Finally found some time to hit up the Caster Studio again. I practiced some powermove transitions and freezes - only had 50 minutes there. While I was there, I saw another bboy in the larger room and didn't feel like really talking to him since I only had a few minutes until he started pulling out some airflares to flares to mills transitions, ha! He had decent style too...only problem was that he spoke very very little English, like my Chinese, ha. So we just exchanged names and then I kept solo training....I really need to learn how speak Chinese better now!! Oh and I was so sore from working out yesterday, guess the protein I bought doesn't have much potassium....... read more

The first GT Alumni Reception (gathering/meeting) ever in China was held today and any interested SSP students (from the LBAT students to the Graduate dual major students) could attend as long as they RSVP'd. I, expecting free food, of course decided to attend and it was well worth it! I chose this over doing Nanjing right after our Suzhou day trip. It was held in the "Two Cities Gallery" at the M50 Art District, a pretty explore-worthy looking place. Though I don't remember exactly how to get there...we just took a taxi, the subway's a bit far from the stop. The only undergrads that went were Derryl, Phillip, and myself. Derryl likes to network and meet interesting people (primarily women), Philip likes food and only looks for women to talk to, and I just wanted some ... read more

Dragonboat Festival was today! That means Dragonboat Races (as long as I found the location) and getting to eat with and share a cultural experience with a local family! The only source I could find said that there would be a dragonboat race and festival around 1pm near Zhongtan Subway Station...however I have to get back by 3:10pm to not be late meeting up with our volunteer student host who will take her to her house. I took Line 1 to People's Square and then hopped on Line 3 at the exchange (where my ticket worked, pay attention) and had 7 stops til Zhongtan. On the way there I noticed a closer exchange from Line 3 straight to Line 1 at the Railway Station, but it wasn't all that clearly marked... I arrived at Zhongtan ... read more

It's Tuesday and Dragon Boat Festival is on Thursday! See (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_boat_festival). And as a part of the SSP program we get the amazing opportunity to share the festival with a local family and absorb some culture! But we do need to buy a gift for the host family to show our appreciation and the most suggested item was a bottle of wine or chocolates. So my group - Sam and Sae Young - decided to go with both a bottle of wine and a cake. Ethan and few other students had come across an extensive wine store in the French Concession of Shanghai (3 stops up Line 1) the other day where we could buy a good wine even if we didn't know what to look for because the shop attendant knew just about EVERYTHING there ... read more

Apart from one student in the program waking up in a random apartment in Pudong with two French girls who were just glad he was alive and not in a coma and who helped him pay for a taxi back to SJTU and him barely making it to the tour on time, that morning was uneventful - though I did go for a another run and cut my leg on something. First stop on the tour Saturday morning was at the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Centre. We had a short tour of the place, seeing the history of the Bund, how Shanghai has quickly developed and grown, how the architecture in several districts has been changed or preserved, and plans for the future. I scanned around a little bit, but much of it was in Chinese, ... read more