Thicktown, Thickania: If Communist China has Mango, Oatmeal, and Magnum ice cream bars, why can't America?

Well, I’m back. I’ve little time, so this may be short. Maybe not. Classes have begun, and I’m loving them. My teachers are great, and I have the greatest class ever: me, Simon, Daniel, Tiffany, Bart, and Larry. Aw yeah. If you knew those people, you would understand why I feel so lucky to be in class with all of them. Simon is absolutely wonderful. He is so funny- his word placement is most entertaining. We hung out the first night in D.C., and I’m so glad I met him then. He’s a favorite. Daniel is really great, too. I love his facial expressions. When he doesn’t know what’s going on he rolls his eyes and it is really funny. I think he means it to be funny, so it’s not like I’m mocking him for not understanding… During the acrobat show we went to see, they wanted a volunteer for this act where they throw knives around you and supposedly not at you. Daniel volunteered. I seriously thought the kid was going to die. (He didn’t.) Tiffany is my dear roommate. Sadly, today she was sick. She is still sleeping, and she went to take a nap hours ago. I hope she’s alright! I don’t think she has yet to recover from jetlag (I haven’t either), the pollution (she comes from North Dakota, where the air is clean and clear and under control)… just a lot of little things right now. Bart is really funny. He appreciates my sarcasm, has watched Mumford and Sons live, and today he found the Chinese character that has the definition “the ghost of a person killed by a tiger attack”. Ha. Larry is also a joy to be around. He is so funny, but in a completely different way than the rest of them. He is possibly the least threatening person ever, and somehow Daniel and I decided that we never have to fear in Shanghai because we have Larry to protect us. Larry wasn’t sure how he felt about that… I couldn’t have chosen a better class myself!

I feel like I am keeping up with the coursework in my classes, but that there is not enough time outside of class to do all of my homework. That’s why I haven’t been blogging or even writing very lengthy e-mails to my familia. My teachers are nice, and most of them speak slow enough and are willing to repeat themselves. It is nice to be in a class with people who speak/write Chinese at the same level as me. I feel like the style of teaching used is extremely effective, at least for me personally. I am learning a lot, and I feel like it is actually sticking. But it has only been two days, so who knows? We learn approximately 20 new characters a day, and like 5 grammar structures. Now I’m bored of talking about logistics of class.

So what are some fun adventures to share with you? Here are a couple random ones:

I took on the squat toilet for the first time some days ago. In the bathrooms in the building where my classroom is, there are like seven stalls with flush squat toilets. There is also one Western toilet. Obviously, I generally choose the Western toilet. However, I decided to figure out squat toilets with a squat toilet was not a gaping, smelly hole in the ground. I came out alive. I still prefer the Western toilet, but on days when it is raining, the windows are open and if you choose the Western toilet, you get very wet. As you can tell, my English skills are sort of decreasing. I can only hope this means my Chinese skills are increasing. Anyway… I don’t like that there is no toilet paper provided, and also, there is no soap. Yay for antibacterial! I use it so much here…

The shopping carts here are crazy sauce. Pretty sure they are specifically made so Shanghai drivers can be just as crazy in the stores as they are on the roads. All the wheels turn 180 degrees, and roll in any direction, no matter which way the cart is facing. CRAZY!

Chinese food is the BEST. There is so much variety, and there are so many wee restaurants that make delicious food. I love the food here. Especially breakfast- I especially love bao zi. Om nom nom. Also, the food is so cheap! This morning I bought this egg pancake thing, and it was 3 kuai (less than 50 USA cents). It was so big I couldn’t even finish it!

Speaking of food, today I ate at an all-vegan place. Simon convinced me to go. He’s not a vegan, but he is one of three vegetarians participating in CLS in Shanghai right now. I was very impressed with the restaurant. The fake meat was especially good. Also, the shop was close to uni, so we had time to prepare for afternoon class. Also, its English name is the Loving Hut. Ha.

I bought all three of the Hunger Games in Chinese! I can’t understand it yet, but I may someday! It was less than 10 American dollars! I love this place.

“Brave” is playing in the local movie theatre. I want to go see it. I think it is in English, but it has Chinese subtitles. Sounds good to me. My two loves will finally collide!

Question: if Communist China has Magnum ice cream bars, why oh why can’t freakin’ AMERICA?

I went to the Bund! It is the really popular bit of river bank in the city. There are so many people! Normally, there are some people constantly walking around, etc, but there, it is just silly. The tourist masses! Absolutely frightening. Anyway… the view wasn’t as spectacular as normal because it was a polluted day, but I still really enjoyed the bright lights and the Western architecture. It felt very European… but everything was written in Chinese characters. I really want to learn more about Shanghai history. I find it to be very interesting.

My Chinese name, Anzhuo, sounds exactly like the Chinese transliteration of Android, the phone robot. Chinese people think it is really funny that my Chinese name is the same as the phone robot. I got my name before Android was popular, okay?

There’s a sort of thrill that comes when you go into an establishment knowing the only answer you have to any sort of “How do you want it?” question is “I don’t want spicy.” It is really fun. Even when I feel like an interaction isn’t making my Chinese better, I will say it helps me become more comfortable interacting with people I don’t understand at all. It’s exciting in a weird sort of way. It is so cool to say stuff that always seemed like a secret language me and my Chinese class buddies spoke to each other, and have other people—people who have spoken it their whole lives—understand me. Wow. That was terrible grammar. Sorry.

In like five minutes, I’m going to meet with my language partner. Her name is Kexing, and she is so sweet! I really, really like her. She has a Jason Mraz bag (from his “Love” tour), and she was so happy when I started singing, “I won’t give up on us even if the skies get rough! I’m giving you all my love! I’m still looking up!”)

Alright. I need to zuo some zuoye. Bye for now! Here are some pictures!

This ugly river is one of the many sights to see whilst going to the metro, Walmart, etc. So we decided to have a picture taken in front of it. All the Chinese people thought we were crazy. I love this picture. Tiffany's in the front, with Larry, Simon, Ethan, John, and Daniel in the back.