Arrival at Shanghai University

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Do you know how long it takes to fly to China? Well, it was almost 15 hours to Seoul, South Korea, a two-hour layover, and then a 1.5 hour flight to Shanghai. I left Atlanta at 1pm on Friday, and arrived in Shanghai on Saturday at 830 pm. Exhausting! As I flew separate from the group, I was the last to arrive. Luckily, the College of International Exchange sent three undergraduate students to pick me up! It was pretty fun having a welcome committee with a giant sign with my name on it. The students were very kind and we had a nice chat about The Big Bang Theory in the hour-long taxi drive to the campus. Good thing Dad loves that show or I would have been clueless!

When we arrived to campus, the students escorted me to my dorm room. Luckily, they knew where a few other students in our group were located. Lo and behold, there was food waiting for me, leftover from the group dinner that eve! After a quick conversation and a few bites of food, I was ready to pass out. I was so glad that it was 10pm and a legitimate bedtime. I would not have lasted much longer!

The next morning I woke just in time for orientation. Our group has 10 students, including five graduate students, four undergraduates, and one PhD working on her dissertation. We went over the fine details of the syllabus and met our Chinese “helpers.” This is where things get interesting.

Basically, if you are a visitor, the Chinese custom is to escort you everywhere, to coddle, and to make sure everything is taken care of. However, that does not often fly with our American individualism. As I quickly learned, our group of student escorts (kind and lovely people) have no clear idea who is in charge, and we often have to wait around for things to happen and our “schedule” is VERY open to change at a moment’s notice. It’s very hard to have patience sometimes, and I have to remind myself that this is a cultural difference. In their minds, they are doing a great job and I cannot fault them for thinking that.  Still…some conversations may need to be had soon, lest I lose my mind.

The rest of the day was spent on a campus tour and at a meet and greet with the English Department and Foreign Languages Department. In China, the freshmen have not yet chosen majors, so the separate departments try to woo them in with presentations and snacks. We happened along on woo-ing day, so we were able to see a Shakespearean skit and partake of yummy snacks! We also stood around outside for a few hours “interacting” with students as they happened along. There were kung-fu demonstrations, karaoke, and all sorts of random ice-breaker games. It was fun, but we were so exhausted by the end, most of my answers were mono-syllabic.

We finally escaped for a huge, delicious dinner, and then this lady passed out. Jet-lagged for sure.

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