I'm finally here in China! I left bright and early on Sunday morning to catch a flight to Chicago, then Los Angeles, and finally Shanghai. Though the Duke program doesn't begin until June 11th, I'm here early with my parents to visit our family in Shanghai. It was a very long flight and I spent about 24 hours on the road. It's been four years since I've been to China – I think I must have repressed exactly how long the flights take. At least I had an emergency exit seat so there was plenty of legroom and a great view of the TV screen.
Once I arrived in Shanghai, I immediately had my first challenge. With all the transfers, the airline lost one of my suitcases. It's been a month since my last Chinese class so everything was a little rusty… I would start off speaking in Mandarin with the occasional English word interjected, then subconsciously reverted to speaking in my native Shanghainese. I'm pretty sure the employees thought I was crazy. I managed to file the report though – hopefully the suitcase gets here soon! I then met up with my parents at their terminal, we found my uncle, and we were on our way to the city!
The drive was absolutely amazing. As I said, it's been four years since I was last here, and everything has changed so much. In preparation for the World Expo, Shanghai has completely changed the look of the city. Many of the buildings have rainbow lights on them, the roofs are all covered with a golden light, and the bridges have this crazy blue light on the underside. Everything looked psychedelic – that's the only word besides colorful that I can think of to describe it. We drove past the World Expo where all the pavilions were lit up when we were on the Lupu Bridge, which looked like Rainbow Road in Mario Kart.
My parents and I are staying with my aunt, who lives near the Gymnasium in Shanghai. A new addition to her house is a little Yorkie named Dong Dong (Candy). I laugh at the name, but even more so at the sight of the hyperactive pup slipping and sliding around on the slick wooden floors. There are so many people who own dogs now – walking around I saw Pomeranians, Westies, golden retrievers, and even some huge bear-like dogs. I also saw a bulldog! Reppin' in China.
The time difference didn't affect me too badly – I think waking up at 2am for my 24 hour flight sufficiently tired me out. It was nice waking up early today though – at around 5:30 – it gave me a chance to Skype and email. My parents and I went out for an early breakfast (I had Shanghai-style wonton soup) then met my uncle's driver, who took us to my uncle's house. Instead of living in an apartment in the city, he lives in a community of single houses about 40 minutes out of the city. The house is beautiful – all of the decorations are Gudong so I get a feeling that I'm surrounded by a lot of history. He has a golden retriever named Niu Niu.
It's a little depressing that I forgot a good bit of my Chinese characters. Driving around, I've seen a lot of characters that I know, but also a lot of ones that are familiar but escape my memory. I'll be spending a lot of the next two weeks reviewing…or maybe try to learn through osmosis since I'm surrounded by so much Chinese.
A favorite moment so far – watching Chinese peoples' reactions to an American student weaving through the pedestrian traffic on a longboard.
My Yale VPN is failing to connect, so I'm blocked from Facebook and Blogger. Experiencing minor withdrawal symptoms. I hope it works in Beijing!
Keep us posted about VPN! =)
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