Things to know about China:
1. Its every man, car and rickshaw for itself on the road, a red light means nothing!
2. Although Google just moved to Hong Kong they still have advertising all over the subways.
3. You need to be able to throw some bows to get around. So if Megan O'Donnell was here, her new hott cast would be an asset (ps if you see here give her some love, it takes true skill to break your elbow!).
4. Korean Pop music is a new light in my life, check out Super Junior or the Wonder Girls
5. Shanghai gets to decide city holidays on a whim, hmm the expo seems nice lets have a 5 day holiday (oK i know i already told you about this but its just too great to only talk about once).
6. This one needs a little bit of a story so bare with me: ok when i was younger my parents so conveniently exploited the fact that they had 3 cute little girls (yes, yes just check out the baby pictures, the matching bows really helped up this factor) to get to cut in lines and not have any one cause a fuss. Well here in China it's sort of similar but its the whole "group of westerner" thing. On the subway when were supposed to use the x-ray machines we can just walk on by, if we disobey traffic laws, no big deal. Now there are disadvantages without a doubt, when shopping we have no chance of getting the "chinese price", well unless they mistake my Korean friend for Chinese :-).
7. 2 words, boy band-ers: give me fluffed, orange mullets, tight leather pants, swanky shoes and a posse
8. Your english will get significantly worse. I mean i know my grammar and spelling are slightly embarrassing usually (thanks Rachel for proof reading my life!) but here its a joke.
9. They have beautiful things called night markets. ok i know your thinking wow aryn real original, but just stop right there! There is something truly beautiful about getting a giant egg pancake for less than 50 cents and a container of fresh fried rice for $1.
10. Milk tea. They have stands everywhere and its less than $2 and delicious!
11. Green tea flavored everything... Pockies, Oreos, ice cream etc.
Two blog posts in 24 hours pretty cool right, im just gonna put it out there that i may or may not have a test tomorrow!
xoxo,
Aryn
one month and 2 days till I'm Rocky Mountain High bound!
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Hello Uncle
Hello hello!
I'm so sorry that it's been so long since i've written. Where i left off was before my trip to Singapore, which was amazing! One of my friends from Shanghai lives there and she was nice enough to let us stay with her. If you love hot weather, great food and good shopping then you would love Singapore. One of the big tourist attraction there is Orchard Road which is a giant strip with building after building of malls filled with designer shopping and great food. Singapore not only has great restaurants but they have a delicious night market where we tried stingray (that one was for you Steve Irwin!). No our entire trip did not consist of getting fat on the great food, we went out to Sentoas one day, which is a beach on the island. It was funny because we were sitting out on this nice sand on this great beach and in the distance you would expect to see a beautiful ocean stretching on for miles but instead we got a beautiful view of oil and cargo ships, truly romantic. Singapore is a interesting island, they import everything they sell on the island. You may have heard the urban legends of people spitting gum on the street in Singapore and being arrested, ok really people you believed that! It is a very clean city though, people were telling us stories of getting $300 fines for littering, luckily we avoided any run in with the trash cops. While there, we got to meet a lot of Carissa's friends because all of the Singapore men are required to serve for two years in the army. Since there is not a strong Singaporean identity they unite the people requiring them to all go through the same experience. Its an interesting because when you graduate you almost put your life on hold for two years so your 20 or 21 when you enter your freshman year in college. Something that everyone needs to go to Singapore is the zoo and night safari. I felt as if i was in a safari haha, you can get so close to the animals. My friend got to be the helper in the sea lion show with Carlos the sea lion, he may or may not have stolen a kiss ohhlala! On the night safari you get driven next to animals that aren't in cages, its like the disneyland ride in real life! We were walking around on our own and on the road was written "do not cross" but i mean really if someone reads that and there are no gates around what are you going to do, cross the line of course! We found out later that across the line was a rhino! We also had a great Jurassic Park flashback if we would have hidden and stayed there overnight! How epic would that have been, party with the night safari animals, the otters seemed to know how to have a good time! Another fun fact about Shanghai, they call everyone Uncle. When we get in to a cab Carissa would also say "uncle, etc etc." cool right, it's like everyone’s family!
We got back from Singapore just in time to go to the opening day of the Bund. The Bund was once the home to many trading houses for the foreigner in Shanghai, now it’s a popular tourist destination. It sits on the bank of the Huangpu River. It's been closed for renovations and people clearly missed it judging by how many people were out there that day. The walk from Peoples Square where the subway is to the Bund felt like a scene from "Night of the Living Dead" everyone had their eyes on the Bund and there was no stopping zombie style. We even witnessed a car crash and the people’s only reaction was to yell "ooooo" and continue walking. It was very pretty once we got their because we had a clear view of the other side which has the Pearl Tower (the weird spaceship, pointy tower).
With the Expo we have been able to see the changes that are happening around the city in preparation for this opportunity for Shanghai to show off its steeze. The subways now have x-ray machines with overly friendly attendants, new clean cabs, oh ya and a 5 day holiday in honor of the Expo. We were just informed yesterday that due to the Expo we have April 30-May 4th off of class! Also another great thing about the Expo, my Mom and her friend Dana are coming out to visit!! Counting down the days.
As most of you know this past Sunday was Easter and I decided to be a good little catholic girl and go to mass (brownie points!). As I was looking up services there was one where you needed a foreign passport to get into the service. We settled on a service in a famous church in Shanghai, now keep in mind religion isn't something you really come to Shanghai to learn about. With that said it was an interesting service to say the least. The priest didn't seem to know what he was reading and we were given what we thought were eggs but they turned out to be an awful imitation that had a weird orange pink center, Now that fact that the most notable part was the egg says something! But i did get to have a wonderful brunch so that was a good Easter tradition that i got o keep! I know i know dad you wished you could be there to discuss the meaning of Easter with me but at least you had Megan and Molly!
Last night I had a dream that i came back home from the semester abroad with one small suitcase, I forgot my suitcases and everything in my room. Ya i know you would have freaked out too, but in my dream i was so calm, well that’s because a fire was going on at the same time haha, minor detail. As much as i know everyone enjoys hearing about my dreams it has a point, the end is near. I really can't believe i only have a month left to play in Shanghai (on that note as well if you in Denver circa May 10th expect to play!).
Xoxo,
Aryn
I'm so sorry that it's been so long since i've written. Where i left off was before my trip to Singapore, which was amazing! One of my friends from Shanghai lives there and she was nice enough to let us stay with her. If you love hot weather, great food and good shopping then you would love Singapore. One of the big tourist attraction there is Orchard Road which is a giant strip with building after building of malls filled with designer shopping and great food. Singapore not only has great restaurants but they have a delicious night market where we tried stingray (that one was for you Steve Irwin!). No our entire trip did not consist of getting fat on the great food, we went out to Sentoas one day, which is a beach on the island. It was funny because we were sitting out on this nice sand on this great beach and in the distance you would expect to see a beautiful ocean stretching on for miles but instead we got a beautiful view of oil and cargo ships, truly romantic. Singapore is a interesting island, they import everything they sell on the island. You may have heard the urban legends of people spitting gum on the street in Singapore and being arrested, ok really people you believed that! It is a very clean city though, people were telling us stories of getting $300 fines for littering, luckily we avoided any run in with the trash cops. While there, we got to meet a lot of Carissa's friends because all of the Singapore men are required to serve for two years in the army. Since there is not a strong Singaporean identity they unite the people requiring them to all go through the same experience. Its an interesting because when you graduate you almost put your life on hold for two years so your 20 or 21 when you enter your freshman year in college. Something that everyone needs to go to Singapore is the zoo and night safari. I felt as if i was in a safari haha, you can get so close to the animals. My friend got to be the helper in the sea lion show with Carlos the sea lion, he may or may not have stolen a kiss ohhlala! On the night safari you get driven next to animals that aren't in cages, its like the disneyland ride in real life! We were walking around on our own and on the road was written "do not cross" but i mean really if someone reads that and there are no gates around what are you going to do, cross the line of course! We found out later that across the line was a rhino! We also had a great Jurassic Park flashback if we would have hidden and stayed there overnight! How epic would that have been, party with the night safari animals, the otters seemed to know how to have a good time! Another fun fact about Shanghai, they call everyone Uncle. When we get in to a cab Carissa would also say "uncle, etc etc." cool right, it's like everyone’s family!
We got back from Singapore just in time to go to the opening day of the Bund. The Bund was once the home to many trading houses for the foreigner in Shanghai, now it’s a popular tourist destination. It sits on the bank of the Huangpu River. It's been closed for renovations and people clearly missed it judging by how many people were out there that day. The walk from Peoples Square where the subway is to the Bund felt like a scene from "Night of the Living Dead" everyone had their eyes on the Bund and there was no stopping zombie style. We even witnessed a car crash and the people’s only reaction was to yell "ooooo" and continue walking. It was very pretty once we got their because we had a clear view of the other side which has the Pearl Tower (the weird spaceship, pointy tower).
With the Expo we have been able to see the changes that are happening around the city in preparation for this opportunity for Shanghai to show off its steeze. The subways now have x-ray machines with overly friendly attendants, new clean cabs, oh ya and a 5 day holiday in honor of the Expo. We were just informed yesterday that due to the Expo we have April 30-May 4th off of class! Also another great thing about the Expo, my Mom and her friend Dana are coming out to visit!! Counting down the days.
As most of you know this past Sunday was Easter and I decided to be a good little catholic girl and go to mass (brownie points!). As I was looking up services there was one where you needed a foreign passport to get into the service. We settled on a service in a famous church in Shanghai, now keep in mind religion isn't something you really come to Shanghai to learn about. With that said it was an interesting service to say the least. The priest didn't seem to know what he was reading and we were given what we thought were eggs but they turned out to be an awful imitation that had a weird orange pink center, Now that fact that the most notable part was the egg says something! But i did get to have a wonderful brunch so that was a good Easter tradition that i got o keep! I know i know dad you wished you could be there to discuss the meaning of Easter with me but at least you had Megan and Molly!
Last night I had a dream that i came back home from the semester abroad with one small suitcase, I forgot my suitcases and everything in my room. Ya i know you would have freaked out too, but in my dream i was so calm, well that’s because a fire was going on at the same time haha, minor detail. As much as i know everyone enjoys hearing about my dreams it has a point, the end is near. I really can't believe i only have a month left to play in Shanghai (on that note as well if you in Denver circa May 10th expect to play!).
Xoxo,
Aryn
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