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So, let me just put it out there that Shanghai is AWESOME.

Friday morning was spent mostly on getting the group familiar with the facility we live in and how things "should" run for the remainder of the year. The jia (house) is SO pretty! The building where I live has lots of dark wood and white walls. It's very classic looking and we even have glass chandeliers! That night we went out to a traditional Shanghai restaurant for dinner. The food was interesting, to say the least. We were served mostly meat and vegetable dishes. They obviously have fried rice, but it is much different than the stuff back home. After dinner we went to People's Square, which is a lot like Time Square. There are bright lights and people EVERYWHERE. There are also lots of shops and different places to eat. We walked the entirety of People's Square to the Bund. The Bund is where the Huangpu River is located. Basically, there is a river dividing the two sides of Shanghai. There is the Puxi side and the Pudong side. We live on the Puxi side, which was built before the Pudong side. Thus, the Pudong side is much more modern. After much exploring, we took the subway back home and called it a night.

Saturday morning we did more orientation stuff. We also met our Chinese teachers and played in ice-breaker game to become more intimate with the group. We had Pizza Hut, yes Pizza Hut, for lunch then went to a Shanghai museum. After paroozing around the museum for a while, our program director, Chris, treated us to Starbucks, yes Starbucks. The Starbucks here is similar to the one back at home except for the cup sizes are much smaller (a Venti here is like a Grande back at home). After the museum we went on a river cruise so we could an even better look at Shanghai. On the boat there was a buffet, which was decent at best. After dinner we went to the top of the ship and gazed at all the skyscrapers and interesting architecture. As the boat left the dock, the crewman started to play music. Us being silly Americans, started dancing and we really got into it. The Chinese people smiled and cheered at our wacky antics and some of them even joined us. By the end of the cruise we were all sweaty but filled with excitement for the real "night events".

When we got back to the jia, we all got dressed to go clubbing. We were led to believe that the club M2 was only seven blocks away. Before our "trek" some of the boys bought beer to pre-party. I had a Bacardi mixer thing, it was green and delicious. After 45 minutes of walking we realized that we had passed much more than seven blocks. Luckily, we found the club. We walked in, for free of course, and were welcomed by a thick cloud of cigarette smoke. Sadly, smoking is allowed in Chinese clubs and people definitely take advantage of this fact. This club was more of a lounge as there was lots of seating and only a small dance floor. We stayed there for a little while but then decided to go Sky which was practically next door. As soon as we (we being a group of 12 or so) walked in the club manager gave us 20 free drink tickets. Haha, so some of my group took advantage of this BIG TIME. I had about half of a terribly mixed Rum and Coke. After dancing for about 30 minutes, the music changed for hip hop (good) to techno (not good). So, we left and went back to M2. Luckily, Alex (a guy on my trip) found a way to get a booth and that's when the real party started, for some people at least. The boys hit the bar and of course some of the girls had to go to the bathroom. So, my friend Flora and I decided to wait by the dance floor and enjoy the music. On stage, there was a black "hype guy" and he instantly spotted Flora and I because of our dark complexion. Haha, so he ran over to me and grabbed my arm and convinced me to go on stage with him. So, here I am, my 2nd night in China and already dancing on stage in front of a crowd of Chinese people. I went with the flow, raised my arms was yelled "yeah" and they all cheered with excitement. I forgot what song I was dancing to, but there was lots of hip-movement. The hype guy then convinced my friend Flora to come on stage also. It was sort of embarrassing but after a while I was having a lot of fun. For the rest of the night we danced by our booth and drank and chatted. I only had a little but some people got MESSED UP. We had an interesting adventure home because the taxi driver couldn't understand where we wanted to go. We eventually made it home and then sat in one of the common rooms and reminisced on the the nights events [I will go into detail if you ask me personally]. The first night out was EPIC and can only get better from here.

Sunday, we slept in and went shopping. THE END

Today, Monday, we had four hours of Chinese class. The language itself is hard but I am so excited to learn it. I'm not sure what is going on for the rest of the day, but we shall see.

I'm starting for feel comfortable here and I can't wait to see what the rest of my trip here will bring. It's so exciting!

I hope all of you are not missing me too much (not to toot my own horn or anything) and that all is well.

Much LOVE!

--kpL.

Shanghai!

So, my LiveJournal is currently unavailable here in Shanghai so I am going to update you all on my journies here in China on this! Sorry this post isn't very exciting but I promise these post will be much more EXCITING!