Living in the City

This morning, I got up and went for a run. My normal runs are relatively boring, usually with a few people passing by and a nice view. Running in Shanghai is more like an obstacle course. There are hundreds of people EVERYWHERE, going to school, work, or just simply wandering the streets in the early hours of the morning. I ran up to the Ji'an temple, circled around, grabbed a coffee at the CHINESE coffee store 85 degrees, and picked up some fresh fruit on my way back to the Jia. I was pointed at and photographed by a few commuters in buses, but other than that, I kind of meshed in with the rest of the morning commute.

For a city of over 20 million people (the largest city in China) I feel surprisingly safe here. Walking around the streets feels comfortable. Crossing the street, though incredibly dangerous, isn't so hard once you get in the rhythm of things. Everything here is moving all the time. It's a nice change of pace from Malibu.

Today we're learning how to use taxi directions and public transportation. Our hands-on activity later today will be a scavenger hunt around the city. During the "intensive" class period, we have three hours of sit down class work in the morning, followed by a one hour review in the afternoon. Then, we are all given an activity or task in the city and are expected to go out and use what we've learned that morning. Practical, hands on application learning.

Hopefully, I'll finally join the local gym today and get some cardio in. We've been getting plenty of excercise just walking around, but I'm itching to get into a good gym habit here. Tomorrow we have our orientation day at Fudan University, and then normal classes start!

:) Love to my family, friends and readers.