- My new friend didn’t ditch me
- I met a random 19-year old girl yesterday at Qibao and yesterday she said that she would meet me at a subway station this morning to go sightseeing around her university and see Sheshan Park
- I thought that, “Yeah she’s probably just being nice and she’s probably going to ditch me but if she does I didn’t have anything else to do that day so I’ll just go see Sheshan Park by myself if I'm forgotten”
- Sure enough, at 9 AM that morning I met Shenglan at the subway station just like she said
- I was really shocked and I said to her, “I’m glad you found me” and she said, “It’s easy” that’s when the light clicked that, “Oh yeah, I guess I am the only white guy for miles now that I think about it”
- The campus of the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law is absolutely gorgeous
- My favorite was the sign showing the way to the “Party School”
- When I explained to her what an American “Party School” is with all of its fraternity parties and popped collars, she said, “Oh no, we only have the popped collars here”
- It’s the only university I’ve been too which is next to a prison
- She said that some mornings in her classrooms she can see the prisoners doing their exercises
- I said that would make me feel uncomfortable but then I thought about all of the homeless people who hang around Vanderbilt and at least Shenglan had a 30 ft. high barrier between the prison and her school
- The fact that they’re next to a prison probably explains the drastic measures they use to put a classroom under lock and key
At Vanderbilt, at least the walls on the outside aren’t crumbling
And we can dry our clothes with dryers if we so choose (instead of hanging them out to dry)
She invited me to her dorm and my first thought was, “I was waiting for you to take me to a place where your friends can mug me” but actually she just wanted to show me a typical Chinese student dormitory
Only the teachers’ apartments have A/C, the students don’t have any
- Plus it’s four to a room and there are no singles available at her college
- She has to have a bug net draped over her bed to keep all of the insects out
- When I asked her to turn on the lights, she flicked the switch and she said, “just wait one moment” and 10 seconds later the lights came on
- I told her about how great an American room was and her eyes were as big as they could get
- Shenglan was so nice, she even took me to the clinic
- I told her that I must have developed allergies since being in China and she took me to the school clinic, talked to the nurses for me, and got me a prescription for my cough and runny nose for 0.4 RMB (6 cents)
- I thought about paying her back with a nickel I had on me but then I thought that might be a little insulting
- Then we went around Sheshan Park to see this cool catholic church
- I had no idea it was a catholic church up there so when I realized it was I just spouted on and on about Catholicism for maybe 15 straight minutes
- It was me going, “Holy Mary” this and “The catechism says…” that
- There was a Chinese tour group doing the stations of the cross outside and they were blocking out way so we waited for a little bit and then they started to kneel and Shenglan looked at me and said, “Oh no, I don’t want to kneel” because she was wearing a very pretty dress
- I said, “Ah, don’t worry about it” way too loud and everyone turned and looked back at me with a “Shut the heck up” look on their face
- It wouldn’t have been bad if it was just 3 people but it was like 40 people all looking back at me
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| The people who gave me the stink-eye |
- We walked around a little bit more, saw the earthquake museum for free and she saw me perform CPR on a dummy, and then we hiked our way back to the school
- Chinese university food is awesome
- The only reason I would go to a Chinese school is the food because it’s so cheap that I wouldn’t mind not being able to have a conversation with anybody at my school because my mouth would be so full of food all the time I wouldn’t even be able to speak Chinese if I wanted too
- Shenglan ordered for me and thank goodness she did because this stone pot thing that she ordered me was delicious
- Shenglan is just awesome (Chinese are good hosts)
- I told her I could make it to the subway station on my own but she said no and she took me all the way not only to the front entrance of the subway station (which cost her 2 more RMB than she needed to spend) but she walked inside the subway station with me right up to the point where the turnstiles were to say goodbye to me
- Quest for tourist food
- I have been waiting to try a soup bun and guan tong baozi since I’ve been to Shanghai and I would not be denied my fattening food
- It took me an hour to get to the Yuyuan Tourist Mall from Sheshan but I remembered that I had to go to Bank of China to change my phone number that they have on file because they won’t let you do that online because Chinese banks suck
- Best bank experience I’ve had in China so far
- This was the first time (out of 3 total) at Bank of China that it took less than 20 minutes to get from the front door to talk to somebody to get what I need
- I was also told that I don’t seem American
- The security guard said that I’m like an eastern European person for some reason
- When I told him that I was Irish he thought I was lying but then when I told him that I have some German in me then he made a face like, “I knew it”
- First time I ever petted a dog in China or in a bank
- In China they don’t like to keep their dogs on leashes so this golden retriever just walked into Bank of China liked it owned the place
- The security guard and receptionist weren’t thrilled but I went over and petted its head and rubbed its tummy a little bit
- Found my food
- Shanghai food is such a rip-off
- The crab soup bun (and this is 1 soup bun and it’s the only soup bun available at the Yuyuan Tourist Mall) cost 15 RMB but at least the Shanghai steamed soup buns only cost 8 RMB
- The only reason the steamed soup buns were cheaper was that I went off into a sketchy alley off of the main drag and even then 8 RMB for 6 dumplings is still pretty high
- I did like Yuyuan tourist mall though
- Some guy had pretty bad English skills he must have learned through English dubbed anime because he greeted me with, "Hello Pikachu"
- Then some lady wanted to sell me postcards but it was a one-sided negotiation because I didn't say anything and she just kept lowering the price
- I literally stood there silently and she just kept talking at me (now with me but at me) and she lowered it by herself from 60 RMB to 30 RMB
- Then she put the postcards in a bag, put them in my hand, and after I said, "I don't want" in Chinese she ripped the bag out of my hand and said something about Americans I didn't understand
- The thing is that I don’t think the soup buns were even that good
- The only place I saw them in Shanghai was at that tourist mall (even though I saw them on websites for Shanghai everywhere saying, “This is the food you have to try in Shanghai!”) so I think it’s made to rip off foreigners like me
- It was only a little bit of soup, a dinner roll without anything in the middle, and that was it
- Took up on one of the sketchy bag sellers
- I really needed a messenger bag because both of the drawstring bags I brought from America were broke so I thought that if I can handle cutting through those annoying women offering “massages” and get to someone selling cheap knock-off designer bags then I’ll be ok
- I tried to find legitimate messenger bags first but no one had them in the stores on East Nanjing Rd. and the one I saw at the Yuyuan tourist mall cost 1000 RMB
- After dispelling probably 3 hookers, 2 “art students”, and a “tea expert” I finally found the woman I wanted selling bags and she took me to her little sketchy outlet
- I found one I like and I try to bargain with people but I suck at it so I knew I wanted to pay 250 RMB for a bag and she had one for 300 that I was able to knock down to 220 (I suck at negotiation) so I got what I wanted and I’m happy with it
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