Shanghai Livin'

Today dad and I spent the day sightseeing and shopping. We went to a Taoist temple, and later to one of the many little markets. I found a ton of cheap, cute stationary and stickers, yay! Later we went to the fabric district, which one of my friends recommended to me. I ordered three formal work-shirts to be tailor-made for me. Each shirt costs only $15 USD and I got to choose the cloth and the style from a fashion magazine. They will be done in a week, and I am very excited to have some tailor-made clothes!

News from the past week:
- I've gone out to the bars twice, and managed to make some tentative friends! I met a really cool French guy who could speak mandarin. We spent one day walking all the way from my house (Jing An Temple district) to the Bund, which is across town. It was so fun! Unfortunately, he had to return to his country this weekend.
- I got a job! I was hoping for an internship, but instead my aunt Diana hooked me up with her friend who is looking for an assistant. I will be selling memberships at a fancy-pants health club which is right next to the US Embassy. Hopefully I will make connections with embassy people. That would be cool, right? Work starts tomorrow. Eek!
- My cousin Amanda arrived! Thank god for someone my own age. We went shopping yesterday, and hopefully we will be hanging out a lot more. She is nice and very down-to-earth.
- I am obsessed with getting a pet chipmunk. The other day I saw these street vendors with tiny cages containing little bunnies, mice, or chipmunks. The poor things looked so miserable. I want to buy one as a pet, however I have to see whether the apartment I am going to stay in will let me have pets. Apartment move-in is on Sept. 14th, so I still have a ways to go. I am counting down the days however. Hopefully, work will keep me occupied until then.

Back to Shanghai

(Click on the picture to see more pictures!)

We returned home from Hong Kong/Macau last night, and now I have about two weeks left until I start school. Yesterday (our last day in Hong Kong) I shopped for knockoff designer purses and DVDs, and also got massages at a spa with Aunt Jenny and my dad. In HK I also made sure to do all my important internet stuff while I was free of the "Great Firewall of China". I was also able to watch English language TV (oh the luxury!) and watched the breaking news that Obama decided to run with Biden. Hopefully my absentee ballot will arrive soon!

Also, the day trip to Macau (known as the Las Vegas of the East) was interesting. Dad and I walked around the downtown while Aunt Jenny hit the casinos, but sadly the casinos are one of the only activities in Macau, so there wasn't too much to see. And I ended up catching a cold from going in and out of the boiling heat outside and the freezing air-conditioning.

Now in Shanghai I am hoping to find a place to volunteer or work in my spare time. My cousin Amanda (who is only a year younger than me) will arrive this weekend from an international study-cruise in Europe. Finally somebody my own age to talk to! Needless to say, I am jumping with joy!

I still need to work on my skills at the squat-style toilet, which consists of a flushable hole in the ground and footholds on either side. It is standard even in fairly upscale malls and restaurants. And I thought Mexican toilets were bad!

Lastly, an interesting tidbit I learned from my travel book: on avg. 600 people are killed in automobile related accidents each day in Shanghai.

Hong Kong

Hello from the Conrad hotel in Hong Kong! We flew in from Shanghai on Friday to visit my aunts, even amid the typhoon warnings, but so far the weather has been great. And I have been living a life of luxury over here on the decadent island of HK. Tonight, I must have eaten about 8 different animals for dinner: an appetizer of duck foot and abalone, sharks fin soup full of chicken feet and fish stomachs, and then lobster, pork ribs and fish as main dishes. As much as I would like to be a vegetarian, it seems pretty impossible at the moment.

It has been great to see all my family, especially since I have spent just about every waking hour since I arrived in China with my father. My aunts spoil me like crazy. Last night we went to a very upscale, cosmopolitan restaurant overlooking the entire city of Hong Kong. My aunts are extremely worried that I never eat enough, so they were constantly piling more food on my plate, while in the meantime giving me "hong bao" (red envelopes filled with money).

And today I literally shopped til I dropped. In the morning, my dad and I hit the brand-named stores in the malls which are the size of small cities (dad bought me some nice walking shoes). And in the afternoon my aunt Alice took us to "Nu ren jin" (Ladies market) which is basically ten blocks of stalls selling purses, clothes, watches, jewelry, ipod cases, lingerie, and everything else you can think of. Err.... I went a tiny bit crazy there, and bought a few things that I possibly don't need.... but it was hard to say no to the cheap prices, especially when I had the bargaining machine of Aunt Alice to back me up. Tomorrow we are going gambling in Macao with Aunt Jenny, and then we return to Shanghai on Tuesday.

So, things are going well even though I have been pretty homesick and it feels like I am rather isolated (even though there are 1.3 billion people around me...). But hopefully things will change once I start classes. Yes, I enrolled in a school! My dad was hell-bent on getting me into a university here, but since the application deadline for the fall term has long passed, we finally, finally, Finally found a suitable private mandarin school which is quite jazzy from the looks of it. The best part is that they offer apartment accommodations close by, in which I will be living with not one, not two, but five other students! Roommates = new friends. I will have my own bedroom of course, and the place is nice and very clean inside. I am uber excited and counting down the days until move-in and classes starting (Sept 14th). And I am sure I will get over my homesickness soon, I hope.

Shanghai Arrival

I arrived in Shanghai two days ago and things are going fine, although I am still trying to get acclimated to China. The city is huge, but luckily dad lives pretty much in the center of the city, so it is easy to get around. We live on the 11th floor of a swanky apartment building with modern furniture in it. Looking down from our window, I can see the roof of another building, with a golf driving range on top of it.

Traffic is one of the things that is very different in China. Cars drive two inches from each other on every side, and don't pay much attention to any traffic laws that might be in place. When dad and I were taking a taxi from the airport to the apartment, a car in front of us accidentally accelerated, crashed into a guardrail, and then bounced off and swerved into the other lane. We were almost involved in the accident, but luckily our taxi driver slammed on the brakes. Then, we slowly made our way past the car (now with one side of the door completely skimmed off). Our taxi driver sighed: "My god, that car! That car!"

Yesterday, I saw another accident. A car had hit a schoolgirl, and then had run over one of her feet. The driver got out, but the poor schoolgirl had her toes trapped beneath the tire and was laying on the ground screaming and crying. Yikes. One must be extremely careful when crossing the street.

Today, dad and I are going to search for schools for me. He wants me to go to a university, but the problem is that the application deadlines have mostly passed already. So we are going to visit one that is associated with the University of Michigan, and see if I can squeeze into the upcoming semester.

So far though, dad and I have gotten many important things done. I got a cell phone yesterday and we registered me at the local police station. I also met up with a friend of a friend who lives in Shanghai and happens to be Mexican. He introduced me to two of his friends, but sadly they are going to be leaving China soon. However, they did give me some good advice about Shanghai, including a "magic number" that gives help to ex-pats with anything they need - translation, directions, etc.

Keep an eye open, I will be posting pictures soon. And give me a call! I am still getting over my homesickness here. My number is: (86) 1500-194-0015