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!