Orient-ation

8/26/12

The trip to Shanghai was pretty uneventful.  My parents and I woke up at 2 a.m., rolled into the car, and headed to Moline. Once there, the strap broke on my bag, which was pretty unfortunate.  As a result, I was forced to lug my little book bag around on my hip while simultaneously working with my carry on and checked luggage.  At the gate for my flight from O-hare I met up with four other girls in the CIEE program.  Happily, we all had seats close to each other on the plane.

The twelve hour plane ride was rather boring.  I hadn’t brought any books with me and the movie player wasn’t working.  I slept through most of it.  The food was kind of off, but what more can you expect from American Airlines? I pretty much slept the entire time.

We all arrived at the Shanghai, Pudong Airport in a desperate, sweaty jumble.  We found one of our guides, Sharon, holding a sign and flocked to her like lost kittens.  We then met with several other CIEE teachers and filtered out of the airport into the bus.  Our hotel is clean and fairly quiet.  The first thing I did once I got my key was rush into my room and take a shower.  Following my shower, I retrieved something from the front desk and met up with some other CIEE people.  We decided to go exploring and walked around the quart yard in front of the hotel.  We briefly went back to our rooms to pick up some items, collected a couple more people and exited the campus in search of food.  We ended up at a mall a couple of blocks away from the campus.  We stopped at a brightly colored, and very full, hot pot place.  Between the five of us and a very patient waiter we managed to order a decent meal.  The two young men in our party did not do as well as the three girls; they ended up with more food than they could possibly think of eating.  We then relocated to the hotel.  I wandered around a bit more and then returned to my room.

Once I got back to my room, I immediately noticed a conglomeration of luggage that had not been there before as well as a hairbrush on the sink that clearly did not belong to me.  About fifteen minutes later my new roommate, Kelsey, came in.  She is super cheerful and we quickly realized that we have a lot in common with each other.  Shortly thereafter we went to bed.

Breakfast the next morning was a bit of an adventure.  There was some normal food such as tea, toast, and rolls and then some more interesting items.  Among the interesting items were noodles, dumplings, sticky buns with red bean paste and many other new food stuffs that we weren’t used to seeing; especially at breakfast.  I tried a bit of the unusual stuff and then a couple of normal items.  We met up with some more CIEE members and then headed back to the room.

It doesn’t feel weird being here yet.  In fact, it feels quite normal.  I am not sure how long this will last, because it is obvious to me that my Chinese is poor and that getting in and around places is going to be a bit complicated.  However, it feels right.  I am very happy to be here, relieved even.  I am sure that culture shock will hit sooner or later, but this is definitely a different experience from Africa or America.  Perhaps this is because I am more used to traveling at this point.  It is not strange, I like living out of my suitcase, and meeting new people is always exciting.

I am also fascinated by the sheer number of people.  People are everywhere! Apartment complexes fill the city.  There are clothes drying in several windows and balconies.  People are out jogging, practicing Taichi, and children are everywhere.  It’s all really hard to take in at once.  I find myself staring at them and frequently have to remind myself that this is rude.  Shanghai has been a lovely experience so far.  There are a lot of new things to look at and jet lag certainly hasn't hit yet.  I hope the next few days are fun and I cannot wait to get to Chongqing.  I am desperately hoping to see the place that I will be living for the next year.