Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

As you may have noticed, this past week I have been having a lot of difficulty with my blog and have been unable to update it.  Finally, however, it worked today!! 

This morning, I went to the Shanghai Wild Animal Zoo!  I went with Ivy, her dad, Agatha, Grace, Aiden, Aiden’s host brother, Richard, and Kevin (Richard’s host brother).   First we went to a sea lion show.  It was cool but not exactly spectacular.  Then we went into the “Beast Zone” (no joke, that is what the sign said).  Basically, we got on a bus and the driver drove us through these huge enclosures where there are wild animals.  I was about five feet away from a lion at one point (obviously I was inside the bus though!).  It was pretty wild!  We saw zebras, tigers, black bears, cheetahs, and lions just roaming around freely.  Then we walked around to the rest of the zoo, and it was such an amazing experience.  Agatha and I fed giraffes!  It gets better though; we also rode an elephant and held a baby tiger cub!!  It was the absolute cutest thing ever (see the picture below!) and was such an awesome experience.  We also saw some pandas, monkeys, and other animals. 

Considering I haven’t been able to update my blog for the past week, here are a few highlights from the week for you!

Richard, Agatha, and I had a crazy little adventure at the post office on Monday.  We went during our lunch break to buy stamps so we could send some postcards.  Unfortunately, we were without host siblings to translate for us and no one in the post office spoke a word of English!  After about 30 minutes of miming and gesturing, we finally got some stamps, so check your mailbox!

School has been going pretty well.  This week was fairly easy but next week apparently it is going to pick up and we will start getting more homework (ugh, aren’t I on summer vacation?).  I am excited to get a better grip on the language though, so then when I go out I am not completely dependent on Ivy or another host sibling.  At the end of every week we have a test.  Friday’s test went well, however I completely blanked on how to say, “Do you have a job?” in Chinese.   Woops.

In the morning I have class, but in the afternoon we always have some sort of cultural activity at school.  This week we did some paper cutting, seal carving, and we even sang some Chinese songs.  We also had a seminar one day with some of the students about differences between American and Chinese education and home life.  On Wednesday we were taken to a supermarket and we had to interview a stranger in Chinese and film it!  It was pretty difficult and I definitely got a lot of laughs considering my pronunciation is really awful but it was fun to try out what I was learning in class with the locals.

As for my host family, they are awesome.  Neither of the parents or the grandmother speaks English so Ivy has to translate, but they are very sweet.  The house is really comfortable, except for the fact that the showerhead only reaches to about my shoulder height, so I have to wash my hair on my knees (which is surprisingly difficult).  So far I haven’t had any meals that were absolutely amazing, but luckily the Carrefour by my house supplies me with Animal Crackers.  I am able to get to school and home by myself now, and I am comfortable with the metro and bus systems.  I feel like such a local when I take the metro by myself (I just have to ignore all the stares I get from the actual locals when they see a blonde Westerner on the train).   Ivy even made me a QQ last night, which is kind of like the Chinese version of Facebook.  There is a big group chat with all the Americans and their host siblings, so we can all communicate and make plans using QQ.  Speaking of the other Americans, they are all great and I think we have become really close in such a short amount of time (s/o to Agatha’s family and friends reading this blog!)

I am having an amazing time here, but it is exhausting and I am looking forward to coming back to the States in just a little more than four weeks!

xoxo

sar

My host sister, Ivy, and I at the zoo.

Feeding a giraffe! 

Aggie and I holding a tiger cub! 

Me, Aiden, Agatha, and Richard in the panda exhibit. 

Agatha and I riding an elephant!

The entire class with our paper cuts. 

 At the supermarket with my group for the interview project (Tafari, Tim, me, and Richard).

Seal carving with Moshe, Richard, Aiden, me, and Tafari.