The Secrets of Xiaolongbao

       The past two weeks have been a lot of fun!  I've done so much stuff!  I went to a modern art museum on a field trip with one of my classes. It was pretty interesting.  A lot of the stuff was kind of weird, but really cool.  My favorite was this huge print thing on the wall that had tonsss of different pictures in it so you could look at it for a really long time.  I also went to a propaganda museum that was one of my favorites! Thank goodness I went with a class or I never would have found it. It was in the basement of a building in this apartment complex or something. Veryyy tricky to find. All of the posters were really interesting though. A lot were really negative toward Americans and pictured us as gross old men with big, red noses.

       The past couple of Wednesday nights, M1NT has become the new place to be.  It's one of the nicer clubs and usually on the weekends you can only get in if you're on the list.  They have a shark tank! And  a really cool bar that you can (and I did) dance on!  Also, one of the bathrooms has a completely glass wall that looks out over the city.  That's pretty awesome.  Last weekend, we tried several new bars that were fun, my favorite was Abbey Road.  We also tried an all you can eat Indian restaurant called Punjabi!  It was super fun! It was also all you can drink beer, but since the beers here are liters and I can only drink max 2 in one night, I turned mine from a Qingdao to a QingWOW! All you do is add Smirnoff!  We also took our last trip to the fabric market to pick up our linen pants.  My pants don't really look that good because the legs are reallyyyyy wide, like an elephants. Not sure what I'm going to do about that. 

       This past week has been lots of fun! Tuesday night we went to I Love Shanghai for ladies night.  It was really fun, but then they refused to serve us anymore drinks because we were sharing them with the guys. Lameee. After that, we went to the bar in the Radisson Hotel.  It was really high up and the view was amazinggg.    It was set a little further back from the Bund so you could see the Bund and across to Pudong and the river going in between. Wednesday night, I was back at M1NT of course, which was pretty fun, but not as good as the Wednesday before. 

       Thursday was the best!  My Chinese class along with another Chinese class were doing Karaoke together.  We were going from 5-8 and also got food! It was one of the best parts of my weekend! I think I sang every single song.  I warned people beforehand that they would have to pry the microphone out my hands, but no one did. Guess I'm just that good!  We had a nice mix of Chinese songs, American pop music, and some classics, so it was pretty much perfect.  After that we just chilled at the dorms.

Singing "Beijing Huanying Ni" at Karaoke! Favorite!

"Can You Feel the Love Tonight" duet with Chocolate

      Friday we had a class learning how to make xiaolongbao! Soup dumplings! They are a Shanghai specialty and sooooo good!  We basically just rolled out the dough and put the filling in, but we got to wear really cool chefs hats and aprons! And of course, we got to eat the dumplings. Mine were really ugly, but they tasted delicious! We also got a goody bag with a xiaolongbao refrigerator magnet!!! One of the best things I have gotten in China and it was free!  When we got back, we went to the CIEE building because they had cake for everyone with a December birthday! The cake was hugeee and covered in fruit! I think it's the first time I've had cake since I've been in China and it was like heaven!  That night, we went out to Bar Rouge and Glamour Bar, where I ate lots and lots and lots of food! But I had an amazing prosciutto and Brie sandwich at Bar Rouge. 

       Saturday night I had to go to a concert for a class. I think his name was Asaka or something. He was kind of like an Asian Dave Matthews, really chill. The concert wasn't great, but Blair and I bought light up pink bows so that made everything better.  A Chinese man also gave us free Chinese flags! Afterwards, we went to Windows Too and I continued to indulge myself in my late night eating. I had Mozzarella sticks and a bacon cheeseburger.  We went back to campus and I got street food too. I have made friends with this man and woman that sell skewers. They love me. I went to Bulldog, another bar, for a little while, but came back pretty early. 

Excited about light up bows and free China flags!

       I spent all day Sunday working on a paper.  Unfortunately, it's finals week and I have lots and lots to do. I have one paper and one presentation out of the way, but I still have two more presentations, a paper, and my oral and written Chinese test.  I just can't wait for the weekend! I am really sad that I only have 5 days left and I am stressing over finals. Thank goodness they will be over Thursday and I can just enjoy spending the last weekend with my friends! I will miss Shanghai, but I am excited to come home and see everyone too!

       

I'm Thankful for...Shanghai Being Awesome!

      It's been awhile since I've updated, and I have soooo much to write about! The past couple of weeks have been even more fun-filled than usual! I helped out a friend and taught English at a local elementary school with Drew one afternoon. The kids were so cute and their English was amazingly good! We taught them head, shoulders, knees and toes and they loved it! The other weekend we had lots of fun again! We finally went back out to a club at G+ and it was fun, but I have made a vow not to go back there. We also went back to the fabric market and are getting linen pants made. And of course a weekend wouldn't be complete without a brunch at Mr. Pancakes.
   Last week I didn't have a lot of work, and I definitely took advantage of that. Tuesday I had plans to meet Wallace, a government official whose job is to look after Americans in Shanghai, for dinner. We ate at a buffet in a hotel and it was by far the best buffet I have ever had! Laura came with me and Wallace also ordered us hairy crab, which is a specialty in Shanghai. It was pretty good, but it was a lot of work for not much food. Tuesday night we went to Rummery, which is a rum bar, and had some rum and then went to House of Jazz and Blues. James and I sneaked our own wine in (Dynasty, China's finest), but we got caught while we were trying to uncork it. Wednesday night we went to Brown Sugar again for ladies night and then somehow ended up at G+ again (so much for that vow..).
   Thursday was Thanksgiving and CIEE planned a great buffet dinner for us at a hotel. I completely stuffed myself and then for the first time ever, went out on Thanksgiving. First we went to Kaiba and chilled and had a beer. Then to C's, a sketchy little dive bar where things started to get crazy! Then we went to Bar Rouge on the Bund and enjoyed the great view! And of course danced our little feet off.
    I was supposed to go to Nanjing This past weekend, but I woke up feeling rather terrible on Friday morning. No it was not due to the previous 3 nights. I have been a little under the weather since Beijing, and finally decided it was time to see a doctor.  It turns out I have an ulcer. Painful, but I'll live and it won't (WON'T) ruin my last few weeks in Shanghai.  After the doctors, Mike and I went to Bubba's, a sports bar, to meet up with a couple of other people. I got to eat BBQ and it was almost like being in the south again! After Bubba's we went to Dragonfly, a really posh spa, and got massages. The next morning we went to M on the Bund for brunch, which was one of the most delicious meals I have had in China. I had blueberry pancakes and eggs benedict. And yes, I ate all of it! The view was really nice and the weather was gorgeous! Afterwards, Mike and I walked around the Bund and then walked to an IMAX movie theater near by to see Harry Potter. Unfortunately in China, you choose your seats in movie theaters beforehand and it was too full for Mike and I to get seats next to each other. Too bad we couldn't cry on each others shoulders.
   Sunday I just chilled out and took much needed rest and Lucy came back from Nanjing! Yay! I haven't been too busy this week, but I have a test. Thank goodness I got my studying done early so I can go out to Ladies Night! We're going to Brown Sugar again, so it should be a good time! 18 more days in Shanghai!! And till I'm 21!!!

Paradise and Hell, Meteor Shower

      So this past weekend was pretty exciting! On Thursday night, I was invited to go to karaoke with a government official! His name is Wallace and it is his job to make sure Americans in Shanghai love it! Karaoke was a blast! We had a great group and we got lots of food and whiskey and sang our little hearts out, or in my case, sang my voice out. And it was all paid for by the Chinese government! I got Wallace's number and I hope to get coffee with him so he can help me get an internship here next summer.
     After Karaoke, we went to a club called Fame. A guy in CIEE has an internship with them and they were having a free open bar until 11. Obviously we cashed in on that! After Fame, we went to a Blues and Jazz bar. It was my first time going and it was absolutely amazing!! The performers were really talented and we even hung out with them some! After that I went to Bar Rouge, which is a super nice bar on the Bund. The bouncer almost didn't let me in because I was wearing "flip flops". They were actually sandals. I didn't bother trying to explain the difference. Bar Rouge was super cool though. They have an outdoor patio with a view that looks over the Huangpu River and into Putong. It was pretty empty by the time I got there so I could really enjoy the view.
        Friday we had a field trip to the Pearl Tower.  The Pearl Tower is in Putong and it very interesting looking.  We went up to the observation deck and the view was pretty cool, but a bit hazy. On the upper observation deck the outside of the floor was glass. Walking on it really freaked me out. Especially when I noticed how there was a lot of tape where the glass connected to the floor.  There was a museum on the first floor that showed the progression of Shanghai modernizing. There were a lot of wax type figures and models of the city. It was really cool. That night we went to a nice dinner at Coconut Paradise, an Indian restaurant. Then we went to New Heights, which is a pretty upscale bar. It is also on the Bund and has a pretty good view. After New Heights, we went to Glamour, which is right across the street. It was super posh and they had amazing breadstick type things that I ate about 20 of.

The Pearl Tower

Ah! I'm falling!

      Saturday we went a had a dim-sun brunch at a nice restaurant. It was pretty good, but one of the custard filled buns exploded when I bit into it and burnt my hand.  Since it's China, there weren't any napkins and Laura had to pour water on my hand and then I just wiped it off on the table cloth. 对不起 (Duibuqi, Sorry) It was one of the funniest and most painful experiences of my life. After brunch we went to the Fabric Market.  It was my first time there and I had a ball. I am getting custom paid cords and a custom made coat. I have big plans for that place. That night we went to a bar near school called OZNZ and played Truth or Dare Jenga. Then we went to a club called the Apartment. It was not very fun. It was all Westerners and weirdly cold inside. However, we did go get late night Hot Pot right down the street, which was amazing and delicious!
       On Sunday, we got up and went to brunch at Malone's. That was an experience. The food was pretty bad. Lucy ordered a Salmon and asparagus omelet and they brought her the completely wrong omelet. When she told them it was the wrong thing, they took it away, but then bought back the same omelet with Salmon put in it. One of the waiters tried to convince her that it was what she ordered, even though it clearly wasn't. Finally they took the wrong one away and made the right thing for her. It was so ridiculous that we just had to laugh about it! After that we went back to the Bund to do the Bund sightseeing tunnel. It was one of the most Chinese things I have done here. The tunnel goes under the Huangpu River. We got into a glass cart that kind of looked like the elevator in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  It took us through this tunnel that had all these weird bright lights and odd narration that said things like "Paradise and Hell" and "Meteor Shower". Randomly, about halfway through the tunnel, there were 3 blow up people things. It was the most bizarre thing I have ever done in my life.

Our Glass Elevator 

Oracle Bones, Forbidden Cities and Great Walls

      A little over a week ago, I set out on my week long field trip with the China in a Global Context group.  The night before leaving was Alex's 21st birthday and most of us pulled an all nighter. Getting ready to get on the plane the next morning was a definite struggle. I forgot to put my liquids in my checked bag, so I had to go through security twice. When our plane landed, Drew was nice enough to push me through the airport on a luggage cart while I pulled my rolling suitcase along beside me.

Drew pushing me on the luggage cart

       Our first stop was Anyang, where the Oracle Bones were found. Our first night in Anyang we visited a Chinese high school. It was really awesome. The students were really friendly and we made dumplings (my fave!) with them!  The next day we went to the site of the Oracle Bones. It was pretty cool. We also saw the evolution of some of the characters from ancient Chinese to modern Chinese.  That afternoon we went to a Oracle Bones museum. It was pretty awful. It was basically plaster replicas of all of the real things we had seen earlier that day. The next day was our last day in Anyang (thank God!). We visited an old prison. It is the only place in China were fortune telling is legal. I don't know why this place was a prison because it was gorgeous and seemed very relaxing.  There was even a maze to go through for fun. I got my fortune told, but we were running out of time so I didn't get to do all of it. I did find out that I am special (which I kind of already knew) and that I will make a lot of money (which I am kind of expecting).

James, Lucy and I in front of the maze

        We took a train to Beijing and had Peking Duke for dinner when we arrived. It was Halloween so when we got back to the hotel we all got dressed up. I was a black sheep.  We went out to a club called Propaganda. I got a free t-shirt and VIP card! I didn't really like it though because it was wayyy to crowded and hot, so I left pretty early.
         The next day, we went to visit the Huhai Hutong district in Beijing. It is one of the few traditional Chinese neighborhoods that has been preserved. We rode rickshaws through the area and then one of the women, Wu Ayi (Ayi sort of means auntie) made lunch for us! It was amazing and she was really interesting! That afternoon we went on a boat cruise down the river to see the summer palace. There was a lot of weeping willows and trees with their leaves changing colors. It was some of the prettiest scenery I have seen in China so far.  That night Lucy and I met up with a friend of hers from San Fransisco and got burgers, which were delicious. Then we went to bar called Smugglers that was pretty awesome. We met up with some other CIEE people to go out to a club. I bought a balloon animal for 5 kuai from a little Chinese boy that hugged me. I tied it around my neck and wore it. Lucy and I got separated from everyone else and ended up at a club  called Latte. It was fun, but they wouldn't let us check our coats. And they made me take my balloon off before I ordered drinks :(  All in all, it was a good night.

Lucy and I in the rickshaw

With my 5 kuai balloon

         The next day we went to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. I had been to both of those before so it was kind of boring to do again, but I had fun being silly with friends! We also had a really awesome dumpling lunch that day! That night we went to a night market. It was so cool! They had so many weird foods. Drew ate a fried scorpion. They also had tarantulas, some type of rodent thing, seahorses, bugs, pretty much everything you can imagine. Drew, Lucy, and I all got I <3 BJ shirts to wear on the Great Wall the next day!

M-A-O 

      

Drew eating scorpion. Yum!

        Even though I had been to the Great Wall before, this time was so much more amazing!! It was an unrestored, un-touristy part of the wall that was mostly deserted.  You could see the wall stretching on forever. I was absolutely terrified the whole time I was walking it because it was really high up and sometimes there weren't stairs. And even when there were stairs, they were pretty sketch. I bought an "I Climbed the Great Wall shirt. It was red. When I washed it, it turned my white towel pink! It made me happy.  That night we went out again to Smugglers. We also discovered a bar called Shooters that had 10 kuai shooters. It was awesome! After that we went to a club called Vix. There was a cover charge to get in, but we found the bracelets on the ground that people had torn off and stuck them on our wrists with gum! Then we danced the night away! So fun!

Drew, Lucy and I on the Great Wall in I <3 BJ shirts

        The next day was Rob's birthday so we went out to lunch for his birthday. Then Drew, Lucy, Rob and I went to see the Bird's Nest and Watercube. Sadly, we got there too late to actually get into the Bird's Nest, but it was still cool to see. Especially since it all started to light up at night! We went out again to Smugglers that night for Rob's birthday/last night in Beijing. It was a lot of fun! The next day was pretty rough for some people though! Myself not included! Beijing was fun, but I was definitely stoked to get back home to Shanghai!

Lucy, Rob, Drew and I in front of the Bird's Nest

 
        

House of Gaga and Baijiu Meltdown

   After a really long week last week, I was super ready to for the weekend! Thank goodness we only have classes Monday through Thursday!! Thursday night was amazing. I went to Muse 2 (there are 3 Muses in Shanghai, Muse, Muse2, and Muse Underground) for House of Gaga.  Around 11 or so the most legit Gaga impersonator on the planet performed for about 20 minutes.  Everything about her, from her costume and hair to her singing, was so on point that I was almost fooled into believing it was Gaga herself!! Muse 2 was still fun after she left. They had huge light up Styrofoam glow sticks. I ended up staying there until 3:30!!
   Friday we had a field trip to Tianzifang and the Shanghai Antique market.  Tianzifang was really cool. It is a bunch of little alleyways filled with shops and stores. Unfortunately, we only had an hour to spend there so we are definitely going to go back.  After Tianzifang, we went to the Shanghai Antique Market.  Of course since this is China, most of the "antiques" there are fake. It was still really fun to look around at everything though. I didn't buy anything because most of it was dirty to make it look older.  Friday night the NYU students that live on the other side of our dorm were hosting a party at a club called Not Me. It was called Baijiu Meltdown, but I stayed far away from the Baijiu.  It was pretty lame. The NYU kids were DJing and they were not very good.  Guess there is a reason we haven't hung out with them at all this semester.
   Saturday was really gross and rainy, but we decided that we needed to be more adventurous and go explore Shanghai some more so we decided to go to the Fake Market.  The Fake Market is a bunch of shops that is actually in a subway station in Pudong. It was super cool!! A lot of the fakes were really good. Lucy and I both got Marc Jacobs wrist-lets for 100RMB. Not too bad!! Laura and I also ended up finding a place that sold DVDs. I got all 6 season of Sex and the City, 4 seasons of Dexter, and 12 movies for 470RMB. We were all really tired and the weather was super gross, so instead of going out we stayed in and had a double feature movie night.  It was really nice, relaxing night!! The first one I have had on a weekend here!!
   On Sunday, Lucy and I went to meet a Chinese woman, Jeuce, that Lucy knows through her uncle. We ate at a place called Osteria and it was delicious!! They had a 2 courses for 88RMB special for brunch, so first I had eggs for breakfast, and then I had a pizza for lunch!! Talking to Jeuce was a lot of fun. She actually lives in Tianzifang, where we were on Friday. She works for a Chinese App company. She also writes a blog on "wine and spirits" and is getting flown to France this week by a Cognac company because of it!! Lucy and I talked to her about the cost of apartments because we really want to get an apartment together here next summer. We had a great time, but we couldn't stay too long because we had to get  back to school and do homework.
   Tonight, Lucy and I ordered from Shanghai Sherpa, a restaurant delivery service. We got sandwiches from a really good deli. I was super excited because mine had avocado on it!! I have a mid-term tomorrow unfortunately and I should probably be studying for that instead of doing this. Who knew my blog would become my new source of procrastination?

Saki BOMB

      This past week has been pretty busy since I had been gone from Shanghai and school work for an entire 10 days, but it was still great!  On Wednesday, I helped teach English at a migrant school in Shanghai. I had 1st graders so they were absolutely the most adorable things I have ever seen before in my life. They don't really speak much English so we taught them the alphabet and how to say things like "I like bananas".  Actually I didn't really do much teaching because my partner is practically fluent in Chinese. So I let him be Pat Sajack and I am Vanna White, aka I smile and point a lot. Some are concerned that if I speak English to them no other English speakers will be able to understand them because of my more southern pronunciations of words. I just think that everyone would think they were cooler.
      When Thursday finally rolled around, I was super excited to go out. We had a nice turn table (aka Lazy Susan) dinner and then went to G+, yet again, for the 5 drinks for 50RMB deal. It was pretty fun, but I think we are not going to go back again for awhile.
      Friday we went shopping. It was pretty successful for me. I got a new skirt (hot pink!), 2 dresses, and a belt. I also found a really great dress for my Halloween costume (a sexy clown), but it was 300RMB so I didn't end up getting it. I was super bummed because you don't find obnoxiously bright hot pink and yellow dresses everyday, but I guess it's just on to Plan B (which is a surprise) now. Friday night was all you can eat and drink sushi for 160RMB. We went with a group of 19 people, so it was pretty wild. I tried Saki for the first time!! As well as doing several Saki Bombs, which were my favorite because you put the shot of Saki on chop sticks on top of your glass of beer and then bang on the table until it drops into the beer. It was a little messy, but that always makes things more interesting. Unfortunately, the large amounts of sushi and beer were not so good for me, so I didn't stay out long before heading back home.
     Saturday night was more chill. I went with Laura, Mike, and Lucy to get American food.  I ate a chili cheese dog, which I pretty much never even eat in the US, but it was really great at the time.  We got done eating really early so we went to a nearby bar, Windows Too, that we know has super cheap drinks and hung out.  A random Canadian man ended up buying us a round of B52s that were pretty delicious. That night was also the kick off night of Pride Week in Shanghai and so we went to the kick off party at Lounge 18.  It was really crowded and expensive, we paid 234RMB for 4 tequila shots, so we didn't stay for long. Just long enough to hear a drag queen sing "Beautiful" by Christina Aguilera, which we obviously sang along with.  After leaving there, we met up with a few more CIEE kids at Windows Scoreboard. It was pretty chill we just played some beer pong and flip cup while singing along to the 90s music they were playing.
      I was pretty exhausted Sunday and mostly just did homework and caught up on TV shows.  Today I was still craving some American food, so we once again had Meiguo Mondays at Malones where I had a delicious Hamburger with potato wedges.  I think tonight we are going out to hear live jazz music. I am pretty excited because I have never really been to any jazz places before. This one should be a good time!

Golden Week Part III: Sanya

      We arrived in Sanya in the afternoon and someone from our hostel, yet again, met us at the airport.  However, instead of getting private transportation, he just hailed a cab for us. It was kind of a waste of money, but we did not know that at the time. The taxi stopped at a kind of sketchy side street and told us we were there. We walked down the sides street that was muddy and wet (it was drizzling) and finally found our hostel, the Thornbird. It was on the second floor of a rather shaky looking building. We climbed very steep, not sturdy stairs to the second floor and checked in. This was the first hostel where we had a six person room instead of a four person room; however, we lucked out because we were the only four people staying in the room. In fact, it seemed as though we were the only four people staying at the hostel.

The Thornbird Hostel

     Our room consisted of three sets of bunk beds and a set of small lockers. The beds were two pieces of plywood with a sheet over them.  There was also another sheet for us to use for covers.  It was definitely a let down after our previous hostels. Also, the bathroom was a toilet, a shower, and a sink all in one.  There was no separation between any of them, it was just one big open room.  Thankfully, there were two sinks for us to use in the hallway because the bathroom was rather disgusting.
     We needed a pick me up, so we decided to go to dinner at a restaurant called Fat Daddy's that some other girls in the program who had been in Sanya earlier in the week recommended.  I had the most amazing burger that had sugared pineapple and avocado on it. We also ordered a pitcher of Mojitos that were the best mojitos I have ever had. Our glasses even came with a cane of sugar in them to bite on.  Our waiter actually ended up being a former CIEE student from North Carolina that moved to Sanya, so that was pretty cool. We chatted with him for awhile and made plans to meet back up with him the next night so he could take us out to some clubs.  We went back to the hostel and went straight to bed.
    Although I was exhausted and had been looking forward to bed, I slept horribly.  I was 100% sure my bed was going to break and I was freezing without a blanket. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Sarah's alarm went off.  We got up and had breakfast at the hostel. Thornbird had a more traditional Chinese breakfast, which was not bad, but it seemed like our food had been sitting out for awhile and would continue to sit out.
     After breakfast, we went in search of an ATM yet again.  We got money and then decided to buy a coconut because that is what Sanya is known for.  The coconut we got was a red coconut, which was actually green.  The guy we bought it from cut it so we could drink the milk out of it and gave us straws.  We walked down toward the beach and drank the milk, which was not bad. We did not actually go on the beach because the beaches where we were staying were covered in trash and the water looked brown and polluted.  When we finished drinking the milk we tried to get our coconut open so we could eat the meat, but no one would help us get it open! We headed back to the hostel because we were supposed to meet a driver who was going to take us to a hot springs resort at 12:00. However, when we got there, the girl working the front desk told us he actually would not be there till around 1 so we went around the corner and grabbed some lunch.  Finally we got in the van to go to the hot springs!
      Our ride to the hot springs was a little sketchy and we offroaded it some as well as taking some roads that were in much need of repair.  Once we got there, we were given little electronic wristbands and then shown to a ladies locker room. We each had lockers that our electronic wristbands opened.  Inside was a towel for us to use and shoes for us to wear.  We changed in to our bathing suits and then went out to hit up some hot springs! It was an overcast day which was lucky because not too many people were there. There were tons of different springs, some man made and some natural, as well as an infinity pool and huge play area with water slides. Some of my favorite and most unique springs were the coffee spring, the milk spring, the fragrant liquor spring, and the fish spring.  The fish spring was my absolute favorite! In this spring there were tons of small fish that would come up and eat the dead skin off of your body. It sounds kind of weird and gross, but it was actually amazing!  At first the sensation was really weird and kind of tickely, but once you got used to it, it was awesome! Sarah and I were really the only ones into it though. When it was almost time to go, we went back to the locker room and showered and then grabbed a snack at one of the restaurants.

Sarah and I in the fish spring

      When it was finally time to leave, we discovered there was a small problem. Something apparently had happened to the bus we had taken up to the hot springs and so we had to take a different one back. Which would have been fine, only it meant that we had to squeeze 15 people into a car roughly the size of a minivan. Lucy, Sarah and I were put into the back seat, which was extremely wobbly.  The entire ride home we were terrified that our seat would fall back into the back door and some how make it open and we would all go flying out of the back. Thankfully that never happened. However, not too long after our first stop letting people off, our seat completely broke! There were some free seats in the front so we moved up to those, but it was still quite the experience!
     Finally we made it back to the hostel alive and in one piece and got ready to go out to dinner. Lauren was not feeling well so she stayed in.  Lucy, Sarah, and I went to Dolphin's Bar and Grill for dinner, which was amazing! We had spinach and artichoke dip for an appetizer and then I had fettuccine alfredo for my meal. We tried lots of different cocktails and they were all pretty great! After dinner, we went back to Fat Daddy's to meet up with our waiter from the night before.  He had to close that night, so we had to wait for a bit. He gave us a free round of mojitos and we sat and talked to some other Americans.  Next, Lucy and I ordered Pina Coladas that were served in an actual pineapple! It was one of the best drinks I have ever had!! By the time our friend was done closing, we were too exhausted to go out so we just walked back to our hostel and went to bed.

Lucy and I with our Pina Coladas in pineapples

      After another night of not very great sleep, we woke up and decided to have brunch at the Dolphin, which is where we had eaten dinner the night before. By this time we were all extremely Shanghai sick!! Brunch took awhile and after eating we took about a 15 or 20 minute cab ride to Yalong Bay.  We bought tickets to go out on the beach there. First we had to walk through a seashell museum, which was pretty cool. Sarah and I bought sun hats in the gift shop! Once we left the museum, there were several vendors selling all kinds of goods.  We bought a coconut, not a red one, a normal one, and drank it pretty quickly. We hung out looking around at different things and Sarah tried to find the perfect set of pearls to buy! Finally we finished our coconut and we took it back to the guy who sold it to us and he cut it open for us. It was the best coconut I have ever had!! While we were wandering around we saw an entire group of Chinese tourists in matching Hawaiian outfits.  It was pretty fantastic.

Drinking out of the coconut in front of the beach

Sarah and I in our hats

      We went down to the beach and changed into our bathing suits and paid for a set of two chairs and an umbrella.  Lucy, Sarah and I got into the water for awhile, but it was overcast and we got chilly pretty quickly.  We laid out for a little while on the beach, but we were salty and soggy so we decided to change and head back.  We showered at the hostel and then went in search of Dongbei Jiaozi Chang restaurant.  It was not as good as we expected, but it was not too bad.  We walked back to the hostel and packed up our stuff and then had an early bedtime.

Part of the beach in Yalong Bay

     The next morning we eagerly sprang out of bed, happy to be going back to Shanghai! We went to Fat Daddy's to get their clay pot breakfast, which was eggs, potatoes and other things cooked in a clay pot. It was phenomenal! We grabbed a cab to the airport, breezed through security and got on our flight.  When we landed in Shanghai we grabbed our bags and then headed for the Maglev.  Then we caught the subway the rest of the way back.  On the subway, a Chinese boy was facing Lucy and I.  He kept looking at us and finally shouted ""外国人" (foreigner). Then his mom smacked him in the face. It was pretty funny.  We spoke to him some in Chinese and told him we were "美国人" (meiguoren).  After that he kept looking at us and 
saying "美国人".  It was a great way to end our trip! We got back to the dorm and went to dinner at one of our
favorite restaurants 学友 (xue you, study friend), with some friends and it was great! Then I had a lot of work to
catch up on because today I had a test and oral presentation. I managed to do pretty well on all of it though!

Golden Week Part II: Xi'an

     Our train arrived in Xi'an at 11:20 and our hostel met us again and we took a van to Xiangzimen hostel. The hostel was absolutely amazing! The architecture was old traditional Chinese style and huge! There was a restaurant and a bar as well as a people who did laundry for us! Our room was really nice and the bed was the best one I have had so far in China. We were sad we were only going to be staying in the hostel for 2 nights.

     As soon as we got there we showered and then went to get lunch in the Muslim quarter. Our food was not that great and our waitress was not very nice either. The Muslim quarter was also extremely crowded, as was all of Xi'an. After lunch we went a got Starbucks, I had a Mango Passionfruit smoothie that was amazing. Lucy's mom was also in Xi'an on a tour so then we caught a cab to her hotel, the Shangrila, to surprise her.  She was taking awhile so we sat in the hotel lounge and had cocktails. Finally Lucy's mom and grandma arrived! Her grandmother was doing something with the tour group, but Lucy's mom treated us to an amazing dinner at the Thai restaurant in the hotel. After dinner, Lucy's mom was exhausted and went to bed so we headed back to our hostel.
     After getting back to our hostel we went in search of an ATM.  On our way back, Lucy and I spotted a spa that was giving 90 minute 88RMB foot massages. We had not gotten massages yet, so the two of us decided to go! The spa was really nice. We ordered tea and sat in the couch like lounge chairs in a private room and watched a movie about Confucius.  The masseurs started out giving us arm and hand massages and then mine also massaged my stomach, which was a little awkward. Lucy's masseuse had left the room during this time, so she did not get a tummy rub. Then they massaged our feet and calves for a really long time. It was fabulous! Just when I thought they were finished, they told us to roll over and they also gave us back massages! It was a pretty well spent 88RMB!!  We headed straight back to the hostel after that and went to bed.
     The next morning we got up and gave our laundry to the attendant upstairs.  We had another great American style breakfast. Sarah even got a cappuccino that had a foam bear face on top.  Then we set out to see the Terra Cotta Soldiers! We sat on our bus waiting to leave for almost half an hour, but we finally we started to make our way!
      Our first stop was a factory where they still make Terra Cotta Soldiers.  We toured it and saw how they make the soldiers by putting local clay into little molds before letting them dry for long amounts of time. After seeing how they were made, we were taken to a shop where you could buy them! Since my Daddy had wanted a life sized Terra Cotta soldier and horse for our front yard, I almost sent them to him as a joke. However, it would have been several thousand USD and I did not think he would find it that funny. Instead I bought him a horse and soldier that are each around 8 or 10 inches high. I hope he likes them!
     After the factory, we headed to the actual site of the Terra Cotta soldiers.  First we watched a movie that gave us some background on them and then headed out to the actual pits. Pit 1 is the largest with the most complete set of warriors. It was a truly amazing site to see! I definitely understand why it is the 8th wonder of the world.  You could look at the soldiers and see each unique, individual face. The time and effort put into the soldiers was fascinating. Pit 2 was still in the process of being excavated, but still had some pretty cool things to see. The 3rd Pit was mostly not excavated and not very exciting.  Then we went to a museum which had more back ground on the Terra Cotta soldiers and the people who made them.

Me in front of Pit 1 of the Terra Cotta Soldiers

Soldiers from Pit 2

      Next, we went to a the Mausoleum of an Emperor, which was basically just a mountain because it is too dangerous to excavate anymore due to harmful chemicals in the soil. That area was pretty boring and we did not stay for long. We left and arrived back in the city a little after 6.
      After getting back to the hostel, we decided to look into doing a bike ride on the city wall. It took us awhile, and some pretty scary walking in the gutter of the road, before we finally figured out how to get on the wall.  Once we were up there we decided just to walk along it some and have a little photo shoot outside of one of the pagodas on it.  After all of the days excitement we wanted dinner so we went to a restaurant called De Fa Cheng, where we had an 18 course jiaozi meal!  It was super cool because several of the jiaozi were specially shaped like different things. We had ones that looked like a fish and ones that kind of looked like a flower basket as well. As we were eating, we noticed that an older group of Chinese men kept taking our pictures with their high tech zoom lens cameras from across the restaurant.  I am sure they got many attractive pictures of us shoving food in our mouths. On our way out, we walked past them and they asked to have pictures with us. I am sure those were much better!
     Back at the hostel we went down to the bar and had a couple of drinks.  We chatted with the hostel manager, whose name was Jim Beam (he was Chinese so this was the English name he chose, we loved it!).  Then we sat in the hostel restaurant and played cards for awhile. We went to bed not too much later because we had to catch a taxi by 10 to get to the airport for our flight to Sanya! The hostel got a private taxi to take us, which was pretty sweet and we got there just fine.  Although Xi'an was really cool, we were excited to travel to Sanya because the air pollution and crowds in Xi'an were awful!

Golden Week Part 1: Chengdu

      On October 1, Sarah, Lucy, Lauren and I finally set off on our Golden week adventure we had so been looking forward too! We stayed out pretty late at a club the night before, so that morning we packed in a tired kind of frenzy. Before going to the subway we put more money on our phones and grabbed some 包子 (baozi, small buns with different fillings).  We took the subway for about 45 minutes to the Maglev high speed train. It only took us 15 minutes after getting on that to get to the airport! Normally it's about another hour! The train was really cool and went over 400 km/hour.  After getting through security we had a while to wait for our plane.  We watched a chubby little boy be followed around by multiple adults, one of them, his grandmother I think, kept shoving food in his mouth. He would also randomly scream. It was extremely entertaining for he was quite the little Chinese emperor. Our flight to Chengdu was 3 hours and I slept for a good portion of it.

Me, Sarah, Lauren, and Lucy before setting off 

Great pic of Lucy and Sarah on the Maglev

     When we landed someone from our hostel met us and took us by bus to the hostel. The hostel we stayed at was called The Loft. It was much nicer than I expected. Our room was a little damp and chilly, but overall the accommodations were very nice.  One of the girls working at the hostel recommended that we have dinner at a small restaurant down the street. The food was great! We signed up to go to the Panda center in the morning and then pretty much went straight to bed.

The Loft

      We got up at 6:30 so that we could get breakfast in the hostel at 7 and be ready to leave by 7:20.  Breakfast was delicious! They had American breakfast so I had fried eggs, toast and bacon. It was really good! We took a  van to the Panda center and met our tour guide named Dora, who looked like a Chinese version of Dora the Explorer. When we saw the first panda, I almost died of joy. They are absolutely the cutest creature I have ever seen before in my entire life. I think I could have watched them all day. The walls separating us from the pandas were quite low and it was really hard to restrain myself from just jumping in and cuddling with a giant, fluffy panda. We also saw red pandas, which basically look like little red raccoon pandas. They were not quite as cute as the originals. Then we got to see the tiniest baby pandas through a window, but we were not allowed to take pictures. They were so tiny! And they were all sleeping in a little pile with one another! It was one of the cutest things I have ever seen!
      Seeing the pandas was not enough for us though, we each paid 1000RMB (about $150 USD) to actually hold, yes hold in my arms, a sweet baby panda. Actually it was not really a baby, it was much bigger than I expected, but most of it was just fur.  That experience now defines my life.  It was the most amazing thing I have ever done! The panda, named Qiqi, just sat happily on my lap while one of the workers dipped bamboo in honey and continuously fed it.  After they pried him out of my arms, I was given a certificate of panda love and a panda mouse pad! Soooo worth the 1000RMB.

Holding Qiqi!

     That afternoon we had hot pot, which originated in Sichuan, for lunch. Hot pot is when you get a huge bowl of broth that you heat up in the middle of the table. You order different meats and vegetables to put in it and let them cook and then eat them. Since we were in Sichuan, which is known for its spicy food, we had to make sure we ordered not spicy broth! We went back to the hostel and watched the new Alice and Wonderland and then took naps.  We woke up and had dinner at the hostel and then went to a Sichuan Opera. Before the opera we were served tea in a little tea room type area. The tea was excellent! The opera was okay, the costumes were really bright and colorful, but all of the music and singing was pre-recorded, so that kind of took away from the experience. After the opera, we went straight to bed.
      The next morning we got up at 5:40 for an excursion to Mt. Qingcheng and Dujiangyan irragation system. On the way there we stopped for suprise baozi! They were delicious! Our entire tour group was Chinese people and our tour guide did not speak any English. Mt. Qingcheng was really cool with lots of temples and such, but it was also quite the hike. We were all out of breath. However, there were elderly Chinese men and women walking up these precarious steps with huge packs on their backs full of potatoes and other vegetables. They made me feel like I really need to pick up my exercise game. While we were going up and down the mountain, children kept pointing at us and shouting "外国人" (foreigner). Several people wanted to take pictures with us because they had seen few or no foreigners before.  After our hike, we also had to hike back to our bus. Then we went to a lazy susan style restaurant for lunch that was not very good. We were starting to get tired, but we still had to go tour the irrigation system.
     On our way to the irrigation system, we got a little surprise. The bus randomly stopped and we got off and we taken into a windowless room in some random building.  In the room, we were basically exposed to a live infomercial on knives and water bottles. I could not exactly follow it because it was entirely in Chinese and I kept falling asleep. Thankfully, it did not last too long and we were on our way to the Duxiangyan. 
     At Duxiangyan, the first thing we did was cross a huge swinging bridge filled with hundreds of people.  Sarah was really scared and said she was not going to cross, but of course she did. I thought it was a kind of fun adventure! I figured there was only a small chance of the bridge actually breaking. On the other side of the bridge we were subjected to yet another long explanation entirely in Chinese that none of us could follow. However, as soon as that was over, all of the people in our tour group started forcing their children to take pictures with us and even getting in them themselves! There were two little chubby twin boys, we referred to them as tweedle dee and tweedle dum, who were especially cute and mischievous!  Then we took a little cart to tour the rest of the area, which was basically more pagodas and temple type things. We finally left and returned to the hostel and we slept pretty much the whole bus ride back.  We had dinner at a restaurant called 家家好吃 (jia jia haochi, basically home home delicious).  The food was pretty good, but we were really craving 
sweets afterward. We wandered the streets and finally found a place with desserts and wine. The wine was 
really bad, as is most wine in China, and the desserts were a little weird, we ordered pudding, but it was like a
weird kind of milkshake, but good. We gossiped and had fun until we were to exhausted to stay awake any 
longer and then we went back and went to bed.  

Swinging Bridge

       The next morning we slept in some and then had breakfast and checkout of the hostel. Our train did not 
leave until later in the afternoon, so we left our bags at the hostel and went and toured Wenxu Monastery.  The
monastery had some really pretty gardens and a really great tea house that we went to. We got Oolong Cha 
and sat at a cute little stone table and drank the tea and chatted. The tea was really good and the weather was 
gorgeous so it was a perfect last afternoon! We went back to the hostel and had a snack of giant baozi and 
hung out on the patio of The Loft.  

Drinking tea at Wenxu Monastery

     We left the hostel at 8:45 to catch our train, which Lucy had told us left at 
11:20. However, we got on our train, which was already full of people, at 9:15 and it left 5 minutes later. We 
were super confused so we checked our tickets and realized it was supposed to leave at 9:20!! We barely 
made it!! We laughed about that for quite sometime and about our situation on the train as well. We thought we
had booked soft sleepers and were eagerly looking forward to what we thought would be a Hogwarts Express
type compartment with beds. That was not the case. The car was just set after set of six bunk beds, three on 
each side, which no door to each section.  We talked a little to some of the Chinese people who wanted to 
know where we were from, but not too long after that the lights in the train suddenly turned out and we took 
that as our cue to go to bed!  We all slept pretty terribly, but the next morning we got to see some really pretty
scenery before reaching Xi'an, the next leg of our tour!

Meiguo Mondays and Brown Sugar Wednesdays

     Here in Shanghai, CIEE students are creating some great traditions for ourselves! Monday night, after a long day of classes, we decided to go to a restaurant called Malone's. It is well known in Shanghai for it's hamburgers, or as the Chinese say "hambaobao".  On Mondays, Malone's has a special where you can get any burger of your choice and a beer for only 50RMB!! Since normally the burgers alone are 90RMB, this is quite the deal. The burgers were huge and delicious and there were so many burger options to choose from. I opted for the Malone's House Burger, which was "loaded" with cheddar and sautéed onions and mushrooms. My mouth is watering just writing about it right now!! We decided to call it Meiguo (美国) Mondays because Malone's was filled with Americans and other ex-pats. I even saw another girl from Wake Forest who is studying here on a different program!! 

     Tuesday was more relaxing and I slept in, finally catching up on some sleep. I had an evening class and then a meeting for my program so we grabbed a late dinner and came straight back and did homework for the rest of the night. However, we would like for Tuesday to become "Turntable Tuesday", with turntable referring to the Lazy Susan style of eating. Basically, a big group of us will go out and order a lot of different dishes and share them all. It's a great way to eat because you can try lots of new things!

     Wednesday afternoon I went shopping with a friend and purchased my first knockoff bag!! It is a hot pink (duh) Longchamp that was 160RMB. Maybe I overpaid? Still cheaper than the US though I suppose. I also bought a really cute shirt to wear out for our Wednesday evening festivities!! Not the most successful shopping trip of my life, but we were short on time so we didn't just have time to wander a lot.

     For Wednesday night, we have decided to start attending Ladies Night at a bar called Brown Sugar. Brown Sugar is a really nice bar in Xintiandi. They have free champagne starting at 9:30 until they run out. A group of us went last night and it was so much fun!! We got there early and ordered some cocktails and appetizers, but we stood at the bar so when the free champagne started flowing we would be the first to get it! When they brought out the first dish, a Parma ham thing, we inhaled the food within about 30 seconds just grabbing the food with our fingers looking like your typical obese Americans. Right as soon as we finished a waiter appeared with some silverware, but that was clearly unnecessary.  We also got a cheese platter which was absolutely amazing since I love cheese almost more than any other food and it is not very common in China. Not too long after we finished, a jazz band started playing and the champagne started to be poured.  At first just the jazz band was playing, but then a man came and started singing and he was amazing!!! They sort of switched from jazz to R&B and Top 40 hits after he came out and we had a great time dancing along.

Sarah, Me, Lucy, and Laura with our cocktails

The awesome band and stage

        Today is my last day of class before I embark on my 10 day Golden Week trip!! Golden Week is a week in China when everyone takes off work and just travels around or stays home and rests. I am going with 3 other girls to Chengdu, Xi'an, and Sanya. Chengdu is known for having pandas and you can pay to hold a baby panda for the small price of $150 (US dollars that is). At first I asked myself if that was a bit much to pay to hold a baby panda, but then I realized that that was the most ridiculous question I have ever asked!!! How many times am I going to get the chance to hold a baby panda?! Not very many. There are also some nice scenic places to hike and a monastery that is supposed to be really pretty. In Xi'an we will see the Terracotta Soldiers. I am currently in the process of hatching a plan to steal a horse and soldier to send back to my daddy for lawn decorations. I think it shouldn't be too hard. Sanya is China's Hawaii, so we are going there last so we can just relax on a beach for the last few days and enjoy some fabulous weather and gorgeous scenery. We will be staying in hostels, which is really exciting because I have never stayed in a hostel before!! Also, we are going to take the train from Chengdu to Xi'an, which will be another first experience that should be pretty fun. 

     It is time for me to take a 休息 (shouxin, rest) before I get ready for my evening plans, big dinner and out to a club. I will try to update my blog again soon, but I will have limited internet access while I am on my trip so it could be a little while!

     And check out my first entry again because I added some pictures and things!!

Late Start! Here are my first 3 weeks in China!

     Okay so three very long seeming weeks ago, after much anticipation, I arrived in Shanghai (finally!!).  There was a bus that took a big group of us to East China Normal University (ECNU) and got the key to my dorm room. My room is super nice. Far nicer than any dorm room I've had in the US. My room mate and I both have full sized beds, big desks, and large wardrobes too. It is also really eco-friendly because the electricity will only work when a key card for the room is inserted into a slot. So when no one is there everything automatically shuts off. The first night here I went out to a bar with some of the people on the program. It was super small and we were the only people in there! I think we gave them as much business as they get in a year.

My Wardrobe

My bed!

     The first week here was all orientation. So it was just sitting in rooms being bored by lectures about safety and blah blah stuff. During orientation, CIEE treated us to a really nice welcome dinner at a restaurant where we got to see a Changing Mask dance. That may or may not be the official name of it, but it was really cool. Basically a man did a dance in this intricate outfit and switched masks like a bajillion times throughout the dance but he does it so sneakily that you don't even notice until he has a new face!!
     We also saw a Chinese acrobatic show that was really intense. They did all kinds of flips and stuff on ropes and balancing on lots of strange objects and even did plate twirling. Plate twirling is the art of balancing a spinning plate on top of a very long pole. And the girls had multiple poles. My favorite part though was a love dance to "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion, the couple would grab on to a rope and swing over our heads, we were in the front row, so it was thrilling. Also, it was just so Chinese of them to have a dance to that song. The last part was a Motorcyle ball!! Like at the circus when all of the motorcyles drive around in a big sphere. One of the drivers was even a girl and she was super bad-ass.
      That was my first night going out in Shanghai and we went to two clubs, Muse, which was all right that night, and Sky Bar, which was amazing!!! I actually saw Chinese Lil' Wayne!! No joke he looked just like him, with really long dreads in a ponytail and no shirt, standing on a stage rapping. We got invited to sit with some Chinese people at a table and I had my first taste of Chinese scotch and it was delicious!!! But I think it might be different from Scotch in the US because it was really sweet, as are most beverages in China.
     I also had time to explore some that week and went to Xintiandi, which was really cool. They also took us to the Expo one day. It was kind of rainy, so that was kind of a bummer, and the lines were really long so we only went into the large African exhibit, which was pretty cool. Also, we did an amazing race around China. I am pretty sure my team was last, but we had a lot of fun and got to see a lot of cool things, like the Bund.
     Classes started that next week. I am in a Globalization class, a Seminar on living and learning in Shanghai, Issues in Chinese Society, Cultural Currencies, and Intermediate II Chinese. Most of my classes meet 1 day a week for 3 hours, which is killer. I can never pay attention for more than 2, if I can even go for that long. My Chinese class meets 4 days a week (there are no classes on Fridays) for 2 hours a day. I really like my Chinese class and my professor is really cute and funny!! Also, my Issues in Chinese Society professor is hilarious!! His name is Wei Wei. He has a twin brother whose name is also Wei Wei!!! It's different in Chinese because of the tones, but in English it's the same, so it's pretty funny. Overall, I think my classes are going to be really interesting and I am going to learn a lot.
    That week we went on a boat cruise to see the Bund and it was amazing!! We did it at night so all of the buildings were lit up!! Everyone got really dressed up for it and had lots of fun and then after we went to dinner and then out to a club called Paramount. It was okay, they had a bird cage a la Spanish Galleon, but it was really smokey and a little too loud.

The boat we were on for the Cruise

On the boat, with Shanghai behind me!

      That weekend I had a class field trip to Xintiandi, it is the location of the first meeting of the Communist Party, and we toured the Communist Museum there. We also toured an old house there, which I really enjoyed. It was really pretty on the inside and the furniture and decorations were all really intricate and colorful.
     On Wednesday we had the Mid-Autumn Festival so we didn't have class. Tuesday night we went out to a club called Shelter which is an old bomb shelter that was converted into a club. I had some fun, but was absolutely disgustingly dirty when I left. The Chinese tradition for the Mid-Autumn Festival is to eat moon cakes and contemplate the moon. However, I don't like moon cakes (I'm not sure anyone does) and I don't really enjoy contemplating the moon, so I did neither. We had class Friday to make up for Wednesday, which kind of stank, but it was nice having a random day off in the middle of the week.
    Wednesday night I met up with some people from Wake that have graduated and are studying here now and went to the Expo for a party. First we went to Chile. They were having a deal for buy one bottle of wine, get one free. So we drank wine and met some Chileans. Then the Chileans came with us to a party at the Australia pavilion. The party is only supposed to be for people that work there but we managed to get in. It wasn't that great of a party and I was really tired so I left pretty early, but it was fun getting to know some Chileans and actually see the inside of some pavilions without waiting for 6 hours!!
       Friday night I went to this really high end bar called Mint. A girl on the program knew someone with a table there. It was on the 39th floor of a building so it had cool views. And a shark tank!! I didn't stay long and Lucy (my room mate who is with my on pretty much all of my adventures cause she is awesome!) and I didn't get any drinks because they are pretty expensive there.
       Yesterday I went on a day trip to Suzhou, which is known as the Venice of China. I would say calling it Venice is a little bit of a stretch, but it was really interesting. We went to the No. 1 Silk Factory, only the best for us, and toured it. We got to see the entire process they go through with the silkworms to make the silk. We were also treated to a fashion show while we were there of several of the silk designs they were selling. I didn't buy anything because it was all grossly overpriced and silk things are not in any shortage around China. Then we took a boat cruise down the canal, which is the longest canal in the world. It was definitely an interesting experience. We were a lot confused over how some of the houses hadn't fallen in the water yet, but it was still nice to look at. Then we had lunch on our own. I went with some friends to a place that was a little over priced and not that great. But we did get to sit on these really comfy couches, so I guess it was okay.

Down the Canal

      Last night we went to a club called G plus which was awesome and a lot of fun!! I can't wait to go back!! This is most of what I have done since I have been here, at least most of the major things!! Other than that I have just been eating lots of great Chinese food!!! And some not great... Like stinky tofu, which we ordered because our waiter recommended it. It smelled like rotting cat food and tasted like that too. Even though it was rude, I had to spit mine out. I physically couldn't swallow it because it was the most vile tasting and smelling thing on the planet. Other than that the food has been pretty fabulous though!! And I've only bought one dress so far, so some serious shopping is definitely in my near future.