The Search Is Over...

Weather: 11C couldy/smog

Time:1030am

See Suits, if nothing else.

Weiqi Lunch

In my Chinese Culture course, we've been taking field trips.  The first one I wrote about was the Peking Opera (Beijing Opera)  This past Wednesday all 30+ of us went out to lunch on the Shanghai Jiao Tong University budget.  We caught our coach bus from our hotel.  After 40 minutes, we arrived in an older part / touristy type of area.  Aside; It's hard to tell how big the city is since everything is in minutes and kilometers - it's big, but I still can't scale it to something.  We arrived at the restaurant and we had our own dining room.  This leads well into the next section.

Odd Food (again) 

Theres was plenty of food served in the traditional Chinese way, using a spinning center plate - lazy susan style.  It started with some cold things - this part of the mean is particularly surprising since most of the stuff they serve cold - I would have at least steamed.  Pumpkin was served with a small round ball that.. wasn't doing it for me.  Then there was a warm Lotus root stuffed with sticky rice?  It wasn't so bad.  Soon after, the "1000 year old eggs" came out.  I think they're called leather eggs too.  It's a hard boiled egg that is soaked in vinegar and soy, if I was told right.  The white is brown - and clear / gelatinous.  I did not partake.  Then came the Phoenix Feet.  Don't let the name confuse you - they're chicken feet.  They were served cold and appeared shiny, so I suppose they had been soaked in something.  Either way, I was't about to eat the skin off of that.  The few brave enough didn't give any raving reviews so I stayed clear.

Then came the onslaught of half normal food.  Noodles and pork, beef and bamboo, some other vegetables.  There were also a couple of decent surprises.  They served something very much like a potato cake, hash brown, fried something.  It wasn't potato based - it just had that shape and texture.  It tasted a lot like an unsweetened elephant ear / funnel cake.  That was something that was completely eaten.  They were also very small shrimp served in a large plate of seaweed, perhaps to make them feel more at home.  The small shrimp are eaten in one bite - legs, eyes, shell, the whole thing.  If you can get past that part - it's pretty good.  My big test of the day was being served small fish.  Small fish was a delicacy because they're hard to cook and easy to eat - or so I was told.  The idea is that small fish have very small bones so you can eat the bones and still be good.  You know, I believed them - that was my biggest mistake.  I took a bite from the tail end and it wasn't so bad.  It was that next one that got into the rib cage when I kinda wanted to spit it out.  I choked it down and considered that test over.  Next time my grandpa wants to eat fish, this experience will come back to mind and I will decline. 

  

Living Situation

It's been nearly 3 weeks since I arrived in this dwelling and I don't think I've talked about it much on the blog.  We're located in the heart of the city.  It takes about 10 minutes to walk to the nearest subway stop and can take 30 minutes to get to the river.  Theres plenty of expensive shopping in the area, Burberry, Swarovski, and the likes.  Best Buy is about 10 minutes away, lots of tall buildings.  The hotel we're in would be like living in the Purdue Memorial Union.  It's the on campus hotel.  Each room is fitted with two beds, 1 bathroom, 1 desk, 1 tv, etc.  There is a maid service that comes through each day and makes the bed and changes the towels.  My room has a particularly good view, when there is no smog - which is about as rare as a full moon.  It's a nice place, very comfortable and took little adjusting from the american lifestyle.  The biggest inconvenience is only one internet port in every room.  Some people bought wireless routers to solve this problem.  I told them that wouldn't be the best idea since we're in China - the routers would come in Chinese.  Many people bought them anyways - and setup unsecured networks.  After I told them how much of a very bad idea that was, I offered to help secure it.

As many of you know, I don't speak chinese - and I definitely can't read hieroglyphics.  However, it just so happens I've setup so many routers I pretty much know most of the name brands well enough I don't need the words.  So - I secured a few routers and now I've got the passwords.  This way I got a free wireless connection that is secured. :)

The other large internet problem is it appears that the internet is a 1.5 mgb connection.  This is divided between 30+ american students and .. it really sucks.  Combine that with the Chinese Firewall (google it) and the whole experience kinda blows.  Takes minutes to load pages and they often fail entirely.

Fruit on a stick man

A very simple business.  This guy stand outside the university and for like $0.60 you get the picture above.  He just puts fruit on a stick, then has a wok there full of water and sugar.  He runs the fruit through and caramelizes the crap out of it.  It's a pretty good treat. 

Super Bowl

I'm excited.  I'm beginning my search to find a restaurant that will be showing the game live.  I heard it'll be starting at 630pm est, which is 730am monday.  I think I may have to miss part of my morning class to watch the game - and I'm okay with that - I just want to watch it live.

Lack of Driving / Foreign Money

As I said earlier, it's been almost three weeks since I've gotten to drive a car.  It's like being fifteen again.  It's hard to believe that people in New York City don't own cars and the same is true over here.  I just miss driving.  I really would love to be on a motorcycle too.  There are a lot of scooters, mopods, and bikes over here.  Other than the occasional police yamaha, I'll see one very poorly kept up motorcycle a week.  I can't even imagine the chaos a loud bike could cause over here.  A bike like a Harley-D would maybe be able to drown out the excessive use of horns.

Horns

Sitting in my room right now with the window closed, I can hear the horns of passing motorists.  It is difficult to go more than 10 seconds without hearing at least one horn.  To say it in another way, at night - motorists will forgo having their headlights on occasionally, but I don't think anyone would drive without their horn working.  In America, horns are a warning of a hazard or to tell someone you're upset with them.  In China, horns are more of a announcement of where the driver is.  A train does the same thing in America - they blow their horn when they get to a crossing.  Mopeds, Scooters, Taxis, Buses, Bikes - they all have horns - and use them liberally.  I likely won't be able to sleep when I get home without a sound therapy machine honking all night long. 

Bike Ride

Theres a great opportunity next weekend, that is kind of expensive - but anyways.  There is a local group, unaffiliated with the school program, just a Shanghai group that will be going 2 hrs away by car to go on a Mountain Biking / Hiking trip.  It's like 80 usd, for transportation - bike rental - lunch - water.. etc.  I hope it's fun, it'll be cold and rainy.

Suits

This is the most important topic of the week.  I went to the fabric market for the first time yesterday.  This is the place to go to get tailored suits / coats / shirts on the cheap.  A full suit of silk/wool blend is about 80usd from scratch.  I'm really looking to capitalize on this opportunity.  I also have NO idea what to get.  I'm reaching out to people in the know here - please send me an email of a good looking suit.  I want business suits and maybe a nice casual suit (pimp suit).  I'm looking for suggestions on color, cut, material.  I can get just about anything it seems - silk, wool, cashmere, ... felt.  Just please please send me suggestions with pictures (to my email).  I don't know how I'll get these home yet, but I'll figure that out when the time comes.

Coat

I also can get a pea coat for relatively cheap.  I found on that is pretty nice looking.  I was told it's "Korean" style.  It's very plain and fitted.  The buttons are hidden, theres a high collar, and on the left shoulder theres an extra flap.  I think I'd get my initials embroidered on it.  If I were to get a black coat or very dark grey, what color should my initials be?  Are putting my initials on it tacky?  I'm not sure.  Your comments would be appreciated.

Look forward to your suit suggestions,

JBiber (at) g m a i l [dot] com

Old Town

Today:

-Weather: 7C

-Local Time: 10:10pm

Saturday

Saturday afternoon I went out with a friend of mine to find a couple other people.  As a group of four, we made it to a part of Shanghai known as "Old Town."  Old Town, or OT from here on, is located next to the famous Yu Yuan Garden.  It was quite difficult to actually find our friends we were meeting up with because while our reading skills are improving our pronunciation is just terrible at this point.  We also didn't have a map, because - who needs that?  It took us about an hour to get from campus to finally meeting up with the other two.

Old Town

Our group of four began to stroll the streets of OT.  It is a district that has very tradition architecture, and is very much so an area for shoppers to go.  It is full of tourist and local type of shops, more tourist though.  Really, it comes down to hundreds of stores selling the same thing.  Chinese clothing, chopsticks, stones carved for stamps (to mark on important documents), copyright infringing dvd and cd stores, toys (remote helicopters and matchbox cars), tea shops, knives + lighters, paintings and art, leather bags and belts, and small electronics.  We spent a good amount of time looking into almost all of the stores in this area.  We arrived around 3pm and shopped for 3 hours.  I got a set of chopsticks (6 pair + holders) for 7usd.  My friends got art, silk bags, new years decorations, and a lighter.  We did a lot of shopping and a lot of haggling.  Surely, if you're reading this blog - you know how much I enjoy haggling.

Haggling in China is part of the culture.  We've learned a lot about it in the culture classes we are taking.  As part of the holistic lifestyle, buying something has everything to do with the path to finding the right price.  In western culture, we're very binary.  The price is posted and we'll either buy or pass.  Here the price is determined with each individual buyer.  The culture is focused on the path to finding the price, where two people agree the value of an item.  I very much enjoy haggling because it is a conversation of worth, not a predetermined value.

Green Laser Pointer

As the sun began to set, we were browsing a store and the gentleman behind the boxes had some green laser pointers.  Let me stop here and express how awesome green laser pointers are.  Without boring you with the science, the human eye is more sensitive to the green wavelength.  Unlike a red laser, a green laser can be seen in air; the air between the laser pointer and the dot on the wall.  Well I started talking to this guy about this laser pointers and he's showing it off.  I get a hold of one and start playing with it.  I asked if he had any better ones... he showed me that he had a 300mV, which topped the 50 mV I was currently using.  I decided I needed one.  We began at his price point, 285 yuan (42usd).  An excellent price, because this is at least 100usd in the USA.  I counter him with 40 yuan. After a few counter offers, we get to the point where he said, "Best price?"  I typed it into his calculator (the way haggling is done, so there is no miscommunication). 85 yuan, I typed.  He lowered to 160. I said no and walked away.  He shouted for me, I came back. 135. I typed 85. He rejected, I walked.  This repeated, 4 times. Finally he said 90.  I typed 85, and walked away.  I got about 60 ft away before he said "85!"  I came back and bought my green laser pointer for 12.50 usd.  I'm pretty happy with it, I think my price was good enough.

Annoying Folks

As many of you know, I enjoy being annoying to people who are bothering me.  Well whenever you go to an touristy place like OT you are approached by folks trying to show you a laminated sheet of products.  DVDs Watches Purses iPods etc.  These people are hired to talk to us in english and get them to come into their store.  They're particularly annoying.  I enjoy egging them on and wasting their time.   We make fake names and they become very friendly.  The group I was with discovered that no english speaking chinese person knows pig-latin.  We would talk to each other this way and then kinda screw with the sales people.  It was also very helpful for communicating while haggling to see if the other that it was worth the price.  Anyways we were approached in OT by a gentlemen who was quite annoying and so we talked to him and walked with him, then went into a store.  Then when he started to walk away we'd act interested again.  Then we'd go into another shop.  This obviously continues until he realizes we're just screwing with him.  It's a great way to pass the time.

We finished our time in OT and went to a restaurant.  I have nothing good to say about this meal other than I had fun playing with my laser pointer in the restaurant.  We finished our night near campus at a nice bar, they have a computer with iTunes and you can play songs whenever you want otherwise it's on shuffle.  They had 44,000 songs so it had a lot of good music.  I very much enjoyed playing DJ for the evening.

Sunday was a lot of homework.

Monday

Formal Dinner

The Shanghai Jiao Tong University(SJTU) dean invited our program out to dinner.  We went out for a 6pm dinner with some of the teachers we have and some folks in the administration who were helping with the program.  There was plenty of unique food served.  A few memorable items; Jellyfish w/ Soy Dipping Sauce, Chicken Liver, Chicken in some hot spices, Beef, Eel with sandwich rolls, a large Fish, other raw meats, some vegetables, Baozi, and watermelon to finish.  I tried most of that stuff, except the liver.  Let it be known, there are certain textures I just don't like. Gooey, Slimy, excessively chewy items with little to no flavor.  Jellyfish is a GREAT example of this.  Putting my better judgement aside, I tried it.  It was just about the most awful thing I've eaten since I got here, it ranked right up there with that bird heart.  There was some good stuff, but the best was no doubt the watermelon - it just is delicious.  Tasted just like home, one of the very few things that is not different.  We also got some good group pictures, this is the attached photo.

My roommate has a new camera and I have a new laser pointer, so we've been playing with that, I'll soon post a link to the results soon. I also have done some laser safety training at GE and at school.  I am aware of the dangers and keep it in mind when using it.  That being said.. it should be mentioned, this laser is visible at well over 5 miles -- awesome.  I was shining it out the window earlier and I got a text message from my downstairs neighbor, it said "I can see your laser outside the window."

Please send me email or text messages, I miss home - let me know what you've been up to.

Thanks for reading,

JBiber (at) g mail <dot} c o m

765 two three zero two JON

Saturday Morning

Time: 1030am Saturday

Weather: 2C, 36F

First: http://cid-359512ac45bb5a76.skydrive.live.com/play.aspx/Shanghai%20Xujaihui?ref=1

This week was full of school.  I'm not going to talk about that here.

Peking Opera

Our Chinese Culture class took us on a field trip to see the Peking Opera school of China.  Every three years, they take the best 100 opera kids from across China.  We saw them perform basic kung fu on Wednesday during their final exam tests.  Flips, crazy back bends, and simple gymnastics.  We had the option to go back the next day and see their full dress rehearsal.  It was an experience.  Aside from the very loud wood block player, it was rather enjoyable.  I couldn't stand much of it, but I guess thats not really the point.  We saw a very professional show put on by "12" year olds.  I saw twelve like that because I believe that there are some exceptions - these privileged children also get the privilege of skipping what appeared to be 5 yrs of their life as there were some children who couldn't pass for 8 yrs old in my opinion.  You'll see a few pictures in my album above.

The Food

I'm really doing alright people.  In the album above you'll see some of the different kinds of food thats served.  The taste is usually pretty average, it is just sometimes hard to get warm food unless you know where to go.  We are all learning as a group where the best places to eat are.  A group I wasn't with went out last night and got a fish at a restaurant.  I guess they picked it out of the tank, then saw it clubbed, and prepared at their table.  It is not bad, just different.  One friend of mine said he ate the eye adding it popped like a blueberry, this is not something you'll expect to hear in my stories when I return.

Odd Things

Going to shop for chopsticks last night, I saw a lady in the park with a VERY fast dog on a leash.  It was puzzling and when I got a bit closer I saw the ears of the animal.  She had a bunny on a leash and was taking it for a walk.  It was quite an odd thing to see.  The chopsticks store had plenty of selection.  Chopsticks on the walls for not much money.  A usable pair cost about $2usd.  I took a picture of the small store in and it's in the album above.

Camera

My Kodak Zi8 is doing pretty well.  I found that it is not very good at taking still photos.  The aperture time is much too long maybe as long as 1/2 second.  It makes still photos quite worthless.  The videos are pretty good looking, sometimes spoiled by my shaking hands.

Medicine

I still have a bit of a sinus issue.  I went to the pharmacy and tried to describe a z-pack with what little Chinese I've learned.  I must of gotten the point across because she handed me azithromycin tablets.  They were only $2.07 usd.  Good deal, hopefully they contain active ingredient.

The weather this weekend won't be amazing, cloudy / overcast / smog and mid 40s.  Smog is really a disappointing reality.  Might go to Yu Yuan gardens today, some people I know went to the fabric market this morning.  Apparently it is 3 floors of tailors.  I would have liked to have gone, but there is some homework I need to do with a group in a bit.

UPDATE:
If anyone has a good idea on how to stream the Colts game to me, live and at a low bitrate.. I will wake up Monday morning at 4am to watch it.  Last week I tried everything, I even bought the $70 nfl gamepass to watch the post-season online, but like most things on the internet in china, it didn't work.  I got my money back. myp2p.eu didn't work and Justin.tv failed too. I need a direct link to a server.  Everything I've looked at doesn't work so far.
Doesn't work:
-Sopcast
-Justin.tv
-Streamtorrent
-TVants
-Webguide for WMC
-Windows Media Encoder

Rumor has it that slingbox works, but the internet doesn't usually connect well enough to watch it  - but if some one is willing to let me try it i'll test it out this weekend!

JBiber

Weekend

Tuesday:

-Weather: 60F partly sunny

-Local Time: 825pm

Saturday Recap

We got a late start, not for any specific reason other than it was nice to relax a little bit.  The plan that had been formulated the day before was to make it to Yu Yuan Gardens.  There were some problems with this as we met up as a small group and talked about it.  One problem was it was overcast and low 50s.  Other people also wanted to go to the gardens and it was realized last week that it is very difficult to get a large group of engineering to agree to do anything.  The few people I was hanging out with on Saturday at noon were thinking it'd be good to keep a small group.  When people in the hotel found out that there was a group interested - we decided we'd let them go.  We decided it wasn't the best day to go to an outdoor activity like that.  The goal was to go down to Pudong (the area east of the river) and go to the indoor aquarium.

Lunch

Some of us left and we left a few people behind to finish their laundry.  A group of four of us headed into the city.  We got down to the tourist area and saw that there were plenty of awesomely tall buildings.  After a quick photo shoot we decided the Subway just down the road looked great.  An american sub shop is not as common as people might think over here.  We stopped in to see the prices and were surprised to find an excellent daily deal menu.  A 6" deal of the day was only 15 yuan.  Unfortunately, SeaSupreme wasn't what I wanted, so I just opted for a 12" ham, with two cookies and a drink for 60 yuan.  It was an american price for an american sub, i liked it.

Early Afternoon

Our small group headed towards the river.  We saw some shops and restaurants on the river walk. Nothing cheap, all very touristy - but neat to see it anyways.  We saw a few brides getting their picture taken.  The young couples here do things differently than in America.  We try and cram everything - ceremony and all into one day.  Here pictures can take place weeks after the legal paper work.  So - we saw many brides getting their pictures taken with their husbands.  We also saw The Bund from the east side of the river.  We had just tried to go up to the Cloud 9 lounge the night before so it was nice to see all these areas in the daytime.  While we walked the river, we saw the tallest building in the area - and promptly decided that it would be more fun than the aquarium.  When we got to the base of the building it was late afternoon and we saw that it was 150 yuan to go up there and go on the glass skywalk.  We thought it'd be more fun in the evening so we killed sometime at the bar, buy one get one free happy hour.  Our waitress spilled some of the drinks when she brought them to the table (party foul) so they gave us from free dessert with our drinks.

Shanghai World Financial Center

-474m tall (1500+ ft)

-100 floors

We got out of the bar just after 630pm and went up to the observatory deck.  We grabbed an elevator up to the 94th floor.  Then we took an escalator up to the 97th floor.  Then went up the last 3 floors with an elevator.  I was excited to see that it was about as awesome I was hoping.  The deck had some glass in the floors so that you could see the shear drop below.  When you look at the building in the link above - it appears to look like a very large bottle opener.  The skywalk is along the top of the bottle opener.

It was excellent, I got a few good HD videos.  Some of my friends got a few good photos.  We retired back to the hotel and played some card games before sleeping.

Sunday

Sunday started all about football.  The colts were playing in the playoffs and I was willing to do anything I could.  I spent the hrs before the game trying to find an illegitimate way to watch the game.  As the first quarter ended, I bought the NFL gamepass for 70USD.  I tried to get that to work during the 2nd quarter and then called to get my money back.  I was told I was refunded.  I found a Hooter's not too far away so I told my floormates and we grabbed a cab and headed that way.  We got to the store and found out that it wasn't going to be on, according to the manager, for 25 more minutes. We ordered and waited.  It didn't come on.  We got upset.  We sat around for a couple more hrs.  It came on in the last 5 minutes while we were in the restaurant.  Luckily I had my cards that I bought on saturday with me and we got in a couple good games of Euchre; an Indiana tradition.  As we left I got a text message telling me the colts had won, which was well enough.  Unfortunately, my good friend lost her phone in the cab on the way to Hooter's.  

Phone Hunt

I didn't grab the taxi receipt when I got out of the cab; however I did pay for the cab with the metro card.  So - When I called the taxi cab translation service and told them the situation they texted me the address of the place I was going to go.  I got in the subway with her and we started out going that way.  Basically - we go to the public transportation card company and they didn't speak english at all.  So I ended up passing my phone through the window while on the line with the translation people who were trying to help me locate the cabbie that we used earlier in the day.  After 30 minutes of waiting we heard back from the cab company and the phone was lost.  It was crushing so we got some I bought some doughnuts to console.  We returned to People Square and walked around a bit.  It was a bit concerning actually, as we walked around folks from behind us kept saying "Hello, How are you?" "Do you speak English?" "Are you American?"  It was all said from different people over the course of 5 minutes.  It sounded very under the breath of the folks who were saying it and it creeped me out so much I didn't turn around.  Apparently, the folks go to People's Square to practice their English on the foreigners.  We finished our people's square visit then went to Papa John's for dinner.  It was close to the American taste, but the cheese was different and they use more flour on the dough.

Monday and Tuesday

I've spent the last couple of days working for class and trying to get things read and be ready for everything this week.  I'm excited that tomorrow we'll be going to the Theater tomorrow for class.  We'll be going to see how the actors in the opera train for their shows.  I expect it to be painful to watch in some parts.  As part of my attempts to make the internet a bit more usable, I've shared www.mesh.com with one of my professors.  I think it'll help our class, but I really think it has the potential to help everyone. Check it out, see if you think it'd be helpful.  It saves me from emailing multiple copies of files myself.

Other than that I've just been happy to stay busy getting things done.  More to come, thanks for reading.

JBiber

News and Current Events

Time:    1145am SAT

Weather:  5C party sunny

This week there were some interesting news stories that came up and I was emailed about but never really got too far into the content of them.  News this week: Google Takes on China, Haiti Feels an Earthquake, Jay and Conan: FACE2FACE!,  and related.

The coverage of Google coming out and saying that the censorship in China must stop, especially after China has hacked Google seems like a very legitimate reaction.  All I have been able to find are stories I can't read.  This is what I know.  In Dec, Google as well as many other business got hit hard from Asia based hackers.  It seems that they did successfully break into some human rights persons gmail accounts.  Now Google is upset and thinks that since China broke the trust relationship, Google shouldn't be doing any favors by filtering the search results (which is a very real thing).  Google now is wanting to offer unfiltered results and realizes that might mean no Google China.  I hope this ends well because I use a lot of Google products to communicate back to the USA.  Then I guess, according to new headlines (basically the only thing I can read) the US gov came out and backed Google in saying that censorship needs to end.

We asked our culture teacher what the chines are thinking of this.  She said that it really doesn't matter to much of the population of China.  The majority of Chinese users don't need a search engine that is like Google, capable of handling english and chinese.  There is a search engine called baidu or something - that apparently is chinese and has 65% market share.  The people who use google are not the majority and those people who do use it are mostly from academia and research fields.  The chinese people don't feel that they are missing out on anything from the censorship.  From my prospective, missing out on anything is missing out on something.  I don't agree with the generally accepted - "if you say so" approach.

Haiti apparently went through and earthquake this week.  The headlines read that it was over 7.0 and 100,000+ are dead located near Port-au-Prince.  Thats pretty much all I know.  I heard from a friend that the US government is giving $100 million in aid.  I know there are likely some troops being sent, but I don't know how many.  I just wonder how bad things would be here if a similar earthquake struck.  I don't know what I would do as a foreign student, I'd attempt to find the US embassy.

Jay and Conan apparently are having some trouble back home.  It seems that Conan's ratings are that great and Jay's are "as predicted" which were low enough that he should clearly be taken off the air.  Now NBC wants to put Jay back on during part of Conan's time slot or even give the tonight show back to Jay.  It looks like their on the brink of an agreement to allow Jay back on later and pay off Conan.  I know I'm missing many details here, but that because I can't read many news stories at all.

I hope that Jay is unsuccessful.  I like Conan and he's been doing a great job on the Tonight show.  I also think Jimmy Fallon is growing as a host, but still laughs a bit too much to be a host.

The internet here really is crippled.  I don't know if it's obvious, but I can't access my own blog.  I have no way of uploading pictures to a good file sharing site.  I can't embed photos or videos I've taken while I've been here.  I can't access the new york times, washington post, or many many other news sites.  I must rely on AOL.com and MSN.com for new stories.  Facebook is blocked, twitter is blocked, and even worse, it appear that the blocking just gets worse everyday.  I get a ping of 130ms to whitehouse.gov (which I can't always load).  Many students are having trouble accessing purdue's webmail, blackboard, and other purdue services.  Loading webpages often takes multiple attempts and it gets very frustrating.  It is quite limiting as to what can actually be done on the internet.  For a country who is expected to be beating the USA in multiple years - it feels as though if they lifted their internet restrictions they would be past the USA much quicker if they had full access to the information pool that is the internet.  The only way to really stay productive here is to have an VPN back home.  I heard this is the only way that there was full coverage of the olympics a couple years ago and I believe thats the only way there will be coverage of the World Expo in may.

The world Expo is going to be huge for Shanghai.  It is impossible to walk past a modernized section of the city and not see the signature construction walls with the Expo banners on them.  Welding is going on non-stop and can be seen from our window.  Cement and semi trucks litter the street and aside from taxi's are the only thing on the roads at night.  I believe that the construction is round the clock trying to be done by May.  It is impressive.

Facts:

The water everywhere is not drinkable. Always must use water bottles and such.

Be sure to see the post below as it was published earlier this morning,

JBiber

Observations and Thoughts

Time: 0945 AM SAT

Weather:  3°C with Fog - expected to get sunny

I've missed out on some blogging opportunities this week and would like to spend a little time here catching up.  I'd like to first touch on the language barrier.  It is very steep.  I was under the impression that many people in Shanghai are capable of speaking English.  This impression is sorely wrong.  The only people who really speak English with comprehension are employees of tourist areas.  The airport, hotel staff, a FEW store employees.  Communication is very difficult and requires a lot of guessing, weak chinese phrases, and pointing at pictures.  To order in most restaurants we tend to not say anything at all and just point.  Though, we also have a very rigorious chinese language schedule and are expected to know 120+ vocab words by Tuesday. In one of our classes we've been discussing how knowing what the language is will only get disjunct communication.  Knowing the culture behind the language can be a much more effective communication tool, as not to offend anyone.

On Thursday I wrote at lunch about the length of the chinese language course and said we might go to the river, that didn't happen.  Some people did go down there but I didn't join.  I decided I'd much rather attempt to find the french market, where I had been told is the place to find cheese and wine.  I was told there was a Carrefour in the region and looked it up online.  It is only 20-30 minutes away by foot.  I told some others and the group grew and grew and grew.  Soon enough there were 13 of us walking to a french grocery / supply store.  A few of the people walking wanted to test the open container policy so not far beyond the gates of the school we stopped at a local grocery and picked up some beers.  Those who were drinking popped 'em and we started again after short delay.  We did make it all the way there without being stopped by any of the officers we walked by, so thats cool enough.  We got to the store and found it had many of the promises that were made to me, I picked up a few blocks of cheese and some American singles (cheese, sadly).  We found the rum that has been missed by many rum and coke fans.  I was sad to find that even the french market didn't have such common day items as Cheez-Its, Ritz, or TownHouse.  The Ritz they do have tend to be infused with random flavors, orange, lemon, chocolate, etc.  The trip there and back lead us down very busy streets.  I actually captured video of what it is like to cross the street here, dangerous. There were many vendors selling coats in small stores and roadside "crap-on-a-stick" type of shops.

Friday after school I decided I wanted to go find a tailor I had seen in a video on Shanghai.  I did a little bit of research at lunch and found the address that seemed to match the video address plate.  A small group of us, 4 total, wanted to check out the prices and see if this guy was really as crazy as he seemed to be in the video.  We embarked on the journey and missed the street.  Went too far and rather than trying to figure it out on the way and potentially get VERY lost, we returned to the university and checked a map to see what had gone wrong.  The road we needed was under construction and didn't have a sign.  We found a new route and took that.  The map indicated the tailor would only be about 30 minutes walk, we left at 5pm.  We found our road and watched the address numbers start to fall.  The map indicated it was to the east, but the numbers kept getting smaller.  We weren't quite sure why this would be true, but we just stuck with it.  There were multiple parts to this street; west, middle, east.  We had hoped the numbers started again at any division west to middle or middle to east but had nothing other than wishful thinking.  We were on a snipe hunt.  Our journey lead us to the east.  Block after block and shop after shop, we never found the tailor we were looking for.  We did find quite a fancy shopping area.  At about 630 we figured it was time to give up and just find a place to eat.  We say a Pasta and Pizza shop and it was a clear winner.  Expensive by local standards, at about 9-12 usd a person it was a good meal.  We caught the subway home and more adventuring was arranged.  I have not given up on trying to find this tailor, he is known for "Western style suits and shirts."

Friday night, after returning from our snipe hunt, I heard there were some folks who wanted to go down and have a glass or two at the world's highest lounge.  Located on the 87th floor of downtown shanghai, it takes 3 elevators and a minimum purchase of 12 usd to stick around.  We had also heard rumors that the locals turn off all the city lights at 10 pm - a race against the clock began.  We left around 845.  A couple of subway rides later we made it downtown and the lights were awe-worthy.  The construction for the world expo makes it very difficult to get around and therefore we had to walk in the wrong direction to try and get to where we needed to be, but of course this wasn't until we had already walked in the right direction and saw the say indicating this was the wrong direction which then made the wrong direction initially into the right direction in finality (we turned left, but should have gone right).  We walked and eventually got near the base, as the clock struck 10.  We lost the race and the lights began to turn off on all of the buildings.  We continued to the building and went up the first 54 floors, then transfered elevators to get to 85, after the last transfer to get to the 87th floor, we spoke with the lounge and they said, "We're sorry, we don't have room for 11 guests."  I wasn't sure if they had turned us away because we were younger and not in suits, or if they were actually full.  As we were leaving, I asked the a women working in the grand hyatt lobby on 54 if there was a dress code or anything.  She said there is, but it was only no shorts or open-toed shoes.  She assured me that we were turned away because the lounge was busy.  We knew of another place that had decent drink specials and some of us were going to head there and more of us were heading elsewhere.  However, it was now 1030 and the subway closes at 11pm (which is just insane).  We raced back but the last train that was boarding for our transfer left at 1040 and we got there at 1045. Upset.  We returned to the street and - because the subway closes at 11pm - every cab gets 4 yuan more expensive and .... is taken.  It took another 25 minutes to catch a cab.  I returned home and went to sleep. The cost was 45 yuan total, by 3 people ends up being about 2usd for a 20 min cab ride.

I'll write another post later today,

JBiber

First Week of Classes

The last couple days have been quite nice.  The smog has seemed to be a bit less and the sun has been strong.  The temperature has been about 35 +/- 10 degrees.  Not many clouds and it's quite enjoyable.  I've been keeping busy in the last couple days focusing on school.  As i have mentioned before the course load for this semester is much higher than I was expecting.  There is a lot of reading to be done, Chinese words to study, and I haven't started to look at my purdue based mechanical engineering course yet.  I fear that the workload will be interfering with the opportunities to go and experience the Chinese culture.

The food in China seems to leave a lot of american students partially filled but not satisfied.  The cafeteria food is lacking a lot of the density found in american dishes.  It is also quite rare to eat a meal with a drink other than hot tea.  In the cafeteria to get a drink you must go to a separate area where I have yet to encounter a line -- something quite rare in China as you might imagine.  It's starting to catch on that it's a good idea to keep a bottle of water at all times within reach.

Last night was an alright time.  Due to the dictation in Chinese language this morning, many people decided to stay in and get some studying done.  For dinner, no on was quite happy with the dining hall experience at yesterday's lunch - so we figure dinner (same food) wouldn't be much better.  A group of about 10 of us went to a Japanese Noodle place across the street.  I had a large bowl of noodles with like roast beef and parmesan cheese on top - about 25 yuan ($4), pretty expensive.  After dinner we all went over to McD's and got some ice cream.  I also ordered an apple pie -- which they didn't have.  She pointed to the yellow stuff on the ice cream and I didn't understand.  She then held up a Pineapple Pie and I was thinking .. yeah okay.  It was pretty much the same as apple, just sweeter.  2 pies was 7 yuan and an ice cream was 2.5 yuan - About $1.40 total.  We split the pies and it was a good time.

Today has been a hard day so far.  Thursdays is a full day of Chinese from 930-12 and 1-415.  It's a lot of Chinese and a lot of time in the same room with the same teacher.  The first half of the day went by kinda slow.  Lunch was actually pretty good today in the dining court.  It was a meatball of something, with a side of rice, and a pile of corn / carrots / chicken / beans.  I also picked up a few chicken nugget type of things.  The nuggets were cold - but it didn't take away from how awesome my non-carb filled lunch was.  It was about 8 yuan for lunch, so not much more than 1 usd.

Theres a group of people tonight who are going to head to the Bund - the river front area.  It's currently under construction for the world expo - but I think I'll go anyways.  I need to get some reading done before I get to sleep tonight though!

Thats all for now

JBiber

School Begins

The last couple of days have been the official beginning of school for all of us Purdue folks.  Classes have started alright there are bright spots and things that aren't looking as good.  The course on chinese culture has a very nice teacher.  Th chinese language course will likely be very difficult.  I had a 1.5 hr session this morning and it was very defeating.  Difficult to learn, difficult to say, difficult to translate.  It has left me in a very sour mood.  Classes take place everyday from about 10 am to about 4 pm with 1 hr for lunch.  This is not a typical schedule for me as I would prefer to have my long class sessions in the morning.

To start the class year off right, we went out to a bar last night.  50 RMB ($7 about) open bar list.  Choose from a long list of mixed drinks and such, it wasn't far from campus but we took a taxi to make sure we got there since it was dark.  Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and it was a pretty good time.

It is very different that here there is no cheese really.  I was at the grocery store looking for cheez-its or any cheesy type of cracker and I was very sad to find out that ... it doesn't exist.  No cheddar, no mozzarella, no parmesan, no american, no havarti, no swiss, nothing.  No cheese flavored... anything really.  This is a problem.  I bought some crackers thinking they were cheese, I got home and someone looked at the package and wondered why I would have bought peach flavored crackers.  It was quite the surprise.  Since then, I've found 1 thing in the store that is cheese - "Cheesy Cheese" Pringles.  I have since bought and eaten them without satisfying the need.  I am going to Pizza Hut tonight, it WILL cost a LOT of money and I don't mind.  I am taking donations to support my cheesy habits.

I hope the rest of this week gets better.  My class load is much heavier than I was expecting.  Please send your greetings to my phone number.

JBiber

Day 3 - The nearby stuff

Weather: low 40s and raining

This morning a much smaller group of just 3 of us hung out.  We decided it'd be good to go catch some breakfast at a mall about 2 blocks away.   The walk was miserable.  It was a steady medium rain.  The path lead us down through the subway system to try and avoid the rain as much as possible.  We were aiming for one building and found another by accident.  One of the folks didn't bring along the power adapter for her laptop on accident so while in a very large electronics store we checked to see if they had the equipment.  The electronics store had a footprint of about the same size as a applebee's restaurant only 5 stories tall.

First floor of the store was computer dealers, dell, asus, leveno, sony, toshiba, etc.  Each floor was devoted to the individual product types; this is very common it seems.  The basement level was just cameras.  Other floors, music / portable electronics, diy computers... etc.  We found the proper cable for her laptop but wanted to be sure, so decided we'd come back after breakfast with the laptop to make sure it works.  For breakfast, we went to a local mall.  Unlike home, there isn't too much in the way of bread around these parts.  The carbs from the meal usually comes from rice.  We walked past a bakery called BreadTalk and knew it was perfect for us.  I got a ham/cheese sandwich, bacon salad (roll with bacon and lettuce), and a desert bread stick totaling 18 yuan (less than $3).  I grabbed a soda from Burger King in the dining court and was kinda ripped off for one cup of coke 7.50 yuan ($1.10).  Either way, it was awesome.  Someone else got a piece of bread with an over-hard eggs in the center baked over cheese and bacon then run through a horizontal toaster - amazing.

After breakfast we returned to the rooms to drop off the unfinished bread and grab the laptop.  We got back and purchased the proper power cord with a few chinese phrases and went to a nearby super market.  After covering every isle, the items that were chosen were different than from at home.  I got 4 USA red delicious apples 45 yuan ($6), a few bags of crackers 14 yuan, and 4 L of water 6 yuan, for a total of less than $10.  We returned in the rain to the room to consider resting a bit after a long 1.5 hrs in the grocery just looking at things.

Lunch came later in the afternoon because we watched a video I had on Shanghai, Paul Merton in China; Shanghai.  I referenced this video in the past but - I really enjoy sharing it with people so the three of us watched it again.  As the afternoon ticked by and rain continued to fall we decided that adventuring too far away would be less fun than staying nearby.  We went over to a very close by Japanese noodle place.  I got a beef and bamboo soup with noodles and it was pretty good for 28 yuan ($4) served with tea.  Satisfied with dinner, we continued on to get foot massages - I've never had a professional massage it seemed like a good something to do on a Sunday afternoon.  We went to the massage parlor off campus and for 88 yuan (12.85) we had the choice of a foot massage or full body message.  We nearly went for the full body but opted for a foot message because it was the first time in China and didn't wanna get in over our heads.

It was great.  

After dinner we returned with friends to the Japanese noodle house for dessert.  It wasn't good - had loads of funny tasting beans on it and such, but I split it two ways for for 15 yuan ($2) it wasn't the end of the world.  Unsatisfied, I ran over to McD and got an ice cream cone.  Despite the rain, it was good and the price was right 2.50 yuan ($0.37).

Now I've returned to my room for the evening to document the day and it's coming up on 8pm.  Classes start tomorrow at 10:30 am not far from the building we are staying in.  None of us are excited to have classes starting soon.

I don't intend on keeping the blog in this much detail, but I think that posting details now helps people relate to whats going on.  The last couple days have been fun and easy.  There are many things that are overpriced. It just depends on where the shopping happens.  When I know more Chinese it'll be a better time of getting lower prices.

Thanks for reading

JBiber

Shanghai - Day 2

Weather: upper 40s and smoggy (no shadows)

Today was an interesting day.  After grabbing a very non-american style breakfast, including noodles and dumplings, i exchanged money at the local bank.  I tried to do this yesterday, but it didn't work out because I didn't have my passport with me.  After that, a small group of us got together to go on an adventure.  We gathered and got a few more cellphones for folks in the group.  While some people were trying to get phones, someone else was buying food off the street vendors.  I got to eat something today -- i just have no desire to eat.  Apparently it was a well seasoned heart from a medium sized bird.. about the size of a large plum.  It wasn't very good. After we got the phones, we continued to the subway.

The idea behind today was to get to the river probably 2 miles way.  We went down to the subway and tried to get a metro card.  The man didn't speak much english so it wasn't very easy.  I went up and spoke with him and got nothing.  One of my friends came up and spoke with him in limited chinese - and after a small delay of 15-20 minutes total, we were on our way.  We rode a few stops up to People's Square.  An interesting place that was captured well in the Shanghai "Paul Merton" video I talked about in November, their were plenty of folks in the park all looking for potential mates for their children.  The typical ad listed the height, weight, occupation, some build information about their children.  It was all in chinese so I couldn't figure out too much of it.  We walked around the park a bit and then decided it was time to lunch.

Lunch was a few blocks from people's square.  As we walked down the street a young man asked if we'd like to go to his restaurant - so we went.  We had a large private dinning area and got many dishes of meats and vegetables.  It was a great way to taste a lot of things on the menu.  We ended our lunch with a bill 710 yuan, divided by 13 people.  It wasn't very expensive.

We then started on foot to head towards the river because it was mid-day and had not much else to do.  We walked through a few parks, saw theaters, and underground walkways.  A women tried to sell me a kite in the park, when she deployed her large fishy kite near my head - I grabbed my head and started saying " Fish! Fish! Fish!"  We left.

After seeing the Hong Kong Shopping Center located beneath the park we had just walked through, it seemed like something interesting to go see.  It was a very warm mall underground.  We continued east and saw many shops and other things.  Walking through a more touristy area, there were folks trying to sell knockoff goods.  They'd holler and try and get the attention of the group, we pursued one man out of interest.  We were then lead down an ally (not comforting) and then into some low level stores.  Of course the shop was full of Rolex watches and fancy purses - nothing authentic.  A few blocks down the road another chinese man, speaking clear English, said hello.  A small conversation pursue and we found out he was a teacher for a local art school and there was an art gallery he'd like to show us.  The gallery was small and full of fantastic art.  The man then offered to make some calligraphy of our names for free.  At the end of the hour or so we had spent with him he showed us some pieces his students had made that were for sale, some people bought - some didn't.

We continued on our foot journey to the river; and arrived by 530pm.  The had gone down and we were all pretty sick of walking.  On our way to find something to eat, a coffee like shop was offering buy one get one on all drinks - including alcohol.  We thought it'd be a good deal.  The prices were pretty steep.  The language barrier was very harsh.  There was someone in the restaurant who spoke chinese and tried to help us with our rather simple order.  We wanted to divide the bogo drinks between two people -- against the rules.  It turned into a 1+ hr fiasco.  Another customer came over and told the first "translator" he should be fired because he wasn't helping us at all.  If we wanted to split drinks we should be able to because we're money in an essentially dead restaurant.  After our order was in and the tension lowered in the room, I thanked the man for trying to help our cause.  He was a local, a writer who'd been here for 10 years.  He recommended a bar that would be more fitting for our age group; "I Love Shanghai Lounge"  He said that on Saturdays, alcohol was all you can drink for 100 yuan (~$14).

We grabbed a few cabs and ended up there.  Had dinner at the Singapore type food restaurant below it and then headed upstairs.  While we were a bit early - it was not very busy.  A few of our folks participated in the deal - many did not.  It had a very western feel to it and I would describe it as a dorm room feel.  Silly posters, beer, pool table, espn - very american college.  Very small place, smaller than a average american hotel suite.  A few hours later and it's midnight.  I'm heading to bed.

Fact: 

Most all drinks are served warm.  The water used to make the drinks needs to be sanitized and that is done by boiling, so most things are very warm when served.

No ice for drinks because it's not treated - one american bar had ice which is pretty awesome.

Large drinks don't accompany meals.

Cats roam like squirrels on campus.

Smog is very very thick.

One person got a coke from the freezer case, it was about lukewarm; but at least it wasn't hot.

JBiber

Early Pics and Test Blog Post

Hey. this is a test blog post - let me know if it works!

http://cid-359512ac45bb5a76.skydrive.live.com/embedalbum.aspx/First%2010%20hrs%20in%20Shanghai 

<iframe title ="Preview" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" frameborder="0" style="width:122px;height:137px;padding:0;background-color:#fcfcfc;" src="http://cid-359512ac45bb5a76.skydrive.live.com/embedalbum.aspx/Traveling%20to%20Shanghai"></iframe>

http://cid-359512ac45bb5a76.skydrive.live.com/embedalbum.aspx/Traveling%20to%20Shanghai

Shanghai - arrival

The process of getting to Shanghai was a long long long day.  After 22 hrs of darkness, the group dealt with an expected 3 hr layer and another couple hours of flight after that!  The flights were thankfully all on time and no weather interfered.  The dishes on the plane were pretty good.  The first dish was a korean dinner. The next dish was pancakes / crepes.  They were quite good.  Finally, the last meal on the connection was a simple seafood and sauce kinda thing.

I've realized there are going to be quite a few challenges over the next few months.

JBiber

The Adventure Begins

Hey all, I'm in the final hours before departure.  I catch a shuttle tonight at 6pm to start my semester abroad.  I have done plenty of packing / organizing / preparing over the last week.  After finishing packing, I weighed and measured my suitcases a few times.  I compared these numbers to the requirements on the Asiana website.  I luckily caught a stipulation this time while reading through the dimensions.  The sum of my suitcases was 112.5 inches in perimeter and only 107.5 inches was allowable.  After trying (and failing) to find just a little bit smaller suitcase, I downgraded to something much smaller.  This required an extra sensitive eye towards what is really needed and what is optional.  A few pairs of pants, socks, and other items later... I was able to fit it all in.  I am pushing the scales at 47 lbs on a large bag and 40 lbs in a smaller bag.

 

I am looking forward to the trip.  I would like to have been able to learn more Chinese before leaving because I think that it would really help me connect to the culture when I arrive.  I also expect that there will be a very different diet in China and for this reason I expect I'll lose a small amount of weight.  My starting weight on this trip is 180 lbs.  It will be interesting to see what the scale reads when I get home.

 

For those who are curious about my travels over the next 36 hrs, my flight can be found from Chicago to Seoul by googling the flight number (OZ 235) and then I'll be connecting through with a flight Seoul to Shanghai (OZ 361).

 

I don't expect to be really able to communicate back to the USA until late Friday or early Saturday (-5 GMT). Fun fact.. all of China is in a single time zone (+8 GMT).

 

Best wishes!

JBiber

 

 

 

Some General Updates

I currently have very low expectation that my blog will work while in
China. I ran the web address through a couple of checking tools, and
it looked like Shanghai was a big fail. I don't know what this means
for the future of the blog. I also found out today that the picture
service I was planning to use also won't be working from China. Maybe
it's for the better because I've heard the internet in painfully slow
and unreliable. I'm not sure if I'll be able to post via email yet or
not. I know the restrictions will be there and will make things
difficult.

I heard back from shanghai shopping tours. The tour costs about 800
yuan which is about 120usd for a full day standard tour. They didn't
reply to all of my questions but they were quite quick to say they've
seen many people drop over a thousand usd on their tour. That's
clearly not what I'm going for. For more thoughts on this tour, look
back two or three posts. I would really have to put some thought into
this, we'll see how well things are going while I'm over there and if
i like the prices I'm getting on goods.

A very good friend of mine just gave me a phone to use while in China.
It's a phone she used while she was there, from China mobile and
everything. I don't know the phone number, but clearly -- I'll be
able to figure that out once everyone else has a phone. It's nice to
have that though and I really appreciate her help in the last couple
weeks.

JBiber

Shanghai Demographics

Average Disposable Income ~ $3200
Population ~ 18.9 million
Population Density ~ 6900 per sq mile
Average Life Span ~ 80 yrs old
-Men  ~    78.5
-Women~ 82
Most Rain: June July Aug > 6"
Least Rain: Nov Dec Jan Feb < 2"

Average Temps  High (Low) °F
Jan    47(34)
Feb   49(36)
Mar  55(42)
Apr   66(52)
May  75(61)

I'm partially packed.  I've gone shopping a few times and surely I'll go a couple more times before I'm ready to get on a plane and get out of here.

JBiber