**Disclaimer: I will be using this blog as a journal of sorts; something to remember everything by. If some of the information is boring to the outside reader, I apologize!
***
I’m currently sitting in the medical clinic waiting for the rest of my group to finish up. I figured this was a good time to get started on all that we experienced so far!
We took off from Halifax on time and landed in Toronto. Alyssa and I decided it would be a good idea to take advantage of the Duty Free and picked up some vodka (in case we can’t deal with the 3% beer or the moonshine-like, turpentine-like alcohol they make here). Turns out it was a good choice; imported alcohol here is more expensive to buy in a store (but apparently the bars is cheaper). The flight itself (over 14 hours) was not as painful as it could have been. I felt like all they did was feed us; when one meal was over, we were loaded up with a new one. We flew above the Arctic Circle which was an experience in itself. We flew for hours over a pure white landscape which stretched as far as the eye can see. While on polar bear watch (haha), however, we noticed lights. After hours of not seeing civilization, we flew over a tiny hamlet which couldn’t have been home to more than a few hundred people. It redefined isolation for me. It was pretty surreal. The flight was also the first time I used chopsticks. I think I’m going to lose weight while I’m here haha. The rest of the flight was spent watching four movies and sipping a few free (alcoholic) drinks.
Once we landed it took another 5 hours to finally get to the hotel and get settled. We drove all over Shanghai dropping everyone off before arriving at the hotel (because Alyssa, Sara and I are living so far away from the rest of the group, we were checked into a hotel). Once at the hotel, I was told I would be rooming with another girl I hadn’t met yet. Luckily she was friendly and easy to get along with so that turned out better than it could have!
Because we had this medical today, we were not allowed to eat after 8:30 tonight. We got to the hotel at 8 and ran across the street to a “Chinese and Western Food” restaurant. I think it was as authentic Chinese as you can get. After feebly attempting to point to our phrasebooks, eventually the servers just grabbed us and hauled us up to the back of the restaurant where we could point to dishes we wanted. As you had to order the whole dish (eg 6 dumplings, not just 2 of them), we all ordered a dish to share. One of us picked what we were “told” was chicken. When it came cooked to the table, I put a piece in my mouth and immediately spit it out. Turns out it was fried chicken feet. Nothing like jumping in “feet first” (pun definitely intended)!
Luckily our hotel has western toilets and the showers are great! No squatters yet! I was a little worried when the name of the hotel was “Motel 168”. So far, we have been able to get access to what we need and communication has only really been an issue at the restaurant (the menu was entirely in Chinese characters with no pictures). The beds are extremely hard but I haven’t found them to be much of a problem (some are having a hard time with their backs). They are so hard in fact that you would probably hurt yourself if you tried to do anything but ease onto them!
The medical today also wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. In true Chinese fashion, it was like an assembly line. We went in and had to stop to get our pictures taken (like mug shots). It was really funny though as the photographer was fixing our hair and adjusting our clothes; I felt like a celebrity! From there, we changed into robes and started the medical. The first stop was a chest x-ray. From there, we continued down the hallway from room to room progressing through blood work (blech), EKG (my first ever – when they started strapping the metal things around my wrists and ankles and the suction cups lining my breasts, I thought I was in a torture chamber of sorts. I wasn’t entirely convinced I wasn’t getting electrocuted!), physical, ENT (Jason would have failed the colour blindness test) and ultrasound. We certainly were exposed to ALLL personality types during the morning!
One other noteworthy observation is the traffic. I’ve been a few places and I have seen sketchy-at-best-traffic but this takes the cake. Have you ever played Frogger (a game in which you need to get your frog across the busy street without becoming froggy-splatter)? Well, that’s how it feels to navigate the streets of Shanghai. Someone telling you to “be careful” would be the equivalent of someone offering advice like “I don’t think it’s a good idea to jump in the shark tank with an open wound”. It’s a battlefield out there! Like ramp speed suggestions in Canada, crosswalk signs are just that – suggestions. Each and every time you need to cross, you bless yourself and go forth charging (battle cry and all – no kidding, we have all used battle cries)! I don’t know why they have signs in the first place; cars merge into full-speed traffic on a regular basis; cars, mopeds, bikes and people are jumbled in every which direction and there seems to be no rhyme and reason to it, so much so, in fact, that everyone lays on their horn continuously just to say they are coming. They make turns like this, they go through intersections like this, they marginally avoid single mothers standing in the middle of the street with their small child like this…….and the list could go on. I have been told that none of them are angry; it is a courtesy thing and they use it like echo location. I will take a while to not think of it as a form of anger….
The rest of the group is finishing up so I am going to finish drinking (aka throw out) this hot water with a funky flavouring (electrolytes?) they gave me to drink after I finished my blood work. Until next time (assuming I manage to survive the taxi ride and crossing the street to the hotel)!
***
I’m currently sitting in the medical clinic waiting for the rest of my group to finish up. I figured this was a good time to get started on all that we experienced so far!
We took off from Halifax on time and landed in Toronto. Alyssa and I decided it would be a good idea to take advantage of the Duty Free and picked up some vodka (in case we can’t deal with the 3% beer or the moonshine-like, turpentine-like alcohol they make here). Turns out it was a good choice; imported alcohol here is more expensive to buy in a store (but apparently the bars is cheaper). The flight itself (over 14 hours) was not as painful as it could have been. I felt like all they did was feed us; when one meal was over, we were loaded up with a new one. We flew above the Arctic Circle which was an experience in itself. We flew for hours over a pure white landscape which stretched as far as the eye can see. While on polar bear watch (haha), however, we noticed lights. After hours of not seeing civilization, we flew over a tiny hamlet which couldn’t have been home to more than a few hundred people. It redefined isolation for me. It was pretty surreal. The flight was also the first time I used chopsticks. I think I’m going to lose weight while I’m here haha. The rest of the flight was spent watching four movies and sipping a few free (alcoholic) drinks.
Once we landed it took another 5 hours to finally get to the hotel and get settled. We drove all over Shanghai dropping everyone off before arriving at the hotel (because Alyssa, Sara and I are living so far away from the rest of the group, we were checked into a hotel). Once at the hotel, I was told I would be rooming with another girl I hadn’t met yet. Luckily she was friendly and easy to get along with so that turned out better than it could have!
Because we had this medical today, we were not allowed to eat after 8:30 tonight. We got to the hotel at 8 and ran across the street to a “Chinese and Western Food” restaurant. I think it was as authentic Chinese as you can get. After feebly attempting to point to our phrasebooks, eventually the servers just grabbed us and hauled us up to the back of the restaurant where we could point to dishes we wanted. As you had to order the whole dish (eg 6 dumplings, not just 2 of them), we all ordered a dish to share. One of us picked what we were “told” was chicken. When it came cooked to the table, I put a piece in my mouth and immediately spit it out. Turns out it was fried chicken feet. Nothing like jumping in “feet first” (pun definitely intended)!
Luckily our hotel has western toilets and the showers are great! No squatters yet! I was a little worried when the name of the hotel was “Motel 168”. So far, we have been able to get access to what we need and communication has only really been an issue at the restaurant (the menu was entirely in Chinese characters with no pictures). The beds are extremely hard but I haven’t found them to be much of a problem (some are having a hard time with their backs). They are so hard in fact that you would probably hurt yourself if you tried to do anything but ease onto them!
The medical today also wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. In true Chinese fashion, it was like an assembly line. We went in and had to stop to get our pictures taken (like mug shots). It was really funny though as the photographer was fixing our hair and adjusting our clothes; I felt like a celebrity! From there, we changed into robes and started the medical. The first stop was a chest x-ray. From there, we continued down the hallway from room to room progressing through blood work (blech), EKG (my first ever – when they started strapping the metal things around my wrists and ankles and the suction cups lining my breasts, I thought I was in a torture chamber of sorts. I wasn’t entirely convinced I wasn’t getting electrocuted!), physical, ENT (Jason would have failed the colour blindness test) and ultrasound. We certainly were exposed to ALLL personality types during the morning!
One other noteworthy observation is the traffic. I’ve been a few places and I have seen sketchy-at-best-traffic but this takes the cake. Have you ever played Frogger (a game in which you need to get your frog across the busy street without becoming froggy-splatter)? Well, that’s how it feels to navigate the streets of Shanghai. Someone telling you to “be careful” would be the equivalent of someone offering advice like “I don’t think it’s a good idea to jump in the shark tank with an open wound”. It’s a battlefield out there! Like ramp speed suggestions in Canada, crosswalk signs are just that – suggestions. Each and every time you need to cross, you bless yourself and go forth charging (battle cry and all – no kidding, we have all used battle cries)! I don’t know why they have signs in the first place; cars merge into full-speed traffic on a regular basis; cars, mopeds, bikes and people are jumbled in every which direction and there seems to be no rhyme and reason to it, so much so, in fact, that everyone lays on their horn continuously just to say they are coming. They make turns like this, they go through intersections like this, they marginally avoid single mothers standing in the middle of the street with their small child like this…….and the list could go on. I have been told that none of them are angry; it is a courtesy thing and they use it like echo location. I will take a while to not think of it as a form of anger….
The rest of the group is finishing up so I am going to finish drinking (aka throw out) this hot water with a funky flavouring (electrolytes?) they gave me to drink after I finished my blood work. Until next time (assuming I manage to survive the taxi ride and crossing the street to the hotel)!