So I finally got internet today. It was 80 yuan for a month and then 10 yuan for a ethernet cord. I wish it was like my school where you just get an account and can access wireless anywhere on campus. This is only in our rooms. Anyways, here are the journal entries from the last few days starting with the first:
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7/9/10
I have arrived at my “dorm” in Shanghai after traveling for about 13-15 hours. The trip (up til the Pudong airport) was fine. Korean Airlines is great. However the lack of introduction material or what the hell to do once you get here from CEA really pisses me off. When they say “pick up from airport”, I thought, I dunno, being taken to the university and dropped off at the dorm and given instructions on what to do… or a schedule of some sort. I certainly did not expect to be dumped in a taxi, given a card with money on it, then dumped on some street, at night no less, somewhere in Shanghai. I think the taxi driver may have been concerned when he left since I wasn’t able to make any signs of understanding him. Luckily I knew enough Mandarin to ask a guy in front of the building I was dropped off at for help. I took a chance when he offered to drive me to the university. He could have been some rapist or something but hell, he seemed nice and was on friendly terms with the security guards and I wasn’t gonna get anywhere myself. The guy turned out ok though and asked around until he found the place I’m suppose to stay. Haven’t seen anything from a CEA representative. If I could I would be demanding a refund right now and flying back home.
Added 7/11/10:
I’d like to add a bit more detail of my trip just for my own record. I left SF around 9:45 in the morning. My friend Jennifer drove me to SFO. I was there about 3 hours early so I was able to check in and get through security relatively fast. Though this left me with over a 2 hour wait before the boarding time. I passed time by messaging with some friends on my phone. I wasn’t going to bring my own cell phone but I’m glad I did because I would have been bored to death waiting that long by myself. There was a surprising amount of Indians on my flight, I suppose there was a connecting flight to India maybe?
When I finally did board I was seated between a black lady and a Korean guy. Yes, unfortunately for me I got the bitch seat in the middle. I think I’ll make sure to request an isle seat when I return because being in the middle sucks. Not only do you force people to move every time you need to pee, but it gets so hot sitting between two people for 11 hours. I was burning by the time we reached Korea and although this plane had the personal entertainment systems, it did not have those little adjustable AC nozzles. Korean Airlines served lunch and dinner plus a little hot bun with meat in it during nap time.
When I arrived in Seoul I went through another security check then walked about a mile to my next gate. I swear my gate was on the other side of the airport from the transfer spot or something. I was sweating and my back ached by the time I reached it and the only luggage I had on me was my backpack, which was not really that heavy in the morning but felt like a weighted a ton then. I made it with about 30 minutes to spare and spent 15 of those minutes in the bathroom washing up my face and neck.
The flight to Shanghai from Seoul was pretty short. Only about an hour and a half. They served us food anyways which was great because I was starving. When we landed I went to customs and waited in line for maybe 15-20 minutes. The guy at the desk seemed rather rude. He didn’t give any instructions on what to do but got annoyed when I didn’t do it (like looking at the camera for passport picture comparison or even telling me he was done). They labeled the wrong baggage claim area number on the screen too which was annoying (it said 11 but was actually 12).
When I got out of baggage claim I found the lady holding the CEA sign. She also seemed impatient and annoyed and told me to hurry up and that I was the last one (yea like she didn’t KNOW my plane was arriving at 8). I THOUGHT she was going to escort me to a car or a van or something that would take me to the dorms but instead she took me to where the taxis were. Loaded my stuff, gave instructions, to the driver, gave me a card and said there was 200 rmb on it and that was it. When I asked her if she was coming with me she told me she was going to a different campus that was part of the university and left. The drive took maybe an hour. I gotta give props to the driver who was speeding, on his cell, and weaving in and out of traffic like nothing, and not even in a proper lane most of the time. He dumped me in front of some gate somewhere that didn’t like anything like a university campus. The security guard in the little station next to the gate kept looking at me while I tried the two numbers on the arrival card CEA told us to print and bring with us. Both numbers said it was busy so I tried going down the street to see what I could find. The building did look like some kind of school but it the lights were off with no one around. It was probably around 9PM by now and I was freaking out. I went back to the gate thinking about what to say to ask the security guard for help but saw some guy entering the area and talking to them. As he came out of the station I asked him if this was Shanghai Normal University. He looked confused so I showed him the arrival card with the university address on it (which was in English, gee thanks for that CEA, very helpful in a country where people don’t read it). But it turns out he knew just a little English. There was a small discussion with the two security guards (I think he figured out the university name) and then he tried to give me directions in English but failed and told me “walk with me to my car” which I figured he meant he’d give me a ride. I didn’t really want to get into a car with a stranger and just gave him a raised eyebrow look. I guess he thought I didn’t know what he meant and said to wait while he got him car (he was parked behind the gate I was dumped in front of). I still was unsure and looked at the guards but they didn’t say anything or look concerned. I figured I’d take the chance and was already planning an escape plan incase he did turn out to be crazy or something. My passport, ID cards and money where all hanging around my neck and my phone in my pocket so I figured all I would have to do is get away and then call the US Embassy or something if something went wrong.
I found out later that the building I was dumped in front of was a high school so I guess that guy was probably a teacher there (since he did have access to the parking lot). Which means the instructions given to my taxi driver was shit. Thanks again CEA.
The university was down the street and around the corner. When he drove in I looked around and concluded it did look like a campus and everyone around looked like students so it reaffirmed that he was an alright guy afterall (I also tried asking him if this was the campus and he said yes). He drove me to some building that was one of the campus’s hotels – yea I dunno if those are the same as dorms but they call it a hotel and the rooms are certainly like a hotel room. He talked to the people at the desk and they seemed to know the program but told us it was the wrong building. He had to ask maybe 6-7 students for directions before we found the right building (and I still wasn’t very sure if I was in the right place or not due to the lack of communication/welcome/recognization/anything from CEA).
The lady at the desk (who also seemed pretty rude) asked for my passport, did some stuff, took 100 rmb from me (never saying why – found out later its a deposit), then gave me a card key and a room number. When I found my room there were two girls smoking in the hall. My key didn’t work and they tried to help but it still didn’t work so I brought it back to the lady who fixed it. When I finally did get to my room I was hoping to find a roommate of some sort but was once again disappointed. I asked a few girls in the hall if there were part of CEA’s summer program but they all said no and that they were leaving soon. I think there were from some part of Europe since they all had an accent when speaking English (not sure what kind of accent though).
I was so tired by then I thought I would pass out but it was pretty hard to sleep when its this humid and you’re thirsty as hell. Not to mention I was still doubtful I was even in the right place and couldn’t help but worry.
Though I found out the next day and two of the other girls had similar experiences (but they were actually dumped in front of the university! Not somewhere else down the block and around the corner!). We’re all pretty unhappy about it and I’m sure I’m going to bitch about this on whatever survey they give afterward asking about our experiences. Seriously for a program that’s supposed to be for anyone with any (including zero) experience in Chinese, that was probably the worst start off ever.
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7/10/10
Morning:
Woke up at 5AM needing to pee. I’m going to need to find some sort of store because there is no toilet paper. Now I regret not listening to my mom when she said to bring some. I showered (best part of this trip so far), called my mom, then called on of the numbers for CEA to see what the hell is going on. The lady said the orientation is not until Monday and that today is supposed to be for resting and relaxing. I don’t know about that because I’m starving and thirsty and it looks like everyone in the other rooms are moving OUT not IN.
It is hot here. I would say hot like SLO but its not because its freaking humid here. I really do miss my dry heat. I’m waiting for the lady to call back… oh there she is. Apparently there’s a student helper who will meet with us at 8:30. It’s almost 8 now so that’s good. Wonder if I will brave going on a hunt for a water fountain. I hope my roommate comes soon (assuming I have one). I’m getting all these doubtful feelings that I’m in the wrong hotel/dorm thing. It would help meeting someone else in the program to confirm things with.
It looks like I need to get a plug adapter for my netbook since they don’t have the 3 prong one here. I would really like internet right now so I can vent my complaints on aim or gchat to someone.
Hmm.. maybe being alone in an unknown place makes keeping a journal easier because I’ve never been able to write good journal entries like this before (if this counts as good). Or maybe its because I’m full of complaints with no one to vent to. Hah, that’s probably it.
Though I have to admit that last night was rather upsetting. The most helpful person was a random guy who, for all I know, doesn’t even have any connections to the university.
I have a floor room with a window facing a road so I’m watching the actual students head to class. I guess its not much different than Poly at 8AM, except everyone is Chinese. I wonder if its summer school here or if the spring semester is just extra long. There are some other students here who’s programs are ending so I guess its probably the end of the spring semester.
Eww, I just killed a centipede in my room. I sure wish I had gotten a can of OFF! before I left but all I got were bug repellent wipes. No bug screens either.
Ok. I think I’m done complaining. I’m sure in a few days I’ll be enjoying myself, but right now I rather be back in S.F.
Evening:
It’s almost 5 now. I met with the student helper who showed me where the ATM was and some stores on campus. Then we meet with the other students. Turns out there are only 6 of us here. 5 girls and 1 guy. I met the other girls but the guy was off who knows where. I suppose I will meet him tomorrow since that is when the orientation is afterall. It also turns out that the girl I was suppose to room with and I both ended up in in double rooms by ourselves. I guess having my own room is nice, though sharing would be nice too, would help with the whole social interaction thing that us CS majors are so bad at. But I guess with such a small group its not really hard for us to all be friends.
The student helper showed us several buildings on campus then took us down some streets and then got us lunch. Wonton and zhong and I got to use the nastiest looking squatty potty. After dropping us back on campus me and 3 of the other girls went back to the market place we saw earlier to get some things we needed (toilet paper!!). I got a new toothbrush since I used mine with the faucet water and Anna told me that I don’t want bacteria from the water growing in there. So we got a nice sized bottle of water just for toothbrushing. Not that water really cost much, when I consider the exchange rate from RMB to USD I’m probably paying like a few cents for a bottle of water (normal sized bottle was 0.80 yuan and the exchange rate is about 6.6 yuan to 1 dollar). I found a plug adapter converter thing too for my netbook and it seems to be working fine (using it right now). I may consider getting a laptop lock since I don’t really want to lock my netbook in the drawers every time I go out (there are maids who clean the room and I’m paranoid).
Bleh, I think I am jet lagged since I’m about ready to pass out and its only 5 but its 2AM in SF according to my netbook’s clock.
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7/11/10
Morning:
We went downtown yesterday evening for dinner. I would have rather gotten something on campus but the others wanted to explore downtown so I went along. Pedestrian’s Road is pretty cool though but really packed. We ate at some restaurant. I split a meal with Anna since I was so tired I didn’t really feel like eating. Got to use my 2nd squatty potty as well. I dunno if I can get used to those as they make me feel 5 times grosser than using a public toilet in the US.
It’s pretty funny the looks we get when we go out. Everyone looks at the other girls because they’re not Chinese and then they get confused looks whenever I start speaking English along with them. Though I do not look forward to all the upcoming times where people will speak to me first thinking I know what the hell they’re saying. Some guy already did that while we were discussing whether or not to take a taxi back instead of trying to find the right bus. I didn’t really know what to say to him and as we walked away I said sorry and he kept yelling “qu na li?!” (where are you going?!) as we headed to the nearest taxi. Oops, fail on my part.
Ooh just killed my 2nd mosquito in my room. The first one I killed this morning squirted blood on my floor when I smashed it so I’m guessing that’s the one that bit me last night. I found that there was a slide out bug screen for my window which was a score. Though I haven’t opened my window since I was told we get 70 yuan worth of AC in our rooms. I’m not sure how long that is so I just turn on the AC until my room is nice and cool then shut it off until it gets hot again. It works pretty well and I no longer feel like there’s a blanket smothering my face.
Anyways, I woke up at 5 again this morning but this time because there was some girls screen bloody murder in the hallways and then a Korean girl talking very loudly in one of the rooms next to me. Seriously I don’t know how these people get up so early. It was barely 6AM yet as this all happened. I gave up trying to go back to sleep around 6:30 and shower instead. I’m meeting the other girls at 10:30 later to explore/eat and then we have our orientation at 4 where I think we’ll finally meet the guy in our group. I’m surprised there was only 6 of us as I expected there to be maybe 15-20 people. It’ll be interesting to see how the classes work out.
Night:
So we ended up going to the Jade Buddha temple before our orientation though its raining. Our tour guide was a guy named Tony and I really liked him. He was super nice and friendly and spoke really good English. The temple was pretty cool. When we went to see the koi pond, Tony was telling us that some lived to be over 200 years old and then pointed to a sign where it said that one of the oldest koi fish lived to be 226. Only he said, “two two six” since he only knew how to count to 10. Then he said, “two, twenty six, can I say that?” and I told him yes then told him it was “two hundred and twenty six”. He just laughed and said, “two twenty six” again. A little boy who was feeding the koi gave him a look and said “two hundred and twenty six” to Tony which made him laugh again. Then he looked at the boy and went “Yes, two hundred and twenty six”. The little boy gave him such a scornful look and went, “Wo zhi dao” (I know).
There were were quite a few people there praying in addition to the tourist. It must be annoying to be doing your prayer with people behind you snapping pictures. I suppose they’re used to it though since it’s a pretty well known temple.
We returned in time for our orientation, which consisted of the guy telling us many things about China. I have to admit it was pretty boring and after awhile it got hard to concentrate on what he was saying. In his lecture to us about the connectivity in China and about how people like to exercise in the morning, he got the great idea for us to go running early in the morning while we’re still jetlagged. None of us were too excited about that and the student helper really looked like she didn’t want to do it either. Maybe we can convince her tomorrow morning to go to a cafe and get breakfast instead. I’m really not a runner and I don’t even really have clothes for running so its gonna suck. I’m just going to hope the rain keeps up so we don’t have to do it.
After the orientation they took us to a restaurant for dinner. It was a pretty nice restaurant and we had quite a bit of dishes. The mabo tofu dish was different from what I’m used to. Spicier and it made my tongue feel all funny, like a numb feeling. Wasn’t so keen on eating it after that.
I’m pretty sure I’m still jetlagged because I’m about ready to go to sleep right now. But I just showered so my hair is all wet and I don’t want to sleep with wet hair. I really should buy a hair dryer or something. Since its raining its not really as hot or humid today so I guess it’ll take longer for my hair to dry. I guess I could study my flashcards for the placement test tomorrow…
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7/12/10
Late afternoon:
So I had my first class today. I placed into the beginner 2 level. I took a look at the intermediate book and it was all characters so I knew I couldn’t do that. The beginner 2 class seems a bit hard too. The teacher spoke in Chinese a lot and a lot of the class seemed to understand her (even laughing at her jokes). I was just like “uummm” and only understood just a little bit. She seemed to go pretty fast too so I think I will look over tomorrows lesson later tonight so I know what to expect. I hope it gets easier because I don’t want to switch to the beginner 1 class and learn pinyin and stuff all over again.
When we were finish I went with Anna and Kyle and some people from another program to get dumplings for lunch. I was a pretty big fail in being a Chinese person and asked the dude from Spain to help me order. Afterwards I went back to the Walmart like place with Anna to get some stuff. I ended up spending around 122 RMB which converts to be about a bit more than 20 bucks. I really love the conversion rater from USD to RMB. If I had gotten all the stuff I got today in the US it would have been probably double or triple the price.
I got my mom her little stool thing she wanted. It’s pretty handy actually. It sort of this fold out tiny stool chair thing. I’ve seen several people using it on the streets and on the bus. I guess it’s a good thing to have for long trips. I may go back before I leave and get a second one. Since they fold up they wouldn’t take very much space in my suitcase.
Oh and it was pouring like crazy this morning so no morning jog, woot. The girl said we’d do it another day but I’m hoping she just forgets about it. I could tell she didn’t want to do it anyways. I mean who wants to run in this humidity anyways right?
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7/13/10
Last night we went to a Chinese Acrobat show where we also meet the students who are in CEA but at the other university (East Normal University or something). It was pretty awesome. My favorite act was the one where they did a bit to Titanic. The guy in it played had such a “tragic prince” expression on his face the whole time. I don’t know if it was intentional or not since I’m sure he was really tired and it could have just been his “Omg I’m gonna pass out” look. He was in a lot of the acts and had a solo act as well. I really like the guy’s acts better since they were a lot more exciting. The girls act focused more on being pretty. Though the one where they had the yoyo like things were pretty cool. Though there were like 3 or 4 mess ups in that one act which I guess is kind of a lot. But then again I suppose it must be a hard act to get right with all the throwing and the tossing of the yoyos and the possibility of the string getting tangled. There was this one girl performer who looked like 10 years old or something. She had an odd act which I admit was pretty boring. It was certainly pretty but it seemed to have been just composed her of her doing poses on a platform and balancing on one hand on this pole thing.
I could tell that the performers were told that they had to smile while performing. It was easy to tell because so many of them had this pained, “I’m smiling because I’m forcing it” sort of smile.
I filmed 3 of the acts though I can’t play it on my netbook since I don’t have a player that supports .mov files. I really need to get internet somehow so I can download VLC or something because I can’t play some of my animes/dramas either since they aren’t all .avi.
So today was my 2nd day of class. I’m still having a hard time understanding the teacher though it looks like a majority of the class can do it easily (or maybe not, there was a lot more whispering in the 2nd session than the first). What sucks is that the 2nd teacher for the 2nd session spoke almost all Chinese during class. Though she pretty much just went over the same lesson but it was hard to follow where we were in the book since the activity is all in Chinese. I’m thinking of buying the beginner 1 book (I have beginner 2) just to use as reference for things I’ve forgotten. I assume there’s more English in there. I really wish I had brought my book from my Chinese class in the US but it was a bit heavy and I didn’t really want to pack it at the time. I wish I had at least gotten a Chinese to English dictionary before I left. Though I suppose I could find one here. I’m thinking of seeing how much those electronic dictionaries are.
And I don’t know if I ate something bad or what but my stomachs been super upset all day. I’ve been trying to remember what I ate yesterday but to be honest I don’t think I really ate much. Just a pastry and then little dumpling buns for lunch and dinner. Well I also had some Pretz but I really don’t think that could be it since I eat those all the time in the US and it’s the same brand here.
Anna was able to get internet at the ICCS (International College of Chinese Studies I think) building so I think I may go request a username and password for that tomorrow. Though I really would like internet in my room so I don’t have to carry my netbook around (the people at the front desk keep telling the other girls to come back for it). Not that it’s heavy or anything but it’s been pouring rain lately so I don’t like having to carry things. Speaking of the rain, the student helper who’s in charge of helping us, well, live here, told us the rain is suppose to clear up next week and then we’ll get dry heat. She was telling us about this kind of weather here in Shanghai and it had a name but I forgot. Something to do with a fruit that’s also sold during this month. Though today Laurel told us she was watching the news and a typhoon is about to hit Hong Kong, and apparently if that happens we’ll end up getting even more rain. I really hope that doesn’t happen because I hate walking around in the rain and I definitely do not want it to rain the whole time I’m here – it makes sightseeing a bitch.
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