Day 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 & 13: Weekend & School Days

Day 8 & 9: This weekend was rather relaxing. It was the first weekend that I could sleep in after quite a while because my Winter Break and Spring semester was quite hectic and stressful. I went out and explored a lot in terms of food. I really wish I had written down the names of all the restaurants and the actual names of all the dishes I tried, but I didn't. At least I took pictures, right? In summary, we went out to eat these meat noodles (I believe the restaurant was called Noodlista), which were really good. When I tried the noodles the first time, I ordered just spicy noodles, but I went back again and tried the extra spicy version of the noodles, which I honestly didn't think was too bad. Another awesome trait of this noodle shop was that it offered napkins and water, which I learned is quite unusual in China. We also tried this spicy beef fried rice, which was also really good, and it came with pickled cucumbers and seaweed soup (which both resembled Korean dishes). Aside from visiting different restaurants around campus, I also spent a large amount of time at the Family Mart (also known as 全家/quánjiā in Chinese) on campus. I've always loved convenience stores even in the States (like QT and RaceTrac), so Family Mart was just awesome. If I was too lazy to go out for a meal, I headed to Family Mart to get meals, snacks, drinks, and ice cream!

   

      

Day 10: Especially while in Shanghai, I feel like my Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays will be quite similar, except for possible adventures to go find dinner. Today was very similar to last week. I went to class, turned in homework, took a dictation quiz, ate lunch at the school cafeteria (AKA 食堂/shítáng in Chinese), and went to 武术 class, which was actually even more difficult than last week. I still have hope that things will get better though!

Day 11: Again, today we had class, turned in homework, took a dictation quiz, ate lunch at the 食堂. Notice how I'm slowly infusing Chinese into my blog posts! The first time I mention a Chinese word, I'm pretty sure I've also been including the "Pinyin" (or basically the English pronunciation) and the definition, so if you see a Chinese word without any other explanation, scroll up to an earlier blog post to see the Pinyin and definition. I guess you can also just copy and paste into Google Translate! Well, back to today! Aside from classes and getting my Chinese diary entries (for our Wednesday presentations) checked by the 辅导老师 (AKA fǔdǎo lǎoshī or tutors), we also took an adventure to the campus laundry service. Two friends and I walked along the path that our professors had taught us, and wow, it was confusing getting there even the second time around. The laundry service building was in the corner of campus behind all of the international student dorms. The man there was really nice had a bunch of signs in English like "Dry or Wet?" and "Pick up at 12PM tomorrow." for people like us who couldn't completely understand him. The laundry fee was technically based on the weight of the laundry, yet there was really no real price division based on the weight. I know this doesn't make sense exactly, but it's hard to describe. My laundry weighed 1kg, my friend's laundry weighed 2kg, and my roommate's laundry weighed 4kg, but the prices for laundry were 15 Yuan, 20 Yuan, and 25 Yuan, respectively. However, when another one of our "foreign-looking" friends went alone, his laundry weighed around 4kg, yet his laundry service fee was 50 Yuan. Funny, right?

Day 12: Today, we had class as usual. However, we also had our first presentation for our Chinese Conversation class. We were technically supposed to memorize our journals and speak in Chinese fluently for the presentation, but I was pretty nervous, so I ended up reading off my journal without looking up. I also forgot to say "大家好" (AKA dàjiā hǎo or Hello Everyone) and introduce myself unlike everyone else. I'll make sure to do it next week for sure! Luckily, due to presentations, we didn't take our dictation quiz today, and after eating lunch, we headed to 太极 class. Today was also the day where we went back to the laundry service building to pick up our clothes. Although the clothes were still slightly damp, at least it was clean, right? The highlight of today was dinner! A couple of us wanted to go explore and find something to eat, but we eventually headed to the mall to eat dinner, so we headed to 太平洋百货 (AKA tàipíngyáng bǎihuò or Pacific Department Store). The mall is even closer to the university than Metro City Mall, and I can actually see the mall right out my window! I actually took a picture of it sitting on my windowsill. In the picture, the mall is the building on the left with the red sign. Anyways, we went in, and there were a lot of lines at the different restaurants on the top floor of the mall, so we decided to go into the Korean BBQ restaurant that was pretty empty. We ordered a lot of food, like different types of meat and tofu soup, and after being in China for over a week, it felt awesome to eat Korean food. Especially since the restaurant wasn't that busy, we had the chance to practice our Chinese with the different 服务员 (AKA fúwùyuán or waiters). We took turns asking the waiters and waitresses for things like spoons and replacement grills. We even became WeChat friends with one of the waiters. His name was 周帅 (Zhōu Shuài), and we promised to meet up before leaving China to play soccer. Today's dinner was definitely a great end to a long day, and like I mentioned, I really, really enjoyed eating Korean food because I missed a lot. Hopefully, we will have a chance to go back before leaving Shanghai.

    

Day 13: Today was the last day of class for the week! We had dictation today, and our professor wrote out the schedule of assignments due next week, so that was stressful. As usual, we met our 辅导老师 after class to check our diary entries and help us study for our class. I wish I did more today, but I honestly felt really tired, so I found myself just walking around the hotel, visiting Family Mart, and getting ready to go to sleep relatively early. I can't wait for our trip to Zhouzhuang tomorrow!