Hey everyone. I've been here for a little more than two weeks so it is about time for another update:

I started class on Friday September 5th. I am enrolled in Chinese 1-2A. It is essentially a Chinese class for foreigners who know a little bit of Chinese but not really enough to do anything. I have two different teachers: Wang laoshi for writing on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and Li laoshi for speaking on Mondays and Thursdays. The classes aren't really separate and I learn both speaking and writing in both classes, but I having two different teaching styles is interesting.

What I love best about my class is the students. There are twenty of us in total after all of the class switching that went on last week when everyone was trying to figure out the right level for themselves. It is by far the most diverse class that I have ever been in . Of the top of my head there are kids from the US, Mongolia, France, Italy, Vietnam, Russia, Australia, Scotland, Saudi Arabia and Israel. I love meeting all of the different people.

Megan is also in my class and we are by far the youngest there, but everyone has been incredibly nice. We are learning fast, but I am glad that I am in the harder class becasue I Want to learn as much Chinese as I possibly can.

Foreign student's aren't aloud to use the school gym facilities so the five of us joined a gym near our apartments so that we could work out (running on the streets is simply not an option... we WILL get run down). It is called Mind Over Body Fitness, MOB for short. We have been putting it to very good use. Trying to tell our host families that we are going to the gym has been an excercize in in its own right and with entertaining results. I "go MOB," Kate "goes sport," and Megan "goes" followed by a running pantomime.

Trying to take exercise classes in a different language is a mix of hilarity and mistakes, but it is surprisingly easy to communicate. I just don't plan on taking any classes without an instructor in front demonstrating what it is that they want me to do. I think my favorite class thus far has been what we dubbed "stretchy ball class" I think the actual name is slimming ball workout. We essentially grabbed massive blue bouncy balls and worked out on them it was really fun, though I wont lie, it half the fun was watching everyone fall off while trying to stretch. The spin teacher now calls Megan "States" since she told him she was from the US which is also pretty entertaining.

In that vein one of the funniest things about my stay has been hearing our host families' names for us. My host family has a pretty good grasp on Zoe though the pronunciation is definitely a little bit off. Kat lives on the second floor of my building so when they want to talk about Kate they usually point at the floor. Megan gets a pointed finger across the street or something along the lines of meggie... Jonas is called alternately Janice and Jonessen. Nate who is 6'2'' is either "tall boy" or a gesture with a hand way above the speaker's head.

I was a little bit worried when I was planning to go that any kids who were going to China would be incredibly worldly and sophisticated and essentially not as dorky as I am. Thankfully I was proved wrong on that point. Last Wednesday it was raining and the five of us were walking back through the ECNU campus after lunch. We somehow got to a discussion of our favorite Disney movies and came to the conclusion that we all loved Mulan. We then proceeded to dance down the middle of the main road on campus sing "I'll Make a Man Out of You" much to the amusement of hundreds of Chinese college students. It was great.

We are apparently a musically inclined group because we had another great singing incident. Today Megan, Kate, and I walked into a coffee shop to take a break. AS soon as we stepped through the door we hear that they are playing backstreet boys... So of course there is no choice but to sing along. I'm pretty sure that we were the most entertaining thing that had happened to the staff in years. About half way through "Larger Than Life" They cranked up the stereo, which of course meant we had to start lip-syncing at the table and things escalated accordingly. Lets just say that the CD ended and a new one started and suddenly stopped in the middle so they could restart the backstreet boys CD. The waiter danced to bring us the check.

I am having a lot of fun learning different Chinese games. My host mother is trying to teach me computer mahjong. I am having a lot of fun, but I have no idea what I am doing. The computer keeps offering me options, but they are all in Chinese. I am also learning a little bit of Chinese chess which is like normal chess but harder in my opinion. It is set up like a battle field and there is a river in the middle. The pieces have a lot more restriction and aren't carved shapes. They look like checker pieces with characters on them and the characters are different for the red and the black side. I often forget which piece is which... which can be a problem.

Friday one of the CIEE interns took us to a Kong Fu master he knows for a lesson. It was really fun, but we one again got a chance to be a of entertainment value to the locals. We were in a neighborhood park in the middle of a field with the master teaching us, and we gathered quite the audience.

This weekend is the weekend of Mid-Autumn- Festival, which is a big family holiday. The best thing I can equate it to is Thanksgiving. My host family was planing to go out to the countryside in the morning, but we had to cancel due to the typhoon. I am still Californian enough to think that canceling due to typhoon is kind of cool.

I had a really interesting Sunday, but I am positive that I ate enough for three large men, forget one teenage girl.

We started out with a breakfast of moon-cakes which are special to this holiday. At 10:30 we got in the car to go to lunch. We got to the restaurant a little after eleven and waited while our party gathered. In the end there were twelve of us. My host family, me, my host dad's brother, his wife and daughter, my host dad's parents, and my host dad's brother's wife's parents. I did eventually actually figure out who everyone was. We has an amazing lunch of Beijing duck which went on for two hours of straight eating, but was SO GOOD. We left and went to my host dad's brother's house. We there had Hagen Daas Ice Cream Cake.

Then we went to My Host mother's parent's house. We then had dinner with my host family, my host mom's two sister, their husbands, and five year old sons. Dinner was amazing, but I was not hungry yet since I had just eaten for at least two people. The table started out covered in serving dishes when we sat down, but my host grandmother kept getting up and making or bringing more food so by the time we were done the table was two layers deep in serving dishes.

As part of our orientation activities last week we went on a scavenger hunt. CIEE gave us a lit of around 30 locations and things that we had to find in Shanghai by four in the afternoon using any kind of public transportation except for taxi. They decided that it would just make everything better if it were a race, so they told us to break up into two teams. The boys wanted to do boys v girls, so we split up. We actually had a blast doing it and I now feel like no matter where I am dropped in Shanghai that I can find my way back. Maybe not quickly but I can do it. It was also a great opportunity to preview a lot of different places that we want to go back and visit.

Perhaps the best part of the whole situation is that the girls won. Our prizes were one hour traditional Chinese massages at the Dragonfly Spa. We claimed them this morning and they were absolutely amazing.

I think that is it for now... I will try to update a little more frequently in the future, but no guarantees. My plan is to try to write once a week.

I will wrap up with:

You know you are in China when you think that the Chairmen Mao statue is a completely legitimate on campus meeting spot.