today:
Met Mellisa ex MC from Aiesec Canada today. She's here in shanghai for 2 days before going off to International Congress in Germany. It was really an honor for me to meet her, i really look up to her for aiesec advice. She's really a blast to work with! I also said my 'good bye's' to aiesec in jiao tong university. Lavi was the first person i met in China, he really made my trip in china possible. He found a place for me, introduced me to the other aiesecers in china...he was my first connection to china. Unfortunately he was not able to visit Victoria nor was i able to visit his hometown at least i got to meet him. William, i'll miss him too. he showed me many different aspects of china. i'll never forget our conversations about girls. and he's right: Shanghai girls are the most beautiful in China! (don't worry, girls in Beijing are just as beautiful too)

the past few days i've begun to realize that i'm actually going to leave Shanghai! it's been the been my home for the past 6 weeks. at first i had a little trouble adapting to the life style ( u know, being a foreign student and all), but i've overcome many obstacles and grown tremendously in mandarin skill, and as a person. I'm not afraid that afraid to ask someone for help in chinese, or order food or travel by myself. I remember when i first arrived in china, i was so afraid that someone would speak to me, but now i dont care if a person talks to me and i if i can understand or not. Shanghai is still a sprawling metropolous but life here isn't as blury as it seemed when i first arrived here back in May. Holy Smokes! May!! I've been here long, yet i still feel like i should stay here longer. I know i can progress in chinese faster now that i'm beginning to get more comfortable with my surroundings. I still feel somehow connected to this country, but i have a lot to learn about the chinese people.

Of course this country isn't perfect, and no country is. I can go on for a long time of the things i dislike about China, but what's the point; it wouldn't be China without a little dirt. I've come to understand the good and the bad parts of China, and it's important to keep an open mind when encountering the unexpected. I'm sick and tired of talking to foreigners about how they hate china, and how it should be more like [Insert home country here]. Whatever, i didn't come here to talk to foreigners and i couldn't care less if someone isn't adapting well but i'll try my best to help them keep an open mind.

this is turning out to be quite an adventure.

life has really picked up these days.

friday i went shopping again at shangyang market. Practiced barganing, and also tried something crazier, bargaining in english! oh man thats fun! i helped on of my classmates to buy some shirts with my mad bargaining skills. after that i went to eat at a japanese fast food restaurant which is my favourite fast food place. They got a bowl of rice with some chicken on top with some darn good sauce. after we got back to the dorm, my friend realized he left his wallet, containing 175 Euros and his passport in the taxi! what was worse was we didnt keep a receipt of the cab since the fare was so little..but we really needed that piece of paper to locate that cab. poor guy! so remember to check that all your belongings are with u when u leave, dont be a stupid foreigner! Later that night i went to sing kareoke at a place called 'Big Echo' on Nanjing road. First time i went singing in shanghai, but darn, was it fun! it was a good bye party for a Thai girl and we didn't get back until 5 am. So today was the 2nd time i saw the sunrise in shanghai.

This month has turned out to be quite an eventful one.

I went with the school to the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum (yes urban planning!). It showcased the shanghai yesterday, today and the future plans.  The highlight of the tour was a massive minature of modern Shanghai. Shanghai is over 6000 square km but the model only showed about 150 sq km but still, it was quite an impressive sight.  They had building coloured in white which represented planned buildings. They also included the Expo 2010 site. I guess Expo is big if the city of Shanghai has put such a large area of land for the event and even designed a massive walking bridge. The Shanghainese live in a big dream world. I wonder where they'll get the money for all of this planning.

This evening i went out with a big group of chinese language students to eat. originally they wanted to eat at some western food buffet but when we got there the food was cold and didn't look good...and plus it cost 39RMB ($6.50). Way too expensive for this quality. So when we went to a chinese restaurant and ended up playing 25 RMB per person for some really good quality food.

After we went to a RnB dance club called Pegasus. It was 'Ladies Night' so of course women get in free and for the men it cost 30RMB ($5) but it came with a free drink. The music wasn't bad, but my only complain that there was way too many people there. I've noticed there's a lot of foreigners at these night clubs...like a lot of them (and of course the young, rich, and beautiful Chinese). I was wondering, do they even limit how many people can enter a club? It seems that they don't because there's never a big line up to get in. And of course why turn paying customers away.

Well, after our 2 ours of cramped dancing I went with a group of guy to have a massage. I initially heard that it would cost 50 RMB for a full body massage but then i heard 80...then when we arrived at the fancy spa it turned out to be 98RMB. But knowing that we were going for the 'experience' we just went for it. First we had to shower before we went upstairs for massage. They provided clothes and towels too. We ended up waiting about an hour for our massage because they were 'short' on staff. Mind you, this was at 330am so we're pretty tired too. After complaining to management many times, the girls finally came. Ok, when they say 'full body' massage, with the exception of a few vital organs, you pretty much get a full body massage. I was in a room with three other guys and the when we had our massages the girls would ask us so many questions. I sort of just wanted to relax but it's hard to relax when you're trying to understand what questions they are asking you and wondering what the heck they are up to. It gets uneasy in the room if no one talks so another guy and i talked. i dunno. My massage was ok, it could've been a bit harder and longer. I didn't feel very  relaxed afterwards, but it depends a lot on the masseus. I think each of us who went to have a massage had different levels of satisfaction; from 'Ok' to 'happy happy joy joy'! When we left we were left with a bill of 120RMB ($20)..20 rmb for a 'night' fee. oh geez! A bit expensive, but I'll justify the price because the place was very fancy and it was for the 'experience.  Maybe if i go next time it'll be more relaxing.

yah, the weekend over. i had a fever last night and the night before but i think it's past now. anyways, the new classes start tomorrow and maybe i'll meet some new friends! maybe i'll even get to talk to them too!

1. If you don't have at least a basic understanding of the language it can be quite difficult to express even the most simple requests. Fortunately, sign language is global language and can usually get out through most simple conversations but is quite useless for explaining more topics or needs like getting your hair cut.
2. Studying languages abroad is a lot more stressful than studying it in university. This is true only for the first few months (usually around 4-6 months) of studying abroad.  Once you get used to the culture and the language, things seem to fall into place and you'll find yourself learning at an accelerated rate than before. Even though initially it is stressful, studying in a foreign country is the most effective way to learning a language and also the most rewarding.  Being emersed in a culture can be scary and often uncomfortable thing to do, but if you stick to it, you will get a lot out of it, more than you would ever get than studying back in your home country. Why? When you experience something, it sticks in your head, but when you read about something in a text book, it will probably pass right through you.
3. Living in a foreign student's dormatory is counter productive when learning a language. Think about it: you're surrounded by people who speak your native tongue. Even though you are all here to learn, you tend to switch to the method of communication that is the most comfortable and most effective. Even if you start by talking in the foreign language, eventually you will only just speak your native language. It's hard not to switch back, but one only has so much energy to speak a foreign language and will need time to relax and just speak 'normal'.  Trust me, speaking Chinese takes A LOT of energy. It's hard for me to speak all day, i just get drained from it. But it's a lot of fun.
4. Another point about the foreign student's dorm is that you are 'shelled' off from the 'real culture'.  You don't get to experience life as a native person, but mearly as a foreign student which are both very different from eachother. I guess if you aren't really serious about studying this is ok, but for the serious people, this can be quite frustrating. You have no connections with the outside world, you have to figure out problems by yourself, you have no insight into the culture. Myself, living in a foreign student's dorm, I am unable to 'experience' China. I can't really get to 'know' many Chinese people's way of life and their culture because I'm stuck with other foreigners.  What i would recomend to student's serious about studying is live with a chinese either by living in a homestay or having a chinese roommate. You will be amazed how much and how fast you will learn the language in addition to learn a lot more about the culture and the way of life.
5. Embarassing moments. Get used it and accept that there will be many more uncomfortable moments in the future. Getting 'stuck' in a conversation is both struggle and progress. You will learn so much from these situation. They should be seen as rewarding to your study rather than as failure. So, make mistakes, and put yourself in uncomfortable situations; might as well get it over with now, right?

I know there are many more i haven't listed but at least u read about a small sample of what i and many other student are going through. Think about it.

Got questions? put them in the comment box.

After a hot yet fun month at Fudan, the July semester is finally over. I had my final test for the semester yesterday. All i had to do was have a conversation with the teacher about why i want to study chinese, so i had to say lots of Fei Hua (bullshit). Then i had to read some sentences from the text but unfortunately i was pretty nervous then so i totally messed up all the tones. oh well. the marks in this program are so made up, the teacher probably picked a number between 86-96 to make everyone happy.

Today we had our closing ceremonies. the people who were leaving after a month got their certicates there and also ate dinner. the food there was pretty crappy...and fromhow i 'm feeling now, i think it was ...yah pretty aweful. my muscles are hurting. that's not a good sign!

anyways, my roommate is leaving tomorrow so i'll get a new roommate! whoopey! i heard that there are a lot of Japanese students coming this month. i dont know if thats a good thing or not. tomorrow im going to play some badminton tomorrow downtown, if i can find it. i have no clue how..but i'll try somehow!

the past 2 days i've gone to an internet cafe with some schoolmates and played counter strike, startcraft and warcraft, just to kick off the end of the semester. its quite cheap to play. 2.5rmb an hour for pretty decent computers. (less than 50cents an hour). that's where u go to meet those really good korean players playing starcraft. of course i die very fast but i still had fun...sorta heh, and they're good at CS too. very good.

anyways...gotta sleep, back hurting, strange.

if u haven't seen my pictures in a while, i've added many pictures over the past few weeks.

Pictures of Fudan, Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou etc...

enjoy!

New Pictures!

so i'm back from a sorta relaxing weekend in hangzhou. i went with 3 other classmates and separate from the school trip because we thought it was too expensive (90CAD for 2 days). anyways, we took the train over to hangzhou and then took a taxi for 40 RMB to the hotel. we later realized that the it wouldve cost us only 15 RMB but we didnt know that the place was so close...i dunno how that happened. we met my friend from Uvic at our hotel because she lives in the city. then we went to look at the night market that was close by. the next day we went to some historical site with a golden dragon on the mountain. it had lots of gardens, waterfalls, and paintings on rocks. after that we walked about an hour to Xihu or West Lake, the most famous, and probably the most beautiful lake in China. We walked around the lake for over an hour. It seemed more like 3 hours because we were hungry, and the weather was very very hot that day. Fortunately, Xihu is a very quiet place with lots of lotus plants on the water. after that we went to take a bus to a department store where we had our lunch and played games at the arcade. after a little rest we took the bus to WuShan square where we bumped into the Fudan group. i bought some soveniers for ..ppl. back at our hotel we spend the last hours of the day watching old hongkong action comedy movies. they are soo funny, but sometimes very confusing to watch, but i still love them.

the next day we were going to go back to Xihu but my roomate go a heat stroke and was 'out of it' so we just decided to go back home instead. so...yah..that was the trip! yes, travelling takes a long time. the train took an hour and a half from Hangzhou to Meilong which is on the outskirts of shanghai. the subway to the main train station took 30 minutes then we just took a cab back to the dorm because my room mate was too ...delierious to go on any further. my other friend gave him some powerful korean medicine so i think that kinda wacked out his mind a bit. but now he's sound a sleep.

now back to life in shanghai...sigh...

i went to suzhou on the weekend with some schoolmates. took the train over and loooked at the gardens there and at a pangoda. It was so hot that day, it was terrible! suzhou itself isnt that interesting, even with all its history, u there isnt much left. im going to hangzhou for the weekend, and i ve heard its the most beautiful city in china. we'll see about that.

i saw my first chinese movie in a chinese theatre. it was called ' house of flying daggers' . it had that girl from couching tiger hidden dragon and Andy Lau, a famous hong kong star. the movie was very 'beautiful' because it was so colourful. the effects were amazing and the way the costumes contrasted or blended with the scenery was breathtaking. the storyline itself was ok with some plot twists. thank god for the chinese subtitles or i would have been even more confused than i already was (no eng subtitles). of course, i loved the fight scenes. cant beat the flying daggers and swords! i heard "Hero' with Jet li is also a good movie too. i wanna check that out too.

i went to Yu Gardens yesterday, and actually went inside to see the gardens instead of just looking at the buildings around it. (you have to pay to get in). the garden was ok i guess..it was quiet....very tranquil. but...it was very hot of course.

this afternoon i learned some chinese folk songs. the one we learned was a mongolian folk song or something, maybe i translated it wrong but thats what i heard. the teacher was very enthusiastic about teaching it. she gave us a big talk the history of it and even had a recording of it. unfortunately my friend and i got singled out to sing it solo, but we did ok.

the ceeder is leaving the dorm room tomorrow, so thats one less person i have to take care of. i like taking care of people but im feeling so drained these days. im not doing enough homework and not enough aiesec work, i feel guilty. but my roomate my neighbours always want to go out and im the one they want to go with, or if i want to go somewhere, they all have to come with me, do i ever get some time to myself? ..i guess not. go anti-social feelings! ah man, i just cant shake this feeling off, i dont like to talk to the people who are in the language program. it feels like they ahve their own life and they dont have time to talk to another person from outside their little 'group'. i've just given up on making friends here. this is so not like me...but its the feeling im getting now. ..it could be because i just get so annoyed with Americans that i just dont talk to them ...i dunno...frustration.

i guess thats what it is, im frustrated. my chinese 'honeymoon' phase is over, and i have to face 'reality' of life in china. but a foreign students life is hardly reality in myopinion. in beijing i felt included , but here, foreign students...feel so outof place. in my opinion i enjoy myself better surrounded not with foreigners. i came to china to avoid certain 'types' of personalities only found in north america.

just cant shake this feeling. its ruining everything.