Gap Year

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from Shanghai!

My holiday cheer began last weekend at Starbucks. On Tuesday and Wednesday, I had midterms, so in order to get out of the house, away from Skype and Facebook, I sought refuge at Starbucks. During my junior and senior year at South, I regularly studied at Starbucks, so it felt very much like home minus the presence of friends.

Now, although the Chinese do not celebrate Christmas, Starbucks is decked out for Christmas. They have Christmas decorations, holiday flavored drinks, and even... RED CUPS! (During November when Starbucks gets their red cups, it's quite a big deal for me!)

I spent Sunday and Monday at Starbucks reviewing for my midterm. There happens to be three different Starbucks shops at Zhongshan Park, so I tried them all and now know that the one across the street from the mall has the best atmosphere. There was one major distraction for me, however, Christmas carols. After writing a character, I would suddenly put down my pencil and begin signing along to "Rudolf the Red-Nose Reindeer" and other Christmas songs. By the time I left, I was filled with the Christmas spirit!

The second event that heightened my holiday cheer was a wonderful package from home: CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS! I now have a stocking and a little tree in my room! 

With plenty of cheer, Thanksgiving was a lovely day. The weather was perfect, high 60s and sunny, quite the change from the previous week! After a relaxing morning of pancakes and Skype (oh did I mention I skipped class?), I met up with Abby at Zhongshan Park, the PARK not the mall. We found a man selling kites and bought a Haibao kite! The green field at the park was blocked off, so we walked back to ECNU to use its fields. We were quite a sight: two “laowai” running around trying to get a Haibao kite up in the air. It was very amusing and fun though!

In the evening, CIEE took the gap year students, along with four students from UPenn that study at Fudan, to a Thanksgiving buffet. I was a little skeptical, imported turkey? But, it turned out to be delicious. Yes, they were missing stuffing, but the moist turkey and fluffy mashed potatoes made up for it. It's safe to say that I've never eaten so much in my life! Oh and the desserts! Again, no pumpkin pie, but chocolate fondue and ice-cream... Yes, it was heavenly.

Thanksgiving isn't just about the food; it's about giving thanks for the blessings in your life, and across the ocean in China, I realized just how much I have to be thankful for. First, I am thankful for my family. They have always supported me and are always there for me. They are the best.

Along with family, there are my friends who stay in contact with me even when I am thousands of miles away. I know that YOU care! Thank you.

I am extremely thankful to have this opportunity to spend a year in China. It is helping me grow in ways that classes can't teach and giving me experiences that will help me for the rest of my days. I am also thankful that next year, I will be able to attend Stanford and further my education in ways that I can't yet imagine. I am thankful for so many more things that this barely scratches the surface.

This weekend is a busy one. Olivia (another Stanford gap year student who lives in Beijing) is in Shanghai for the weekend visiting her brother, and today, a few of us, including Olivia, visited Suzhou, a beautiful town about an hour away by train. I will write more later!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful holiday! I miss you all!

冬天来了！ Winter Has Come!

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!

Fujian Province and Other Fun Adventures

My life’s pace has definitely picked up speed since my last post. Time is flying with exciting events around every corner!

This weekend, for example, my grandparents visited me in Shanghai at the end of their tour of China! It was WONDERFUL to see them! I spent Saturday with their tour group taking in the sights, and on Sunday, I began my career as a tour guide by giving them a private Shanghai tour. We visited the Urban Planning Exhibition Center in the morning, and for lunch, we went to my apartment, and my host mother prepared us a feast. Unfortunately, I was still stuffed from my huge American breakfast. My grandparents really enjoyed meeting my host family! In the afternoon, I took them to my university, the nearby mall, and finally the Oriental Pearl Tower for spectacular views of the city. In the evening, we met Abby and had dinner at a delicious western restaurant, satisfying my craving for steak. Sadly, they are now on their way back to the States, but nonetheless, I really enjoyed their visit! I miss my family!

Last weekend, the CIEE Gap Year Program director took the eight of us to the Fujian Province, about 1000 km south of Shanghai. Because it is farther south, the weather was amazing, reaching the low-eighties on most days. We flew into Xiamen, formerly known as Amoy, which has been a bustling port since the 1500s and is directly across from Taiwan. Upon landing, we headed to Gulangyu Island across from Xiamen. After the treaty of Nanjing in 1842, which ended the First Opium War, multiple countries, including France, Great Britain, and Japan, established consulates on the island, so today, it is home to beautiful European architecture. The island also boasts a piano museum (the island has the largest piano per capita in the world!), the largest organ museum in the world, and many scenic spots.

We began our day on the island with a hike up to the highest point to view the gorgeous surroundings. From the peak, we could see Xiamen, including the industrial section, the roofs of the European buildings, and the ocean. After a brief tour of an aviary and a garden, we went to the beach. The boys swam for about ten minutes, lost interest, and spent the rest of the day playing cards at the hostel. Abby and I spent an hour and a half lying in the sand surrounded by Chinese tourists who did not partake in typical beach activities, preferring to remain fully clothed and just wander around the beach. It had to be a weird picture: two “laowai” (foreigners) wearing shorts and tank tops lying in the sand sunbathing. I am sure multiple people took our picture, but whatever, I came away with a tan line!

In the evening, we went back to Xiamen where we stayed the night before departing to the countryside the following morning. At 8am, we loaded into a van with our tour guide, Ann, and headed to Yongding, an area famous for tulou, earthen round houses often inhabited by the Hakka people. China is divided into 56 nationalities, including the majority nationality, the Han, who make up 92% of China’s population. Hakka, originally meaning guest, refers to a subset of the Han nationality who are famous for their round houses.

After a three hour van ride, we arrived at our hotel, which was a round house! We had a long lunch, tasted the specialty tea of the region, and then departed for the village with the round houses. Most of the houses we visited have been deemed a UNESCO world heritage site, so needless to say, they felt a bit touristy. One large family typically shares the house, which is often four stories, with each nuclear family getting a section that runs from the first floor to the top floor. The kitchen and bathroom are on the first floor, while living quarters are on upper floors. The houses we visited ranged in age from 60 years-old to over 400 years-old, and the largest house we saw had so many rooms that it would take over a year to sleep one night in each room.

That evening, after dinner in the village, I finally learned to play mahjong, a very old and popular Chinese game. I am not good yet, but hopefully by the end of the year, I will be proficient. I may even have to take a set home with me to continue playing. 

The next day, we journeyed another hour into the mountains to Nanjing, which is famous for a square Hakka house surrounded by four circular houses. In fact, in the 1960s, the U.S. picked up an image of these houses over their satellites and thought it to be a nuclear facility. They even sent a spy to discover that in fact, the supposed nuclear site was simply the homes of Hakka people.

The highlight of the day though was the food. On the way to Nanjing, we passed groves of pomelos, a citrus fruit native to Southeast Asia. We stopped and bought freshly picked pomelos, which were delicious. The other food highlight was lunch. Ann was kind enough to take us off the tourist track to enjoy a real Fujian meal. We ate at a “restaurant,” but in actuality, it was a person’s home. The food was the best I’ve had in China. We even saw the slaughtering of the chicken for our soup! 

In the evening, we headed back to Xiamen, and that night, everyone, including our wonderful guide Ann, went to KTV. (Side note: Ann was seriously the best guide ever. She felt more like part of the group than a tour guide. She had grown up in a village in a neighboring province and now makes a living by showing people around the Fujian Province. If you ever end up there, I know the perfect guide for you!) KTV, otherwise known as karaoke, is a favorite among young Chinese. You rent a room by the hour, buy snacks, and sing along to numerous songs. Luckily for us, they had English songs. I tested my voice to songs by Britney Spears, Avril Lavigne, and even Celine Dion. I don’t think I can compare, but it was a great evening.

 We spent our final day in Xiamen. In the morning, Abby, Ben, Erika, and I participated in a scavenger hunt. We visited Xiamen University (the nicest university I’ve seen in China) and a temple. We even learned a few phrases of the local dialect from a very kind woman! We won by default as no one else participated. The prize was a scrumptious dim sum lunch with a great view of the sea. After lunch, Abby, Erika, and I enjoyed a nice bike ride along the beach before departing for Shanghai.

The Fujian Province was a peaceful vacation from the hustle and bustle of Shanghai. It was lovely to breathe fresh air and view mountainous scenery. I’ve posted a link to my Facebook album so that you can enjoy some pictures.

Now, it’s time to study my characters! My midterm is about two weeks away so studying is a must. Funny note: the midterm was originally scheduled for Thanksgiving. Luckily, since there are four Americans in the class, we protested loudly, and the exam was moved to Wednesday. I know what I’ll be doing Thursday, eating Thanksivingesque food!

Next Monday and Tuesday, we are going on an ECNU fieldtrip to Hangzhou. I will post another update after the trip. Cheers!