南京 (Nanjing)

At 7am, I rolled out of bed and headed off to Nanjing. After spending a stressful hour trying to buy tickets (the machines kept breaking down), we finally got onto our bullet train! It was so fast! We got from Shanghai to Nanjing in a little bit more than an hour.

The city didn't look very different from Shanghai, but it was super dusty. We could all feel dust flying into our eyeballs.

Our first stop was the presidential palace. The place was well-preserved the place and we had a lot of fun taking silly group photos together. I must say, people looked like they enjoyed taking our photos :)

Our trip went downhill when we left for Confucius Temple. So many things went wrong. We spent at least half an hour trying to hail a cab in the rain. Eventually we gave up and started walking. Confucius Temple was a pretty place as well, but it was modernized with foreign shops and fast-food restaurants.

Overall, the weather/food/taxi situation was horrible. We grumpily went home and had KFC for dinner. I really hope to give Nanjing a second chance though! There are still a lot of places in this city that I need to visit.

i hate my hair.

The perm was a fun experience, but I look like a grandma with curly hair now. Never doing it again.

sick

We did a walking tour in the French Concession today, but I had an annoying stomachache and barely ate anything. poo.. Not all of these photos are from today, but the food is making me really hungry now..

Gamenight

Last week, us UCEAP students met some local Fudan students at a buddy-program meeting. We exchanged contact information, chatted over Chinese snacks, and formed groups based on interest. Sadly, no one was interested in shopping, so I joined the board-game group instead. As planned, a few local students came over and we bonded over some really really fun games! My favorite were Monopoly Deal and Mafia. I really wanted to be the sheriff in Mafia, but I wasn't lucky enough to become one :(

All about food.

I really don't think the Chinese restaurants by Fudan are good. I'm already tired of the food by Tonghe, and wish that I could escape the sichuanese 麻辣 smell as I walk to class :( I'm in Shanghai, so where's the Shanghainese food??

We decided to venture into the French Concession to have some good Shanghainese food. What I liked best were the 獅子頭, 娃娃菜and 糖醋排骨. After our meal, we wandered into Rhumerie Bounty, a bar popular for it's flavored rum. We ordered raspberry-flavored rum, which wasn't bad! Hopefully we can keep our Friday food adventures going in the coming weeks!