muhleeshasaur

[muhleeshasaur]

We had to come up for more last chance glances (at least for out time studying abroad in shanghai) of shanghai

[muhleeshasaur]

Saying goodbye is really really tough.... Usually after each finals week in college, I have tended to bolt my doors socially and focus on finals that need my attention. I did this thinking that I needed to focus so much to do well on finals, but I actually did this to also avoid saying goodbye to my friends knowing that we would have one less semester together. This time I couldn't avoid bolting home and not saying goodbye to my friends because well we came on a trip together after finals. Having to face goodbyes and knowing that I won't get to see my chinese teachers pictured above each morning makes me so upset. I can't really pinpoint why, but they were a part of my daily schedule and were the main reasons why my chinese has come so far. Though they didn't do a tremendous gesture like save my life, their continued help in making my chinese proficiency increase while focusing on ensuring that I was happy all trough the while, has made me so sad to see that their influence will no longer be in my life.

[muhleeshasaur]

Roommate + Claire hot pot dinner! I have beer been to such an intricate hot pot place in my life! Known for their sweet tomato broth hot pot and their additional side waiting room that's as large as a restaurant with free snacks (popcorn, bugle looking chips, dried prune slices, and baby tomatoes) and sweet prune drinks and games (go and planes and ladders of sorts?), the place was serious.... We had aprons for the meal, small ziploc baggies to place our phones into, and a bajillion sauces I choose from to dip our food into. Plus the noodle show was pretty cool But before we even got to taste this restaurants food we had to wait 1.5 hours and we came at 530pm! But it was definitely worth the wait! Especially because we got to shop around and also eat honeymoon dessert ( double steamed milk and milk ice cream with red bean) before dinner! It was so amazing and probably filled me up too much before going to have actual dinner but that dessert was so worth it. They were both sweet but not too sweet so that each bite had a sweetness to it. I fully intend on eating everything off of that menu before I leave Asia where he honeymoon dessert chain ends

[muhleeshasaur]

I have loved interning in shanghai this far well because I have my own two monitor desktop facing xintiandi's park that hosted shanghai fashion week and interstellars premiere. But beyond the technology perks and location (xintiandi!!!) I have grown to love my office! My coworkers are so culturally curious which makes explaining western things like gravy, brownies, and smorz so much fun! I will have to snag some smorz ingredients to bring to the office! It also makes proof reading and teaching nitpickey grammar easier since I'm helping a friend as opposed to feeling hired to be an English teacher. I also do love the espresso machine that my company has.... I never have to add sugar to the coffee and it always has the perfect foama each time. I only hope my future workplace has this beautiful thought producing machine. I also from a coworker learned about shanghainese culture! For example the prune candy pictures above is a child favorite that every shanghainese kid grows up eating! It's a great thing to know since it's these small cultural nuggets if knowledge that can bring me closer to a person initially and closer to those who cherish this prune candy.

[muhleeshasaur]

I hope I did my first charity event well! Fiona, Hannah, and I volunteered at chi fan which is a charity event in which many restaurants in shanghai donate a table (10 seats) of food to charity. Each dinner or seat cost 1500 rmb which the diner pays to the charity to go towards children's heart surgeries, children who do not have the financial means to afford such a surgery. We worked at the after party where there was unlimited free drinks and snacks (cinnamon buns, miss ma macarons, gunny candies, organic cookies) I thought the event was pretty clever since the most number of people a person could know was 9 from their restaurant dining. So everyone was forced to socialize and meet new people at this event instead of quickly forming protective cliques that makes one feel socially comfortable. A disclaimer is that I've found foreigners in shanghai are more wiling to speak with another physically looking foreigner since they can immediately bond over the lost in translation moments they both have in china. I will say I kind of felt that I was at a semi nightclub but for people who have actually done something in their lives to talk about. I also found out that being young and a bit more mindful of the way you dress can get you an invitation to many many social events. If only I knew this earlier I would have done shanghai in a more socially interactive way (meeting new people and getting to know them for the duration of an event) as opposed to the dance all night with my study abroad group ( which is always fun!) but sometimes it's nice I hear how others live in shanghai.

[muhleeshasaur]

Ryan- pronounced rain was my first friend in shanghai. Arriving much later than everyone else in my program, I thought I would have I navigate the all of a sudden hitting me in the face chinese and chinese culture. But to my surprise diddy's roommate waited 4+ hours in the airport terminal with no internet for diddy and I arrive to shanghai and take us home. It is this persons patience and willingness to wait and absurd amount of time that makes him such a great friend. Oh and one more thing he got an offer from ey (Ernest and young) ! One of the biggest accounting firms! I think he deserves to have such a wonderful opportunity since he is such an amazing person.

[muhleeshasaur]

Oooo Nathan holding the picture together front and center! Since I felt that I as a new tonghee kid ( the apartment complex that the international business kids) live in haven't really had a chance to connect with some of the old tonghee people (specifically some of the intensive language students) I made a special dinner outing to coconut paradise in the former french concession to well get to know them over some good coconut milk curries. The atmosphere was great since it was a very different part of town than we are normally used to seeing. Residential area with only foreigners really and foreign eateries like the boulangeries conveniently located underneath coconut paradise which allowed for an easy mouthwatering draw. Though at times the table was quiet because Nathan (props to him) worked in getting Scarlett (the Taiwanese shufe student on the far right) to speak more in English I think it was an overall great meal! One can never be tired of that 中文

[muhleeshasaur]

Great roomie photo! Though we don't share one bedroom I feel as if I've gotten to know both my roommates beyond just a hello. Between the 30 minute morning walks to class I take with Becca and the Tuesday dinners I have with Junnie before her night class, I think I've shared my hyperactive self and absorbed their inner personalities. Beyond just getting to know them verbally, I surprisingly know them in a way that only living with them would ever bring insight. For example I know that Junnie loves porridge in the morning, every morning and can be entertained by TV for what I think is an obscene amount of time. I also know that she's a massive studier and takes on the 11 tests she has counting down on her test tracker app even though she is emotionally dreading it.

[muhleeshasaur]

Group pics at the peak and big Buddha. Who knew there were so many outdoor attractions right next to Hong Kong. It's nice to know there's so much outdoor stuff to do, in case I want to come back in the future!

[muhleeshasaur]

When you're with family you can just do you. I knew I was home when I emerged from the train to my dad violently flailing his arms and this his body in his attempt to get my attention across the street. But instead of sticking with the women's street visit that my sixth auntie wanted me to explore in wong kok, I grabbed my dad's hand and leaped to the crowd of tents. I crawled on all fours , which my dad surprisingly and instinctively followed, in the no shoes areas to find someone awake to discuss. I think our discussions especially with two generational an political perspectives, the protestor and my politically passive and practical uncle, gave me the sad but realistic truth. Hong kong doesn't have much to leverage over china to demand political changes. Though I hope like the protestors that some change will be made, a friend of mine made a great point. What will ensuring candidates are not pre screened by Beijing, change the Hong Kong it is now? People will still need to work to but food and pay for rent. Hong kongnese will still need to deal with the issues that are slightly associated with how a candidate is chosen.

[muhleeshasaur]

Nong tangs in shanghai- construction is similar to Kowloon city (Once a small economic center of vices within Hong Kong). The hominess of the communities where one could walk out of their small home with a collapsible table and chairs can have a mini potluck. Where people greeted you in Shanghainese and assumed you lived nearby. The sereness of the car free street, a calmness that is hard to come by given that cars dominate the streets. ~~~~ Irrigation in some parts of the nontangs where new developments probably have cut off the area to water access, forced some of the dwellers to use pots that have to be disposed of and washed. A shared and outdoor sink forces social interaction and community organization since running water are crucial to daily life. The few done up nong tangs feature a new metal door that led to plasma TVs on the wall, hard wood floors, and laptops. These few items distinguished their homes from the rest since these materialistic things were not in the other nong tangs I visited ~~~~ Nong tangs tended to be the backside of popular and bustling restaurants. _________ Seeing a half African and half Chinese girl playing with the other chinese kids in the nong tangs was outstanding. One in which I had to refrain myself from pursuing this girl and asking her about her interactions with other kids. Doing so would only make her seem different in a setting where she seemed to fit so naturally since the other kids equal excitement played with her. Seeing this girl prompted my chain of thoughts on being physically different in such a racially homogenous area

[muhleeshasaur]

We visited the Louis Vuitton exhibition in shanghai that was a backstage view of their show. After visiting the paris exhibition last spring that featured an actual artist experimenting with the uncomfortable sensation of yarn when placed into ones mouth, this exhibition was a disappointment since I did not walk away with an outstanding experiential sensation (there is a word for this that I will did and replace those two words with since I have first lost my English vocabulary as my chinese progresses and two have looked it up too many times when reading the sound and the fury to not use it) This shanghai exhibition was just a basic display of luxury that perpetuated fashion as this overly inaccessible entity since they displayed bags and clothes I obviously can't buy and models who have bodies I don't want. But to be fair, lv is targeting a specific audience, the emerging rich in china who cling onto the basic associations of luxury on which they spend their money. So when ann, our lovely chinese friend asked me what do you think about the changing of the iconic print to a meer cross cross lattice I said it may not work in a market that buys a brand solely for the iconic associations that the trademark lv canvas brings. But who knows? China seems to surprise me in the most unseeing places

[muhleeshasaur]

Partners in crime at wuzhen 烏鎮courtyards

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We got that shufe swaggg 上海財經大學

[muhleeshasaur]

Yu gardens= 宇花園checklist. 1. Soup dumplings filled with only liquid broth/ fat and NO meat 2. Fried whole crabs on a stick 3. A great friend to share them “lady and the tramp” style with

[muhleeshasaur]

Couples retreat at wuzhen=乌镇! If you’re ever given the opportunity to play married-power-couple-dress up, who wouldn’t say yes?

[muhleeshasaur]

fun times in Shanghai!

We started our time here with an independent tour of the city's downtown area. My group was a bit more adventurous and wanted a tour of the chinese-specific social interactions, hence the lively and surprisingly symmetrical selfie with the station officials. Interestingly enough the Chinese people we interacted with wanted a picture with us (the more western looking- john light orange shirt and Tom darker orange shirt) as much we wanted with them.

It was great having hoards of people coming over for a fun photo gathering, but knowing that the my and Shanghai people's exact same reasoning behind wanting the picture--was pure curiosity in what is different-- was a bit unsettling. 

As we progressively interacted with locals especially ones around our school, I have come too find the curiosity slightly welcoming but initially and primarily to more foreign looking people. Likewise, we still strike up great conversations!

After our SHUFE opening ceremony (hence the SHUFE swag) we headed over to a nearby hot pot self serve restaurant, and we learned about a comedian who uses the Chinese language at such a high level that only a native speaker would be able to truly laugh (as told by the hot pot waiters).