Everyday Life

I thought it'd be good to show you all a little of my life aside from all the adventures, so you have a better understanding of what it's like here on a day-to-day level.

First off, here's some pictures of my room. Until February 20, we're living in a hotel at the Xuhui (shoo-hway) campus, which is located pretty much down town. It's called the Faculty Club and is the equivalent of the Union back at Purdue University. The rooms are pretty small, and there's no good place to put your clothes, but we're managing and making do until we move to the Minhang campus.

This is looking into our room. My bed is the one in the back corner, while Chris has the one just to the left at the bottom of the picture. The window provides a nice view, especially at night. The bathroom is just to left from where I'm standing to take this picture.

Chris's bed from another angle

This is the desk that Chris and I share. We have a friendly, "just move my stuff" policy for taking over the desk space if the other person isn't using it. The glass on top is nice, but it inhibits the use of a mouse. Every time I want to use my mouse, I need to get a book or something else to use as a mouse pad.

Like I said, there's no good place to put you're clothes, but you can find places if you're okay with nontraditional. The window had a nice ledge that I use to keep my clothes so that I'm not living out of a suitcase. Also, my strawberries are resting there for the time being while they still exist.




Our bathroom is small, although not too small, but it would be nice to have a little more counter space. The shower is big enough and puts out quite a bit of water, so that's nice.

The hotel lobby is a common gathering place before we head out for small or big group activities

Here's a couple pictures of our classroom. We have both the Chinese culture class and the Chinese language class in this room. These pictures were taken during language class.

From the back of the class

From the front of the class. That's Tyler giving the thumbs up.

These pictures were taken during our break, so that's why it doesn't look like anyone is learning anything. In our language class, we have one twenty minute break in the middle of the 3.25 hour time slot. For our culture class, we have three or four 5 minute breaks spread out through another 3.25 hour time slot. Class can definitely get boring at times, so it's nice to get up and walk around during the break time. The favorite place to go during break is a little convenience store right by our building behind the Juice Bar (you can get smoothies there, but I have yet to do that).

Unfortunately, it was closed today, so I couldn't get a picture of the inside, but it's just through that striped sliding door. It's quite common for a good portion of the class to come here right before class or during the break and grab some snacks. Chinese snacks are the absolute pretty on point. Sometime, I'll show a bunch of pictures.

Another place we like to get snacks and such is the Family Mart right on campus. Family Mart is a chain convenience store that you can find all over Shanghai, and I'm assuming a lot of east-coast China. The Family Mart has a lot of the same snacks as the place behind the Juice Bar, but with different flavors. The flavors here are quite interesting. It's really common to see chips and crackers with beef stew flavoring or salad flavor or tomato flavor. You don't find your traditional barbecue flavored potato chips or sour cream and onion. And remember, this is all Lays over here, too. There's a lot I could talk about when it comes to snacks, but I'll save that for another post.

Here's a picture of the center of campus. This is one of four quadrants of the central mall. The skinny gray structure there is the center. In the mornings, you can watch all the older Chinese people dancing or doing Tai Chi around the center area. Apparently, they love to have people join them, and two of the girls in our group have done it already.
 

The last thing worth mentioning on this post of day-to-day things is our favorite Beef Noodles restaurant. I forget the full name of the place, but since "Beef Noodles" is in the name, that's what we all call it. I've lost count of the number of times I've been there in the past three weeks, but it's something like five or six times. It's always good food, and really cheap too. You can get a meal there for somewhere between 10 and 20 yuan (roughly 2 to 3 dollars). The same meal in the States would probably be 8-10 dollars. One of the best things about food here is that everything comes with a complementary bowl or cup of tea, broth, or hot water. I do believe I will miss this when I return to the States. Even the hot water is becoming a welcomed thing to me.

Life here is pretty grand. I'm really enjoying my time here, and look forward to all of the adventures that await me.

Also, if you have any questions more specific than "How's life there?" (That's what this blog is for), feel free to ask in the comments, and I'll try to answer you the best I can.

Have a Splendiferous Day!

I'm Back in Elementary School

What was the best thing about elementary school? Some may say recess, some may say field trips, either way, you're out of class, and that's what mattered, right? We don't get recess here, but we do have field trips. Last week we had two, and today we had another one. This time, we went to a cooking school!

Every person made two dishes, chosen from a set list of dishes. We didn't do absolutely everything, such as mix up the sauces, but we did a lot of the preparation. The two dishes I made were Lemon Chicken and Sweet & Sour Pork.

The Veggie Floor

The Fruit and Meats Floor

Before we did the cooking, we made a trip to a local wet market, called so because the floors are wet. They have pretty much anything you could imagine dealing with food. The lower floor was full of all sorts of meats, from sausages to steaks to whole chickens to fish to eels to many other things. There was also a good selection of fruit down there. The upper floor was almost completely vegetable. There was one or two places with fruit, many different kinds of eggs, and then an area with spices, oils, and such things that are used in cooking.

We were warned by our professor not to take too many pictures or stand around too much, as the stand owners get mad when people do that and don't buy anything. They've even been kicked out before.

 



So I thought, "Hey, I'll just buy something then." I walked around everywhere first to see it all before I did my purchasing. Back in that area where all the cooking stuff was, I found cheese! I was udderly delighted! (Sorry, but I'm not sorry for that one.) Of course I bought some, and of course I chose the Gouda. I've always said that it's the best of the cheap cheeses. This one, as you can see, is from Holland, and cost me 34 yuan (~$5). Then I went back downstairs and bought some oranges and strawberries with Jordan M. We got 5 American oranges and 5 Chinese oranges.

 



Our professor also warned us not to try things offered to us, because then you're kind of expected to make a purchase. We were planning on buying some strawberries, so we decided we'd each try one and use that to figure out how many we wanted.

Oh. My. Word. That had to be the best tasting strawberry I've ever eaten! Jordan agreed that they were absolutely delicious. We decided to buy 30 of them.

The Lemon Chicken

This is actually the pork, but it was cut the same way

There were four of us that opted the lemon chicken. We were given a chunk of chicken breast and told to slice it, the thinner the better. We added a marinade consisting of a half teaspoon of salt and sugar, two shakes of pepper, and a bit of rice wine. Next came the breading. We breaded each thin piece and then made our way in to the deep fryers. We placed the chicken in the oil and waited probably less than a minute. It came out golden brown and then we drizzled a lemon glaze over it. That was all it was, and it tasted absolutely amazing!

Taking my chicken out of the oil

Shaadwal taking his chicken out

The Four who made Lemon Chicken: Shaadwal, Jordan M, Will P, Me

The Final Result

The Sweet & Sour Pork

As I said earlier, the pork was cut the same way. For the pork, if we cut it too thick. we flipped the knife over and massaged the meat with the blunt edge. We then added the same marinade as for the chicken. A few of us accidentally grabbed the wrong bottle, and added sesame oil instead of rice wine. Once we realized our mistake, we added the wine, too. Then we put the meat in flour and squeezed each piece into a little meatball. Before we had cut any meat, we cut up some peppers and pineapple and set them aside. We took the meat, peppers, and pineapple in to the fryers, where the pork balls were cooked. Then it was to another station where the peppers and pineapple were cooked in a red-orange sauce. I stirred that for a bit and then one of the cooks there added a spoonful of a white colored sauce and then we added the pork. Again, I stirred for a short while, and then it was done. It was quite delicious, and our professor said it is almost always the favorite of her students. I however, preferred the Lemon Chicken, but part of that could be due to the sesame oil added? I think that even had I correctly prepared the pork, I still would have enjoyed the chicken more. Jordan and Shaadwal both enjoyed the Lemon chicken most (although Shaadwal had Kung Pao Chicken instead of the Sweet & Sour Pork).

 

Even the head was prepared to add to the presentation

One of the other dishes prepared by the others was fish. Cai, Theo, Scott, and Marshall decided to be adventurous and try an eyeball. None of them liked it. We asked head chef if he likes fish eyes and he exclaimed, "We don't eat those!" We all burst into laughter at the four who had eaten the eyes. He then explained that some people do and some people don't, and he was someone who didn't. 

The head chef who instructed us on how to prepare our dishes

The whole experience was entirely amazing! I enjoyed it even more than the Kung Fu trip last week. I mean Kung Fu was incredible, but I'm always going to be up for cooking. I'm looking forward to returning home armed with multiple Chinese dishes in my arsenal of meals to cook.
 
We have one more field trip next week called "Shanghai Rush" where we have to go all over the city and complete certain tasks. I'm looking forward to that as it sounds like a really fun adventure.

Also, be on the lookout for another blog post by this weekend. I'll finally get around to showing you pictures of where I live and what I do on a day-to-day basis. I really should have done that right away, but better late than never, right?

Have a Splendiferous Day!

Bird's Eye View and a Bit of Kung Fu

On Monday, I was allowed the most incredible view from the observatory of the Shanghai World Financial Center aka "The Bottle Opener." Most of the entire group went to the Bottle Opener, but only seven of us decided to pay 120 yuan (less than $20) to go all the way to the top (well, as far up as they let tourists go). The rest of the group went to the bar on the 92nd floor for free. The seven of us who went up further were more picky with the view we wanted. In the bar, you couldn't get right up next to the exterior glass windows.

When we got off the metro and walked outside, this is how we were greeted.

The pointy, colorful one is the Oriental Pearl

My phone camera definitely doesn't do it near the justice deserved, but I think it still captures a good degree of how incredible it was. Growing up in the country definitely had a hand in the amount of awe I felt, for sure. When 80-100 ft silos are the tallest things you're used to seeing, any decent-sized structure makes you stop for a second. I know, I sound like I've never been off a farm before, but even Chicago (and especially Indianapolis) doesn't compare with the feeling you get in the financial district of Shanghai at night. I mean, just look at this; I wish you could see it first hand.

I really have no idea what these buildings are

If you're wondering why it's called the Bottle Opener, and don't want to look it up (and you know I'll show you, so why bother), here's a picture of it:


 

If you haven't guessed, it's the blue-lit one on the left. The dark trapezoid up top is a hole in the building. Originally, it was planned with a circular hole, but the mayor thought it looked too much like the Japanese flag, so it was changed to the trapezoid it has now. As we got closer, I was able to get a pretty neat picture with the three tallest towers in Shanghai. I think they posed quite well for a selfie with me.

The Bottle Opener (492m), the Shanghai Tower (632m), and the Jin Mao Tower (382.5m)

The Oriental Pearl was also kind enough to pose with me. It just lit up when it realized a foreigner wanted to take a picture with it.

Initially when I got to Shanghai, I didn't want to be "the tourist" and take pictures of everything and selfies with everything, but that notion quickly got thrown out of the window as I was put in awe by the amazing sights of this city. This night was no exception, and if I put all the photos up, you'd get sick of them. Someday I may put up a bunch on Facebook, but not today. I don't really feel like sorting through all of them. It might not even happen until I go back home to Indiana. Who knows? 

There was a nice elevated pedestrian walkway that went from the metro station to the Bottle Opener and on further. It provided a nice platform for good pictures, without worrying about the low, street-level stuff. It also provided a chance for a good panorama shot that turned out pretty decent in my opinion.

The building on the left with the blue left edge is the Bottle Opener

Before we went up to the top of the Bottle Opener, we got to see a little scale model of this small section of Shanghai.

We first went to the floor just under the opening in the tower. The ceiling was glass, and we could see up into the floor just above the opening, which has a glass floor (not the whole floor, just part). It had a pretty amazing view, but we were quite eager to get up to the highest possible point possible.

The view up top was absolutely stunning! At 100 floors in the air, almost all of us felt a little wobbly at our first glances out the windows, which slanted outward, only making us more conscious of how high up we were.

This is undoubtedly the best picture I have of the Oriental Pearl. Just look at it.

You really can't beat this view (okay, maybe from the Burj Khalifa in Dubai)

I was pretty happy to be almost 500 meters in the sky (You convert that to feet. I'm not in the US anymore.)

Marshall being absolutely fabulous

Another picture with the Oriental Pearl

I'm standing on a square piece of glass, 100 floors in the air

The Crew: Marshall, Shaadwal, me, Sagar, Srijit, Cai, and Tommy

It was an absolute blast to experience the Bottle Opener Observatory with these six guys! We all agreed that the $20 we paid to get up there was most definitely worth it. If you ever find yourself in Shanghai, you should seriously consider heading up there.

On Thursday afternoon, we took a field trip to the Shanghai Urban Planning and Exhibition Center. On one floor, they had a huge scale model of a good chunk of Shanghai. I couldn't get the whole thing in one picture, so you'll have to be content with multiple shots of small sections.

The blue tall buildings in the center are the Shanghai Tower and the Bottle Opener

The lit-up road near the bottom is the one we took from the airport to the hotel the first day

The lights cycled to show the city at different times of the day

We had a fun time trying to find our campus among the many buildings. We finally found it by using notable buildings near campus. The athletic track in the center with the red laser dot on it is ours. It's oriented North-South with North to the left side. (This picture >>)

The next floor up was open to the model below, allowing me to capture a good chunk of it in one shot. There were other cool things there, but the model was definitely what held my attention.

The field trip on Thursday actually started with a trip to a Kung Fu (Gōngfū in Mandarin) school in the morning. We were divided into groups of three or four and were tasked with getting to the school via taxi. No problem right? Well my group had quite the time accomplishing that little task. Twice, a taxi with a green light passed us up, which was quite frustrating. Finally, after standing and walking (to get to a place where there might be more available taxis) in the cold drizzle for half an hour we were able to hail a cab. We were the last group to arrive at the school.

David, me, Theo (Anny was sitting up front)

There were three instructors who each did a short demonstration before we got started. We started with some warm-up runs and stretches and such. That's when I realized how out of shape I am. I'm skinny, but that doesn't mean I'm fit. We learned how to get into the correct fighting stance, and then were taught a simple punch from each hand and a kick with the right foot.

Warm-up stretches

The Kung Fu "salute" (is that what you'd call it?)

Thej (black sweatshirt on the right) sometimes had trouble remembering which hand he was supposed to use to punch.

All of us at the end with the instructors and our Chinese Culture teacher

When we were all done, the instructors were willing to take a picture with me, so that was pretty neat.

I don't know his name, me, I don't know his name, and I don't know his name either

It was a ton of fun, but I was extremely sore on Friday. I'm still feeling it a bit today, and it's been three days.

I've now been in Shanghai for 16 days, and I'm still alive and enjoying myself, so that's great. There's still lots to do and many adventures to be had, so keep checking in to follow along with me.

Have a Splendiferous Day!