A few random things

• I'm going to Hangzhou this weekend!
• I finally got my physical so I can finally get a multiple entry visa, YAY!
• Articles on gecko feet sure are pesky. I would be willing to pay someone to do this for me...anyone interested? =P
• The weather is HOT and I love it. At least for now...
• I had INDIAN food yesterday at a place called Punjabi! It wasn't as good as House of Curries and it made me miss it a lot. Ah, chicken tikka masala, I want some now!
• I also rode the metro/subway for the first time yesterday.
• Taxis are are so annoying to get.

That is all for now. I suppose I will try and write this damn article...

Puzzle Fighter is the best game in the history of the universe

And it's so damn addicting! ARGH! So far I am (relatively) undefeated...except for Kristof, damn! So you can't expect us to be traveling or exploring ALL the time...so down time means hanging out and playing games like Mafia or Puzzle Fighter (among the top two favorites, not to mention the most addicting). Yeah...we don't really study, haha. Oh man...good times. =D

In other news, I have been getting very little sleep. =P Which is bad considering I'm still quite sick and now my voice is shot. Thankfully the weather is starting to look up and things are definitely starting to get a bit warmer, YAY!

So I am actually "studying" while I'm here at the prestigous Fudan University. Care to hear my class schedule?

Monday:
1:30-4:05 - Dyanmics of the Chinese Economy

Tuesday:
9:55-11:35 - Chinese Culture and Society
1:30-3:10 - China's Economic Reform
6:30-8:10 - Chinese Language

Wednesday:
8:55-11:35 - Marketing in China

Thursday:
9:55-11:35 - Chinese Language

And noooo class on Fridays, woo! If it weren't for that pesky language class, I would have a four day weekend. Alas...but what can you do? I'm enough of a bum as it is. My classes are alright...I'm sort of a really bad student and sometimes don't pay attention...like today when I was getting my ass kicked in Puzzle Fighter rather than learning about Guanxi...oops.

Anyways, I'm gonna wrap this up for now but I'll try to get another picture post up soon. It really sucks not being able to actually see your own blog though...I can't read anyone's comments! Poop!

Miss you guys! =)

Hi, I'm alive, I swear!

So apparently I’m really bad at this seeing as I’ve only posted twice within the uh…how many weeks have I been here?

Anyway, I didn’t even get a chance to share my first traveling adventure over the weekend. Me and 12 other UC kids took the train out to Nanjing and Suzhou. Considering it was our first time going on a trip in China, it was pretty chaotic at times but overall, it was some good times. Got to see a few historical sites, took lots of pretty pictures (which shall soon be posted), and bonded with a bunch of new peoples. Despite the relatively shitty weather, we still managed to have a blast – plus I bought my first two items of clothing, China-style! We’ll see if I can pull it off (yes, yes don’t worry, I’m sure there will be pictures of that soon, as well). There were other interesting sites I could talk about from the trip but I think I’ll save it for a more philosophical post… (think watching a mom holding her kid and spreading his legs so he could pee in the middle of the walkway…)

So why haven’t I even blogged during the week? Apparently, I’m really busy, which I don’t understand...seriously, where does all my time go??? So here, let’s experience a typical Liz day at Fudan…

• Wake up bright and early for class…boo.
• Hop onto my bike and ride over to class – yep, I got a bike which for some reason I failed to mention earlier, however it is so far my most FAVORITE purchase. I LOVE having a bike…mostly because I love not having to walk and just cuz it’s so fun! Yay, BIKE! Ellen and Jessi have bikes as well so we’re pretty much the coolest biking gang around. It’s too bad they’re such pieces of crap, but maybe I’ll get more into that another day.
• Classes are usually two to three hours long…often either before or during breaks we run out to get some Chinese food/snacks i.e. BAOZI (CC, I know you’re jealous) or some crepe-y type thing with egg and stuff. SO GOOD.
• After class there always seems to be some kind of errands to get done. For example, today I had to wait at the stupid Bank of China for 2 hours (and this is the typical wait time for the stupid bank, booo) to change all my money to RMB and then we had to go to the Chinese version of Walmart to get random necessities. Which brings up the point of...things are a lot harder to find here... Yeah, that's kind of vague but what I mean is, it's a lot harder to get exactly what you're looking for...I'll probably go into this later too =P.
• Sooner or later, dinner time rolls around and we usually gather up a bunch of friends to eat a delicious meal somewheres. It's super awesome getting big groups of people together to all go out an eat...reminds me of 6th floor dinner time at Crossroads!
• After dinner is playtime =). We either hang out in the lobby just talking or playing games (for some reason, Mafia is a favorite and it's so addicting!), or we're watching a movie. And some group of people is always going out clubbing so there's always that option...haha.
  

Yup, so it's pretty much no work and all play. GOOD TIMES. However, at the moment I'm sick with some pesky cold and it's making life a little harder =P. As always, so much to write about but so little time. PEACE!

A picture post!

YAY, pictures! Check it out!

I think this might have been the first picture I took in Shanghai. Kinda sad, right? Haha...but look...it's the Chinese version of naan...wtf?? And not only that...it's SAUSAGE. Isn't that kind of blasphemous?

Look at how pretty the dessert is!!

This is the checkout area at Walmart. I was told that these are chicken feet...yeah, packaged chicken feet at the checkout instead of candy. YUM! =P

Lantern festival!

Happy Year of the Golden Pig!

It's my roomie and me! We're on the zig-zaggy bridge at the YuYuan Gardens with all the New Years stuff behind us.

Over last weekend, the UC program took a tour of Shanghai - we went to the Shanghai Museum, the Shanghai City Planning Exhibition Center, a cruise on the Huangpu River (the river that splits Shanghai), and the YuYuan Gardens.Kristof, Jessi, and Ellen looking quite intellectual in the Shanghai Museum.

The Urban Planning place had this scale model of the entire city of Shanghai. It's actually really cool and apparently they update it every week since there's so much building going on. Getting ready for the World Expo in 2010!

Lea and I chillin' on the cruiseboat with the New Shanghai skyline behind us. The most recognizable building is probably the Pearl Tower, just to the left of me.

Pretty fishies in the Yu Yuan Gardens!

This is rocks. Yeah...I don't know.

Waiting in anticipation for some delicious xiaolongbao at a restaurant in the YuYuan Gardens.

YAY! Finally! This place is SO delicious! 16 xiaolongbao for less than 20 RMB! That's less than $3 bucks, woo!

That's all for now...hopefully more later!

So it begins...

Yo. So due to the somewhat popular demand (haha), I am attempting to keep a blog of all my China adventures. Excited much? I would be. But man oh man, I haven't blogged in AGES...

Anyway, so how do we begin? I've been here for officially two weeks now...really? Dang, it seems way longer than that. But of course, it's been nothing but awesome. A few observations:

• Chinese drivers/bikers/motorcyclists are all INSANE. I almost get run over at least 3 times a day. I'm surprised I still haven't witnessed a full on accident yet. You definitely have to have guts to drive around this city. Not to mention the ridiculous amounts of honking...the noise on the streets is officially my early morning alarm clock.
• Street food is AMAZING and CHEAP. If you know where to go, you can get a delicious meal for 3 to 4 RMB (about 50 cents). AWESOME. But also...
• Food here is incredibly unhealthy. I have definitely gained some weight and I eat really greasy, oily food and not enough vegetables. It's pretty bad, not gonna lie...
• Massages are great. So far I've only gotten back and foot massages, but it's definitely nice having a place close by that pretty darn cheap (46 RMB, about $6). We estimate massages at least once a week =)
• McDonald's is EVERYWHERE. They're a lot cleaner than the ones at home but the food is about the same. It's nice having french fries though =D. I've also tried Pizza Hut and Papa John's, both of which are supposed to be really nice, sit-down type of restaurants. It's actually kind of bizarre because the waiters/waitresses all have to dress up in nice uniforms and stuff. Mmm...pizza. Still have yet to try KFC, which is also a really big chain here, apparently. I hate KFC at home so we'll have to see...
• Speaking of American chains, Starbucks is a pretty strong presence as well, although their prices are the same but their grande size is the same as a tall in the US. LAME. What's more interesting is the copycat chains that look exactly like Starbucks (I think my roommate told me there's even one called Buckstar? Pretty ridiculous). We tried to go to a coffee shop at 9 am but it was CLOSED. What the hell? Apparently they don't drink coffee as a pick-me-up in the mornings, boo...
• I really, really, REALLY need to learn Chinese. Desperately. I can get around okay but mostly because I have Ellen and my roommate to do all the talking for me. But it really kind of sucks to make them have to do my bargaining for me. I've only been bargain shopping once so far (all I got were a pair of shoes =P) but it can be pretty intense. Unfortunately, I seem to have extremeley picky taste in clothes. I just can't see myself wearing this kind of stuff...boo. It also doesn't help that I'm actually out of things to wear...
• There is a WalMart close to our school. It's four stories tall. They sell snakes to eat there, as well as other bizarre Chinese things... Crazy.
• Beard Papa cream puffs. They're here. 'Nuf said.
• Everyone smokes. It's gross and I can't breathe. My lungs are so unhappy with me since I've been here. The worst is after a night of clubbing when you literally have to burn your clothes because of the awful stench of smoke that completely covers it. Bleh.
• Our beds don't have matresses... At first it was a bit upsetting but I think I've gotten used to sleeping on a wooden board. This had better be good for my back or at least have some benefits...
• There are not enough taxis in this city. If you're lucky, you'll be at a place where they just line up outside for you. But it's taken me up to half an hour just to find a fricken empty taxi. BOO.
• Bakeries are my favorite. I can't get enough of their bread and their bizarre pastries. SO DELICIOUS.
• Xiaolongbao in the Yuyuan gardens
  

Hmm...I'm sure there are other observations but I'll have to remember them later.

Anyways, two weeks, what's happened? When I first arrived, my room was completely trashed (in a sense). The light didn't work, there were burn holes in curtain and bed and the bathroom was revolting...pee stains on the toilet UGH. So the next day my roommate Jessi and I bonded over cleaning the bathroom. We bleached everything. Twice.

The people on the program are super fun. It's like you arrive and you're immediately friends with 60 new people. All of us are from some form of UC (although Berkeley dominates with 22 people, what what, represent!) but there are other people from all over the world. I have Aussie friends, yay! And man...Aussie's are so cool/funny...solely because of the way they say things =P. Love it.

Anyway, I have much more to say probably, but it's movie time. Hopefully I'll find a way to post some pictures later!