Marie in Shanghai

Going abroad teaches you to value small things. Food, for example. Don´t get me wrong, Chinese food is delicious and I really enjoy eating it, but unfortunately it lacks the variety of flavors we know in Germany. At least in my opinion. Chinese food usually consists of rice (of course), some kind of vegetable (Chinese seem to love onions and broccoli) and meat. A lot of things are fried and usually nothing is eaten raw. After 5 weeks of Chinese food I longed for something new, or let´s say a little less Chinese: the crunchiness of a freshly baked "Sonnenblumenkernbrötchen" (roll with sunflower seeds), the creaminess of a slice of cheese, the fresh, juicy taste of uncooked vegetables. All of the things that seem usual and normal back in Germany, but have an extremely tempting sound over here. So this week, it was time for me to make a culinary dream come true and visit the German bakery "Abendbrot" in the financial district of Shanghai.

What can I say? Seeing all those delicious baked German masterpieces filled me with happiness as I never thought they could. I could already tell the crunchy crust of the rolls by just looking at them, the "Brezeln" (soft pretzels) were formed to perfection, and the "Berliner" (a deep-fried German dessert) looked sweet and juicy. Next to the mall the German bakery is in, there is a small Western supermarket, where I found delicious Gouda cheese, salad and dressing alongside a lot of other German delicacies like chocolate, cereals and all kinds of other things. Everything there still had a German label, but also had a Chinese sticker with the ingredients, so Chinese customers (I didn´t see any) would know what they are.

After buying everything I had missed the last 5 weeks, my friend Mareike and I prepared a feast. In Germany, it would have been considered a simple, everyday dinner, but for us it was a meal made in paradise.

You might be able to tell how excited I still am about this great dinner, but after all one thing is true: Even on the other side of the world, food is the one thing that will always make you feel at home.

Last Sunday was St. Patrick´s Day and I went to an Irish Pub with two of my German friends. What a great night! It was pouring, but yet pretty warm and there was a huge tent with a stage and live music. The audience almost exclusively consisted of Westerners and it was great to finally be around a lot of tall, light-haired people again. We had a great night with good European beer, dancing and a lot of laughs.

An interesting fact about Shanghai metro: Although Shanghai is such a huge city, the metro closes at 10:30 pm! If you want to stay out later than that, there´s no other choice but to take a cab. Taking a cab is quite an adventure for itself, though. First thing I learned: seat belts are overrated. Although every cab has them, they mostly don´t work and serve more of a decorating purpose than actually ensuring the customer´s safety. Also, Chinese traffic is crazy. Almost everyone seems to be convinced that honking as much as they can will solve traffic jams and make other cars move faster. Well, of course it doesn´t, but it still seems to give the drivers some kind of satisfaction, otherwise they wouldn´t be doing it. Honking also serves the purpose of warning pedestrians of the approaching vehicle. Whenever you´re crossing the street, cars honk at you. As a Western person you´re lucky: they will even slow down when driving towards you. For Asians? Not so much. Also, there seems to be one simple rule about motor scooters and bikes: they´re allowed to drive all the time. No matter if the traffic light is red or green, if there are pedestrians or if there are cars that want to turn. Scooters and bikes rule the street. For pedestrians there´s only one thing to be aware of: Don´t trust crosswalks, they´re considered street decoration.

So much for this week. If you happen to enjoy German baked goods, cheese or a yummy salad maybe spare a thought for me.

Until next Sunday,

Marie

This week I finally met my language buddy Nicole for the first time. She is a lovely girl, just a little shy. She told me she´s learning German right now, so we´ll definitely meet for some German lessons every now and then.

This week, I participated in a traditional Chinese tea ceremony which was surprisingly fun. A local tea farmer introduced us to the different kinds of tea and what kind of effects they have on the soul and spirit. He also showed us how to prepare tea in a traditional Chinese way. It took about 60 minutes until we had the first cup of tea in our hands! At first, all the cups and pots are being washed with hot water. Next, the tea leaves are being put into the cup and everything is being rinsed again. Afterwards, hot water is being poured over the tea leaves and the tea is used to rinse everything again. At that point I would have been totally fine with just drinking the tea that came out of the pot, but our teacher explained to us, that this procedure had to be repeated 2 or three times until the tea leaves would unfold their full flavor. And all the waiting was worth it! The tea we got at the end was delicious.

Friday was student club recruting day. Fudan University has so many different student clubs! Unfortunately, most of them are (of course) in Chinese, but we were nevertheless invited to about 20 clubs at once. So now, I´m a member of the European Investigation Association, where current European topics are being discussed. The Chinese students thought it would be fun to have me comment on some of the topics, so I guess I´m their expert on European economy and politics now...I also joined the choir and I will start doing ballroom dancing again, given that I find a Chinese guy that´s taller than me. 

This week, I also went to the fabric market, a place where a lot of tailors offer custom-made suits, dresses and business attire for little money. I found a beautiful business dress and the tailor took all my measurements. I´ll be able to pick it up next Thursday and I´m already very excited to see what it looks like! I also practiced bargaining a little more and got her to lower the price from 550 kuai to 320 kuai (about 38€ / 50$).

On Saturday, our Chinese language buddies taught us how to make dumplings. It was a lot of fun and very yummy! The two Chinese girls I made dumplings with praised my dumplings and said they were very beautiful and they reminded them of the petals of a flower. Well, see for yourself:

One last thing I´d like to tell you about: Chinese weather. I feel like I´m in a rollercoaster that goes through all four seasons within a week. The beginning of the week was about 6 °C and rainy. During the week it got a little warmer and rainy days and sunny days were taking turns. Today, the weather is beautful, with about 20°C. The next week is supposed to go back to rain and cold. I have never in my life wished for spring to be over, but I really can´t stand the weather anymore. I hope summer will be here soon...

All the best,

Marie

Hello everyone!

After three weeks here in Shanghai I can say that a kind of everyday life has started for me. Going to class has become a normal activity and my whole surrounding entirely feels like home now. I know which restaurants I like and where to buy supplies for class or print things out. I guess I have arrived completely now.

This weekend, our whole class went to Hangzhou, a "midsized" (only 6 million inhabitants) city about 160km from Shanghai. There, we visited West Lake, one of the most popular lakes in China, Six Harmony Pagoda and Lingyin Temple.

We stayed at a very nice hotel in Hangzhou and I shared a room with my friend Mareike.

On Saturday night, we explored the evening market, an area with stands that sell everything from clothes to jewellery and that only opens after sunset. There, I was also able to apply my newly learned Chinese skills into practice by bargaining with one of the vendors over a pair of earrings. What can I say: it worked! She lowered the price from 35 to 25 kuai which was still too expensive, but I was way too proud of myself to even care about that. Also, there were two power outages while we were on the market which left us in complete darkness and the vendors yelling at each other angrily.

Another specialty of Hangzhou is "stinky tofu". I won´t lie: it really deserves its name! You could smell it from a block away and I couldn´t even stand the smell long enough to take a picture or to even try it.

By the way, another "only in China" thing: Chinese obviously love planting lettuce instead of flowers. Pro: if you get hungry you can easily pick your own snack. Con: it looks ridiculous. Doesn´t it?

I hope you´re enjoying my blog so far, and I´ll keep you posted on my latest experiences,

Until then all the best,

Marie

Even here. After the shock of the first few days, I started to understand how China "works" and how things are done here. Often, I still see things that seem funny to me, but they don´t surprise me that much anymore. We started calling it the "only in China" phenomenon. For example: Only in China do people go for a run in a suit and tie! No kidding. We saw that on campus today and we couldn´t believe our eyes. And no, he wasn´t just late for a meeting, he was wearing running shoes! We also saw several Chinese running in jeans and a winter coat. Also, you don´t get your packages delivered to your home here, at least that´s how we explained the following picture:

Also an interesting fact: Although Shanghai is considered a "Westernized" Chinese city, a lot of Chinese are very excited when they see people from Europe or the US, especially if they have blonde hair and blue eyes, like my German friend Mareike and I. So last time we were at the Bund together, a lot of Chinese "secretly" took pictures of us with their phones or cameras. They weren´t really making an effort to hide it, so of course we noticed. Some Chinese had the courage to ask us to pose for a photo with them and of course we did so. If we had charged 5€ a picture, we could have made a decent living off the 30 minutes we spent there. Only in China.

This week, my university classes started and I think the semester will be very interesting. Most of our professors are highly motivated and enthusiastic and are eager to teach us about Chinese society, culture and business. I already find my way around campus easily and I love it. It´s a beautiful campus and I´m sure it´ll be even more beautiful once the flowers start blooming in spring.

Yesterday, we went to Guyi Garden and Confucius Temple in a suburb of Shanghai. Here are some pictures of the tour:

Although I´ve only been here for two week now, I already feel at home and walking down the streets in my district already feels totally normal and not as scary and intimidating anymore. I can´t wait to see what else Shanghai has in store for me.

Until then,

Marie