im a *cheenagirl*

It has taken long enough... but finally, SHANGHAI! 

Lazy Shui's directing her friends here... she really hates to write i think. silly girl, that one =P

Its been 2 and a half days here, and I need to say that ITS FREEZING here. gawds its MARCH already but the weather here is insanely, nailbitingly, cold. there goes all my plans to go running everyday. BOOHOO!

A chronological order of what's happened? Hmm we reached on tueday night, collapsed on our dirty and disgusting hall room, shivered through the night cause the heater didnt work, went grocery shopping and filled one cab full of our shopping, and met baisheng (the 3rd exchange student) for dinner, and today we went shopping at ren min guang chang! Chronological blogs are boring. Now let me go into details about our sufferings of culture shock in this horrifying land. 

Weather

ITS SO HARD NOT TO TALK ABOUT THE WEATHER CAUSE YOU ARE IN THE WEATHER ALL THE TIME! (ok i sound vaguely bimbotic) but its just so IRRITATING cause my beautiful tan is hidden under layers and layers of cloth. and even under all these layers, I STILL FREEZE! the coldness is disgusting. it hurts. it makes you want to cry.

The People

The people here are scary. Really, really scary. They yell at you, they shout and fight everywhere. 

We visited the bund (wai tan) today, the Shanghai equivalent of the avenue of stars. Two youngsters were literally fighting each other to the death. throwing punches at each other, pulling each others hair, slapping, kicking, trying to shove each other over the barricade which would mean falling into the artic coldness of the huang pu jiang (er yellow something river, it seperates the two parts of Shanghai).

I stared in fascination before being ordered away from the scene by baisheng. He was so scared for my life... -_-" i hardly think 2 guys who are fighting each other will bother sparing a glance in my direction... haha!

The girls here are scary as well. The shop keepers in particular. they yell at customers who make them angry and when i say yell, i really mean YELL! plus they drag you over to their shops to force you to look at stuff. boo. once i saw a pair of boots and i asked the price. when i said i didnt want it she asked me to try it. when i walked away i could hear her mouthing bad words about me to her colleague... -_-" its really, really terrible here.

WHO SAYS SINGAPOREANS ARE KIASU?!?!? comeon, Chinamen trash us FLAT. their kiasuness knows no bounds. 


The China people just squashed their way past us to cram infront of the baggage area when we reached the airport. horrible HORRIBLE!

The Shopping

Again, the shopping here is insane, and i really mean it. I seem to be repeating myself too much on this topic, but CHINA IS A SHOPPING HEAVEN!! 

Though you really have to be shameless when bargaining. i didnt know i had the natural flair for bargaining! lol... i got this denim jacket today, original price was 300 odd RMB. I managed to haggle it down to 150 RMB and shui's mouth dropped when i offered 150 and nothing more... haha!!! Shui is really, REALLY, REAAAALLLYY hopeless in bargaining. She shows so much interest in the items, and she is just TOO kind to everyone! she is forever too embarassed to offer a low price. SHUI!!! bish bish. haha! if im a shop keeper i would love to meet her. =D

Heard of a "Raffles City" in Shanghai? We visited it today... its really a wistful taste of home, especially when we were surrounded by familiar shops. boohoo.


The exterior. Its a really glam place compared to other shopping places there.


boohoo!! breadtalk!! but the prices here are the same (or even higher) then singapore. appreciate your bread in singapore, people.

Oh yea, and grocery shopping was fun cause everything was really really cheap! BUT i must complain. i bought bedsheets for 10plus sing dollars. and when i opened the packet. IT WAS ONE BIG STUPID PIECE OF WHITE CLOTH!!! without the rubbery thing and everything. how irritating can china products be?!?! 10 bucks for a piece of cloth?! !@#@!$!#$!#%R%!!!


shui with our trolleys of groceries!! 

oh yea and the mattresses are so awfully thin we had to buy extra. i'll blog about my room in the next entry. 

Food

wheee!!! food!!! my number one weakness, enemy, and lover combined into one.

i am such a sucker for road side snacks. and china, being flooded, and i REALLY mean FLOODED, with dirt cheap food, is IRRISITABLE to me. my gosh! who said shanghai food is oily and salty? ok fine it is, but its still nice!!


me with a HUGE stick of barbequed squid!! omg its really heaven eating hot sotong in that dreadful temperature! pure bliss!!! i bought this along the streets of renminguangchang... its damn cool cause there are many many food vendors along the street. there is hot 珍珠奶茶 (pearl milk tea) everywhere, and I AM SUCH A SUCKER FOR THAT!! plus they sell roti prata too but they call it something else over here. 


ok. SHUIJIAO. dumplings. chinamen's favourite food in the century. heres a picture of what it looks like.

we bought 6 to TRY. and it costs us $0.60. which means about 10 cents each. people around us were ordering HUGE plates of like 50 dumplings. there are like around 20 fillings to choose from... oh man... the kind of animals you see up there. we chinese are horrible. really. ehh oh ya forgot to mention, the dumplings are really nice to eat. haha.

hmm and we tried a korean food stall near our school and its really, really delicious. did i mention cheap? (ehh being cheap is a given thin in everything i mention ok!) 


their appetizers are delicious. really, really delicious and its FREE!!!


if you watch korean shows... yup thats 炒年糕. after watching all those hot babes on my k dramas eat this, now its my turn and YUMMY its really good leh!


us at KFC. rocks! the chicken is a million times better then Singapore. and we paid only 4 bucks each for a HUGE FEAST. they have corn and eggtarts there!!!

Transport

Well i dont know about the buses or what cause i've only taken cabs but THATS NOT BECAUSE IM RICH. its because the cabs here are dead cheap. We took a cab to the town area for only 2 bucks each. faints. the meter takes a looooong time to jump, unlike HK (where the meter jumps every 2 seconds.)


us in the cab! by the way the drivers are all hiden behind a sheen of glass that shields us from them and vice versa. i wonder why.

Random Shots


yup its a condom vending machine. plenty around the school. I WONDER WHY. plus i saw one outside an old folks home. go figure. -_-"


streets of shanghai. shanghai is divided into pudong and puxi. literally, east of the river and west of the river. in puxi where my school is located, it is really rather run down and old. 




人民广场 (People's Square) and 外滩 (the bund) is a really odd place. it is a weird mismatch of modern buildings with old european buildings, and lacking the chinese feel of beijing. 


us at the bund.


spot me!!! and shui!! haha =P

Ok im tired. will leave more for tomorrow. Miss all of you! muacks!!! =)