Back to School:

So, after Yunnan I have had a very busy week of relaxing in Shanghai, yet returning to classes and schoolwork. Because I week went by, I will try to catch you up as best as possible. Chelsea came yesterday, so I will definitely have a lot of updates throughout this week on our adventures!

2/26: After returning from Yunnan, I went came back and slept in very late the next morning. Afterwards I went for lunch near my school at the dumpling place we had dearly missed over the holidays. Then we went to a little shopping district called Xintiandi to do some research for our Culture class project on international brands and globalization vs localization in China. After our research, I went to the blind massage place to get a 2-hour massage, which I felt was long due after the 6 flights I had taken in the past two weeks. It was even more rewarding to pay only $12! At night I explored Jing'an temple park, and had dinner at a Indonesian restaurant called Bali Laguna. It is a beautiful restaurant located on a small lake in the center of a park. It reminded me a lot of Bali actually, and we had wonderful Indonesian curries. After dinner I visit City Shoppe, a local store with mostly Western products, where one might visit if they were homesick, and missing specific items from home. I went to bed early, so I could continue to catch up on sleep.

2/27: Today I woke up and went to a nearby cafe to finish my work for the weekend and write some postcards. I did some research on what to do for the night and found a concert that was playing downtown. The concert was 4 bands from Beijing, and one famous one I had heard of, which was the Indie Rock group Carsick Cars. A couple of us went downtown to a bar called Windows Too to have dinner and drinks and then headed over to the venue Mao Livehouse. The venue was in a very cool part of town called "Red Town" known for its sculpture gardens and cafes, and I will definitely have to explore around there later! The concert was very good, and all the bands were entertaining. The crowd was super trendy and kind of crazy as many mosh pits were formed throughout the duration of the concert, even when the music didn't really warrant them. The night ended a lot later than most concerts in the states do, but Shanghai is a city that rarely sleeps.

2/28: Today, on another assignment for my culture class, I went to a little area called Tianzifang. It's known as the "Soho of Shanghai" and it is a very hidden area consisting of little boutiques, art galleries, restaurants, and cafes...basically where I wish I could always be! I looked around, took pictures and did some research of the area. I didn't really get to look into as many shops and galleries as I wanted, but I'm sure I'll be back very soon. We had lunch at a lovely little Japanese restaurant and then took off. I prepared myself to return to class the following morning, and took my new friend from Berkeley to explore the street food around our apartment for dinner. I'm definitely happy to be back home in Shanghai with all the familiar comforts I missed while I was in Yunnan.

3/1: Back to school today, but I still felt in an adventuring mood, so I decided to go downtown for the afternoon and evening. Henry and I had the impulse to stop at a Haagen-Daz for dessert and ended up getting an extravagant English High Tea meal. There were over 20 scoops of ice cream amongst other cookies, cakes, sweets, and fruit. It was the most intense dessert I have ever seen, and luckily we couldn't finish it all. After I shopped around while Henry got his hair cut and then we met up with friends at an Irish pub that has amazing specials on Monday nights.

3/2 : I had about 3 presentations and assignments to get done today, so most of my day was consumed with class work, but I was able to take a break and meet up with a friend from Berkeley to grab dinner at my favorite restaurant near campus. I love introducing people to my favorite places around our school, and in turn I usually hear about their favorites, which I then get to try. It started raining after dinner so we got soaked on the way back, but when I returned I ran into more students in my apartment and got to finally introduced to, so that was cool.

3/3: Today I presented all the projects that we had due, which included an overview of our trip to Yunnan, and every group had to introduce their topics in Chinese, even though it is our English language class, so that was interesting. Some students don't speak very much Chinese, so they answered the more simple questions, and it was fun to see how much everyone has progressed in terms of speaking Chinese. I resumed my routine at the gym, and was sad to see how exhausted I was after spin class, because I had not worked out in some time, minus the hiking and biking we did on vacation. I explored a new restaurant for dinner called Helen's, and found out it was brand new, but modeled after the famous one in Beijing. It is an awesome bar/restaurant that is solely filled with college kids from the area, and so a great place to meet people.

3/4: Tonight I made my way downtown once again to meet friends for dinner at a French restaurant called Lingo. It was absolutely the best restaurant I have been to since I have arrived, and such a good deal for the experience. The whole restaurant was filled with French people, and even the French guy in our dinner party scoffed that he doesn't like to come too often, because it is all French people! The restaurant is located near People's Square and People's Park, which is basically the Central Park of Shanghai, and it was beautiful at night. I can't wait for April and May when the weather is nice enough to enjoy the park at night.

3/5: It was finally Friday, and during our last class period today we had a "Karaoke Singing Competition" where every class sang a song, and then some solos and duets were performed as well. Our teachers were the judges, and it was entertaining to see everyone perform. At the end some of our Chinese roommates sang songs too, which was fun to have them come participate. Later that day, it was raining pretty hard so after a meeting with my director, I stayed in and got my work done for the weekend, so I could be ready for Chelsea to come the next day! That night I went back to Helen's with some people from my program, and then Henry and I went downtown to join our French friends for drinks and hanging out. We had previously planned to go to KTV (Chinese Karaoke) that night, but by the time we motivated to go, it was late and rainy, so I called it a night. I went home got my room ready for Chelsea to come stay, and went to bed, because I had a full day ahead of me the next day.

3/6: Today Chelsea comes and I have a lot to do in the meantime, but I'm very excited for her to arrive and hopefully her journey from the airport to my apartment isn't to arduous! Getting around in China if you don't know Chinese is fairly impossible. More on our adventures next time...


Chinese Word of the Day: 卡拉OK (KalaOK - Karaoke)