I'm done with classes for the week!!!! I made it through the ting xies and the preview assignments and the 书本知识 vs. 动手能力 debate and the oral report and the essays and the "拔苗助长" 成语!

We have four rotating teachers, I really like two of them...and hate the other two.

Lately, we've been pretty busy. We went to an "intro to taiji" class... complete with informational powerpoint! We won't get to actually do taiji for another week or so.... We also went to a Chinese arts and crafts class where we made Chinese knots. That was extremely frustrating, but I finally made one (and it was funny to see Julius lose his mind messing with that stupid red string).

Yesterday we went to the US consulate downtown and talked to some US State Department employees. I realized then that I really don't want to work for the State Department in China anymore...they're all uptight and feed everyone b.s. Also, their job was nothing like I expected. They basically keep Americans out of trouble in Shanghai (visit them in the hospital, jail, etc. and help them get tax forms, voter registration, etc.). Their job is all about passports and visas and its really unappealing. I guess it was a good thing that I saw first hand the kind of job I always thought I wanted, because now I know better.

We've also been exploring campus more. We tried to go buy bubbletea last night and failed miserably. We couldn't read the menu, and after five minutes of trying (and getting laughed at by the women standing next to us) we walked back to our dorm.

The weather's been improving...or so I thought, until today. Its still considered the "rainy season" until Monday, so its kind of expected that today would be as rainy as it is. The past few days, though, we've had pretty good weather...we've been able to play volleyball on the field by our class building on breaks and whatnot.

Tomorrow we're going to an art museum downtown and then going shopping on Nanjing Road (the Shanghai equivalent of Michigan Avenue). We were actually on Nanjing Road yesterday to go to the consulate, so we got to look around, but only very quickly. On Sunday, I'm going to finally get my roomate. I thought her name was Gao Ying but it turns out that they switched my roomate for whatever reason, so now I have a girl whose name I can't read. I hope she's as cool as some of the kids we met at the Cao Yang High School the other day.

I never realized how large of an influence American culture has on other countries. Meeting the high school students, I noticed that they all liked to talk about American icons...Kobe Bryant, Usher, Beyonce, and 50 cent seemed to be their favorites. Also, movies like Kungfu Panda, Hitchcock, and 27 dresses were popular as well. I hope I live up to my roomate's expectations of an American teenager. I have a feeling I'll be bombarded with questions about America as soon as she arrives.

That's all for now!
-Olivia