Arrival

Getting into Shanghai after 3 hours of bad sleep and food that i could not recognize, either form or taste, i realize that i really am in a country where they don't all speak English. Even a little.

Not having a ticket out of the country I thought i may encounter a bit of trouble but planned to play it cool knowing that i had all day until my flight to Beijing. Getting up to the foreign passport counter they take a quick look cross off my visa and stamp it. The girl behind the desk says something which sounds like all the other words that i have heard. I hate to have a closed mind but i have never been in a place where the language is not even close to anything i know. Ma for example means four different things here depending on the tone you say it. This drives me insane knowing that even if i sound out a word it doesn't make any sense and the people give me blank stares just because i don't have the rising tone.

To be fair Shanghai is like NYC and is very western and a lot of people do speak some English. I found that out trying to change my ticket to an earlier flight but also found out that some ideas just don't translate simply. Watching some world cup on the Emirates TV and a little Internet in the business center got me through till my 1pm departure time at which time we sat on the runway for 1.5 hours eating the same meal as the previous night. At this point i have given up on meeting my classmates and profs for the welcome dinner which was to be at 6. I got in around 630, got my bag, a 100 RMB cab, and finally a hotel room which was way overpriced (near 40 US). Thing is i didn't care since i hadn't slept in a bed in 3 days and hadn't had a shower to boot. Felt nice watching some English TV (channel 9, where the announcers aren't that great), laying down, and taking a shower.

Headed out on the town to explore after not finding any other law student looking people and found some Internet, 3 RMB dumplings, 5 RMB beer, and a big screen with world cup. Hung out eating my $1 meal and cheering for Netherlands i believe since that's which way the crowd was pointed. Good night and an early night to bed gave me a very restful feeling the next morning. Breakfast included with the room and i went at it since it was partially western. Found some classmates but headed off to class misinterpreting the directions and walking about 2 miles out of the way asking the whole way which way it was by pointing at my phrase book's characters for "law" and then "school". Needless to say this didn't help much and i was over 30 minutes late but just missed an intro portion and settled into my seat to get back to what i had only left a month before in Atlanta: American law school with American students. There are Chinese students from Tsinghua (the school the program is based out of) and they are great fun and a great help and very friendly in every way. Looks to be an interesting rest of the summer...