Finally moved to the engineering campus! It is strange how at home I feel here. The campus is probably around 3 times the size of Purdue, with the buildings sprawled out over a lot of area. Plenty of trees and fields fill in the gaps making the walks pleasant. Also, there are thousands of people my age wandering around! (Mostly on Bicycles. A few of my friends got bikes for around 300 kuai, but I haven't gotten a chance to make the investment yet.) The mechanical engineering building is a 30 minute walk from my dorm, so a bike will be necessary. The nicest thing is that most of the students have very good english and are more than willing to make friends! Overall, it looks like Minhang will be much more like college than the downtown Su Huei campus. Here is my address in English and Chinese:
Daniel Flavin
800 Dongchuan Road
West 51, Shanghai Jiaotong University Student Apartment, Room 404-2
Minhang District, Shanghai, China 200240
上海市闵行区东川路800号
上海交通大学西51栋留学生公寓
404-2房 Daniel Flavin收
200240
The room is definitely smaller than the hotel was, but it's comfortable and feels more like "my own" than the other room. The beds are softer and there is way more storage space. I'm looking forward to the next few weeks, especially with the sun shining and the warm day outside my balcony!
Wednesday: 09/02/2011
After recovering on Monday, a few of us were off again! Emily, Alek, Isaac, Tori, Bailey, Jordyn, Daniel Stubbs, Grant, Mike Lorenz, Jacob Fritschle, and myself piled into the bus early Tuesday morning. We got one-way tickets to Anji in the hopes of hiking in the bamboo forest most of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was filmed in. We had a hotel for the night, but nothing else figured out… We knew it was going to be an adventure as soon as we arrived when absolutely nothing was in Pinyin! (Hanyu is the character form of Chinese, and Pinyin is the adaptation into Latin letters that allow westerners to semi-read these words.)
Goal Number 1: Get return-trip bus tickets. SUCCESS! After half an hour of wandering around near where the bus dropped us off, finding a place to buy bunnies. (We have since changed our quantification of cost into bunnies and bao zhi. A bunny is 30kuai, and 2 bao zhi totals 3kuai.) We ended up walking onto and over the roof of some building, entering on the 3rd floor, coming down, essentially through the janitor closet, and ending up in the ticket-buying area!
Goal Number 2: Finding our hotel. FAIL! Well… not a complete fail. We did eventually find it. After asking about 10 taxi drivers if they could help us find this place, we finally got one taxi to call the hotel and get them to give him directions and he said he’d drive us. After getting two of his friends to tag along, we were off, and… about 30 seconds and a U-Turn later we were at the hotel. Unfortunately, someone mentioned we were from Shanghai, so not only did we have to pay the initial fee for a Taxi, but he charged us the 10kuai per cab Shanghai price instead of the 5kuai Anji price. Oh well. You live and you learn. We got settled in, paid our deposit (520kuai) and paid for our rooms (35USD/room/night x 3 rooms).
Goal Number 3: Get to the bamboo forest. FAIL FAIL SUCCESS! Failure number one was assuming the hotel staff (who spoke about 100 words of English total) had any idea what we were talking about when we kept saying “zuzhi”… It’s about the equivalent of some Chinese person coming up to you in New York and saying “Tree! Tree! Tree!” in order to get directions to Central Park. Either way, we had them write the characters for what we thought was the bamboo forest… we get in a taxi… we do not end up at the bamboo forest. Instead we were at some sort of outdoor museum with fake bamboo that cost 65kuai to get in. Needless to say, we were not amused. Fortunately, while in the little village in front of the museum, Tori found someone who we thought knew what we wanted. She asked us if we “want bus” to take us there. After making a call on her cell phone and everyone in the village yelling at each other, two janky looking vans pull into the parking lot. These vans are pretty much like an off-brand version of the Camry that has had the roof raised an extra 6 inches and a bench thrown in the back. So, after squeezing 11 people into 10 seats and paying this random lady 260kuai, we were off! We rode for about half an hour on fast highways and bumpy construction roads until finally arriving at our destination. Regardless of the mistakes along the way, it was definitely worth it!
We spent the day in the forest, not wandering too far in. We climbed the first hill, and went up the look-out tower, got Jordyn to ride the sketchy roller coaster back down the hill, and went off searching for food. (The roller coaster is individual carts in which you control your speed with a hand brake. Terrifying! It was just something this father/son put together and cost 1 bunny and 5 bao zhi to ride.) When we left the park to get food, it was getting dark, buildings were sparse, and we had no transportation… so of course we decide to run down the road until we find something. Once again, fortune followed us and we found a family restaurant with a menu entirely in Hanyu. After saying “ji rou”, “tang”, and “zuzhi” a delicious meal greated us. The bamboo was well cooked and seasoned, the meat and rice were perfect, and the chicken soup was incredibly fresh. There is no doubt about its freshness because after ordering chicken, the cook yelled down the street and five minutes later a lady walked by the restaurant door holding a live chicken by the wings. Not long after, we had a salty soup with an entire chicken cooked in it. 很好吃！(How delicious!)
我们的美奴 (women de mei nu… our waitress) was able to again make a phone call to these local “bus drivers” to pick us up. At this point, the second “FAIL” from goal #3 can be explained. The waitress only charged us 140kuai to take everyone back to the hotel… almost half our previous price. We had been swindled. Either way, we had a good night of sleep and were able to arrange a pick-up in the morning for the same price to return to the “bamboo sea”.
Wednesday blew Tuesday out of the water as far as outdoor adventuring goes. There were only about 4-5 hours of actual hiking, but it was wonderful. Rolling hills continued to get higher and higher until it finally broke out into open air a few miles in. When the thick leaves, parted a Buddhist temple was standing right at the end of the path. Under a roof stood three huge statues and a burning fire. In front of the building was an unbelievably blue lake that must have been snow-fed by the mountains surrounding it. From there, was a pretty waterfall, and stone steps leading further up into the mountains and snowy pathways. After continuing a little further and soaking in the beauty, it was time to head back (and ride the rollercoaster!). After this trip, I’m very excited to see the Yellow Mountains and have even more adventures.
Just for good measure, here is a little video of the waterfall we found!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/purduesjtu2011/5444204772/
Goal Number 1: Get return-trip bus tickets. SUCCESS! After half an hour of wandering around near where the bus dropped us off, finding a place to buy bunnies. (We have since changed our quantification of cost into bunnies and bao zhi. A bunny is 30kuai, and 2 bao zhi totals 3kuai.) We ended up walking onto and over the roof of some building, entering on the 3rd floor, coming down, essentially through the janitor closet, and ending up in the ticket-buying area!
Goal Number 2: Finding our hotel. FAIL! Well… not a complete fail. We did eventually find it. After asking about 10 taxi drivers if they could help us find this place, we finally got one taxi to call the hotel and get them to give him directions and he said he’d drive us. After getting two of his friends to tag along, we were off, and… about 30 seconds and a U-Turn later we were at the hotel. Unfortunately, someone mentioned we were from Shanghai, so not only did we have to pay the initial fee for a Taxi, but he charged us the 10kuai per cab Shanghai price instead of the 5kuai Anji price. Oh well. You live and you learn. We got settled in, paid our deposit (520kuai) and paid for our rooms (35USD/room/night x 3 rooms).
Goal Number 3: Get to the bamboo forest. FAIL FAIL SUCCESS! Failure number one was assuming the hotel staff (who spoke about 100 words of English total) had any idea what we were talking about when we kept saying “zuzhi”… It’s about the equivalent of some Chinese person coming up to you in New York and saying “Tree! Tree! Tree!” in order to get directions to Central Park. Either way, we had them write the characters for what we thought was the bamboo forest… we get in a taxi… we do not end up at the bamboo forest. Instead we were at some sort of outdoor museum with fake bamboo that cost 65kuai to get in. Needless to say, we were not amused. Fortunately, while in the little village in front of the museum, Tori found someone who we thought knew what we wanted. She asked us if we “want bus” to take us there. After making a call on her cell phone and everyone in the village yelling at each other, two janky looking vans pull into the parking lot. These vans are pretty much like an off-brand version of the Camry that has had the roof raised an extra 6 inches and a bench thrown in the back. So, after squeezing 11 people into 10 seats and paying this random lady 260kuai, we were off! We rode for about half an hour on fast highways and bumpy construction roads until finally arriving at our destination. Regardless of the mistakes along the way, it was definitely worth it!
我们的美奴 (women de mei nu… our waitress) was able to again make a phone call to these local “bus drivers” to pick us up. At this point, the second “FAIL” from goal #3 can be explained. The waitress only charged us 140kuai to take everyone back to the hotel… almost half our previous price. We had been swindled. Either way, we had a good night of sleep and were able to arrange a pick-up in the morning for the same price to return to the “bamboo sea”.
Just for good measure, here is a little video of the waterfall we found!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/purduesjtu2011/5444204772/
Sunday: 06/02/2011
I am officially Buddhist Templed-out… This was my first experience on a guided tour, and it was definitely intense! Vivi, our guide had us bouncing around the country side checking out all kinds of awesome temples, gardens, restaurants, and old-towns for three days. We started out in Suzhou, which is about an hour and a half straight west of Shanghai, and then went on to Hanzhou, which is around 4 hours southwest of the city.
Forced to choose between the two, Hanzhou is definitely better, but they’re both pretty awesome. Hanzhou had more natural beauty, but the temples in Suzhou were architecturally impressive. It’s hard to keep them all straight, but there was one temple with a building that I’m pretty sure was attempting to copy The Leaning Tower of Pisa, another with a huge bell that you can ring for 5 kuai and a blessing, and an awesome one that was carved out of a cave with more Buddha than you can count with all the fingers in China. There were a few gardens… one where Tori paid enough for a painting that our tour guide got really angry at her, another one where I used peacock mating calls to get an albino peacock to come over and spread its feathers… and a town where I got two souvenir gifts for my family! 
All told, it was a great trip, extremely exhausting and well worth the effort. (especially considering everything was paid for) One last thing can’t be overlooked. The last night in Hanzhou, we decided to go find a place to go out at night. Alek, ran into this club called “G+” that used to be KTV, but has since been converted to an all-out club. I have never been anywhere this awesome. When we eventually made it (the initial address was wrong and took us to the 6th floor of a sketch building with no lights and escalators that weren’t moving… not to mention the lavishly decorated room with no patrons and about ten very attractive men in tailored suits ushering everyone into a dark back room…), the entire block seemed to be bumping from the speakers in this place. The entryway was very futuristic with a huge white cube filled with flat mirrors and minimalist furniture and a huge G+ on the building in ever-changing Technicolor. The club itself branched off from this room. I’m not sure how to describe it fully. The entire place was a maze of bars and chairs and hallways but with a few relatively open areas for dancing and singing. The actual ceiling was probably 10 ft., but appeared to be like 6.5 feet since the entire thing was packed with hanging disco balls, moving lights, modern-looking hanging lights, projectors shining random music videos onto squares of Plexiglas, etc. There were a lot of plush booths and stand-up tables and drinks were brought to your table by an endless supply of waiters and waitresses. (fuyuan/mei nu… fuyuan is a way to say waiter/waitress and mei nu literally means “beautiful lady” but is the modern way of beckoning a waitress.) Every once in a while, the music would switch from great dubstep to mediocre karaoke music, but by around 2am it was all good stuff. The staff brought out 2 foot Styrofoam sticks with LEDs inside, and we had fun dancing and waving/fighting the rest of the night.
And just for good measure:
And just for good measure:
Wednesday: 02/02/2011
Chinese New Year has finally arrived! We’ve been hearing sporadic fireworks for days, but this makes everything in the past look like child’s play. There isn’t one big show put on by the city as far as we can tell. It seems like everyone buys a huge box of shells and shoots them off whenever they feel like it, wherever they feel like it. If you took the St. Louis 4th of July fireworks show, multiplied it by at least 100 and spread it all over the city, it might come close to the way the Chinese do fireworks. The disregard for safety is probably the most amazing part. In the morning all the walls they’ve been set next to are completely charred, and there are most likely quite a few injuries. If you look out your window, you can seem them bouncing off of high rises right before they explode between two buildings.
Before the show got going, we had our farewell/New Year dinner with Dr. Atkinson as she only has two more days in China. The meal was amazing! Rivaled only by the food Susan prepared for a few of us earlier in the week. The craziest was a fish that had actually been de-boned. If the lack of bones wasn’t weird enough, the shape of the beast was. It was like a sting-ray the size of a Frisbee disc, but it had a huge bill. It was almost like a platypus with a 12-inch bill and the body of a fish. Regardless of what it looked like, it was perfectly prepared in a tasty salty sauce and completely devoured by all of us.
After dinner, we knew we had a long bus ride in the morning and would not be able to sleep for all the fireworks, leaving only one option… Go clubbing! We ended up at Mural bar, which is an Egyptian themed bar with a small dance floor, plenty of comfy booths and a live band. The keytarist did a good job of getting everyone dancing, and the ladies enjoyed free drinks while the guys had 20 kuai well drinks. Luckily, we all packed before we went out because we only had about 4 hours to nap before it was time to ship out to Suzhou!
After dinner, we knew we had a long bus ride in the morning and would not be able to sleep for all the fireworks, leaving only one option… Go clubbing! We ended up at Mural bar, which is an Egyptian themed bar with a small dance floor, plenty of comfy booths and a live band. The keytarist did a good job of getting everyone dancing, and the ladies enjoyed free drinks while the guys had 20 kuai well drinks. Luckily, we all packed before we went out because we only had about 4 hours to nap before it was time to ship out to Suzhou!
Monday: 30/01/2011
We’ve had quite a few adventures with the Chinese language teacher, Susan recently. It started when she invited another student to lunch on Friday. From there, they decided to go to this chocolate/coffee shop Susan liked. I was lucky enough to get pulled along. (It was Emily, Isaac, Alek, and me). It turned out to be one of the most amazing chocolate experiences of my life, much less China. They don’t know how to make coffee here. To get coffee that isn’t Instant Nesquik, you have to go to a reasonably expensive coffee shop with a name in English. Whisk is the peak of perfection in this realm of expensive drinks. The owner imports all of his ingredients. Every last one comes from South America. When you order a hot chocolate, the only options are 60%, 75%, and 85% cocoa. Beautiful. Isaac ordered this astoundingly delicious hot chocolate with a shot of espresso, I got a double shot espresso, and Alek got a hot chocolate. The hot chocolate is only about 3oz for about 8USD, but it is worth it. It comes in a really stylish porcelain cup that’s shaped like an egg with a flat bottom, a diagonal cut across the top, and a 1-inch flat runway that the chocolate runs down before ending in your mouth. This place is definitely on the top of the list. I’m actually taking Tori for dinner on Valentine’s day!
After wandering around the city a bit more with Susan, learning Chinese, teaching a few odd English phrases, we ended up in a Chinese DVD shop. These movies are ridiculously cheap. 10kuai gets you the hd version of any movie you could want. It takes about 4 weeks for a movie to get from the theater to one of these shops. Instead of renting movies for a dollar, you can own them. This is 100% illegal though, and none of these discs can cross the border into the US…
Susan was so embarrassed that we paid for her drink at Whisk, that she invited all of us over for dinner at her place for a home cooked meal. It was honestly the best food I’ve had since entering China. She fully understands that we don’t like bones in our meat, so we ended up with a soup, chicken, the most delicious sweet glazed pork you can imagine, fresh steamed veggies (this is harder to come by than you’d think), rice, delicious cinnamon raisin bread, and plenty of chocolate! It was delightful, and we were extremely grateful for her generosity.
After wandering around the city a bit more with Susan, learning Chinese, teaching a few odd English phrases, we ended up in a Chinese DVD shop. These movies are ridiculously cheap. 10kuai gets you the hd version of any movie you could want. It takes about 4 weeks for a movie to get from the theater to one of these shops. Instead of renting movies for a dollar, you can own them. This is 100% illegal though, and none of these discs can cross the border into the US…
Susan was so embarrassed that we paid for her drink at Whisk, that she invited all of us over for dinner at her place for a home cooked meal. It was honestly the best food I’ve had since entering China. She fully understands that we don’t like bones in our meat, so we ended up with a soup, chicken, the most delicious sweet glazed pork you can imagine, fresh steamed veggies (this is harder to come by than you’d think), rice, delicious cinnamon raisin bread, and plenty of chocolate! It was delightful, and we were extremely grateful for her generosity.
Monday: 24/01/2011
We had another field trip for our culture class today. As a reminder, all of these trips are completely covered under my program fee, so it has proven to be a very good investment. This time it was a Chinese lunch in which we were supposed to bring a Chinese friend. 
With the help of our friend Sarah, we were able to order a whole bunch of crazy things, attempting to find things that weren’t gross or filled with bones. It ended up being quite successful and delicious! The best part was the dessert, which were these delicious little hedgehog-shaped fruits.
Side-Note… Started “The Laying Down Game” in Shanghai. It has given way to many funny pictures from everyone.
ENTER LARGE GAP IN ME DOING ANYTHING FUN AS I BECOME SICK, MISS CLASS, CATCH UP ON HOMEWORK AND GET SICK AGAIN.
Side-Note… Started “The Laying Down Game” in Shanghai. It has given way to many funny pictures from everyone.
ENTER LARGE GAP IN ME DOING ANYTHING FUN AS I BECOME SICK, MISS CLASS, CATCH UP ON HOMEWORK AND GET SICK AGAIN.
Sunday: 23/01/2011
Phil turned 21 in a country that is completely unaware of the significance of the day. To be honest, the dinner wasn’t anything that unusual. It was just like a Hibachi Grill back in the U.S. It was just as delicious. 
The only difference was the option of all-you-can eat/drink! For 168 kuai, we ate way too much meat and drank way too many expensive drinks. There was one interesting cultural experience when we decided to get fruit while we were still a little hungry.
Someone ordered fruit and the chef asked us if we wanted ice cream. Without any hesitation we said yes! The only problem was that soon after, the chef turned the grill off and left. Servers stopped coming into our room and we were really confused. When we did manage to get a waitress back in, she was pretty grumpy. The chef returned and was cheerful, but everyone was reasonably confused. Apparently ordering fruit is a very clear sign of the end of the meal, and with a language barrier as severe as ours, that’s pretty important. We still left full and happy, but left the staff a little ruffled.
Also, here is a picture of the "across the river" part of Shanghai and an interesting link that will give a better idea of just how quickly this city is growing.
UPDATE: We’re pretty sure this dinner is why everyone got horribly sick.
The only difference was the option of all-you-can eat/drink! For 168 kuai, we ate way too much meat and drank way too many expensive drinks. There was one interesting cultural experience when we decided to get fruit while we were still a little hungry.
Someone ordered fruit and the chef asked us if we wanted ice cream. Without any hesitation we said yes! The only problem was that soon after, the chef turned the grill off and left. Servers stopped coming into our room and we were really confused. When we did manage to get a waitress back in, she was pretty grumpy. The chef returned and was cheerful, but everyone was reasonably confused. Apparently ordering fruit is a very clear sign of the end of the meal, and with a language barrier as severe as ours, that’s pretty important. We still left full and happy, but left the staff a little ruffled.
Also, here is a picture of the "across the river" part of Shanghai and an interesting link that will give a better idea of just how quickly this city is growing.
UPDATE: We’re pretty sure this dinner is why everyone got horribly sick.
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