Food!

So, I'll admit coming to China I was less than enthusiastic about my food options. How could I survive on 24/7 Chinese food, when I winced at the idea of going to King Yen for one more date party or birthday dinner. When I first arrived in Shanghai, I not only experienced some homesickness when I thought about my family and friends, but also when I thought about my favorite foods in Berkeley/Laguna. I even caught myself checking the Cheeseboard website a couple times to think about what flavor I was missing that day. So I have an addiction....
However, I am proud to say that I have only had American food on one occasion (Dairy Queen duh!) and Sushi one night for an amazing all you can eat/drink deal in downtown Shanghai. The food in Shanghai, and especially around my school is amazing. I realized pretty quickly that Chinese food in the states is hardly authentic, and the culture of street food is heavily prominent here. During our first week in Shanghai, our program did a very good job of taking us to several different types of Chinese restaurants. Everything in China is family style unless you are taking it to go, so it worked well for our group of 30 people.


The picture above shows a type of cuisine here called hot pot. Its somewhat similar to fondue, however, they serve you raw meats and vegetables, which you then throw in a hot broth to cook. Mostly everywhere they serve dumplings, buns with meat and vegetable filling, and all the traditional Chinese dishes just better. They have a specialty dumpling here in Shanghai called xiaolongbao. It is a broth dumpling that has soup and a little meat in it and is very tasty. You can find them everywhere, but only for breakfast and dinner. Here a fully-staffed kitchen makes xiaolongbao the entire day in a food mall near my school.


Some mornings, on the way to class, we go to a bakery where there are pastries, and coffee for very reasonable prices. I rarely spend more than $4 a day on food here. Street food is amazing, whether it is roasted sweet potatoes and corn, or a onion crepe-pancake filled with whatever you want and wrapped to look like a burrito. My roommate and I have been very adventurous by eating at the same vendor 3 nights in a row, which is located about 5 feet from our apartment! Here we pick any raw veggies, meat, tofu, bread, or fish that we want and they grill it and spice it right in front of us. It's super fresh and one of the more healthy options. My favorite dish so far is called 茄子, and it is a garlic eggplant dish that is sooo wonderful. So, in the words of a special someone, I'm giving China the "benefit of the doubt," because so far I love it here, and my culinary adventures are only enhancing that feeling.



Now I know what most of you who know me well must be thinking...How am I satisfying my sweet tooth, or more honestly, my entire mouth of sweet teeth. I'm not going to lie, it's been rough. Chinese enjoy a hot soup of apples and bananas for dessert, or sometimes a sweet rice snack. And you probably guessed that there is no fro-yo, ici, yola, yopo, or anything resembling those places near my school. At some point I'll cave in and go to the city just for a sweet something, but in the meantime at least they have boba (bubble tea) at every corner, and for that I can be thankful. I tried a red bean dumpling the other day and was pleasantly surprised :) I guess it hits me the most when I hear stories of mrs. munchies (yes, kyle and matt...I AM jealous), and I am tempted to walk to the bakery 15 minutes down the road. Luckily, I have more willpower than I thought and I may just lose a couple sweet teeth in my travels abroad.



Chinese Word of the Day: 茄子 (qie zi: eggplant) pronounced: chi-yay-zi

I spy

Now that classes have become more routine, I am used to the work load and can now find free time to explore Shanghai, and plan my weekend travels. Some of my recent finds in China include:
1) Chinese massages: A prominent shopping road 5 minutes from my campus houses the first massage parlor I have been to in China. My one-hour massage cost me $7.50 and was one of the most intense and satisfying massages I have ever had. Traditional Chinese massages focus on deep-tissue areas and do not include any oils. They rely on targeting pressure points, and sometimes it can be just plain painful. I know relaxing oil massages are all around China too, but I was eager to try a new kind, and pleasantly surprised by the results. The spa was so beautiful and accommodating, that I'm sure in the states a comparable experience would have been well over $100. My next adventure is to try a blind massage spa. Now you may be wondering what in the world is a blind massage spa, and I'm pretty sure that where in the world should be the real question, because only the Chinese would capitalize on this venture. Blind massage spas employ legally blind masseurs, who supposedly give such good massages due to their superior sense of touch. This has become such a respected institution in China, because it aims to employ and train some of the 8 million blind citizens. I have yet to try this massage, but my friend, who I went with the other day, recently went and said that he had a 2 hour body/foot massage for $12, and it was the best massage ever. So that is something to look forward to!


2) Shopping: My first adventure with the crazy Chinese markets exemplified how cheap and how overwhelming shopping can be here. Not knowing how overwhelming it would be, Danielle (my American roommate from GW) and I asked Carolyn (our Chinese roommate) to take us to a shopping road we had heard of called Qipu Lu, which sounds like Cheap-O, and it is just that. Immediately she called two of her friends stating that it would be impossible for her to help both us and our friends. I did not understand this until we got there, and I saw the masses of people, food vendors, small children, rows of shops, and little asian puppies that crowd the streets. The only time this clears in even the slightest way is when cars come, because drivers don't understand the meaning of pedestrian. We split up with one Chinese buddy each with two girls, and shopped for far too long. Having Carolyn with us was actually quite helpful, and I came out with the peacoat and Ugg boots I needed for the cold weather, and both together only set me back $19. I had one Chinese man follow me while I was shopping and tell me that he loved me, and that I was so beautiful, but that seemed like the only English he knew as he continued to repeat those two lines. The people we bargained with were clearly making fun of my roommates and I (even my Chinese roommate) calling us "bendan" (not clever), but my Chinese roommate says this is because we are educated and they are not, so they are jealous :) Also she says this is a ploy for them to get more money for what they are selling. Either way, I didn't feel very "bendan" coughing up a mere $6 for a peacoat that could easily have been sold in J.Crew.


3) Traveling: This weekend I will travel to Nanjing with a bunch of people on my program. It's nice that there are so many places to go in China, and so many that are only a train ride away from Shanghai. I'm fortunate, because I got a multiple-entry visa into China, which means I can leave and enter as many times as I want until next year. However, many people only got single-entry visas, which means they cannot leave until the end of the program unless they reapply for a visa, which they may not be granted. Even though I would love to travel to Thailand, Cambodia, Japan, and other amazing Asian countries, as I plan my travels, I am more interested in visiting Chinese cities to get the most out of my experience of China and it's culture. Nanjing should be fun to visit, because it has a lot of history and classical Chinese elements, which will be a nice contrast from the modern aspects of Shanghai. We will take a 3-hour train ride and stay in a nice area right in the middle of town. We were able to book rooms in a very high-end hotel for $17/night per person. Traveling seems very ideal when it is affordable and the locations are easily accessible.
Speaking of traveling, I am off to plan my list of sights that I want to see in Nanjing and then to make a comprehensive check list of Shanghai to-dos. Hope all is well!


Chinese Word of the Day: 笨蛋 (bendan: not clever, fool)

"Ask a 人，问 a person"

Today a group of us went to the Oriental Pearl Tower downtown. This is the most prominent building, with its spaceship like features, in most pictures that you see of Shanghai, and was the tallest building in China until recently. It has 19 different observation decks at various levels, and we went right before sunset, so we could catch the daytime view and the city lights after the sun went down. The view was amazing, and we had the chance to walk on the new outdoor observation deck that has an enclosed glass floor (not recommended for those afraid of heights)! In our attempt to take a "jumping picture" we started a trend, and soon all these Chinese families were jumping together to try to capture a similar photo.
After spending a good amount of time in the tower, we cabbed over to Xintiandi, which is a car-less shopping, eating, and entertainment area. It's part of an area called the French Concession, named for its obvious French influence. I now know what Shanghai is referred to as the Paris of the East. It's such a beautiful area filled with cafes, restaurants, bars, and high-end shopping. Thanks to a recommendation from the lovely Sophie Lewis, my friends and I went to an awesome dumpling restaurant called Din Tai Fung. It lived up to every expectation, and revived my interest in Chinese food.

This post is continued from earlier....I'm back from going out tonight to KTV, and I now understand the Chinese obsession with Karaoke. KTV is similar to a club or hotel with multiple rooms for people to rent and sing karaoke with their friends. Usually I'm used to picking songs out of a book, but they are so advanced here that they have a computer to queue up the selection of songs you want to sing, and the experience is complete with a huge room to chill or dance in while you are singing. Each song that you pick is shown on multiple tv's around the room and the music video plays along with it. About 25 of us went with a couple of our Chinese roommates, so there was plenty of dancing and singing to both American and Chinese songs. Unlike any club in the US, it's BYOB, so a bunch of people cruised Walmart next door to bring drinks and snacks. Overall tonight has been super fun, and a bunch of us agreed we have to do this at least once a month. I wish we had karaoke this legit in the states.
One last comment: The title of my post "Ask a 人，问 a person" conveys how much Chinglish (Chinese-English) we've been speaking since we got here. Hardly any Chinese people speak good English unless you are at a huge tourist location, so we are used to using our Chinese as much as possible. This leads to the use of half Chinese, half English sentences such as the one above which means "Ask a person, Ask a person." Whether we are asking someone to take our picture, or how to get to our next location, we are constantly using the people around us to be our guides, and most of the time locals are more than happy to help us. Although I was told I speak good Chinese tonight, which is most definitely not true, it does help that we get to practice about 75% of every day whether we are in class, ordering dinner, or trying to figure out which karaoke song we want to sing. Now that it is 3:45am I'm just grateful that I could direct the taxi driver back to our apartment!

Goodnight!


Chinese Word of the Day: 人 (ren, people) & 问 (wen, to ask)

In the cards...

It has been 10 days since I arrived in China, and I have successfully navigated my away around the Great Firewall of China to start this blog. My transition into life in China has been relatively seamless, and I am constantly surprised at how helpful the locals are to us international students. Luckily, I can speak a few jumbled phrases to get by, but there are students on my program that have never learned a word of Chinese. I go to Fudan University, which lies 15 minutes out of the city center and contributes to the lack of any spoken English. All universities are situated in one province of Shanghai, making the area around my apartment a great place to meet people and take advantage of all the city has to offer its students.

I am participating in the Alliance for Global Education's Language and Culture program, which requires 12 hours of Chinese language instruction a week, a contemporary culture and society class, and a Chinese economics course. This program is ideal for other reasons than the course specifications. I have a Chinese roommate as well as an American roommate (from George Washington University). My Chinese roommate hardly speaks English, and we are constantly teaching each other new phrases and customs. Currently all of us roommates have plans to go to KTV, which is the Chinese equivalent to Karaoke, and they take it very seriously. Our living situation is more than comfortable. We each have our own room with city views of Shanghai, and a huge living room, kitchen, and sun room. The concept of sun rooms is very important in China, because dryers are essentially non-existent. Almost every residential complex will have huge windows spanning the facade where residents hang all their clean laundry. Our complex houses all international students, and I have met other students from all over the states, and Europe. In a couple weeks many Berkeley students will become my neighbors when the EAP program begins!

There are about 35 people on my program with the majority coming from the east coast. It's amazing to see how the culture shock has hit all of us this past week. One of the hardest (and easiest) things to adjust to is the prices. Everything here is literally "dirt-cheap." My meals cost around $1-2, and taxis and transportation range from 30cents-$10. If I want to have someone tidy/clean my room and bathroom I pay $1.50. I use this as a coping mechanism when I realize all my friends are in Europe with normal toilets, attractive locals, and cheese.

I had the opportunity to have my tarot cards read when I was in New Orleans this winter break. The reader told me I was embarking on the most meaningful adventures I have experienced thus far, and there will have been nothing in my life more momentous than this occasion. I haven't read to much into this interpretation of my future, but I can already tell that my time here in China will be a life-changing experience that will continue to influence my way of life even after these four short months are over. I look forward to documenting my travels, adventures, friendships, studies, and anything I learn about Shanghai. I have definitely chosen the right time to visit Shanghai as it has been chosen as the location for the 2010 World Expo. The World Expo is to Shanghai what the 2008 Olympics were to Beijing. The construction, beautification, and development of Shanghai's already modern coastline is bustling to get ready for the event that will span from May 1st - October 31st 2010. I'm excited to spend my last 10 days in Shanghai visiting the Expo as it's slated to exceed all international expectations!

再见！

Cam

Chinese Word of the Day: 再见 (zaijian: goodbye)