The zoo, near death of an acrobat, my own personal strides and a few bits of info about China you might want to know.

Let’s see, what have I done that’s new and exciting. Last Saturday was certainly one for the record books. I rode an elephant, shook a monkey’s hand, almost saw an acrobat bite it, and began to see my life changing for the better before my eyes. How about them apples?

Let’s start with the elephant. We had to wake up in the wee hours of the morning (8:30AM) to head to the Shanghai zoo. The zoo, like so many other places here, has no rule enforcement. So you’d be surprised what you can do with bribery. We after an elephant show, which was really impressive, we paid about 2 American dollars a piece and were able to get onto a massive elephant and take a guided ride around the arena. It feels like you are being hoisted in one of those chairs that they used to carry people of importance in the old days. However, instead of a chair, it’s a writhing spine. Strange but insanely cool.

We were at the zoo for several hours, and the last stop was the monkey section. I. Love. Monkeys. The little ones would chase each other around and have mini American gladiator matches while hanging only by their tails. Better than TV, well Chinese TV anyway. We saw a gorilla and an arangatang. Both were bigger than I anticipated. The arangatang was really hairy. He had 2 foot long dreads coming out of is entire body. Might be a good look for Mo. Finally we got to the chimps. Separating you from the chimps is a wall that is about 4 feet high. Then there is a gap, then the cage. Like I said; no enforcement. We all jumped the wall and went right up to the cage. We high fived him, shook his hand waved at him and got him to wave back. We know it was a he, because he refused to put his little tiny monkey penis away. Once that was over we found the nearest sink and washed our hands profusely.

We left the zoo, went and ate lunch, and then walked around Shanghai, while we decided what we wanted to do before we went to the acrobat show. We ended up going to the plaza that the show was in, finding an arcade, getting Union to foot the bill for a VIP pass to the whole place, and proceeding to play everything in there. With the VIP pass, we were able to play all of the late 90’s video games for free, bowl, play ping pong, test how hard you could punch a pad, and pretend to be a soccer goalie, with a ball launcher and a big net.

The acrobat show was far and away the coolest thing I have ever seen. These people spent their whole lives training for this show. I guess they have a special school that has less math and science and 9 hours a day of acrobat training. They start at 3 years old or something. But let me say, it paid off. They are the best. During this one stunt, they were using this massive hamster wheel that had 3 smaller people sized hamster wheels inside of it. 3 guys would get in to the smaller ones and make it spin, while 3 more guys would get on top of the smaller ones, but still inside the bigger one and do tricks on them while they spun.

The problem came when the guys on top of the little wheels put bags over their heads and continued to do the tricks they were doing before. One of them lost his footing, managed to stay on the wheel for a second, then crashed into a pole, losing his footing and then fell, grabbed a rail, and hung over the side 30 feet in the air, fell again, took off the bag on his head mid flight, hit another pole caught it, but only for a second, and fell again and hit the floor with his upper back. The final fall was only about 10 feet, but that’s a long way. And we all just watched with horror, thinking “don’t dieee don’t die don’t die don’t diieeeee.” (There was a tune in my head to that, I’m not sure why). The show finished with a big ball, in which they put 7 motor cyclists, and had them going all different directions(including full virtical loops). Again we sang out little tune in our heads. It was an amazing show.

Since the weekend, not a whole lot has happened in terms of activity. I’ve come to the realization that I genuinely want to learn Chinese, and I mean to be fluent. It’s most likely going to take me a few years, as Chinese is harder than Japanese, English or just about any other language. We went out to dinner with another Union alumnus who graduated 2 years ago. He mentioned a course he took at Middlebury for the summer (9 weeks, no English whatsoever, 120 other kids with the same goal as you). He said it was great, and his description matched what I think I need to succeed in this endeavor.

The more time I spend here the more I really like what I’m doing, and the better my work ethic becomes. I started this term with the idea that I would put in as much effort as I did at Union on Chinese, and focus on seeing Shanghai as that would be something I most likely wouldn’t be able to do again. Now it’s quite the opposite. I know that I will be coming back here at some point, I still want to see shanghai, but I’m more interested in being able to communicate with the people the city contains, than really seeing the city. That’s where the real experiences come from anyway. I’ve found myself, going into shops, and having better but still broken conversations with the shop keepers about their products, not because I want to buy them(although I usually do, I’m saving money right into debt.) But rather because if their accent isn’t too thick, I can usually convey what I’m trying to say to him with words. My hand gestures are decreasing weekly and it’s a really gratifying feeling.

Now just some odd tidbits of information for those of you who have never been here.

1) Motorized scooters can ride on sidewalks. Again a complete lack of rules.

2) Chinese people love 3 things.

a. Giving peace signs in every god damn picture they take. The hippies are dead, give it up. It’s like they were just late with the trend America set in the sixties or something. They are usually only 10 years or so behind, but 50 is pushing it.

b. Honking their horns. Even if there is no one in front of them or anywhere near them for that matter. We were in a cab once, and you could see where the guy’s thumb had been pressing the horn because that section of the steering wheel was completely worn away. And if they don’t have a horn, the buy a bell and ring it till their ears bleed.

c. Wearing shirts that say english words even though they haven’t the slightest clue what it means. The best ones are the ones that make absolutely no sense. Here’s an example of one I saw today. “Honk if you love shoehorns”. Or another classic “the river =AWESOME come look Canada SEXY”…..You catch my drift, and for the record I’m not exaggerating at all, this is the kind of Engrish I see on a daily basis.

203 DVD’s I’ve come to the point where I'm going to have to figure out some way of getting all these home without having them taken at customs. To think I’ve spent less than 175 bucks on them….

Hockey season is starting on October 4th. Go Bruins! I'll be watching, there is no way im letting a massive ocean get in between myself and the NHL.