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Published: February 19th 2009
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This week I've been fairly busy with orientation activities. CIEE has an extensive orientation program here. It's a week-long process with different workshops everyday. Some are required, some aren't. And we took a trip to downtown Shanghai yesterday.
So far, things have been going well in terms of settling in. On Monday I successfully bartered down a salesman for a cheap cell phone and sim card. Every phone here is a pay-as-you-go type of deal. And generally you have to pay more if you want a good phone number (with a lot of 8's and no 4's). So naturally, not really caring about my number, it has a lot of 6's and 7's and 3's (which no one cares about).
The weather here isn't quite what I expected. Guide books describe Shanghai as a sub-tropical environment, but so far I haven't seen that. Granted, I was warned that it was going to be cold here in February, but I didn't take into account how big a difference the lack of sunlight makes. Unlike winter in New England, where it can be cold AND sunny, apparently Shanghai can't quite multi-task like that. It's been cloudy and often rainy since I
got here. I definitely did not bring enough warm shirts. Such a tragedy, I guess I'll have to go shopping! And yes, shopping here in China is like probably everything you've heard. Depending on where you go, goods are shady and the deals are superb. There's a huge market of completely fake merchandise and I'm sure if you asked about products' origins, answers would be hard to come by. But that's a bit closer to the center of Shanghai. ECNU (where I am) is located a bit farther from downtown in a massive residential area. Around ECNU are tons of little mom and pop shops. These are the type of stores where you can walk in and bargain (usually). I usually wait for them to offer a cheaper price to cue me as to when to haggle. Also, bootleg DVDs here are definitely improved. They're a little more expensive then they used to be (a dollar or so as compared to 3 for a dollar) but the quality is much less hit or miss. Seeing as I do not have a TV here to watch, cheap DVDs make a fantastic substitute.
I found out how I did on my
language placement exam today and got the books for 2 of my 4 classes. Classes start Monday, but I already have homework. This semester should prove challenging I think.
I had written a bit more for this entry earlier today, but it was lost due to my unreliable internet connection here. Hopefully I can remember what I'm missing at a later date, but if any of you fantastic readers have any questions you want to see answered in my blog, just let me know. Maybe you want to know about other cultural differences I haven't mentioned, or how the driving is here (yikes!)? Or anything else you can think of.
~Nutmeg
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Kathy Lasch
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Fantastic opportunity
Having never been to China, I truly enjoyed learning from you and your photos. Please blog more. Let us all know how your classes are going and what you are learning on this fantastic journey of yours.