Arrival in China

Well I’m here. In China. It’s so nuts. I can’t really believe it. I look out the window and try to comprehend that I’m on the complete opposite side of the world of my home, my family, my friends. The flight went pretty well. It wasn’t crowded at all and I got a whole side row to myself (which was two seats). I made myself a pretty cozy corner with those packages of pillows and blankets and took three Tylenol PM and slept for like 6 or 7 hours of it. All in all the flight wasn’t too bad. Ironically, I didn’t end up sitting where there was a power port for my laptop (this was ironic because I definitely made a 12:30 AM run to Wal Mart the night before to find an adapter so I could plug it in and watch movies and stuff). It’s all good, I made due without it. All in all, not bad for a 13.5 hour flight.

And now on to the good stuff. China is amazing. As we were landing, I was looking out at the city, unfortunately I was on the wrong side to the see the tall buildings in Pudong (the home of the Pearl TV tower and all of the other futuristic buildings are that are so iconic of Shanghai). Really though, I probably couldn’t have seen them anyways because Shanghai is definitely Pollution Town, USA (or China, rather). It was seriously pretty nasty. It’s not as bad as Beijing though. But a thick brownish fog envelops the city, and from the airplane this narrows visibility to about 4 or 5 miles. Also, as we were landing I was looking out at these fields and there were people working in them, wearing those cone shaped Chinese hats. It was really cool. Anyways, we landed and I went through customs and all that jazz. And no, I didn’t get hassled for bringing that “special book” or anything like that. I was hoping to find people from the Alliance program waiting for me, but I couldn’t find them and assumed they had already left. I was carrying way too many bags and looking way too lost, and a lady from one of the hotel desks yelled at me and told me she could arrange a Taxi. I ended up spending 300 kuai (about 50 US dollars) for a car to the University. This was about twice as much as I would have spent on a regular Taxi but she had ordered it and I didn’t want to be rude or whatever. The ride over was fun, I was looking at all of the buildings and trying to soak in as much of Shanghai as I could. The cab driver spoke no English, and I am not the most adept of Chinese speakers, but we attempted to converse. It was fun.

The city is sprawling and growing. There are clumps of high-rises everywhere. The area where our campus is located is very cool. It’s a “college area” so there are lot of cool shops and cafes around. There are two very tall towers, and I’m told that’s where we will have class. As far as my apartment goes, it is OFF THE CHAIN. I’m sharing an apartment with a buddy from school, Kyle Mathis, and a Chinese roommate whom I have not met yet. The apartment is amazing. It’s located on the 15th floor of the Tonghe International Student Apartment building. Every single window has a wonderful view of the city. We have a sun-porch, where we will dry our clothes, and the bathrooms are very nice (especially by Chinese standards). Right now I’m looking out at the sunrise over the city from my bedroom window. It feels like a New York City penthouse. There is a window in the shower that also overlooks the city, and I’m hoping to start each morning soaping off, looking out at the city, sipping a bottle of scotch with a cigarette dangling from my mouth (just kidding, sorta…)

And now to the food. The Alliance took us to dinner last night, where we sampled some authentic Shanghainese food. Of course, this kicked the crap out of Panda Express. They kept bringing bowls and plates of various dishes out and we shared them, family style. Among the dishes were Thousand Year Old Egg (which is this black egg soup that looks disgusting, but tasted delicious, similar to boiled egg), these furry green beans (fortunately we had a student from Shanghai who informed us that we were only supposed to eat the seeds inside), shrimp, tofu and crab, and all sorts of vegetables. The most delicious was a pork dish, and the most weird was a dish made from jellyfish. The flavor was delicious, but I couldn’t quite get used to the texture. Apparently that’s the thing with weird Chinese food, the flavor is okay, but the texture is harder to swallow (Ha ha ha). All in all the food was excellent.

Wandering around the streets of Shanghai, with a nice autumn breeze, watching bicycles, scooters, and cars go by, it’s still hard to believe that I’m actually here in China.

More, later.