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Published: March 17th 2013
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After my first two weeks of classes (sorry for being an infrequent blogger...), I truly miss orientation week and realize how little I treasured it beforehand. This program has turned out to be much more difficult than I had originally anticipated. My schedule requires me to attend Chinese class 10am-12pm Monday through Thursday in addition to 3 other classes that meet for 3 hours once a week. I find myself spending between 3-6 hours on just my Chinese homework every night, leaving little or no time to do anything else after class other than get food. Each class begins with a quiz on 20-30 vocab words, characters, pinyin, and meaning. Each week we have a test on the 2 chapters that we learned the past 4 classes. Luckily for me, my Laoshi has chosen to hold the test every Monday, rather than Thursday, to ensure my Sundays will be spent in full homework mode rather than exploring the city as I had hoped. However, the good news is that I am getting a lot better at memorizing characters, even if each new word I learn pushes an old one out the other side of my brain.
One Saturday in an
attempt to be productive, Arber, Zach, Mike and I went to the park right outside of our back gate to try to get some homework done. It was 70 degrees that day and beautiful despite the smog. (We later found out the pollution in Shanghai that day was worse than the air contamination in Beijing which is a very rare occurence. Spending 4-5 hours outside was equivalent to smoking 12 cigarettes... If I return home and do not have lung cancer, it will be a miracle.) The park was filled with tons of local Chinese families and couples lounging around listening to musicians playing Chinese instruments in gazebos. After 30 minutes of looking for a spot to settle down, passing by lakes and climbing up and down stone steps that curved around hills, we quickly came to realize there were very little room for American students to study in Chinese parks. Eventually we found an empty patch of grass on which to settle down and pulled out our homework. Almost immediately, we were surrounded by Chinese adults and children alike all pearing over our shoulders at our Chinese textbooks. It seemed all the people were excited that we foreigners were
attempting to learn their language as well as intrigued by the vocabulary and grammar patterns we were memorizing. The highlight of my day occurred when a little Chinese girl that was probably 7 years old ran up to me, tapped me on the shoulder, and said "you are very beautiful!" She then proceeded to run back to her family as they smiled, waved and encouraged her bravery.
Last weekend we went to Tianzifang which is a really cool marketplace. There are tons of little shops among thin winding walkways that sell a variety of fun items ranging from chopsticks to clothes to artwork, etc. The small, gated area was very homey and we had fun walking around shopping for cute souveniers, or rather most of us had fun. The very first store Zach went into, he asked the price of a small jade dragon more out of curiosity to see how low he could bargain the price than actual interest in purchasing it. 5 minutes later, he was practically wrestling the storekeeper to the ground attempting to get out of the store while she continued yelling progressively lower prices at him. I think it's safe to say he learned
his lesson and will never recreationally bargain again. Halfway through the visit, we got lost down one of the narrow pathways and ended up in the back of one of the art galleries. The owners welcomed us in and as we were passing through, I spotted a mother cat with her two little kittens laying in the corner. I immediately approached them and started petting the kittens despite not having gotten my rabies shot... The shopkeeper informed us that the little kitties were 2 weeks old and that she was giving them away for free. Despite mine and Maria's intense desire to have a dorm pet, our friends turned down our protests and convinced us not to adopt one. 😞 Other ideas for the cats included taking them and selling them elsewhere to turn a profit... we are clearly all business students.
Another cool shopping area Maria and I visited is the huge fake market at East Nanjing Lu. I expected it to be a long street of tables set up with vendors selling random items like Canal St. in NYC. Instead, it turned out to be a huge, urban area filled with tall, brightly lit buildings and small shops. Perhaps we weren't at the fake market but the prices were definitely not cheap for China. Luckily we were still able to find some good deals. I've realized that I really like the clothing style here and should probably keep my shopping in check for the remainder of the trip. Once we were done shopping, Maria and I spent 45 minutes attempting to hail a cab. Apparently, one of the busiest spots in town is also the furthest from a metro stop and has no running cabs in the area... But thank god we weren't able to find a cab because halfway during our trek to the subway station, Maria remembered she forgot her entire bag of newly purchased items somewhere... needless to say, she won fail of the day. After retracing our steps, we found her bag at a tea shop we had stopped in to examine the ornately decorated tea sets. The highlight of the day was our 50 cent purchase of sugar-coated fruit on a stick. Not only did they look and taste delicious, but it was the first fresh fruit I have had since leaving America.
Last night, in celebration of Saint Patrick's day, a bunch of students from my program went on a pub crawl around Shanghai. During the cab ride to our first location, I was mesmerized by the number of artistically lit buildings that seemed to stretch for miles and miles. Every couple of seconds we would pass by a skyscraper that was more colorful and decorative than the last building. The Chinese really know how to create beautiful nighttime architecture. The cherry on top of the sundae was passing under an overpass on the highway that was lit up with blue lights... even cement bridges are illuminated in this city! When we finally got to the first bar, I was surprisingly comforted to see a large number of internationals dressed in green. It's pretty amazing to have properly celebrated St. Patty's in China. The rest of the night continued as one would imagine: lots of crowded bars, rowdy adolescents and eventful bus rides in between locations. By the end of the night, I was happy to be heading home and getting into bed. Anyways, it is getting late so I think it's about time for me to stop procrastinating and get some work done before bed. I will try to blog more frequently from now on but no promises!
Happy Sunday, xoxo Mila
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