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I arrived in Shanghai at 11:00pm on Friday night but the language barrier became apparent the moment I stepped on the airplane in Atlanta. I flew Korean Air and all the flight attendants were korean with limited english. The flight took about 15 hrs to Seoul, Korea where we had a 2 hr layover before a 2 hr plane ride to Shanghai. I was served 4 meals over the two flights but I gave up asking what the menu choices were after the second meal. When we arrived in Shanghai some grad students from SJTU were supposed to meet us but the bus had a problem and were about 20 min late. Since no one in the group, including the faculty member leading the group, could not speak Chinese and no one had a cell phone, we just sat cluelessly waiting in the airport. Once they showed up everyone piled on the bus and we got our first glance at Shanghai traffic. There almost seems to be no rules, and if there are rules they are not strictly enforced. Our large bus bullied its way through traffic, including cutting of 3 lanes of traffic who had the green light for a
Shopping District
located about 5min from campus U-turn. We pulled in the hotel exhausted, the full trip, from the time I left Aunt Delores house, to the time we pulled in the hotel took ~27hrs. Needless to say I fell asleep immediately.
Despite taking ambien and being exhausted my body decided to wake up at 5am and refused to go to sleep. My guess is that the combination of traffic outside my window, the early sunrise (China is all on 1 time zone and Shanghai is China's most eastern city), and my internal clock being messed up is making the time adjustment harder. The first full day in Shanghai we met some grad student volunteers who showed us around campus and took us to the shopping district, about a 5 min walk. There they helped us buy mobile phones/sim cards, power strips, etc. For lunch I had my first Chinese chopsticks experience with noodles. Apparently its perfectly acceptable to hang over your bowl and slurp your noodles after you have picked them up with your chopsticks. All I could think about was how if I was at home my Dad would have already sent me away from the table because of bad manners. I think I
still have to work on my technique because I got several soup spots on my shirt by the end of dinner. None of the restaurants seem to typically serve napkins, at least any place where you use chopsticks, and at this particular restaurant I had to buy napkins. For dinner a group of us ate at a Brazilian Steak house Buffet for 75RMB or about $12. It would have been at least $50. They served all sorts of meat cuts, including some delicacies such as Chicken heart and Cow tongue. I did not try those dishes but I did try some cuddlefish and eel. Finally that night a group of us went out with one guy in the program who showed us a two popular clubs in Shanghai that cater to the international scene. It was free to get in, and both venues were packed. It was a full 1st day!
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