The Only English They Knew Was "Eat More"

My first day in Shanghai was full of the culture of the city. I participated in an Impact program through SAS called "Daily Life of a Shanghai Citizen," where we visited a neighborhood to dance and play ping pong with the retirees at the community center, visit a farmers market, and enjoy a home-cooked Chinese meal. My favorite part of the day was the home cooked meal. The family we were visiting had prepared so many dishes for us. I think there were about 17 different plates on the table at one point. It was awesome to be able to try the different foods family style. I sat at a table with seven other girls from SAS, all of us equally excited about the food. I made a list in one of my journals of all the different plates of food but it got a little extensive. The entire time, they encouraged us to eat more. Our tour guide would hand out the last item on a plate to random people in order to make more space on the table. I will say my favorite were the spring rolls. They were more of a dessert, because they had banana in them.

The next day was spent almost entirely in the Shanghai Pudong Airport. My flight to Hong Kong was pretty well delayed. I wandered around the terminal twice, bought some snacks, and then out of desperation and boredom sat down to do homework. I eventually made it to Hong Kong with very little excitement, which was probably a good thing.

Yesterday, I hung out at HKIS, the school that I had gone to when I lived here. I was able to observe some classes in the high school to compare the international school setting from the Indianapolis public school setting. It was awesome. I went to two classes: math and humanities. Throughout the day, I chatted with some of the teachers and even promoted SAS to the students. (They can thank me later).

The rest of the day was spent showing my friend Chris around the city. We walked around downtown for a little, then took a double decker bus to Stanley market. I think he was shocked to see the quieter side of the island, but loved it. It was really cool to see how much Stanley has changed and how much has stayed the same. A lot of the stalls in the market were exactly the same as ten years ago. Most of the restaurants are still there. But they did revamp the plaza area and put a ton of shopping in the Murrey building, which took away a little bit of the charm.

Here's a picture from the waterfront of Stanley

Today, Maddie joins me and I turn into a real tour guide. We've got a jam-packed day of all my favorite touristy things, plus my social pysch homework. 

Thanks for keeping up with my blog!