Adela & China

Dreams DO Come True: Visiting the Disney Imagineering Offices!

Wow, I don’t know what I was expect from my Disney adventure but it was just so unexpectedly good! My internet has been acting up as usual, but a week ago at a NYU photography event I happened to meet Ben Schwegler and his wife Jan. I saw his jacket that said, “EuroDisney Imagineering” and I couldn’t resist asking! So I asked, “Excuse me, are you an Imagineer?” He said yes and that his wife is…

As I was ordering I accidentally ordered the wrong noodle dish. I wanted my brown noodles, but accidentally pointed to the wrong type. They had already made it though so I didn’t want to waste it and kept it for dinner later. I’m sure it would be good anyway.

I sat down on a bench and devoured my beloved noodles.

In the meantime, this old beggar came around twice asking me for change. I always feel like a jerk when I reject a beggar, but the second time he came around he pointed (or at least I thought he did) to my second noodle bag that I hadn’t touched.

I thought, next time he comes around I’ll offer him my noodles! Sure enough he did and I said he can have my food. He asked what it was and I successfully related that they were noodles. He inspected the bag and I said he can have it. So he took them, walked off, and good thing I took a second pair of chopsticks so he was totally ready to eat!

Afterwards I bought a couple of scarves as gifts and a little necklace for myself. So I’m glad I went to get the noodles!

McDonald’s Delivery II

This is pure heaven! It was a cloudy day and although I planned to go to Hangzhou I rescheduled because of the weather. So I stayed mostly indoors and saw some Youtube videos from some of my favorite Youtubers, such as Vanossgaming and H20Delirious! They always make me smile and laugh. I then took a stroll through the ECNU campus next door and had a good time visiting my old haunts. I bought a…

I’m sorry to say that today was our last Cross Border Transactions Between China and the U.S. class! I had a great time, made new friends, and learned so much. After going over the final exam, my professor, Norm Page, said we can take a group photo!

My classmates took out signs they made and I was surprised by how thoughtful they were. They made “Mr. (Pai) WE LOVE YOU” and “1631,” which was their course number. Alicia, who along with her friends helped me print out our textbook, drew a picture of our professor and had everyone sign the card.

Looks just like him! (I was able to sign my name too!)

When the professor asked if I can take the group photo I felt this little pang of sadness. I wanted to be in the photo too! After all, I had spent weeks with them and now I even had the textbook. I didn’t say anything though and got ready to take the picture.

In the nick of time, Alicia actually said she brought a friend to take our photo, and she told me I can totally be in it! Behold:

Landy, Renee, and I waited to get one more picture with our professor!

Afterwards I had an hour and a half break and Landy and Renee invited me to their dorm.

As we were walking they asked about my night class, Chinese Civil Law. They asked what he professor was and I said, “Lihong Zhang.” Renee nearly coughed her food out of her mouth and Landy said, “Lihong Zhang?!” Landy said he’s a famous historical figure. Renee was skeptical that my professor’s name is actually Lihong Zhang and thinks he’s making it up. She doesn’t think he can possibly be named that because of how famous the historical figure is.

They were generous and offered me a waffle, some Pocky-like candy sticks, and some amazing crackers that tasted like onions. They even gave me this yogurt drink. They even gave me packets of each to take home with me.

(THESE TASTED LIKE ONIONS!)

I was tentative at first with the food and drink, but I enjoyed most of them!

We hung out for a while and just enjoyed being in there with them. Alicia came and went off to take a shower. I said I’d like to invite them over to my dorm one day and maybe we can have snacks there too! We talked about Chinese movies and directors. It was another lovely time before I went off to class!

NYU Shanghai Literary Reading Series and New Pengyous!

I went to my third NYU Shanghai Literary Reading Series event and I had a great time. They mainly center on poetry readings and discussion, but there is also prose thrown in there. I started attending because David Perry, a professor at NYU Shanghai, taught my friends when we were NYU students studying abroad in Shanghai. At the time NYU’s partnership was with East China Normal University so we…

Acquiring a New Umbrella and a Language Bump

My original umbrella has been breaking down for unknown reasons (to the point people kept pointing it out to me) so I decided to finally buy a new one. I didn’t go out with the purpose of buying an umbrella, but when I saw this one on a little stand by the Miniso on East Nanjing Road I had to get it. While I was communicating with the saleswoman, when I didn’t understand what she said, I said,…

Making New Pengyous in Shanghai!

After my Business Transactions class, I asked Alicia, a Chinese classmate who handed me two pieces of tissue paper at the start of the semester, if she could explain how I can print out the course materials in book form. She and her friend Landy said they can just take me to the printing place and show me. Wow! Reshab forgot his scarf in class and they EVEN called the maintenance guy to help him…

THE HEAVENS PARTED and bestowed upon me a new alpaca!

I went to this claw machine a couple of times in the past two weeks, and didn’t get it. But today. Today. Today was the day. I bought five tokens and picked out the alpaca I wanted. I managed to get her standing up straight on my first try. Then I tried again and went for her head. The claw grabbed her head. THE HEAVENS PARTED. I SCREAMED. SHE WENT INSIDE THE HOLE AND I DON’T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED.…

Kindness at Shanghai Disney!

I’ll write something longer about the trip later, but I went to Shanghai Disneyland for the second time today and it was absolutely wonderful again. I would say I even enjoyed it more than the first time! I just wanted to share something nice that happened as I was waiting for the fireworks show. It began to rain, drizzling at first, and I didn’t have an umbrella with me. So I put  my jacket on…

It was pouring rain.

And we actually climbed to the top of a mountain in the pouring rain. At the time we were all, “Why are we doing this?” We also passed the occasional ox. The view was lovely once we got to the top though.

I then bought two wooden turtles made out of bamboo. They were adorable!

It took a while to pick something out because they had all sorts of bamboo things. They even had moving ferris wheels made out of bamboo! I’m not sure how I would’ve taken that back to the US though…

The next day we went to Nanxun and it was so nice. We walked through gardens, and a villa that was once owned by one of the “Four Elephants.”

They were the biggest merchants at the time and the villa was built and expanded on for generations. I asked one of our chaperones if the man who owned it donated it and he laughed a little and said no. He said when the revolution happened it was repossessed and now it’s open to the public.

The villa was lovely and had a huge lotus garden with rocks from Lake Tai. People say the villa is comparable to the one in Dream of the Red Chamber. That’s a big deal.

The man spent lots of money on collections of books and we went through his personal library, which was a whole building. He even had big collections of Three Kingdoms novels and spent money to have wood block versions of Three Kingdoms (and others).

 I aspire to be him one day. THAT’S THE DREAM!

“Ahh yes, this is Adela’s personal library. She has numerous editions of Three Kingdoms and other classical Chinese works.”

The man even had golden characters given to him by Qing dynasty emperors and some emperors even built beautiful archways for him. You know, I’ve been to palaces and royal places in other countries, but when I heard this man had rocks from Lake Tai and golden letters and archways from emperors, along with his amazing classical library, that’s when I thought, “This man was rich.”

Saad, one of our chaperones, took some nice pictures of me there, wow!

I stuck around the library during our free time and I’m so glad I did. I went to where a crowd was and there was a stand where you could buy a wood block print for only 20 RMB. Less than $4.

I stood around and they told me one of the ones for sale was from Dream of the Red Chamber. I asked who was in the picture, because I read the book and I didn’t recognize the lady, and I managed to say this in Mandarin! They said it was Yuanyang. OMG after she rejects a marriage proposal from an evil dude she kills herself. I forgot about her.

So they said I could actually print it out MYSELF, like, DO IT MYSELF, and I said, “ME?!?”

I put on the apron and they walked me through it. It was magical! I’m so glad some guy recorded it too!

Afterwards we had another delicious lunch and went on our way back home. It was a wonderful trip!

Strolling and Splurging at Yuyuan Gardens

After class I ran into Vincy, who I went to Suzhou with (more on that later) and we had food in the cafeteria. I really like her company and she’s such a nice and sincere person. I met her friend Charon too! As we were walking out she asked what my plans were and I said I’d go to Yuyuan Gardens. Vincy didn’t know where that was and I was shocked. I thought she was here for years! It turns out…

A chilly, but beautiful day!

Wow, I woke up and the weather was chilly! I just wanted to share how beautiful the day was today. This is the route I usually take to class!

Getting Belle at the Global Harbor!

A few days ago after class I was strolling through Global Harbor Mall, which I live a block away from, and I noticed some Halloween-themed stands. I was curious so I checked them out. They had some goods for sale, but what caught my eye was a pair of women who were selling keychains. One was the seller and one hand-made them. The seller spoke some English and she was pretty good! I searched…

Zhuge Liang Corner Progress

So far I’ve been collecting more Zhugey goodies for my “shrine” back in the US. It’s coming along very nicely I must say. (I got the book at the Xinhua bookstore for only $4! The Dynasty Warriors action figure is something I’ve had since elementary school!) I haven’t been having good internet when I’ve come home from class/another adventure so I’ll make sure to keep posting now that the internet…

Happy Valley used to be the biggest theme park around until Disney (I still need to post about this) so I felt sympathetic towards it. I heard it has lost people to Disney. May the gods not strike me down, but as much as I loved Disney in Shanghai this place seriously rivaled the experience.

It was late in the afternoon, around 3:30PM, and I bought a ticket anyway. I flew over to the first roller coaster I saw, which, according to my map, is the first wooden roller coaster in China and the biggest one. This thing was huge.

And it was intense! As we went slowly up the ramp I thought, “Why do I put myself into these situations?” Oh man, what a feeling! Then you reach the top and fall down and suddenly it all goes away and it’s exhilarating!

I flew over to “Old Gold Mining Town,” which had country music playing in the background, and another great ride. Then I went to “Happy Ocean” which had another great ride. I like to torture myself, clearly.

But I saw a ride in the distance that was huge and clearly a thrill ride. It was just a few minutes until 5PM, when that ride would shut down, so I quickly walked over. Look at this thing.

I DID IT. Again I wondered why I was doing this to myself. What was “awful” about this ride was that it took you up the ramp and kept you there to “enjoy” the view of the hills and city. Then it started going down, but it SUSPENDED YOU vertically in place so you were literally sitting there staring down hundreds of feet below you! That’s when you started moving! Oh my goodness, what a feeling! I still laugh to myself thinking about it. Here’s us moving down:

There is still one big ride left that I need to do. It’s the “most advanced” one in China. Wish me luck.

I walked around and I really liked the “Old Shanghai” area of the park. Actually, I really like the Chinese feel of Happy Valley. It was authentically Chinese in a certain way. It had Chinese snacks all over the place, Chinese toys, gardens, forests, a big river, and generally was an easy-going place, at least when I went. It just all reminded me of China. It even had horse shows!

I stood in line for a haunted house and I must say it wasn’t very scary at all, but it was enjoyable. I liked walking through with people. I have to wonder how much the guy “chopping” a rubber leg up is getting paid for his hours of service. I went to another one and it was similarly fun, and I liked screaming with the people I was with!

Then it was time for the “Lake of Illusions” show on the water. It was so nice! I don’t want to spoil too much so here’s just one picture:

As I was watching the show, I felt as though I had no emotions or thoughts, but I was present in the moment, somewhat in awe. I’ve often felt that way in Shanghai these days. It’s a feeling of, “I just am,” I’m just experiencing the moment.

Afterwards there was a fun live show with dancers and actors. The night ended with all of us dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and what a wonderful time it was!

McDonald’s Delivery!

It’s been pouring in Shanghai these days so I haven’t gone out much (although I did go to the Animation Museum which was AMAZING). Yesterday though I stayed in and had McDonald’s delivery. Yes, McDonald’s delivery. (Can it get any better than this?) I also played Sid Meier’s “Pirates!” as I ate and it was a nice, cozy time. I still can’t beat the Marquis de Montalban though. Sigh. (My desk is…

The Blind Girls Plus One Win Big

I just wanted to share this little event that happened at the ECUPL campus. The “Learning English Club” has events to help Chinese and foreign students become friends through language learning. We went for the first time to their first meeting and it was loads of fun. Our table had me, Simona, Reshab, Vincy, Lily, and Vera. Vincy, Lily, and Vera were the Chinese law students and they were very…