Talk about a lost in translation experience.  We had our first meal in Shanghai last night, and let’s just say, I never felt so useless and lost when ordering a meal than in that moment.  I needed someone to translate the entire time while ordering, and I wasn’t used to that.  I was so thankful for our Chinese friends because they were patient with each of us, ordering each of our items personally.  

It might have been an easier experience if we had gone to an American restaurant—Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, KFC—because we could have gotten away with ordering by the pictures, or saying “fried chicken leg.”  But we had Frank, Lu, and Sean with us (3 Chinese international students) and we went for all the marbles, deciding to eat at a small Chinese restaurant, where the menu was entirely in Mandarin and the only thing I could recognize was the price—it was in Arabic numbers.  

Sean said, “The left column is rice, and meat you can order with the rice.  The middle column is noodles.”  ”Okay,” I thought, “what do I usually get at home?  What do I like to eat?”  I decided I would ask for a rice with beef dish.  

“Which one has rice and beef with garlic?” I asked Frank (because Sean had moved on to help another one of my confused American colleagues).  

“You see the one with the price ‘16’?  That one is like rice and garlic beef,” Frank replied.  

Ok, it was rice and beef.  I was set.  It was a small success in my book.  And then I was excited to enjoy a fresh bottle of 7Up, which you don’t see too often at home.  It reminded me of drinking bottled Coke and 7Up in the Philippines as a really small kid.

Lu ordered for me (again, because Frank had moved on to help another lost colleague of mine)—my rice with beef and 7Up—and it cost a total of 18 RMB.  In US dollars, that’s only $2.85.  It was insanely cheap, and surprisingly filling.  We had our first meal in China.  It was definitely a process ordering our food, but we had survived.  All thanks to Lu, Frank, and Sean!  

Here is my meal:

The restaurant was simple, with no particular American influence:

After that, the 8 of us walked back to the hotel, with the intent to stop at a grocery store to buy an essential—bottled water.  The small convenience store had a bunch of interesting Chinese snacks:

Lastly, we stopped at a small tea/ drink shop to get, of course, boba!  It was a nice way to end the night, getting something that I love to drink.  I ended up getting milk tea with pearls and coconut jelly—it was joy in a cup.  And it only cost 7 RMB, which equals $1.11.  With no tax.  I’m so glad our money goes a long way here—but tell me why our trips costs so much??  That’s a whole other story..

Ahh, the evening was an eye-opening and culture shock-filled experience.  How would I have survived without our Chinese friends—aka, lifesavers—with us?  I’m sure we would’ve survived, but their help made it a lot easier.  I’m humbled because of this experience and really grateful for Lu’s, Frank’s, and Sean’s patience with us.

After pretty much 24 hours of traveling, we have finally arrived at our hotel in Shanghai, China!  It’s pretty surreal that I am actually in China, the most populated country in the world, for a business school trip.  I’m pretty darn lucky, and I’m not complaining.

Let me recap the traveling I have endured in the last day.

I left Stockon for the Hyatt hotel in SF on Friday night, so that we could stay over and just leave the hotel for the airport the next morning.  I got a couple hours of shut-eye in, which was more than some of my colleagues, who didn’t sleep at all (a terrible idea!).  I woke up at 4am on Saturday, and left the hotel with my parentals around 4:35am for SFO.  We all checked in to Air Canada around that time, and I said my goodbyes to my parents.  It was hard to say bye to them—I have been so busy this semester and haven’t really had time to hang out with them, and then I just left them again for a 3.5 week trip in Asia!  I love them to death, and this wouldn’t be possible without their support, so I’m eternally grateful for them.  I just wish we could be together more often.

After checking in and saying goodbye, we left for security, and then to the gate.  The first leg of our trip was from SFO to Vancouver.  It was a beautiful airport—you could see the snow-capped mountains from the gate.  We only had an hour layover there, which was good because long layovers can get really tiring.

Then we embarked on our 10+ hour flight from Vancouver to Shanghai.  I was pretty happy with the service on Air Canada.  They served us 2 meals, plus a snack of cup of noodles.  They served drinks frequently, which I haven’t experienced on any other airline before.  The size of the plane, however, was pretty small.  The flight being 10 hours long, the small size was not ideal for getting up and walking around.  

Then we arrived at the Pu Dong International airport.  Inspection & Quarantine was pretty quick (they looked at our visas), we picked up our bags from the carousel, and then we just ran through customs, which was pretty convenient.  After that it was an hour bus ride to our hotel.  

More updates to come!  Ciao ciao for now!

And I think it’s true.  I never thought I could have feelings for someone again, but randomly, and in probably the worst timing ever, I got to meet someone really great.  The downside is, we’re both embarking on extremely busy summers and he might not even come back to school in the fall.  But despite the short time we actually spent quality time together and the extremely uncertain future, I’m so grateful to have spent the last week with him.  The craziness of the semester and the continuous nonsense chatter in my head stopped when we sat in silence or in conversation with each other.  I felt sane again, comfortable, at ease, and I was enjoying it.  I wish I could stop time and enjoy it just a little bit longer.  

But we said our goodbyes; me, going to China in 2 days, and him, going to London tomorrow.  A little bit of my heart died (okay, that’s dramatic) when we hugged because it was ending.  This thing we had in the last week, was really (against my will and control) coming to a close.  

I don’t know what will come out of this, but I know there was something there.  We both know it. And if it ends there, I’ll live and I’ll definitely move on…but there’s a part of me that yearns for knowing the true end of the story.  There’s the strong belief that there’s more to it.  And then there’s that other part that is afraid of a future, because it inevitably won’t be the same.

Why now?  Why RIGHT before we leave? You know, they say it happens when you least expect it.