I arrived back in Shanghai on Sunday (May 27) night. I shall blog about the second part of my Summer Abroad program in Beijing a bit later. In the mean time, I need to come up with five 500 word papers on ‘What does the rise of China mean for international society?’. *sigh
- I was planning on doing one each day. It’s Wednesday now and I haven’t done any. I really need to get myself to a Starbucks and get some work done. So hard…
A summary of the last three days spent in Shanghai after my last post~
Our farewell dinner in Shanghai was at Hai Di Lao Hot Pot - known for their spectacular service. We gave our Professor a surprise to show our appreciation for the past two weeks. Afterwards, a few of us went karaoke again until 2 am.
On Friday May 18, while most of the class went to Hangzhou, Vera, Patt, Betty and I went downtown for the whole day. Did some shopping, experienced how sellers gave Westerners super high prices, and enjoyed the night scenery of The Bund. I’ve gone shopping at this building before where they sell fake brands and I have never witnessed such high prices before. The prices that were given to us were $1000+ RMB and when I tried to haggle it down for Patt, they would not speak to me or budge at all. It was quite an experience =P
My Dad and I took Vera and Betty to Shanghai’s best vegetarian buffet restaurant on Saturday. They seemed to enjoyed it ~ Going to miss you, Vera! <3
My awesome roommate said it too well =) and such a wonderful collage of the pictures I took =P
It’s 6:30 am, I just woke up from a long sleep, ready to pack. Our flight to Beijing is at 12.
Bye Bye Shanghai.
These two weeks have been a melange of countless adjectives: intellectual, adventurous, serene, western, cultural, modern, loving…..I fell in love with you all over again.
Be sure I will be back.
Sorry for not blogging about my trip ~ I have been so busy!
This is such an intensive course; 9am to 3pm everyday for 9 days and today was the last class with Professor Wong and Fudan scholars and students.
Coming from a Management background, this political science course was very hard for me. Through these 9 classes, I learned to adjust my way of thinking, way of asking questions and way of writing papers. Although stressful, I am glad that I got this opportunity to understand an academic aspect I have never been interested in - now, I think it is actually pretty interesting. Thanks to my friends, especially my roommate, Betty for the help!
We went on a few field trips: a walking tour with Ryan Pyle, karaoke, 1933 Old Millfun in Hong Kou, and Tian Zi Fang.
However, we are not done yet! We still have another week where we will be going to Beijing. Our flight is on Sunday ~ can’t wait! In the meantime, I will definitely have some fun with my roommate and Vera. She’s a Fudan student that we have gotten really close to, she’s so cute!
Photo Of Today: Professor Joe having beer with us in Tianzi Fang (田子坊), all the tiredness from field research paper washed away. I am loving how our Shanghai group gets along so well, and everyone is so special. Two more days of classes!
Sorry I have been absent. Here is a great photo of us KTVing in Shanghai last night.
Weekend is finally here, where should we explore in this city? Any recommendation?
Fu Dan Yen Yuan Hotel - We will be staying here for the first two weeks of the course.
My Shanghai Summer Abroad course starts tomorrow however, we will be having an orientation today where we get a campus tour and get familiar with our surroundings.
I arrived in Shanghai on April 29th. Then, my family, aunt and family friend went on a Huangshan trip the day after and arrived back in Shanghai on May 3rd. (I will post a blog about the trip later)
So I never thought I would experience culture shock (at least that’s what I think it is) considering the amount of places I’ve traveled to before and the amount of times I have been in Shanghai already. I was really starting to dread attending this Summer Abroad course - I think it was partly due to the fact that it is a political science course and the amount of work to be done for it (many many readings - which I am not used to). In addition, it may also be because I’ve always been in Shanghai with my family and depended on dad for everything (going places, food, bargaining lol). Now, that I’m sort of on my own, I’m a bit worried.
However, as I moved into my hotel room and met my roommate - Betty from UTSG - I feel a lot more relaxed. She is also a vegetarian so I’m glad I have a food buddy =) I’m still a bit nervous but we’ll see how the first day goes tomorrow.
I will try my best to have a consistent blog going about this course ~
