A city of strangers

Today, blogspot seems to be working for me! Yesterday, I was also unable to get to Xanga or Wikipedia, and was pretty sure they were censored...Joanna had the same idea. But somehow, today I have blogspot! And in Chinese, no less. I'm having fun trying to guess, mostly based on button color, which one is "post" and which one is "delete." Oh, wait, that one just went grey...I guess it was "save" and it just autosaved. I've spent about a fourth of my education of the past 6 years on this language...glad it's finally serving me.

First, promised pictures of my room:


It's my door! It slides out. Isn't it pretty?

My bear. I have to remember to ask what its name is...

I found a good place to hang my earrings!

My desk. Yes, those are Pikachu (sp?) curtains.

Closet area

My bed, and the animals who watch over me.

So, first day in Shanghai. It was everything it was supposed to be - completely overwhelming, exhausting, and amazing. Although it's hard to notice how amazing it is when you are so overwhelmed and no one else understands that its REALLY COOL that the holographic movie ads in the subway actually look 3D. That is one big difference I have noticed between this trip and my previous international "solo" trips to Spain and Chile - In those places, I had people around who knew the U.S. enough that my comments and comparisons would make sense. Here, no one is looking at things through the same context that I am. I did get to feeling pretty lonely at points throughout the day, but I imagine they will get less and less as time goes on.

Friday morning I spent reading stories from a magazine/book that Damin loaned me, which has short, entertaining stories in English above and Chinese below. We then walked to a gigantic market/store thing that was like 6 stories of different stores - but not like a mall, more like the different areas of an IKEA. There was a grocery store on the first floor, but we headed to the 4th floor, where all the electronics were. Stopped and had them look at my laptop and power cord, where the guy behind the counter helped us realize the problem was actually Damin's, like, multi-plug thing. The guy also let us know we couldn't buy a new card for my phone and have it work in China. Then he went to lunch with us - I guess he was a friend of Damin's. Anyway, lunch was pretty good although I didn't love all the flavors. but the frog legs were good. Damin offered that we could go for pizza, but I'm being stubborn about not shying away from zhongcan (Chinese food). The name for 7up here actually means, like, "7 like". It rhymes, it's cute.

Damin had more work to do at home, and since I am incapable of getting myself anywhere yet, I hung out at the apartment for another hour or so. That was frustrating, because my favorite part about traveling is being able to get places on my own, and I'm just not there yet. Then again, it was my first day.

Things looked up very quickly as we took a thrilling bus ride (thrilling. really.) into the center of the city. I was watching the tv in the bus (they have lcd screens playing news and/or ads on buses, subways, everywhere) and all the cute cartoony ads with bubble characters and trying to understand stuff, and realized that seeing that sort of thing at home would be really exciting for me. And now it is what I'm surrounded by.

We walked around the center of the city a lot, and while I was still pretty overwhelmed and couldn't tell where I was or most of what Damin was saying, I definitely caught some interesting tidbits and enjoyed everything I saw. We started off in People's Park, which is just gorgeous, and totally calm. 10 feet into any park, and the buzz of the city was gone - very New York. :) And the city was a lot like New York, in how busy it was...the subways, even busier. But things aren't as grid-like, so it has a very different feel to me. Also, (virtually) everyone's Chinese.

So, we walked through parks and past a lot of stores, including like an upscale version of the market place we had gone earlier that day - I don't know if it was one store with a billion departments (and a service person at each) or a lot of stores put together. We then took the subway to the Nanjing Rd. stop, and I can't remember what we did there (did I mention I was overwhelmed), but then we subway-ed again to Lujiazui, which is where the tall building with the round sections on it it. I think that building might be the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. We walked down to the Huangpu River and looked out at the Bund (all the colonial, European-looking buildings) from there. Unfortunately, it was super foggy (and rainy and wet) yesterday, so I didn't take pictures and figured I'd be back to see it all when I could actually...see it all.

We went from there to the Century Avenue stop (I think) and met his tutor (like...the guy who taught him how to be a lawyer, I guess) and his wife and daughter. They were all fabulous, friendly, fun people. They were happy I was from Minnesota, since they knew the Timberwolves. Also, their daughter was 18 months and adorable beyond belief. Dinner was amazing, and included these like bone things that contained liquid you drank through a straw before eating the meat on the outside...I tried not to think about it. The thing about being a guest is I always have to take everything first, and eat the last of everything. I try to take small portions, which I only sometimes get away with. Also, it's a lot of pressure to take things first and have to guess if they are chopstick or spoon foods, and if they should go on the plate or in the bowl. I shall learn.

By the end of dinner, at like 8, I was tired in a serious way from jetlag. Damin's tutor and family gave us a ride home, and along the way drove down to the Bund, which was just gorgeous and lit up. I wish I could have been more awake for more of the ride, but I was seriously exhausted. Came home and slept.