Chicken Feet

Madison:

It seems like there are always a thousand things I want to blog/write about but after I'm done doing said activities I'm too tired to post. It's nearing the end of the day at Enovate. We're heading out for drinks together and then possibly a concert. Alternatively, after drinks I might hook up with the Yale crew to walk around the Bund or watch the World Cup.

One of the things I enjoy is walking to work every morning. I could take the metro for part of it and slim down the forty minute trek but I like taking in the glimpses of daily life I get. Yesterday morning I didn't realize what was happening until a rooster's head fell by feet all bloody as some housewife was purchasing her groceries. Today there was some kind of bike accident but no one seemed to be badly hurt. Nevertheless there were five police officers and a crowd of onlookers. Chinese people are very much into that whole crowd thing. Case in point- David's exhibit opening at MoCA with cute Chinese artists. Talk about hordes of teenage girls with camera phones.

The Yale club gave us all a packet with coupons for Starbucks and McDonalds. I find this amusing but appreciate the free lattes I'm enjoying (there's literally a Starbucks outside my hotel room). There are far more xingbake (Chinese for Starbucks) in general compared to Beijing. Last summer I became very well acquainted with the locations of Starbucks in Beijing. My best friend is a complete junkie. ;) Four tall sugar-free coffee light frappucinos with 1 pump sugar-free vanilla and 1 pump sugar-free caramel a day anyone?

I'm on my last pair of clean underwear so I suppose I'll have to face my fear of the Chinese laundry machine. There's no way all of those buttons are necessary. Maybe I'll hang my bras on a line out the window like all the Shanghaiese do.

I added another animal to my list after lunch today. Bullfrog. Very very good. I really enjoy saying "another animal" because I'm actually not all that adventurous of an eater. I can pretend right? Just don't try to feed me duck soup with the intestines and crunchy bits. I'm afraid of where those crunchy bits come from.

I've given up on cooking even though I made a trip to the grocery store this morning (at 7, I woke up today without an alarm at 5!). I keep getting invitations to eat out. The social aspect is great but I really wish I knew how many calories were in say qiezi? I'm kind of afraid. Oh well. You can't ask in China.

Another favorite Chinese food I don't quite understand- chicken feet. Is there really any meat on them?

In other news, Eno has been making a lookbook so everyday there has literally been a parade of models male and female through our office. No one can concentrate.

Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll

The last few days can be described in three terms: Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll
...

except, actually neither sex, nor drugs, nor rock and roll really happened.

More of work, food, and a many drunken hazes of really awesome happenings. As such, I'm just gonna have to bullet-point it

1. Wednesday- pretty much (un)official ladies night throughout all of Shanghai. aka if you are a female, you walk into a club, pay no cover, waltz in, go to the open bar, and order every and anything you want FOR ABSOLUTELY FREE. It boggled my mind.
2. So Wednesday- we went to Tanghui VIP room. They advertised free manicures, and what do you know? They ACTUALLY had a free manicure station at the front door of the club!
3. They also advertised that if a guy came in with 4 girls (aka "queens"), he would become crowned "king" and get a free bottle of champagne. We only had three girls. Try as we may, we were unable to woo a rando girl to come be our 4th queen, and alas, were unable to get our free bottle of champagne
4. Lots of hot girls sitting around the bar being super anti-social on their cellphones
5. turned out that they were probably prostitutes or just hired to sit there to make the club look more crowded
6. I wondered how it's possible they don't lose money when girls can just walk in and drink unlimited alcohol
7. Had a vodka shot from the open bar. Worst. Thing. Ever. It was basically a cross between dog piss and nail polish remover.
8. They randomly had male models (read: really skinny asian guys with really asian hair) walk on stage and there was a mini fashion show... except they were all wearing the same thing
9.The bathrooms were fricken awesome. They were a cross between a shiny disco ball and a time machine. I thought I was gonna take off to a different era or something whilst taking a piss
10. Thursday night= recuperate from Wednesday
11. Friday- French wedding dinner at the restaurant.
12. Afterwards, got on my co-workers motorcycle vespa thing- crazy. I had never been on a motorbike before
13. Went to a Light graffitti party at Club Tipsy. They advertised free crepes and open bar.
14. Got there too late for crepes
15. Pounded the open bar
16. Came back and were all super sloppy- ate 2 huge things of ramen
17. Woke up the next there and there was dried ramen all over the floor.
18. Yesterday- Really long walk to the bund.
19. Visited the marriage market!- where old people post up resumes of their adult children and try and arrange marriages for their kids
20. Unlimted sushi ordering buffet + Bar hopping with Yale Alums. Super full. Any alcohol was absorbed by massive amounts of sushi residing in my belly
21. Afterwards, went to Mint. Was bought many drinks- discovered my new favorite: Belvediere on the Rocks + lemon+ hint of sugar.
22. French Pussy= really good
23. There was a baby shark tank at the club!
24. There was also glass roof. I looked up and asked why it was light out. It was 4:30 am.
25. Decided it was a good idea to go out to the Bund by the water. Watched old people fly kites and job slowly by.
26. Wondered why the fuck people get up at 5 on a Sunday morning
27. Got home at 5:30 and conked out
28. Today- got a free mani and pedi on Yale's tab!
29. Made a really good dinner with peeps. Everything made from scractch!
30. I really like mustard. Dijon mustard.
31. We decided our next endeavor is to make a huge rotisserie so we can roast a pig on our balcony.

Week 1 以后:

Madison:
Wow this was a busy week! I love my job, especially my coworkers. I'm basically just helping people with random projects or watching them do things in Indesign that I don't know how to do yet. We usually go together for veggie-pork dumplings at noon at sit in this homey, sweaty, noisy- typical chinese-fanguanr. I love asking people what brought them to Shanghai. I'm amazed at the number of people that have been here 4 years + without making any attempts to learn the language apart from nihao. People keep telling me the foreigners and the Chinese don't mix well in Shanghai. So far my experience has been that the social scene is very self-segregating, even at work. All the Chinese girls stay and eat some warmed up leftovers in front of their computers while we (the westerners) go out for lunch. The great thing about Eno is that they do a ton of research about pretty much everything relating to trends and Chinese youth culture. They're constantly altering and re-evaluating their approach. On Friday, a Improv/Stand-up Comedy group from Chicago called Chopsticks came in and led a company workshop in the Chang le lu store. I'm learning a lot just watching about what working for a start up in China might be like.

In other news, the Yale Club of Shanghai is really great. Their coordinator, Deanna has been organizing lots of activities around the city to keep us busy. Andi and woke up bright and early for a tour about the Jews of Shanghai. Basically, Shanghai saved more Jews than any other city in the world because there was no immigration quota; it was the only metropolis where you didn't need a visa to enter. Russian and Iraqi Jews were in the city even earlier than that (1850s) and helped build Nanjing rd. and started a bunch of businesses. Everyone had to pick up quick and leave in 1949 with the Communist Revolution. Really interesting stuff.

Last night we met up with a group of alumni for some sushi and sake-bombing, true to New Haven style. It was all you can eat for 138 rmb so we went a little crazy. I'm not sure about the impression I left with my chopstick-walrus pictures.

Today, the bulldogs (girls and boys) are getting manicures and pedicures paid for by Yale. No joke.

下班了

Madison:
Today was my second day on the job at Enovate. The inventive nature of Eno as a start up means that I'm somewhat on my own to structure my internship and propose/offer to work on projects that I will help me develop a skill set in Indesign, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc.. The first deadline is a print publication with articles about Chinese youth culture that would serve as a handout for clients to show them the kind of work Eno does. Right now I'm researching creative bookbinding and create-your-own USB drive websites. The second project is a comic strip that illustrates the lives of Chinese youth with different interests going through their daily lives. The third was re-organized text and logo placement for a client's email newsletter. And fourth, this weekend I have plans to go to the Shanghai marriage market in People's Sq. to do field research for an Eno blog article.

Apparently lots of parents and sometimes grandparents go to the park, sometimes without the knowledge of the wife or husband to be, and arrange potential matches for their children. Supposedly most Chinese at this age are too busy working to devote time to finding a soul mate. Many parents additionally employ matchmakers. With the male/female ratio there are a lot more single guys competing for wives. The listings for both guys and girls include a glamour shot and essential information. For guys this essential information is height, salary and whether or not you have a car and house. For girls- age, weight and height. Chinese are really into height. I'm imagining, "Man with car and 3000 rmb/month looking for wife around 23, who should be above 1.65 meters in height, as pure as a lotus flower, fair-skinned, slender, and quiet." ....

I've been amazed so far at the amount of research Eno does to know its consumer. Chinese youth (considered people between 15-25) wield an amazing chunk of purchasing power. China has 420 million citizens under 25 years old (THIS EXCEEDS THE ENTIRE US POPULATION). These youngsters are spending or influencing 50% or more of their families' incomes. Big market.

I feel like something bad is going to happen to my eyes looking at the computer screen literally all day. I'm also struggling to sit in an office chair from 9:30 to 6:30. At school I usually work on the floor or sit at my desk on a big bouncy ball. Most of my coworkers don't take lunch breaks either- they just eat at their desks. Hmm.

Time for ladies night.

It's my job to party. No, but actually

Lisa:

Basically, My job= amaaaazing.

It is currently midnight, just finished about an hour ago. My shift today was 2 pm-10:30 pm.

I spent the first half of the day working on some random bullshit for the owner. Mainly marketing stuff to find out the main websites foreigners check to find out which restaurants they should eat at in shanghai, and see whether or not our restaurant is listed there. If not, find out if I can get it listed there, and how i can get people to review it positively.

At night, starting at 7, we had the Royal Canin (Dog Food) corporation host their party at the restaurant. I didn't know before, but apparently, they are our most important clients thus far of the year! It was a party of ALL the general managers of the corporation from around the world. Anyway, i started of as a hostess, greeting the people who came in, making sure they went the right way etc. But then Jake let me off, and was like, "as an events person, you gotta go mingle. Now go get a glass of wine, it'll be good for your throat (told him the previous story), and go enjoy yourself." I was hesitant at first, but then was like, OKAY, if you insist!

It was a bit awkward at first trying to inch myself into random conversations with old business men, but it ended up being AWESOME. I spent a large majority of the night talking with 4 general managers of the corporation from 4 different countries!! Austria, Germany, Finland, and Switzerland. They invited me to sit down to dinner, and offered me food and drinks etc. Got like 5-6 free glasses of wine out of it, free dessert, and 4 new places to stay if I so decide to take a Eurotrip in the near future! Sooo much networking, but oooh so much fun (if/when it works out).

到了上海！

Madison:

This is sort of a back room picture of where I work. Basically, lots of Chinese 25ish year-olds drinking coffee or chrysanthemum tea (really good) or coffee working on their computers. Eno, the company my internship is with, does a lot more than just designing clothes. It seems like people are working on a hundred different projects from organizing youth concerts to designing an architectural space to making a magazine to working on websites.

I really love the whole team- lots of smart, creative people. It looks like my first assignment may be designing the layout for a mini magazine.

The Enovate Blog

The Creator's Project

Observations walking around xiangyang lu:

1) There's nothing in this world cuter than Chinese babies:


2) laundry laundry everywhere:


3) I'm not even sure I have a comment for this one:


4) You can count on the grannies to be out in the morning practicing taijiquan in the park:


And Lisa's not kidding. The size of our suite is ridiculous. I'm so happy to finally be in Shanghai!

WINE IS A MIRACLE WORKER

MY VOICE IS HEALED!
I attribute my miraculous recovery to the 4 or 5 glasses of wine from last night. Alcohol is good for you boys and girls.

Anyway ,
This video came about on Sunday (Day before yesterday) while David and I were sitting around drinking wine and waiting for Madison's arrival. Little did we know that Madison still had not left the United States.

The result is a deep reflection (or merely a shallow recounting, take your pick) of life (our day). As an added bonus, you can get a glimpse of my black lung. The yellow lighting+my jet lag fatigue also make me look quite sickly, adding even more to the bonus.



Next,

David recounts his first day...involving failed jacuzzi night, the Yale alumni dinner, and more

I think I have the BLACK lung

LISA

So I'm officially done with day one of work!

It was alright as first days go. There was a relatively large luncheon event today with a bunch of Italians who came as guests of an Italian Tour guide company, and I was basically instructed to just stand and watch. I was introduced to the staff, most of which doesn't speak great english, and shown the basic layout of the restaurant. (The website gives you a pretty awesome virtual tour of the place www.kathleens5.com).

It's crazy, most of the waiters are younger than me, have graduated high school, though it's very likely that the majority of them are not going to go into college... I had many uncomfortable moments... and this happens to me a lot every time i come to China because I realize just how good I, and almost everyone at Yale has it... simply the fact that I get to go to college, not to mention one known for being the best in the world, is unbelievable to the waiters and hostesses who have never even thought of the possibility of affording even a semester off of work.

There's also the follow-up uncomfortable conversation: "Where are you staying?"

"ummm.. [insert street name]"

"oh! I'm looking for an apartment, are there any available rooms?"

"Oh yea, I don't know, we're living in a hotel"

".... [silence]... a hotel?... isn't that REALLY expensive?"

"Well, yea... I guess."

"Wow..."

I guess I don't really have a real reason to feel bad, but it still makes me feel uncomfortable especially when I start to realize just how big of a disparity there is.

In unrelated news. I have the black lung. My voice is all low and raspy. It was actually pretty cool at first to have my voice randomly crack and sound like I had smokers lung, but now it's starting to get annoying especially when the raspiness starts to interfere with my ability to talk at very fast speeds (suuuper annoying)/talk at all. Moreover, the voice situation made it much harder to be charming hostess, as all went downhill the moment I opened my mouth.

Anyway, I'm ridiculously tired now, despite not having done too much intensive labor. But that's what sooo nice about summer, (and I guess life w/o school), is that you can go to work, and go home, and have NOTHING you actually need to do work-wise. You can just veg out (which is what I did), and eat, and do WHATEVER until the next day. I don't even work tomorrow until 2pm (till 10:30 pm) because there's an evening event with Royal Canine Dog Foods (don't be fooled, they have a shit ton of money). It's some big corporate event with fancy corporate men, open bar, and jazz band, and my boss wanted me to see the logistics of putting on a bigger event at the restaurant.

So yea, basically we once again made dinner. (See pic below!) Have already started the wine collection going among the group (YES!). Also, during the end of work today, I definitely googled "Does alcohol make sore throat worse?" And apparently it works as a type of cough suppressant, and can kill the bacteria that are giving me the Black Lung! ok, awesome. Let's leave it at that. The evidence speaks for itself. Cheers.

As of right now, and for the rest of the night, the plan is: Eat. Sit. Eat. Wine. Wine. Wine. Eat. Wine. Sleep.

Will hopefully run tomorrow. Let's see how that goes.

I'm ready for my 100 kuai massage

Madison:

So I really hate how airports charge you a Wi-Fi fee. It's free just about everywhere else (FYI: McDonald's even advertises free Wi-Fi now) but they make it expensive because you don't have another option, kind of like the food at airports. Five-dollar water bottles anyone? Internet should be free. Period. So I'm writing this in a word document to post later.

I'm finally on my way to Shanghai after a dramatic start. Basically, I missed my plane yesterday. I was sitting in the gate reading After the Banquet by Yukio Mishima. Waited twenty minutes before going to the counter to ask about the delay when I was informed that my plane had taken off five minutes ago. The only way to Shanghai was to buy another ticket. I still can't believe that I messed up in the Omaha airport of all places. Last August I miraculously managed to stay awake 54 hours flying home from Hainan through Shanghai, Tokyo, New York, and Detroit in a really terribly planned layover sequence. Oh well, I guess shit really does happen. My dad has reserved the right to remind me about this for the next ten years. I hope my bags get there. This morning they were in Minnesota. Hmmm.

Cute Korean boys just walked by.

In other news, I'm loving my Chinese visual dictionary. It has pictures with all these specific vocab words we didn't learn in class. Like all the different kinds of nuts for example- almond (xingren), peanut (huasheng), macadamia nut (aozhoujianguo), you get the idea. I plan on carrying it in my purse and whipping it out to practice my new words. My attitude about language learning is much different this time around. I actually feel more inspired and motivated because I'm doing it myself the way I want in the context of real life. Hopefully, I'll make lots of Chinese friends to practice with. I've thought about posting language exchange flyers around Fudan U. I even considered making T-shirts advertizing my wanting to have Chinese friends. Probably a bad idea.

I went to Whole Foods yesterday with my mom to unwind after my flight-missing fiasco and to say goodbye. For two months at least. You see, Whole Foods and I have a very special relationship. I went there pretty much everyday after school for two years in high school and would study in the café until it closed. When I was in China last summer dealing with la duzi (don't wash fruit with sink water), I dreamed about walking through the aisles of Whole Foods and going back for seconds on the fresh pineapple samples.

Delta has these signs up everywhere with a boat presumably supposed to be Marco Polo's that say, "The Far East Now Closer." I always think it's funny how the West portrays the Orient as this place full of hidden treasures and secrets yet to be discovered even though Chinese history is much longer. We'll see if the fourteen hours in coach seem shorter this time.

I can't wait for my layover in Tokyo Narita (my favorite airport in the world). Don't have time for acupuncture but I have plans for a green tea mochi and order of sashimi.

Yalies invade Shanghai

Lisa:

So, I’ve only been in Shanghai for 2 days, I don’t start work until tomorrow, and already there’s so much to update.!

First off, our hotel rooms. They are actually the most ridiculous things ever. Ridiculous in a really excessively amazing way. Basically, Yale has assigned 2 people per room, but within each suite we have:

3 bedrooms, 2 queen size beds, 2 twin size beds, a dining area and table, a kitchen, 2 large bathrooms (one of which has 2 showers in it), our own laundry machine, an office, and 3 balconies overlooking a pretty awesome view of Shanghai buildings and scenery. Keep in mind again… this is all for two people. Why we have 8 extra beds between the 7 of us is completely beyond me.

[There will be a video tour to come once Madison gets in (she should be coming in within the hour!)]

I stopped by Kathleen’s 5 Restaurant and Bar to meet my boss, Franck, and introduce myself. He basically told me the tentative plan about what I’ll be working on: So in terms of marketing, the first thing I need to do is get to know the product inside and out. So for the first week or so, I’ll be acting kind of as a hostess, talking to customers, seeing what they like/don’t like so I can get a feel for what works/doesn’t work. There will be a ton of events coming up, and I’ll get to watch how they’re set up and executed. Once he thinks I’m ready, he’s going to hand me over an event- he was talking about a charity benefit bash around mid/end June- and I would get to plan out and be in charge of the entire event!!! I’ll also be helping with the newsletter, and maybe even teaching the staff English at some point. He’s also open to any other ideas I might have in terms of events or anything else. David (whose working at the Museum of Contemporary Art) and I already have grand plans to put on a joint benefit/event involving some sort of wine and cheese and catered food from Kathleen’s 5, and mixing in a small tour of the Museum. Art+Culture+Luxury food= PURE CLASS. I’m so excited for my internship to start tomorrow!!! Oh, and best of all, they feed me! Lunch and dinner provided!! Though we’ll be cooking a lot in the hotel together (!!!) but it’s great to have free food always at my disposal.

Anyway, last night, I hung out with an old family friend’s son, (we were apparently good friends back when we were ages 4 and 5 respectively). We ended up barhopping for a bit around a couple expat areas, then wound up at Hengshan Lu, home of Shanghai’s first bars back in the day. I was already dead tired by 8pm, but hey, drinks can only help jet lag right? Right.

So as a brief overview, there are 8 Yalies here on the bulldogs internship program: Me, Madison, David, Will, Adam, Andi, Sandy, and technically Jim though he isn’t officially part of the program. We had our first homemade meal together! T’was super cute. We made banana-stuffed French toast with homemade syrup (courtesy of David’s food prowess,) poached eggs, watermelon, and ramen. We’re hoping to cook a lot of meals together this trip, and also the hope is by the time I get back to America, I’ll have a whole stock of yummy food I can cook.

We had orientation today too at this crazy fancy downtown shopping/law firm place where Deanna, our “Shanghai Godmother” basically gave us an overview of Shanghai geography, and gave us a bunch of awesome free shit (gift certificates to Starbucks, McDonalds, Element Fresh, and a free ticket to the World expo). She’s also organized some really cool activities for us like a bike tour of Shanghai, free foot massage and dinner, and… a walking tour of the Shanghai Jewish history museum (yay?).

After orientation, we had a free dinner at Sichuan citizen restaurant with Shanghai Yale Alumni. Met some pretty cool alumni. Networking begins NOW. Woot! Met this one guy George who’s an alum of the Yale business school and works at a German/Chinese law firm now. He was telling me about how he wanted to organize a Bulldogs barhopping trip (YES!) So naturally, I talked him up, got his business card, so hopefully we’ll be having a Yale subsidized barhopping trip within the next couple weeks!

It’s currently almost 11 pm, and David, Will, Sandy, Andi, and I are sitting around a table, drinking Shiraz wine, eating Gouda cheese and crackers, and skyping each other. We were planning on wine and Jacuzzi night, but for some reason the Jacuzzi is quite cold…

Anyway, I don’t start work tomorrow until 10:30! I love this schedule. We’ll basically play it by week. If there are events at night, he said I can come in some days at like 2 pm, and stay till the evening, or if there are midafternoon rushes, I can come in at 10:30. Basically, almost never do I have to wake up ridiculously early, which is AWESOME.

I can’t wait to start my job! Updates on day 1 of work will come tomorrow!

A Mushy-Shit-Filled Plane Ride

Lisa:

I'm in Shanghai!

The 14 hour plane ride was surprisingly not as miserable as I thought. I fell asleep during the first 2 ish hours of the flight, and got woken up by the flight attendant who clearly could not tell that I was asleep, or could, but just thought it was urgent and necessary to wake me up to give me my meal, which turned out to be the worst piece(s) of crap I have ever eaten.

My experiences with plane food have usually been hit or miss. The hits usually only come on non-American airlines. So this flight, I decided to call in and pre-order one of their special meals, the vegetarian meal, because plane meat is usually pretty sub-par (plane meat...plain meat, haha get it? uhh ok then. anyway.) I've ordered special meals before and have had a couple experiences where they were actually a lot better, a lot fresher than the things everyone else was getting, so I was hoping that would happen this time too. Not so much.

The first meal I received was... really really horrendous to say the least. My hot entree consisted of: a clump of mushy rice squashed between 2 piles of orange mush: one lighter orange which tasted very much like really bad baby food, and another pile of darker orange mush with indiscriminate mushy type vegetables (potatoes? peas?). My cold dishes consisted of: a stale blob of bread, a vegan chocolate chip cookie which may as well just been a clump of shit with chocolate shits, i mean chips, stuck haphazardly in random places, and some weird rice-y thing with black beans. Needless to say, it SUCKED. But I ate it anyway b/c I was hungry. My stomach was not too happy. The normal meals at least got a salad with lox. I didn't even get a salad?! WHAT KIND OF VEGETARIAN MEAL IS THIS? Strike 1.

Next, (yes you will hear all my food grievances as the heinous-ness that was my food warranted this)
we got this mid-flight "light snack". The flight attendant accidentally gave me the normal snack that everyone gets and set it in front of me: a Turkey croissant hot dog (meh), and a cup of Haagen-Daas Ice Cream (HEAVEN! YES!). But of course, as luck (and my own doing) would have it, the next flight attendant was like, "oh wait, she has the vegetarian snack." So she gave me this mushy, soggy veggie burger crap that looked and (unsurprisingly) tasted like soggy cheese (vegan cheese mind you) covered mud mush. Oh, and I also got another bread clump (hurray). But it was okay because I still had my ice cream, but then... SHE TOOK THE ICE CREAM AWAY (NOOOOOOO) and gave it to the other passenger (because clearly my mush shit will be satisfying enough, and I don't need the ice cream). Strike 2.

and Finally, breakfast right before landing?
Normal passengers got: Fresh fruit plate, jam and shortbread cookie, bread, and a choice between cheese omelet and asian noodles.
What do I get? I'm thinking at least I'll get the fresh fruit plate right? WRONG. I got a packaged Dole fruit cup with cubed fruit WTF. Stale, untoasted bagel (And they don't even give me cream cheese?!?!? Do vegetarians not eat cream cheese?) and for my hot entree, a choice between... oh wait, there's no choice. Un-discernible mushy shit which had some hint of cheese in it... but it'd probably be vegetarian cheese of some sorts, and mushy steamed vegetables with no flavoring. OMG SO MUCH MUSHY SHIT. Strike 3. Definitely switching back to normal meals on the way back.

So besides the food failures (which indeed warranted 3 paragraphs of description), the rest of the flight wasn't so bad. Mainly because they had sooo many movie selections and tv show selections. I watched a couple of pretty decent chick flicks, "Leap Year (Day?)" w/ Amy Adams, "Did You Hear About the Morgans?" w/ Sarah Jessica Parker and Hugh Grant, and La Vie en Rose which was EXCELLENT. It's based on the real life story of Edith Piaf- French singer, all in French, all subtitled.

So that was my flight. I actually took a picture of meal number one (felt stupid for a split second when the flash went off, but realized no one knew me, and no one cared, and no one really gave a f*ck if the weird girl by the window was taking a picture of her mushy plane food), but will post it up later when I can figure out how to get past China's firewall and actually access this blog to post pics up. (Blogs like this one are apparently quite dangerous in their potential for Chinese civilians to mobilize to overthrow the government... hence why it is banned). I'm currently writing through the nifty email system that Madison has set up, so hopefully this even gets posted up.

Anyway, am currently residing at my mom's friend's apartment on the 18th floor. Their grandma,Waipo, cooked a faaabulous meal, which despite being super full, I still ate anyway.

Super excited to go to bed. It's almost 7 pm! YES.

Shanghai Pre-departure Ponderings Part Deux

MADISON:

Well Lisa’s pre-departure entry inspired me! We’re going to be roomies this summer in SHANGHAI. I linked our blog to my facebook page to keep y’all updated. Well see how well the proxies work this time getting around the firewall…

Oh, Zhongguo wo xiang ni! Two Haruki Murakami books and Anna Karenina later, I’ve run out of things to do in Nebraska. I’ve packed and re-packed my suitcase at least three times. Last summer I went backpacking through Tokyo and Shanghai before settling down in Beijing for my language program. Everything I brought with me for the summer fit into that backpack. My grandma (who’s very cool and on facebook) complained that I was wearing the same dress in every picture. And the same running shorts to class everyday. Ideally, my classmates thought I was a hardcore runner who ran between classes everyday. Somehow I think this is very unlikely. This summer I have packed a lot more clothes, probably too many shoes. Also antihistamine, sunscreen, oatmeal, host gifts, and a few other weird things I remember paying too much for from Jenny Lou’s. I made many friends with my Zyrtec last year. I never want to sunburn like I did in Hainan. I’m already guaranteed skin cancer from that experience. Literally, the situation was- white woman turned red glued facedown to a bamboo mat in a bikini with small Chinese children alternatively dressing my skin in aloe leaves or bringing in their friends to marvel at my “hong se de pifu” (red skin). And no more sketchy “Australian” oatmeal with bugs in it this time either.

I’m really excited about the prospect of cooking in Shanghai. Supposedly our apartment will be outfitted with a kitchenette. Browsing a used bookstore in Omaha with a friend a few days ago, I came across “Madame Wong’s Long Life Chinese Cookbook” from like the 60’s. The lady on the cover looks really happy. I also packed some of Jamie Oliver’s recipes for Bok Choy and other green things. At least my China Care friends taught me how to make dumplings, bubble tea and egg drop soup this year!

My mind is running amuck with so so many plans and ideas for this summer. I definitely want to do some video blogging with my fellow Yalies. I have two ideas right now for the Youtube series—a series of dating misadventures with Chinese nanren or interviews with Chinese artists about their creative process and work. I’ve also looked up the Hash Hound Harriers (a drinking group with a running problem), cycling club, salsa dancing nights, gallery openings, break dance studio, fireboat racing (whatever that is??), ultimate frisbee, and much more…I think I’m going to hold off on the Trans-Siberian railroad/Korea adventures for the summer but I’m definitely visiting friends in Hong Kong! I can’t wait to meet up with everyone in Shanghai Sunday night!

Shanghai Pre-departure Ponderings

LISA:

I'm so so so super excited to go to Shanghai in... TWENTY-FOUR HOURS!

So I spent last summer splitting my time between...

1. New York: working as a PR/marketing intern at the Accompanied Literary Society doing the logistics for events and book launch parties (even including an all expenses paid trip to the Hamptons for a Great Gatsby Themed Black and White party- at which I, of course, was the bouncer)

and
2. Sichuan, China- teaching English, Math, Culture, music, and art at 3 different earthquake-affected schools (elementary, middle, and high school)

But THIS year, I will be going to Shanghai as part of the YAle Bulldogs in Shanghai internship program, and I shall be working as an (official title:) Office Events Director at a fancy rooftop restaurant & lounge called Kathleen's 5!!!-- which should be extra cool this year with all the extra customers coming in due to the World Expo.

Anyway, I spent this past week working at Yale as a commencement usher and procession guide during graduation week, which was AMAZING. Got to see my senior friends one last time, went to my first naked party, got chucked off a piggy back ride, brief encounter with the police, partied consequetively for almost a week, decided to join a Yale varsity sport, set a goal to not leave Yale before learning to play all necessary WASPy sports (i.e. squash, golf, sailing), saw Bill Clinton, Aretha Franklin, and Zhang Yimou, and most importantly, discovered a newfound awe, admiration, and excitement for Yale. I CAN'T WAIT FOR JUNIOR YEAR!

But more importantly, or at least, more timely, I (also) CAN'T WAIT FOR THIS SUMMER!! (which technically is already here but,) I CAN'T WAIT TO BE IN SHANGHAI! Summer is going to be so amazing, I'm so excited to be going to China yet again (third summer in a row), and my job is going to be so ridiculous(ly awesome). Even during down times, I'll still be IN A RESTAURANT. Also, it'd be totally perfect if they fed me lunch.

Anyway, I need to start packing. I'm pretty sure the 14 hour, 40 minute plane ride will be less than wonderful, but I don't think it will be miserable considering I have a good stack of books, hopefully a good line-up of movies, and preferably some sleep on my side. I believe having long, miserable, sleep-less flights are much more miserable when under stress (about what lies ahead on the other end of the flight (i.e. having a competition, having to return home knowing you have to write a paper after vacation), but for me, there's absolutely nothing to dread. I can literally do WHATEVER THE HELL I WANT. No papers, no competitions, no school, just... Summer(!), China (!), an awesome internship (!), an awesome group of Yalies (!), an awesome roommate (!), and limitless opportunities to explore!!!