19 days (almost) and counting

i dont have much to write about, other than taking jordan's boyfriend to the airport was the BIGGEST tease in the world. im having fun, but i had an ABCD (a bad china day) so at this point im ready to go back to the airport and jump on a plane. i guess ive made it this far though, so things arent all that bad.

im really glad that the break is almost over. its been really nice not to have class but im ready to go back and finish everything! after beijing ive just been trying to stretch my time and find things to do around shanghai. it may be a huge metropolis, but its still difficult to continuously find new things to do. most of the time its the same stuff, just in a different place. today we did find an expat market though, and i couldnt have been happier. jordan and i are going back tomorrow to buy supplies to make pb&j, and im going to buy FRUIT!!! it will be the most delicious three weeks i have in china, minus all the amazing food i got to eat in beijing while staying at the hyatt. because i have found this amazing food, and it makes me feel SO much better ive decided that is all i really need to spend my money on the rest of the time im here. well, other than taxi cabs and the ocassional drink(s). i would rather eat food that doesnt make me sick than have more money for other things at this point. i only have two more weeks of class, and then the last week im here its just finals and packing.

on the way back from the airport we took the new maglev train. it took us 8 minutes to go 30km, or an equivalent to an hour or so cab ride. its so nice that it skips all of the crazy airport traffic and strange taxi cab drivers that pick their nose... thats right, they pick their nose right in front of you. here is a fact for all of you: chinese men grow out their pinky nail nice and long in order to pick their nose, ear wax, and teeth at the ever appropriate time. ex: driving their cab, at work, making your lunch (at less than fine establishments of course) so taking the maglav was a nice way to end my not so good ABCD.

anyways, im off to go for a run now. email me, let me know how all of you are doing!

em

beijing

i just got back from beijing, so here is an update from my trip...

the train ride from shanghai to beijing was sooo nice! spending the extra money on a soft sleeper was the best idea ever. trains leave in the evening, and have you at your destination bright and early. much easier than taking a plane even though its farther because you get to sleep the entire time. we got even luckier when we were able to check into our hotel (the grand hyatt) right when we got there. this is all thanks to pat, jordan's boyfriend, so another huge thank you to him for hooking us up with all of this :) we had a room with two seperate bed rooms and baths. so at least for the first night, i had an entire california king all to myself, and got to eat pancakes in the morning... it was heaven. espeically after an entire month of noodles and street food. i also got to eat my first salad since leaving, i about died.

our first day of sight seeing took us to the forbidden city. we ended up getting a tour guide which was a great idea, because i had no idea what i was looking at. it was also only a 15 minute walk from our hotel, so we were right in the middle of everything. the most exciting thing for me to see though is the huge portrait of mao looking over tianenmen square. since thats usually the first thing you see on the nightly news whenever they talk about china, i took about 10 pictures of it, haha. we ended there for the evening, and then the next day we went and visited the beijing zoo. it was a lot nicer and cleaner than i thought it would be, but of course it wasnt as nice as any zoo you would find in america. im sure they have begun to clean it up due to the amount of people that will be visiting for the olympics. after that we went to see the olympic buildings, the national staduim and the aquatics center. it was very busy with tourists but we were able to get close and take pictures. for our third day of sight seeing, our friend stephanie's mom was able to get us a driver to take us to the great wall. we took up a gondala, which was the best 50 kuai ive ever spent because there was no way i was going to climb up the HUGE hill, and then walk the great wall. our goal was to walk/hike/climb all the way to the top tower. it was the best workout ever, but im so glad that i wont be doing it again anytime soon. it was really worth while though. after the great wall, we found the best thing ive found in china yet... the silk market. i walked in and immediately found designer jeans, real ones, for twenty dollars. you have to barter with them, but if you buy a lot and speak chinese, two things i did, you get a much better price. i was in shopping and knock off heaven. in the end, beijing treated me very well and i came away with toned legs and lots of clothing.

i would like to comment on one thing though... beijing's infrastrucure is ready for the olympics, but i do not believe that the people are. i came to find out that the locals are not even excited about it after speaking with a few of them. i think that the huge, huge influx of foreiners in a city where they are already not as accepting as other cities, and not used to seeing that many will encounter many problems. it is also sad to see the new resturants and shopping malls built for the games completely empty. i know that they will be full in a few weeks, but what happens after they all leave? it was really interesting to get a first hand account for what beijing is now like right before the olympics. all of the street signs are brand new, along with the fancy jeep police cars were a surprise.

anyways, thats my little tangent about beijing. im sure ive missed a few things but im exhausted and about to take another nap. i miss all of you and ill be home in about three weeks... crazy huh?

em

mmm... vacation!

here is my latest update for the week...

monday night didnt bring much excitement except for the usual class, ect, and that i've been continually good and kept my workout going. i dont think that im gaining any weight, hopefully losing its just so hard when your food options here are limited. i know that i have lost, but with mainly chicken, rice, and other horrible carbs available, finding fruit and veggies is VERY hard. oh how i miss fruit and veggies :( i cant wait to eat that when i get home!

speaking of food, my friend stephanie got really awful food poisining tuesday night after dinner. our friend thomas also got sick before, and since we had all eaten the same street food the day before it was obvious i was next. i wasnt nearly as sick as steph, but i still have had a fun case of TD for a few days. im over it for the most part and back to normal.

also, i need to add that jordan likes to make lots of guanxi (chinese relationships) with people that we meet when we go out. when we went to muse last weekend she met and brother and sister. this is already a sign that they are very well off, because it costs a lot of extra money in china to have a second child. they continued to text jordan and we ended up making plans to go out to dinner with them. they took us to a chinese resturant in the nearby mall, and it was a lot of fun! they speak really good english; the sister has studied in canada for the past three years, and the son just left today to go to australia. making friends with americans is a HUGE deal, so they take everything really seriously when it come to keeping in touch and staying friends. chinese people are also like this among themselves and highly regard relationships and are always in them for the long haul. in the end, we got invited to cherry (the girls, her name is pronounced sherry) birthday party next week, and she acutally rescheduled it so we can make it. we're so special... hahaha. she wants us to meet all of her friends.

wednesday night we ended up going out to our favorite bar, zapatas, and had a very good time, almost too good of a time. we met plenty of euro trash (for those of the older generations who dont know what that is, that is europeans who speak strange english, unless they are british, and are just an all around icky crowd), but none the less we still enjoy their company and the several drinks they like to buy us. we met this one man, jonas from sweden, who began to tell my group of friends and i that "the beaches in america are nice" but we heard it, "the bitches in america are nice." from then on, we continued to call ourselves the three bitches and gave him a lot of garbage for it. oh... and got some more free drinks. the moral of the story is that i woke up slightly drunk from the night before, but went to class anyways in the 95 degree heat. im begining to be such a trooper...

as for now, im just working on homework and packing for beijing. jordan has left for pudong already to go wait for her boyfriend at the hotel. i cant believe that our study break is already here, it seemed really far away awhile ago. the weeks spent in school go by really fast. our train leaves for beijing tomorrow a little before eight, so i wont be in contact with anyone until my saturday evening. we arrive saturday morning, but wont be able to check into our hotel until about three. none the less, im super excited to go stay in the grand hyatt, go swimming, eat DELICIOUS real food, like fruits and veggies that wont make me sick, and sleep in a comfy bed. oh, and go see tianenamen square, great wall, forbidden city, and all of the touristy stuff. we will be returning back to shanghai wednesday morning. after that, we have the rest of the week off and i think that we are just going to stay in shanghai and see some more sights. after that weekend, we only have two more till we leave. its flying by, but i miss everyone terribly and im so excited to come home and see everyone. keep in touch!

em

half way

hello everyone.... sorry that i was completely mia for the last week. i had a lot going on with school, and not so much other stuff but i'll give an update.

our friend that got lit on fire at the teppanyaki resturant, katherine, went home on thursday. we all miss her a ton but it was for the better. she definitely cant attend class or anything so she might as well go home and get the best treatment possible. as for my hair, i went to this swanky place in the french concession and had this, none the less, french lady cut my hair. she did an excellent job, so i didnt turn out looking asian, haha. on the way there though we spotted a TGI FRIDAYS.... it was like jesus finally came to china. we ordered long islands, margaritas and AMERICAN FOOD. it was amazing... and the best monday ive had to date.

so for tuesday, nothing exciting besides class, ect. wednesday brought us the ever famous ladies night at zapatas. all i remember is that the free margaritas sucked, so i ended up persuading some nice man into buying me a mojito. friday night we broke down and ordered delivery subway via sherpa. yet again, it was amazing and the best 5 dollars ive ever spent. we went out again and then visited old town and the yu gardens. for any of the ANTM fans out there, this is where they filmed the final show for one of the seasons. its an extremely beautiful place, even though it was packed full of japanese tourists. we also went bartering out in old town and got some fun stuff to bring back home. bartering is one of my new favorite things to do because it is just a game here. they expect you to get a super low price and haggle with them. jordan is the master though and got me a better deal a few times.

since last night was the most recent occurance, i'll talk about that for a bit. after the gardens we came home and got ready to go out. one of the things ive come to love about this place, is that i can buy two 22's of beer for one american dollar.... so basically im the cheapest date there ever was. plus i also managed to not spend any money at the club we went to, so it was a well played out night for me. being that you stick out like a sore thumb in china if you are white, especially blonde, you tend to attract the other non chinese people. we went to this club, muse, which is probably the best ive been to yet. as soo as my group of friends and i walked up stairs, we were eagerally greeted with free shots from some other white people. about four hours later, jordan and i realized that it was 330 in the morning. i dont know where all the time went, but by the time we got back to our dorm it was light outside. ive never partied till dawn, but i almost got there.

anyways, thats the short break down of my week. i just went out for a run, and its surprisingly not too hot out today. i have to meet with my tutor in a bit, and then we are going to go to KTV (karaoke) with our teachers. they are required to organize outside class activities, and i guess this is probably the best one we could have gotten stuck with. by wednesday, i only have a month left to go! things have been flying by really fast, even though i look back and think that ive already been here for quite awhile. we finally went and bought our train tickets to beijing, we'll be leaving friday night at 8. its a 12 hour train ride and we'll be there early saturday morning. the only bad thing is that we cant check into our hotel until 3, so we'll have to find things to do (which im sure wont be hard) until we can go settle in. we have an AMAZING pool, you should go check it out online, we're staying at the grand hyatt beijing. we are also going to get to sled down the great wall... thats right, you can "tobagon" down it. i just hope that i dont hurt myself, because im pretty sure they dont insure things like that or have safety regulations. after all, TIC (this is china, for all of you who havent seen blood diamond).

im going to go enjoy my delicious cup noodles now, and yes they do eat cup noodles in china. i picked it over the other ones because its was the only thing i could recognize. ill try and post before beijing, but i will have my computer with me so i can update while im there.

em

absent

sorry i havent written in about a week, ive been caught up in school, ect. i promise i will write very soon though; ive gotten quite a few emails about this. anyways, miss all of you and i promise ill write soon! xo, em

nanjing and the teppanyaki incident

nanjing is beautiful! im so glad that we were all able to go. we left on friday evening after class. it was about a four hour bus ride, but nothing unbearable after having a 12 hour flight on the way here. we stayed in a fairly nice hotel, but of course jordan and i got the room that smelled like smoke, among other things. lets just say that we slept on top of the sheets...

we tried this hot pot style resturant, and then proceeded to this bar/resturant district called 1912. it was really fun, bars lined the street all the way around the block so there was plenty to do. we eneded up setteling in at this bar called soho, and immediately were picked out by some chinese men perched up on these couches over looking the bar. i bet you a lot of money it was because we were the only white girls in that entire place, haha. other than that, i dont remember a whole lot from the evening but it was a lot of fun, and we got home about 2. then, at 730 we met down in the lobby to go see the presidential palace of the nationalist party (chang kaisheik (sp?)) and dr. sun yat sen's masoleum. the masoleum is on top of this hill about 300 m from the start of the hike. 390 + stairs all together, mind you in the 90+ degree and 80+ humidity heat. the hike was totally worth it though, we got to see the tomb of dr. sun and the view from the top was amazing. after that we visited the wall that was built around nanjing a very long time ago (dont really remember, plus i was half asleep and the effects of my hangover were at their worst) then finally made the trip back to the hotel. side note... for lunch they took us to this chinese restruant, go figure, but we had some nanjing specialites. what i thought was duck liver, acutally turned out to be congealed (sp?) duck blood. yes thats right... condensed duck blood. i ate it without knowing this until the teacher finally decided to tell me what it was. that was the first and LAST time i'll ever do that.

after a quick nap and a shower back at the hotel, we decided to go back to the 1912 district to find dinner. seven of us met there and decided on eating at this nice japanese teppanyaki resturant. it was 150 renminbi for all you can eat and drink. not too much of a bad deal, and since we were only there for two nights it was worth the money. about 15 minutes into the dinner, the steaks finally came out. now im assuming that the chefs at a place like this are trained and know what they are doing, but he began to light up the grill and it got VERY hot, hotter than ive ever seen a grill at any other teppankayi resturant. i was sitting near the middle of the table, and then my friend katherine to my right, and theo to my left. all of a sudden something that was put on the grill lit up very quickly and spread across the table to katherine. she was termorparily lit on fire... theo ran around to her as she fell on the ground to stop drop and roll. part of my eyebrow was fried off from the heat, along with my arm hair and some of the ends of the hair on my head. dont worry, i still look exactly the same and came out with no burns or any other injuries. but katherine on the other hand was burned on her chest, and a tiny bit on her face and ear. the restruant went completely silent and had no idea what to do. we quickly got out after recieving numbers from a british couple who said they would testify as witinesses. we left back for the hotel where steph helped take katherine back to the hotel to have the teachers take her to the hopsital. there are many other things that happened in the course of the evening, but all of which are too lenthgy and unnescarry so i wont go there.

basically, katherine is going to be fine, and went to the burn section of the hospital in nanjing and has an appointment tomorrow at the hospital here in shanghai. we are also pretty sure she is going to end up staying if she can get through this week so we are all really happy about that. the police ended up being notified (we wern't sure if they could get involved at the resturant or even do anything at the time because we didnt have a translator) and got the resturant to give katherine about 700 US dollars for emotional compensation and then they have to pay for the rest of her medical bills. if this had happened in the US, we would have all come out a few thousand dollars richer. i guess we are lucky at all to get anything out of it since we are unframiliar with how the chinese police work. other than that, we all made it home ok today. we were definitely tired after such an eventful trip.

i wasnt planning on getting my hair cut in shanghai, but now that the ends of my hair feel like crap i finally found an english speaking salon. there is this service called lifeline shanghai that is emotional support and english speaking helpline for people who need directions, translation, ect and its all free. they helped me find a place, so hopefully i wont end up getting an asian hair-do... haha. its an expensive place in terms of a price for a haircut in shanghai, but normal for the states. anyways, im totally fine just shaken up. i feel so fortunate because i could have been easily burned as badly as katherine, i was sitting half a foot from her. PHEW that was my weekend. this place has already taken 10 years off my life...

em

day twelve

now that ive gotten into the swing of things, time is flying by fairly fast. (45 left!!!) i cant believe its almost thursday! school is taking up a lot of time, so it helps things pass by quickly. i still have periodic homesickness but i guess its nothing i can really control at this point.

ANYWAYS enough about being sad and passing the time. last night the girls and i went to the french concession to this sushi resturant. 200 kuai, all you can eat and drink, including alcohol. now if i didnt all have class the next day im sure that we would have left them dry, but we behaved. the money we each paid was about 25 US dollars a piece. that is the most expensive meal ive had yet, but it was a very nice treat when we are eating for 2 dollars a day, mostly street vendor food.

this weekend our CIEE program is taking my business class to nanjing, its about a six hour train ride from shanghai. its mostly a historical town in mainland china, and has a ton of factories. i guess that it is way dirtier and more traditional chinese than shanghai, so it should be even more of a culture shock. im sure will write all about it soon. as for tonight, i cant decide if i should stay in or not. i have gotten most of my homework done, and it is my last "free" night for me to go out before next weekend. hrmmm decisions!

im really, really mad that i dont get to celebrate the fourth of july! ill be stuck on a train in the middle of china... bleh. it sucks even more that it is one of my favorite holidays. BUT, i am asking all of you to save fireworks for me so we can set them off when i get home! i want to have a bbq or something and eat lots of american food. as pathetic as it sounds, i dream of that because everything here is so strange and crowded.

thats about it for now. i wont have my computer with me from friday night till sunday afternoon, so i wont be on for awhile. miss all of you still, thanks for all the emails!

em