hrs of travel (plane and layovers). It’s very hot and humid here. We got to the hotel round midnight. Some people actually went out in the city after we checked in (psychos?) The plane ride was long but I met some nice new people I’ll be spending lots of time with. The reality of teaching set in. At first this had me feeling excited and then soon after very nervous. I originally looked at this trip as a means to explore China and “having to teach” to do [View Full Entry]

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