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Zao a! Good morning! It's about 7 AM here in Shanghai, and I've been up since 6. It's not that I couldn't sleep, it's just that I don't WANT to sleep. I have a lot to do today! I'm not really jet lagged, I slept a lot on the plane, and when you add the full night's sleep I got last night, I'm quite well rested.
Anyways, the travel wasn't bad. My flight from Seattle to San Francisco was delayed, but luckily I had a long layover. It actually turned out well, since I ended up with about 30 minutes to spare: long enough to get stuff reorganized without stress, but short enough that I didn't get bored.
From Seattle to Shanghai was fine. The plane wasn't crowded, and I was sitting next to a girl my age who is studying at CIEE Shanghai. I'm pretty sure we were the only white girls of our age range on that plane, so it was nice to sit by eachother. She hasn't studied Chinese at all! Suddenly, I felt a lot less nervous. I can talk...even if I don't like to.
Shanghai airport was fine as well. It wasn't crowded, so we got right through customs and immigration. I didn't get out of there for a while, however, as Lillian (my friend) had lost a bag. So I stayed with her to make sure she got everything taken care of.
At about 8 pm, I arrived at my hotel. I thought that I wouldn't understand Chinese at all, but I needn't have worried. Normally, I get about every other word of the sentence (more if someone is discussing a topic I have studied in class). So about half the time, I understand what people are saying. As for speaking...I think I have a speaking Chinese phobia. I know the words, I know the sentence patterns, I have them in my head all ready to say, but instead, I use English. I have conducted everything at this hotel in English, eventhough I could have said everything in Chinese...and sometimes I should have, as my Chinese was better than some of their English. But I think of it as my last day of English. From here on out, I wont have a choice.
Today I take the train to Nanjing. From there, I take a taxi to Nanda (Nanjing U). I used to be really scared of this part of my trip, but now I'm kinda excited. I'm ready to use my Chinese. I'm ready to figure this out.
I don't have an adapter yet for my laptop, so I don't know when I'll be able to write again, but next time I do, it'll be from Nanjing. I miss you all, and I hope America is fabulous!
Zaijian!
MeiLi
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