Fall in the East

Fall has arrived here in Shanghai and it is not nearly as beautiful as Wisconsin or Minnesota.  It is grey, windy, and as chilly as Chicago, some days including scattered drizzling.  BUT, amongst all this grey, obscure weather, two bright lights shine there way through.  Ms. Jessimuhcuh Yau has stopped in for the 2nd time into Shanghai - so I was able to do really neat things with her.  We checked out LaoXimen (Old West Gate -- 老西门) and walked around that older bit of town.  We scoped through an animal bazaar, of all things.  Chinese people apparently adore Chinchillas much more than cats.....strangely enough.  Even crazier was the fact that you could find crickets in small wooden cages, just like in Walt Disney's "Mulan"!!!  SOOO stereotypical. and awesome.  I was thinking about getting one, but then I don't think my classmates would appreciate a cricket chirping during our listening class....haha.  They had a pretty large range of animals - cats, dogs, chinchillas, crickets, salamanders, frogs, fish, ferrets, turtles....and a chipmunk or two ; )  (try sneaking those things through the American customs department....haha.  good luck.)  Sorry Uncle Brian, no kamodo dragons like in "The Freshman".  maybe they had them in the back......

Around the same area were antique chinese souvenir shops --- really really neat places! (although the products we not super old -- maybe only 20-30 years old, so not really great quality or anything like that)  It was quite fun to take a look around.  I think Jessica had enough of antiques though.....haha.  AND, it was neat because I recognized some things that could be found in my own household (gifts my dad receieved from business partners in Japan/Singapore) and friends' households.....needless to say, it was really neat.  I plan to return with my mother, the second light of my eastern travels in Shanghai's fall.

Mom comes in tomorrow!  I plan to take the Maglev (Shanghai's super super fast train between downtown and the Pudong Airport).  What normally takes a 45 minute taxi ride will now take a 15min bullet train ride.  BAM.   super fast. super excited. Unfortunately (and fortunately) my mother's arrival means that I will be obligated in attending the World Expo.  For someone who hates touristy areas, it might spell eternal doom -- especially with the expected 1,000,000 visiters PER DAY. ><;;; 6 hour lines, here I come.....Prices are double this week, but hopefully I can go somewhere at the back gate to barter them down to half.....yay for Shanghai's infamous markets ; )

Sorry -- I haven't taken any photos in awhile, otherwise I would post them to show you my adventures.....especially when I attended the Shanghai circus the other day --- they had some really neat tricks!  and motorcycles.....among other things....

well -- I'd better get started on my homework.  Heading out later today to get dinner and a radio with a friend so we can better practice our listening skills (one of the harder classes here....for anyone....).  Although, despite the difficulty, our class fully agrees that our reading class, even after preparation, is the one with the highest standards.  加油！ Go, go!

until later,
~fran

yay! new post!

Sorry-- Just realized I haven't written in awhile.  Most things around here are pretty calm.  Us, students, are back to our school-groove, dedicating time to homework (and play....mostly this for a majority of students).  This past weekend I was up late working on homework and attending an electronic concert with my classmate!  The concert was awesoooomeee~~  I danced the night away, as some might say.....

Among other things, my Canadia-land friend, Jessica Yau, was touring around China and came to Shanghai!!!!!  So I hung around her for a day and had a good time walking around YuYuan and chatting. AND, to make things even more awesome, she's coming back!!!!! wooohoooo!!!

While I was talking with Jessica, I realized that I've gotten used to things that are not so quite normal back in the West......here are some things we found:

1) toddlers usually wear pants with wide slits (enough to see those fatty butt cheeks).....both for the purpose of cooling off in the heat, but also so when they have to go....they can just go.....anywhere....
2) Chinese people, while they are waiting for something and can't find someplace to sit, will instead squat....
3) workers, while working, are entitled to watch TV, sleep, play games, run around...etc....
4) dormitories always provide a hot water thermos for the residing students
5) most people eat yogurt at night -- and with a straw (the literal translation of yogurt to chinese is "sour milk" 酸奶)
6) it's not rude to ask what your income is, where exactly you live, and how old you are
7) taxi drivers sometimes will not know where you are going and also not tell you that they don't know until the last second.....（so they will drop you off near, but not exactly at, your stop)
8) street food is safer than one would think...in fact, my friends have had worse incidents at KFC than on the street....you kind of have to have an iron stomach all the time
9) if you ask for a glass of water in a restaurant, they might come back with hot water and a glass of ice (even at KFC)
10) honking your horn (on bike, car, motorcycle, etc) is not rude and is used as a form of politely saying "I'm here, please move before I run you over" --- even if they are telling a pedestrian


hope this has enlightened your eyes to china a little bit more.....

~fran

Back to the regular schedule....

Now that break is over, we are returning to our regular schedule which looks something like this:

Monday: 3 hours of reading (and talking about) chinese mini-essays
Tuesday: 3 hours of listening to different types of broadcasts (ranging from weather news to short comedic sketches)
Wednesday: part of the day we learn colloqiual speech, the rest of the day we read a newspaper article
Thursday: finish up the lesson taught on monday
Friday: Full day of colloqiual speech

Just 3 hours of intense chinese a day and then FREEEDOMMM!!!  I usually go out to eat with my classmates or st. olaf friends.  It's useful to be around other international students who can't speak english because then I am forced to use my Chinese.....Also, for each of these classes I have different teachers (3 total: speaking/newspaper, listening, reading) -- all of whom are amazing!  There are very clear in the their explanations (at least, when I can understand what they are saying).  However, the general philosophy here is to push tons of new vocabulary on the students and see how much they remember.  Not a favorite studying priniciple of mine --- due to this philosophy, I have as many as 100 new words for a new lesson.  This doesn't include the extra passages that we read for that lesson (there is generally the main essay and then 3 other shorter essays....with more words I've never encountered before).  Needless to say, I'm trying my best.  Other than that, my classmates are fun to be around -- despite being in a standard level class, we are all different with our chinese abilities.  Some students can speak really well, but can't read, and some others are the other way round.  We help each other get by ;)  (although, I'm not joking when I say I'm on the lower end....haha)

hope those who are taking classes are having a good time, and those who remain at home are also having a good time! love you all....

Trip cancelled. China has too many people.....

RIGHT.

So my plan was to go to Guilin and have an excellent time with classmates for 3 nights and 4 days in one of the prettiest places in China.  Upon arriving at the train station, we decided to book tickets for our returning train (which we couldn't do earlier because you can't book tickets more than a week in advance....).  and EVERYTHING was sold out.  Did they have trains to nearby cities? No.  Did they have seats on the trains coming in a day earlier? No.  All they had was standing room.  On a 22 hour train?  Both the ticket sales lady and I laughed.  No way that's happening.  SOOOOOO, I ate a snicker's bar, went to pizza hut with my friends, and decided that we were going to have an AWESOME break in Shanghai instead.  But, really? Bummer.

some random pictures!!!!

My room!  This was my first day spent in my actual dorm room, and not the hotel room that they stuck me in the first night.  It is nowhere near this clean now...haha

This is on my campus. Can you believe it?  So gorgeous and greeeeeeen!!!  Thank you, ECNU (East China Normal University) - the prettiest campus in Shanghai....

Out and around the corner....we are located near the downtown of Shanghai -- only a 10 min subway ride!

YuYuan -- neat, no?  The Yuyuan garden in Shanhai is one of its main attractions.  The bridge is literally called the 18 corner 9 side bridge.....go figure.

TheBund --- riverside view of Shanghai's TV tower....

Just a random street that looked pretty peaceful....

The Bund (the riverside view -- the "hot spot" of Shanghai --- similar to the tourist attractions that Chicago's Millenium park has to offer....)

多伦路 Duolun Road - A famous historical road that houses the "great thinkers" during China's revolutionary period ~ then, a coffee shop filled with radical writers and now, a street filled with statues commemorating their desire to seek truth and spread wisdom

Cock fighting ring at one of Suzhou's gardens --- entertainment for the locals, I suppose....

and just as entertaining for us as well...I put my bets on Meghan ~ (on the left)

Traditional lantern + light bulb = globalization.

The Crew: Virginia, Nick, Meghan, Me, Ellen ~ Suzhou 苏州 lookin' good

Group photo! I felt ambitious....

View from the bean-hole.  pretty neat, I thought...until I got badgered to turn around and be part of a group photo.....

more than one went East......

So! This is my 2nd time trying to type this update…….and I will thus be less thorough.

I apologize for not updating in awhile, unfortunately my internet has been broken for the past couple days.  

Just as a recap as to what has been going on here:

Sept 22^nd was 中秋节 ZhongQiuJie (Mid-Autumn Festival – or moon cake festival, as some would call it).  Traditionally, you go back home and celebrate this festival with your family by eating lots of food and mooncakes (月饼) (pastries with different fillings, decorated with pictures in the pastry dough).  However, my family is back in America and none of them like mooncakes anyhow.  So, so much for that.  Despite the traditions, I did still have a fun day (played badminton with some friends) for at least 3 hours ~ It was great.  On top of this, we did get to take off 3 days and rest a little while (although, we did have to make up the missed class time by attending classes on the weekends. L no one liked that part)  For one of those days, I took a day trip out to Suzhou (苏州), a city famous for its gardens.  In fact, it is so famous that there is a well-known saying that goes like this: 上有天堂，下有苏杭 (literally translated: Above there is heaven, below there is SuZhou and HangZhou --- both noted for their luxurious and old gardens).  Only a 45 minute train ride outside of Shanghai’s downtown, we spent the day garden-hopping and touring around.  What the saying doesn’t mention that Suzhou is also super famous for its wedding dresses – which were sold in every store.  Nick, the only guy in our group, was not appreciative of that fact.  However, we all had a really good time climbing on the rocks in the gardens and exploring all the nooks and crannies.  One entrance ticket even got us a neat little boat ride on the small river at that garden’s center!  I wouldn’t want to provoke the lady who was rowing the boat, though – her muscles were huge!!!  We enjoyed the trip so much that we plan to take a Saturday and head back out to check out some of the other places we didn’t have the time to go see….. However, the best part of the day was when we got lost and asked some white people (a rareity in the city) for directions to one of the gardens.  One of these white guys took a look at my sweatshirt (from my dorm last year – Thorson Hall) and asked: “Hey! Where’d you get that sweater???  I lived there last year!”  Lo-and-behold, we had come across some recently graduated Oles who were teaching English in a nearby city (Yangzhou) and were staying in Suzhou 苏州 for the 3 day holiday!!!  I guess I wasn’t the only one with the intention to head east…..

Other than that, I’ve been studying – trying to cram 80 new vocabulary words in one go is not an easy feat ><; haha  (I’m rethinking this level…..but I can’t change now, oh well…..the grass is greener always on the other side)

And chilling with my buddies from England =D

After craziness in the train station, I found out that I cannot go to see my friend in 九江 （Jiujiang）because all the trains are already booked (a week in advance….and you can’t book a ticket more than a week in advance……too many people in china)…..and instead I am heading out with Nick and Meghan (Oles) on October 2^nd to 桂林 Guilin (pronounced: “Guh-way-lean”) which has lots of caves and neat hiking spots.  It is also a 22 hour train ride.  We will be sitting on chairs the entire way L  oh well, at least we’ll have each other (for 22 hours)! Awesome.  (actually, truth be told, I am thrilled.  I really wanted the long train ride to see everything pass me by!!!!)

Okay.  I need to go play badminton now…..

Love you all – thanks for reading!! Update photos later……

End of classes - week 1

Hi everyone – I apologize for the slow updates --- things are crazy here~

We are in the midst of our first week of classes and everything is chaos.  A good kind of chaos, but chaos nonetheless.  After taking the placement exam (last week), you get “recommended” to a certain level and class.  Currently there are 3 main levels (1 , 2, 3) and multiple small levels (1-5).  So, class 1-1 is super beginning I-can’t-even-say-hello-in-Chinese Chinese class, while 3-3 is the step right before taking university level classes in Chinese (so, pretty darn fluent).  When I took my exam (which took all of 5 minutes – a matter of having a conversation with the professor asking “Can you read this passage?” and how long I’ve been studying), they recommended me to do 2-4  (levels are as follows: 1-1, 1-2,1-3,1-4,1-5, 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, 2-4, 3-1, 3-3….where 3-2 and 2-5 are, I don’t know, haha) or 3-1.  Level 3-1 (as I explained in my last email) is pretty complicated.  You have 4 classes: 1) Reading newspapers 2) reading literature (short stories, memoirs, etc) 3) watching movies in Chinese and describing them, and finally 4) taking a Chinese culture class (in Chinese)  **note: I will be taking a culture class, but it will be taught in English. Hooray.  The first two days of this class weren’t bad – I was struggling to keep up, and the reading was just outright HARD.  But because I really really liked the professors (amazingly funny and witty) and the class (who actually wanted to talk), I tried my best.  However, after going to class yesterday and not understanding a good 60% of what the professor was saying, I decided to drop down to 2-4.  As of yet, this is the class that I probably will remain in.  It was a little irritating to find that my classmates in level 2-4 have stayed in Shanghai (or china) for an extended period of time (1-3 years) and thus know a lot more 口语 (colloquial speech) than I.  A lot more.  So when I know one word for taxi, they know 3.  But, I speak just as well – just without the large span of vocabulary.  And in level 2-4 I will probably remain (and my classmates, who do know a lot more speech than I will help me expand my vocabulary.  A win-win situation!).  Although, if you do want another complaint, I still really want to be in 3-1.  I like literature and analysis that much.  Sad day, oh well.  Perhaps I’ll have the chance to read literature in Chinese at a different point in time – but in the meantime, I guess I’ll need to play catch up with my vocabulary….haha….

As a side note, I did meet some cool people here.  One guy (in his late 20s, from Australia) is married to a Chinese woman and teaches in Guangzhou (a large city in the south --- If you find an object that says “Made in China”, it was most likely manufactured there – especially clothing)!  He teaches English to university students, but he felt the need to connect with them so he decided to come to Shanghai to perfect his Chinese.  AND he plays badminton (quite well).  Which makes him super awesome.  He (and another girl, Xiao Li (pronounced “She-ow Lee”)) have become my mates in practicing Chinese (especially since Xiao Li – whose background is Chinese and Japanese – doesn’t speak any English).  There are definitely a large number of cool students in my place of residence – and I often hang out with some guys and gals from the UK.  However, we Oles do still like each others company.  This doesn’t mean, however, that we don’t meet Chinese people.   It just happens to be old retired guys who kick out butts at ping-pong and badminton ><;

Oh.  And I partially forgot it was my birthday 2 days ago…..Virginia (my roommate) had to remind me with a cute (and very delicious) chocolate cake!  Thanks to you all for send me emails, phone calls, and facebook posts on my birthday!!!!! I loved reading every word~

Finally made it to 20, but it still feels like I’m 19 (haha)

Sorry for this long rambly note……..love you all very very much!  Keep sending me emails~