Oriental Orientation

8/29/09

Not sure how I made it through my first week in Shanghai, but sure enough it’s been done. The past week has been an experience that I could have never dreamed up before coming here. To recap my week of orientation for all those who have been viciously affected by the lack of technical communication (ie: no facebook and cell phone), here goes…

I wanted everyone to feel the thoughts that consumed my mind while I was on the plane. I have re-read my messy journal entry that I wrote in the dark and will include some of the literary gems I wrote. I’ve never felt so anxious and terrified to leave home than I did last week. I basically had a knot in my stomach for the last couple of days I spent at home. So when I opened my journal on the plane in my mid-panic/flight anxiety attack (we were cruising right over the North Pole), to find a secret letter from my Mom, tears started flowing. So I wrote some serious jib jab about what the heck am I doing and how much I missed my family and friends already. I turned on 30 Rock and immediately felt better. When we landed, we met some people from CIEE and other participants who seemed normal…woo!

The first couple of nights were pretty restless for me mainly because of jet lag. As I glanced over at Hallie getting 10-12 hours of sleep, I pretty much felt pure jealousy. However, a few nights later, I found a decent sleeping pattern. The rock hard beds were also something to get used to….and all the salty food. Anyone who knows anything about me is aware that I like a plethora of fruits and vegetables (and a mean sandwich), so all these salty, carb-filled, large meals were starting to get to me. Now that Hallie and I are in our apartment, we hope to go blander with our food choices.

To give an overall summary of the sites I’ve seen is going to give no justice to the incredible views, but I’ll give it a go. We went on a walking tour of the French Concession, which was so beautiful! It looked a lot like Europe. It was equipped with cute buildings and the 2nd prettiest trees I’ve ever seen (1st is Magnolia Ridge, of course.) Our crew wondered around the Bund, which was covered with construction due to the World Expo starting in May 2010, but really cool to see the first sites of the Oriental Pearl Tower and the downtown area. This was the first day that I really noticed how smoggy and polluted the city is. The third day we went up one of the world’s tallest buildings, China’s tallest building: The Shanghai World Financial Center. It is actually the highest observation deck in the entire world. It felt as if I was a part of the Star Trek crew. The employees were dressed like people from outer space and the whole interior was so bright I felt like I needed to wear sunglasses inside. The view from the top was SO INCREDIBLE. We even saw the men washing the windows and I was very scared for them. This was by far my favorite site yet. The next day we went on a walking tour of the Lujiazui Commercial Area. It was a lot of tall buildings and an overall sweaty, humid, rainy day. But the nasty weather took a hiatus long enough for our river cruise on the Hangppu River. It is the river that splits the city in two and gives the most amazing views of the lights of Shanghai. The last walking tour was of the Tian Zi Fang Art Street, which was filled with quaint cafes and shops. This again reminded me of Europe. It was very cute and I got to see a different side of Chinese culture. I also ate some awesome ice cream, so good!

Our Chinese outings are definitely worth commenting on too. We went to a traditional “Face Changing” performance at a spicy food restaurant called Baguobuyi. I have A) never seen a Lazy Susan so big in my life, B) felt so incompetent using chopsticks (rice noodles were all over my area), C) saw crazy ‘professional’ tea-pourers pour tea in a kung fu way, and D) witnessed the craziest performance with a Chinese man changing his face like a magic show. The next night we ate at my 2nd favorite dinner of the week, Jujube Tree, a vegetarian place that was so tasty. After our meal we went to an acrobatic show that was so intense it felt like it may not have been real. Those little girls are insanely limber, strong, talented, brave, and absolutely out of their minds. It was SOOOOOO cool. Our farewell dinner was surprisingly really sad. We ate at the Faculty Club Restaurant (in the hotel where we were staying) and it was my favorite meal. I got to eat salad, shrimp, fried fish, chicken, egg rolls, and this fried corn and pea pie that had sprinkles on it and tasted like a funnel cake (only in China, right?). Again, one heck of a Lazy Susan. The dinner ended with some serious karaoke from our CIEE staff. They got really into it and it was very entertaining to watch.

Our whole program was broken up into three groups. Hallie and I were in Group 3, which coincidentally was the best group. Fiona, our leader, led our “Survival” Chinese lessons. She was the best! She called Hallie and I ‘twins’ and loved us so much and we loved her just the same. Basically our social group formed out of this Group 3 business. Our best friends that we made were Eliot, Ryan, and Helen. But we also got to know the rest of the group pretty well too: Jordan, Phil, Betsy, Seth, Josh and Jessica. We had the best group by far and we became friends really quickly. Eliot and Ryan stayed a couple doors down from us and we befriended them early on with a game of Bananagrams. It was all smooth sailing after that. We went out two nights that we were in orientation and both nights were a lot of fun and interesting. One started with free margaritas and ended in my favorite lipstick being used as a writing utensil for our hotel’s name. Being slightly lost on the streets of Shanghai early on was something I was not expecting. The other night we attempted to karaoke, but incidentally stumbled into a gay bar. Naturally, right? Hallie and I were both really surprised how much we loved our friends and were very sad to say goodbye to them (as none of them with the exception of Betsy were placed at our school or in that case, Shanghai). We will hopefully get to travel together or some will come and stay with us and vise versa. We did attempt to do some karaoke at KTV and didn’t have the patience for the line, so another attempt is definitely in store.

We are now moved into our apartment in Southwest Shanghai and the apartment itself deserves it’s own blog posting. We have training and orientation with our school, Shanghai Jazz English Institute, tomorrow morning (8/30/09).

WPB:
Ge An – Buffin’s Chinese name

Bu yong xie – you’re welcome