Shanghai Shenanigans

6/23-6/25

So me being me, I completely misunderstood what the game plan for yesterday was. Thinking I was

going on a city tour, like I thought I heard Kevin say, I dressed in a UMaine tee, purple shorts, and

Outdoor Market

sneakers. I didn't grab the iPad or even headphones, wanting to pack light for a day of walking around. So I got downstairs and went to go meet Kevin outside. As soon as I went outside I knew I had made a grave mistake. Kevin was in his full event outfit: nice black pants and a pressed shirt. He also had the UMaine banner in one hand. I went over and asked if what I was wearing was ok and he kind of looked at me funny, but then was like yah, it's fine. Well, it most certainly was not and I knew it. I had no time to change, though, so I hopped in the cab and tried to figure out how I was going to fix this mess. Luckily I'm a quick thinker, one of my better traits I like to think, and and asked Kevin if we were going to have any spare time when we got to Nanjing. He said it was a two hour train ride, then all he had to do was stop by his wife's apartment for five minutes and then we would have about an hour and a half to kill before the event started. Relived, I asked if we could stop somewhere so I could buy a dress or two,

Kevin Being Goofy

because I had been meaning to anyways and this was the perfect time to do it. He agreed and we hopped onto the train to Nanjing.

After a quick pit stop at his wife's apartment, where I stayed in the taxi cause it was pouring, we headed to H&M to do a little light shopping. In absolute heaven to be shopping in the first place only turned into elation when I saw the amazing sales that were happening. I hit the jackpot for professional clothes, raking in two new jackets, a lacy dress, and two pairs of flats. We headed to get a bite to eat before heading to the hotel where the event would take place. Kevin had bought a new shirt as well and we both changed once we got to the event location. We looked killer, to say the least. We also nailed yet another UMaine presentation. We definitely convinced all of those kids to go there. Some guy came to our table and was asking all sorts of questions about our school, come to find out his son is still in middle school. Don't ask me why he is

already starting to look at colleges, he should be more concerned if his kid is getting beat up on the playground and not what scores he needs on his English entrance exam.

So after the event we rushed to catch the metro back to the train station. We made it just in time and took our seats on the super fast train (yes, they call it that, mainly because it really does go super fast). I konked out until we got back to Shanghai and we caught a cab back to the hotel. I was feeling super sick after eating really strange train station pork stir fry, so I called it a night, showered, and crashed.

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This morning I got up at a reasonable time, around 8:30, and was pretty excited because I had slept through the night! I got my butt into action, though, because I had to pack everything up as well as make myself look presentable because today we actually did have a free day to explore the city. I managed to finish up right at 10 when we were all meeting in the lobby to check out and store our bags for the day. We headed out and went to the other side of the river, the newer part of the city, and we took a quick look at the river before heading out on our first actual shopping excursion.

I was so excited because I love love love to bargain with people, and I got to do just that! We started

The Smog

out on a pretty touristy street, but that is always the best place to start because sometimes the storekeepers can speak a bit of English!! The first lady was hilarious and definitely had an attitude. I got some chopsticks, a couple little wallets, and definitely got overcharged, which is to expected on the first purchase. After getting a solid warm up I was on my A game as we moved from market to market. I got a significant portion of my souvenir shopping done, or at least put a dent in it, as well as get two more dresses at H&M!

We stopped about half way through the day and when we were supposed to eat some lunch we stopped at this waffle stand, owned by a German, and got a waffle with bananas, strawberries, Nutella, and wiped cream instead. Yummmm. We did end up stopping for actual lunch about an hour later and ate until we literally couldn't eat any more, per usual. About an hour after that we stopped for some Starbucks.

We headed into this three story market, mostly for clothes, and it reminded me a lot of a market we went to in India, actually, it was almost identical, with lots of the stores offering to taylor make your clothes for you. Of course I was leaving in only a few short hours so I opted to wait and just get a pre made one later on. We didn't buy much there, just a few fans. After we made our final stop at therapies behind our hotel where there were a lot more traditional buildings, which was really neat, and I went ham on the fan

The "Pants" Building in Beijing

stalls. I also bought a traditional Chinese dress and it is gorgeous!! Tall collared, all white with black flowers embroidered on it, it's lovely. The lady who sold it to me was originally asking 600RMB, which is a hundred USD, which of course is way way way too much. I offered her 100, which was as high as I was willing to go, and she laughed in my face. I would have too if I were her but I have a process. She was actually really nice and even was fanning me with my fan as I was changing. Yes, I basically was naked in the middle of the store with a few ladies holding up a sheet so no one in the street could see me changing, but there were like five others walking around behind the sheet and definitely got a few flashes of my sweaty butt. Oh well, sucks for them. So anyways, even though she was really nice and funny, I wasn't willing to pay more than 150RMB max, so I walked away. Se offered me the dress for 250RMB, and I declined again, this time not sure if I would be going back. A I was walking away thought for the final time, she offered me 125, and I agreed on 120. I paid and got shortchanged so I actually paid 130, but whatever, she could probably use the extra dollar fifty more than I could. We had to rush back to the hotel because we had spent way too much time shopping and made it to the airport with literally just enough time to run to get to our gate for boarding time. W indie see a celebrity at the ticket counter though, a female singer who reminded me of an Asian Justin Bieber with a gaggle of fans following her everywhere she went. So we literally ran to

Outside the Market

get our bags scanned and they made me open my bag so they could search it. Apparently they thought my barrette was a shank or something, but once they saw it was harmless they let me through. Janet and I were both so hungry and almost hangry, so we took the chance and stopped to get some noodles to go, only to find out that our flight was delayed. It currently is still delayed, three hours after it was originally supposed to take off. Te weather is bad in Beijing and apparently we are boarding in twenty minutes, but who knows if we actually will. As much as I don't want to stay longer at the airport, I'd rather be here than flying through crappy weather. I'm not sure what tomorrow holds for us, I went a little cray cray deleting emails and deleted my itinerary, oops! Well, we are actually boarding now so I guess I will update when we get back to the hotel and then hit the hay because I'm sure we will have yet another busy day tomorrow because we have the entire day Wednesday off because we are going to the Great Wall!!

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So that was a super uneventful flight, with the exception of lots of turbulence and the guy next to me completely hogging my personal bubble. I don't like flying in general, so I was having a hard time not panicking during the really turbulent parts, but luckily we were on a big plane so that made it a little 

better, plus it was only a two hour flight. I really wish we were traveling by train more, I'd much rather do that and even take a bit longer to get there rather than taking a plane. Oh well.

It's Tuesday now and I'm sitting at the office waiting for people to come talk to me about UMaine. It's on the fifth floor of a building about a block away from the first hotel we stayed at. It is set up so right when you walk in there are all of flags of the countries represented by the agency and then it's a bit open room, about the size of a small gymnasium, filled with small round tables where agents are sitting waiting to talk with student who might be interested in their programs. Janet and I got there a bit late, so we are sort of in the back by the offices, and she has run to Starbucks because we are dying here with no WiFi or book to read. There are actually two floors here now that I

Where the First Communist Meeting was Held

am looking around; the top enter is kind of what you see in a food court, with it just rifling the second floor so you can see the tables above and look down to see the tables below. I'm not exactly sure what we are even supposed to be doing here, I'm assuming it is just waiting for people to come talk to us, which no one does because we don't speak Mandarin. I'm super happy to be here, but I feel like it might be more productive if they had hired someone who spoke the native language. I mean, I think I'm a great UMaine rep and I can sell the university to even the most staunch UMaine hater, but no one is going to come talk with us if we can't understand each other! Oh well, I really can't complain, I really do love being in China.

So I guess to kill time I will just blab on and on about what China is like. I am constantly comparing it to India, which I really shouldn't be, but when you spend so much time in a place and not that long ago it is hard not to compare everything to it. I try to not voice a lot of it, because I know how annoying that is when someone just goes on and on about their time abroad, but some of the things I just can't help. It's nice, though, that Janet has studied abroad too, in Nicaragua, so she talks about her time abroad a bit as well so it's not too bad when I bring up India once in a while.

The first thing is the lack of face masks present. I think I've seen about three the entire time I've been here. Everyone who has been back from Maine told me I neeeeeeded to get them and is neeeeeded to wear them all the time. Lies. I haven't even felt the need to wear one once. I guess that's a good thing,

but those pesky masks are takin up valuable Souvenir space in my suitcase!!! I will be rid of them soon, though.

Another thing I find fascinating here is the smell, or lack thereof. With so many people living in one place you would thing there would at least be a faint hint of something nasty in the air, but I haven't smelled anything of the sorts so far. Inside is also nice and I am not complaining, it just seems so strange for me, especially since at least five times a day in India I would be gagging while walking somewhere because the stench was so brutal.

There is also no garbage anywhere to be seen. Yet another difference between India and the cities in China. I'm not sure where they are putting it all, but it is being taken care of. All of it too, there really aren't even wrappers in the streets, it's amazing.

There are no stray animals anywhere, either. I have seen one, yes one, stray dog. No one walks their animals outside of their apartment complex, either. I don't really understand this, though. I would test tilt if there were a bunch of strays that might be rabid, but there are none. I think people just don't want to wander very far so they stay close to home.

All the women here are super models. I'm not even kidding. I have seen maybe three overweight women, and they are all older. Every single girl is up to date with the fashion trends and at least ninety percent of them wear heels, as in three inch or higher heels, everywhere they go. It is unbelievable. I mean, I like to wear heels too, don't get me wrong, but to commute to work? On the subway? A airplane? It's a bit much. They do always look fabulous, though, and although I don't think my fashion sense is bad, I certainly do have a lot to learn. Going shopping here has helped a bit, at least for my professional wardrobe, although I am having a hard time ditching my super comfy TOMS for a pair of not so comfy flats for work. I'll have to work on that. So not only do they all wear heels and are super fashionable, but they are all super pretty too. I mean, come onnnnnnn people. Like, they are all

Dress Shopping

freakishly pretty. Is excellent people watching here, though, I do admit. Even times like this where I have no WiFi or book to read there is something to look at. I have a lot of time to think, too, which is kind of nice, but kind of not if you are trying not to think about things and then they just pop up in your head because there's nothing else to do.

One of the things I've been thinking about is what I really want to do with my future. I know that I don't want to live in Orono forever, but if I could work for UMaine forever I would not hate that. I want to see if the university is going to create a sort of international admissions counselor to be a sort of a liaison between the Blue Sky Project and the admissions department on campus. That would be the perfect position for me especially because, especially now, I am super qualified for it! We will see, though, I am going to see if I can get a minute of the president's time to talk with him about it, or about what I should do. I'm hoping they do keep me in the loop once I get back though, because I am the first intern that has gone with StudyGroup, so I think I have a pretty unique perspective!

Ok so back to China. The food is unbelievable. Absolutely beyond delicious. And I love using chopsticks! Everything is so savory or sweet and just so, so, so, sooooo good. I've only tried maybe two things that I didn't care for, which is nice because then I'm not so afraid to just point to random things to order on the menu. One thing I just couldn't do, though, was jellyfish. It didn't taste bad, but the texture was awefulllllllllll. It was so bad I couldn't even swallow it, I had to spit it into my napkin. I was what I would imagine eating a slimy, hard cartilage octopus tentacle. It. Was. Repulsive.

On the Metro

Everything else, though, has been delicious. I am especially in love with the bubble tea here, or milk tea, they call it. Actually, I am completely obsessed. Everyone here is a really noisy eater too, slurping and shoveling food into their mouthes. Actually, I really like this too because then I don't feel so bad being a bit sloppy. And when I say shoveling, I literally mean holding the bowl to their lips and shoveling the food in with chopsticks. Can't complain about that! It's also ok to be mean and yell at your waiter, which of course I don't do because I would feel super awkward. I mostly smile and nod, especially when people are talking to me in Mandarin. I usually end up laughing at myself because I know how stupid I look. Oh well, it is what it is I guess.

Aaaaaaand we are back to eastern toilets, aka, a hole. It's really not that bad, in public bathrooms it is way better because they are infinitely cleaner, and at the hotels we have western toilets so its really win win all around. I learned my lesson the hard way in India and now bring toilet paper with me everywhere so just in case there is none I don't have to worry about it. There is also soap and running water nearly everywhere we go too, which is amazing.

Not speaking Mandarin, though, is quite a hassle, because literally no one on the street speaks any

Dumpling

English and when people can it is extremely hard to understand. I don't blame anyone here, it's completely my fault for not learning the language before coming. Is actually funny how helpless I feel, if we didn't have Kevin around to help translate it would be super difficult to get around. Janet and I are on our own for lunch today, so we will see how that goes!

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Lunch went swimmingly! We met this woman, her English name is Emily, who asked us if we had lunch plans and we said no so she offered to take us out, so of course we said yes because we had no idea where else to go. We were skeptical, though, because of the tea scams going on in Beijing right now, where people offer to go out with you and then overcharge you so they can keep the change, but it turns out that she wanted to treat us to lunch! Being taken aback by our offer to pay, or rather, StudyGroup paid (because they

Airport Dinner, Still Super Delicious

pay for all of our food anyways), and she was very surprised. We ordered a few dishes but my favorite was the beef stew, it had mushrooms in it and was so delicious, and just a bit spicy. We talked about all sorts of things, mostly about our lives, our universities, and our families. She said her English was poor but it was actually really good, I was impressed! I stuffed my face and then we tried to learn a few Mandarin words, to which Janet and I both did not really pick up, and we headed out. We made a quick pit stop so Emily could show us the great shopping market down the street and then we headed back to the office to get back to "work." We noticed another non-Asian sitting a few tables down so we went over to introduce ourselves, and it turns out she works for StudyGroup as well! She's from England, got to Beijing a week ago, and is leaving in two weeks, just like me! We exchanged contact info so hopefully when Janet leaves I'll still have someone to hang out with.

Today, my life is just Shelby.