Greetings from a very cold and wet Shanghai. BURRRR… I may
be from Oregon, but somehow, I am not used to cold or wet weather… Weird isn’t
it?! For the last week, I’ve been frozen. There is no central heating in the
apartment (typical for Shanghai); however, my room has an external heater,
which as of ten minutes ago, I am now using. I’ve also taken to bundling. For
example, last night, I wore a hat, a shirt, a sweater, a sweatshirt, my
Northface fleece, long underwear, pajama bottoms, and three pairs of socks. I
had two blankets, but they didn’t do much good. Luckily, I now have a third,
and if that fails, tomorrow it’s off to IKEA to buy a down comforter. This
weekend I will also be stocking up on more winter clothing. For the first 18
years of my life, somehow I was able to ignore the cold, but not now!
The last few days, except yesterday, have been great fun,
but now, with Thanksgiving approaching and winter setting in, culture shock is
taking it’s toll. For example, dinnertime is now struggle-time. Although I am
hungry, the thought of the food makes me less hungry, but my stash of protein
bars and Nature Valley Granola Bars helps.
The weekend of fun began last Friday with a CIEE excursion
to the fabric market. When I heard “fabric market,” I immediately thought of isles
upon isles of fabric for sale, a place for aspiring seamstresses. WRONG. Try
one very large custom clothing shop that can make you anything: coats, dresses
suits, tuxedos, shirts, and much more! The best part though is the price; a
lovely wool dress coat costs under $60, and the quality is good, or so I hear.
I am going to pick up my order this coming weekend!
On Saturday, Cindy and I went to a different type of market,
the black market, or as I prefer to call it, the knock-off goods market. This was
another type of paradise! There were purses, sunglasses, jeans, shoes, and so
many other fake goods. They are supposedly good quality, unlike the goods you
can buy from a black garbage back in New York City. It was disappointing,
however, that on this day, there were no Louis Vuitton or Coach products.
Perhaps it will be different next time. I bought a black Dolce & Gabbana
purse, and thus far, it has held up nicely. Interestingly enough, while we were
there, stores started closing down, and we began to notice policemen. Why?
Obama was coming so security cracked down. Saturday evening, we went to another
corner of Shanghai to enjoy delicious and authentic Mexican food, and yes, they
even deliver. This could be a problem!
Sunday afternoon, six of us, along with four host siblings, went
to the aquarium. We’ve been trying to increase interaction with our host
siblings, so we decided a day on the town would help. We saw crazy fish and had
fun in the process. My highlight, though, was Coldstone after the aquarium. Our
siblings had never been before (too expensive and not well-known by the
Chinese), so we treated them to their first Coldstone. My sister had bubblegum ice
cream with M&Ms while I enjoyed a chocolate milkshake. Yummy.
Monday and Tuesday our school traveled to Hangzhou, a city
about 120km from Shanghai. I’ve never seen anything like it—two hundred foreign
students, who know just a bit of Chinese, crammed into four buses and driven
around for hours and dumped at random locations. Monday, we boarded the bus at
8 am. By 8:20, we were leaving the parking lot, not bad considering our
numbers! We drove and drove, and I slept and slept. Suddenly, we slowed down
and were in a city. Abby noticed a sign that said welcome to Shaoxing. We were
not in Hangzhou. At about 12:15, we were dumped at a random location in
Shaoxing and told to be back to the buses in an hour with food. There was one
major problem: The temperature was near freezing, and it was pouring! It turned
out we were at the former residence of the Chinese author Lu Xun. We wandered
around his house and then headed towards the gleaming sign of a coffee house
across the street. It was wonderful to be out of the rain and in a heated
building. In addition, the tea was lovely and my sandwich was delicious.
We loaded up on the buses and headed out again. An hour
later, we stopped at yet another random location near Shaoxing. This time, we
were told to get out for two hours, but they provided a guide. We wandered
about this picturesque place, but it was so cold and wet that I couldn’t
appreciate any of it! Then, we got on a boat, went to a restaurant to try the famous
yellow wine, which was GROSS, got back on the boat, and finally made it to the
buses, frozen.
At 7:30 pm, we arrived at our hotel in Hangzhou and were
told to be on the bus by nine the next morning. ECNU did a fabulous job organizing
100 rooms. Next, we needed to find food. From our guidebook, Abby and I knew of
a recommend restaurant serving chicken in a clay pot. We encouraged our classmates
to come on the food adventure with us, but everyone else settled for the Papa
John’s across the street. After the worst cab ride ever, we arrived at the
restaurant and ordered our chicken. It was incredible, a chicken roasted in a
clay pot. We ate it all, even gnawing on the neck as Lonely Planet suggested. It was the best single dish I’ve had in China.
The next morning, after a not so pleasant buffet breakfast,
we loaded back on the buses and set out for West Lake, the scenic lake in
Hangzhou, which is the main tourist attraction. Again, we were simply dropped
and told to return in a few hours. Luckily, it wasn’t raining this time, so it
was easier to take in the scenery. It was incredibly beautiful!
Abby and I set out to walk the eight or so kilometers around
the lake. At the quarter mark, we decided to rent bicycles, which changed our
plan. Our new mission was to find a warm restaurant and a Starbucks somewhere
in the city on the other side of the lake. We pedaled and pedaled, but
eventually, we were told bikes weren’t allowed, so we parked the bikes and
began walking. By this time, we only had an hour-and-a-half left. At an hour
until the buses departed, we ditched our plan and decided on the Chinese
equivalent of a Cup Noodles from a street vendor. As we quickly walked back, an
extraordinary thing occurred. Although we’d imagined a Starbucks located ON the
lake, we didn’t actually expect it. Suddenly, as we walked along a different
path back to our bikes, a Starbucks lady greeted us! There was a Starbucks on the lake! SUCCESS! We quickly got our drinks and
continued back. We were at least 15 minutes late, but since the buses didn’t
leave, that caramel macchiato was totally worth it!
By 5:15 pm, we arrived back in Shanghai exhausted. Yesterday,
was almost a normal day, except we went to a cooking school. We made (kind of)
a cold tofu and vegetable dish, a crazy mashed carrot and potato dish that went
into a red pepper, and finally xiaolongbao, pork soup dumplings, all of which reminded
me why I don’t cook. Simple things, even slicing carrots, are challenges! Nonetheless,
it was a very fun time.
Now bedtime is nearing. I’ve posted pictures of Hangzhou and
cooking class. Enjoy!