sorso we had to be up early for our placement tests that were at 8...it was very scary and long...and for the most part, i'm sure i would have been an embarrassment to liu and wei laoshi for how poorly i did...oh well though, right? i mean, i haven't even been in class in over 7 weeks!
· sooo...then we left and went to have lunch really quickly before we had to meet with jeremy just for some more orientation type info. so we went to this like...i don't know...noodles/soup-type place that's right outside the campus gate nearest us. it was my first authentic chinese meal...and it was not a success! :( it was some concoction with like...liver [which i learned of afterwards], these little like, tofu balls [that looked kinda similar to sweet&sour chicken back home], some lettuce, and then these like see-through noodles...gross...and so i managed to eat some of the noodles, try the liver, pass on the tofu and dumplings we also had, and shove much of the uneaten portions underneath some of the lettuce and my big spoon-thing…maybe a ladle?
· so already i was worried about the eating situation…something i had already realized upon arrival the previous day…and thankfully the exchange rate is so nicely in my favor, therefore the idea of going out or meals or cabs that i didn’t necessarily want to do isn’t such a burden…i mean, a 10 kuai meal that i hated and barely touched cost me about $1.75…so it’s definitely an environment conducive to experimentation…at least economically!
· then we returned to the main classroom to have a meeting with jeremy, and there we talked about a lot of just familiarization type things and things that i can’t really remember actually…but it wasn’t until this meeting that i recall starting to feel much positive about my trip. before i was worried about everything from friends to food to class to you name it…like am i smart enough for this? how will i survive and yet stay healthy with this food? what the heck am i doing here…and although the realist in me never seriously considered going home or anything, i sure was missing a lot of comforts i’m used to enjoying.
· so then we left the meeting, and then we went on a roommates’ picnic in tianshan park across the street sorta…it was a lot of fun—the roommates i think really enjoy us and this experience [at least thus far] and they are always so excited to just see us interact with each other and trying to speak chinese to them and other patrons…they bought us all kinds of food: anything from turkey to m&m’s to coconut juice to coke to potato chips [more on this in a minute] to fruits and, yes, to even budweisers and other chinese beers. [sidenote: there’s no drinking age in china, and so it’s really an interesting cultural experience to have everyone around you so used to drinking and the like…i mean i guess that’s just the same as it will be in another year or two in the states for my group of friends…but still, there’s just something weird about it.]
· oh, as for the chips, the funny thing about their lays chips here, as i noticed the night before in their ridiculous mall where we went to the supermarket, is that they have the oddest flavored chips…along with some regular/typical flavors. for instance: cucumber, blueberry, spicy u.s. barbecue, asian fried chicken…very strange. and they’re surprisingly dead-on with the flavors bTw…
· also, i tried a new fruit---youzi—which was actually pretty tasty to tell you the truth. it’s a new fruit here in china, and it was pretty sour/bitter at the aftertaste, but oh well. anyways, so we all ate and talked and laughed and walked around the park. some neat things were: old people playing tennis in like open spaces [photo later] with just a net…kinda like they don’t play to win necessarily, but yet they just hit it back and forth to exercise…and these were very old old men…they stay active around here for a very long time!
· so then we left. and lu chao and i went to a bank to see about wiring over money and all that. however, i left my passport in the room , and therefore will have to do that at a later time! maybe today…then we came back…hung out in the room for awhile [everyone else had gone already to buy things like i had the night before, except they got their new china cell phones, too…gotta do that soon…]
· then later last night, we went out to eat at about 7:30 or so…walked forever trying to find this place amongst the chinese streetsigns and such…but finally we arrived, and you’ll never ever guess where…it’s called a xinjiang restaurant [xinjiang is a province of china as lu chao has since informed me]…anyways, basically, xinjiang is middle-eastern cuisine. hA
· sooo…we get in and seated, and then go through these menus [me nearly about to die at the idea of what i was about to attempt to ingest]…and so we ordered a lot of dishes…more than is normal around here i understand…but that’s okay, we’re americans, right? this is amur-i-ca!? ha, okay, well not anymore surprisingly…
· and so we got our food, and i must say that despite continued resentment, i would have certainly impressed many of you who know me. we had this spicy chicken-type dish with potatoes, noodles, and peppers which was by far the best part [besides the unleven bread of course! ha], and then lamb kabobs, lamb meat—spicy, but actually doable…and then a fruit tray and these things called ‘pancakes’ which were basically like really thin tortillas which one was to fill with this vegetable mix of like diced carrots whatever else…needless to say the only things i didn’t try were the ‘pancakes’ [i kinda refuse to call them that…because all it makes me want is an order of chocolate chip pancakes down that the pantry…consider yourselves lucky! ha] and this other dish which was simply onions with a little beef mixed in. overall, it was a good experience, and cost me only like…40Y i think? so like 6-7 dollars…awesome!
· [sidenote: also peculiar, it’s weird having like 3 names for currency i think…one can call the units yuan, kuai, or r.m.b. …it is however nice that the bills are of different sizes and colors…also, the fact that their coins only consist of 1Y, .5Y, and .1Y…it makes everything just a little less complicated. oh, and no taxes here! ha, well at least i find it interesting]
· then we left and i ventured off on my own to buy a phone, buy arrived at longzhimeng, the really big mall/superstore in zhongshan park [1 subway stop or a relatively short walk away] i’ll have to get some better pics of the outside and inside of this place…it’s kinda cool…like 9 floors plus multiple basements…and the wal-mart type store where you can get anything including groceries [carrefour] was really cool…they had like this moving sidewalk that was on an incline so you can get to the second floor with your carts! incredible. also, the carts themselves were neat…not only do the wheels not slide while on the incline-thing, but all four wheels move directions, so you can like go sideways or maneuver in all directions! it’s a very minor detail, but i promise it’s awesome. anyways, they were closing as i got there…so no phone.
· and so then i returned to the dorm, and so doing, i realized that everyone was waiting on me to go out because we talked about it earlier. so we went out, taking a couple of cabs for the 7 of us, to a place called ‘the wall’…this freaking infamous bar or something…that we honestly got dropped off downtown, and walked around for over…1.5 hours! it was ridiculous, but seeing soo much of the city was amazing at night. it wasn’t very crowded; the weather was fantastic and cool; and it was kinda fun being together just hanging out.
· turns out that where the cab dropped us off, right next to us, if we were to look up, was the oriental pearl skyscraper…that’s the one that looks like very futuristic and modern…it was really neat, and looking around downtown and across the river at the bund was awesome [s/n: i did not bring my camera along, so no cool downtown shots yet] but so then we finally found the place…and we were all amazed that we had actually been dropped off incredibly close to the place, but that we had walked in one ginormous circle around downtown near the river.
· turns out that the wall has only like a small kiosk above the ground, and then you take escalators down into the earth to get in. we got there and got in, and there was…no one. haha, we were definitely creating the majority there, and that’s not exactly a great sign. but anyways, we stayed there, danced around, talked, and just hung out for wayyyy too long in my mind. [s/n: i was more than ready for bed prior to even leaving to go out…some of us even snoozed in the initial cab ride down…ha] so when we finally left at around 1:30am, i was estatic, although droopy.
· so we got back about 2, and then i maneuvered around the room in the dark while lu chao continues sleeping. once i hit the bed, i was most certainly knocked out within the first minute!
anyways, that’s all for now…and hopefully either tonight, tomorrow, or most hopefully sunday, i will get caught up and on the right days on this thing before school and all starts. today was very neat, too. can’t wait to get to work on its entry soon.
才下一次, [until next time,]
w/p
11:39pm. 02/13/09. [shanghai].
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