Brief (ish) Update on my Life in Shanghai

Apologies, apologies, apologies! And I said no giant blog posts. Wanted nice, cute little blog posts but... going to skim my tweets to give you a brief update of the random thoughts that have been going through my head and hopefully it'll make me think of other things to tell you. Twitter: Helping to remind the forgetful of random thoughts from the past.

Should actually start the post off with some pictures at least, so here's a mini update via mostly Instagram.

Went to Qi Bao Ancient Town (七宝古镇) with my grandma and my uncle about 2-3 weekends ago (yup again, sorry for the late late update). I've been here a couple years ago when I was younger and my mom went to school near here when she was a kid. A lot of street food and shops.

During the week, I've been interning with an advertising/marketing group and helping out with account management. I've been helping do some translating and market research for brands such as Schwarzkopf, Jo Malone, Estee Lauder, Lancome, and Kjeldsens. Translating perfume names gets tricky. Wishing my reading ability in Chinese was better for sure.

Cute cellphone holder. Oh Asia.

Soup that comes in a block and disintegrates. First time for everything.

On top of that, the last two weekends plus two weeknights I've been acting as an assistant to this professor who flew in from Paris. He was at the university down the street from my uncle's teaching an MBA class on CSR and sustainability. My dad actually attended this university back in the day and my cousin is just about to graduate from there!

Learning about CSR and sustainability in an MBA class without having to pay or worry about a grade! #JustLearning

— Sophie Zhao (@sophz) June 2, 2012

So weekdays, I leave by 9 and commute to work via two buses. Which is not my favorite because that means I have to get off and wait and wait for the next one. I prefer subways by far although I haven't experienced those during rush hour in People's Square or anything. Now that I've taken buses every day at least I'm better at kinda avoiding getting stuck in the middle of a packed bus. I get home somewhere around 7:30pm. Eat dinner. Then either chill, walk around, or go for a run or something.

Running. Could not figure out where people ran around here since there's the risk of getting killed by a moped or bike if you're running on the side of the street. Then realized people don't really work out around here. They're just all super skinny and try to maintain that rather than get more fit. So instead of working out, they don't eat for a while. But I went to the university's track with my cousin and on the way there he's asking if I brought a cellphone in case we couldn't find each other. And I'm just awfully confused, "Um nope. It's a track, so a circle..right?", wondering where in the world we were going to run and picturing no one else there. But when we got there it was packed. People in the soccer field in the center and all around the entire track. Gym class times a million Chinese people. So then I understood why he asked whether I brought my cellphone. I don't know why I had to tell you that story. Just opening your eyes to different cultures I guess.

Sometimes my weekday life is a tad more exciting. After work about 3 weeks ago, I went to an Michigan alumni event at the Renaissance Shanghai Yu Garden Hotel. Met a bunch of alumni and even a couple current students, including some kids studying abroad in an engineering program with Jiaotong University in Shanghai. So great to see the Shanghai Michigan community halfway around the world from Ann Arbor. Go Blue!

Little dimsum-type meals here are my favorite. Below is a picture of my aunt and I. Below that, a famous dish in Shanghai called Xiaolongbao (小笼). They're little soup dumplings. To eat them, you have to bite a little hole in the dumpling to suck up the little pocket of soup inside it. Something you have to try in Shanghai.

So I'm realizing I haven't even put pictures up on Facebook recently. Really slacking, huh. The thing is I want to do this visual diary type thing but I also want to explain things. But when I do, it ends up being rambly (see above) instead of short and brief. Being indecisive as usual. Leaving early tomorrow morning to visit this city in China called Xi'an(西安) before I'm back in the States. I'll try harder with these updates.

PS: My sister and my dad got here this past weekend! Hooray! They got here the day Huang Mei Tian (season where it's super hot with ridiculously high humidity) decided to show itself. Air conditioning is a lifesaver.