Hello my name is Zach Winston. I am a senior (really super-senior) at PSU and I major in economics.
This is my second time abroad (I also did the University of Westminster CIEE Program in London), but Shanghai is on another level.
I arrived last Friday the 17th of June, two days prior to the beginning of my program. For anyone studying abroad in Shanghai who does not speak Chinese I would not recommend this at all. I flew from Philadelphia to Pudong Airport in Shanghai via Toronto and my flights were fine. However, upon arrival, after travelling for nearly 20 hours, I was approached by a Chinese man in a suit who asked me where I was going and offered for me to get a cab back to my dormitory, but conveniently neglected to mention the price. To my dismay, I saw that I was charged more than double what it said a cab ride would cost or 500 Yuan ($77) instead of 150-200 Yuan ($23-$31) and negotiated the price down to 420 Yuan ($65) so not a crisis, but I still paid over the odds.
More important though was arrival in the dorms jet-lagged, hungry, and alone. This led for me to experience tremendous culture shock as the food is much greasier than what I am used upsetting my stomach and since I don’t know the language unsure of what I am eating. Given this, I became depressed, had a mild breakdown, which for me has never happened in my life, and wished I had never come to Shanghai.
Things got better.
The next day I was in the lobby of the international student dorms and met a guy named Kyle with a Hampden University shirt and said to him, “thank god you speak english”. I then proceeded to have a great day, despite pouring rain, touring the French Concession in downtown Shanghai with his group. Despite still feeling sick my experience in Shanghai had begun
I am now nearing my first full week here and in this time I have met a bunch of great guys in my program, have a cell phone, a gym membership, and a settled stomache…Shanghai is awesome and I look forward to posting more about it.
Location: Pudong International Airport, East China Normal University (both in Shanghai)
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You’d be surprised, the food is incredibly greasy. I also don’t really have much greasy food in the US so that hurts me even more. I’ve been to Israel and they speak some English so it shouldn’t be as much of a problem.
I’m glad to hear that Shanghai has gotten much better for you over the days. It was surprising to hear that the food was greasy enough to upset your stomach…this is not what I pictured authentic Chinese food to be like. The language barrier must be very frustrating. I will be studying abroad in Israel and the Hebrew language will likely be quite overwhelming for me as well. Good luck as you begin your second week in Shanghai!