Home again and feeling right

Tuesday I went back to America! Or, as I like to call it, the United States. (Chinese people would always correct me when I said that, though.)

Woke up at 5, was out the door and in a taxi by about 5:45. Found the airport and checked in, etc. They have a line at security (or maybe it was some sort of customs-related thing) that is specially for people with disabilities...and people involved with the Olympics. If Beijing could rename itself after the Olympics I think it would.

Ate some dumpling-like things and went next door to get a mocha; what a great country. Dawdled for a bit and then got on my plane. We sat at the gate/on the runway (can't remember which) for about an hour because there were so many planes taking off, but it was okay because it just took an hour out of my layover in Tokyo (and I watched Cars on the flight so it went quickly). Hung out at Narita-Tokyo for a bit, then hung out for two-and-a-half hours on the plane before it took off, due to mechanical concerns. Luckily, the flight still went, and something around 10 hours after take-off we found ourselves in San Francisco, where I met up with my parents. I guess that's the end of the story of Ali in China...tune in next time?

P.S.: I'll go back to blogging on http://journals.aol.com/seafoam9/AlisUpdate/ now, but I make even fewer promises about its entertainment value than I made about this one.

P.P.S.: Thanks so much for following along. It really meant a lot.

My lastday in China

Monday was my last full day in China. (And basically my last day period, since I expect to be in the air by the time I actually wake up tomorrow.) I'd had such a great day Sunday that I was fine with having a pretty chill day today, which was good because I'm kinda exhausted in a lot of ways.

Slept until 9, had the Swiss breakfast at the cafe across the street, did email until my computer crashed, and decided to head out. Took the public bus to the Summer Palace, which was an hour and half but cheap and simple. The Summer Palace is really amazingly gorgeous; I can't imagine how breathtaking it is with a blue sky. My pictures aren't going to do it justice with all the hazy grayness, but you'll have to trust me. It was kinda on the humid side though (surprise) so I got pretty worn out walking around and climbing steps and so on, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Kind of wish I hadn't had to stand for most of the bus ride home, but I guess I needed a last long, uncomfortable bus ride in China to complete the experience.

Got back to the hostel and did a lot of packing and some interneting, then went to eat dinner, and now I'm waiting for the massage place in the hostel/hotel to be free, which should be any minute. Can't believe I'm actually leaving tomorrow. I'm sure it'll all be more complicated in retrospect, as it was when it all happened, but at least right now I'm so happy with my time here. Really a wonderful experience that I think has made a very big, very positive impact on me. I'm a little too tired to be more articulate about it right now.

I'll write again from home for the sake of including any plane-ride adventures or last-minute thoughts.

Winning China

Sunday, Lizzie and I won many hard-fought battles, and it was extremely satisfying.

The day started with a dragonfruit, which is extremely cool-looking and pretty tasty. And things only got better.

First off, I had to sneak out of the dorm since we found out the night before that guests were, in fact, not allowed. Our efforts were extremely successful, and may or may not have involved an empty suitcase and overcoming my claustrophobia. (The whole story is available upon request.)

Step two was finding a post office we knew only by name and convincing them that Lizzie was the same person as the Chinese name the package was addressed to. It wasn't easy, and after they became somewhat convinced we were legit it still took them about 20 minutes to find my suitcase, but I finally had it back in my hands. And the angels began to sing.

We dropped it off at the dorm and headed out to Xiu Shui, which is called The Silk Market but is a market of all sorts of bargainable things. With a 45-minute break for whatever meal you eat at 4:30, we spent almost 7 hours there, getting things for the Very Special for Us prices, many of which were proclaimed as the Chinese Prices because we spoke Just Like Native Speakers. In truth, we took a long time and got what I think were really good prices because we bargained really well. We're pretty stubborn, and you get more so once you see how effective it can be. We bemoaned the fact that China will not be this way forever.

Headed back to the dorm via the grocery store, where we bought some fruit, including more of the dragon variety. Relaxed and ate that for a little bit while we admired our purchases, then went to The Bookworm, which is this wonderful English-language library and cafe, with charming decor and rooftop seating. One of Lizzie's favorite spots, and I can totally see why. We both just about fell asleep by 11 or so, though, so we headed back to the dorm and said our goodbyes.

Feel the love generation

While Lizzie packs, I'm going to take advantage of the opportunity to use a computer that is connected both to the internet and a power source! (The two do not come in such proximity at the Far East Youth Hostel.)

Saturday ended up MUCH better than it started out. Woke up around 8 and was kinda cold, so I headed back to the hostel, which the taxi driver got lost trying to find. Decided I was going to have to look into the suitcase situation before I could feel at peace, so I asked the hostel people how to call Shanghai's post office, and they sent me across to a service station place on the other side of the street. The guy there made a bunch of calls, none of which led to any contact with anyone helpful, but he did recommend that I go to the post office at Hepingli. It was seeming fairly likely I wasn't going to get it in time for my flight on Tuesday, which was pretty stressful and upsetting after all I'd done to try to do what made the most sense for dealing with having stuff and traveling, so I decided to eat brunch and see if I felt better. I did, but only in that I was less hungry, so I called home and panicked and made an action plan.

Took a 2-hour nap, after which I still felt fairly fragile but better. Took a taxi to the Hepingli post office, where they had no idea why I was told to go them, but did make a lot of calls, and when I didn't leave after they told me to go back to Lizzie's school and look for it, they eventually contacted the post office near the dorm- where it had arrived! I'm trying not to count my chickens before I actually have it in my own hands, but what a surprise and relief.

Had some time before evening, so I went to the Temple of Heaven, which was pretty incredible. I have trouble seeing these sites as real places and not just iconic images of China; I drive past the big Tian'anmen gate (I think? You know, the thing with Mao's picture on it.) on my way to Lizzie's dorm and it's so weird just to see it out the window.

Chilled at the hostel and did some dinnering, then met Lizzie and friends (one of whom sang a cappella with Daniel Herriges) to go out and about. The first place, Hou Hai, was a really pretty, decent-sized lake with lights and stores and bars and restaurants all around. There were people releasing lantern things into the sky, and it was really cool. Anyway, we had a good time, mostly just talking, and got back to the dorm. We were a group of 2 Swatties, 2 Yalies, and a Stanford student (Stannie? Stanfordie?) and conversation went from lip gloss to the SAT 2 Writing test to cross-cultural relationships in the blink of an eye. I enjoy my peers very much.

Pictures posted

I haven't posted the end of Shanghai yet (most camps) but now I've added an album of the Qingdao and Beijing photos from so far. (Well, it's loading, but I don't think any of you are up in the middle of the night so by the time you read this they'll be there.)

It takes a while to load them onto a blog and I couldn't just pick a few...so take a look. (Or if you can wait, I'll let you know when I've gone through and labeled them and deleted ugly ones.) Again, that address is http://picasaweb.google.com/Alison.Flamm.

Go look at the Great Wall at least...it requires no captions. :)

Barricades can't block our way

Friday was kind of a super-day, although I didn't realize it at the time. I woke up at 5:45 and got on the bus to the Great Wall at Jinshanling. It was a 3-hour ride. Once at the wall, they just told us to hike to Simatai and to meet the bus there in 4 hours. No one really knew how to get to the wall, which was convenient because in trying to figure it out, I found 5 guys from London, Toronto, Hong Kong, Pakistan, and France who were also traveling alone. (I guess women don't travel alone in China very often...who knew?)

The wall was everything I ever imagined, but so much cooler in person. When they showed us a video advertising School Year Abroad in Chinese class in high school, the part that really made me want to go was the part where they were all hanging out on the wall...so it was very cool to finally go it for myself (and not have to miss a year of high school for it). Anyway, I took lots of pictures (that probably all look the same) so you can see the bright blue sky and the gorgeous mountains and the magnificent wall. A 4-hour hike in the sun was a lot, and we were definitely counting towers for most of it to keep aware of our progress (we started at 1 and went to 32), but there was shade in the towers and plenty of opportunities to buy water (or coke or beer, if you're stupid) from elderly Mongolian ladies. The company was good too; English-speaking, but all but the Londoner had some Mandarin so that was fun.

Got to the end of our part of the wall and had the choice between a 30-minute walk downhill or a $5 zipline ride over the river...looked relatively legit, and it was actually not scary at all, just really cool to be flying over the water looking up at the wall. Hung out in the cafe and bused back to the hostel.

Once back, I ate dinner at the cafe associated with the hostel, ate some fruit freshly picked from their courtyard, and of course cleaned up a bit. Then I went to meet Lizzie, a friend of mine from Swat who had just earlier that afternoon graduated from her summer language program. Hung out in her room and met her friends, then went out dancing with them and their teachers. They had all been released from their language pledge about 5 hours before I arrived, which meant they spoke Chinglish like I'd never heard it before and were constantly re-introducing themselves to each-other by their English names.

Had a good time, but tired out (Lizzie had just gotten through exams, so she was the same) and just spent some time catching up on Swat news and gossip. She was on the wait-list for a room for next year, and got one in my dorm on the floor below, so that's great. Eventually turned in for the night in la casa de Lizzie.

Damin and Qingdao picture(s)

So this is Beijing.

Early night in, and fully-charged laptop accessing free wifi...time to catch up.

Wednesday (Qingdao still) I slept in a bit, then waited for a bus for a while and gave up and took a taxi instead, which cost me approximately $1 more than the bus would have. Took it to #2 Beach, from which I walked to an old house that I think used to be the German Governor's mansion. I'll post a photo entry after this one, which won't include Beijing since they're still on my camera, but will give you an idea of Qingdao. Anyway, the house was cool because you could just wander around and sit in all the chairs and touch everything, but obviously not very well-preserved. It had an extensive love-themed park in the front yard, which was kind of frightening.

Walked and wandered and ate and so on for the rest of the morning and early afternoon, then came back to the hostel to pack up and write emails and so on. Ate dinner, and found a couple from Vienna who were taking the same bus to Beijing, so we found a taxi together and hung out at the stop. (It was nice to have some company, since it was really unclear if we were in the right place at all.) The bus itself was quite the experience, and in a much better way than I had expected it to be. There were three rows of beds with two aisles in-between, each with a lower bed and upper bed. I had an upper bed in the middle row, and it was surprisingly comfortable. Slept on and off, and after 11 hours arrived in Beijing.

I kind of felt jet-lagged all over again when I got here, but was stubborn enough to find a taxi that wasn't going to cheat me and got to my hostel without a problem. I'd read and heard great things about this hostel, and it's impressing me so far- the hostel rooms are just the basement (and maybe other floors, but I don't think so) of a hotel. The hotel is right in the middle of the city, and had a tour office and breakfast and stuff.

Anyway, I felt awake enough when I first got here to just want to get out, since I knew I would crash later and want to come back to chill. So I went out in search of a bank, a post office, or a Forbidden City. Found the last one first, and woke up enough to realize that I was actually there, looking at images I had seen a billion times before in real life. Kind of surreal. I let myself just wander through whatever rooms of the palace attracted me, and came to the fairly firm decision that the whole thing should become a living history museum. I wanted so badly to go back in time and see how things used to be, and reading signs while looking in glass cases just wasn't giving me enough of a picture.

I then went on a pilgrimage to a post office, where they seemed less than surprised that my suitcase was 4 days late and gave me hope it would still arrive. Ate a late lunch and came back to the hostel to clean up, unpack, email Lizzie, and chat with the tour people a bit. Looks like Lizzie and I will hopefully meet up tomorrow night when she and her classmates are celebrating being done with exams.

After relaxing in the hostel a bit it was too late to run out and catch anything important before it closed, which was fine since I will probably have more energetic days. Found a bank and took the subway to a shopping area, mostly just for the sake of taking the subway. (Everything about the Beijing subway feels totally different than the Shanghai one. These are VERY different cities.) Ate dinner, and came back to the hostel in time to see if they'd found a ticket for me for the Beijing Opera performance nearby, and they had, so I headed over. Beautiful theater, and I'm glad I went, but I don't think I love Beijing Opera. (Same thing as Peking Opera.)

Tomorrow is looking busy, so don't worry if I don't write, but you may hear from me. :)

Crashing waves, not cars

Tuesday was pretty much exactly what it was supposed to be, and I had to keep reminding myself of how ideal it was throughout the day because I did get a little tired at points. Started waking up to everyone else’s alarms in the morning and finally decided to get going on my day, in fact as soon as possible. Was out the door in about 15 minutes wandering towards an unknown bus stop. (The hostel people kinda give directions, but they’re mostly “walk down that road, and you’ll see it!” which you won’t.) Luckily, I’ve gotten used to asking an average of 4 people every time I’m trying to find something, and each one led me closer until I found it.

Got to the right stop to catch a bus to Lao Shan (it’s a mountain) and started asking around to find out where I could do so. Finally asked a woman who turned out to be a tour guide, and paid $10 for a 9am-5pm tour with 6 other people, one of whom was an adorable Chinese child and one of whom was a young woman who took a while to warm up to me, but in time she was taking my hand and making me sit next to her. I win them over every time. We traveled about in a shuttle van, which was very pleasant with the windows open.

The day went something like this: We first stopped at a temple that was just like every other temple I’ve seen here, then at the TV tour, which thinks it’s the Oriental Pearl, when it SO isn’t, and is also the Olympic Hall, since the sailing competitions are going to be here. Ascended the tower, which was even less exciting than the OP, but I’m not complaining. We stopped at a place that wanted to sell us pearls, and then went on to Lao Shan.

We took one bus up a ways to…um…a cable car I guess. (I always want to call it a Sky Ride but that’s just at Disney parks, isn’t it?) It was really cool, and none of the cars fell off. From the top of the cable car, we took an hour’s hike up the hill/mountain/whatever and came back down. It was really pretty, especially since the view below was a bunch of misty mountains and the ocean. I realized that I seem to think I have some special claim on being amazed by oceans and mountains since I’ve had limited contact with them…somewhat justified, right?

On our way back, we stopped at a tea-tasting and a place where you could sample (and buy) all sorts of dried seafood. Pretty much everyone fell asleep on the way back, and then we parted ways.

Since I had spotted an SPR Coffee (a coffee shop whose lettering is suspiciously similar to that of Starbucks) and Mary had asked me to check it out if I saw one, it seemed like the perfect opportunity. Feeling rejuvenated, I wandered around the waterfront, and since I was wearing sneakers instead of flip-flops like yesterday, climbed out on some rocks to read for a while. Really idyllic. Night began to fall and I went to a restaurant I had spotted yesterday with outside tables overlooking the water and cheap seafood you selected out of buckets of water. Delicious but salty, accompanied by a cheap but not terribly delicious Qingdao (Tsingtao) beer. Walked back to my hostel from there, very proud to have found it.

Being outside is NICE?!

Making this quick before time runs out at hostel computer...

Monday morning I finished packing up and Damin saw me into a taxi to the Hongqiao airport. As soon as I walked into the airport, I felt a lot more relaxed about everything. I guess airports are something of comfortable place for me...they have a lot in common with one another I suppose. Killed a bunch of time with things like breakfast and reading, and then a bit more since my flight was delayed (by less than an hour). Walked through the gate...and then onto a bus...and then from the bus up the stairs into a plane. Pleasant flight with good snacks.

Took a bus into the centerish of town. Cheap, and easy to use since people were very helpful explaining it to me, but took a while. Had a lot of trouble finding my hostel, but someone eventually took my bag and walked me there, which was especially nice because it involved far too many stairs for me to ascend without help. (With a computer and a 24-kg bag, at least.)

The hostel is in an old observatory at the top of a hill that's a park. The people at the desk told me trains to Beijing are sold out through the 17th, much to my surprise, but they can reserve a bus ticket for me, which may not be fun but it'll get me there when I want. Headed out soon after arriving and eventually found the right bus to the most popular beach. Qingdao is the perfect temperature and full of parks and beaches- so different from Shanghai, and the perfect place to go to recover from 2 months there. I hung out on the beach a bit, then walked along the shore for a really long time on a nice path. Ate some seafood on a stick that made me squirm a little bit, and taxied back to the hostel, where I read outside a little just because it's soooo nice out.

One Night in Shanghai

Sunday was my last real day in Shanghai, since I leave Monday morning for Qingdao. I tried to sleep in and failed, but luckily Judy was online to talk to me for a bit as I woke up for real. Walked to the bakery nearby to grab some breakfast, and ran into Damin on the way back! We made plans to get lunch. I packed for a while, then he and I went to eat, which was nice. Packed for a while longer in the afternoon and took care of various things, then headed into the city because I knew any minute I'd get a text from Amy about dinner and I wanted to already be kinda in the vicinity. Stopped at the foreign language bookstore to get junk reading for the rest of my trip, and sat in a coffee shop to kill some more time. Then I walked around a bit, and finally it was time to meet Amy and Ben for dinner. Had a really nice 2-hour dinner with them, said goodnight and goodbye, and came home for the last time.

It's really hard to leave, especially since I'm heading to the less-familiar before I get to the more-familiar. I AM excited to see new places, though.

You get what you give

A lot to write, and unfortunately I'm not going to remember it all.

Friday I got up early, although not as early as Wednesday, which proved to be less than smart since getting on the bus 30 minutes later got me to the kids' hotel 5 minutes late instead if 40 minutes early. Guess I found when rush hour begins. Made the bus to the zoo, though, and spent the morning and early afternoon looking at animals in dirty, small cages while absolutely roasting, being eaten by bugs, and carrying my laptop for unavoidable reasons. It was like the most awful trip to the zoo ever, except that I was there with 15 kids who thought it was the most wonderful trip to the zoo ever, and that made all the difference. They even insisted on carrying my computer at times, as much as I tried to insist I was fine.

These kids have gotten more and more amazing every day. They were singing on the bus at 8:30am, and again in the office of Standard Chartered bank when we visited that afternoon. (Standard Chartered had prepared a really fabulous session with skits and a multimedia quiz and prizes and everything.) On the way back to the hotel, someone discovered the microphone on the bus (like, for tour guides to use I assume) and the kids took turns singing for each other to thunderous applause. These kids are 12-17, so many of them aren't in the pure "I'm a cute kid" stage anymore, but they're, like, people, with personalities and opinions and everything.

We got back to the hotel around 4:30, and Rose and I headed over to Creek Art, the location of the closing dinner, to meet Simon and Rager and talk about the dinner. We there for 4 increasingly frustrating hours, which ended with Rose and I realizing if this dinner was going to happen, we'd have to basically take over. It was a lot of validation for general frustration I've felt at times over the past 2 months, but also gave us both serious headaches. Some combination of the day in the sun and the new stress made me not feel so good, so I chilled in the office while they got dinner (and ate something myself), wrote a new script with Rager for MCing, and went home as soon as I could (11:30).

Saturday I woke up and felt better, and headed off to the office for my last day as a Chi Heng intern. Rose had decided to skip the camp trip to the science museum to make sure we got everything dealt with okay, which meant I spent a fairly pleasant and low-stress morning. Worked on the script with Rose's help in the afternoon, then she developed a fever and Rager went to get her some medicine. That's when the really heavy rain started to hit, and before I knew it I was wading through 3 inches of water to bring Rager an umbrella. We taxied to Creek Art, I changed into my fancy (and dry) clothes, and we did set-up.

I really like events. Before it started, I rehearsed with Rager, hung around checking people in, and talked to the kids when they arrived. The event itself was not extremely smooth, but Rager and I definitely did our part as MCs and I was pleased with how it went. Lots of enthusiasm from the guests. Hung out for a while after, mingling and saying goodbye to the most awesome kids ever. I'm gonna miss them a lot! Brought some stuff back to the office and said goodbye to the Chi Heng staff. It's been a valuable experience for sure, probably worth the bad times just for the conversations I had with the kids tonight alone. I'm not really a kid person, so it's really special for me when I meet some that I connect with.

Entry postponed

Friday was a looong day and I'm unwilling to extend it further by writing about it tonight. You'll get a real entry either tomorrow or the day after, once things have calmed down. Things are fine, though, it's just work craziness.

让我们期待明天会更好

I've resisted use of characters in these entries for two months, because I don't imagine most of you can see them and those who can probably can't read them, but I gave in to temptation today. This is the last line of a song, and roughly means "Let us look forward to a better tomorrow."

Thursday was very black and white. I had agreed to come into the office for half the day, and ended up staying the whole day because it was going to be too hard to catch up with the kids in the middle of their day's activities and by 3 or so when they came back they were just resting anyway. It was a somewhat frustrating day in the office, but it was fully made up for by a few things. One, A Guang (the secretary and all-around awesome person...I think I mentioned that he came with yesterday and was great with the kids) offered me a jump drive of his pictures from yesterday and talked to me about how I'm leaving soon and how he'll miss me and will I remember them the next time I go to China? Such a sweet guy. So much of how I interact with people is based on language that I know the people I've made friends with without any English are really special.

After 6, I headed over to the hotel and had dinner with my Hong-Kongian (better guesses?) artist friends and some of the volunteer adults from Anhui province (where the kids come from). I guess Avon and Vero really liked the noodles (technically not "noodles" I am told because they are made from...potato I think?) because we immediately went to the grocery store and bought some. Hung out in their room for a bit, then went to do more art! It was a low-key day, since the kids were just writing things about their art, so I spent most of the time being taught a song by the older girl I met the first day and a boy who really likes to sing. After we finished with the art, everyone practiced the song a bunch, and it was really fun.

My camera batteries have run down and Damin took my charger back, and he's not around, so I don't know what I'm going to do (since I need to use rechargeable batteries for my camera and haven't seen any for sale) but hopefully I'll run into him in time to recharge them before my travels. On the plus side, I have A Guang's photos from yesterday, and Avon and Vero said they'd email me the ones they took tonight. They're heading back tomorrow.

There was blue sky again today for the third day in a row. At night, you can still totally see the sky and clouds...it's just like you're in a room with a painted ceiling and you turned the lights down. Does this not happen in the other cities in which I live, or have I just never noticed it?

Hangzhou and JiaoDa photos

New friends and old universities

Wednesday was a long day, but a fairly good one. I have pictures from Hangzhou and from today that I'll post next, probably without captions because it's late, but you can probably tell which ones are of a pretty lake and which ones are of cute children and/or a university.

Got up an hour earlier than usual to make sure I was at the hotel before the bus and kids left, and had time for a short nap in the lobby. The kids were excited to see me back again, which is awesome. We spent the morning, lunch, and beginning of the afternoon at Jiaotong University, which I've heard named the top university in Shanghai, although I think Fudan is pretty renowned as well. (Jiaotong is where Iris went.) We took a tour from and played games with Paul and Daisy, with whom I've had almost 2 months of email contact, and some of their fellow students. Talked to them for quite a while over the lunch hour, and learned something interesting from Paul, who is an English and Economics major: his Economics courses are split between Western and Marxist theory, which are often contradictory, and while his professors tell him the Marxist theory is correct, they are to answer exams using Western theory. Ohhh China. Daisy was great too; I wish they were on facebook!

Simon called me while at JiaoDa (short for Jiaotong Daxue- Daxue means University) and asked me to come back to the office, so while the kids rested, did some art, and ate dinner I called people, read emails, and made spreadsheets (and sort of ate dinner). I finally got out of the office around 7:30 and went back to do some more art with the kids and my artist friends.

They call me "big sister".

Some exciting things about Tuesday: the first day of Chi Heng 2007 Summer Camp in Shanghai, the spontaneous recovery of my keyboard, and a decently blue sky that lasted until sundown.

Went into the office in the morning, where the network was down but my computer found some wireless like the good little computer it is. Called people repeatedly in efforts to up the numbers for attendance for our dinner, ate lunch, and then it was time to find some AIDS-affected children to subject to my questionable mandarin. Walked over to their hotel, and we all headed to Shanghai GM on their bus. Everyone has Chi Heng shirts and hats (including me!) so that's fun. Touring Shanghai GM's plant was kinda cool, although I think my favorite part was getting to share with the random man from Detroit who happened to be on our tour that I have overcome my fear of welding since touring the Ford plant as a child. (The vast number of awkward conversations I have have made me very accustomed to sharing barely-relevant things in an effort to continue to appear friendly.)

Headed back to the hotel after the tour for a bit of relaxation time, which I spent using MORE conveniently-discovered free wireless and then hanging out with the kids. They're ages 12-18, which means they can talk pretty fast and have fairly large vocabularies, but they're super nice and patient with me. I talked to one of the older girls for pretty much the whole bus ride back from GM, and actually got sat down by a bunch of the boys to be interrogated about the U.S. while drinking the tea they made me. Simon called (he'd headed back to the office after the tour) to say he didn't get the things I'd emailed him so could I come to the office and jump drive them? Okay, sure. And then about halfway back to the office, he called to say he'd gotten them, so I headed back to the hotel.

Had dinner with Rose (staff from Beijing...I've talked about her before), some of the staff from where the kids live, and 3 women from Hong Kong who were there to do Art Therapy. (While chilling in the hotel I had had several confusing phone conversations with Agatha before we realized both of us spoke better English than Mandarin. Avon and Veronica are her helpers, probably around my age and really friendly and awesome.)

We headed over to the conference room of the hotel (not actually connected...and right next to where someone was setting off a ton of fireworks) for Art Therapy, which is supposedly a really fancy program for having children deal with their pain through painting and other art, but looked a lot more like Agatha telling the kids what to do and doing it for them when they weren't doing it "right". Luckily, Agatha couldn't be everywhere at once, and I still had a great time. These kids have lost a parent to AIDS, and are probably poorer than almost anyone else I've ever known personally, but there's nothing sad or pitiful about them, at least if you didn't know. They're just normal kids; maybe a little more polite or a little calmer, but that could just be a cultural thing.

Shanghai breezes, soft and gentle

I spent almost all of Monday on the phone, unsure of what language to be speaking and whether or not I should really be calling. (Simon is eager to get rsvps for the dinner, which means I end up calling everyone to ask them if they've gotten invitations by email that clearly say they don't need to rsvp until August 8.) It made me really comfortable calling relatively important strangers, which is good. I also went through Simon's email to find rsvps, and called the people whose emails had bounced back to get corrected addresses. And somehow, that took from 9-6 with a relatively short lunch and about a half-hour of downtime.

The kids get here tomorrow morning, and I think I'll have some flexibility as to how much I am glued to the camp. Tomorrow since they are just settling in and there are things to do at the office, I'll head in as usual in the morning, but hopefully go to tour GM with the kids in the afternoon and then who knows what. I kind of have to play things by ear, which is not my favorite thing in the world, but I can probably do it for five more days.

Made hostel reservations for Qingdao and Beijing, ate dinner, all that fun stuff. Rager had sent me a rough script for our MCing, so I looked up words I didn't know. He ALSO found me a spare keyboard at work, which is what I am now happily typing on.

Ever since I got past the first week or so, I've been about the same level of homesick. Nothing consuming, or that stops me from appreciating where I am or what I'm doing, but enough that I'm kinda happy when I look at my calendar and see how fast the time is going. Interesting to me that it hasn't gotten worse or better significantly.

Shopping in plaid

Sunday had a slow morning in the Wang household and ate, then headed home to get my suitcase mailed, a simple process that required the help of no more than 3 postal workers, 2 bystanders, and 1 call to Amy. Read emails, then met up with Amy and her mom for shopping. China is so cheap that I can’t afford not to spend money…especially since it won’t be that way forever. We had dinner, then went back to the apartment, where Amy lent me an entire ensemble for MCing my dinner event.

It’s easier than texting…

Saturday was a pretty weird day. I started by catching up on my sleep, and woke up rested and healthy-feeling. Unfortunately, the same could not be said (as many of you know) for my computer keyboard. Did some elaborate scheming in efforts to troubleshoot, and have spent a fair amount of time on Dell forums and playing with drivers, but no luck yet. I did find an on-screen keyboard that will certainly do for now.

What frustrated me most was that I needed to buy my ticket to Qingdao, which promised to be a bit of a hassle even if I had been able to type since I couldn’t buy an eticket with a foreign credit card and would probably have to go somewhere to pick it up. Decided to get out of the apartment, and on the way to the grocery store passed…a ticket office for the airline I wanted. Didn’t have enough cash on me, but there was a foreign-friendly ATM… next door. In China, things go wrong, but then they sorta work out.

Bought a smallish suitcase at the grocery store (where else?) and packed my big one to send it to Beijing. Did laundry, aimed my fan directly at my bed, and finished Harry Potter! Went out with Amy and a bunch of her American-school-educated Chinese girlfriends to MAO, where she and I realized once again that we are not American-school-educated Chinese girls. Nice people, though.

Cordiality

Friday was a relatively busy day at work, which unfortunately didn't mean it was relatively un-frustrating. Luckily, we are very close to the end now. Basically, we had to get email invitations out to all of our sponsors, but there seemed to be no time to actually think through how to have me do so, although it was very important that it be done correctly. So it meant asking a lot of questions, making a lot of strong suggestions, and having a lot of patience. Life skills, Ali, life skills.

After work I just took myself to a coffee shop to read and chill. I'm a little under the weather, so no crazy parties tonight. :p

To withstand the world, that's what it takes.

Thursday I was displaced at my office, which happens periodically but doesn't make my happy. I like my desk! Aside from that, I have no complaints about the day. Went out for Indian food with Amy, which was fun. She said we don't stop being friends after China, but also that if I don't finish Harry Potter by Saturday she's telling me what happens. Tough love. Also found out that her uncle designed the two most famous buildings in Shanghai and the international airport. (Found this out because I was talking about the bridge collapse in Minneapolis, and she said her uncle always wanted to design bridges but his company only did buildings, so he made the airport like an upside-down bridge.) So that's cool. Came home and called the parents...sounds like the Cities are a little shaken, understandably, but so far no one knows anyone involved in the collapse. It was actually kind of amazing how many people checked in with me about it, including Katie from the place I interned last year and Holly from the Beijing office of Chi Heng. Apparently I get hired by nice people.

Purple lights in the canyon

Tuesday I had some exciting news at work, which is that I'm going to be one of 2 MCs for our combined closing/opening dinner of camp. (The first session closes on August 11 and the second session opens that day...we'll have 40 kids instead of 20 from about noon until 9pm. Not my idea...) It will be my last day on the job, and I'll do the Mandarin introductions and so on while Rager, the Chinese head of our office, will do the English. Even for someone who doesn't like being in front of people, this should be fun.

After work, went for a wonderful dinner with Phil at Laris, which is on the Bund with a view of the lights of Pudong. We walked around a bit and then hung out at the air-conditioned hostel and watched License to Wed, which has a lot of people I like in it but doesn't go to the top of my most-loved movies. We found out the hostel was being temporarily shut down (I guess some girls got lost getting back and called the police, so the police has decided the hostel is incompetent? Not so sure about the details.) but luckily they were checking out today and so weren't kicked out like some people. It did mean they were requested to leave pretty early today, so I taxied on home.

Some things are lucky.

Monday I had taken off from work to go to Hangzhou with Phil and Matt. We had some fairly impressive miscommunication (or maybe it was just lack of communication?) that ended in me not so much on a train to Hangzhou. The thing about China is that things go wrong but then they kinda work out (I've heard this from several people), and I got a later ticket from the South station. It's the new, shiny station, so that was kind of cool, and I easily killed the time I had by eating lunch. The guys met me at the station in Hangzhou and we headed off to wander through the beautiful area around West Lake. Really nice to be in a really green place and on the water, especially since it was a really warm day. Also, really fun to have companions to comment on stuff and entertain you. There are ferries going between various spots on the shore and two islands in the lake, and we checked out the first before having a delicious and interesting (interesting is good) dinner at a restaurant on the second. Checked out intriguing paths and shiny signs, then all got on the same train home. Did some walking around Xintiandi (I don't know if I really like that place or if I just don't know much else of Shanghai) and then it was time to admit that the long weekend had ended and go home.

Parties of the friends of friends

Friday night, Amy's party was really fun; we started at Jade on 36 at the Shangri-la, which was super sweet and had an amazing view. Felt very classy. Went from there to Mural, where Alaster had reserved us a table where we could just sit and chat, which was low-key and fun. Moved on then to Attica for dancing. Amy and I stayed with Iris (I've mentioned her before, right?) since her apartment was most convenient and she was nice enough to offer. Slept in and talked to Amy for like 3 hours, then the 3 of us went to Element Fresh for lunch.

It was then time to head home for a shower and then to the hostel where Phil and Matt were staying. Hung out there for a bit, then met Amy, Iris, and Ben for a Shanghainese dinner. It continues to amaze me how easy it is to put good-natured, smart people together and have a good time, even if they are all connected in a pretty convoluted way. (For example, Iris and Ben are friends of the college friend of the high school friend of the college friend of the high school friend of Matt.) Some of us then headed to Malone's to watch an amusing cover band and to the Bund to realize that they turn off the lights there and in Pudong really early.

Sunday I met Phil at the hostel and we headed to Nanjing Lu while Matt found some Chinese teachers to hang out with. We did some wandering, ate some lunch, checked out such fabulous places as Comic World (not full of comics) and visited the Urban Planning and Development Exhibition Hall, which is still cool, although we would have some suggestions for its improvement. Relaxed a bit in the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf while skillfully avoiding the rainstorm, then back to the hostel to look at some travel photos before going to dinner with Matt. Went to a really good place serving Yunnan food, and decided to give in to the powerful attraction of karaoke.

Happy Birthday Amy!

Friday work was kinda like Thursday. Made a final list of addresses of locations for activities and contact information; made a last-minute replacement for an activity when one place fell through, and that kind of fun. After work I got myself some dinner and read Harry Potter...I realize I read slowly because I have a compulsion to read every word and will make myself go back if I get too wrapped up in things and start skipping. This is not how I read for school. Got ready just now to head out for Amy's birthday, which is in a place in Pudong that's supposed to have a fantastic view, so I'm excited. Sorry, not bringing the camera.

My friend Phil from Swarthmore and his friend Matt are coming tomorrow; it's their last stop on a 2-month world tour, and I'm really excited! They'll be here for 5ish days, and I expect to be fairly busy, but I don't expect to totally disappear. Just didn't want you to worry if I didn't post at my normal times.

A really nice day

Thursday enough little things went right that it made for a really nice day. Worked on some stuff for summer camps that really made it seem like they're really happening soon (which they are...about a week and a half). After work I went to the train station to buy tickets to go to Hangzhou with Phil and Matt on Monday, which was surprisingly easy despite some difficulty getting from the subway to the ticket counter. Found a shortcut on the way back, through the wholesale eyeglasses market, which is really something; small store after small store of eyeglasses.

Went from there to the place near my get-home-from-yoga bus stop that sells ipod shuffles and bought myself a beautiful, adorable, blue one. It's love, I'm positive. Setting it up now. Went from there to Starbucks for a lovely dinner and red bean scone. (It counts as a Chinese experience if I order in mandarin and buy something with red bean.) Watched some Grey's, read some Harry (although not enough...it's actually too tense for me to relax with), and came home.

We're like the U.N., if the U.N. discussed Youtube

Today was notably hot and humid, but things were comfy as always inside the office. After work I was meeting Amy for dinner, which turned into meeting Amy and Stacy and Michael and Alaster and Ben for dinner. It's cool, though, because I like these people. It was really fun to have a sorta big dinner and then go out for dessert; more because it reminded me what it was like to be with a group of friends than anything else, but if I was going to hang out with a group of strangers I had very little in common with, I guess I'd choose this bunch. Let one bus pass me because it would have been impossible to board, but took the next, and here I am.

A change would do me good

Tuesday I went to work, went to yoga, and came home. I have to admit, I'm getting a little tired of some aspects of my daily life, like the long, uncomfortable bus rides carrying lots of stuff and the bug-filled, hot room that I come back to at night. I know it won't be long at all until these things and I say our bittersweet goodbyes, though.

Was this someone else's day?

Every time I realize I'm blogging about a Monday again, it catches me by surprise how recent the last one was. Today was pretty quiet at work. Realized I hadn't brought my earbuds (because of the whole no-ipod thing) so I couldn't watch tv during dinner, but I found some English-language magazines to entertain me. Went to yoga, which ended up being taught not by the person on the printed schedule but by the girl from last week who says "right" when she means "left," but it was still a worthwhile class. Took the bus home and here I am, wishing I could read and relax but knowing I should just rest up so I'm a happy person tomorrow.

Harry Potter and the Cafes of Shanghai

Sunday I slept in a bit and headed out for my ambitious day of reading Harry Potter in enough different cafes to keep from being hungry or obnoxious.

Started at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf for brunch, then headed over to Huaihai Lu for a quick break in my mission...the post office. I wanted to be sure I could ship my big suitcase to Beijing, and that it would take a reasonable amount of time. Seems like that should be fine. I keep forgetting to mention it, but my plan is to stay here through the close of the first session of camp on August 11, have a day to pack and say goodbyes, then take a plane on Monday to Qingdao. There are no fast trains there so it would've taken 18 hours, which just doesn't appeal to me that much. I'll have a few days to see the sites of Qingdao, then take an overnight train for a measly 9 hours to Beijing. (There are faster trains, but they're not overnight.) I hope to be reunited there with both my suitcase and its kind recipient, Lizzie from Swarthmore. She's offered to not only receive my suitcase but also let me sleep on her floor, but especially since she'll be at the end of her program (which I assume means exams) I think I'll keep some of my stuff with her but stay at the hostel that Abby Mayer has highly recommended. Sounds like a pretty decent plan, no? And only about 40 billion ways it could go wrong.

Back to what's important, I finally found the Vienna Cafe, which is super cute but unfortunately not that convenient. Had some plum cake there and did more reading. Went to a good yoga class, which was the full-length Hot class. I like this instructor too...she says almost everything in both languages, which means it's good practice for me without being stressful. I'm going to get back to States and wonder why people aren't treating me differently and smiling extra big at me, though. As excited as I am to be able to just blend in sometimes.

Did some dinnering and more reading at Figaro, and took the bus home. This bus said the right number, but it had a couple characters I didn't know after it, and after doing the entire rest of the route the same, it got to a place I didn't recognize and was like "last stop." Um, okay. Luckily, after a brief look around, I discovered I was actually closer to home than my normal stop, although completely on the other side. Interesting.

And after that day almost entirely structured around reading, I'm still not very far. I guess I'm not really committed to blasting through it...I'd rather really follow what's going on and savor it a bit more. Does prolong the time no one can talk to me about it, though. (It's worth noting that at least 2 waitresses have taken interested in it and wanted to know where I bought it.)

Photos: Yuyuan, etc.

This clutter of photos should be pretty self-explanatory. I was surprised that, while they don't have Dairy Queen in NY, they do have it in Shanghai. And this may not be the most wonderful picture of Amy ever taken, but it's the only one ever taken by me, so it'll have to do.

Being delicate and fashionable

Just talked to Amy and she echoes my feeling of general exhaustion, which means I'm not going out tonight and can give you a timely Saturday entry.

Woke up late enough to have gotten enough sleep, and had a lovely surprise Skype with the parents. Joanna called them in the middle of it, and it was almost like we weren't in three different time zones.

Headed out a little before noon and got on my favorite bus. Looked at my map to see what stop I wanted to get off at, and noticed that it just happened to be the one by the foreign language bookstore. By 12:30, I had a copy of the UK Adult version of Harry Potter, and was surprised by how happy it made me just to have it. Bought some energy water to save me from certain heat stroke, then walked to Yu Yuan (Yuan means garden.) I really enjoyed it...it was full of cool doorways and bridges. I resisted the urge to find an Euler path, and just wandered around until the heat wore me down.

Stopped in Starbucks for some iced latte and some Harry Potter, then successfully found Amy and mother at the tailor. I keep forgetting to post this, but they have the best sign: "Being delicate and fashionable is our persistent style." Picked up my two dress shirts and my beautiful coat, and did some more shopping with Amy after stopping at McDonald's so she could have her first hamburger in 3 years. Before we knew it she was late for her dinner, so I headed off to get some of my own at a cafe-type place. Walked to the metro and took it to Nanjing Lu since I had seen some places selling contact solution there. Bought that and wandered, then headed home, taking cover under multiple awnings when a thunderstorm decided to take place.

Photos from today in separate entry.

Ali's guide to a fun Friday night

Friday during the day was uneventful, and the evening was all too eventful.

Went from work to dinner, from dinner to yoga. It was the same instructor as Wednesday, the one I had for my first hot yoga class and who likes me, so (this isn't going to make sense to some of you and it will make perfect sense to others) I was a little bit dreading her realizing I was in her class yet again. And then she was in the hallway when I came in. And THEN we ended up waiting outside the classroom at the same time, so we chatted. (She's really nice...from Thailand, used to live in New York, just moved into a new apartment and can't wait for her boyfriend to visit so they can go to IKEA.) And then I find out I'm the only person signed up for the class. Sweet. I mean, I know it actually was, and it was good to get some personal attention (good for my concentration too) but not normally the kind of thing I would seek out. Good overall, though.

Took myself out for dessert, then started walking towards the bus stop when my ipod was stolen. I almost hate to tell you guys about it, because just like I feel like everything good that happens here gets magnified when I share it with all of you, I think the bad things do too. I just feel so stupid; I don't try to be the naive tourist who is an obvious target for theft. Really, I don't. But I guess I let down my guard...was listening and crossing the street, with the ipod in the outer, velcro pouch of my computer case. By the time I got across I realized the music had stopped and found the ipod missing, but it took me crossing back over and hearing from the people who were sitting around that two girls had run off with it to actually convince me I'd been robbed. They were pointing enthusiastically so I ran in that direction for a bit, but it was obviously fruitless. Although I knew it would be just as pointless, I called the police at the suggestion of these bystanders, and a couple of officers came on their motorcycles. They did a quick sweep of the area, but there was pretty clearly nothing to be done.

One officer took me to the police station on his motorcycle, and I spent longer than I would have liked there waiting in line and answering questions in Chinglish. The whole thing would have been a lot harder if I hadn't convinced them I could understand mandarin, I think...they walked me through the report they'd written up, and I was able to understand it enough to state that I could read it and it was the truth. My intuition in times like these is to look distressed and assume people will be more helpful, but that wasn't kicking in. I just went through the motions. Took a taxi home.

It really is just the principle of the thing. Yes, it's a valuable item that I really love, and I would feel less stupid if they'd only stolen, like, my sunglasses, but it could have been something a lot harder to replace...like my wallet, or passport, or even my phone would have been worse I think. It won't kill me to hear a little bit more of the sounds of the city for my last few weeks here...I could easily buy a new ipod or mp3 player, but I'm really hesitant to jump into that.

I just wonder why it is that it is impossible for us to learn some things simply by being told...I mean, this isn't some deep lesson about the ways of the world, it's just BE CAREFUL WITH YOUR VALUABLES. I'm a smart girl. Why couldn't I have listened a little better? I hope for every time I do something stupid like this I do 10 generally intelligent things. At least.

Ay ay ay. Life lessons in China. That's what it's all about.

Pictures

I finally loaded photos from last weekend onto my computer, so here are a few. Sorry they so infrequently come with a day's entry...

So, the old faded one is a picture of a picture of how Nanjing Road (what is now a pedestrian street of shopping) used to look, and I posted one of what it looks like now for comparison. Cool, right?

Below we've got Jin Mao tower (with some ugly, but impressive construction in the back of it) and the Oriental Pearl. Right when I was leaving Oriental Pearl, the lights came on everywhere, and the sky was all dusky and the temperature had cooled down and there were a lot of people just hanging out at the base...it was neat.

I'll get the rest posted and labeled on the site soon.

We can't take the heat

My computer just went on the blink again (with yet another new error message) but I think it's just overheating, which means what I'm going to do now is turn it off and let it cool down. Wanted to let you know not to worry and that I'll blog for real tomorrow from my air conditioned office.

Where are all the heretics?

Blogger, genius that it is, saved the entry I was writing last night when my computer got heat stroke. Here it is:

The high point of Thursday was probably when "L.O.V.E." by Ashlee Simpson (not to be confused with Nat King Cole's "L-O-V-E") came on the radio on the bus. Apparently completely ridiculous songs are popular the world over.

Today at work I was pretty busy, which was nice. Went to check out a possible restaurant venue for our big dinner that all the local sponsors are invited to. It's in this cool old warehouse that's now an art gallery (of course) and the restaurant. They call it Suhe, which is short for Suzhou He (Suzhou river, which it's on) but also intentionally sounds like Soho. Or so I am told. It reminded me a lot of the MN Opera Center, actually, which made me nostaglic.

Ate near work and then came home so I would have time to do laundry. Watched some Grey's, but there seems to be a shift of styles and it's getting really intense now. Might have to switch to something more calming...like Lost. :P

Oh! I should explain better about yoga while I remember. They have classes starting every half-hour or so, which means there are about 4 classes I could make each weekday after work. They have Flow classes of various levels, Hot Yoga and the shortened version Hot Hour, and some other options that generally require a background of 5 Flow 1 classes. Some classes are in Chinese and some are in English, so it tends to be pretty clear what the best class is for me on a given day. Hot yoga is in a heated room, which supposedly makes the experience more effective and safer by heating your muscles, and releasing toxins.

Oh, and don't worry, the city is air conditioned pretty well, it's just that once you put too many people on a bus it sort of loses its effect.

Namaste

Wednesday I went to work, dinner, and yoga. All three were good, especially the last two. Same instructor as my first hot yoga class- she's tough, but she likes me, so that's perfect. Getting home was less good, since I was pretty tired by then, and the very crowded bus ride resembled hot yoga a little bit more than I would have liked. Somehow I can't take an 8:30 class and get home before 11:15, which is pretty rough, but doable. As long as I go straight to sleep when I get home, that is...

Probably didn't fool her.

Tuesday I had a pretty average day of work, followed by a pretty good yoga class. It was an English class, but as with yesterday, both the instructor and some of the students were Chinese, so a fair amount of Mandarin got thrown in there as well. I had a much better class overall, partially because this instructor always got "right" and "left" correct. Discovered that the little cafe adjacent to the center is not as expensive as I had expected, so that's really convenient. Also, responded to a Caucasian woman who spoke to me in English in Mandarin...which I'm sure was obnoxious, but it was also unintentional, which is kind of cool. And now I'm home! Told Damin that one of my closet doors had fallen off one of its hinges (pretty exciting stuff) and he says he'll fix it next weekend. And that's my life!

Routine

Pretty tired, so this is going to be short.

Computer has worked fine all day. Can see the light at the end of the PR-sorting tunnel, and probably found the right hotel for our kids. Lunch was tasty, but I don't know what it was. (This happens more often than I expected.)

Had dinner and went to yoga, which was a slightly inferior Flow 1 class to the one I had last week. Not a bad time, though! Got really close to falling asleep on the bus home, which luckily wasn't a problem since my stop is the terminal station. I always see the same (I think) small orange and white kitten on my way home from that bus stop. It's really cute, and I always feel really sorry for it. Now it's time for sleep.

"Cavorting with the natives."

Amy thinks "I thought that was a trash can but it is actually a bicycle" (a me quote) would be a better title. I think her quote is more appropriate, at least in length.

Sunday I headed off to Amy's apartment, which required two buses and a subway, but was a pleasant trip. Got there and found she was talking to Mary, so I took over and got to talk to her for a while while Amy got ready to go. We went to a place that did seem like it could fix computers, but mine wasn't kind enough to demonstrate its little freezing-and-claiming-hard-drive-failure act for us, and the guy said there wasn't much he could do with an English-language computer anyway. He did mention that, since it works sometimes, it's probably not a hardware problem. Amy thought up the idea to do the thing where you send it into the past (this has a name, I just can never remember it) and got that going while I talked to a fellow intern of hers who had called her wanting to know about IB.

Had a yummy lunch at a Korean place, then went back to the apartment. My computer seemed to be working fine, so we headed to the tailor. My original shirt still didn't fit, so they retook measurements, which apparently they had done a horrible job with before. The skirt they made based on the one I brought in was great, though. Decided for sure on the coat I want (it's pretty classic pea coat...looked a lot of cute ones that I would be able to wear for fewer occasions, but decided this was better) and spent some more time looking around, etc.

Went from there with Amy and her mother to Shanghai Old Street, which has a bunch of little cheap stores on it, and bought some headscarves and some rubber pigs that squish. (They are better seen than described.) From there we went to a really good hot pot dinner, joined by Amy's dad. When we got back to the apartment, my computer still hadn't crashed...I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but I doubt the adventure is totally over. Perused facebook together for a while, which was the kind of relaxing, time-wasting activity that made me miss my friends from home and Swat. (I guess your friends are the people you want to be with when you're just wasting time...)

Well...it's cause I am.

If this post is actually posted, it means my computer was functional for long enough for me to write it, so that's exciting. I had it turned off all day and plan to take it in tomorrow with Amy (bless her heart) to have it looked at. When I turned it on tonight it gave me the "Windows has recovered from a serious error" message, which I hadn't gotten before, so I guess it's possible is has recovered, although I'm certainly not ready to count my chickens.

Friday was a really great day until about 1am when my computer freaked out. At work I did a lot of searching for accommodations for the kids, calling 20-some hotels to ask if they had activity/conference rooms and what the rate was. After work I hung out at Figaro, a coffee shop/cafe near yoga that I really, really like. It has some character. :) Watched an episode of Grey's, then went to Hot Hour, which is the hour-long version of the Hot Yoga class. I had a really good experience from start to finish. They have a lot of seating outside of the studio area so you can rest and cool down, and there I met Heidi from Mexico and talked to her about living here as an expat. Showered (the showers are so much nicer than the one here in the apartment...) and headed home very relaxed and tired and content. It was Sarah's last night in town (which I hadn't known until today) and so I told her I would go out with her and her friends, but got a text from her saying she really just needed to pack. Sad we didn't get to see more of each-other, but I told her I'd visit her in HK sometime. So, I chilled at home until my computer went on the blink and I flipped out for a bit and then decided I couldn't deal with it until the morning.

Didn't sleep that well Friday night thanks to the computer worries, but once I let myself get up Saturday morning I started to get some perspective. Got the computer to work long enough to email myself work-related documents and make sure my backup program was working and run it again. Talked to Amy, and went to eat some late breakfast before yoga. It was another Hot Hour, and another great class, although I could tell my concentration wasn't quite what it had been previously. Ate a delicious sandwich at Figaro while reading one of their magazines. Also, they have a free book exchange! I'll have to bring the book that made me cry, and check out the selection more.

Went home from Figaro because I had brought my computer around with me (hadn't heard from Amy when I left the house, so I wasn't sure when I'd end up wanting it) and then headed out to the Oriental Pearl Tower. Ascended the tower, which is something I'm glad I did, but wasn't amazing. More impressive was the big exhibit/museum they have on the history of Shanghai...will post pictures on my site eventually. Went from there to a late dinner at a Greek place I'd read about, buying a dress on the way between the subway station and the restaurant. (These things happen. Especially with too many enthusiastic salesladies. However, they made sure I knew how good a price they were giving me...so it was clearly a good purchase!) And honestly, that's all I did today. Spent a lot of time in transit, and just relaxing and looking around, trying to absorb the city. Early Saturday night- Amy can't go out and I'd be too tired to anyway!

computer problems

Hi Everyone,

My computer kept crashing last night, and I don't know if it's going to keep working today or not. Will probably try to get it looked at but too tired to make any decisions yet. Hard drive failures. I'm hoping for the best, but if you don't hear from me for a while, it's because I am computerless...

The adventure continues.

Love,
Ali

Her eyes are too wide for a city girl

Goodness, I completely forgot to blog last night. Please forgive me for that; I promise not to make it a habit. (It was sad to awaken to not a single comment-notification email!)

Thursday I did a lot of sorting of papers at work, and made some phone calls. The papers I'm sorting, as I think I mentioned, are press clippings, and they're pretty interesting to look at. I become more and more aware that this organization is really doing more than it should be able to, given how small it is. I think there's a figure of speech that I want to use here, but I can't figure out what it is. It should be something like "its reach is further than its arm span," but actually...something people say. Anyone know?

After work I went to Xintiandi, ate a sandwich, and went to yoga. I had a really good class- just the right level, not too many people, so the instructor could come around and correct things. Took a refreshing shower and signed up for a month of membership; it wouldn't make any sense to pay by class, but I will have to make sure to go a lot to make it worth it. I really want to, though...it's not like I can do a lot of site-seeing at night after work anyway, and it's definitely the kind of thing I want to do regularly while I have the time. Took the bus home and slept very well.

How good it can be

Tuesday I had a pretty typical day at work, except we went out to lunch instead of ordering box lunches, which was a nice change. Afterwards I went to this vegetarian place that was supposed to be good; it wasn't amazing, but not bad. Decided to follow that up with some chocolate cake at Cafe Transat, since I haven't gotten a good dose of chocolate since I've gotten here. Enjoyed an episode of Grey's in the open air seating. Paid the bill and had the following conversation with the waitress (in Mandarin, of course):

Me: Do you take foreign visa?
Her: How embarrassing, no. Are you a foreigner?
Me: Um, yes.
Her: What country are you from?
Me: America.
Her: Oh...America. American girls are very pretty!
Me: Thanks!

And they don't even tip in China!

Afterwards, I went to check out the Y+ Yoga Center. Got a tour from a very nice woman who spoke very slowly so I could understand everything, and signed up for a Flow 1 class tomorrow. (It's in English, although they have classes in each language.) I'm pretty excited...we'll see how it goes. All the places I went are in Xintiandi, which is right near a subway stop that's 2 stops away from work on the same line.

Took the bus home and took note of the stop that's actually closer to the yoga place. Also was shocked to see another clear foreigner on the bus! I think she was equally surprised to see me.

Cities make good friends

I'm trying to figure out what interesting thoughts I had Tuesday, because I didn't do very many interesting things. I did a lot of filing and typing at work, and ordered copies of the articles about last weekend's events. Also found out that XinTianDi is better translated as "New Heaven and Earth," which I'm humbly correcting for your better edification, or something.

Went to the magical cash machine that likes foreigners, then went to a magical coffee shop that also does. If I were wearing more comfortable shoes, I could have occupied myself for quite a while weighing all my options for dinner. Maybe tomorrow. For tonight, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf worked quite well.

Back in March when I was talking to Martha about not knowing what to do with my summer, she made some sort of comment about New York being a great place to just do things by oneself. I told her I thought I'd enjoy that, and pointed out that China would be too. And I think it really hit me Sunday night how true that is. The city is fascinating, and it's safe at all hours, and no one is making me be anywhere at any time aside from work. I miss people from home and enjoy my few friends here, but I haven't actually felt lonely since my first few days. And I do think I have a particularly large appreciation of independence. The feeling I get from doing things here is the same one I have when I'm in an airport by myself, and is probably the same as the one I had walking to the library alone when I was younger. I really need people in my life, but I like having a better handle on where exactly that need extends to.

And now I know how to say "papaya"

Monday was pretty busy at work, with some questionable English to look at with regards to yesterday's event and a lot of old news clippings to catalog at Holly's suggestion.

Somehow missed the early bus home and had a wait a bit, but the weather was actually tolerable today, so that wasn't so bad. Until the other half of my earbuds went out. But then I got a seat, and all was well again. Turned around upon reaching home and went to Fudan Strolling Street for dinner and "shopping"...got new earbuds, Lost, and The OC. (So now Joanna should be happy with me, Judy should be approximately 1 more season's worth of happy with than disappointed in me, and Farah hopefully thinks my new Grey's addiction balances out my lack of Gilmore Girls-purchasing.) I bargain for as long as it's fun for me, but I'm not that stubborn because I generally want to get on with my life, purchase in hand, more than I want to pay 20 cents less. Now I'm just enjoying chilling around home, since I didn't get my normal dose of that on Sunday.

Another weekend whizzes by

Saturday I made myself take a slow morning, which was fairly successful. The extra sleep it awarded me seemed to kick my cold, at least. Headed out around noon to the Jade Buddha Temple. Looked like a pretty easy walk from the train station, so I took the bus there and easily found a road that turned into a bridge, clearly indicating that it was the one that would take me across the river. I walked across the entire thing before realizing the street names didn't match up and I had just crossed railroad tracks, not a river.

Backtracked and found the right road and a thunderstorm. Did a combination of cowering under awnings and getting wet, and made it to the temple. It was actually a lot cooler than the other ones I'd been to...more to see, a more harmonious feel. There were a mix of Chinese and foreigners, but some of each were there to be tourists and some of each were there to worship. I may or may not have latched onto a group of American high school students and listened to their tour guide discuss the two particularly awesome Buddhas. (No photos allowed, sorry!) By then, the rain was on and off, but there was still thunder, which added a really cool effect to the hush of the temple.

Left the temple and stopped in a cheap place for lunch while it began to pour again, then willed a taxi to appear out of the mist and took it to Pudong. Paid a visit to the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium, which was really cool. Haven't been to an aquarium since the last time I went to the Shedd, which was at least a few years ago. Lots of cool and creepy animals, including the world's longest, like, tube where you ride through and are surrounded by ocean life. I also saw some penguins, which I had failed to do at the Minnesota Zoo, despite being advised to do so by multiple friends. (I don't think we have any...)

Went from there to the Jing'an Si metro stop where I was meeting Amy for dinner. Had some time to kill, so passed up the chance to check out "Email Fashion Plaza" and instead saw the Children's Palace, which is a kinda cool mansion from 1918 now used for all sorts of children's singing classes and things like that. Amy and I then went out of Japanese food, which was really good, and got a cream puff on the way out. Stopped at her apartment, then met up with some of her (our?) friends at O'Malleys. Went from their to Air, and from there to Attica, and from there back to Amy's.

Sunday we had a lazy morning and then I headed home. Made myself presentable and then went to meet up with the Chi Heng people at Pizza Express, by invitation from Chung To, our founder and chair. (He's also kind of a big deal in the AIDS-fighting world.) Got there early, so stopped in at the site of the First National Congress of the Communist Party. Not terribly exciting, but air conditioned and free. Did some eating and chatting at Pizza Express with Chung, Simon, Rose, Holly, and some volunteer-y people. They had come from the Big Event, which was a instance of Basketball without Boarders...Yao Ming, Scottie Pippen, and a few other NBA (or former NBA) players hung out with and played basketball with kids from Chi Heng and a couple of other organizations. Cool, right?? The staff were all pretty exhausted by the time I joined up with them, but it was great to get to talk to them all more. Holly is '02 from BU, and interned with Chi Heng a couple of years ago before becoming staff in Beijing. It was really nice to talk to her about the organization and being an expat.

Spent the evening on Huaihai Lu, doing some shopping and general looking around.

Cute children and zebras

Today I met both Rose and Holly from the Beijing office, as they have come down for this weekend's event. It was great to meet them both since we've had a fair amount of email and phone contact. I also got the chance to meet and hang out a bit with three of the children who are here for the event. They are as cute as can be, and we had a fun time exploring Google Earth together. It's amazing how different everything becomes once the children you have been talking about are actually there in front of you.

If it hadn't been for all the visitors, today might have been kind of rough at work, since I'm definitely a bit under the weather. A common cold in feels-like-109-degree weather doesn't seem fair.

After work, I was going to take a taxi to the theater I wanted to go to (Shanghai Majestic Theatre), but realized after walking towards it for 20 minutes trying to find a cab that I was already halfway there. Walked the rest of the way and was helped by a very nice woman who first told me they were sold out and then found the person who was selling tickets. Bought a bubble tea and enjoyed the show a lot... Original Dance Drama "Wild Zebra" by Shanghai Oriental City Dancing Troupe. I think it might have been the only performance, and there was a lot of excitement in the theater, which was filled almost exclusively by Chinese people. It was a dance piece where all the dancers looked and moved like animals, and there was a live orchestra; kind of The Lion King meets Fantasia. I had to take the promotional pictures from the site to post here and show you. Definitely a special experience.

Walked from the theater to Citizen Cafe, where I enjoyed some pesto penne and their wireless. Not the best pasta ever, but not the worst, and it was a really nice change. Took a cab home, and am now ready to sleeeeeep.

Now I want pizza.

Thursday at work I worked on a translation for a super-secret event I can't tell you about. I also can't attend it, which makes me sad, but I understand having to limit the number of people. I'll be able to tell you about it after it happen on Saturday. Had mushrooms in my box lunch. Yum!

I also went to Pizza Express, which is actually a nice pizza restaurant in XinTianDi. We met with the manager and discussed the possibility of having the kids come make pizzas there, which I guess it something they did last year. They didn't actually like the pizzas because they were so different from what they were accustomed to, but I guess they enjoyed making them.

Went to dinner with Damin, which was mediocre food but good conversation, defined by the fact that he said my listening ability has improved a lot. Not convinced personally, but great to get the encouragement.

Only other news is that I think I have the beginnings of a cold, and that one of my earbuds isn't working. Good thing there are 200 pairs of earbuds for sale near Fudan Strolling Street...

We believe that you are in China.

So says the message on Pandora explaining to me that the site cannot be used from outside of the U.S.

This morning I skyped with the whole family, since my sister was home and I could actually catch them all at once. What a fabulous program.

Perhaps the most exciting part of my workday was talking to Holly, the person who hired me. She called at one of the many points during the day when I was for some reason the only one in the office. While I have some training as a receptionist, none of it is in Chinese, so these times are always exciting. Holly seemed happy with me, though.

After work, as I was in semi-desperate need of cash, I headed to Nanjing Lu, one of the few places I have found ATMs willing to accept my Visa from another country. Still took me a long time to find one, and a longer time to find my way to the nearest bus (how do such intelligent people get so lost so often?), but I made it.

I will miss this

Tuesday I got a text from Simon saying he had a fever and would be late. Too bad, but kind of exciting to get a text in Chinese. I spent part of my day doing online Excel tutorials, since last summer and this summer have convinced me of the marketability of Excel skills. I've also started downloading podcasts, some on China, some Chinese language, and the one from A Series of Tubes (my sister's boyfriend's podcast) about some online to do list.

Damin wasn't around when I got home, so I headed back to Fudan Strolling Street for a 40-cent dinner and another 50-cent fresh fruit smoothy. It's a 25-minute walk, so I think I'll probably be back quite a lot. Refused to buy the 7 seasons of Gilmore Girls and 3 seasons of Lost that I was looking at, since together they would've cost me $8...clearly a rip-off. (If any of you want DVDs and are willing to risk them having weird menus, Chinese subtitles, and possibly some slight quality issues...let me know your requests and I'll see what I can do.)

Still thinking

The book was Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult. I enjoyed it, but wouldn't necessarily recommend it...it's not really anything too special. I cry at the end of novels fairly frequently, especially if I'm tired to begin with. It's weird, because I often don't cry at normally tear-jerking events...last day of high school didn't get me, but you should've seen me at A Beautiful Mind. :)

Monday was a Monday. Hit the hay so early Sunday that I even got up a little early this morning. I thought that might reward me with a less-crowded bus, but no such luck. At least it was a bit cooler today...the rain was actually refreshing! Did some budget work and web-searched for some details, had a box lunch, etc. Came home and Damin appeared to be sleeping...when he still hadn't emerged I decided to feed myself. There appears to be no pattern these days as to when he will expect me to be completely independent and when he will be extremely surprised if I've eaten without him. I'm learning to roll with it, though.

I did some more thinking about my traveling at the end of my summer. I'd like to spend most of my time being places instead of just in transit, especially since I won't have much time at all. Right now I'm thinking about just stopping in either Qingdao (they have beaches and charm, not just beer) or Xi'an (terracotta soldiers) on my way to Beijing. We'll see how this plan develops over the next month, but I'm excited.

Bring me clothing, bring me joy

To finish up Suzhou: As you know, a lot about Saturday was great, but a lot of it was pretty miserable too. I came home that night really tired and sweaty, a little bit sunburned, and pretty seriously mosquito-bitten. And not my cleanest. Then I realized something: I wasn't at camp, and I wasn't on a mission trip, and if I wanted to, I could just go home early. All I'd be missing would be some gardens I hadn't seen yet and one climbable pagoda. Slept pretty well on a really hard bed in a room I was sharing with two Chinese girl, then got up early and went straight to the train station. It was a good choice; there was very little chance of me enjoying those gardens and that pagoda as much as I ended up enjoying my Sunday the way it worked out.

Stood in a really long line to get a standing-room-only ticket for a not-that-soon train, but at least now I know to buy tickets in advance. Finished my book, which made me cry, which is just my favorite thing to do in the midst of a bunch of strangers. Got home all right, then changed clothes and turned right around to go to the tailor to meet Amy and Iris and spend, like, 2 and a half hours there. The shirt I ordered last week looks really great but needs some minor adjustments. Bought fabric and ordered another copy of the brown skirt that I bought at Saver's to be made from it. Then spend a while trying on coats to see which style I want my $65 cashmere coat to be. Lots of tempting choices; we shall see.

Got home from the tailor and unpacked, then walked to E-mart (the supermarket) mostly because it's a good destination for a walk. Also bought some banana chips. Came home and just relaxed.