First Post

Hello Family & Friends!!!!

THIS IS INCREDIBLE!!! Sorry, I just had to get that out.

 I left Austin at 3:30 on Tuesday morning and got here at 1:30 Wednesday afternoon. I'm not sure what day it was in the US, I keep getting confused :) The food on the plane was pretty good. They served "Chinese Noodles" which was basically Ramen but they tried to make it look authentic but it was most definitely just like Ramen. So, after 14 hours no a plane, which was daylight the whole time, I have been in China for about a day.

Our apartments are AWESOME. They look like they're furnished by IKEA and there is tons of space. There are three rooms with two bathrooms and one of the rooms has it's own bathroom and guess who got that one. That's right, yours truly :) We haven't met out local roommate yet but my fellow Alliance roommate is also from Austin and went to St. Stephen's. Small world, huh? We were both talking yesterday about how we're already pining for Mexican food. But she's very sarcastic and laid back so basically the complete opposite of me so I don't think it will work out ;) Our room is on the 14th floor with a killer view. We call it the penthouse.

Last night we went to dinner with Alliance students and ate food. It has not been the land of small portions so far. The tables have lazy susans in the middle and they just kept bringing more and more and more food out. They have done that for every meal so far except breakfast this morning. We talked to several local Fudan students and they were all very nice. We talked about Dark Night, American TV shows, and Shanghai nightlife. One girl had just taken a class on English Lit and she asked tons of questions about plays and poetry. I know I'm a nerd, but I got really excited to talk to her about it :)

This is for all the Gtown people, guess where we went after we ate? You guessed it, Wal-mart!!! It's about a mile walk from campus so we took off around 8 at night and went walking the streets of Shanghai. Even at night it's extremely active. This Wal-mart is the most amazing Wal-mart I have ever seen. It's four stories with escalator ramps and just about everything you could imagine. We are going back today to get more stuff so I will add more pictures. I know pictures of Wal-mart isn't exatly what you want to see but seriously, I've never seen anything like it!

We have quickly learned that traffic most definitely does not yield to pedestrians as we all almost got run over several times last night. Even the bikers seemed like they were in a mission to mow us down. I have also not embarrassed myself with my mediocre chopstick skills yet. So far all my food has stayed on my plate and not on my lap :)

We are going shopping this afternoon at a 9 story mall, residing across the street from Wal-mart, and to get cell phones so we can call each other in Shanghai. I will post again before classes start on Monday to let you know who the rest of orientation goes. I will post pictures later when I have time.

Love you guys!!!!