Saturday Feb.14th…
Happy Valentines Day!
On Saturday morning we had to be up and ready to leave the Faculty Club by 9:30AM. So after our KTVing adventure it did not leave us much time to sleep. After getting our blankets back we were able to get a few hours of sleep, thankfully we had packed the night before!
The bus was packed!!! It wasn’t a huge bus, and the storage underneath was limited so a lot of the bags had to come on the bus. I was sitting in the back…I made the assumption that the bags would stay in the front, less work right…it would make sense to most people, but not to a group of 18 engineers. So all the bags ended up being carried to the back of the bus, when the last row of seats was stacked to the ceiling, the bags were put in the aisle. Adam and I each had a seat in the last row. We ended up being packed in. The bags were all around us. A few times during the trip some bags tried falling on us, thankfully we were aware this was a possibility and we were able to stop them!
After an hour ride we arrived at the international dormitory on Shanghai Jiao Tong Universities MinHang campus. There were two SJTU students that met us at the dorm. Turns out these two kids will be studying at Purdue next fall!
These guys have been a huge help! They got us all checked in, they helped some of the guys carry their bags to the 5th floor. The guys are on the 5th floor and Caitlin and I are on the 1st floor.
The room is really nice. Everything is new…well accept in the bathroom. We ended up wiping everything down with wet one wipes. And we also cleaned the floor. They provided bedding for us so that was easy, although we did have to go buy towels and toilet paper. The best thing about the room was that ours was the nicest out of all of the rooms!!! Since we had the worst room at the Faculty Club we just kept telling the guys to wait and see that we were going to have the best one at MinHang…and we were right!!! Finally no bugs in the room!!!
After the two SJTU students got everyone checked in they ate lunch with us at the canteen (That what they call the dinning hall here). Then we went on a tour around campus. It was interesting talking to them because we would ask them questions about SJTU and they would ask us about Purdue, so the conversation wasn’t one sided which was enjoyable. They helped us buy cables to connect to the internet and then they came back to our room and helped Caitlin and I set our internet up.
One of the great things about SJTU…they have 3 treasures on campus. Cats, Pigeons, and Woman!!! Since the women on this campus are few and far between, especially in engineering, the guys are super welcoming and they treasure us! Unlike the boys in our group they are very willing to help us!
After the guys left, Caitlin and I went shopping to get hangers and towels, things of that nature. There is a place on campus with a bunch of little stores…they are all exactly what you picture when you think of China…stores packed full with anything and everything you could ever want. We were able to find some hangers and some plastic shelves for our closets. We found a cheap straightner, FINALLY!!! We also bought some towels, that are very thin…haha…the towels are entertaining. Mine are bright pink and they have mushrooms embroidered all over them…mushrooms on a towel? It was our only option, so we had to take them. Only in China!!!
After so many fantastic purchases we came back to the dorm and organized our lives in our new room. It was nice to finally unpack after living out of a suitcase for the last 6 weeks.
We ended up meeting our friends, from the class at XuJiaHui, for dinner…I will probably end up referring to them as the sophomores because they are a year younger and now that we are meeting so many people I am going to have to keep them straight for all of you.
The meals here are fantastic!!!! There are 5 canteens on campus, most of which have 2 floors. There is so much to choose from I cannot even begin to describe what is available. So long as you are not a picky eater and you are okay with pointing and just trying something random…you will enjoy the food.
After dinner we just came back to our room and watched Seven Pounds. It is wonderful being able to see movies that I missed in the theater back in America. I can just go down to the corner and buy almost any movie I want. I actually haven’t bought movies, only the Friends complete seasons, but the guys have been going crazy so I have been borrowing their movies J
Overall the first day at the MinHang campus was wonderful. I know I am really going to enjoy my next 12 weeks here. It feels a lot like I think a campus should feel like. It’s no Purdue, but it will become a home J
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