Welcome to Shanghai, 别放味精 (don't add MSG)!

So, I made it to China!

The plane trip was pretty uneventful. My phone was stolen. Fortunately, due
to heavy water damage that rendered it almost impossible to use about four
months ago (it was dropped in a toilet), my phone was found abandoned on a
tram at the San Francisco airport(it is now being shipped to my parents).
The last text message I sent was "I joined the circus", so not only did I
learn a lesson about responsibility today but I also learned that sarcasm
is not the best mode of humor via text message and water damage is the best
insurance.

My seat mates for the thirteen hour leg of my trip were Craig and Sue and
they introduced themselves two lovers/folk dancers from the West coast. I
think they were around 50-60ish. They were headed to Shanghai to take a
"folk dancing river cruise" down the Yangtze River. Sue claimed to have
been a former actress/world traveler who dated Dennis Hopper sometime
around 1969. I suspect she was a little bit senile, but in the most
endearing way. Her lover was Craig the weatherman, a seemingly stoic figure
until he started talking about the forecast or folk dancing. He had been on
about ten other folk dancing cruises around the world before this cruise on
the Yangtze. The pair actually met at a folk dancing festival in Arizona.
Sue told me that I should find a mate who was kind and boring, not fun and
exciting like her ex-husband. Craig did not seem to like that insight at
all. So these folk dancing lovers entertained me for the entire thirteen
hours.

So after twenty-five hours of travel I finally arrived in Shanghai! Flying
into Pudong International Airport, one could only see partitioned fields
and wind power turbines through the dense fog (smog?). The airport was
actually about forty minutes from the heart of Shanghai, so there was not
great aerial view of Shanghai during our descent.

Getting through baggage and customs was pretty simple, and we were met by
Peggy, a girl filling in for our CET guide. Peggy is studying to become an
English language tour guide, and was very cheerful and helpful. We had to
wait an hour in the airport for the last member of our group. So there I
was, in the middle of a whirl of Chinese language, the signs , the chatter
of the crowds, the overhead pages...everything. The cool thing is I can
understand a lot of what I am seeing and hearing! Peggy called our driver
and took us to this Sichuan restaurant near the hotel (which is really nice
BTW). In the car and at the restaurant I finally broke the ice with my
limited Chinese conversational skills. I talked about family, my major, and
food. Basic stuff really. The Chinese in the title of the post is
pronounced "bie fang wei jing" and means don't add MSG. While the group was
trying to figure out how to convey this wish in Chinese, the owner/waitress
of the restaurant heard us and feigned anger as she yelled "bie fang wei
jing" back at the kitchen. I laughed out of surprise due to her blatant
sarcasm, she laughed at she realized I understood what she was saying and
the driver decided to ask the waitress to not add MSG with every dish she
brought out. It was the first time I have really ever experienced humor in
Chinese. It so nice that this is my first time in China, because I have so
many questions and I am actually good at asking questions in Chinese.
Question asking really takes the pressure off of me because I can ask a
question, and while the Chinese speaker is answering I can think of another
question. Communication is not too hard. If everyone continues to be
patient with me like they were today, I really think that I have a good
change for workable fluency by the end of the summer.

Okay, now I need to sleep and get rid of these giant, water retentive
kancles. So excited to be in China!

Best, Kelsey