the REAL asian ghetto (kudos to chris for being far more clever than i)

i thought it'd be a good idea for a blog entry to go through what an average day is like. it's a little difficult to do this, because we have so little actual class, which means lots of empty days that we can devote to sightseeing, etc....so most days are pretty different. but i'll try to give you guys an idea of what goes on every day.

every day begins with some women yelling in korean in my floor. i think they might be the cleaning staff, but im not really sure. nonetheless, i generally wake up to them before my alarm goes off.  pretty much all of my friends in the program have bought bikes now, which means they ride to class, while i have to walk. i've been pretty resistant about getting a bike,

 but i think i'll probably cave and buy one today. the funny thing about people who ride bikes in shanghai is that pretty much every other bike will have someone sitting on the back riding side saddle. since i dont have a bike, i've been doing the shanghai thing and riding side saddle on my friend adam's bike to get to class. it's like a scene straight out of the movie pleasantville, except for the entire supporting cast is chinese not waspy.

we generally stop on our way to class to get baozi, which are 

steamed buns stuffed with meat or vegetables (you can even get dog meat....if you go to the right places!!). they cost 1kuai (approx. $0.12USD) per baozi and are the best breakfast snack ever!!!  the chinese really don't value breakfast as a very important meal and dont serve very tasty things for breakfast.

our baozi place

baozi

then we go to class and sit through hours of pretty boring lecture. 

luckily the way classes work at fudan unversity helps break up the monotony of 3 hour long lectures.  classes are divided into 2 or 3 45-minute segments with 15-minute breaks in between each segment. most of our classes are in teaching building 2, which has the most uncomfortable, awkward desks ever and the squat/trough toilets.  this is the Guanghua building, which is brand new and wayyy nicer than the other one (especially the bathrooms!!). but right now i only have my history class here, but come april when we have our 6 hours a day of chinese political economic reform, i may not like this building so much.

after class we'll often head to the pedestrian alley near campus aka the real asian ghetto (it's an alley full of cheap chinese food...so not quite the variety of cheap asian food that the berkeley asian ghetto has...some italian food that may or may not rival gypsies...i actually have yet to try it...and a few things that are seriously lacking in the berkeley asian ghetto: delicious, cheap street food and bootleg dvd stores!!!!!  

if we don't end up in the asian ghetto, i usually go to ciao cafe to get lunch, lattes that get 

cheaper with additional purchases, and spend a few hours studying....but mostly taking advantage of their free wifi and going online with my ipod...which might be the coolest thing ever! the

 people at ciao cafe are really sweet and make me a vegetarian pasta, even though it's not on the menu and speak pretty good english.  ohhh and they deliver!!!

Ciao Cafe

we generally finish up our day at a restaurant across the street from our dorms that we have decided to call "chili's" because we cant read the name in chinese and they have a red sign. we go there sooo often that they actually laugh at us when we walk in.  but they have pretty good food for under 10kuai (which is a little more than $1USD; as requested by my mom: you can all go to www.xe.com for currency conversions).  and we dont order family style at chili's...they

 have convenient single person dishes, which means i can stick to ordering vegetarian (whereas when we eat family style--i eat meat since that's mostly what we order).  luckily our most recent meal was less than satisfying for pretty much everyone and now that we all have bikes, it will greatly expand our dining options. (i started writing this entry this morning before i finally did go out and buy a bike.  i feel stupid for being so reluctant before....having a bike makes my life infinitely better!! but it's also one of the most ridiculous bikes ever.....in shanghai, they are really into these bikes with really small wheels. i think they look absurd, but they lady selling used, and probably stolen, bikes on the street in front of chili's insisted i have on with tiny wheels because i was the smallest person out of my friends buying bikes!!!)  and then after dinner we usually come back and watch a bootleg dvd or 2 before going to bed. (the picture that is hopefully to the right is of my friends bao and adam, from left to right, in front of chili's)