Spring Break Begins

So Mike just left about an hour ago for the airport :( It was so great of him to come to Shanghai for his spring break, and even though I was still in school...during midterms...we had an amazing time. Thanks to him I finally got to see what Shanghai is all about. On St. Patty's day, a whole lot of us went to Bulldog, some pub in the French Concession. Got to use the billiard skills Mike taught me to win a round of pool :)

We went out that week to see the Shanghai museum, walked the whole day and definitely got shin splints the next day. Showed Mike the Bund, and PuDong at night. Beautiful. Will upload photos. And of course, as weird as we are...we named some buildings. So Shanghai now has a Megatron building and an Optimus Prime building. Yeah..thats what we do when we sit on the subway and rickshaws down to the center city.

Other than sightseeing People's Square, the Bund, and of course my favoritie place...(the fake market). We only had 2 more little adventures to Shanghai's Old Town, where ChengHuang Miao (temple) is. The first time we went was on a whim. We jumped on the first bus towards that direction and hoped to get off on the right stop. Of course it starts to rain that day...and we don't find what we are looking for. Two days later (this recent Wed) we hop on the same bus from People's Square and we find what we are looking for..You may ask...what in the world were we looking for...

THIS. is what we were looking for:







This one is mine. Mike's is black with a red trim. OF course I paid too much, which is unlike my bargaining skills, but this old couple is the ONLY one in the entirety of tourism that can cut personalized paper. It sounds so weird...I know. But looooook, its us! Haha. We look like aliens...and it doesn't realllllly look like us, but it definitely looks a lot better than the normal ones that they sell on the side of the road...where all of them look asian and chubby.

I see Shanghai in a totally new light now. I guess I was a little depressed that Shanghai was not like Beijing, but realized that I enjoyed Beijing so much because Mike always wanted to see what the city was about. Now that I have seen a lot more of Shanghai, I definitely enjoy it's own characteristics. It's still a very different city, and now that Mike's gone I probably won't see it as much, but at least I know where all the districts are now.

Took my Chinese midterm yesterday, not to sure how I did on it, but I studied the entire week last week, and have over 200 vocab phrases memorized through recognition and can write them all...It's actually quite scary if I say so myself. I am definitely learning a lot more Chinese here than I did last semester. I don't know if it's because of my sticky notes though...I will have to upload a photo for you all to see.

Almost down to the floor with words!

Well...time to clean my room. Happy spring break to me :(

Back in the Mix

Hi again.
It's been about a week. I'm getting back into the habit of forgetting to update about my life adventures in Shanghai. Fortunately for my sanity, there hasn't been too much going on this week. I have updated my photos on Picasa, so you can click on the link and find all the pictures from Nanjing and my birthday dinner!

Recent news.
I have been somewhat overwhelmed with JUCCCE work, but fortunately my boss wants to hire an event management group, YAY! She has been so accommodating and the greatest person to work with.

Was sick this past week...ate something wrong, and I know what it was...but I'm sure I'll be back for more. Got to give a shout out to my roommate, Amber, for supplying the Pepto. ;)

MIKE IS FLYING IN TODAY!!!!!!!!!! I AM SO EXCITED TO SEE HIM. It has been 6 weeks since I last saw him, and I can't believe he is on a plane right now to Shanghai, from Chicago, as I type! I just hope that I can free up some time from work, I know I have a few meetings while he's here, and let me say these meetings don't run short.

GOT AN INTERNSHIP OFFER FROM NORDSTROM IN CALIFORNIA! Stoked. Still waiting on Seattle (HQ) and Kellogg in LA. We will see what happens. No longer in my hands.

Older News
Nanjing was an experience. Period.
So much to see in 2.5 days.

Day 1
On Friday, we took a bus from Shanghai to Nanjing -- 4 hours! Had lunch by a place near our hotel. The hotel was chic, black and white ensemble with silver trim, tacky but subtle Burberry wallpaper in the shower, and Audrey Hepburn photos plastered on the walls. I guess a photo will help describe this uber chic set up.



After a 10 minute rest in our rooms, we headed to Sun Yat Sen's Mausoleum, where his body is "buried". The area had a nice scenic view of Nanjing, as well as amazing cherry blossoms....the kind my dad has tried to achieve in our yard for years :)

Headed to dinner, where the restaurant was decorated with full-scale living trees, with red lanterns hanging from the branches. The food was amazing, as all Chinese food is after a long day. After dinner, whoever wanted to see the Confusion temple could go. I was quite disappointed with it as it was completely decked out in tacky Christmas-esque lights. Not worth 20RMB.

Amber and I conked out at 10. Haha.

Day 2
We had a nice breakfast buffet at the hotel. Had some rare GREENS! Afterward, we walked to Sun Yat Sen's presidential palace. Got to talk to one of my professors about my Great grandpa (mom's side) and his relation to Sun Yat Sen and Chiang Kai Shek. After further research, I have found out that my Great grandfather was Chiang Kai Shek son's best friend and a reknown military leader. Coooooool.

Our lunch consisted of ALL veggies. Can someone say...FINALLY! My tummy was much happier after that meal. I have missed my veggies for the past 2 months.

Went to Nanjing's city wall, one of the largest city walls in the world. Didn't think much about it while walking along the wall...however, there were rock climbing walls and small roller coaster-ish parks off of the wall. Reminded me of Xi'an's wall and the Great wall combined.

BANG FOR PEACE! haha. Got to ring the bell for peace before we headed to meet the monks. Had a nice Q&A session with a few monks, including one from Italy residing in Nanjing.

A group of us decided to go to the Nanjing massacre museum. As expected, it moved a lot of us emotionally. I do not want to talk much about what I saw. The images were graphic and the stories were horrific. I could not imagine the terror in the street of Nanjing at that time.

To liven up the mood, many people wanted to celebrate my birthday early, so we went out to Hot pot at the 1912 district across from our hotel, reminded me of XinTianDi of Shanghai (little Europe). Then we headed out to Club V, half bar, "half" club. Stayed until 1, while others stayed until 4, GET SOME SLEEP PEOPLE!


Day 3
Breakfast buffet again, yum. Went to Pearl S. Buck's old house. She was an American writer who grew up in China and wrote many stories relating to Chinese history and culture. Toured the old city roads of Nanjing, which if not partially a tourist trap, would have really enjoyed. They were somewhat like Beijing's Hutongs.

Back to Tonghe apartments!

BIRTHDAY
Who said that Mondays aren't a good day for birthdays? Well whoever said it was WRONG. Went to class that morning surprised by a beautiful white chocolate, heart-shaped birthday cake. Of course I split it with my classmates because what kind of birthday is it if you don't share with your friends!

For some reason I had spring cleaning fever that afternoon, because I cleaned my entire apartment. Perhaps because I was already eagerly awaiting Mike's arrival. Got ready at 5 for my birthday dinner, where I celebrated along with 20 of my Alliance friends at Blue Frog, an amazing hamburger restaurant. Ordered the Montana BBQ burger, and it was divine. How I had been craving for a burger for the longest time! Thank you to EVERYONE who came to celebrate my 21st, the ENTIRE weekend. I was planning on lounging in my bed...but you all convinced me to go out and I really appreciate it!


LOVE FROM THE FAR EAST!

Happy Birthday to Me

So, there are a lot of photos and some videos that I will post up from Nanjing, but in the meantime:

HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY TO ME!

bahaha. Ok..until next time.

Relax. Take it Easy.

Hello comrades!

I am currently sitting in Politics class typing this little brief about my past two weeks. Life has been hectic! Who knew that part time work would surmount to every last free minute of my time being consumed? I certainly didn't. Although, I am gaining the best experience out of any job I have ever had. Currently, I'm working on site location, invitations and contact lists, and budgetary planning for our event. And of course, as all tasks are-- uncertain, JUCCCE changes the date of our event...to my FINALS week! Talk about being overwhelmed.

I had a 2 hour conference call yesterday morning, since Economics was canceled. Then had another hour conference call in the afternoon. Didn't get much accomplished because I pretty much had to teach one of the directors how to use "Smart Sheet" (an online organizer, database, file sharing) over the phone! That took up most of the time. Fortunately, I am getting a lot accomplished in a short amount of time. I have taken a look at our contact list and noticed a lot of high-level managers coming to this event. Glad to know that I am the first to contact them about the event, and the first to receive their response. Networking!

As for some more good news, I found the REAL fake market. Haha, oxymoron. This place looks like a deparment store on the outside, but inside, it is identical to Beijing's Silk Market, minus the hoards of foreigners. Of course, it is still a tourist trap, but prices start MUCH lower than in Beijing. So...I bought 5 LeSportSac bags:a computer bag with a computer sleeve for 55RMB (~$8), a large overnight bag for 40RMB (~$6) and 3 pocket bags...wait actually 4, each 5RMB (less than $1). They have clothing, designer bags, sunglasses, jewelry, the list goes on. I also had to buy a rain jacket, so I bought a knock off Peak Performance. Their fake North Face sucked...but then I heard real North Face isn't that great either, so I went with Peak. Great purchase too, around $10.

This morning, had a Chinese test, I know...on a Thursday. Waited for my teacher to correct my test, and I got a 93...one point better than last time! Although... we had maybe 100 vocab phrases, and I memorized how to write all of them... so I'm pretty proud of myself...You should see what my wall looks like now! I will take a photo in about a week or two when it's more sticky noted. I'm pretty happy with that score, since I was woken up by Kellogg at 5 AM THIS MORNING, for a second interview, which is tonight at midnight. SUPER. At this point, I realize I do best on interiews if I DON'T prepare. I get the 2nd interviews when I wing it and act myself, not rehearsed. We'll see how it goes, maybe I'll be spending summer in Los Angeles. Still hoping for Nordstrom's in Seattle, HQ baby! Don't hear from them until mid-March though.

For a treat, tonight we're going to watch 2 episodes of Band of Brothers. I LOVE THIS SHOW! Sad to know there is only 1 season.

Tomorrow morning, we're heading out to Nanjing for the weekend. Not exactly sure what we'll be doing there...but I'm sure it'll be a nice break from work! I'll make sure to watch my things, unlike in Xi'an. I'll probably be celebrating my birthday in Nanjing, since my birthday is this upcoming Monday...boo, I have class on my birthday.

It's okay. I get the best present of all. Mike is coming out in 10 days! My parents shipped a brand new macbook for him to bring out to me too. Thank you mom & dad! I love you! Happy birthday to me.

That's all for now...haha so this post was not so brief.