Week 3: September 17-23

~~school starts~~
We had our 1st week class (week 1 of 2 of International Business), which besides us includes a mixture of Chinese, French, Belgian, German, Italian, and Korean students. It’s interesting to see how every acts and interacts in this class. Basically, many people show up late if they attend at all, they walk in and out of the classroom throughout the session, one guy who sits up front listens to music on his computer the whole time, another reads the news paper or talks on the phone with his head under the desk, there are several simultaneous conversations, people are texting each other on their phones, they play with their PSPs, and who knows what else is going on. Absolutely amazing. But at the end of each session, everyone claps for the Professor who is from Egypt and Holland and actually has a lot of international business experience. Thus far, I can only say that some sessions have been better than others because you can only listen to so many groups present on the same topic each day.

~~typhoon wipha~~
Apparently, the biggest typhoon to hit China is who knows how long was headed in our direction. It was all over the news and we were warned many times to stay indoors on Wednesday afternoon, but I think we had more rain and wind on Tuesday before we really knew what was happening. On Tuesday, the sheets of rain soaked us to the bones, but we were more disturbed because it prevented us from getting out and exploring for a couple of days. This was especially true on Wednesday since that was day 2 of no exploration and the heavy, heavy rain did not even seem to hit the area. After about 2 weeks of decent weather, we did not enjoy being forced indoors, but I guess it helped us to get caught up with other things, like emails and the blog.

~~blending in~~
Kien and Matt bought the cheapest bikes on Tuesday night. $20 for the bike and $10 for the lock and poncho. Apparently the best thing to do is to make your first bicycle ride around Shanghai in crazy traffic in the dark with rain and wet roads and using a poncho that partially limits your vision. Exciting stuff.

Nonetheless, Jerri and I have been enjoying the benefits of these bikes. We’ve been catching rides around town sitting on the back rack of the bike, which is apparently made for bags and things like that. I don’t think it’s the safest thing we could possibly do considering the quality of the bike, the traffic patterns here, and the fact that I’ve already almost fallen off a few times, but we’re just trying to fit in with the locals. At least we’re not 4 on a moped like some others. I really hope these bikes last the duration of the 3 months we are here. It’s a little questionable at the moment and it’s only been a few days.

~~3XL~~
I’m a giant here in China and therefore will not be buying any shorts. The only ones I can fit would be a size 3x. That said, I really don’t like working out for the sake of working out, but Kien, Matt and I joined the local gym this week. We’ve been enjoying the food here and would like to continue to do so, so I guess you gotta do what you gotta do. Sacrifices...