EDIT: Due to my IT expertise I was able to get the internet hooked up to the laptop. I have now added our photos and videos!
Sunday, February 1
Our flight arrived in Shanghai at about 10:30 am after almost 30 hours of travel including layovers. We were met at the airport by a CIEE employee who led us to a bus that brought us to our hotel, where we arrived around noon. Our hotel was called the Faculty Club, and was located on the campus of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which has a nice little campus tucked away in the middle of Shanghai.
In an attempt to stay awake for the rest of the day, Megan and I decided to explore the area surrounding our hotel after unpacking. We found the nearest subway station, some malls, and a few decent grocery stores that we used once or twice during the week to get fruit. With the aid of Xing Ba Ke, Chinese for Starbucks, we stayed up until around 8 before a jet-lag induced sleep.
Monday, February 2
SUPER BOWL MONDAY! I woke up around 5 am due to the jet-lag, but we didn't have to be anywhere until around 8, so I clicked around the internet for a while and found that the previous blog site had been blocked. I spent the next few hours trying to figure out how to make it work with no luck. When Megan woke up around 7 we flipped through the channels and found the Super Bowl being broadcast in Chinese. I couldn't understand the announcers, but on a 20 yard completion from Ben Rothlisberger to Heath Miller down the middle I heard "piao liang," which Megan said means "Beautiful!" and is frequently used during sporting events. I was able to watch about half of the first quarter before we headed down to breakfast.
Our orientation started with our first Chinese lesson. Our teacher was a student at the college who was studying to be a teacher of Chinese as a second language. Her name was Jerry, which she chose because it sounds like her Chinese name. I'm not sure if she knows it is a man's name or not. We followed that with a few lectures from a woman who has been teaching English as a second language for about 20 years. She has only been in China for a few years, but she had ton of knowledge on how to teach and manage a classroom. She basically taught us how to teach on Monday and Tuesday morning.
After lunch at the hotel we had free time until dinner. Megan and I used this time to explore the Bund, which is sometimes called "Shanghai's architectural museum." On one side of the river is a road is lined with European style buildings from the early 1900's. These were used by the European powers who had a presence in China at that time. Across the river is the modern business district with the Pearl Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center, the second tallest building in the world.
The Bund at night (I didn't take this picture).
We met back with the group for a welcome dinner at a Sichuan restaurant. Sichuan is a province in the central part of China and its cuisine is known for its spiciness. At times I was a bit spicy for me but I sucked it up and most of it was excellent.
The meal was concluded with a performance by Sichuanese face changers, which is a sort of combination of dancing and magic where the dancers instantly change their masks. Here's an example, although the guy we saw seemed more impressive than this guy:
Sunday, February 1
Our flight arrived in Shanghai at about 10:30 am after almost 30 hours of travel including layovers. We were met at the airport by a CIEE employee who led us to a bus that brought us to our hotel, where we arrived around noon. Our hotel was called the Faculty Club, and was located on the campus of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which has a nice little campus tucked away in the middle of Shanghai.
Our room at the Faculty Club
In an attempt to stay awake for the rest of the day, Megan and I decided to explore the area surrounding our hotel after unpacking. We found the nearest subway station, some malls, and a few decent grocery stores that we used once or twice during the week to get fruit. With the aid of Xing Ba Ke, Chinese for Starbucks, we stayed up until around 8 before a jet-lag induced sleep.
Monday, February 2
SUPER BOWL MONDAY! I woke up around 5 am due to the jet-lag, but we didn't have to be anywhere until around 8, so I clicked around the internet for a while and found that the previous blog site had been blocked. I spent the next few hours trying to figure out how to make it work with no luck. When Megan woke up around 7 we flipped through the channels and found the Super Bowl being broadcast in Chinese. I couldn't understand the announcers, but on a 20 yard completion from Ben Rothlisberger to Heath Miller down the middle I heard "piao liang," which Megan said means "Beautiful!" and is frequently used during sporting events. I was able to watch about half of the first quarter before we headed down to breakfast.
Our orientation started with our first Chinese lesson. Our teacher was a student at the college who was studying to be a teacher of Chinese as a second language. Her name was Jerry, which she chose because it sounds like her Chinese name. I'm not sure if she knows it is a man's name or not. We followed that with a few lectures from a woman who has been teaching English as a second language for about 20 years. She has only been in China for a few years, but she had ton of knowledge on how to teach and manage a classroom. She basically taught us how to teach on Monday and Tuesday morning.
After lunch at the hotel we had free time until dinner. Megan and I used this time to explore the Bund, which is sometimes called "Shanghai's architectural museum." On one side of the river is a road is lined with European style buildings from the early 1900's. These were used by the European powers who had a presence in China at that time. Across the river is the modern business district with the Pearl Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center, the second tallest building in the world.
Megan and I at the Bund.
The Bund at night (I didn't take this picture).
Our Sichuanese meal.
The meal was concluded with a performance by Sichuanese face changers, which is a sort of combination of dancing and magic where the dancers instantly change their masks. Here's an example, although the guy we saw seemed more impressive than this guy:
Tuesday, February 3
Today we had more Chinese lessons and teaching classes until lunch. After lunch we took an excursion with our group to the Bund again (perhaps we should have read ahead on the schedule before going the day before) and the West Nanjing Rd shopping area. This time around we did go into some of buildings in the Bund, the coolest of which being the original HSBC Bank building, which is still a functioning bank. After working for a while at a bank I though about how cool it would be to work in a bank that basically doubled as a museum. Cool stuff.
The West Nanjing Rd shopping area was fairly uneventful, mostly just high end shops that no one really wanted to shop in anyway. Our Chinese orientation leader, Kelvin, said that if the girls wanted to do any "special shopping" Jerry could take them. Megan and I spent most of the rest of the time joking about what he could have meant by "special shopping" and why only the girls could go.
Dinner was at a vegetarian restaurant called Jujube. This was definitely Megan's favorite meal of the week because we did not have deal with any questionable meat. Also, I've noticed that the bits of chicken or beef in a dish in China often seem to be the bits that we would discard in the state like very cartilidge-y or boney pieces. Anyway, it was nice to avoid picked through that. The food at Jujube also imitated meat, so we had tofu Peking duck, fish, and other dishes. Delicious in my mouth.
Following dinner we went to a Chinese acrobat show, which was without a doubt the highlight of the week for me. I'll have to have a full post on this later. Just a teaser though: they had something called "The Ball of Death." No one died and it was awesome.
I'll post the second half of the week later. Megan and I are about to head out to buy some stuff to make our new apartment a bit more homey.
Today we had more Chinese lessons and teaching classes until lunch. After lunch we took an excursion with our group to the Bund again (perhaps we should have read ahead on the schedule before going the day before) and the West Nanjing Rd shopping area. This time around we did go into some of buildings in the Bund, the coolest of which being the original HSBC Bank building, which is still a functioning bank. After working for a while at a bank I though about how cool it would be to work in a bank that basically doubled as a museum. Cool stuff.
The HSBC Bank building.
A cool lion in front of the HSBC Bank building.
The West Nanjing Rd shopping area was fairly uneventful, mostly just high end shops that no one really wanted to shop in anyway. Our Chinese orientation leader, Kelvin, said that if the girls wanted to do any "special shopping" Jerry could take them. Megan and I spent most of the rest of the time joking about what he could have meant by "special shopping" and why only the girls could go.
Dinner was at a vegetarian restaurant called Jujube. This was definitely Megan's favorite meal of the week because we did not have deal with any questionable meat. Also, I've noticed that the bits of chicken or beef in a dish in China often seem to be the bits that we would discard in the state like very cartilidge-y or boney pieces. Anyway, it was nice to avoid picked through that. The food at Jujube also imitated meat, so we had tofu Peking duck, fish, and other dishes. Delicious in my mouth.
Following dinner we went to a Chinese acrobat show, which was without a doubt the highlight of the week for me. I'll have to have a full post on this later. Just a teaser though: they had something called "The Ball of Death." No one died and it was awesome.
I'll post the second half of the week later. Megan and I are about to head out to buy some stuff to make our new apartment a bit more homey.
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1 comment:
I love your comments and all the pics in China so far! Thanks for sharing with us! And it is great to hear Megan is a beautiful celebrity in China that people want in their pictures. We miss you guys!
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