After the Expo we had a delicious Indian dinner where Divyanish taught me the Indian custom of eating with one's hands...by stealing my fork.
We headed to an acrobatics show at the Shanghai Ritz Carlton, and it was absolutely stunning. Some of the stunts were so unbelievable that you had to wonder who was crazy enough to scheme that they were even possible, much less perform them. The video I've posted below doesn't quite capture the excitement, but you can watch a bit of it and see for yourself.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
The Infamous World Expo
From the school, we drove directly to the World Expo. It was something I had been truly excited to see because I had heard so much about it. Needless to say, it didn't dissapoint, and I don't really think I understood the true scope of the place until I was inside. The Expo was enormous— each country had huge buildings, beautifully decorated, woven between streets with vendors and restaurants. All of it was so clean and modern and permanent-looking that I had to remind myself that the Expo was only open from spring until fall.
Many of the larger pavilions had huge lines with 2-3 hour waits, and so we only visited the insides of a few of the African countries. However, just walking around and viewing everything from the outside was enough, for the buildings came in every size and form. One was huge and spherical, made entirely of glass; one was decorated with hundreds of snowflakes; one was jungle camouflaged with branch-like rods acting as supports; one had a spiraled, rooftop-road down which bicycles pedaled; one was composed completely out of tiny, fluttering mirrors like a great glittering crystal. The China pavilion was incredible—it overshadowed everything around it; several stories high it blossomed into the air like a bright-red upsides-down pyramid.
The funniest thing at the Expo was that for once, people saw us as the minorities, the strange foreigners. Strangers kept running up to us to take pictures, especially to Max and Tara, the two blondes. They were a new species all together. I was a wild time to run around a place that looked like Epcot x 1,000, taking pictures and seeing all kinds of exotic people and things. I was absolutely awestruck.
Many of the larger pavilions had huge lines with 2-3 hour waits, and so we only visited the insides of a few of the African countries. However, just walking around and viewing everything from the outside was enough, for the buildings came in every size and form. One was huge and spherical, made entirely of glass; one was decorated with hundreds of snowflakes; one was jungle camouflaged with branch-like rods acting as supports; one had a spiraled, rooftop-road down which bicycles pedaled; one was composed completely out of tiny, fluttering mirrors like a great glittering crystal. The China pavilion was incredible—it overshadowed everything around it; several stories high it blossomed into the air like a bright-red upsides-down pyramid.
The funniest thing at the Expo was that for once, people saw us as the minorities, the strange foreigners. Strangers kept running up to us to take pictures, especially to Max and Tara, the two blondes. They were a new species all together. I was a wild time to run around a place that looked like Epcot x 1,000, taking pictures and seeing all kinds of exotic people and things. I was absolutely awestruck.
School Visit
(top left) Jason, Jennifer, and I with our new friends Xiao and Hhang-jojo
(top right) Jason Rhodes
(bottom) Students presenting a bit of their culture for us foreigners
School Visit June 21st
The school visit was honesty one of the most memorable moments of my life. We were told at the gate that we were supposed to have some sort of “cultural presentation,” which we were previously unaware of, and so we split into our two groups, Indian and American. Us Americans couldn’t really think of anything impromptu that we all knew how to do, and so we settled for teaching the students how to dance the hokey pokey.
It was truly amazing to try and speak to the young students with our bits of broken Chinese. They performed Chinese songs, dance routines, and short skits for us. The school wasn’t crumbling, but neither was it very modern or well equipped with supplies. The classrooms were very stark and bare, with only chalkboards and desks and no air conditioning. However, the students, children of migrant workers, laughed at our silly dance, fed us ripened watermelon rinds, and jumped to take pictures with us. The whole experience felt like the reason we had truly come to China—to share our own education system and discover both differences and similarities in theirs.
It was truly amazing to try and speak to the young students with our bits of broken Chinese. They performed Chinese songs, dance routines, and short skits for us. The school wasn’t crumbling, but neither was it very modern or well equipped with supplies. The classrooms were very stark and bare, with only chalkboards and desks and no air conditioning. However, the students, children of migrant workers, laughed at our silly dance, fed us ripened watermelon rinds, and jumped to take pictures with us. The whole experience felt like the reason we had truly come to China—to share our own education system and discover both differences and similarities in theirs.
More Internet Trouble
Unfortunately, I was unable to connect with this site during the remainder of my trip thanks to a really bad proxy. =( My flight got in at 3 am today and I'm finally home! It was so difficult to say goodbye to everyone; I'd made such great friendships and I already miss all my fellow global citizens.
However, now that I'm home I've got reliable internet access and so I'm going to keep updating my blog for each day, it just won't be real time anymore. I'll be posting pictures, videos, and posts about all the amazing stuff that happened so still stay tuned! Sorry about all the internet trouble!
However, now that I'm home I've got reliable internet access and so I'm going to keep updating my blog for each day, it just won't be real time anymore. I'll be posting pictures, videos, and posts about all the amazing stuff that happened so still stay tuned! Sorry about all the internet trouble!
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Temple of the Jade Buddha
The inside of the Temple, decorated with huge golden statues of various gods. We weren't allowed to take pictures of the actual jade Buddha, unfortunately.
A woman offering her prayers at the Temple.
June 20th
Today was packed with activity. We woke up early in the morning and visited the Jade Buddha Temple, housing the largest statue made out of a single piece of jade. The temple felt, looked, and smelled exactly the way China should have been like in my mind—huge oriental arches, smoky-sweet incense, enormous gold statues adorning decorated rooms where monks bowed reverently. Everywhere, Chinese people were knelt in prayer or offering burning torches of incense. Despite the large number of tourists, the temple felt very serene. Max found a penny on the ground which he was able to balance on a wishing well, bringing him the custom of good luck.
Next we visited a silk-making factory, where we toured to see how silk was spun into clothing and sheets from the worms in cocoons. It was incredible to see that one silk worm could provide 1,000 meters of silk!
After the silk factory we took a tour of a beautiful garden tucked away a street market. It started to rain, and the over-congested market felt stifling and dirty. There is a quality to the air, a sort of smog that never goes away, as if the smoke from millions of cigarettes is drifting up into the air and blanketing the city.
Brooke, Jason, and I went off on our own for lunch and discovered how hard it is to order off even a McDonald’s menu when everything is in Chinese. As we sat on a stoop to eat our lunch, we noticed that every single person who passed by stopped to stare at us. It was kind of like being celebrities.
The day became increasingly more amazing when we visited an EF language school in Shanghai. During the presentations made by the Indian group and the Chinese students, I discovered just how different American education is from Indian and Chinese education. I got to meet my penpal, Amy, and talk to her a bit about her school. Her English wasn’t very good, and she was a bit shy, but I was able to deliver my letter/picture to her.
We picked up a quick dinner at a Chinese restaurant, and then headed out to take a boat-tour of Shanghai at night. Shanghai completely transformed when the sun went down, and from the windy deck of the boat we could see all the amazing buildings illuminated. It was absolutely incredible, and I got a lot of amazing pictures.
Next we visited a silk-making factory, where we toured to see how silk was spun into clothing and sheets from the worms in cocoons. It was incredible to see that one silk worm could provide 1,000 meters of silk!
After the silk factory we took a tour of a beautiful garden tucked away a street market. It started to rain, and the over-congested market felt stifling and dirty. There is a quality to the air, a sort of smog that never goes away, as if the smoke from millions of cigarettes is drifting up into the air and blanketing the city.
Brooke, Jason, and I went off on our own for lunch and discovered how hard it is to order off even a McDonald’s menu when everything is in Chinese. As we sat on a stoop to eat our lunch, we noticed that every single person who passed by stopped to stare at us. It was kind of like being celebrities.
The day became increasingly more amazing when we visited an EF language school in Shanghai. During the presentations made by the Indian group and the Chinese students, I discovered just how different American education is from Indian and Chinese education. I got to meet my penpal, Amy, and talk to her a bit about her school. Her English wasn’t very good, and she was a bit shy, but I was able to deliver my letter/picture to her.
We picked up a quick dinner at a Chinese restaurant, and then headed out to take a boat-tour of Shanghai at night. Shanghai completely transformed when the sun went down, and from the windy deck of the boat we could see all the amazing buildings illuminated. It was absolutely incredible, and I got a lot of amazing pictures.
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