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USAC Farewell Dinner (Good Times)

Tonight we had our farewell dinner, since today was the official end of our program. We celebrated at a great Brazilian Steak House (my first time) and it was an unlimited buffet. I didn’t eat much the entire day just so I could Stuff myself with meat. And I was not disapointed: all the meats were warm, juciy, and red enough for my liking. Plus all of the Sides (like real black beans and Salad and grilled bananas), it was paradise.

All of my teachers were there and I said goodbye (Feifei almost cried, but I’ll See her around during the Summer). Then after we had Stuffed ourselves to the bursting point, we gave hugs and Said our goodbyes. It was Sad but fun and I think I’ll still See most of them over the weekend before they really leave.

Thank you USAC for giving me a great Semester and such a wonderful Study abroad expierence. I am gonna dearly miss all of the friends I made, but I know that there is a future reunion already in the making.

~ USAC Spring 2012

This is from Erika! I don’t have any pictures myself so I have to wait for people to upload them, I’ll make my own post about it later.. maybe lol

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山竹(Shān zhú) or Mangosteen

My friend Nathan gave me one (after almost braking his fingers to open it) and it was so good I bought some more. The truth is the rind isn’t that hard (easily cut with a knife), but it will dye anything purple, so be careful. The inside fruit is kinda Slimy, but really Sweet. And if you let the fruit guys pick them for you, they will find the ripe ones (some Sort of Squeezing technique). China just has the best fruit markets!

Today Katie, Alli, and Hillary and I went to Chongming Island! It’s about a 30 minute ferry ride from Shanghai (but it’s still considered Shanghai?).  

Me and Hillary on the ferry!

Anyway,  when we got there we went to this park which costs 70RMB to get in (didn’t know about that).  But it was a nice park.  It was a national park.  

When we got inside… we saw caged birds… lol. WHY the birds were in cages inside of a PARK I have no Idea!!

Picture of a rock at the entrance

The park actually was really pretty, lots of green.. but the water lacked a lot. gross!

Here is a sign that was on a trashcan lol

They also offered Grass skiing! lol

You would put these shoes on and “ski” down a hill

They also had other activities!

Around Cup = Tea Cup ride

Horse Around = Merry Go Round

and Hurricane Flying Chair = those big swings that go in circles

This is my new friend I met while on the ferry!

That’s the grill you cook it on, and the funnel sucks up the smoke.  At Korean restaurants they give you little “snacks” to eat before your meal

The lettuce is what you wrap the meat in..kinda like a lettuce wrap.

NOM NOM some of the meat we ordered

sizzle sizzle

This weekend, Katie and I went to Huangshan, better known to Americans as Yellow Mountain.  May 1 is the Chinese Labor day so we had a 4 day weekend; we left for Huangshan early Sunday morning, and took a 5 hour bus ride to Huangshan.  Once we arrived we found our way to our hotel (which was really nice) and tried to figure out how we were going to get to the mountain the next day.  After talking with the front desk people for a while we decided we would catch a taxi for the two hour ride to the mountain at 6:00AM for 200RMB ( roughly $30 USD).  instead of booking a tour guide that doesn’t speak english for 460RMB (roughly $70 USD).

Fast forward to the morning, the taxi arrives at 5:30 AM and we head to the mountain!  about and hour and half later, we arrive at the base of the mountain.  We buy our ticket, and catch a bus to a point in the mountain where you can either climb or hike.  

This being the Chinese Labor day, there were SO MANY PEOPLE it was ridiculous!  But once we got to a certain point off the bus, we first bought a ticket to ride the cable car to a point in the mountain for 80RMB (roughly $12 USD).  We go to the line and we STAND THERE FOR TWO HOURS..

where we reach this sign that says we have TWO MORE HOURS TO WAIT!!At that point, after two fights broke out and we couldn’t handle the smell of noodles anymore we decided to leave the line.  MIND YOU ITS ONLY LIKE 8AM.

So after the hassle we go through of purchasing yet ANOTHER TICKET to hike the mountain 115RMB (roughly $18 USD) we finally began climbing!

I’m just going to post pictures because they speak for themselves.  The mountain was absolutely beautiful.

A view of how steep the steps were

Couldn’t see the top of the mountain from this point!

Another view of the steps and me! :)

As we got higher up…

Some people got too lazy or were “too tired” to climb anymore, so they had people take them up the mountain!… I feel bad for the men that have to carry them!

Workers also carried rice up the mountain

All in all, Katie and I made it about half way up the mountain and this took about three hours! it was an extermely hard hike! lol SO MANY STEPS!! my calves are currently paying the price!!

SIDE NOTE!! : ONLY 10 MORE DAYS LEFT IN CHINA!!

Me, Valarie and the cutest old Chinese man! He was so nice!

my new widdle fwend!

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SHANGHAI UNIVERSITY

On the fourth day, we decided we would go to a Maze park and a Volcanic tube.  

Me and Alejandro lost in the maze

The maze park was KINDA scary because what if you couldn’t find your way out?  But thank God we did lol.

The lava tube was kinda cool for the first 5 min then it got kinda boring… and the pics couldn’t come out that well.

But after the tunnel, we had some more good Korean food… (Korean food is great btw)

Sorry I’ve been posting these so sporadically, I’ve been being extremely lazy lol… but I shall continue!

The third day, instead of touring on Jejus Island, we took a ferry to a different island not too far away called U-Do Island.  It’s a small Island with no real attractions besides it’s natural beauty.  And we could rent scooters here:).  So we boarded our ferry off to U-Do! Took about 15 minutes. 

As soon as we got there, we rented some scooters and had a little mishap!  Me or Katie had never ridden a scooter like this before lol… so when I pulled off… I got hit by a car (not  like head on but we collided) lol BUT IM FINE and Katie fell off hers.  Lol Katie then decided to ride on the back of Alejandro’s scooter but I got the hang of mine and was fine after that incident :)

We rode our scooters around the island (which took about 2 hours) but along the way we made some stops!! Here are pics from everywhere we stopped ! :) 

Volcanic rocks

Me and Katie!

Beautiful white sand beach

Random caves

After we left the island, we went back to Jeju and had the BEST Korean food ever!!

You wrapped everything (the pork, the green stuff, garlic, and soybean paste) inside the lettuce leaf and ate it.. it was SO GOOD.

After our delicious meal, we headed back to our hostel!