...And Then Reality Hit...

Reality Check: We didn't come to Shanghai just to play, we actually came here for school. 

Daily Life of a NYU in Shanghai student: 

1. Breakfast at either the crepe stand or Babi Mantou (they sell bao zi's) 

2. NYU's paid for bus service transfers us from off-campus dorms to school

Thank goodness we don't have to take public transportation to classes in the morning, otherwise I would have to wake up an hour earlier than my current time.

3. Monday-Thursday: Chinese 9-10:15am 

My Chinese class is very different.  We all had to be able to speak Mandarin before joining this class.  We don't learn any of the basics needed for daily life, in terms of learning to read and write words like food, transportation, or weather.  Instead, we have sort of  history/culture crash course on life in China, and some current issues dealing with China.  We just wrapped up our chapter on the history of the Great Wall and our next lesson is on human rights in China.  I can't say that I'm glad I'm learning this instead of the basic kindergarten stuff that everyone else is learning, because this causes me to still not know how to read anything on the menu, but it is definitely an interesting class, and comforting to know that the content of our class wasn't taught to two year olds.

4. Lunch at the ECNU 食堂 (aka cafateria)

So...someone please explain to me why Kimmel or Weinstein's dining halls don't look like this?!  The ECNU cafeteria has two+ floors with options ranging from DIY noodle soup to xiao long baos (soup dumplings) to Korean choices to bento box style food, all ranging from 5-20RMB (20RMB = $3.21).  Just be sure to ignore the massive amounts of MSG put in your food. 

After lunch workout anyone? Probably wasn't the best idea in the smog infested air.  Nap time was probably the better option...

5. Classes are either held from 1-4pm and 5-8pm (most people have three of these classes)

6. For the most part, if we have class until 8pm, then we'll just head back to our apartments and grab a quick dinner, or if most people don't have class after Chinese or have class until only 4pm, we'll go explore another area of town and try something new for dinner.  

One night we decided to go to Xin Tian Di's Tai Thai for dinner (Apologies for the bad quality in this picture).

Week two going strong!  Only two weeks in and Spring Festival Break is already next week aka Chinese New Year's week aka GOING TO TAIWAN WITH CHLOE!!! SO EXCITED!

Please Submit Your Resume For....the Marriage Market?

Dating shows and sites, criticized or not have always been around.  China has found a way to take dating services to the next level..Let me rephrase that, MARRIAGE SERVICES.  That's right, Shanghai has it's very own "Marriage Market" located in the lovely and peaceful (except for on the weekends) People's Square Park on the #2 Green Subway Line.

Marriage Market

Definition: A weekly weekend event where parents gather with resumes of their unmarried children in hopes of finding them a wife or a husband.  Dating services are also on location there, with BOOKLETS of resumes and pictures of unmarried people.  

Example: Having trouble finding a husband or wife? Just have your parents take your resume and picture to the marriage market! You're bound to find someone there! (sarcasm)

Actually, according to CNN, the success rate of the Marriage Market is lower than the success rate of finding a job at a career fair....rarely do marriages actually come out of the Marriage Market.  But hey, it was fun to just stroll around, watch parents argue over their children and see flyers on flyers of resumes either being handed out or just lined against the walls.  To give you an idea, here are some visuals:  

What People's Square Park would look like without the Marriage Market...

...the weekend Marriage Market...

Parents waiting around for potential suitor's to come around and snag up their children for a date...(as creepy as that sounds)

...the sides of a tunnel in the park hung with resumes of people ranging from their early 20's to their late 50's.  

...more resumes...

What can I say, China really is something! No Shame, No Game (don't know if that's actually a saying, or if I just made that up...)  

Not Official untill the Picture is on the Wall!

Checking in really fast to post this lovely picture that just stares at you as you walk into the NYU floor of the science building of East China Normal University.  

Voila!

Impressions of Shanghai

This will just be a quick post update on life so far in Shanghai and what I've noticed so far, either about Shanghai in general, or about the NYU Study Abroad group in Shanghai.

Shanghai:
It is a very modern city that is not as fast paced as NYC.  People will stop wherever they want on the street, sidewalk, shopping areas etc; they don't care.  Crossing the street is stressful; you have to constantly be checking left and right, because even on a one-way street, there could be bikes and motocycles coming from the other direction.  People said that you can get by with English here in Shanghai...I don't think so.  Granted that a lot of labels are in pinyin and some have English explanations, you still need to be able to understand what the people are saying to you.  Thankfully, even though I can't really read any Chinese, I speak Mandarin, so I'm able to ask what each thing is, rather than just staring blankly at a menu and pointing to something.  I also got to play translator for a day, which was kind of exciting.

Other observations, bargaining is a big part of life, it's fairly simple, but also requires knowing what to respond when the store clerks are speaking to you, and not just nod and smile.  Nightlife here is casual.  Pollution is not as bad as Beijing is what I hear, but it's still pretty bad by our standards of Los Angeles pollution.  In Shanghai it's everyone for themselves.  Pushing and shoving are just a way of life.

NYU Study Abroad Group:
Everyone says that your study abroad experience will be the best experience you ever have, and that you will meet so many new people outside of your normal NYU school/circle of friends.  Somehow when we arrived, it seemed that everyone had already come with their own group of friends and weren't interested in changing that.  Good thing I knew people before coming here, because I'm not too sure what I would do if I had to come here alone.  It's like high school all over again, we have a million cliques here.  Hopefully this experience really does turn into one that is just like the one everyone described.  I have high expectations for this semester, and with that...SCHOOL STARTS TOMORROW! (sadly)

Running (literally) Through Shanghai

Today has probably been one of our longest days of Orientation thus far, so this post will mainly just be pictures. After lunch, our last activity of the week was a Scavenger Hunt.  At first we thought that the scavenger hunt would just be between on campus and off campus nearby areas...boy were we wrong... Here's a bit of what went down today. Enjoy!

I love asian breakfasts! So far, we've had this crepe thing, with egg, a brown sweet and savory sauce, scallions, with a crispy tofu skin wrapped inside of it, and bao zi's (Buns usually with a savory filling.  The more popular fillings include pork and vegetables) for breakfast. Did I also mention that the bao zi's cost only 1.50RMB for one, which is 25cents, and the crepe costs us only 3RMB, which is 50cents?! Yeah... I don't think I will be able to go back to eating milk and cereal for breakfast after this semester...cereal isn't worth it anymore...

NYU treated us to dim sum for lunch at Royal Garden Restaurant located inside Zhongshan Park.  NYU version = dim sum on steroids.  Since we were such a large crowd, we had dim sum foods set as a banquet style, so everything was in larger portion sizes.  

After lunch, it was off to the Scavenger Hunt! Our group consisted of Marissa, Chloe, Georgina, Garrick, Elissa, and myself.  Lucky for us, Georgina is a local; therefore, she knew how to get everywhere; otherwise, I'm pretty sure we would have given up and just gone home.  Our first stop on this hunt: People's Park.  

Some things we had to do for the scavenger hunt even included taking a picture while holding a Chinese baby, eating chicken feet, riding a ride at the amusement park, bargaining with a local vendor, having someone use their "survival Chinese" skills, taking group pictures on the subway, and much more craziness.  

One of the stops on this scavenger hunt was the Bund (外滩）.  This is the one location in Shanghai that I have been wanting to see since I have arrived.  The picture above is of the famous Shanghai skyline as seen from the Bund, which is a waterfront area in Central Shanghai stretching Huangpu River.  The Bund replicates European architecture and is one of the main areas of Shanghai that has a huge international presence.

The Bund Bull.  This bull is said to replicate the Wall Street Bull (same height, weight, and length).  Guess there's no need to see the Wall Street one anymore! (jk...i still really want to see that one too)

The Zig Zag Bridge located in the Yu Yuan Gardens.

After the amount of walking we did today, I don't think that gym membership will be necessary anymore.  On top of all that, we got to experience for the first time the crazy pushing and shoving of Shanghai subways at rush hour...trust me, having your head directly under someone's armpits for about 15 mins of the subway ride is not fun!  Shanghai is definitely larger than I imagined, and I'm excited to see more of it and actually explore further into these areas that we ran through today.  

Quick Overview

Apologies, but this update is delayed due to my lack of access to practically everything being blocked.  This post will mainly just be about NYU Shanghai, aka our living situation, campus, and orientation.

So I guess I'll start with our living situation: 

I live in the off-campus apartments near Zhongshan Park with two other people, Chloe and Marissa.  Our apartment is very spacious.  Sadly, I will probably never have an apartment as big as this one in NYC.  Our room consists of three singles, a balcony, a kitchen, a living room, and a washer and dryer in the kitchen. Main problem with our apartment so far, how cold it is...same goes for our water...but other than that, we live in what is considered a comparatively higher-end apartment.     

The area that our apartments are located is very convenient.  It is a fairly Westernized part of town, with Starbucks, Costa Coffee, McDonald's, and etc.  I'm fairly surprised at the amount of outside influence in that area.  There are numerous Taiwanese eateries located here, including 85°C and a Taiwanese breakfast place, as well as Cantonese style restaurants and Korean BBQ places.  It is located about 10 mins away from a large American-style mall, Cloud 9, which houses a Carrefour, (similar to our Targets, Walmarts, and K-marts, where we buy all our apartment necessities).    

Orientation 

Orientation started this past Tuesday.  So far, we have had a few welcome presentations, academic info sessions, and breakout sessions dealing with shopping, scams, resources available to us, and etc.  As for food, NYU goes all out...I mean we're spoiled here (but then again...our tuition kind of pays for it)  The first day of orientation, we were treated to hot pot at Hai Di Lao Hot Pot, which is considered an upscale restaurant.  Service was excellent (not just by Chinese standards, but by everyone's standards) Someone said that it was rated with best service in the world.  Coming from a hospitality student, this is what made their service special: as our group walked in, we were greeted and led upstairs.  As we sat down, each guest had their jacket covered to avoid the smell of the hot pot getting onto the jacket, guests with glasses were offered glasses cloths, and girls were offered hair ties to keep hair out of their food.  A special treat of a noodle performance was definitely an added bonus to keep the overal experience memorable. 

Other than that, our other meal we have had so far through NYU was our Peking duck dinner, which was probably our largest meal thus far.  Orientation festivities for tonight (1/17) even included an acrobatics show titled "ERA-Intersection of Time" located at Shanghai Circus World. 

As orientation continues, we will have a cultural fair, dim sum at Royal Garden Restaurant in People's Park, and a scavenger hunt to look forward to tomorrow! 

Campus

NYU currently uses East China Normal University's campus as their own.  All classes and events are held on one of the floors of a building.  Everything else, is ECNU's and not really used by students of NYU. 

Considering I go to NYU, this will be the first time I will be on a real campus for school.  After just a few days of being on a "real" campus, I'm beyond thankful that I chose to go to NYU.  As nice as the scenery inside the school is, the overall feeling of being confined to one location is not exactly up my alley, neither is the amount of excess walking involved in getting from one side of campus to another. Side note, since China uses squatting toilets as well, and most foreigners don't know how to use it, aka NYU students; therefore, NYU put a sign up on the door of the toilet stall that contains the normal toilet seat, just for it's students. 

This post was a little long, so I will give my first impressions on my overall experience thus far in another post.  Since it's midnight here in Shanghai, 晚安 （Good Night）! 

Let the Adventure Begin! But first...

Just wanted to say a quick, 大家好!（or in English: Hello everyone!) I will be studying abroad in NYU Shanghai this coming Spring Semester as a junior..  This will be my personal blog that will document my explorations in and out of the city.  Food, lifestyle changes, and interesting facts, you name it, will all be on here for your enjoyment (Pictures will definitely be included as well).  I will try to update this blog as much as I can; hopefully at least once a week.

I will be leaving for Shanghai tomorrow night.  I'll be honest, I wasn't that excited to be studying abroad in China when I first found out I was going there (even if it was my first choice location).  My lack of excitement probably comes from a lot of my misconceived perceptions of China, as well as stories that my grandpa and my dad have told me from their experiences, and let's just say some were not that positive.  However, one of my friends, Garrick, is already in Shanghai, and has told my friend, Chloe, and I not to worry about these negative connotations we may have; it's just a different culture and way of life that we will eventually get used to.  With that said, I'm starting to get more and more excited as it comes time for me to jet off to Shanghai.  

Some other basic information, I managed to obtain a multi-entry tourist visa, so trips outside of China will be involved.  We have two main breaks, Chinese New Year's break and Spring Break.  And luckily for Chloe and I, we managed to snag two of the few seats left heading for Taiwan; therefore, we will be spending Chinese New Year's there! Pretty excited about that! 

It's a little strange to think that I will be spending a semester in a foreign country, and even weirder to know that the internet may not always be accessible...aka no constant checking of Facebook...but Shanghai is still a very fast paced city, a lot like NYC and one that is modernizing more and more each day.  

Hopefully they'll understand my Mandarin, and I can pick up a bit of what the locals are saying in Shanghainese! 

上海，我要来了！(Shanghai, I'm coming!)