Day 38 & 39 & 40: School Days

Day 38: Today is our last Monday in Shanghai and the start of our last week of class in Shanghai. Wow, I know I said this yesterday, but I still can't believe we've been in Shanghai for nearly 6 weeks! After class, which was also our last class with one of our professors (she had a conference scheduled in Germany), I chose not to attend Martial Arts class, again. Yes, I've been a bad student until the end, but I'll make sure to make up for my bad attendance with the cultural classes offered in Qingdao! Other than writing my final presentation script for class, I went to group dinner with my classmates and my professor, and then, I stopped at McDonald's with my friends to try the Green Tea McFlurry, which is something that is definitely not offered at McDonald's in the States, so I'd really wanted to try it. I'm not the biggest fan of Oreo's, but the McFlurry still tasted awesome, and I know I'm going to miss it a lot. Hopefully, Qingdao also has a McDonald's that offers it, so I can try it again before leaving back to America!

  

Day 39: Although our professor who was in charge of teaching our Modern Chinese class left for a conference yesterday, we still had class today with one of our other professors as a substitute. Our last lesson focused on China's history, and as an individual who's always been interested in Asian history, I really enjoyed today's lesson, and I also loved seeing our professor explaining everything with tons of enthusiasm. We went through all the dynasties of China, went through some key points of some of the major dynasties, and still continued to learn new vocabulary and grammar structures. Personally, I thought today's class was a great way to end our course (although we technically still have class for the next two days for our final exam, final presentation, and diary presentation). After class, we also had our final tutoring session with our tutors, and I spent my time wisely by going through my final presentation script. After I got done with everything scheduled for today, I went with my friend and my roommate to an area near 小南门 (AKA Xiǎo nán mén) to pick up my friend's tailored dress. [The address of the store is in our LBAT book!] Aside from getting to see my friend's new pretty dress, I was happy to have had the opportunity to see "real China" again after my last visit to the residential area of Yuyuan. Instead of seeing shoppers and high buildings, I found it nice to see an area where people actually "lived." Definitely something that I would recommend you to go see! Also, like the Yuyuan area, I found it interesting to see development and change happening right around the residential area as I saw cranes pulling up new, high buildings. China, like I've seen in the news and like I've heard while in class, is definitely going through rapid changes!

 

 

  

  

Day 40: Today we had our written final exam and our diary presentations! Again, I'm still amazed how close we're to the end of this program. We now only have our final presentations left! After spending the night taking naps while studying for our final exam, I came back from class, and basically, I passed out and ended up missing my last day of Taichi class. Yes, again (I know I've been saying this every week), I'm sorry for being a bad student. I woke up right in time for dinner though. Funny, right? Technically, according to the schedule that our professors had prepared, we were supposed to have a group dinner on Thursday and our final banquet on Friday, but because so many of us were heading to Korea on Friday (due to Chinese visa errors, many of us received 60 day multiple entry visas, so those of us with the wrong visas had to leave China and reenter the country, so as a result, many people chose to visit South Korea during the weekend in which our program was moving from Shanghai to Qingdao), our professor moved everything forward, so we were set to have group dinner on Wednesday and our final banquet on Thursday. Unfortunately, only have of our group showed up for group dinner, so our professor was unhappy, but on the bright side, we had double the amount of food to eat. Everything was good as usual, and it tasted even better because it was free (although, technically, this was all part of the program fee)!

  

After eating dinner, I went to McDonald's again to try drink on my "List of Things to Try." Along the way to McDonald's, I realized that I really hadn't taken pictures of the campus (Shanghai Jiao Tong University) we had stayed at for more than a month. I feel like I naturally thought that I had more than enough time to take pictures because we were set to stay on the university's campus for 6 weeks, but that wasn't the case anymore, so on the way to McDonald's, I took some pictures. According to the professors, the university really cleaned up for its 120th Anniversary by limiting cars from parking on campus and by really decorating the campus. It's a shame that I really took in the beauty of the campus so close to the end of our stay here.

  

  

In terms of the McDonald's drink I wanted to try, it was just something I'd seen on the menu and something that I'd seen so many people carry around on the roads near campus, so I'd wanted to taste it. I didn't even know what it was to be honest, but it was so pretty that I wanted to try it. It ended up being basically Green Apple Fanta topped with vanilla ice cream, and it was definitely really good and refreshing. Again, I was very disappointed that I hadn't tried it earlier though.

 

Day 37: Last Day at Church

Day 37: I can't believe we're already winding down in terms of our time here in Shanghai. Our time here has definitely been both long and short, and to be honest, I feel slightly sad that we're leaving just as I'm finally finding my way around Shanghai. Anyways, today was my last Sunday in Shanghai, so I definitely was planning to attend church, and more specifically, I wanted to attend the foreigners' service. Before leaving for church, I stopped by the school cafeteria (another place I'm going to wish so much), and I got lunch for a little over USD $1. The chicken was good, but the vegetable in the black sauce (which I thought was potatoes, but it wasn't) tasted weird, so I didn't eat it and proceeded onto get dumplings from a different lane. I know, I eat a lot.

 

After eating all that food, I still had time before church, so I stopped by McDonald's again (yes, I went yesterday, but I went again). I had wanted the Mango Chunk Smoothie, so I was planning to go back anyways, but I felt like this was a good opportunity. Luckily, the fast food restaurant wasn't too crowded today, so I took my time and actually attempted to use Chinese to order my drink. The drink was so good. Man, while I drank the smoothie, I just continuously thought about how awesome it would be for McDonald's in the States to sell the smoothie, too. It tasted exactly like how I imagined a mango smoothie to taste like, but I loved how they placed mango chunks on the top of the smoothie, which added more texture and freshness to the drink. I plan to go to McDonald's all the time for the rest of this week; I really wished I had found out about the beauty of Shanghai's McDonald's earlier.

  

After eating all that food, I finally headed to the subway to head to church. Since today was my last day, I wanted to change it up a bit, so I headed to the second floor of the church for service. It was really nice upstairs, and I ran into the praise team leader Josh while sitting upstairs, and we had a quick talk, which I also enjoyed. The church had baptisms planned for today, too, and because they practice water baptism (whereas my church at home sprinkles water on an individual being baptized), I enjoyed watching people going fully into the water and coming back "reborn." Today, I also had the chance to finally listen to the sermon of the church's senior pastor, Pastor Dale. What a great way to end my last visit to church! He talked about his time here in Shanghai and the road that God has planned already, which I'd heard many times growing up but found interesting to to hear it from a different viewpoint.

  

  

 

  

I'm going to really miss this church, but it honestly is another reason that I just will have to revisit Shanghai in the future. After coming back from church, my professor took us to the Beijing Opera (which is actually in a theater in Shanghai). It was kind of like a musical, except the singing was very loud and sharp. The costumes and makeup were all beautiful though. To be honest, because it was all in Chinese, we all had a hard time understanding everything, so the show, to us, was very tiring, but it was definitely cool to see an aspect of Chinese culture, which I definitely don't regret attending at all. Basically, what I got from the show in terms of the story was that two parents were killed, their child was switched with another child, and the two deceased characters' child grows up in the hands of a general. The child grows up, learns about her true parents, and learns to follow her "new" dad (or the general) more. I hope that's right, but if not, you can go back, watch the same show (if it's offered), and let me know!

  

 

Just as with the Acrobat Show, the people at the Beijing Opera didn't allow pictures or videos, and because we sat close to the workers at the opera, I couldn't really take pictures. After the two-hour show, we had to take a taxi back to the hotel, but no taxi would stop for us, so we waited for a taxi by stopping by the CoCo's near the theater. I got this mango-smoothie-like drink that wasn't as good as the mango green tea I got previously, but I still really liked it. Wow, today was a really mango-filled day! My last Sunday in Shanghai was spent very well in my opinion as I participated in a lot of wonderful activities and ate delicious food and drinks.

 

Day 36: 3rd Visit to the Yuyuan Garden

Day 36: Because we weren't able to buy anything yesterday, we had to visit the Yuyuan again today. Today, especially since we went during the day, was significantly hotter, but at least it wasn't raining, right? Before leaving for Yuyuan, we decided to eat lunch first to save us time once getting to the Yuyuan, so we decided to stop at the McDonald's near our host university. Walking past by McDonald's often, I really had wanted to go in to see how it looked (because the restaurant was in the basement, so I couldn't see it), and I also wanted one of the Olympic cups that they were handing out, so we went! Let me say, McDonald's in Shanghai was the best food I had, and the atmosphere of the fast food restaurant was completely different than how it was in the States, and I loved it. Because it was so busy, I quickly just ordered the first thing I saw, which ended up being basically a chicken sandwich with a pinkish orange bun. However, when my roommate was ordering her food, I saw the green Angry Birds burger (that I saw in a commercial in the hotel) that I really, really wanted, so my awesome roommate bought the green burger and switched with me! I love her so much. The first two pictures are of the pinkish orange sandwich although it's a little hard to see the color. The other pictures are of my green burger and the insanely cute box that the sandwich was put into. The burger itself was really good; it tasted like an enlarged breakfast sandwich, and it had green spicy mayo in it, which I really liked. I definitely want to make sure I go back to get the sandwich again.

 

  

The McDonald's also had a McCafe in it, and wow, it was really fancy. It had a dessert display with macaroons, cheesecake, roll cake, and so many more fancy-looking desserts. The drinks that they offered like Mango Chunk Smoothie and Green Tea Latte all sounded really good, too. This area is also some place that I will plan to come back to!

  

The walls of McDonald's were also like Asian cafes back in the States where people left messages, so my roommate left our GT mark on the walls, too. I hope you can find it in the pictures. Another reason for you and me to come back to Shanghai! If you visit the McDonald's, and you see the picture and writing, take a picture, and make sure to show me, too!

 

Going back to the main purpose for today, we headed back to the Yuyuan, and man, it was really hot outside. However, luckily, the handmade stalls were open when we arrived, so we headed to them first. There were so many cool stalls, where my favorite was the snuff bottle stall because the man was really nice, we got to see him actually paint on the snuff bottle, and the snuff bottles were all really, really pretty. I honestly wanted to buy one, but I couldn't think of a good reason to buy one with each being very expensive, but my roommate bought one, so I guess I can visit her whenever, I want to see it! I also got to see other crafts like grass weaving, kite making, these creepy scent bags (creepy because the bags weren't bags; they were actually weird looking models of real people with scents stuffed in), copper art, and finger painting. Finger painting sounds like something we do in Kindergarten, but this man's finger painting was amazing. He solely used the side of his hand (near his pinky finger) to draw elaborate pictures, where I even bought two pictures! While continuing to shop, I bought a complex Chinese puzzle for my brother, a key chain for a friend, and fans for some other friends. My roommate also bought a lot of things, where she bought 10 pocket watches because they are very important and famous souvenirs in Shanghai. Again, although it was hot today, I had a great time, and to be honest, the Yuyuan was just as beautiful during the day (probably because it wasn't raining). However, my roommate and I were so tired that we collapsed and fell asleep right after coming back!