Exploring the City

I've officially been in Shanghai for four days. I can't tell if it's been four days, four weeks or four years. I've had absolutely no time to update because I've been running around the city non stop with some new and wonderful people. I finally had to sneak back up to my room during lunch just to get a quiet minute.

I'll try and start from the beginning, summarizing as I go along.

Upon arrival at LAX last Tuesday night, the group received boarding passes and instruction regarding the following days travel. We greeted each other with hugs, smiles and excitement. Despite our large piles of luggage, we all looked relatively travel savvy and ready to take on China.

Two Tylenol simply sleep later, I woke up with only three hours until our landing in Shanghai :) God's gift to red eye travelers. After passing out for the majority of the flight, I got off in Hong Kong to find my two morning necessities: a toothbrush and some kind of latte. About a second later we were on our way to Shanghai. Two of my new roommates and I shrieked in excitement upon landing in China. Then came a fast paced march to customs and swine flu inspection, followed by luggage and meeting our program director at ground transportation. One relatively short bus ride later, we were standing on the front porch of a french style mansion in the middle of Shanghai, known to us as Jia or HOME.

The next night was a random assortment of hello's, unpacking and dinner. We went out to South Beauty banquet Chinese restaurant where we were served an excellent array of traditional formal dishes: chicken, shrimp, pork ribs and fish. Pickled cold items to start, like mushrooms and tofu, followed by seafood, meat, and then finally a large plate of fresh fruit. I was impressed to find that our group made the effort to try everything, no matter how foreign.

After crashing Thursday night, we all got up on Friday for orientation, group bonding, and more food. We went out to the bund (the riverside edge of the puxi, our side of the river) and got on a dinner river cruise up and down the pudong river. We got to see Shanghai lit up at night, which from the boat was incredible. A small group of us (Morgan, Brennen, Katy, Allie, Zach, James, Jason and myself) went out on to the bow of the boat to watch the city lights. It's an incredible city: a combination of modern, classical, international and local. Later that night, the entire group (40 people, so a lot, with the exception of only a few) went out to the local club by our house to enjoy the nightlife of our new district. The club was alright, the open bar was terrible, but having around 35 Pepperdine students dancing and enjoying one of our first nights was worth the ten dollar fee. Some stayed late, some left early, but we just had fun together.

After a groggy Saturday morning, we continued orientation and went shopping for a few essentials. Later in the afternoon, Clay, Allie, Luke, Jordan, Morgan and myself sat outside the nearest Starbucks and tried some of the local cuisine we picked up on the sidestreets by our Jia. Luke insisted that we buy some mooncake, which was awful but culturally significant. We sat and savored the afternoon over a few iced drinks and 20 questions style games.

On a side note: NO, i haven't kicked my coffee habit... yet. I'm working on it. Thus far, I've tried to just do an iced coffee with nonfat milk versus paying for the more expensive vanilla latte, but it's a process. I'm hoping I can go local and just go with green tea... ha I can dream.

Saturday night Allie, Zach, Meghan, Brennen, James, Luke and I all went out after dinner. We ended up meeting an Ex-Pat couple who took us out and talked to us about living in Shanghai. They've been living in the city for three years and plan on staying for at least another five. We learned how to find good places to eat, We stayed out late, made some new friends, and explored the French Concession at night :) Fantastic night.

Sunday flew by. I went down with a group to the Bund to shop, eat, and explore (all i seem to be doing is exploring :) ) Now it's Monday and we're doing six hours of intensive Chinese. I'm learning how to barter and speak simple sentences, which will be taken out on the street later this afternoon.

Thus far, things are INCREDIBLE!!! more to come later :)