The Courtney-bird has landed!

Hello from the beautiful city of Shanghai! Sorry this first post took a while, but my days have been jam-packed with too many sights to see instead of being cooped up in an office on the internet. My journey began on Sunday. After getting a whole 45 minutes of sleep, Mom drove me to the airport to catch my 5am plane to Minneapolis. I sat next to a very nice lady who was in ND for a wedding in Hatton. She was from Alaska and it was her first time here. She couldn't say enough good about it. When I got into Minneapolis, I took the lightrail to a stop where Shanna picked me up. We went back to her place for some breakfast and lounging around. I fell asleep for a bit. She woke me up and we went to a nearby church. Sleeping at Shanna's only made me more tired though. They had this adorable kid's play about Daniel in the Lion's Den and I stuggled to keep my head up. Shanna thoroughly enjoyed poking me every chance she got. :) Next, we wanted to go to a place called Auntie Em's, but it was closed in honor of Mother's Day. So we muttered under our breath and blamed mom (hehe!). We went to another shop, had lunch, and then she and Sarah dropped me off at the airport.

At the airport, I met up with Steve Carlson (my professor) and Elizabeth Hams (my friend who is tutoring with me). We left for Tokyo. The plane ride was 12 hours long. We sat next to Joe from Indiana. He was on his way to the Philippines to visit his family. He hadn't been home in 18 years. He was a really nice guy. I slept most of the flight. I missed the first movie, then they played Charlotte's Web and Music and Lyrics. The airplane food was actually quite good. When we arrived in Narita/Tokyo, we were one of the last ones to go through security and almost missed our plane to Shanghai! Needless to say, we were a little worried, because Carlson went through way before us, and he was our ticket to the university. But, we boarded just as they were announcing last call. We both slept almost the whole way to Shanghai because it was dark out. All of our bags made it through, so that was a relief. We met with Jessica from USST (University of Shanghai for Science and Technology) who took us to campus. By the time we got our room key and unpacked a few things, it was past 11pm which made it over 30 hours since I left home. So I was very glad to see a bed, even if it was hard as a rock.

I woke up the next morning at 7am, which if you have ever tried to wake me up in the morning, is pretty astounding. We got ready and went on a campus tour with the graduate teaching assistant. She helped us get a meal card and showed us where class would be. Then for lunch, we met up with some students from Central Michigan University. We had some interesting dishes for our first meal. There were several that were pretty awful, but many that I liked. My favorites were the Peking duck, the sweet and sour fist, and the dumplings. Let's just say the liver pate wasn't too popular. We also had our first encounter with a public bathroom. Scary. After lunch, we lost our teacher. So we joined the CMU students and visited with some USST students. That evening, we ventured off campus for a bit and took in the sights. We were so tired that we fell asleep at about 9.

Wednesday morning, I woke up at 6:50!!! My schedule was so goofed up at home that I'm actually an early riser here! We got ready and Carlson took us downtown to Yuyuan Gardens. The streets were lined with more stores than you can shake a stick at...and that's saying something. We haggled over a few small items. I bought a magnet and Elizabeth bought this outfit that you put over a bottle. Then we were lured into a jewelry store where I bought a real pearl necklace for $10. It was so much fun bargaining with everyone! We made a few more small purchases and then had lunch. Then we went into the actually garden part. It was very beautiful. I will try to make a Shutterfly account so you can see them all. Next, we came back to campus and picked up Greg Patton (another UND professor teaching Management) to go to dinner. We went to a place a couple blocks from campus and had another delicious meal. There was this excellant baked corn dish, shredded beef, spicy beef in clay pot, and duck soup. Yummy. After dinner, we went home and fell asleep before 10 again.

Thursday. Got up at 6:30 and got ready. As I was looking out the balcony, I noticed some people doing tai chi below me. So I went down there and joined in. This one old guy was very happy to see me. "Welcome welcome!!" So I tried my best to follow along and ignore all the students who were staring at me as they walked to class. It was fun and interesting. Afterwards, the one guy smiled at me and told me to come again tomorrow. Then I went to class. It goes from 8am-11:30. Carlson introduced us. The classroom was very crowded and very hot. We talked with a few of the students around us. It turns out the students in our class had Shanna as a teacher last year. After class, we ate and went downtown again. After exchanging some money, we went to the Oriental Pearl Tower where we saw a great view of the city and ran into the Central Michigan students (small world!), the Shanghai Historical Museum, walked to the People's park where we waited for it to get dark. Then we walked down Nanjing Road. Think Las Vegas strip with every other person trying to sell you something. "Hello lady sir. Looky. Watch, bag, shoes, dvds. Gucci Prada. Cheapa-cheapa." Then we took a cab home and called it a night.

Friday. I woke up early and did tai chi with the old folks. School was cancelled because it was All Sports Day on campus. Several other schools came and there was a big opening ceremony and many events to follow. It was mostly track and field, but there was also dancing, basketball, volleyball, martial arts, and other events. We watched the opening ceremony where each team paraded around the track. When they got in front of the judges, they each did something different. Some released balloons, some shot off confetti, others had flags and rings, but the coolest one was the team that released birds. They had to have been holding them for at least an hour. It was pretty impressive. Then, Elizabeth and I set off on our grand adventure. We braved going out by ourselves. We took the bus from a local grocery story to downtown, then caught a cab to Sun Yat Sen's former residence. After that, we went to Fuxing Park and Xintiandi, and back to Yu Gardens. Now that we had some money, we REALLY shopped! We got some good deals on a few gifts and some things for ourselves too. I got this beautiful silk purse! When we were all shopped out, we caught the bus back home and showed off our purchases to our teachers. I bought my first bootlegged DVD. It was Spiderman 3...unfortunately, it was a bust. It was all in Chinese with no subtitles. It cost less than 50 cents, so I'm not too worried. We went to dinner with our teachers and two other professors. One from Central Michigan and another from Pennsylvania. I bought 'The Terminal' from a different store, and this time it was a success! We watched it and fell asleep.

The first couple days in China have been full of amazing sights, good food, and sore feet. I am thrilled to have this opportunity. I miss you all and will keep you posted!!