how do you feel about the squat toilet?

i have now had my first full week of classes and will be starting my 2nd week tomorrow.  (no classes on mondays --> 3 days weekends!!!) My final schedule ( i think) will be: Chinese Economic Reform & Development: Social and Political Implications, Marketing Management in China, China: From Reform to Revolution, Dynamics of the Chinese Economy, and Intermediate Chinese.  I am really excited about the 1st class, which is pretty much what I 

had decided to concentrate in for PEIS back at berkeley, but the professor is at a conference until April.  therefore the class doesnt start until april, which is cool for now because it gives us 3.5 day weekends (until tuesday evening when i have chinese), but when the professor returns in april we will have that class from 8-4pm every tuesday....6 45 minute intervals with 15 minute breaks in between....to make up for lost time!!!!! I was pleasantly surprised by the marketing class....because marketing isnt really my bag and i wasnt planning on taking that one. but the professor speaks really good english and the material is actually really interesting! i'm a little worried about the econ class because the professor's english is not very good, she's never taught in english before, and the 1st class was possibily the 3 most boring hours of my life!!!  but hopefully it picks up because the material is incredibly relevant to my major. finally, the history class (china from reform to revolution) seems awesome!! im really happy that there is a history class being offered because it means i dont have to take finance (yay!!!). hopefully classes this week will be a little more interesting....1st week of classes is always a little tedious anyway.

  i attempted to buy the textbook for my chinese class by following the very rudimentary map my chinese teach drew on the board of where to find the store, luckily picking the right store (based off of the characters i copied down in my notebook), and then showed the name of the book, written in chinese, to the clerk, who then brought us the books.  the books looked exactly like what the teach had shown in class...so we bought them even though they were non-returnable.  thinking we had very successful book-buying trip, we brought out our books in class to show everyone....only to discover that we bought the wrong level (we bought part 2 apparently!) oh dang dang! (holla meghan)

 i will have to ALWAYS remember to use the bathroom before class because the bathrooms in our classrooms are basically a bunch of stalls all built over a TROUGH that we are supposed to pee into. it's the most disgusting thing ever and i will never go back!

now that classes have started, i feel like i am quasi in school again, although i still have pretty much no homework so speak of.  despite the lack of work, it hasnt stopped me from visiting our new favorite place, Ciao Cafe, everyday! this cafe makes me feel like i am back 

at fsm (if only the tables were collaged with newspaper clippings from the free speech movement.....but i'm pretty sure Big Brother in beijing would not allow that!) they have delicious pizza, pastas, coffee, and FREE wifi.  and after you buy your 1st espresso drink for 15rmb....every drinkafter that is only 5rmb!!!! (btw there is also no tipping in china) my entire group of friends has essentially moved into ciao and we spend copious amounts of time there (today i was there from about 1:30 until 6:30......). next time i go i'll take a picture for the blog!

last weekend we explored some more clubs and found some awesome techno spots!!! thursday night we went to babyface and then on friday we went to G+! at G+ they periodically 

rained confetti or bubbles or soap (that looked like snow) onto the dance floor!

confetti!!!

to recover from all the clubbing we've also stayed in and watched a bunch of the bootleg dvds we've bought: darjeeling limited, american gangster, and season 3 of the office!

the weather is finally warming up a little so yesterday i went sightseeing on the bund with adam, storme (from south africa!!), and victor (from ecuador).  we walked pretty much the

 entire 1 mile stretch along the huangpu river, known as the bund. 

view of pudong from the bund

i got some pretty nice pictures of the shanghai skyline, even though the air quality was pretty horrible. after walking along the river, we came back up the other side of the street where there are a bunch of pretty old buildings (from the 1800s) that were mostly banking buildings from the days when shanghai was a big trading post.  we visited the headquarters of shanghai people's daily (the english language newspaper) which was having a photo exhibition of pictures taken of shanghai from 1985-1995, which was really cool. 

the bund

Most of the older buildings in the photographs are gone and there are about a million new, taller ones in their place!  according to the walking tour we were following in our lonely planet guide you are supposed to be able to go into most of these buildings, however we found most of them to be locked up. we did get to go into one building which is now home to a dolce & gabbana store, the dolce & gabbana martini bar, and 2 of the fanciest restaurants i have ever been into!!

after that, we tried to take a cab across the river to pudong, where all the tall buildings

 are (the picture to the right is of the tall buildings), so we could go up to the top of the Jinmao tower, which is currently the tallest building in china (maybe the world). but not for long as they are building one that will be even taller right next to it! but our cab driver was slightly insane and made u-turns up and down the same street and then go stuck in traffic (on the same 

street!!!!!) for about 15 minutes, so we got out without paying and took the metro across!  pudong is nothing like the western part of shanghai! it's extremely clean, with very wide, streets, and ostentatiously tall skyscrapers!! it apparently costs 100rmb to go up to the observation deck of the jinmao tower, which is on the 88th floor (top floor) so we decided to go up to the 87th floor for free, and go to the cloud 9 bar, part of the grand hyatt hotel. we were seated at a table by a window and had the most astonishing views (although slightly obstructed due to air pollution) of shanghai while we sipped over-priced cocktails and cappuccinos, watched the sun set and read Shanghai People's Daily. (picture of the sunset is hopefully to the left!) my roommate ara took me out for korean food after and it was amazing!!! she is pretty much the coolest person ever!

the itinerary for this week includes checking out one of the many ladies night events at pretty much every club in shanghai (some of them include free drinks, food, massages, and manicures!!!) and possibly taking a weekend trip to nearby suzhou, which is a water city and full of canals and gardens!!!