Halloween in Shanghai!

sorry I haven't updated in awhile, nothing too exciting going on, but I'll tell you about it anyways:

So I had some papers do (or so I thought) a week ago and I actually did work last sunday- it was crazy! Classes here are so easy, although Chinese is a bit harder. But eventually you get used to the chinese thing and it's not so hard.

Two mondays ago we went to a chinese high school for a tour and such to go along with our education portion of my Shanghai Metropolis class. The school was crazy nice- they had robotics labs, badminton courts, a natatorium, and an astronomy observation telescope thing. like seriously?! It has more facilities than my high school definitely, and maybe even more than Vassar. The kids live there, so that's different. Not everyone goes to boarding school in China but the smart/rich kids mostly do (I think) cuz they have to prepare for the Gaokao (high test literally). They have one shot (per yr) to pass the gaokao to graduate. then your scores are compared with everyone else in china and then universities pick you based on your score. So almost nothing else matters but your gaokao score. It's pretty terrifying, the lives of chinese students. They also have no fun, or least that's what it sounds like. They have "extracurriculars" but for like one hr a day, then go back to class or have dedicated hw time or something. Lights out at 10:30 (and by lights out, they mean we're shutting down the power). Basically their entire first 18 yrs of life are dedicated to getting the highest score possible on the gaokao and if you do poorly, you bring great disappointment and embarrassment onto your family and you loose face (face is kinda like reputation, but not really, hard to explain) and you go to a bad school so you'll never get a good job,etc. But it was cool to go to the school. We had a lecture from the principal and got to talk with students for an hr. They were funny.

For my internship, we met downtown somewhere and had a delicious lunch. We didn't really talk about anything. bUt my internship supervisor gave me (and Jurie, the other intern from my program) a gift from Beijing (cuz he had missed our internship the week before travelling)- "tuckahoe pies", small snacks that have rice paper on the inside and some kind of jelly in the middle (kinda weird). Then I went to qipu lu (cheap fake market) to work on my halloween costume (see pictures later).

We had our chinese midterm last week so that kinda sucked, we had to study a lot for that, but I did well so yay! After the midterm (we got out like really early) I had a nice day to myself- gym, manicure/pedicure, panini and latte for lunch, and a leisurely walk home.

Friday night was the big halloween night celebration here even though halloween was on saturday. We went on a boat cruise (like the pirate one we did awhile ago). It was a big chilly but I had a coat so I was ok. It was really fun!

The group in costume

Me (Barbie) and Woody (Jeff)- I'm doing a barbie pose, that's why I look kinda weird, haha

Nancy Drew (Magnolia), Pocahontas (Alex), and Barbie (Me) with the pearl tower in the background

So ya, that was fun. Saturday I went downtown with a few friends to the most amazing dumpling place ever- Din Tai Feng. It's taiwanese but they have them all over (the only one in the US is in LA- so if you live there, gooooo!!!!). Obviously it was delicious. Then we got cold stone ice cream- yum! Then we drank some nice german beer. Then a really nice fake market (as in things look real) where I bought a diamond zebra striped rolex (as in the diamonds are in stripes like a zebra)- it's classier than it sounds- and a blue chanel bag. :) very exciting purchases. That night we went to our fav local bar helens and people were dressed up so it was fun!

Sunday I just hung out, monday had tons of class, tuesday I did my internship in the morning and we had lunch, then saw Wall Street with my friend Jurie. It was pretty good I thought. I really enjoyed reading the chinese subtitles to see how they translated things.

Yesterday I played tennis, probably the last good weather week we'll have for a long time. It's a bit chilly, but not too bad. Last night we went to another Ladies Night at Zapatas, a mexican bar. It was free margaritas until midnight so that was fun obviously since the margarita is my fav. :)

Today I had lunch with Magnolia and Du Laoshi, my chinese teacher from Vassar. We talked about classes and such and it was fun. And he "qing"ed us (treated us) to lunch so that was extra exciting, and delicious!

No class tomorrow- yippee! Saturday we leave for Taiwan for a week as part of the program. I'm really excited- supposedly Taiwan has the greatest food! think tropical fruits, themed restaurants (there is even a poop themed one, where everything looks like poop), bubble tea, night market snacks... yum. btw, one reason to come to china (in addition to the other 239884059824952) are the night markets. Basically, lots of food (and sometimes clothing, accessories, books, etc) vendors pull up with their carts or their bikes that have a little food prep area on them. They just park on the sides of the street so you can't really get through (somes the popo come and break them up- one time I was trying to decide if I wanted noodles or dumplings, then I decided and was all excited. As I was about to order the popo came and they all biked away with their little kitchens on the back. sooo sad). They have popcorn, chuanr (meats, veggies, etc. on a stick and grilled), dumplings, noodles, rice, and other things that you can't really describe, the closests would be sandwiches I guess? This is where you find all the crazy weird foods that you hear about in china. There's a tiny night market near my wednesday night class that is always an excellent dinner. yum yum yum! so come to china and we'll go to night markets.

44 days left in China! 30 days until my birthday! yippee! Miss everybody! Love you!