First Week of Class

9/8 Hello everyone,

The last week has been very exciting! After a few trips to the local Trust Mart (owned and similar to Wal-Mart in the United States) I’m fully moved into my overseas apartment. I regularly hang out with students from around the world. Most of the students at the university are either in their undergraduate program or have recently graduated. We pass time by playing ping pong, pool, and discussing different aspects of our lives back home. I’ve enjoyed discussing political aspects of each country I meet students from. I’m shocked by the similarity of problems we share. The majority of the discussion about the U.S. is unfortunately negative. Most students comment on the war in Iraq, American eating, and the U.S. media. I enjoy learning about the American perception worldwide. Although it’s hard to hear others comment on the way of life I’m accustom to it serves as a learning experience for what I can do better in my own life. The picture on the left is from my apartment the Chinese students registered for classes in the blue tents.
Most of our conversations occur over lunch or dinner. Eating in China is treated much different than at home. Dinning out in the U.S. is very quick. You go, you eat, and you leave in a very prompt fashion. In China, eating out is considered a longer occurrence. Typically, the group is sat at a round table with a rotating disk in the center. The waiter stands near the table until the party is ready to order (which can last anywhere from five to ten minutes). A few students have mastered the Chinese language, so they order for the entire group. Ordering in China is unlike the U.S. because it takes much longer. The menu is very negotiable. In some cases you answer several cases about each dish and bargain about the price of the dish.. I’m use to prices on goods and services being set without room to bargain. Prices can be bargained at markets and in Chinese restaurants. Once the meal has been order, the party is in for the long haul. Eating is treated as a marathon. Dishes come sometimes for a solid hour! The entire party shares the dishes by rotating the disk. Each meal is served with rice and chop sticks to eat. Drinks include tea, soft drinks, or beer. As a side comment I have drank more beer with meals than I ever did in the United States. I don’t know if it is due to water qualities or being surrounded by Europeans (who can drink me under the table), but the adult beverages are always flowing. The picture included in this paragraph is from a Chinese restaurant a few days ago. The majority of restaurants around campus are located around the west gate. The university has four main areas (north, south, east, and west). When leaving out of the west gate, you are immediately surrounded by shops and restaurants. Street vendors’ constantly try to get you to buy their goods or food. When walking the down the street you see fresh sushi, noodles, stir fry, and several other types of food being made in front of you. A few hundred feet further there is a market similar to a strip mall in the U.S. Several shops are all lined up to one another (most of them are restaurants). The market includes a movie theater with select movies in English. I haven’t had a chance to take pictures in this area they will come in later posts. I have enjoyed all the food in China. Surprising my favorite dish is an egg plant with a sweet sauce. Students can also eat at the different cafeterias located on campus. They are cheaper, but the food isn’t the same quality as outside the west gate.
A few of us spent last Friday visiting Jing An Park/Temple and People’s Square. We started the day off at a local restaurant that was really good. We than visited the Jing An Temple. We paid 20 Yuan’s (Chinese currency equivalent to about $2 USD) to get in. The site is a Buddhist temple located in the middle of Shanghai. Everywhere you go in China ancient structures are mixed into the modern skyline. In the picture to the left you can see the contrast between the temple and modern buildings in the back ground. The temple was beautiful with several different gold statues located in different corners of the temple. Locals were burning incents and praying to different gods while we visited the temple. Parts of the temple were under construction so we didn’t get to see all of it. There was a statue in the middle of the court yard. Much like a wishing well, visitors throw coins into the center in order to be granted a wish. I include a picture of one of our party members participating in the event. After we left the temple we walked across the street into one of the cities many parks. Everything is green around the city so the park was full of different types of trees and plants. In the center there was a small restaurant and a pond with lilies throughout it. In one section of the park guests are able to walk through a small cave. There is nothing exciting in the cave, but it was fun to walk through a cave in the middle of the city. The park was beautiful and a great place to get a drink on a very hot day. I still can’t get use to sweating everywhere I go in the city. The humidity is something to be desired. We took the subway to People’s Square. This part of Shanghai is known for a very impressive shopping mall. The mall was about seven stories located near the center of the square. The shops located inside were very hi end products that rivaled any mall I have been to in the United States. I know of a few people who would enjoy shopping in this mall equipped with Burberry, Brooks Brothers, and other well known cloths companies. Prices were more expensive than in the U.S., which was very surprising. Most products are very inexpensive compared to back home. After an hour or so we left the square to head back to the dorms. Later that night we went downtown to a night club called Zapatos. It was a hoping club full of lots of people from around the world. The day was a very exhausting, but incredibly fun. The final picture on the right is in front of the Shanghai World Expo Mascot Haibao (meaning treasure of the world).
Classes started this week. I’m enrolled in Chinese listening, conversation, and writing. My schedule is twenty hours a week. Monday thru Friday I have classes from 8am until noon. On Wednesdays I have one additional class from 1pm till 3pm. Classes are about the same size as the U.S. (between twenty and thirty students) who are all new to Chinese language. In the first few days we have been learning about tones and pronunciation of the Chinese language. The language is very different from English because it puts different emphasis on tone to create meanings for words. So the same word with a different tone has a different meaning even though it may be spelled the same. Today we started writing basic characters. I included the first picture of my Chinese homework. Memorizing the characters is a challenge, but writing them is an additional level of difficulty. Classes are going well I enjoy my classmates and the teachers. By the end of my trip I hope to speak basic Chinese. On the left is a picture of the group of people I hang out with and a little bit of the campus in the back ground. Throughout my blog posts I will try and include different pictures of the campus. I have enjoyed my experience at Shanghai University so far.
This coming weekend the University is hosting a trip around Shanghai. We will visit one of the tallest buildings in the city, take a boat tour, and go to another large shopping area in the metropolitan area. I look forward to updating you after the trip.

Talk to you all soon!

Travis