Moving our of the dorm was a bitter sweet moment. I felt like I have just came to Shanghai. It doesn’t feel like six months of a study abroad. I really want to stay, but I know that I would need to leave sooner or later. I left on the last day where they said everyone has to move out. Heads up, the line would be extremely long until 9pm. There are not a lot of people working, when I went only one lady was doing the paperwork and one was checking the rooms. Don’t lose the green slip that they gave you on the first day, because you need it to get your 200rmb back. Bring the AC remote control, electricity card, and the kitchen keys when you go downstairs 1st floor to check out. The trash can would be filled with things and custodians would be choosing things that they want, so if you have some things in good conditions you can just hand it to them.
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Finals is the most stressful time throughout this semester since some of my classes didn’t have a midterm they only had a final which is worth 70% of your grade. Also for grades if the classes are offered by Fudan professors have the rights to tell you your grade after they turn in your grade to Fudan. If you took classes that were offered by Tech then you get time to review with your professor about your grade before they turn it in. On the other hand, for your dorm, if you have a lot of things you can just throw it by the elevator or sell it on the 2nd hand group chat. I’m currently parking right now so I’ll updated more later.
Finals are starting to come by and as much as I want to say bye to it I would need to go through it. Slowly more and more students are starting to study in building 3(close to Guang Hua Tower). After hours of studying I went out the classroom to Family Mart to buy something to drink and noticed that the classrooms are pretty packed. It feels as if we are having a class. For building 3 you just need to find an empty classroom and study in it. If you get hungry the Family Mart right downstairs is 24hr, so you can buy food there. On my last post I said that you can eat in the classroom, but that was during the afternoon. During night time you shouldn't eat in the classroom. There would be two tables by the stairway where you could eat there. If you guys are concerned about your belongings it is relatively safe to leave it in the classroom. In the the classroom there are cameras. Additionally, at night it is kinda of cold since the AC is on. You would be thinking that outside is super hot, but inside is pretty cold. When you go out it's kind of dark and trust me I didn't even recognize which way I had to go. I asked a student which side Guang Hua Tower was in order to go the direction my dorm is at. I'll stop here, stay tuned for my next post!
The semester is coming to an end. Spur of the moment I’m starting to feel sad that I would need to leave China. It feels like a blink of an eye I’m at the end of the semester. Sitting here in building 3 makes me sad. I can no longer come to building 3 to study with my friends. For people coming to Fudan instead of the library building 3 would be the place to study. You just find an empty classroom and study in it. While you are studying and get hungry there is a Family Mart right inside building 3. Yes, you are allowed to eat in the classroom. More so, remember to buy mosquito repellent!.
I got bit by poison flies or something and the bumps are super big it takes 1 week or more for the bump to go away. Sadly for me it even left some marks. At this point I just hope the marks would go away over time. From now on, I bring my mosquito repellent everywhere I go. Moving on, my friend and I bought airplane tickets to Beijing and it was 1050rmb round trip, which is the same price as the rail. Fudan has a new rule that you can’t extend the lease for dorm. So I had to rent a storage room to put my luggage while I am at Beijing. The storage is relatively cheap, it’s 88rmb a month. I only need it for a week, but still had to pay for a month since it’s by months. Overall, I met a lot of people all around the world. This would be an unforgettable experience. I would most certainly miss China. This semester passed by super fast and I just noticed that finals are coming up. If you are trying to find a place to study, but didn’t want to go to the cafe you can go to building 3 or the library. I usually come to the library right by building 6. For building 3 it’s closer to the dorm. The library isn’t that big, people mostly just study on the first floor and there are not many seats. It’s super quiet so if you plan to work on a project with friends don’t come here. There is a cafe right next to the library it’s better to go there. It wouldn’t be too quiet and not that loud. I personally like the library, since it gives me the pressure to study and not talk.
My aunty and cousin came to visit me and they chose a hotel that is closer to my dorm, so if your relatives come they can consider this hotel. The school changed the rule that only your parents or siblings can rent the rooms in the international dorm due to the fact that they are low on rooms. My aunty brought me out so I got to eat better foods. Perks of having family members visit you. Also I found out that Family Mart has this chicken that tastes super good and it’s only 8RMB. You need to try it. Also, buying things in a store is annoying, you need to wait in line for almost each store you go to. If you want to try clothes on don’t even think about it. It’s so long to the point where you just want to give up. Yes, I know there are many photos for this weeks post. As for this week, I finished my midterm and we had a break called 五一 which was a four day weekend. Keep in mind that If you have a Monday class you make it up on Saturday. Yeah, it’s such a bummer that we need to make up some classes. Moving on, during midterm I studied in my dorm and I studied with my friends at 大学路. There are many restaurants and cafes at 大学路 also on the plus side it’s close to school.
For the four day break I traveled to WuXi and Suzhou. The food there is not something that I don’t prefer eating. Aside of food, the trip to Wuxi was amazing! We went to this tourist place where it’s like a small village and they projected pictures in water. Everyone was really friendly when they found out that we were Americans. We literally asked the worker to read out the menu to use since there was no English and we didn’t know how to read Chinese. That time was so funny, we even started drawing pictures of what we wanted since our phone ran out of battery. As for Suzhou It wasn’t that fun, we road the boat which cost 25rmb and that’s about it. Be aware of the hotel your picking, because photos and real life is so different. The hotel that I got looked like a motel and the price was two times the price I paid for Wuxi’s hotel. The hotel in Wuxi was way cleaner. If I got to choose again I wouldn’t have went to Suzhou I would maybe go Hangzhou. This trip was a good experience and I believe that I made life long memories during this trip. For this semester, I only have two midterms and for my other two classes I only have a final. I had to remember to register for my manoa classes since I register at 8am Hawaii time I stayed up till 2am China time. In Shanghai the KVT workers would help you celebrate your friends b-day and you would get 50% off. Moving on, I have been eating at this place called Salad Formula for the past 5 days. The restaurant is at 大学路 right by Family Mart. The portion that they give is big and it’s fresh, but it’s on the pricey side compared to other foods. Still the salad is cheaper than Hawaii. As for The Bund, it was so packed. It was so hard to get a spot to get a nice photo. Well... I gotta get back to studying so see ya next time!.
Time has passed by so fast that’s it’s almost midterm time. We had a 3 day holiday, but we had to makeup for our Friday class on Sunday. Yeah, you didn’t here it wrong. We actually need to makeup for classes. This week was my friends birthday, and we went to a KTV, the price is cheaper than Hawaii. If it’s your birthday you can get 50% off and for the price of a big room it’s 380. Aside of food and KTV, you may consider to cut your hair or dye your hair in China. The price to cut your hair in a some what high class salon is 76rmb. If you want to dye your hair it’s around 800rmb and they would dye it to the color you want. Most of the things in China is super cheap compared to Hawaii, but you have to watch and not overspend the money. It has been roughly about two and a half month since I have been in China. For my finance class, the professor only allows us to use a simple calculator for the final. That means that we would need to remember the formulas since we can’t use the finance calculator. I have homework every week. Depending on the professor you may have or not have homework. The textbook is given, but You need to share it with a classmate. Moving on, for my other classes it’s also a load of work. Lots of professors give participation points, so you should answer questions in class to get full points. Also, FYI in china there are no composition books, they use notebooks. It’s hard to find folder paper, the papers are different than the ones in the U.S. I regret not bringing a composition book because I don’t really like the ones they have. Most of the lines are wide rule.
Last week was club week and I was so amazed by how many different kinds of club they had. They had wine, mah jong, tennis, volleyball, and Chinese poet club. Most of the clubs that you can think of they have, and for the clubs that you can’t think of they still have. You need to download wechat in order to pay and get information about the club. The club fees are really cheap it’s only 20rmb that’s around $3.5. Is Shanghai like the photo I have posted? Well if you are living in the dorms, it’ll take you about 44mins to get to Nan Jing Road and that’s where all the big shopping malls and restaurants are at. Nan Jing Road is kind of like the city, when you are there remember to go to the biggest Starbucks in the world. So it has been two weeks since school has started and I’m still kind of confused about classes. I had a professor that told me that she is not a professor she just teaches, one saying international students can’t take the course (when I already registered for the course), one telling us to drop so he doesn’t have to teach, and lastly one didn’t even show up. Don’t get me wrong there are some professors that are really good, but sadly I have schedule conflicts. If you really want a class and it’s full you can talk to Aimee, she would try her best to put you in the class. She understands that it’s hard for international students to be in an environment that they totally are not familiar with. I heard that she went to the hospital to visit this girl that got sick. Personally, I think that it was really nice of her to do that. All in all, I’m still trying to figure out some of my classes and I believe that I have to work hard in school. People here are really competitive since not everyone can get A- and up.
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AuthorAloha, |