China, can you stop raining please?

so this past weekend we had school, weekend, school. sucks. but no big deal. Saturday night we went to a tea house as part of the program and played games and drank some tea. then we went to helens, our new fav bar, to celebrate Nirmal's bday. It was really fun and drinks are cheap there.

sunday morning I had chinese class, then we went shopping. and I got great gifts for my parents for their bdays! and a new handbag! it's brown, marc by marc, lots of pockets and zippers (so me), and only 100 kuai- $15! so cheap!

yesterday I had lots of class. It sucked. but chinese diplomacy was fun, we talked about xinjiang and tibet and it was awesome. my teacher said the dalai lama incites violence and rioting in tibet, interesting... we to helens again last night to chill out. My friend diggory let me ride home on the back of his bike, thought we were going to die. it's really hard to balance on the rack on the back. then we hit a bump and almost fell over (but we survived, don't worry)

today I went to my internship and we talked about freedom of speech and the internet and such, it was so great. (similar to the chinese diplomacy experiences)

just chilling now, getting ready for our trip to inner mongolia on friday!!! yippee!!

oh ya, it's been raining a lot. like ridiculously a lot.

China, I love your holidays!

more life updates:

Monday in class we had our second test, not quite as bad but still hard. had to do a presentation on superstitions (which I did once already at Vassar- clearly repeating themes in chinese books). as usual, I totally overprepared and memorized it and, except for magnolia, was the only one who had done that. oh well. then had two more classes- super intense day. 

(couldn't get the picture to move down, sry) Katie, Me, Ben, Magnolia, and Elissa on the island in the middle of West Lake (the lake is behind us)

Tuesday was by far the worst day I've had yet in China (the day part at least). So I had to wake up at 6:15am, haven't done that in awhile, cuz I had to meet my internship supervisor at 7:45am at this place that was 45 minutes away to take a bus to this forum on religion in china. I was late. Then talked to a rabbi and a pastor from CA on the bus to the conference center. They were kinda cool, but it made me a bit uncomfortable cuz of the whole religion thing. I felt like the pastor was trying to proselytize me/assumed I was a christian, awks. Then we get there and my internship supervisor completely ignores me the whole day so I'm left to awkwardly follow people and tag along cuz I have no idea what we're doing. She didn't even tell me who organized the conference, who I was supposed to meet, what I was supposed to do there, what the conference was even really about, other than religion. how I am supposed to know these things? so then the presentation/speeches begin, supposedly half chinese, half english. lies. all lies. There were 2 english presentations out of like 20 total (the rabbi and the pastor were the english ones). And I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about cuz I don't know that kind of vocab or anything. way too confusing. so then I kept involuntarily falling asleep, in the front row. and people made fun of me. but hello, it's like 9am (oh ya, the bus ride to the conference center was an hr and a half, seriously?! why did we have to go that far for a conference?), i'm tired, i don't know what's going on, no one is talking to me, and i'm already exhausted. and the rabbi and the pastor (who don't speak chinese), got a translator for the chinese presentations- not fair, where's my translator?! then we had an awk lunch with important people and they were like, who are you? the intern. what do you do? nothing. i listen to them talk at me and randomly write things. I have no title and there is no structure to the internship. what are you doing here? nothing. listening to you babble while I pick lint off my shirt, pick my fingernail polish off (don't need nail polish remover anymore), and nap. then they give me their card, like what am I supposed to do with that? met one cool person- the political assistant who works at the US consulate, she helps the US political consulate guy do research and interviews and stuff so they can file reports about what's going on in china. cool job, huh? then I could be a diplomat! so I did like her and kept her card. then they turned the room into a freezer and I thought I was going to die of hypothermia. we left at 5:30pm, another hr and a half bus ride, then a 45 min taxi (but it took me 25 min to find one). So I left at 7am and got home at 8:30pm. awesome day. NOT. 

then we went to I love Shanghai, a fun small western dive bar, where they were having ladies night- free well drinks. :) my day instantly improved. then shelter, a club designed to look like a bomb shelter, duh. what else? it was ok. overall fun night.

wednesday-friday (today) was the mid-autumn festival so no school. yay! I went to a good fake market during the day wednesday, got a cute tory burch black leather wristlet. she started at 600RMB (approx $85) , and I got it for 150RMB (approx $22), i'm a baller. and i think it's real leather cuz it smells like it. :) and it has the real tory burch lining. yay. 

then wednesday night (we would have left in the morning but anthony bought the wrong train tickets, dummy) we took the train to hangzhou- "paradise on earth". took forever to get a cab, then we got majorly ripped off and paid about 3x as much as we should have. the hotel was pretty nice so that was good. then we to a rando irish pub/bar. relaxed but fun. 

thursday, we went to the Six Harmonies Pagoda. Really cool, except that it was raining, but whatever. there was a nice view from the top. then we went to the silk market, but we couldn't really go to the place we wanted to cuz the taxi driver didn't understand. hangzhou is apparently really famous for silk. I didn't get anything cuz it was too expensive/crazy patterns. tried to buy another traditional chinese dress (qipao), but again, was told I'm too fat. great. then lunch, then we took a boat ferry thing to one of the islands in the middle of the West lake. the lake is really pretty. 

West Lake (it was raining so hard to see the beauty)

Me at "Three Ponds Mirroring the Moon" site, I don't really get the name but it's a bunch of pretty lily pads

Then we went back, napped a bit, then went to reggae cafe for dinner. I had pesto linguine, yum. except that it took like over an hr to get our food. ridic. then we went to this great mexican bar and got margaritas (first good ones i've had in china) and played lots of fun card games- my friend Sean knows the greatest games ever. He says it's cuz he's japanese, hmmm.... Then went to Cocos Club, lots of great dancing. good music. really fun. then we tried to get some chuanr afterwards (that's like street food skewers) but there wasn't really a line or ordering or anything and I thought we were getting the next ones, but then these chinese guys took them. I guess we looked really sad, and pathetic, and pissed so they gave us like half of them. haha. yum. then bed. 

this morning we woke up and went to the Music fountain, see video below. 

It was pretty funny. Then we took a boat ride with a guy in the back who rowed it for us. very relaxing but we were kinda bored. so then we rented two canoes and had a race across the lake. my team won. the losers are supposed to wear traditional chinese robes/dresses/ponchos tomorrow to class and out at night. haha. magnolia got pretty into the rowing (even though they lost) and made up a synchronized rowing routine, which actually helped them a lot:

Then we had delicious thai food for lunch. then we strolled around the lakeside and played with chinese babies and bubbles. 

Magnolia enjoying the bubbles and the babies with her light up, moving, ribbeting frog bubble machine (love you china)

We thought we had ample time to get a taxi back to the hotel and then to the train station, but it took us 25 min to get a taxi (hangzhou clearly has a taxi problem). then we had to get our stuff from the hotel and go straight to the train station. but the other two taxi groups (we had 12 people) had to get another taxi cuz they had let theirs go when they got their stuff. and they had the tickets. so with 10 minutes to go, people finally arrive, but people got held up in the security line so we all started yelling and running around looking for each other and the tickets with about 3 minutes to go. We finally make it through to the platform, only to discover the train is like 5 min late. so we were fine. but very stressful. 

got back a few hrs ago, had muslim noodles and a diet coke (they are pretty rare here cuz chinese people like everything really sweet and they're all skinny bitches anyways so not much demand for dcoke), delicious. then chinese hw and now blogging! 

tomorrow we have a tea party put on by IES, our program! fun! 

tata for now! 

China, you make me laugh/vomit.

so Thursday night, I went with my friend Fred to the gym and bought a membership. things to know about gyms in china:

• school gyms suck big time and have almost no equipment and a million people.
• women don't really work out in china, because they're supposed to be "delicate" so not only am I white, blonde, and foreign, i'm a woman, at a gym=the most exciting thing in the world to stare at for chinese people apparently
• the locker room is a terrifying place. i walk in and was immediately confronted by naked chinese women, old, young, fat, thin, etc. then i walk around looking for my locker, which is conveniently located next to the bathrooms, where chinese woman are going to the bathroom (squat style, so everythings out there for viewing). then one woman finishes peeing or something and walks out of the stall, to then wipe herself, in front of me. like seriously? get real. that's disgusting. vommm (it) at least take care of that in the stall. and shut the god damn door! blahhhh (that's me vomiting)
• the machines are crazyyyy. they are like a personal trainer built in. story: so i get on an elliptical and am going along for about 6 minutes, when it stops and resets. so i start over, so annoying. so then i'm even more tired cuz i had to start over so I'm slowing down a bit,when all of a sudden, the screen flashes, "Increase RPM or will turn off" and you have like 5 seconds to do it or seriously, it starts you over again. so if you don't keep up the speed, it shuts off on you. so you have to work so hard. and you can't change the levels in the middle so whatever you pick in the beginning, you're stuck with. I eventually had to stop cuz i couldn't keep up with my machine. haha. 

So ya, that was the gym. but they have some awesome classes- MTV dance, china dance, hip hop, a million yoga classes. I haven't had time to do any yet but i think i'm going to mtv dance tomorrow. haha. can't wait. 

then we went to chinese class friday morning, where I discovered I made the most hilarious translation mistake ever: we had to write a short story about a fable with a moral from america, so i did the boy who cried wolf,... or so i thought. I looked up "wolf" online (or woof as you'd say dad) and used what I found 色朗 selang. my teacher was going over major errors in class and brought up my use of this word, which actually means "rapist". hahahaha. (this also changed the meaning of other words in this context) So let me translate some excerpts of "The Boy who cried Rapist" for you:

(parents talking to son, who heards sheep): "Your job is very important because if you do not watch the sheep, the rapist will come and rape them."

(boy yelling): "Rapist! Rapist! The rapist is chasing the sheep! Help me!" 

(and in the end): "The boy shouts: 'Rapist! Rapist! Help me!' But the townspeople did not come because they thought he was lying. All the sheep were raped by the rapist or they ran away."

pretty excellent stuff huh? so now we are constantly calling the guys selang (cuz only guys can be selang). it's pretty hilarious. although yelling "rapist" on the subway will get you a few looks, even more than the ones you're already getting for being white and blonde. haha. not recommended. 

friday afternoon I went to the climate change meeting at my internship place. It was all in chinese. fml. I understood her presentation cuz she used slides that were mostly in english and had pretty graphs. but then the questions started and I was so lost. towards the end, one of the other employees from PIUSE (the company i intern for) was like, "Julia, do you have any questions?" and duh, i was like "no" and then they all laughed and were like "oh so cute, the little intern speaks chinese!" it was probably a really cool presentation and discussion but i didn't really get it. I know they were talking about US climate change politics, which I know a lot about since I lobbied for that legislation in dc the last two years. I made a new friend though, she's a new intern from the US pavillion at the expo. she's doing this in her spare time. she's fluent in chinese. (and english obvi, she's american). and she's coming with me on tuesday to this religion forum thing with me. should be cool. the chinese are so into guanxi (relationships/networking), but like i have no idea what to say to these people. so i'm just really awkward. haha. 

friday afternoon/evening, i confirmed all of our hotel stuff for inner mongolia. they're giving us a discounted rate and they sound really awesome! and we're going baller tours in the grasslands and the Gobi Desert! we're staying at www.andaguesthouse.com if you wanna check it out!

then we had hot pot for dinner, we accidentally went to a really nice place (the shittier, the better usually in china) so it was just ok. it's kinda like fondue, the oil kind. you put raw meat/veggies/noodles in a bowling pot and dip them in yummy sauces and such. yum. 

then we went out to celebrate Diggory & Jay's birthdays. We had cake in Jay's room, then went to windows, our fav bar. again. then to a go-karting place. fastest go karts i've ever driven. you spin out every turn if you're going at all fast. sooooo fun. then to M1nt (mint),the most exclusive club in shanghai. you have to call ahead to get on a list. so that was fun-ish. but it was hard cuz we went so many places and it was long taxi rides to get everywhere. and then we were really tired by the time we got to M1nt. but still fun. 

today i went downtown to the french concession to shop with Sup, Diggory, Alex, & Sean. it was fun, but we were just looking mostly. and it was expensive. it totally didn't feel like china though on the streets- it was crazy western. 

then Magnolia and I went to dinner with her host mom's friends at their house. The mom (not noli's host mom) made the greatest dinner ever with like 10 different dishes: fish in an awesome sweet & sour sauce, chopped up frog, tarot (i think that's what it was), veggies, asparagus like vegetable, edamame (traditional mid-autumn festival- see other posts for that), chicken, beef, soup, weird seafood that we don't have in american and no one could explain, and more. so delicious. the best food I've had yet in china. :) and they were soooo nice. they wanted to show us everything about their house and helped us speak chinese and made us try everything and showed us how to eat it. then after dinner we had watermelon and grapes (very traditional to eat fruit after dinner). then we talked/they showed us random stuff, such as the toys their 25 yr old son used to play with- cool...? the mom does fan dancing and is apparently really good. she's performing in november and they're going to be on TV. we asked her to perform for us but she said she needed music. so of course, magnolia and i sung mo li hua (jasmine flower), a traditional chinese folk song that we learned last summer. it was great. and she danced. :) they also said they'd give us extra tickets they have to the expo for free! yippee! we haven't been yet, but obvi really wanna go. then when we were leaving, they gave magnolia and i each gifts- yue bing (moon cakes), a traditional delicacy for mid-autumn festival. they're so delicious. it's like pastry thing filled with random deliciousness, such as lotus, beef, pork, green beans, red beans, etc. so nice! and they got them from the nicest place in shanghai! i love chinese people. they are so nice and friendly and honestly just want to share their however humble, lives with you. so open and warm. 

now i'm at home preparing my hw for chinese class tomorrow. yes sunday, that's right. class on sunday this week to make up for wed-fri that we have off this week. and chinese test monday. :( so scared! I feel like I had no weekend either, just one day off. so painful! 

ok, well that's it for now. miss you america! 

China, where are all of your good fakes?

so I went to Qipu market today with my chinese class, which was awesome to begin with because we didn't have regular class. but it took an hr to get there on the bus :( then we only had like two hours to shop this giant building with 6 floors of clothes, shoes, bags, etc.

I got a cute pair of shoes, like bowling type shoes but not really. dunno how to describe them but they're cute. I think I paid too much for them but oh well. (only $12 USD) And I got a cute sweater with bows on it. It's weird though, you can't try anything on so you just have to guess. and if you ask them if they have any bigger sizes, they look you up and down and say "bigger? NO", ya cuz I'm a fat ass, thanks china. so whatever. there are other clothing places, but we ran out of time. the bags weren't that good either. nothing looked like it was actually inspired by real designers. I don't really want a stuffed animal as a purse, thank you very much. I wonder if I can sell them my real marc jacobs bag and get some money? haha. the search for good handbags continues

now i'm just chilling in my room. just did 3.5 hrs of chinese hw. so boring.

tomorrow I'm going to a special meeting at my internship on Climate Change. They're bringing in experts from a bunch of places (western countries I think), should be pretty awesome. And tuesday I'm going to a forum on religion in china. cool! hope it's in english...

China, you smell like mildew.

so sorry I haven't posted in over a week- China tried to take facebook and my blog away from me. (aka my proxy server that I was using to illegally use them stopped working. but then I decided Vassar has a VPN so then I got that- which took awhile since the download page was blocked too) but now I'm back for good so no worries.

So I've been to my internship twice now since I last wrote- it's going well I guess. I basically go in for like 3 hours on Tuesdays and "discuss" (aka get talked at and say a few sentences every 20 minutes) US-Chinese Relations, half in english, half in chinese, very strange. I also wrote a paper for Bright (self-named, my internship coordinator) about human rights in china since I'm interested in that. Oh ya, so because I said I am interested in human rights, I'm going to be doing background research for them so they can start a human rights project in the future- cool, huh? I'm a baller, I know. so ya, that's cool I guess, kinda boring though. And tonight we had our first internship seminar that goes along with the internship- soooo boring. oh well, we only have like 6 all semester.

Classes are still goodish. We had our first chinese test this past monday. EPIC FAIL. which of course for me means a B. haha. but seriously, it was hard. no essay (yay. but also usually pretty easy), lots of random grammar questions (which I thought I did well but apparently not) and the hardest listening thing ever. I missed half the questions, which is why I didn't do so well. but whatever, I still have a 95.5 in the class so no big deal. I studied all day on sunday so I couldn't have done much more anyways. Chinese Diplomacy is getting more interesting, the readings are pretty dry, and way too many. but the class is cool, wish there was more discussion, but that's not really china's strong suit in teaching. the shanghai studies class is fine. this week we had a field trip and had to travel around shanghai and take pictures.

pearl and I in front of some lilly pads at People's Square Park

Jing'an Temple (the pictures don't do it justice)

Friends and I in front of a bull (no significance, just cool)

Last Wednesday Alex and I went to the Shanghai Aquarium and saw lots of cool fish. They have the longest underwater tunnel in the world! 

and they had a pretty great giftstore with lots of stuffed animals:

this is actually a backpack. too bad I didn't buy it.

Then we went to the Jin Mao tower, which is next to the world financial center (the tallest building in asia). The Jin Mao tower has the highest hotel in the world in it (the Grand Hyatt- floors 55-89). The architect arranged the balconies inside the building to look like a spiral (sooo cool):

the world financial center (on the left), looks like a bottle opener

It was fun to explore during the week and do touristy stuff. 

Thursday night we went out to a local bar called hard rock. 

Friday I went to wal-mart and did some shopping. then went to a travel meeting (more on travel later!!) then at night, we went to KTV (karaoke). It was fun but we had like 20 people so it was hard to involve everyone and stuff. Then we went to windows, our fav bar. They love us so much we're going to get free beer from now on! Then to M2, a fun club. 

Saturday we left really early (8am!) for Tongli, a water city near Shanghai. We toured some courtyards and stuff and then explored on our own- took a boat ride and went to the Ancient Sex Culture Museum. We thought that meant "gender", but no, it was actually about sex:

Then saturday night I went to hard rock again and then watched The Mist (terribel horror movie) with some friends. 

Played tennis three times in the last three days- so fun! 

Tomorrow we don't have chinese class- yippee! Instead we're going to Qipu market- a great fake shopping place with clothes, bags, accessories :) I haven't been shopping yet so I'm really excited! 

Two of my friends had birthdays this week so we're going to party a lot this weekend! Except for the fact that we have makeup class on sunday- wtf?! make up class? why bother having a holiday (next week) if we have to make it up?! so stupid. but whatever.

next week, it's mid-autumn festival. Based on my understanding (in chinese) of the story we discussed in class about the festival, a guy (Houyi) was a famous archer and had to shoot down 9 of the 10 suns (you didn't know we used to have 10 suns? me neither) cuz it was too hot. His wife (Change- it's pronounced Chang e in chinese) got pissed cuz Houyi was too busy. When the gods gave Houyi two bottles of medicine to give you everlasting life as a thank you for shooting the suns, Change took them both (bitch) and then somehow got stuck in the moon, alone with this creepy rabbit who makes the potion. Every year at mid-autumn festival, Houyi gets to see his wife in the moon. :) At this time of year, you get to eat this delicious things calls moon cakes! yum! so many flavors= wonderful holiday. we also get wednesday-friday off of school. We're going to hangzhou (paradise on earth). It's a city a bit south of shanghai to chill out, hike the mountains there, look at the pretty lake. yay! 

then the week after that, oct 1-7, it's the national holiday week. more school off (and more makeup weekend days for class). it's a celebration of the founding of the communist party. so in celebration, we're going to inner mongolia. you may be thinking, what? inner mongolia? (yes dad, I know that's you) but really, it's going to rock. think genghis khan, mongolian costumes, camel riding in the desert and/or grasslands, staying in yurts (traditional mongolian tents), eating delicious stews and noodles, cashmere, 36 different ethnic groups!! soooo exciting! just bought the tickets today! 

life on two wheels (aka biking) is good. only hit a few people this week. I learned the difference between 对不起 dui bu qi (sorry) and 不好意思 bu hao yisi (how embarrassing), which in chinese is actually quite similar. when you think it's your fault, you say dui bu qi. if you are sorry/sad about a situation, but it's not your fault, say bu hao yisi. so now I can properly apologize for hitting people. I feel very chinese. today this stupid old lady wasn't paying attention and was going to hit me, and i didn't have a bell, so I just yelled "hey ayyyy bladfkjkjafkgjf" and she moved. success. so chinese. 

that's it for now! so I assume all the packages you guys sent me are on the way, right? jk. 

oh by the way, i had to mail in my voter registration/absentee ballot stuff this week. so confusing. I bought an envelope (by pointing and grunting at the envelope the guy next to me had) but it didn't have a lick part so I didn't know how to shut it. so i borrowed her tape, but it was clearly not what I was supposed to do. and then she gave me some stamps that I was not going to lick cuz they looked nasty. but they didn't have peely stuff either. she pointed and mumbled at a jar and a paint brush. so i used that glue stuff, but it was so old school. weird. anyways, success hopefully?

title explanation: have you ever repeatedly washed your clothes and hung them to dry (hang is the key word) in humid and nasty weather? well it makes everything smell like mildew no matter how fast you hang it up, how nice the day is, or what. so even if you're clean (which you never are, you're always sweaty, or getting splashed by nasty mystery water, or wiping your face on your hand due to lack of napkins), you smell like an old sponge. they should make old sponge perfume. great smell. so if you wanna send me some clothing perfume (they must make that right? america has everything materialistic), it would be much appreciated. 

ok done for real now. LOVE YOU 3 PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY READ THIS WHOLE THING! you're a champ. :) 

talk you soon!

ps more pics on facebook if you're interested! 

Now you can see China too!

Thought you might like to see some pictures (there are way more on facebook fyi)

Me and Alex (from ATL!) eating Xiao Long Bao (see "China, I'm still sweating") at the Raffles City Mall

Magnolia Eating Delicious Muslim Noodles (made by Muslims from the Northwest of China, so we just call them Muslim Noodles), this cost less than $2

Margaret (roommate), Katie (Roommate), Alex, and I at the Bund/Huangpu River looking at Pudong (Business Center). Shanghai is famous for these lights

My bedroom (notice the wonderful display of jewelery on my window sill)

My Kitchen

my most amazing chinese notebook, "Skeleton Biscuits", all the school notebooks just say random things like this. Another good one I found discussed blood transfusions.

My Living Room

That's it! Love you all!

Reasons Why I am not Chinese:

Here’s a collection of mostly random observations I’ve made about China, which amount to reasons why I am not Chinese.

1. I am white and blonde. Duh. People are obsessed with blondes here. Blonde hair in Chinese is “Golden Hair”, ya, actually. White people are pretty exciting too apparently. Most Chinese skin products have bleach in them to make you more white and people cover themselves obsessively to avoid any suntan. My guess is this stems from the ancient idea that if you didn’t work in the fields, you had servants to do it so you’d be rich and your skin would be more white because of less sun exposure. It just so happens that there is a whole race of people with naturally more white skin, woah. Who knew?

2. It’s really rude to put your fingers in your mouth because they’re unclean. Good point China. But how else are you going to get the shrimp peels out of your mouth? Magnolia’s host brother just spits them on the table.

3.  It is not rude to stare unabashedly and continuously at someone even if they notice you staring. I am continually stared at- See #1

4. I can’t do the asian squat. If you’ve never been to Asia, you probably have no idea what I’m talking about. But seriously, it’s a talent that only Asians have. The Asian  squat is when you squat down fully so that your knees are fully bent and the backs of your legs are/almost are touching each other (like a squat you do when you’re peeing in the woods, or in a bathroom in china), BUT your heels are flat and you have perfect balance and can sit like that for hours. It’s an amazing talent, really. Even Asians who are Asian-American and don’t practice it can do it. So I don’t understand the biology of it but it’s true. Serisouly.

5. I don’t fold my shirt up when I’m hot and sweaty to reveal my old, nasty beer belly. But this is common for Chinese men to do. They just chill out with their shirts up, bellies out, and sweat dripping. Yuck.

6. I can’t balance on/ride with someone balanced on the back of my bike. Trust me, Magnolia and I tried for a good half hour to no avail. Much terror on my part. Then we broke the handle bars.

There will be more, I’m sure. Tata for now!

China, I'm still sweating.

So my internet has become painfully slow in the last day, hopefully it’ll go back to normal soon but for now it’s killing me….and my proxy server isn’t connecting so that blocks me from  my blog (and everybody elses) and facebook=very tragic.

But anyways, life here is pretty awesome overall. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s been going on (probably not going to be quick, haha)

Friday I had an interview with my internship company, which is PIUSE (Pudong Institute for the US Economy). They are basically a think tank on Sino-US Relations, focusing originally on economic relations, but they have expanded to politics as well. I met with the director and assistant director and I also have a internship “partner” who will help me with my week to week stuff. I think my job will be just a big research project. They said they want me to use my “American connections”, makes me feel like a spy against my motherland (btw did you know the word for the United States in Chinese, 美国,actually means “beautiful imperialist”, haha, thanks china). But I think what they want me to do is pick a topic that I’m interested in that relates to one of their projects (it would be helpful for them to tell me what they are…) and research using different sources (American sources) to give them a different perspective. So that’s a pretty legit project, like awesomeeeeee!!!!! And I get to go to special meetings with them and events and such, which is super cool, except for the fact that I am only committed to work for them on Tuesdays so that means I have to come in on my “days off” when I have class or not do the extra stuff. Sad. We’ll see. But the interview itself was so awkward. Chinese people don’t really have awkwardness like we do so they were probably fine. But the director guy, Dr. Cheng, asked me what my religion was- how do you explain agnostic to a Chinese guy? It failed, haha. And he wanted to hear about my life and university back home, so I tried to explain “liberal arts” to him, since that’s all I could think of to say to describe Vassar (I didn’t want to freak him out with the real description of how crazy/amazing we are). But they liked me I think. They were amused that I tried to speak Chinese since I’m white (so it’s funny, great) and because Dr. Cheng went to law school for International Law (and that’s kinda what I wanna do) he was very excited. And I had some pretty baller (that means good for you parents out there) answers to his “What are your opinions on Sino-US economic relations?” type questions. He was impressed I knew who the president and prime minister of china are. (Hu Jintao and Wen Jiaobao respectively). Anyways, enough about that…

Friday night we went out to a local bar called Hard Rock (absolutely no relation to the American chain). We played fun games and got to know each other. Beers were buy 2 get one free, so it was 13 kuai per beer, which is a little less than $2. I love china.

Saturday we had a scavenger hunt orientation thing, which could have been really awesome, but they tried to force a lot of meaning out of stuff and it was really impossible cuz there was a lot of places/things that we’d never heard of and neither had shanghainese people, so whatever. But it was still a really fun day to just hang out and get to know a smaller group of people. We went to the people’s square, took pictures with old Chinese people, rode the subway a lot (it’s soooo amazing in shanghai- you could (maybe) eat off the floor, and the directions are so clear, and its air-conditioned, and they have English, ah…so great), went to a western mall where I ate subway (not by choice) and delicious xiao long bao (literally little dragon balls) which are dumplings with soup and (mystery- but it's always a mystery here so you just don't worry about it) meat inside. My group won (don't ask me how or why) and I got a "multifunctional pen holder", which is actually pretty cool, haha. That night we went to a chinese acrobats show, which was cool, but the one I saw last time was better. This one had some really awkward chinese comedians, contortionists (always cool), and lots of people doing weird stuff- this one women balanced like 50 wine glasses on her nose, weirdo. haha. but still fun. Then we went to a western bar with a great view of shanghai (called windows) and a bar called M2 and danced for awhile, really fun. 

Sunday I chilled mostly and tried to catch up on stuff (aka facebook, blogging- obviously i failed at that one-, chinese hw). We also had a mixer with "young shanghai people", who were a bunch of college and grad students from the area. I was dreading it but it actually turned out to be pretty cool. We chatted about politics, religion, horoscopes, studying, china, america, hiking, music, etc. I also got to talk with my language partner more. All of us have language partners, which are chinese students who practice chinese with us, take us around, and are our "chinese friends". Mine is named Xu Jiao, or Jessica. She's a grad student so she's super busy but really nice and we have lots to talk about. 

(told you this was going to be long...)

Today was our first day of classes, very exciting. In total, I am taking Chinese language class, Chinese Diplomacy, Shanghai Studies (required), and an Internship that has a seminar to go with it. I had Chinese class this morning. It was pretty easy except for the tingxie (dication), which were 2 “sentences” (aka paragraphs). We played a game and it was fun. Then I had some lunch, then my Shanghai Studies class. The teacher is really nice and funny, but I’m not sure if we’re going to learn anything in the class, it seems really shallow and abstract, not actual concrete info to learn, which would be fine if it was a discussion based class, but this isn’t. (unless you count the teacher asking me if I was rich as a discussion) But we lots of field trip type things so that should be fun. This evening I had Chinese Diplomacy, which was pretty cool. We talked about schools of foreign policy thought, which I learned about at Vassar so that was cool to hear that. Looks like really interesting/the driest thing ever readings. But barely any work besides reading so yay!

Biking is getting less scary, kind of. I biked to and from class and the bank today, so a lot of biking. My butt hurts. They should make bike seats in sizes, cuz there’s no way my butt is ever going to fit on any bike seat I’ve ever seen. I mean really, who’s butt is that small? Let’s get real here. Anyways, my bike handle bars broke this weekend, as in they turn and move up down and left right. Awesome. So I had it fixed a couple of times today but it kept doing it again. On the way back from the bank, I had my first traffic accident! I hit a motor-bike taxi/rickshaw thing cuz he pulled in front of me and I couldn’t brake in time cuz my hand brakes (no pedal breaks) had shifted above my hands. Fail. So I hit the back and he just turned around and stared at me, noticed I was white, and then turned around to pick up his customers. Then this really nice bike lady (there a rando bike vendors everywhere who sell/repair bikes on the street) gave me a new screw so hopefully this won’t happen anymore.

So ya, that’s what’s going on. I’ll try in the future to reduce my posts from epic novel to short story size. It probably won’t work, just warning you. 

My Address

So I know you have been dying to find out how to send me lots of big exciting pretty letters and packages filled with candy and magazines. Here's my address:

Julia Nethero

Apt 1201B, Building 16,

Tonghe Intl. Student Center

NO. 28 Wudong Road

Yangpu District

Shanghai, P.R. China

200433

or if you wanna be really cool:

Julia Nethero

上海市场浦区武东路28号

同和国际留学生村

16幢1201B室

邮编：200433

I'll send you a postcard if you send me one! Give me your addresses too! 

ps, my skype name is julianethero so skype me!!! 

China, you make me sweat.

So Let's start at the very beginning (a very good place to start)- the flight. LONGGGGGGGG=19 hours from the beginning of the first flight to landing in Shanghai, not including the airport waiting time or transportation at either end. But not terrible. Watched some movies and slept. Talked to a random korean man sitting next to me who told me "You must be very smart, Fudan University very good". I thanked him and promptly fell asleep.

Day one in Shanghai was very overwhelming and exhausting. We did orientation stuff in the morning and then went to Walmart (pronounced Wa-mar in chinese, haha). I have to admit, I was more than slightly horrified when it was suggested that we go to Walmart to do our inital shop because Walmart= the horrors/glories of American Capitalist society, and I'm in CHINA. Anyways, it was terribly overwhelming but my roommate's chinese language partner was there to help us and to tell me that "Chinese people do not use body lotion" and that because chinese women do not shave, finding a women's razor was going to be a hard. She almost died when I talked about buying a men's razor. (Don't worry, I found a women's razor, but I'm going to smell like aftershave because I had to get Gillette for Men shaving cream, yippee) We also bought some frozen dumplings and Jenny, the language partner, came home with us to make them. yummmm. In case you haven't heard, dumplings (and steamed buns) are my absolute favorite chinese dish ever. close behind are rice and noodles. I obviously really hate carbs.

By the way, I guess I'll tell you about my apartment. AWESOME!!!!!! Vassar needs to take a lesson from Fudan University about their dorms. I live on the 13th floor, so I have a kinda ok view, in a huge apartment with a fully functioning kitchen and living room, two bathrooms, and three single (quite large) bedrooms. We have a nice TV and couches and a dining room table provided for us, plus normal bedroom furniture. There's just so much space. It's wonderful. I live with two other girls and we all have our own bedrooms. I share a bathroom with one other person, big (but welcome) change from sharing two showers and two toilets with 20 girls AND boys.

Yesterday was particularly wonderful (Despite the first activity, I am actually not being sarcastic). We began our day with a chinese language placement exam, which was pretty fair actually. The test itself was a good balance of wtf?! and duh. The essay was killer though "Write about World Issues You're Interested In". Mine turned out something like this "In some countries, people die because they do not have food to eat...This is bad." But the oral was great. The teachers are these super cute young chinese women that think you're adorable too so it's just a great big love fest. They asked me what I like to do and I said play soccer (first thing to come to my head) and they looked at me aghast and said, "WHY?!" so I said "So...I don't get fat?" They loved it. I later found out that was weird because in China, since women are supposed to be delicate and fragile, they don't really play sports or workout. I guess that explains why they're all so fat here. duh. Then we had some delicious muslim noodles. As in, the best hand pulled noodle restaurants (and cheapest and fastest) are muslim in china, from the western/northwestern regions of china. they were delicious. Then I got a bubble tea. I don't care what you might have heard about this delightful and refreshing beverage, but it is really really really really a palate pleaser. as long as the "bubbles" (tapioca pearls) don't scare you away. Then we had some more orientation. Then another break and Magnolia and I found an illegal DVD store. After pointing at twilight, making fangs with our fingers, and pretending to bite each other, we found "True Blood" (a wonderful vampire show on HBO), seasons 1 & 2, for 20 kuai= approx. $3 USD. but then the police started patrolling and they put everything away so we decided that was a good time to peace out. But we'll be back for true blood. that is, if they're still in business. Then more orientation. Then I bought a bike! how awesome is that! except that terrified to ride it. General traffic laws are only obeyed by cars (usually) which leaves the bikes and mopeds to do whatever they want, including going the wrong way down the road or running through pedestrian-filled crosswalks. Overall, the bigger your vehicle is, the more "right of way" you have. me on a bike= small right of way. and because i'm a foreigner, pretty much no matter what kind of accident happens, it will be my fault. (although if you've ever seen me on a bike, you'll know that it probably will be my fault) Then they all stare and crowd around you and yell/laugh. That's what I've heard at least. I give myself one week until I crash. But my 218 RMB= approx $31USD bike will probably fall apart before then anyways. Then more orientation. Then the typhoon (chinese hurricane) finally hit. We waded in ankle deep water (great drainage systems in china) to a dinner of dumplings and beer (Qingdao of course). Then the rain stopped and we walked home. I finally discovered last night how to get on facebook and how to blog (aka proxy server). yay!

Today, more orientation=boring. Then some of us got on a random bus and got off randomly a few stops later, had some lunch, went to walmart again. Magnolia, Alex (new friend), and I stopped for a massage on the way home. 60 minutes for 30 RMB= approx $4.30 USD. They talked about us a lot and it was funny, good language practice. Really good massage. Then we chilled for bit at my apartment, then we went to Nanjing Lu, a major shopping street/tourist destination and saw the lights on the Bund (the area around the Huangpu river that runs through Shanghai)- pictures coming soon. Now sleep....

ps, probably should offer some context for the title of this post. It's hot. really hot. and so humid. the air simply deposits moisture on you, in case your body didn't produce enough already.