二月。吃饭! FOOD

What you've all been waiting for,,,

This entry will be dedicated to the kinds of food you can find in China--ranging from 2 kuai (30 cents) breakfast sandwiches, to fancy French restaurants at the Bund

#1 煎饼 (jianbing) - breakfast crepe/sandwich
This is the 煎饼 lady that a lot of us buy jianbings from. She's only there in the morning--we tried going in the afternoon once, but they don't serve jianbings after breakfast :( I haven't had a chance to talk to her very much, but I'm hoping to find out a little bit more about her..like where she's from, how long she has been making jianbings for..etc. Guess how much they cost? 2 kuai! which is equivalent to about 30 cents. A filling meal for less than 50 cents--only possible in China!













Here's how you make a jianbing!

#2 米饭 (mifan) - Rice









Here's a place we go to for lunch almost everyday because it's super fast and yummy! One plate ranges from around 8 - 15 kuai ($1.25 - $2.25) We usually order rice dishes with some kind of meat or vegetable on the side (like shown above~ (L) Beef & Rice (C) Tomato+Egg & Rice (R) The restaurant) It's a popular place for students because it's right across the street from our classroom building~ Whenever we go, we always have to remind the 服务员 (fuwuyuan- waitress) not to put 味精 (weijing- MSG) because it makes all of us sleepy! It probably also has some other negative side effects as well, I don't really know-all I know that it's not good for you :)

#3 普通中国菜 (putong zhongguo cai) - average Chinese food










Every week for Chinese class we have "中文桌子" (zhongwen zhuozi- Chinese table) we meet with the other Chinese level students (同学) and teachers (老师) to practice speaking Chinese and try typical Chinese dishes. We usually order stew/soup type dishes to share, as well as vegetables, meat, tofu, etc! I don't think I've tried a dish here that I haven't liked so far...probably because we don't order any strange dishes that foreigners wouldn't eat =P When I go out for Chinese food with friends (surprisingly not every meal) we usually go to restaurants that serve these types of dishes. The prices per dish range from about 15 - 40 kuai ($2.25 - $6) but when you're with a group, you can get a filling meal for about 20 kuai ($3). I think the majority of the restaurants around our dorm/Fudan are Sichuan style restaurants, so we've been getting plenty of spicy foods lately :)

#4 点心 (dian xin) DIM SUM!












Here is where Min and I had our first reunion dinner together :) We went to a Cantonese restaurant by our school and had delicious delicious dim sum！We ordered 虾饺 (hargau- shrimp dumplings) 叉烧包 (char siu bao- pork buns) 粥 (zhou - porridge) 肠粉 (cheong fun- rice noodle roll) 干炒牛河 (niu rou chow fun - dry beef noodles) Even though dim sum is not as common here as I thought it would be, all the restaurants we have gone to so far are pretty good. Before coming to China, I thought I would be eating dim sum everyday, but I guess it is not as typical in mainland China! The restaurant we went to was a little bit pricier than the restaurants we go to for lunch and dinner everyday during the week, but compared to Korea and the U.S. it was still pretty inexpensive. We had several dishes for about 70 kuai each, which is about $10! and of course with a delicious dinner, you have the option of having China's finest Tsingtao beer or the Great Wall wine (which tastes like diluted wine)
#5 外滩 (Wai tan) The Bund

This is where Min and I went on our unintentional "romantic date" Our original plan for the night was to go to Cloud 9 (which is the highest bar in the Shanghai, maybe the world?) to look at the night view, but we ended up at the wrong Hyatt Hotel. However, we were lucky and the Hyatt we wound up at had a nice bar on the 34th floor, where we got to see the Shanghai skyline. By the time we got to the bar, we were so hungry...but they only served small appetizer dishes at the bar, so we went out to look for a restaurant. We were directed to the 32nd floor, where they supposedly had a restaurant; we had no idea the restaurant we came across was a French restaurant until we sat down and looked through the menu. We ended up having a very fancy dinner together, spending more than we probably will ever have to for our next 3 months in Shanghai. I won't reveal the price, BUT I will tell you that the hotel restaurants aren't any cheaper in China :) the entire time we were there, we were laughing at how funny it was that we ended up at a French restaurant in Shanghai..only because Min doesn't eat French food and it's just really random that we ended up there.

Well, that's all for now :)
Hope you're not too hungry after this entry!

一月。买菜的地方: Where does our food come from?

Unfortunately I have not been taking pictures of the food that I eat here (weird huh..) and do not have enough photos to dedicate an entry to the food here (sorry kris!) BUT! I do have a lot of photos of the places I buy my food at..so, here's part I of my food segment :)

First off, say hello to China's 最好的朋友 (best friend) When Min and I went grocery shopping for the first time at Walmart, one of the items on our list of things to buy was oil. Okay, now finding the aisle with oil (it was an entire aisle of oil) was not difficult, but finding a normal size was. Chinese markets do not sell oil in small quantities-- you either buy a liter if you're trying to 保持健康 (maintain your health) or you get the gallon. In this picture they have small bottles, but we couldn't find any the first time we went!



In addition to the people's love for oil, Chinese people also love their snacks. This is the "first food mall" where you can find all kinds of goodies to eat. My friends and I often go here for 面(noodles) and 小笼包 (xiao long bao- Shanghai dumplings). I've also gotten Odeng (fishcakes) here a few times with Min-- they call it the "Japanese snack" You can also find a lot of imported desserts here, such as: Beard Papa's cream puffs, Mochicream, American candies, etc. We haven't had a problem finding something to eat here and I doubt we will ever have any trouble!!








On a healthier note, this is where Min and I buy our vegetables after we go to the gym. It's a huge vegetable/meat/fruit market right below our gym, which works out pretty well. You buy your fruits and vegetables here by the "斤" (jin- which is equivalent to 500g) The vegetables we buy here seem relatively clean and we have not had any problems yet, but we still try to be as careful as possible because you never know where they came from!




This is the fruit man that is now one of our Shanghai friends-- friend meaning that he remembers us every time we go and gives us free samples of different fruits. He always tries to get us to try the strawberries, but............he doesn't look like he has very clean hands. The first time he offered us strawberries he told us they were clean, but we told him we didn't need to try any..so he took a few outside and washed them with water and came back. I have no idea what kind of water he used, or where he washed them..so when he wasn't looking we put the strawberries back in the basket! Fruit in China are much cheaper than they are in the U.S. and they are equally as tasty! For example, the other day I bought 5 pears for about $2 and the apples we buy usually cost us around $5 max.


So, in China we get to eat 各种各样的菜 （all kinds of food) I know there's the stereotype of Chinese being rather unsanitary, but it's really a lot better than many people think. There definitely are places that you should avoid, but most of the time it's only because our bodies are not as accustomed to the kinds of food Chinese people eat. Umma, 别担心（don't worry) I don't eat street food ALL the time ;) hehe.


I guess they got tired of eating duck? :)

一月。Wudong Lu 武东路

It was really nice out today, so I went for a little walk around our neighborhood! I went into the side alleys that I always walk by on the way to school (it's okay umma, they're not dangerous.) and got to see the houses of people who don't live as luxuriously as others. These are a few photos from what I discovered:
#1: People hang their poultry on their clothing lines. I guess it would make sense since a lot of women in China are "全职太太" (Full Time Wifes) and they have to do house work (家务） and prepare dinner (晚饭) at the same time....







#2: There are no such thing as dryers in China. I'm sure it is possible to find them, but hardly anyone uses them. I was always curious as to how they got their clothes so far out onto the pole..but while I was walking by this housing complex, I saw a lady reeling the pole in to fetch the clothes at the end. Hopefully Shanghai doesn't have strong winds..because that would just be disastrous..19million people's clothing..flying around the city..=O


#3: More hanging clothes! I also saw hanging sausages and fish. This is one of the alleys I walked down..(see umma, it looks fine) I felt a little strange walking down through here because it was obvious that I was either lost or just a 外国人 （foreigner) exploring the streets.

I'm really glad I came across this street because in a city like Shanghai, most people think of high rise apartments, shopping, fancy dining, luxurious hotels and clubs, but we forget that behind the big city lights, there are people who live in rundown houses like these, or people who don't even have a roof to live under. I'll be honest and say that when I was packing for my semester in Shanghai, I was thinking about the nice clothes and accessories to bring because I thought that the places I would be going to be with friends would be the high-end places often featured in magazines or the internet about Shanghai; I thought it would be a completely different experience from my semester in Beijing.


The area around the apartment I live in is relatively run down compared to the inner city of Shanghai, but unless you take a turn down an alley off of the main road, you won't see homes like the ones in my photos. I've realized after my three weeks of being here how easy it is to live in Shanghai without remembering that China is still a developing country. It's so easy to stay in our own little foreign bubble-- If I wanted to, I could only visit the tourist attractions that cater to foreigners, hangout at the popular bars and clubs that only foreigners go to, only go to fancy restaurants that most local Chinese can't afford, but that's not what I came here to do! I'm going to try as hard as I can to stay away from the foreign bubble that a lot of students get pulled into because that's not the real China.







I think for my next entry I"ll talk about Chinese food! so..here's a little preview picture of foods you can find in China...:)

一月。复旦大学－ Fudan University

Fudan University!
This is the building we have daily Chinese classes in~ it’s about a 15 minute walk from our apartments. Every morning on our walk to school we see students buying 煎饼 (jianbing)- it’s a kind of breakfast wrap that consists with fried eggs, onion, cilantro, spices. I don’t have any pictures of it yet, but I will post a few once I buy one here! I haven’t tried Shanghai’s 煎饼 yet, but I hear the ones in Beijing are better! I’ll have to see how the ones here compare to the delicious ones I had in Beijing :)

So, my class schedule here is a little bit different from the schedule I had in Beijing. In Beijing, I had Chinese class in the morning and then Area Studies classes in the afternoon, but here.....it’s JUST..Chinese! I have Chinese in the morning & Chinese in the afternoon--pretty much 24/7. This is what my week looks like:

So far the morning classes have been pretty simple~~ during the first two periods, we take our daily quizzes, go over the chapter reading, and then learn grammar structures. In the third period we have a different teacher where we do more speaking-- we usually talk about topics that the chapter reading was about, like men & women equality, our future goals, holiday celebrations, etc.

The Intensive Class is a little bit more difficult because the grammar book we use is all in Chinese with no translations! The vocabulary we cover in class is also a lot more difficult..we’ve been learning health words like: pain killer (止疼片), side effect (副作用), to fracture (骨折）..等等等...at least if I ever need to be hospitalized in China (hopefully not) I’ll be able to communicate a little bit with the doctors! that’s all for now :)

一月。The Beginning

Welcome to 同和国际留学生村

This is where I will be living for the next four months in Shanghai. The apartments are much nicer than I had expected, but it will take a little bit of work to “cozy” it up! I’m sharing a three bedroom apartment with ms. Wang Min! and our chinese roommate “ViVi” --we have a kitchen, living room, two bathrooms and an awkward one meter long hallway by the entrance..Here are a few pictures of my new home! (post beautifying it of course!)

So here is where I live! You are welcome to come and visit! but only if I like you. :) hehe just kidding! I"ll update another post later!