The adventures of a self-declared permanent student

I'm a little Neon-ed out

After class yesterday (the one where I wrote the procrastinating post) I ended up in a small French bakery on campus with two classmates, Donald & Christine. Now, I know there are a lot of "foreign" eatery places, and from personal experience they're kind of crap (I guess you guys don't really have it in context, but by comparing Chinese food here to back home, home is not so much Chinese food as it is funny flavoured crap). This place, upon opening the door, smelled like heaven. There were pastries & croissants, cakes, rolls, sweets - I almost died on the spot. It was amazing, and well worth the 3 bucks for a cappuccino and swiss roll (chocolate-cake type dessert). We stayed for a while and then headed back to rez. Here's where what I can only describe as a miracle occured: Donald doesn't have a bike, and both Christine & I didn't really want to walk our bikes home, so I packed all of our stuff in my basket, Donald took Christine's bike, I hopped on mine, and Christine hopped on the back of mine. I had an entire other person sitting on this little ledge that is on all bikes out here (almost like it's meant only for other people to sit on), which other people do quite easily, but for a clunk like me, it was a feat of ungodly proportions. I wobbled a bit at first, but after we got the hang of it, it was smooth sailing (and I would NOT ride across the major intersection with her - unlike the crazier Chinese students who do it like it's nothing to them). But I survived, Christine is unscathed, and Donald realized that he can once again ride a bike. Woo hoo!

Christine & I later decided to go downtown shopping. We left at about 5 for People's Square (people here compare it to Time's Square, but it's not really - there are lots of lights and cars & people, but it's more just a major intersection, like Younge & Queen, or Younge & Bloor - it depends on where you go from here that really gets you to the cool places) and went to Raffle City, a pretty hip mall, and upon entering it I discovered that I could afford NOTHING! Well, I could afford it, but it's no cheaper than in Canada, and I'm just not cool enough (or crazy enough) to wear a lot of the clothes. I know there is a really interesting fashion sense among young women (and men, but to a lesser degree) here that only partially crosses over to many Asians living in Canada, who usually end up with a Canadian interpretation of these funky styles. It's absolutely wild! After wandering around a bit, gawking at prices (700 sounds like it's soooo much, and it is, but in context, it's only about a hundred Canadian dollars) and finally stopping for some Japanese eel and veggies at this busy little restaurant in the basement. It was quite good!
We then wandered outside and down Nanjing Lu as it turned into the padestrian mall, several blocks of neon lights and no cars (except for the tram-type thing that transports people from one end to the other). We wandered in & out of so many stores & shops (the one thing I'll give clothing stores here is that they're all completely different. You will never find the same thing in another store. It may be similar, but it's still unique) and wandered into a store called "supermart" that had a special of 2 shirts for 50 RMB, about 9 bucks. They were all kinda gross, but the price was right, so we kept on looking and I found 2 great skirts for 90 RMB (together). I couldn't believe that I found bottoms that fit me!! Woo hoo!!! They're knee length, one is black and one is kind of a brighter blue, and I kind of have to watch going down to the subway, because they totally blow up. I don't need to give anyone a show. They're pretty, not fancy or anything, just casual. I'm so happy!!!

After the exciting purchase, we continued down the street, and I had my first taste of green tea ice cream at a tea store (it was pretty good! I also smelled some of the most fantastic Jasmine tea I've ever smelled!) and Christine got a chocolate sundae at McDonald's (her first McDonald's experience here). We went right down to the water looking for for this sex shop that was supposed to be kinda fun, but it was closed, so we just grabbed a cab home, and went to bed (it was about 11:30pm).

The next day I woke up at the crack of 7 (hey, that's early for me!) and went to the Shanghai Museum with Donald. It took about an hour to get there, and we had some time to kill before it opened, so we grabbed a drink (and Donald an ice cream - breakfast of champions) and headed back over. At 9AM I was sweating like it was nobody's business. I felt like I was in a freaking sauna. Ah well, at least the museum was air conditioned (I almost went to the old city to walk around, but I fear I may have died of heat exhaustion - the museum was a good call). It's this really funny shaped building and it holds a lot more than you might think, yet it's still kind of tiny for a city of this size. Well, there was a big Louis XIV exhibit (probably on loan from the Louvre) so we went there first. It was like I wasn't in China, they had classical (or Baroque?) French music playing, it was still early so no one else was really around, it was really cool. Lots of portraits and pictures of Versailles (ver-sails - haha!) which was kind of neat because I can remember being there a while ago (grade 11? Holy crap).

We also saw the Jade exhibit (one of my favourites, the carving was beautiful and some of the artifacts were from the 31st century BC - do you know how long ago that was??), paintings, calligraphy (which I only half appreciate. The text is beautiful, but because I can't read the poetry or even the writing to get an idea of how it was used, I feel I may be missing something - but the writing is beautiful, lots of different styles of script), sculptures (I also really liked this, more for its beauty - lots of Buddhas) and seals (no, not the animal. Kind of hard to explain, Donald had to tell me more about them, but I forget a little. Maybe next class when I'm procrastinating again, I'll expand).

Donald and I were a little late getting back for class (only 30 minutes of a 2 hour class) and didn't miss much, but well worth the lateness. Turns out getting a train ticket is not as easy as you thing. The Enlish speaking counter is a bit of a misnomer at the railway station. I'm going to look into a travel agent, or worst case scenario, get a flight out for 900 Y and go through the hostel for tickets along the way

Then came the thunder storm as I was walking home (being late for class, I didn't ride my bike, just took the cab from the station straight to the class building - so no bike!) the biggest rainstorm came. Luckily I was only a short distance from home, but the last 30 meters drenched me completely! There were a couple of lighting strikes that I could see from my balcony that were sooo close! I thought it might hit the building.

I also recieved the best present ever, a tube of Canadian paraphenelia! I have a huge flag to hang on my wall (I was going to put it on my door, but my room is so dull, I'll put a little one on my door, so if someone steals it, I'll be less sad. I have tons of stickers and a couple of postcards. It's awesome!! (thanks mom!!) (and dad!!)

Well, it's 9:30, I'm going to go downstairs and get some rice-cream mmmmmm.

posted by Jenn @ 8:42 a.m.