Ni Hao

Drew and I with Shanghai behind us









A street in Shanghai, right outside the backgate of ECNU












View from the top of the TV Tower
























The TV Tower at night from the ferry boat ride














The Copy Market = crazy!!!









On campus at ECNU

This is Shanghai at night from the ferry boat

ECNU's frontgate

Ni Hao (pronounced nee how), or hello in Chinese. See? I'm doing well. Well, not really. It honestly took me about 3 days just to catch on to saying that! I picked up Xie Xie (Shay Shay) really fast, which means thank you, and buyao (Booya) which demands (in a rude way) that you don't want it. This is very useful for street vendors. There are other phrases that I am learning, but it is slow going. I just don't catch on to languages very easily. I actually find it very humorous. While I always felt as though I hardly learned anything in my 3 years of Spanish, I find that when I am confused in Chinese class that I tend to throw some random Spanish in there. My professor always looks at my in a very confused way. This happens the most when I can't figure out how to pronounce something, so I do it the Spanish way. Sometimes when he asks us questions I will answer in Spanish though. He ask me if I spoke Chinese the other day, to which I was supposed to answer bu shi (boo sher) or no, but instead I said "muy pequeño". It slipped out before I could even stop it. This type of thing has happened on more than one occasion. Oh well. Apparently I learned more than I thought in high school!

Today I just had class, and then I ended up taking a 3-hour nap. It wasn't a very exciting day, but the rest was well-needed. Yesterday wore me out. My EAS class was very interesting today though. We are watching documentary movies on the history of China right now and we are in "The Mao Years", or 1949-1960. I really didn't know anything about the history of China, so these movies are just great. It's so interesting to me. When we think of Communists, we think of the way that Stalin ran the USSR. But China seems to be very different to me. While Mao and Stalin strived for the same utopia, they actually didn't get along at all and disagreed about many things. China was run very differently than the USSR, but the US just sees "Communism" as a bitter word. It's interesting how when Mao took over China by fighting against the Nationalists, the US supported the Nationalists who ran a very corrupt government. All of the money went right into the pockets of the gov't officials, who ended up moving to Taiwan. Yes, Mao made mistake, many huge mistakes. As we see in the history of every country, leaders get big heads and are constantly in a power struggle. But Mao did care about his country and his people at one time. While his ideals will never work, they were great ideals to have. They just went sour. I'm excited to learn more. I'll keep you updated.

I'm getting sick of always ordering the same things, but I'm nervous about just pointing to a menu and hoping for the best. So tonight at dinner I noticed at a table next to me these 3 teenage boys ordered something that looked and smelled really good. It was onions and peppers and some kind of meat all being sautéed in a closed up large piece of tinfoil. The waiter had no idea what we were trying to say to him when we asked for a menu in English earlier, so I took matters into my own hands. I went over to their table and looked at their food. I pointed to it and they said the name. One of the boys spoke a few words of English and he was able to tell me that it was "The meat from a sheep", or at least I thought that’s what he said. When I asked if it was lamb he looked at me confused, so I "baah"ed at him and he looked even more confused. So I just got a piece of paper and had they wrote down the dish for me. So next time I go there I will just show the waitress the paper. When I was going to sit back down he managed to say "it's delicious". Of all the English words he could say, he said delicious. Crazy.

I think I might describe a few things that I have been seeing with the people right now. I want to write it down before I grow accustom to it and forget to tell anyone. First, all of the women carry umbrellas no matter what time of day it is. See, in China it is a sign of wealth if you have pale skin. So they protect their skin at all costs. They wear these welding-visor things over their faces sometimes too. I'll try to get a picture of one because it's too funny. They also wear whitening cream. Isn't it interesting that in the US we go tanning and use fake tan stuff, but here it is just the opposite. Professor Ni told me that being tan in the US is a sign of leisure, which tends to mean wealth. Whereas here, if you are tan that means you work hard labor outside all the time... which means you are poor.

Also, there are a million bikes around! It's crazy! They have both motorbikes and street bikes. They are constantly whipping by. A lot of times they are older bikes with baskets on front and those little book carrying seats on the back. But if a male is riding the bike, often there will be a female sitting on the book rack on the back. The relationships between men and women are so different here. There are couples ALL OVER THE PLACE! Everywhere you look there is a couple. And they aren't ashamed of it. They are very affectionate about it. So affectionate that the men often will carry their girlfriends/wives purse around for them. Joe, what do you think? Should we try this one?

I think one stereotype I had of Asians in the US is that their clothes never match. But here in China the girls are some of the cutest girls I have ever seen. They get dressed up all the time. All I see is cute dresses or skirts, and tons of heals. I can't even imagine wearing heels over here. There is too much walking and my feet would be killing me. But that is about all they wear. I feel like a scrub the majority of the time. You hardly ever see shorts. Sometimes they wear the Bermuda shorts, but the only time I have seen real shorts is when they were daisy dukes and they were paired with a pair of really high heels. Also, while they are very short, they tend to not wear high heels. The highest I have seen is about 3 inches, and that is rare. Oh and a fashion statement over here right now is to wear shorty nylon socks with heels. I don't know why, it's quite ugly and it doesn't make sense to me in the heat, but that's what they do! I'm trying to think if there is anything else that seems strange to me right now, but I can't. It is late and I am tired. So on to my hellos to everyone.

Sheila, thank you so much for the email. It was so good to hear from you. I have been missing you like crazy. Thanks for the update in your life. I miss talking to you on the phone and just updating each other. Keep sending them my way, I always enjoy reading them. Let me know when you move into your new apartment! I'm so excited for you! P.S. you will never find a fish as amazing as mine! He's a frickin beast! (Dad, you're still feeding him right?)

Leah and Sarah, thank you for your emails! I miss you guys and I hope the hospital is treating you well!

Mom, thanks for the update. The nose/sinus' are getting better. I still get a runny nose every morning, but that's normal. I think it's from being in the air conditioning every night. It's freezing in our room. 22 Celsius all the time, sometimes lower. I wish I could be shopping at Talbot’s with you, or going out to the beach with you, Dad, Aunt Judy and Uncle Nick. Actually, if I were home I would be out at Grand Haven camping with Joe and his family this weekend... I love 4th of July Weekend at the beach. :o( So sad that I am missing it. Joe, if you are reading this, my mom wants you to stop by the house. She misses you and she is willing to feed you. You are never one to pass up free food, so get your butt over there.

To everyone else, thanks for the emails and the prayers. They are greatly appreciated. I will post again tomorrow sometime.