Off to China (yet again.)

Sorry for the delay, I had troubles with my VPN, which inhibited my ability to blog.

So let's start!

I managed to pack the night before without sleeping at all and leaving my room a bit of a mess. Dad dropped me off at PMW and my adventure begun.

After a the second leg of fourteen hours the plane began to tilt down as it descended into the metropolis of Shanghai. The panels, seats, and people shuddered and shook with the plane as it barreled against the wind outside. The ocean went from blue, to chocolate-milk-brown, and then gave way to the partial land of shrimp and fish farming ponds. The runway passed underneath and we were suddenly back on earth.

The smell of the air in China slowly found it’s way to my nose. It is the smell of stale cigarette smoke, oil, food, and rot –similar to an old bowling alley. The unpleasant yet comforting smell welcomed me back for my third venture on the other side of the globe.

I quickly found Shoji, our group leader/professor, waiting for me on the other side of customs. We waited and collected about 80% of our group -the last few were on a much later flight. Our group consist of 11 students and four professors, some of which switch out during the semester.

We boarded the maglev, which would bring us quickly into town. We sat down as a group in a completely empty train car and waited for the ride to begin. You could feel the train jump up an inch or so when the magnets were activated and the train began to float off the ground. The train sped up to about 250mph, which seemed excessively fast and definitely a flash of Shanghai wealth. I looked out the window as things simply blew by and was surprised when the train slowed down just a few minutes from reaching top speed.

We found our hotel which is located near People’s Square, checked in, rested for 15 minutes, then went to a Beijing style hotpot restaurant (basically coal fired hot pots with volcano cones in the center which hold the coals inside a large bowl full of broth. It was an excellent first dinner and as I got to know my group more my confidence in having a good trip began to grow. It seems most people in our group –if not all- have really common sense/courtesy and no interest in dominating the group.

My roommate, Kaleb, who is from Alberta Canada, is an excellent match. There are 5 boys, and 6 girls (one boy dropped out last minute,) Kaleb and I drink similar amounts, and sleep similar hours of the night.

Shoji has been a fantastic tour guide. In addition to the normal Shanghai touristy stuff he took us to the black market where I got Light Room 5 for $8USD. There was also a movie store where you could get any movie (even just released,) for around $2USD.

We visited The Pottery Workshop location in Shanghai (which is the group we are partnering with,) who have a small studio in one of the art districts. It was enjoyable to walk around and look at what the locals were up to: