Hello Everyone!
As of early this morning (American time) I safely made it to China. My flights were both pretty uneventful but the journey was definitely long. On my flight from Chicago to Shanghai I sat next to this little old Chinese couple who didn't know any English. For five straight hours of the flight they attempted to communicate with me as I struggled to remember all the Chinese that I thought I had lost over the summer.
They were both teachers, one a middle school teacher and the other was a law professor. They had been visiting their only daughter in Miami, as she lives there. They asked me all sorts of questions about my school and what I was studying and where I had traveled to in Asia. They insisted that I travel to Suzhou province, claiming that it was a great place to vacation in China.
The flight attendants, who could only speak English, were grateful I could translate the food options and tell them what the couple wanted to eat. The couple told me that they thought American food was horrible compared to Chinese food and asked if I felt the same. I tried to defend our food by telling them it was just the airplane food that was unbearable, but they were not having it.
The flight attendants were also impressed with my journey. They were so excited to have an insider to tell them where to shop at the fake markets. I was happy to give them my knowledge. Three of them crowed around my seat for an hour asking me all sorts of questions about my adventures in China. They were so glad that I could help them sort out all their shopping needs they gave me food off of their crew cart--yum.
When we (5 NYUSH kids on my flight) finally arrived in China, there was shuttle to take us to our new dorms. I think that these dorms are definitely an upgrade from what we lived in before. I have already hung up all my decorations and most of my clothing. Meichen. who turned 19 on the 25,was so happy to see me and catch up. She told me that when summer started she thought it was going to be really long and boring but she was pleased to find that it went by so fast.
I'm glad that classes don't start for another couple of days, because I can't imagine going to school with this amount of jet lag; however I am trying to get as many errands done in the next couple of days so that I can have a good first week back. Today I have to go to IKEA to pick up some dorm essentials and then maybe go to the fake market to see the new styles.
I will hopefully be able to write over the weekend.
Love from Shanghai,
Maddie
