Kat's Krazy Adventures: In (definitely not out of) CHINA CHINA CHINA

So… my VPN hasn’t been working correctly so I couldn’t access my blog for the last couple weeks. Instead, I was blogging in a Word document. Finally got that sorted out, so here we go!

Friday, January 4^th

WE HAVE ARRIVED. I seriously can’t believe it! Only (cue slight sarcasm) 14 hours on a plane and we are on the opposite side of the world. The plane ride wasn’t bad at all; in fact I slept most of it (thanks Mom for that amazing pillow and blanket!!). I know quite a few others who weren’t so lucky. Although, for the last 45 minutes, my eyes were glued to my window, waiting for my first glimpses of Zhōngguó (CHINA).

Here are some pictures I took during our journey to Shanghai:

Who let these clowns out of the country?

I think I can do this.

Almost there!

Harbin: winter wonderland.

There it is!

Beautiful flower building, no idea what it’s there for though…

We did it!

First, let me say that the Shanghai International (Pudong) Airport is an amazing place. There are SO many people that travel through this airport, but somehow it is efficient and extremely organized. Going through customs was virtually painless; we had to fill out a short arrival form that they checked against our passport and visa. Just had to wait in line for a little while, but we were entertained by an endless stream of Chinese Airport Security ads accompanied by this cute guy:

After going through Baggage Claim, we were met by several SJTU students, Jack and Greg, along with Eacy and Kathy who work in the SJTU International Cooperation Office. Almost forgot to mention that the airport lobby was crowded with fans of a pop star whose plane had not yet arrived. Junjin, I think was his name.

Chinese Justin Beiber??

We split into two buses and headed off to the Xuhui SJTU Campus. Kristy snapped this beauty while en route:

Apparently 14 hours on a plane can do this to you.

The students and staff members are incredibly helpful and they are our official contacts while we are here. It’s so nice to have dedicated resources, especially when I’m trying to help organize the group. Thank goodness for Dianne and the rest of the leadership team. I also met Jason, who has proven to be another amazing resource (more on this later).

Greg took us on a quick walking tour of campus and then out into the city to find some dinner. After showing us a couple highlights, he left us to fend for ourselves. Most of our group ended up at this Cantonese restaurant where no one spoke English. Interesting (but mostly delicious) food to say the least…

That pork was pretty much all bone – gotta fight to find the meat!

Here’s our group!

There was also some music playing while we ate. It sounded exactly like an arcade game! Can’t wait for some karaoke!

After dinner, we were headed back to the Faculty Club. Kristy and I stopped to take a picture of a cool building (see below) and somehow the group got really far ahead. Oops!

Am I right?!

Instead of running to catch up with them, we just decided to go exploring. No cell phones yet (more on that later), so we just did an about face. Here’s what we saw just one block from campus: