of literacy and lakes

I started classes last week. Each week I have 8 hours of Chinese + 9 hours of area studies (in English). My Chinese class only has 5 people in it, so it's kind of fun but also kind of terrible because it is SO HARD. We are learning to read newspapers, which is pretty exciting. It's the most gratifying experience to be able to completely read something in Chinese - even if it's just a road sign or a menu item. Let's hear it for LITERACY! (and Penn)

Aside from doing excessive amounts of Chinese homework, I've gotten to explore Shanghai a bit. We went to the Oriental Pearl Tower the other weekend and got a nice view of the city. We also browsed through the Shanghai History Museum at the base of the tower. It was interesting because I feel like Chinese conceptions of museums are quite different from American ones. Instead of displaying artifacts or documents, they have a lot of dioramas, "artist renditions," and creepy wax figures. I also feel like "historical truth" is more debatable in China than it is elsewhere - and I guess wax people are easy to mold to fit official history? (haha - mold, literally)

 











View from the top of the tower. The sky in Shanghai is only blue above the clouds. Also my first "good" picture in Shanghai.


Also entertaining was an acrobatics show we attended in which the finale was called the "ball of death." (5 motorcyclists, 1 ball, lots of death potential -- see photo) By the end of the show I was exhausted from literally being on the edge of my seat the entire time.

 











In other news, went to Hangzhou for the weekend with my program. It's a city about 2 hours out of Shanghai that's famous for its beautiful lake and scenery - supposedly it's called "heaven on earth." But coming from a land of 10,000 lakes (shout out to Minnesooota), I was kind of underwhelmed with the famed West Lake. We did however get to see some cool Buddhist caves and stop by a longjing tea farm. Overall, it was a nice respite from the bustle and smog of Shanghai.

 











Hangzhou's Xi Hu, or West Lake.

 











A "perspective" picture gone terribly wrong, or alternately, Chinese water torture.
(my roommate Joey and me at the longjing tea farm)