Hello All!
I just got back from an amazing time in Hainan. The beach was picturesque! We stayed on the beach that is said to be the prettiest in China. It never got below 80 or above 90 degrees. The weather was perfect, and it never rained. We hung out by the pool, went to the beach, talked to every local we could find and ate amazing food. The street food culture there was so diverse. I had everything from octopus to a quail egg with a shrimp in it to pineapple on a stick. The fruit was especially amazing. Every day we drank from coconuts and lounged by the beach. I also had my mom send some Bisquick and we made pancakes, banana bread, and biscuits.
We all had such an amazing time! I highly recommend it as a tourist destination if any of you come to China. However, be warned they don't speak english there. We had one Chinese person in our group of friends, and we managed pretty well between the 7 of us. We had a wide range of levels, from barely any Chinese known to native. It was really interesting to hear the things some of us picked up while the others didn't.
One of the days we traveled to the city of Sanya. We mostly stayed near the coast, but we were looking for an adventure. We took a bus there that was less than a dollar and we walked the streets and found one of the best street food streets in Sanya. We even got fruit smoothies made for us!
When I arrived back at my dorm, Meichen's mom was there for a visit. I was having a good Chinese day, where I just spit out a bunch of Chinese and people can understand me. She was so impressed by how much I improved over the last two months! We talked about Hainan and all the activities I did. She has been there four times and I said that we should go back as a family. She liked that idea. haha
Meichen's mom is here for NYU Shanghai's annual dumpling fest or in Chinese 饺子节。 It is probably going to be my all time favorite day of the year. The school has ordered 10,000 dumplings for the whole student body. Plus we have invited parents from all over china to come and teach the international students how to make dumplings. I am so excited that I am running my 18 mile run one day early, just so my day of jiaozi eating can go on uninterrupted.
This weekend is also admitted students weekend. All the admitted international students are coming to Shanghai! We are all so excited to meet them.
I'll post pictures sometime later this week/next.
Love from Shanghai,
Maddie
Sunday, April 5, 2015
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Spring Break/life update/etc etc
Only two more days until Spring break! I will be soaking up the sun in Hainan, which is a gorgeous island in China. I am going with some of my best friends and we rented this beautiful villa right off of the beach. We are so excited! This weekend I ran sixteen miles on a treadmill because the air pollution was too nasty to run in. It was absolutely exhausting, but I got through it, and I am looking forward to an easy 12 miles next weekend. As this semester winds down my friends and I are already choosing classes and eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new freshmen! After spring break, all of the accepted students are being flown to Shanghai to meets us and learn about the school! We are so excited to meet new people and welcome them to our school.
After this semester I have decided that I am not continuing with business and finance. Instead I am beginning a new chapter in design engineering. We offer a major here called Interactive Media Arts, which is all about creating new technologies and developing programs that can help all kinds of people. It's really interesting and hands on, and its the one program you only hear good things about. We learn how to program and work with different types of software, and I think that its a great background to have. The good news is that I never have to take another math class again.
Tonight I am going to dinner with the Starrs'! They arrived in Shanghai yesterday and I am so excited to visit with them!
I can't believe this semester is almost over! In just over a month I will be running my marathon and taking my finals!
Love from Shanghai,
Maddie
After this semester I have decided that I am not continuing with business and finance. Instead I am beginning a new chapter in design engineering. We offer a major here called Interactive Media Arts, which is all about creating new technologies and developing programs that can help all kinds of people. It's really interesting and hands on, and its the one program you only hear good things about. We learn how to program and work with different types of software, and I think that its a great background to have. The good news is that I never have to take another math class again.
Tonight I am going to dinner with the Starrs'! They arrived in Shanghai yesterday and I am so excited to visit with them!
I can't believe this semester is almost over! In just over a month I will be running my marathon and taking my finals!
Love from Shanghai,
Maddie
Thursday, March 19, 2015
One year anniversary
Today marks the one year anniversary of when I got the email I had been accepted into NYU Shanghai. It was one of the proudest moments of my life and I am so thankful to be here one year later.
These next couple weeks are very exciting! Tonight I am meeting Ms. Munson's husband for dinner at one of my favorite Chinese restaurants in Shanghai, Grandma's. It's great authentic food, and its where my friends and I have already decided to take our parents when they come for graduation. My mom also got together a suitcase for me that Cook is bringing tonight!
Next week the Starrs' are coming to visit me too! (I am one lucky college student to have all these visitors this far away from home) They have suggested some international food, so I am taking them to one of the prettiest views of the Bund. It's great food and hopefully the weather will be nice and we can sit outside for dinner!
Also spring break is coming up and My friends and I are going to Hainan! It's probably one of the prettiest parts in China and we are so excited for 80 degree weather and beaches. We are staying in this beautiful house right off the beach. We can hardly wait. (Pictures and Posts to come from that trip)
This weekend is another candidate weekend for the Chinese and I was asked to be on the student panel. I look forward to answering their questions and meeting some new faces!
I am also up to the 15 mile mark in my marathon training. It's becoming so fun! This week I ran a mile of stairs in preparation for the wall on top of my other training, it wasn't as bad as I thought!
Next week is midterms, I can't believe I only have two more months of my freshmen year of college. Time flies.
Love from Shanghai,
Maddie
These next couple weeks are very exciting! Tonight I am meeting Ms. Munson's husband for dinner at one of my favorite Chinese restaurants in Shanghai, Grandma's. It's great authentic food, and its where my friends and I have already decided to take our parents when they come for graduation. My mom also got together a suitcase for me that Cook is bringing tonight!
Next week the Starrs' are coming to visit me too! (I am one lucky college student to have all these visitors this far away from home) They have suggested some international food, so I am taking them to one of the prettiest views of the Bund. It's great food and hopefully the weather will be nice and we can sit outside for dinner!
Also spring break is coming up and My friends and I are going to Hainan! It's probably one of the prettiest parts in China and we are so excited for 80 degree weather and beaches. We are staying in this beautiful house right off the beach. We can hardly wait. (Pictures and Posts to come from that trip)
This weekend is another candidate weekend for the Chinese and I was asked to be on the student panel. I look forward to answering their questions and meeting some new faces!
I am also up to the 15 mile mark in my marathon training. It's becoming so fun! This week I ran a mile of stairs in preparation for the wall on top of my other training, it wasn't as bad as I thought!
Next week is midterms, I can't believe I only have two more months of my freshmen year of college. Time flies.
Love from Shanghai,
Maddie
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Inner Mongolia Pictures!
Love always!
Maddie
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Meichen and Maddie Take Inner Mongolia
Hello Everyone!
I just got back from a very hectic, but very exciting Spring Festival Holiday. Last Sunday (Feb. 15th) Meichen and I got on a plane to Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, where Meichen grew up, to meet her family for Chinese New Year. We left the dorms around 6:30am for 9:00am flight and we landed around1:00pm. Her dad was there waiting to pick us up. From the airport we went straight to her Aunt's (her moms sister, the second oldest of EIGHT children) house for a quick lunch. After a very authentic and delicious Chinese meal (one of many on this trip) Meichen and I braved the cold to checkout her old high school and the surrounding city. Hohhot, although it is obviously not as big as Shanghai, is a very well developed city. They even have their own version of those City Bikes. Not even Shanghai has that! After a quick tour around Hohhot where Meichen told me about her life as a Chinese high school student, we got back in the car for a two hour trip to Ordus, which is the town Meichen's father (who I just call baba) works.
Baba works for an energy power plant in Ordus. The family has two apartments, one close to the power plant and the other back in Hohhot. To my understanding the apartment near the power plant is more like a dormitory for the workers and their families to stay at for convenience. When we arrived, we had Hot Pot for dinner. It was absolutely delicious! That night we played several rounds of pingpong and badminton before going off to bed.
Day 2:
On the second day we woke up around 7:00am so that Meichen could take me around Ordus. I'm not sure how many people reading this have ever ridden on a Chinese public bus before, but it is quite the adventure. Many of the Chinese choose this mode of transportation because it is only 1 kuai to get on. So Meichen and I hopped on and we went to go visit a Church as well as a really pretty park that was built on top of a mountain. After walking outside for about 2 hours we went back inside the warmth and took a short nap before we ate some more Chinese food. (I should mention that I took the week off for my marathon training for this trip. I figured I wouldn't have the time or means to run my weeks worth of miles). After we ate, baba wanted us to take a tour of the power plant, so we could see where he worked. To my knowledge baba is the deputy manager of this plant. When he walked in the room all the workers stood up, which tells me he is likely a very important man.
Meichen's cousin also joined us on this trip to practice her English. She was a junior in high school and she really wants to attend NYUSH as well. She was very nervous to try to talk to me at first, but once she saw how easily Meichen and I spoke Chinglish (Chinese and English) she realized she had nothing to worry about.
There was one mix up, though. While on the way to Meichen's grandparents house, we took two cars. Meichen wanted her cousin to practice more English so baba me and her cousin were in one car while Meichen and mama were in the other. While we were in the car, Li Tong, the cousin, asked me what our horses in America were made out of. I was bit confused by the question. She asked, "are they made of stone or wood? In China our horses are made out of stone and wood sometimes." I was so confused, so I said no our horses in America are real, and she just stared at me so confused. I tried to type 'real' into a translator but that just confused her more. And then I started to question why China didn't have real horses. I thought it was like a Troy story or a Terra-cotta warrior thing. Then she asked me if my dad made our horse, and I was like, "no. we don't own a horse" and at this point I was getting really frustrated with her horse questions. Then it dawned on me that she meant HOUSES. I have never laughed so hard in my life. The funny thing is that if she had just said it in Chinese I would have known what she was trying to say. haha lesson learned.
Also on the way to Grandma's house we passed through a desert. It was still really cold but there were sand dunes and pretty views, so we stopped to take some pictures. ( Never fear, I will be posting those later)
Meichen's grandparents (both sets) live in the same town. However she quickly told me that she is far closer with her dad's parents than her moms, since her dad is only one of three children and her mother has such a large family. For lunch, however, we ate with her moms parents. Thus began the endless meetings of distant relatives. Everywhere I turned it felt like Meichen had a new family member to introduce me to. They were all very kind and patient with my Chinese. None of them spoke any English. While I mostly listened to the conversation, I was also able to answer a lot of their direct questions, which I was pretty proud of.
After lunch we went to her dad's parents house and that was our living quarters for the next 5 days. We had such a great time there. We played Mahjong (which I learned completely in Chinese! Baba taught me), went to a Chinese movie, and watched the Chinese New Year special on TV. The eating was basically endless. By the fifth day, I knew I was not Chinese, because I could only eat a bowl of rice before I was telling them I was already full. They laughed at how much more they were eating than me, but Meichen's grandma came to the conclusion that Chinese food just makes white people full faster.
New Years Eve and Day were especially crazy. The fireworks were endless! Let me tell you now, there are no regulations for these fireworks. They set them off where ever! There are literally open bonfires on the sidewalks! When we went out to set ours off I was so scared I was going to get hit by one I couldn't stay outside for long. Of course Meichen's family thought it was hilarious that I was so scared. They just shook their heads and said "foreigner". I had to laugh at that. It was painfully obvious I had never experienced fireworks like they do.
On New Years Day we went around to everyones house and said "过年好“ which is a version of "Happy New Year". For dinner we had a meat and sauerkraut dish. That made me laugh, because we have almost the exact same dish for our New Year's in the states. What a small world!
Throughout our stay I had so many fun conversations with grandma and mama. Grandma was basically the head of the household, and you could tell she was a strong women. I caught her staring at me a lot and every time I looked back at her we would burst out laughing. When it was time to leave, she said to me in Chinese, "did you like your stay here." I answered "of course" to which she replied "Then you never have to leave". I was so touched, by her kindness. I would have stayed there forever just playing Mahjong with her, but it was time to return to Hohhot.
Mama knew some English and tried practicing on me, while she taught me Chinese. Meichen thought our communication system was hysterical. There was a lot of hand gestures and pointing involved. The theme of almost all our conversations was whether or not I was cold (which she always insisted I was, because I don't wear layers on my legs) and whether or I was hungry. I rarely was, but she kept telling me to eat. It became an inside joke with the family. She would say in Chinese "吃吃吃吃吃“ （eat eat eat...) and I would say "不吃不吃不吃(no no no...) really fast.
After a long stay at Grandmas, we returned to Hohhot where Meichen and I caught up on sleep and hung out with some of her high school classmates. We even got the chance to visit a temple! On the last night Meichen looked at me and said. "Ok Maddie, I think you've had enough Chinese food for one little foreigner" and she took me to Pizza Hut. I have to say, I have never loved my roommate more than that moment. I'll be honest, I wanted nothing more than a personal pan pizza after eating three meals a day of Chinese dish after Chinese dish. I think I may have cried a little when she told me our dinner plans. haha.
The next day we were back on a plane to the dorms. I'm pretty sure her parents are already planning next year's events. They really want my family to come and join the fun, but I had to explain to them that Americans don't get off for this holiday.
This week I hit the halfway mark in my training for the marathon. Also I have a Stat midterm tomorrow and I am a part of Candidate weekend for the incoming Chinese freshmen this weekend and next! I am very excited to help the evaluation process and to give back a little to the University!
Love from Shanghai,
Maddie
I just got back from a very hectic, but very exciting Spring Festival Holiday. Last Sunday (Feb. 15th) Meichen and I got on a plane to Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, where Meichen grew up, to meet her family for Chinese New Year. We left the dorms around 6:30am for 9:00am flight and we landed around1:00pm. Her dad was there waiting to pick us up. From the airport we went straight to her Aunt's (her moms sister, the second oldest of EIGHT children) house for a quick lunch. After a very authentic and delicious Chinese meal (one of many on this trip) Meichen and I braved the cold to checkout her old high school and the surrounding city. Hohhot, although it is obviously not as big as Shanghai, is a very well developed city. They even have their own version of those City Bikes. Not even Shanghai has that! After a quick tour around Hohhot where Meichen told me about her life as a Chinese high school student, we got back in the car for a two hour trip to Ordus, which is the town Meichen's father (who I just call baba) works.
Baba works for an energy power plant in Ordus. The family has two apartments, one close to the power plant and the other back in Hohhot. To my understanding the apartment near the power plant is more like a dormitory for the workers and their families to stay at for convenience. When we arrived, we had Hot Pot for dinner. It was absolutely delicious! That night we played several rounds of pingpong and badminton before going off to bed.
Day 2:
On the second day we woke up around 7:00am so that Meichen could take me around Ordus. I'm not sure how many people reading this have ever ridden on a Chinese public bus before, but it is quite the adventure. Many of the Chinese choose this mode of transportation because it is only 1 kuai to get on. So Meichen and I hopped on and we went to go visit a Church as well as a really pretty park that was built on top of a mountain. After walking outside for about 2 hours we went back inside the warmth and took a short nap before we ate some more Chinese food. (I should mention that I took the week off for my marathon training for this trip. I figured I wouldn't have the time or means to run my weeks worth of miles). After we ate, baba wanted us to take a tour of the power plant, so we could see where he worked. To my knowledge baba is the deputy manager of this plant. When he walked in the room all the workers stood up, which tells me he is likely a very important man.
Meichen's cousin also joined us on this trip to practice her English. She was a junior in high school and she really wants to attend NYUSH as well. She was very nervous to try to talk to me at first, but once she saw how easily Meichen and I spoke Chinglish (Chinese and English) she realized she had nothing to worry about.
There was one mix up, though. While on the way to Meichen's grandparents house, we took two cars. Meichen wanted her cousin to practice more English so baba me and her cousin were in one car while Meichen and mama were in the other. While we were in the car, Li Tong, the cousin, asked me what our horses in America were made out of. I was bit confused by the question. She asked, "are they made of stone or wood? In China our horses are made out of stone and wood sometimes." I was so confused, so I said no our horses in America are real, and she just stared at me so confused. I tried to type 'real' into a translator but that just confused her more. And then I started to question why China didn't have real horses. I thought it was like a Troy story or a Terra-cotta warrior thing. Then she asked me if my dad made our horse, and I was like, "no. we don't own a horse" and at this point I was getting really frustrated with her horse questions. Then it dawned on me that she meant HOUSES. I have never laughed so hard in my life. The funny thing is that if she had just said it in Chinese I would have known what she was trying to say. haha lesson learned.
Also on the way to Grandma's house we passed through a desert. It was still really cold but there were sand dunes and pretty views, so we stopped to take some pictures. ( Never fear, I will be posting those later)
Meichen's grandparents (both sets) live in the same town. However she quickly told me that she is far closer with her dad's parents than her moms, since her dad is only one of three children and her mother has such a large family. For lunch, however, we ate with her moms parents. Thus began the endless meetings of distant relatives. Everywhere I turned it felt like Meichen had a new family member to introduce me to. They were all very kind and patient with my Chinese. None of them spoke any English. While I mostly listened to the conversation, I was also able to answer a lot of their direct questions, which I was pretty proud of.
After lunch we went to her dad's parents house and that was our living quarters for the next 5 days. We had such a great time there. We played Mahjong (which I learned completely in Chinese! Baba taught me), went to a Chinese movie, and watched the Chinese New Year special on TV. The eating was basically endless. By the fifth day, I knew I was not Chinese, because I could only eat a bowl of rice before I was telling them I was already full. They laughed at how much more they were eating than me, but Meichen's grandma came to the conclusion that Chinese food just makes white people full faster.
New Years Eve and Day were especially crazy. The fireworks were endless! Let me tell you now, there are no regulations for these fireworks. They set them off where ever! There are literally open bonfires on the sidewalks! When we went out to set ours off I was so scared I was going to get hit by one I couldn't stay outside for long. Of course Meichen's family thought it was hilarious that I was so scared. They just shook their heads and said "foreigner". I had to laugh at that. It was painfully obvious I had never experienced fireworks like they do.
On New Years Day we went around to everyones house and said "过年好“ which is a version of "Happy New Year". For dinner we had a meat and sauerkraut dish. That made me laugh, because we have almost the exact same dish for our New Year's in the states. What a small world!
Throughout our stay I had so many fun conversations with grandma and mama. Grandma was basically the head of the household, and you could tell she was a strong women. I caught her staring at me a lot and every time I looked back at her we would burst out laughing. When it was time to leave, she said to me in Chinese, "did you like your stay here." I answered "of course" to which she replied "Then you never have to leave". I was so touched, by her kindness. I would have stayed there forever just playing Mahjong with her, but it was time to return to Hohhot.
Mama knew some English and tried practicing on me, while she taught me Chinese. Meichen thought our communication system was hysterical. There was a lot of hand gestures and pointing involved. The theme of almost all our conversations was whether or not I was cold (which she always insisted I was, because I don't wear layers on my legs) and whether or I was hungry. I rarely was, but she kept telling me to eat. It became an inside joke with the family. She would say in Chinese "吃吃吃吃吃“ （eat eat eat...) and I would say "不吃不吃不吃(no no no...) really fast.
After a long stay at Grandmas, we returned to Hohhot where Meichen and I caught up on sleep and hung out with some of her high school classmates. We even got the chance to visit a temple! On the last night Meichen looked at me and said. "Ok Maddie, I think you've had enough Chinese food for one little foreigner" and she took me to Pizza Hut. I have to say, I have never loved my roommate more than that moment. I'll be honest, I wanted nothing more than a personal pan pizza after eating three meals a day of Chinese dish after Chinese dish. I think I may have cried a little when she told me our dinner plans. haha.
The next day we were back on a plane to the dorms. I'm pretty sure her parents are already planning next year's events. They really want my family to come and join the fun, but I had to explain to them that Americans don't get off for this holiday.
This week I hit the halfway mark in my training for the marathon. Also I have a Stat midterm tomorrow and I am a part of Candidate weekend for the incoming Chinese freshmen this weekend and next! I am very excited to help the evaluation process and to give back a little to the University!
Love from Shanghai,
Maddie
Saturday, February 7, 2015
Update on life/ Sorry I haven't posted in a while...
Hello everyone!
This semester of college is proving to be way busier than the last. I've barely had any free time since school started up, which explains the lack of posting. My schedule this semester is difficult but I'm enjoying it. I am currently in my first calculus class ever, and I actually really like it. My professor goes really fast, but he explains it all really well. Which is all you can really ask for in a math professor. Unfortunately I will only get to have him for half the semester because the professor we were originally supposed to have is on sick leave for seven weeks but is coming back mid semester. The logistics of it are kind of a mess because the math professor I have right now literally got on a plane the night before classes started and just showed up to the first lecture. haha
As for the rest of my classes, Chinese just keeps getting harder and harder. But my laoshi is really pushing our speaking levels this semester, so the progress I'm making is really exciting. GPS had our first guest lecturer, Catharine Mackinnon, come last week. It was a true honor to hear her speak, as she is one of the worlds most famous feminists. (I'll be honest, I may have freaked out just a little).
This weekend my friends and I went to an expat market called jiashan market and there was all kinds of foods represented by almost every country you could think of. There a lot of little international children running around and the food was absolutely delicious! It was also really fun to ask all the vendors why they are living in Shanghai. A lot of them just came to Shanghai on vacation and fell in love. Unfortunately the market is closing up until April, but now that we know about it, we will definitely be returning!
Today I reached the 9 mile mark in my marathon training. I am beginning to loathe the treadmill, but I have friends taking shifts on who gets to talk to me as I run. The people who work at the gym know me too well now, and they've basically marked off a treadmill for me because I'm down there so often.
Spring festival is approaching, and Meichen and I are getting so excited to go to Inner Mongolia. The other day her mom was Skyping us, and she said that I could call her 妈妈 which means mother in Chinese. I was so honored.
I will try to update this thing more often. I leave in about a week for Inner Mongolia and I unfortunately won't have google access there. I plan on journalling and then spamming the blog with day to day updates when I get back.
Love from Shanghai,
Maddie
This semester of college is proving to be way busier than the last. I've barely had any free time since school started up, which explains the lack of posting. My schedule this semester is difficult but I'm enjoying it. I am currently in my first calculus class ever, and I actually really like it. My professor goes really fast, but he explains it all really well. Which is all you can really ask for in a math professor. Unfortunately I will only get to have him for half the semester because the professor we were originally supposed to have is on sick leave for seven weeks but is coming back mid semester. The logistics of it are kind of a mess because the math professor I have right now literally got on a plane the night before classes started and just showed up to the first lecture. haha
As for the rest of my classes, Chinese just keeps getting harder and harder. But my laoshi is really pushing our speaking levels this semester, so the progress I'm making is really exciting. GPS had our first guest lecturer, Catharine Mackinnon, come last week. It was a true honor to hear her speak, as she is one of the worlds most famous feminists. (I'll be honest, I may have freaked out just a little).
This weekend my friends and I went to an expat market called jiashan market and there was all kinds of foods represented by almost every country you could think of. There a lot of little international children running around and the food was absolutely delicious! It was also really fun to ask all the vendors why they are living in Shanghai. A lot of them just came to Shanghai on vacation and fell in love. Unfortunately the market is closing up until April, but now that we know about it, we will definitely be returning!
Today I reached the 9 mile mark in my marathon training. I am beginning to loathe the treadmill, but I have friends taking shifts on who gets to talk to me as I run. The people who work at the gym know me too well now, and they've basically marked off a treadmill for me because I'm down there so often.
Spring festival is approaching, and Meichen and I are getting so excited to go to Inner Mongolia. The other day her mom was Skyping us, and she said that I could call her 妈妈 which means mother in Chinese. I was so honored.
I will try to update this thing more often. I leave in about a week for Inner Mongolia and I unfortunately won't have google access there. I plan on journalling and then spamming the blog with day to day updates when I get back.
Love from Shanghai,
Maddie
Saturday, January 24, 2015
2nd Sem
Hello all!
I can't believe I'm already back for a second semester! I returned on the 21st but but I have been catching up with friends and trying to get over jet lag, so I haven't been able to post anything. This semester will be a little bit harder, I am taking both Calculus and Statistics for my business requirements as well as 8:15 Chinese, and of course GPS. This semester in GPS should be especially interesting, because the university has made plans to have four guest speakers to come and lecture us. It will be really nice to mix it up in that class, and hear other perspectives.
In other news, Meichen just got back from a trip to Beijing and Nanjing where she was visiting her old classmates. In just three more weeks I will be going to Inner Mongolia with her. We are so excited! She told me that when she went back home to tell her extended family that I was coming, her cousin, who has been learning english for some time, now wants us to come and stay with her for a day so that she can practice her English on me. Apparently she has never met a "Foreigner" before, (that's a lot of pressure).
Today we are just going to enjoy our last day of freedom before school officially begins, so we are touring through Shanghai. We figure if we stay in our rooms too long we will fall asleep and ruin our progress getting over jet lag. The smog here has been pretty bad the last couple of days, and I can no longer see the Pearl Tower from my building. They say it probably won't clear up until after winter, so I have been wearing my mask pretty diligently since I arrived.
I cannot wait to see what this semester has in store for me!
love from Shanghai,
Maddie
I can't believe I'm already back for a second semester! I returned on the 21st but but I have been catching up with friends and trying to get over jet lag, so I haven't been able to post anything. This semester will be a little bit harder, I am taking both Calculus and Statistics for my business requirements as well as 8:15 Chinese, and of course GPS. This semester in GPS should be especially interesting, because the university has made plans to have four guest speakers to come and lecture us. It will be really nice to mix it up in that class, and hear other perspectives.
In other news, Meichen just got back from a trip to Beijing and Nanjing where she was visiting her old classmates. In just three more weeks I will be going to Inner Mongolia with her. We are so excited! She told me that when she went back home to tell her extended family that I was coming, her cousin, who has been learning english for some time, now wants us to come and stay with her for a day so that she can practice her English on me. Apparently she has never met a "Foreigner" before, (that's a lot of pressure).
Today we are just going to enjoy our last day of freedom before school officially begins, so we are touring through Shanghai. We figure if we stay in our rooms too long we will fall asleep and ruin our progress getting over jet lag. The smog here has been pretty bad the last couple of days, and I can no longer see the Pearl Tower from my building. They say it probably won't clear up until after winter, so I have been wearing my mask pretty diligently since I arrived.
I cannot wait to see what this semester has in store for me!
love from Shanghai,
Maddie
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