First Day of Class and a Trip with a Nunn

Written around 2200 3/5/2010

Sadly my postings have become rather delayed due to my lack of internet access, but I’m writing them each night so that when I can get my hands on a connection I can copy and paste them into my blog.

Dear Internetz,
So today was the first day of classes of Mandarin, and due to the partying last night I almost didn’t make it! Luckily I was able to find the class pretty easily and made it in. Overall the class was good, kind of boring, but it’s a language class what do you expect? Some of the Frenchies were in it the class with me which made it bearable, we also had some Koreans which I hadn’t met yet. Hopefully I’ll get to know them better as time goes on.

After class I made my first foray into Shanghai by myself to meet up with Shane Nunn my “advisor” while I’m here. We had some delicious Chinese food and I was able to get some peppered steak!! It’s one of my favorite foods and I was super happy to get some. We then walked around people’s square a lot and he showed me some of the buildings as well as help me find my bank again. Sadly the weather was shitty today (again, Shane said Shanghai has terrible weather). The rain I can deal with I guess I just wish it wasn’t so cold. Next week it’s supposedly going to be 0C 
After lunch and the bank we went in search of a hookah but to no avail, apparently they’re hard to find here, but are cheap once you do. He did show me a lot of bookstores though including an art one where they sell these huge books full of art for pretty decent price. I was thinking about getting one and then tearing them out and posting them on my wall.

We then hoped on the subway and went to a huge electronics store where I was able to score a printer and modified ink cartridge, along with some rechargeable AA batteries for my camera and a mouse for my printer. Man the mall was amazing. The Chinese will mod just about everything. From the ink cartridge on the printer to the Xbox 360 (which cost about $260, I’ll wait till the end of my trip to get it if I still have the money). Everything is bargained for and with Shane as my translator we were able to get some good deals.

Once I got back on campus Antoine, the Germans (who are lovely as well), and I headed off to the campus cafeteria were we scored some din din. Got about o…. 18 dumplings or so for 9RMB (about $1.50) which Antoine and I split. Man I would love to be hired by a US firm and then have them send me to Shanghai on a US salary.



I’m really enjoying myself here, and I’m quickly starting to realize how as Americans we seem to think the world revolves almost completely around us. I can’t tell you how important it is for students to study abroad for a long period of time, just so we can better understand and appreciate the differences in cultures. Adults should also go abroad as well but feel the cause is already lost in a lot of ways because usually we would just go for vacation, or for business which makes it hard to actually experience and understand the culture. As a student you really have a lot more time to get out and mingle. This is important for all countries, but I feel because of America’s size and our internal cultural focus we suffer a big disadvantage.

Continuing my rant for a bit longer I want to point out something. If you’re pissed because there’s an option on an answering machine Spanish, a sign has Chinese underneath it, or maybe the cashier has a heavy Indian accent… please don’t ever tell me again. I thought it was winey to begin with, now I fully realize how much it makes you sound like an arrogant ignorant ass. The Chinese are super accommodating to foreigners, trying to speak English when they can, most of their signs are all in English, and they’re very understanding that you don’t know their language or you have a terrible accent. It just makes me realize how unwelcoming we can be to foreigners. It’s almost as if we’re afraid that they’ll feel comfortable in America.

“Kevin you seem to be bashing America a lot today, don’t you like it in Texas, don’t you like the freedoms you have, aren’t you thankful for the life you have.”

Sure, but that’s not relevant at all to the problem that still persist in our country, and it’s American citizens that should be angry about our own short comings. We should constantly be trying to improve our country and we should be angry at the “minority” (sometimes I’m not sure) of people that ruin our countries image.

But that’s just my opinion, I’m sure there are plenty of people that think that we should just continue to ignore other countries because we’re number one and we don’t need learn about anyone else. Good luck with that.



Anyways I think I’m done being frustrated, I need to get to bed, and I’ve got class tomorrow morning (marketing, whoo!). :P

Love,
Kevin