What time is it?

I will make this very short, because I am absolutely exhausted. Today I went to orientation. Basically we watched a PowerPoint on ECNU and got a tour. I found out that the ”Normal" in East China Normal University does not mean whatever we perceive normal to mean in the US. Rather, it is a French word that has something to do with teaching. Much to my surprise, ECNU is a school that specializes in teaching! Everyone who goes to this school ends up with a teaching degree! Right up my alley. The lady that took us on our tour told me that she is going to try to set up something for me to get into the Special Education classes. Although they will be in Chinese, I can later speak with the professors one-on-one or with a translator. How cool!

Drew and I spent time just outside the University today. There is this beautiful park just down the road. We walked around and tried to see the beluga whale in an aquarium (it was too expensive! 110 Yuan for the show... which equals about 15 dollars. There is about 8 Yuan to every dollar). So instead we rented a paddle boat and paddled out onto a lake. It was nice but WAY too hot. We were drenched in sweat by the time we got back to ECNU. So we spent the next 2 hours lying in our air conditioned rooms.

Around 3pm we went with a small group of students and the professors to downtown Shanghai. Although we are in downtown, we are not in the main downtown. We went up the TV tower and looked out over the city. It was cool, but it would have been a lot cooler if the smog wasn't so bad. But we still could see all of the close buildings. There is one building here that is the tallest building in all of Asia. It was impressive. I know it has over 80 floors... I just can't remember exactly how many. All of the buildings are gorgeous downtown though. They do not look like typical Asian buildings at all. In fact, many of them were built by the British many years ago, so parts of the city... like the Bund, look like they would fit right into Europe. I believe the Bund is a section of Shanghai that is a very well-to-do section. It's like a block of the city where Armani, D&G, Channel, ect. are all located. It's pretty amazing. After dinner (no unusual food tonight! Professor Shang picked out normal things for me!) and once it got dark we took a ferry down the river to see the Bund all lit up. It was beautiful, but slow going and I fell asleep. I suppose I have not adapted as quickly as I thought I had. I am so exhausted right now and it's only 10:30. So it is off to bed for me, for I have class at 8:30 tomorrow morning. Wish me luck; I will be in a Chinese language class bright and early. I hope you all are well. Thank you for your messages. They keep me from being too homesick.