Fall break approaching....

Hello All!

It's been yet another great week in Shanghai! This week was a typical week for classes. Chinese continues to be the main focus of my academics and I think my speaking skills are really starting to pick up!

This weekend I have a visitor in Shanghai! Mr. Wege is here on business and has kindly brought a suitcase here filled with things that my mom has sent me from home! (If Paige is reading this right now, I bet her immediate thought is that in her four years of college my mom has probably sent her one care package and here I am halfway across the world and already I am receiving something) I take this as evidence that I am,,in fact, the favorite child. :)

In other news, my plans to go to Beijing have unfortunately fallen through. My friends and I did not expect the fall break to sneak up on us so quickly, but time is fleeting. Instead we have decided to go to Yellow Mountain to hike. It is a six hour bus ride from our and we are basically going to take pictures and explore for five days. Check the link below, it is gorgeous!

With the fall break approaching I am in the midst of studying for quarter term exams... yes, that is a thing here. To make up the day that NYUSH took off for the national holiday, we are being forced to come to school on Sunday as if it were a Monday schedule. We will then have our exam for GPS and other regular scheduled classes again on Monday. I really don't mind going to school on Sunday though, because it gives me more practice with Chinese and I only have two classes on Monday. By Wednesday I will be sightseeing anyway.

If you want to check out some of the landscapes of yellow mountain and some background click on the link! http://www.shanghaihighlights.com/neighbours/huangshan.html

520 (Just learned that this is I love you in Chinese when you're texting someone...)
Maddie

This Past Week

I can't believe it's already been a month since I arrived in Shanghai! While everything still feels relatively new and exciting, I can't deny that this place already feels like home. I've settled into all of my classes and I am doing quite well in everything, especially my writing (thanks Country Day). I wish I could tell you that there was one day where I missed the US, but I can't say there's been one. Everyday I walk to my academic building early in the morning and just look up at the all the buildings. When I first got here, the height of these buildings facinated me, but there are starting to look normal. I can't say things are perfect here, because there will be challenges you meet where ever you travel to or live, but there hasn't been a situation in which I feel like I don't belong here. In fact, I have daily conversations with my friends about how hard it's going to be for me when we go back to the US in December. Even this past week when I was sick and I should have been missing home, I still loved it.

So in regards to this sickness, let me tell you what happened. This past week I was sick with a cold and had to go to the doctor. Don't be alarmed, I feel much better now. When I was sick, my roomate took me to the hospital, because there are no family doctor sites and it was a weekend so our Health and Wellness Center was closed. If anyone ever goes to China, I recommend going into one of the hospitals. As I walked in the front enterance there was a substantial group of people just sitting with an IV drip in the arm to the right of the waiting room, and it definitely was not dialysis. MeiChen didn't know how to explain to me english exactly what was happening, so I'm still really foggy on the situation. Needless to say, I'm still laughing to myself about it, because its one of those things that my friends and I label "Classic China".

Last week was also the week that I started my job at the library. I've learned the basics about shelving and working at the desk. I love working at the desk the most because I get to watch everyone come into the library and since we are a pretty small school I know a lot of faces and they all nod to me as they walk past. It's so comforting to know that I've already made some many connections and friends within this community.

As fall break is approaching, my friends and I have decided to take a quick trip to Beijing, I say this kind of ironically, because for most of you reading this, a trip to Beijing is not so quick. There, we will be seeing the classic sights of Beijing and hopefully be doing some serious bargining, because all my friends and I are in love with the fake market.

Last weekend I had the unique experience of visiting a small quarter of Shanghai called Tianzifang. It had all kinds of really cool shops and art work displays and international food options. It was the perfect Saturday night hangout. My friends and I went to a couple different restuarants and tried some different appitizers on the menu. Everything we had, from onion rings to jiaozi was dellcious, and cheap!

I am truly having an amazing time here, I miss you all.

Maddie

 

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Mid-Autumn festival

Mid-autumn festival is today, so there is no school for me! Classes are going really well, espeically all the writing courses. Chinese moves with incredible speed. Everyday we have a test and move through a chapter a week. It's good to keep busy like that though, because it applies so much to my daily life in China.

Yesterday I took MeiChen out to get some dumplings (can't help myself, they are SO good) she was so impressed at how fast my speaking skills are improving. It's exciting for me to get that kind of feedback. Usually I try to speak Chinese to her as she tries to speak english to me and we help each other with the vocabulary. I have characters written on sticky notes all over my walls of her trying to help me learn more characters. The other day she invited me to her home in Mongolia for Chinese New Year! She said that no one else in her family speaks english so she is going to make me practice extra hours so that I can communicate with her family.

I have another busy week ahead of me with classes, but I am hoping that next weekend my friends and I can do TaiChi in the park in the morning.

I hope everyone is well in the US

Love from Shanghai,

Maddie

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Flashmob and First Day of School

Sunday was a bittersweet day, as it marked the end of a very very long summer. To celebrate the class of 2018 practiced over seven hours to participate in a flashmob right outside the Science and Technology Building, close to my academic hall. It was such a fun experience, and its something I can cross off my bucket list! (Hopefully a video will be up soon)

Overall, this past week has been pretty much perfect. I even texted my mom and asked if it was okay to never come home. Between hanging out with my friends and figuring my way through different problems throughout the city, there is no better word for this experience than adventure. Not only do I converse with the locals on a daily basis (AND THEY UNDERSTAND ME!) but I've also made good friends with a restaurant owner, because he makes the best soup dumplings. Probably the biggest struggle these past two weeks was finding good food that didn't upset my stomach, without eating Subway everyday. When I finally found this dumpling place, I pretty much went seven days in a row, and now I just walk in and he has my order already ready. haha. If anyone comes to visit me, you are trying these dumplings.

Today marked the first day of classes for me. I feel really comfortable in my chinese class, I love my math class and professor, and my Chinese Wisdom class is a bit of a challenge because it is so late at night, but it seems like a very interesting course. As for my Global Perspective Class, it is just like World Civ, so much so that I can tell where he is going with the lecture 10 minutes into it. It makes participating in his class so much easier!

I hope everyone back in the states has a wonderful Labor Day!

Love from Shanghai,
Maddie

more pics

 

 

 

 

 

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The bund

Today Some of my friends and I went adventuring to the bund. The day was a little overcast but it was a really fun time. We got to explore the metro system while navagating our way there, so it was good practice for living in China. This week I haven't had a single day where I am upset. Everthing seems to be falling into place. I even got a job at the library! Tomorrow I have to finish applying for residency and then we are going on a night cruise around the Huangpu river with the entire school. (Like homecoming) It should be a really fun night and I am looking forward to it.

Here are some pictures from the day, as well as throughout the week. You will see pictures of my building, my favorite spot to hang out, views of my dorm and of around shanghai. Enjoy!

Love from Shanghai,

Maddie

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Today's lecture

Today was amazing. This morning the university arranged a lecture by Irshad Manji, and if you don't know her I suggest looking her up. She has a very interesting cultural idenity and really emphasizes the importance of being a global citizen and as she put it so cleverly being "a trans-national soul". Irshad is a Muslim that was born in Uganda, but she had Asian heritage. When she was young they were forced to take refuge in Canada, but as of now Irshad lives in the US (when she isn't traveling to spread her message). The talk lasted almost two hours, but the most interesing topics came from the Q and A.

Irshad explained to us that there are degrees of diversity, as we understand in the world. The first degree is very basic. For example, the color of your skin, your gender, your age, or your orientation. To me, this kind of diversity is kind of superficial, when you think about it. It's the kind of diversity that schools and businesses put up on pie charts and brag about. It doesn't matter if all these people think the same, if they all look different then 'diversity', as they loosley define it, is achieved. The second degree, which I found to be the most interesting and especially true for NYUSH, is the diversity of our minds. The one component that the first degree is severely lacking. Something I find so amazing about NYUSH is that we all think so differently. When given a problem or a topic to discuss I find that my class has six different ways of solving it or arguing it. Part of this is because of our truly diverse backgrounds and the ideaologies that we were brought up with, but nonetheless the diversity of our minds is rarely put on a chart for perspective parents to marvel at. It's something that gets completely overlooked when people think of diversity. The third degree, and probably the most difficult to understand is the diversity in indivduality. How I, as a person and global citizen, contribute to diversity on my campus, in my country, or in a foregein place. So instead of placing people into categories like the first degree or groups of people who agree or disagree like the second degree the highest level of diversity looks at a single persons characteristics and counts that as diversity.

This theory really stuck with me. Now that I am a minority, this kind of distiction has finally become important to me and my identity here at NYUSH. I think that getting past the cultural differences and physical aspects of diversity this past couple of weeks has been an extremely rewarding experience. I have met so many people that have such incredible stories of hardship and triumph or travel or adventure. If the superficial barriers of diversity were still there, I would never have had the opportunity to gain and share knowledge like this with any of them, and for that I am so thankful.

In addition, I would like to add an interesting question that came up in the question portion of the lecture. Very few Chinese students participated in the question portion of the talk and a lot of that has to do with the language barrier and being able to formulate thoughtful and complete questions. Despite this, one brave chinese student stood up and asked "Irshad, all my life I have been told what to do by the government and by my parents, How do we begin to change this in China?" At first this question seemed normal to me. In America, teenagers are often very active in protest and change. For example, Pride rallies. I had forgotten for a second that this is strictly forbidden in China, and I was quickly reminded when almost the whole Chinese population in the audience audibly gasped after he asked his question. A full debate insued between the Chinese students as to whether or not this question was even valid. It was an incredible thing to watch, as one side argued that "The system worked just fine" and others that "the academic rigor that they have to go through is overwhelming, to put it lightly". After about ten minutes, Irshad had only one thing to say to the brave boy in the back row. She said, "I'm sorry, but I can't answer your question, because you are telling me that you're whole life you have been told what to do. It would be wrong for me to tell you how to change this, when I would just another person telling you how to run your life." Her advice was to figure it out for himself. She told him to use his time at NYUSH to challenge his ideals and find a better way for China, if that is his interest, but above all that he should take this time to find himself, by himself.

I've never experienced anything like it. Questions ranged from a struggling vegetarian trying to get approval from her family as she tries a new lifestyle, to the Arab Spring (asked by an Israeli) to LGBTQ community questions. To me that was diversity in itself, and I am proud to be a part of something that special.

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