cheezy URL, i know i know...i thought it was clever at the time.

Hello world!

I've been in China for i guess 2 days, although it doesn't really feel like it's been that long. The first day I came in the morning. Only one other guy from my program was here so we hung out and explored the streets that surround our campus. I'm staying at Shanghai Normal University which is actually not quite downtown Shanghai but like 30 minutes away. So no crazy high rises and New York-ish atmosphere quite here. I ate at McDonald's the first day, which was..interesting. Although I really want to explore, it's really hard because A. i don't really think it's too safe to be walking by myself, especially at night B. I don't know where the hell anything is C. no one (NO ONE) speaks english and my mandarin isn't THAT good. The first night i started not feeling too well partially because of jetlag and I couldn't really recount the last time I ate. So i sort of spent the night in my bed, trying to decipher Chinese television. It's funny because to really get a sense of a culture, especially one so different than ours, it's really good to just immerse youreself completely in it but it's a lot harder than I thought. For example, I know its just the first couple days, but I think if i didn't bring my laptop I might just die. I enjoy seeing familiar things like McDonald's and Starbucks and KFC's cheezy as it might be. And i enjoy seeing non-Asian people on the streets (hahaha!) We tend to smile at in one of those 'knowing' ways. Since I'm far from the downtown/tourist areas, it's a little tougher than i anticipated. Oh I also met my roommate who is not in my program, to my surprise, but is a fellow foreign exchange student. I realized Shanghai Normal University is a big foreign exchange university, a mainly postgraduate university and also an education college (if you want to become a teacher). Anyways, my Korean roommate doesn't speak English, so that's going to be interesting.
The second day I woke up and was thankfully feeling better but was so so so hungry so I went to my lobby/restaurant downstairs and got myself a dollar breakfast which was...interesting. sticky hot rice soup, noodle soup, one egg sunny side up, and orange juice. I really wasn't sure how to eat what so I just tried to scarf down as much as I could as fast as I could. Then we had orientation in the morning, I officially met all the people in my program, and we're from all coasts of America (& Saudi Arabia...). Orientation + lunch + bank + public transportation later, we took our afternoon naps, since it's really too hot and humid to be walking around outside. Then in the evening night, we just went to a random street we'd heard was good, and went exploring and walked around. Saw an H&M woo! we tried to find a cool bar but were basically unsuccessful so we just settled for some American style (James dean poster + Placebo) pub where the waitresses didn't speak english.
Tomorrow we are going to go downtown and try our luck there.
Then on Monday I start class! Beginning Chinese level II!
Sorry about lack of pictures! I forgot to bring my camera out and i'm too lazy to go back and get it!

peace!