Month: April 2017

I just got done reading some of Lonny’s writing on his experiences here in Shanghai while living at Xuhui campus’s faculty club and walking around Shanghai. I live where he lived. Literally, in the same room. I have seen everything he describes — the cats, people crossing the crazy streets, tai chi in the parks. I have gone with Yaping to the restaurants he visited. I eat out of the refrigerator he ordered. I use his blog to help me find my way. Lonny is not gone. He is just around the corner, enjoying himself, smiling, writing.  Lonny is not gone.

Shelley and Yaping have made a plan to show me around a lot because they want me to get comfortable getting around and knowing where some things are.  My neighbors Marsha and Frank help me, too.

So yesterday Shelley took me to People’s Square, Nanjing Road, and The Bund. My feet can hardly take the 5 + miles I walk almost every day.  I am sure I will build up endurance.

It has been one beautiful day after another, but the pollen is evil. Everyone is coughing and sneezing here, including me. The seeds and cotton-type stuff from trees blow around quite a bit.

I met Cindy at the American dinner party last week. Today, I met Cindy at 9:30 and her driver drove us in this nice van out to the wholesale warehouses.  We bought imported foods much cheaper than we could in shops here in town.  It was probably 45 minutes drive out there. (Her husband is a consultant for a new medical care clinic.  She has never lived outside the US. So the company has a car and driver on call for her. She tells them where she wants to go. The non-English speaking driver then drives her there and back.) She took her friend Amanda with us. Amanda speaks enough Mandarin to ask for the special jam Cindy wanted.  We all just chatted the whole ride. I bought some raspberry jam, butter, American cheese, almonds and pecans (nuts are very expensive here) and pasta for when the boys come.

Then we dropped Amanda off and Cindy took me to Ikea. I bought two small fry pans and two pots, a few spatulas, plates, knives, forks, and few more coffee cups. I have one hot plate already. I was going to buy a microwave, but maybe we can just re-heat food in our pots. I can buy a microwave online if I want. Everyone buys everything online these days! Then I had salmon for lunch at Ikea. Very nice.

Hanging out with Mormons is different, but the same. The Mormons are a bunch of very nice people who live moderately, most of them enjoy travelling, and they have various jobs. They have a network of Americans built in since they go to church. Today I was with Cindy, the wife of a doctor, and Amanda, the wife of a consulate agent. They discussed what dishes they would bring to Sunday’s church dinner.  They joked that the Mormons in Minnesota are famous for many varieties of jello and jello salads. They were going to make Hawaiian Haystacks, which I had never heard of (rice and various toppings). They do not suffer my pain of searching for coffee, since they don’t drink it.

That reminds me, Cindy has a coffee pot that came with her apartment. She is going to loan it to me while  I am here, I think.  Two of her grown daughters come into town tomorrow. I will ask her after May 6 about the coffee pot. They are going to travel to Beijing this coming week.

This coming Monday is a holiday, so I think I will have time this weekend to work, since many people have plans.

Here are pictures. I have been inspired by Debby Bacharach’s poems. Maybe I will write one soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took the subway to Yu an Gardens but did not know how to get there. Followed the crowds (it was Sunday) and found the “Old Town” shopping district, and saw signs to the garden. After much ambling I found it, so I can take the boys here.

 

My Chinese friends were surprised I went here on a Sunday. They all said, “Oh, too many people. Go on a weekday.”

 

 

Hi,

On Saturday I went to a great dinner party with about 15 Americans, mostly older than me, who were working in China as teachers or business people.  It was very enjoyable and I got to eat lots of American food.

On Sunday Shelley and her daughter Sophie met me and took me to lunch at the Cloud 9 mall.  We went to the 8th floor and ate at a great Hong Kong restaurant. This is on the ceiling of the passage between the subway and the mall.  Pretty flowers.

They worry many places have all meat, so they chose this.  All the food was good. Shrimp, bean seedlings, steamed buns in the shapes of pigs and mushrooms, and swans filled with duck or something. White pigeons were also on the menu.

 

That was Sunday. I probably watched movies the rest of the day.

Monday I worked out, then met Yaping for lunch. She took me to a nearby mall and we ate at Jack Birmingham’s favorite restaurant. Din something. Small dishes, great service, kind of pricey. The dumplings are probably great, but all pork. There is one veggie dumpling. You dip it in ginger, vinegar and soy sauce and then it’s good. We had some Chinese veggies, shrimp fried rice and eggplant.

Then we walked around the mall looking at expensive things including the new Tesla car for $80,000.  Then we tried to get a Starbucks drip coffee. Yaping thinks they try not to sell drip because it doesn’t cost as much. They had to start a new pot when we asked for it.  Still, it’s 19RMB for a tall drip, which is $2.80!  Geez!  And I still could not get cream for my coffee.  They tried to give me milk, then two kinds of whipped cream. But Yaping reached over the barista’s counter to get something and I noticed that was where they were keeping the cream in small packets.  Geez people!  I have to carry that thing around so I can ask for it next time. I guess they mostly sell green tea Frappuccinos and Grande lattes and such. And Starbucks seems busy, like they are probably doing well here, even though there is a coffee bar every 3 blocks here.

I got back to my room just in time to meet Guanyu. We were going to go to Pizza Hut for dinner. So we walked right back to the mall where Yaping and I had been, about 1/2 mile from my hotel, and went to Pizza Hut. It has lots of big panda bears decorating it, and it sells all kinds of food. Some Chinese-style chicken and soup, pasta, escargot, salads, and pizza. They actually had a veggie pizza. Yeah! Normal except it has corn on it. I ordered it sans corn. I cannot tell you how great it tasted. Just perfect. Deep dish pizza with cheese. That grease was so good. Sadly, not even as greasy as the street buns here. I savored every bite.

Went home and worked that evening.

Got up at 6:30 to get ready to catch the 7:30 bus that leaves at 7:20. Took about an hour to get to school. I listened to a Ted Talk Radio Hour. These are often somewhat inspirational but also guilt-inducing. I am not doing enough with my life to make other peoples’ lives better. Oh, but this morning it was about choice.  Too much choice not only paralyzes people but leaves them unsatisfied with what they did choose.  Moral: keep your expectations fairly moderate. Then you will be happy with what you choose.

I hang out in the Foreign Languages building coffee room and library until my 10 am class. I run into lots of people and chat. Taught my class 10-11:40 with a 10 minute break.  Only had 20 students today. Guess the others had something else today…

They chatter through a lot of what I say, but seem to be interested in the content. Today I had asked them to come with a summary of the article from last time. Only a few had done it, I think. One guy read his summary to us and I typed it for us to see. It was phenomenal. Then I showed my summary and discussed how they were similar, different, and both correct.  We then discussed American references to quarterbacking, gambling, the rust belt, populism, and angry American voters.  Then we discussed the meanings of a title like “Winter comes for the Dakota Pipeline protesters.” They were really on the side of the protesters. I thought someone might think the government had a point, but no.

Then I talked about American style essay writing which counts for academic and article writing. We looked at introduction, thesis, topic sentences and conclusion in an article. For homework I asked them to find those in an academic article. We’ll see if they do it.

I also showed them some books I got from their library. Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of an Part-Time Indian, They Say/I Say by Graff and Birkenstein (Lonny must have given it to them), How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, Factory Girls by Leslie T Chang (just listened to her on Ted Talks this morning!) and a collection of Mark Twain’s writings The Bible According to Mark Twain. Some is for me, some is to share with my students. It was all I could carry since I walk everywhere.

Lydia (Wang Yu) picked me up after class and drove me to Marco Polo, an on-campus buffet run by the on-campus hotel. If you pay $35-50RMB, you can get good, healthy food.  We ate and caught up. She asked me when my family is going to come. Everyone says I will be busy once my family comes. They don’t want to plan anything with me after Paul and Ben come. It was great to see Lydia.  We will meet next week and she will show me old town of Minhang area. We will see if her husband can join us.

 

You can shop all day every day here if you like. I had been saving my money until my stipend came in. Checked my account every day.  Well, it came in two days ago.  Lookout!  Coincidentally, my neighbors Marsha and Frank were going to the pearl market and asked if I wanted to come along.

Six metro stops from my hotel and a 1 mile walk is the pearl market. It is about 60 shops on the second floor of a mall with a dirty front. The first floor is bags, scarves, t-shirts, electronics, and other cute things.

They got a call and needed to head back, so I stayed another 2 hours and looked around. I have to follow them back to the metro first so I was sure I could find my way back. Took pictures so I could find the streets.

Along the way to the pearl market is a large doorway I would never think to go in. If you walk in there are about 8 foreign restaurants: Thai, Indian, New Zealand, etc.  I will take Paul and Ben here 🙂

Back at my neighborhood, I went to my Chinese shops and bought a grocery cart for myself and a hot plate.

 

Shelley took me to a really nice lunch not far from my hotel. It’s hot pot, and you choose the things you want to cook and eat. There is a bar where you can choose your own sauces and spices for your bowl so you can dip each cooked bite into your own sauce.

Also below are photos of Xuhui campus, my quaint old campus which is only about 3 times the size of our Highline campus.

 

Hi,

Many of you wrote to me today and that was just fabulous.  Thank you!  I actually worked a lot today doing translation work and sending class notes to my current students and following up on work from Highline.  I am making the translations easy to read for Americans.  I did about 400 today.  I think SJTU is helping the local government with this project.  Hospitals, museums, malls, amusement parks all seem to be part of it.  So there is one translation, then a student offers a second, another student offers a third, then there is a space for Lisa’s translation. Example:

1. Smoke suppression 2. Extinguish Cigarettes here. 3. Extinguish cigarettes here! Lisa: extinguish cigarettes here
2. Do not pop out the head or other part of the body. 2. Danger: keep body parts inside the car. 3. Do not stretch head or other body parts out of the platform. Lisa: Danger: keep all body parts inside the car.

English is much more difficult than we realize!

In the afternoon I visited with my neighbors to ask how to get to city mart grocery store. They said “Just walk out the back gate, turn right, cross the street, go to blocks and it’s right there.”  Well, after I turned right there were two ways to cross the street leading to two different streets. I took the wrong street for about 10 minutes.  The Shanghai natives were watching me, so this was obviously more for locals.  I backtracked and found the other street, walked 2 long blocks and found the little city mart part of the huge mall.  You go up the stairs to go in the mall/movie theater, but go back down some stairs to the grocery store. They had the perfect cream for my coffee. I bought that and some peanut butter and things. I check out and the woman holds up one of the cream boxes (not refrigerated, a liter, I think) and says something about it and points to where they are kept. I do not know what she is saying. Is this a bad one, or ..?  Finally she gets someone to go get me another one but does not take one away: it’s buy 2 get one free.  They are all very nice about giving you what you are supposed to get, including correct change.

I was determined to eat dinner tonight, but could not find somewhere that looked like they would speak English.  I decided eating on campus counts. There are a few restaurants open until 10 pm. I went to one and looked around. You could get a ham and egg sandwich on a roll, or they would cook you something to order. They were frying 2 eggs and bean sprouts on a wok for someone. I thought that seemed good.  Then I saw they were cooking pots of fresh greens in water with maybe tofu. I asked a student if she spoke English (Shelley told me they all can, but they are shy.)  She looked pretty nervous, but finally she helped me.

You have to go to another counter and tell the guy what you want and pay for it, then take your ticket to the cooks who make it for you. No way I could have done that alone. She asked me what I wanted. I pointed to the greens and tofu pots.  Then she showed me a list of 8 kinds, in Chinese, and I had to pick! I showed her my note “I do not eat pork/beef/lamb.” Then she picked one for me — only 8Yuan! ($1. 17) I paid and she gave the cook my ticket.  So nice! The cook was boiling the greens, tofu and other things in an iron pot on a stove with 6 burners each with an iron pot. It took about 5 minutes.

I put my things down at a table, then came back. The cook gives you a very burned red tray, a plastic bowl, then takes the boiling iron pot and puts it right on the tray. Grab chopsticks and spoon and have at it!

It was great! Mushrooms, bok choy, cabbage, tofu, great noodles, and this tofu that is like paper strips, and a bit of seaweed. And the sauce was spicy but I could just manage it.  It seems like a TON of food. Takes awhile to eat it all.

The woman who does the dishes there was chatty with me. She had a lot to say — in Chinese.  Wonder what she thought? She seemed to be having a good time.  Maybe westerners do not come to this place too often? I see a handful of western students on campus every day.

Lunch today was the usual greasy veggies at the student cafeteria. They taste good This is tofu with peppers, then bok choy, cabbage and mushrooms. I tried the shrimp but no — too much trouble to take the shells off and they don’t taste good. (This is 12 Yuan — $1.80)

The student cafeterias are… very relaxed. The servers grab a prison tray with rice on it, then you tell them what you want. They use one big spoon for everything, so you want greenbeans? The big spoon slops some out and onto your plate. You want the pork? Same spoon. The fish? Same spoon.  Slop. Slop. Yum Yum. Don’t look too close. (See the piece of pork on the edge of my plate?)

It is a very organized procedure. Students stand in line for the food. About 3-4 stations offer the same 8 dishes. One or two might have something different. Slowly from 11-12 the lines shrink down as the food runs out and they consolidate. The food staff are cleaning and pairing down as they go, so by 12:30 lunch service is about over and they are done. They are feeding an army every day: one cafeteria on Xuhui campus plus 5 restaurants; 5 cafeterias on Minhang campus, each with 2-5 sub cafeterias, plus restaurants.

Yesterday I got the veggie noodles at the Japanese restaurant. They are also good.  Everyone here really knows how to serve things that are hot and stay hot. The noodle dish is the size of your head — bigger, actually, so I took the rest home. But it wasn’t very good later at room temp. This was $27 Yuan ($4.00)

My next post will show you the beautiful restaurant Shelley took me to last Monday.

Hugs,

Lisa

Been here 10 days! Yesterday it was 90% and today it was also hot.

Shelley has been amazing. She met me for lunch while her daughter was at basketball, then found a student to tour me around for 2 hours on Saturday afternoon. Guanyu took me to get a subway card and showed me a nearby grocery store which we shopped (I) shopped at, helped me buy some fruit and helped me ask how much a pedicure was (198 Yuan! about the same cost as in America — about $26.00.

Guanyu is in her second year as an economics student. She shares a room with 3 roommates. They have a desk under a bed, each. She comes from the north west of China, so Shanghai is very different for her. It is the first time away from her family, too, of course.  Now she has friends she can hand out with. But it must be hard that first year, as it is for many new college students. They are not allowed to use anything that plugs in (for fire safety, maybe). But, you know, sometimes…

Friday night I walked around a bit. Lots of big video ads near the malls.

This morning I was telling Paul that I did not find a place for dinner that night. So today I decided to walk to the Japanese noodle shop. It was closed with a sign on the door.  I walked back toward the Chinese markets, looking for a restaurant to try. Found one next door to 85 degrees the bakery. Line out the door of young people. I went in and showed my sign (I don’t eat pork/beef). The guy pointed to one picture. I ordered and paid 21rmb. He found someone to translate “for here or to go?” I said “for here,” Then he pointed to the long line of people waiting to eat here. So I said, “Ok, to go.” I was at the to-go counter ordering, apparently. Why ask me if it was for here?  When I got it home later, found it was a lovely curry sauce on rice, with fried chicken pieces on top.  A good deal, I think.

 

I also walked on the Chinese market. I used my sign to get some buns and rolls. One stand sells naan. I got one plain and one stuffed with…something green. All veggies come in this oil, so it was kind of greasy.

I also got two buns from the stand I was at a few days ago, and ate the fresh pineapple from the fruit seller. Today was a good day for eating.

I prepared a very specific lesson plan for my Tuesday class and clear homework for next week.  Shelley will meet me for lunch tomorrow and help me make a few more copies. Hope the students enjoy what I am teaching and don’t see it as torture. Probably/hopefully they will immediately see how useful it is, and like it 🙂 Found some sassy articles in Time Magazine that should challenge their knowledge of American metaphors and idioms. Hope they don’t ask me about predicates. Never did get a good grasp on that.

With my extra time I am really catching up on movies.  Saw The Shipping News and then whatever Tom Hanks latest movie is about the secret of Dante. Re-runs of Nip/Tuck are playing for at least 2 hours a day…waiting for them to move one from that show.

I cannot log into my Canvas grades, but I did get into Dictionary.com.

Hope all is well with all of you.

Ni hao,

Living in Shanghai is like living in …China.  Well, sort of.  Today I took the bus to campus because really, what else was I going to do? I need to prepare my class for students I don’t know, and find more articles, and have the librarian make copies for me.

Yesterday I ate at the Faculty Club hotel cafeteria, again. Here are a few food photos. Watermelon, pastry, poundcake, salty boiled egg, squash cooked in water, cabbage cooked in water with flat black mushrooms, cubes of plum gel.  All very good.

Yesterday I walked around my campus a bit. I met Yaping at 7:45 so she could give me a flashdrive.

 

Back to today.  The bus should take 4o minutes but it rarely does.  I went out at 8:30 to wait for the 9 am bus. The bus was already there and just about full. I got on and the driver started driving away.  I saw no seats and was going to tell him to stop, but then I spotted one seat way in the back.  I sat in a 6-seat back row between a Chinese man and a large white lady. She did not say hi.  Geez! People pick up Shanghai ways immediately. No white people say hello to me or smile. Just like the Shanghai natives.

I reached over the Chinese guy and opened the window a bit.  The Chinese are still wearing coats and sweaters, although it will be 75 degrees today.  Marsha told me they don’t take off their coats until a certain holiday. Wearing short sleeves now is weird to them.

I listened to Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me on my Ipod and was laughing so hard I had to stop for a bit.  Everyone either sleeps or looks at their phone on the bus. Well, a few just sit patiently. It’s very quiet and still. No one moves, coughs, eats, or talks.  Maybe they are respecting everyone’s space?

There was a breeze from the window for about 2 minutes, and the Chinese guy did not like it, but we spent the next hour in rush hour, almost at a stand-still, so then the open window was fine.

Got to campus, knew when to get off the bus and where to walk to, and found the computer lab where Honza showed me I could work.  I opened MS Word, and was going to open my flashdrive when I realized all the commands are in Chinese.

I went down the hall to get Honza.  He said “Oh, I did not know  you would come in today.” Which I think maybe meant, “You should have told me you were going to come in today.”  Oh well.  I asked him to open my document and save it.  He said he does not know if these computers have English. He called the IT tech guy who said no, they would have to buy MS Word in English.  He said “I can start that process if you like.”  I was thinking, “Why did you show me this computer lab on Monday and tell me I could use it if it’s all in Chinese?”  I said, “So, when Lonny was here, what did he do?” He said Lonny just brought his lap top.  (Lonny has been here 3 times recently, so SJTU is not used to anyone else.)  I asked how I could use the internet, since they will not give me an internet account while I am here. He showed me a plug under the table.  So I guess he meant I could use the computer desk just to plug in my lap top. Kind of a waste of the computer, sitting there but I guess foreigners are few here, or maybe “everyone” just brings their own laptop.  The PhD candidate who also uses this room was using his laptop, too.

Again, why did Honza tell me to bring a flashdrive if I am going to use my laptop?  Hmm…  Oh, to give to the librarians so they can print my stuff for me.  I guess I will have to go to campus Monday to print out my assignments.

I created my lesson plan for the first two weeks, then went to the library to make copies of magazine articles.  There I ran into Helen Yan.  She was at Highline 10 years ago and recognized me right away.  We talked for awhile and she said she would call me soon.

I read more articles and got more copies made, then Julai Ma came to take me to lunch. She is good friends with Shelley, so Shelley asked her to take me to lunch.  Julai showed me the 6 cafeteria areas at Canteen 2, then we ate at the faculty cafeteria.  I asked who she teaches and what, and she asked what I am supposed to teach. I told her what I was told and she said, “Oh, they are just trying to find something for you to do.” Geez, I feel so patronized!

(I am supposed to teach a 10 week course to English graduate students majoring in translation.  I should help them understand the American Culture behind readings on our economy, and help them write some essays, and learn more American culture.  It sounds like fun, but I have to find some articles that are not too boring and that use some American cultural references.  I am also asked to help another instructor, Wenjie, to translate road signs into English.  Obviously he will translate and I will double check.  I told my boss here that I would help fix the translation here at my hotel. He said, “Great! I will tell the manager!”  We will see if anything comes of it.)

After lunch Yulai Ma walked me over to a great coffee place and bought me a tall latte. She told me her passion about rhetorical anlaysis, which she has studied in depth. It is almost exactly what we teach now with genre, purpose, audience.  We were happy to talk shop. I also asked her what teachers know and do here, so Wendy and I can pitch our symposium presentations appropriately to the audience of university teachers.

I took the bus home at 1:50 and got home at 3:15. Traffic is really bad here! I am getting familiar with the landscape. I pass Ikea every day on the bus. Took this photo of just a few of the apartment buildings we passed on the bus. Have to put 24 million people somewhere.

Yesterday Marsha took me with her on a walk to the Train Ticket Station, then on the metro on an errand. It was great to tag along and have social company. Here are some pictures.

Ok, I am going to try to go out to dinner. I saw a restaurant in a mall window. I will bring my sign Shelley made me: “I don’t eat pork, beef, or lamb.”  Last night I had cup-o-noodles, which was not a very good one, but got the job done.

Bye For Now!

 

FINALLY, got my blog working. I think trying to start it in China made it more difficult for them to create my IP address and validate it, then a few of their emails went to my junk mail.

Pictures are important to see while you are reading, so here it is.  The internet here is so slow. Maybe I will generate some patience?

Yesterday I had the day off and no one was free to play and the laundry is not open on Tuesdays, so what to do with myself?

I walked about 6 miles today, which is good, but it doesn’t really seem like that much since I spread it out over 3 trips.

I walked through campus trying to find the main gate, but found a side exit and a Starbucks. I got a drip and asked for cream in it, but the guy dumped in lots of clotty cream stuff.  Once I got him to dump that and give me coffee with just a little cream, it was good.  Although Starbucks opened at 7 am, they had not yet brewed the coffee or put out most of the food.  Weird.  It gets light at 5:30 am and people are in the streets by 5 am.  So I had a chocolate muffin since that is what they had out.

Later I went for another walk to see if I could find the grocery store and market that Marsha and Frank showed me, where the Chinese shop for fruit, veggies, fish, fresh noodles, etc.

I found the main gate, then it was easy to see the Taiwanese bakery 85 degrees, then the building with the blue keyboard on it where you turn left.

Then the park you walk through where older people gather to talk and play cards.

Then turn left and there is the market.

 

I don’t have much Yuan left so I need to not do shopping right now, but of course I saw a place with cute things right away.  Bought a bag for Laura and some hangers for me.  Saw lots of stuff I could buy.  I will come back after the money is in my bank account – a day or two. 

There are a few shops that sew pillow cases – want to get them made for my house. 

I found a small Chinese storefront selling buns.  2 Yuan each! I pointed and asked for one but he pointed to signs: which kind? I looked at all the Chinese and said “I don’t know. One.” He pointed at the signs, reading each one to me. Nope, sorry… I shrugged and waved across them all and said “Any one.”  I would take the one closest to me.  He looked at them all and chose one for me. I thought “He probably chose the pork because he thought I would love it. It was a deep fried light bread the size of a big donut, but whole. The first 3 bites were so good. Then I got into the insides.  It was… bean sprouts in a light veggie gravy!  How did he know?  It tasted great because I found it on my own and it was only 2 Yuan.

I found the grocery store the Lovells had showed me and bought water and some lemons. I looked at everything. Could not find the yogurt I love that they have here at the buffet breakfast.

Oh – and I found this little shop that seems to just sell whatever comes in that day. It was crowded, almost no room to walk. Some dishes, shoes, socks, a comforter, little plastic shelving units, paper clips, etc.  I will come back here later.

On my way back I took more pictures of my campus.

I got some nice students to take a picture of me. Apparently, everything I own is blue. And my hair will be frizzy and curly in this wet humid place.

Went back home and rested and talked to the boys on We Chat. Watched TV. Every day there are 2-3 American movies on, and 2-3 American re-run TV shows. Nip Tick and Once are playing.  Also, reality shows like Cupcake Wars.  This in addition to the 25 channels with various Chinese TV shows.  And somewhere between noon and 3 they played a Superman cartoon. It seemed even more violent than the Batman I’ve seen. Superman was hitting the bad guy repeatedly with a street lamp. 

Went back out a third time, the opposite direction, to get more familiar with that part of town.  Found the Starbucks I was at the other day. It’s called “Starbucks Reserve.” Then I went a different way and found a street with expensive shops and another Christine’s (French bakery.) Got a roll for 85 cents then walked around. Found another very hip neighborhood with 4 coffee bars and outdoor seating.  Made my way back home and stopped by the Chinese grocery in this end of town. Maybe they would have my yogurt?  Yep!  And they cost 1 Yuan each. I got 8. Then I bought 4 eggs. I am going to try to boil them at home. Stuffed it all in my purse except 4 yogurts. 

At the corner waiting for the light, a Chinese woman smiled at me and looked at my yogurt and smiled and said something. I smiled back. She said some more and laughed. Her sister looked at us and smiled. The lady said some more and smiled. Either she was saying something nice or she thought it was really funny I was buying that. Then the older man said something to her in response to whatever she was saying. She could not get over me with my yogurt. I said “It’s yummy!” and smiled. Whatever. I noticed their shoe size was about a 4 and they were thin, like all Chinese.  Maybe she was saying, “Wow, you’re so big! Will you eat all that yogurt?” My shoes look huge compared to hers.

Now it’s 6:30 am. I will try to drop off my laundry at 8am, then take the bus to the Minhang campus, put $ on my card, get lunch, then meet Dean Tao at 2pm, then meet Shelley after.