Aisha

To pierce or not to pierce. that is the question of the day.

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 15:08:55 -0500

To pierce or not to pierce. that is the question of the day.

Once again I find myself getting way to excited over pandas!...

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 23:44:24 -0500

Once again I find myself getting way to excited over pandas! Absolutely love these animals. They are so freaking cute.

After going on “a hike” (which was actually more of a combination of a zoo and a museum) we took a ride up to the top of the mountain to see these awesome pandas.

It was definitely the best part of the day. Actually more like a tie between that and the shawty bird show where:
1) the parrot nearly flew into a little girls head
And
2) the workers didn’t smile once the entire show.

Gotta love china.

Side note— home in 18 days!!!!!

Partying in Tokyo—how do people even do it there??? Oh...

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 10:18:29 -0500

Partying in Tokyo—how do people even do it there??? Oh wait I know…. They either pass out on the floor outside of the club or pass out in the train station.

Going out knowing I would have to stay out from 11pm till at least 5am was definitely a once in a lifetime experience… mainly because that was the one and only time I will do that in my life. Never again.

This experience made me thankful that cab fairs in shanghai are so cheap. By 5am when the sun was rising and I was walking in my going out clothes when people were going to work for the day I actually wished I was in China. When I finally got to lay down on the worlds 2nd hardest mattress (the first being the one in my current dorm room) it actually felt like being on a cloud.

All in all this was definitely an experience. I’m glad I tried it, however I now know I will never do that again.

Day 6: adventuring around asakusa and odiba.

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 09:54:00 -0500

Day 6: adventuring around asakusa and odiba.

Day 5: Tokyo Disney by the sea!!!!! Second.favorite.day. Tokyo...

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 09:03:00 -0500

Day 5: Tokyo Disney by the sea!!!!!

Second.favorite.day.

Tokyo disney was so much fun. This photo of Marybeth, Bree and I was taken near one of my favorite Disneyland rides ever indiana jones 当然! (dangran = of course). So basically we ran around like little kids from 10am till 10pm. By the time we made it home I was completely exhausted and officially broke. But it was completely worth it. Every single Japanese girl there wore these crazy Mickey mouse ears with little bells hanging or big bows on them and they looked so freaking cute I decided i needed a pair just like them. However, I felt ridiculous and looked so hideous in them that I opted to buy them for my little sister Kierra instead (I’ll live vicariously through her).

I have to mention the nastiest thing I ate the entire trip was from disneyland it was called a tipa torta. It looked like a churro but it definitely was not a churro. You could choose apple custard or chestnut I chose apple custard because I dislike chestnut. It was filled with this apple custard filling which ended up tasting like straight creme aka nasty. We were forced to practically inhale them because we wanted to ride a roller coaster but the lady wouldn’t let us in line with food.
Lesson of the day, don’t eat a tipa torta and definitely don’t eat it in under 5 minutes then ride a roller coaster.

Day 4: venturing shinjuku and going to asakusa This day we went...

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 05:50:53 -0500

Day 4: venturing shinjuku and going to asakusa

This day we went to a park right near our hostel which at first I was a bit apprehensive about (mainly because we were paying to go to a park….. Really?) but it ended up being really awesome—thanks emily for making us go. It was a huge, beautifully maintained garden. There were lots of people scattered around with easels painting the scenery, schools on field trips and people picnicking. It was really beautiful. I loved being in the middle of a beautiful park with streams running through it and seeing rows of big yellow trees yet at the same time being able to see the Tokyo tower in the distance.

After the park we went to do some shopping in shinjuku, found yet another excessively large forever 21 to spend at least an hour in, then went and had probably the best miso-ramen I’ve ever had.

Then we got our suitcases and made the journey across town to our next destination of the second half of our trip, asakusa. Nothing really eventful happened once we got there, we were pretty tired, had dinner at a boat sushi place then walked around the town a bit.

Day 3: venturing the city on bikes. This photo was from a photo...

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 08:56:59 -0500

Day 3: venturing the city on bikes.

This photo was from a photo booth… It was insane!! first off the thing is like 100degrees from all the bright white lights, it plays American pop music while your taking the photos and you can look at example poses to do before you take it (which is where I got my pose from). Then once your done taking photos you can decorate them, the Japanese girls are obsessed with this! I found it very odd and all the photos made me look weird. Bizarre experience.

Anyways, so this day was by far my favorite day of the entire trip. It was so much fun riding bikes all around town, racing up the hills, getting a bit lost but always making it to our destination. It was just so much fun. We rode around shinjuku and then went to harajuku, stopped to eat crepes then we went to yoyogi park, rode along the bike path, checked out the dog park, watched Marybeth fall off her bike and wondered if the homeless man that was sprawled out on the grass was okay. Then we made our way to shibuya to do some shopping and have dinner. Then we somehow found our way to this cute little restaurant kind of near our hostel in shinjuku to do some sake tasting (I mostly snacked because sake just isn’t my thing). Then we rode back to our hostel and called it a night.

Writing this down and reading it over, the day seems so simple and not very exciting, but it was a perfect day. It was a cheap way to sightsee and for the most part it was safe.

Tip #3: family marts make some really yummy foods. Their sushi is delicious. We ate there about every morning because it was easy and so cheap. I think I ate at least one musubi every morning.

Day 2: We woke up at 4:30am to get to the tsukiji fish market...

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 03:53:19 -0500

Day 2:

We woke up at 4:30am to get to the tsukiji fish market bright and early to try and get a spot in line to see the tuna auction. Sadly, we didn’t make it there early enough to see the auction but we did walk through the market which had lots of little sushi restaurants and shops selling various touristy items. We waited around until 9am to see the actual fish market where they sell all of the fish and other seafood I had no idea existed. It was jam packed with vendors, fish guts everywhere and tons of seafood. Quite interesting. After we had enough of seeing dead fish getting chopped and sold we decided to go eat some of that yummy seafood. I myself do not eat raw fish so I enjoyed non-fishy sushi and it was soooo yummy.

Next we ventured onto a nearby area, ginza where it was a huge street of fancy shops. Then we got onto the subway and took it over to Roppongi where we went to the Tokyo tower which is a mini replica of the eiffel tower. From the top we got a 360 degree view of the entire city, which actually ended up being bigger than I thought it was. It was a beautiful view. Next we went over to see the Meiji shrine it was okay. Then we went to harajuku— the place where all the Asian girls dress up really weird and walk around. Ate delicious crepes (which apparently Tokyo is known for?? Who knew) and walked up and down the street which was filled with people and shops.

Later that evening we went to shibuya for dinner and to celebrate Halloween. We got to experience the shibuya crossing (tokyo’s largest intersection) and boy was it in full effect. It was crazy with all the people, huge buildings with tv screens on them; it was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I loved it. We walked up and down the busy street taking photos with people and looking at all the girls in crazy costumes.

This concludes our longgggg real first sight-seeing day in Tokyo.

Just returned from Tokyo! It was an amazing week. Filled with...

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 10:43:10 -0500

Just returned from Tokyo! It was an amazing week. Filled with amazing food and adventures. Tokyo was the complete opposite of Shanghai (everything I needed). It was clean, the people were soooo friendly and nice, the food was delicious and the shopping was endless. I have so many great photos from the trip I’m mad I can only post one at a time. Therefore, I will do my recap in parts so you all can see lots of photos.

Day 1: goal of the day= get from narita airport to the other side of town to our hostel in shinjuku. Turned out to be a much larger adventure than anticipated. Despite the well designed and labelled subway/train system Tokyo has, it does seem that the one downfall is finding your way when you understand no Japanese.
Tip #1- don’t follow random locals who say they know where their going because words get lost in translation and you will more then likely end up on the wrong train like we did.
Tip #2- Tokyo does not cater to handicap people therefore, be prepared to lug your suitcase up and down endless amounts of stairs in the busy subway station.

A photo from this past weekend. We went on a party...

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 06:37:00 -0400

A photo from this past weekend. We went on a party bus—-actually it was really just a coach bus with boxes of 40’s and plastic handles of vodka that blasted techno music the entire way. But it was still so much fun!! It was 100RMB which is about $15 and it picked us up at school, we got free panda hats, free alcohol and it stops at 2 different clubs where you get free drinks inside as well. Such a deal!!!

Anyways, basically I LOVE my panda hat, and hope to collect a bunch of different animal hats before I leave. I’m so obsessed I had to make a post just for the panda hats :)

你好! 这是我的朋友 Emily, Laura and Marybeth I figured since were about...

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 03:24:00 -0400

你好! 这是我的朋友 Emily, Laura and Marybeth

I figured since were about halfway through with our semester a reflective post in order.

I came to shanghai not knowing very much about China, not knowing what to really expect and without any real expectations except to learn some Chinese, meet some cool kids and have an experience I would never forget.

I’d say that so far all of these things have come true. Ive learned more Chinese than I thought I would ever know in just 9 short weeks. I can’t even believe it honestly. And to think I still have 7 more weeks the amount of Chinese I will know will be amazing! (granted I’m still at a little kids level in Chinese I’m just very pleasantly surprised).

The 8:1 ratio still holds true, however it’s just part of being here and ive grown used to it. But, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to my bed being hard as rock or the fact that the only thing that separates my toilet and shower is a shower curtain. Regardless, im sooooo glad I chose to come to china. Even if I don’t know what type of meat im eating majority of the time.

Ive met some awesome people!! And can’t wait to visit the east coast to visit these girls (my main beezys) :)

I’m going to miss eating baozi every morning and struggling just to order a drink at coco (our favvvv milk tea shop on backstreet) with all the sugar. I’m going to miss the daily struggles to get the most basic things done and the feeling of pure victory when I find my way across town via subway, or manage to not let some chinese person cut me in line.

I can’t believe how fast time is going by. I’m so stoked on how much I’ve gained from this trip already and intend on soaking up this second half of the semester as it’ll be over before I know it.

A post is wayyyyyy overdue. Due to some unfortunate...

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:47:02 -0400

A post is wayyyyyy overdue.

Due to some unfortunate circumstances aka my losing my mind on our recent week long field study trip to Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou and Zhuhai I unfortunately lost my laptop. Yes, I said that right… My entire life… My laptop. I was just so excited to get off my first semi-long distance train ride that I just left it behind. Very very sad. But, here I am again finally getting to tumble. I would post more photos if this app would let me but for now this will have to suffice.

Guangzhou: 2 day 3 night adventure. It was mostly filled with tours of museums (not my favorite thing in the world but, it wasn’t bad…. After the first 2). First thing I noticed—how it was significantly cleaner than Shanghai and omg, people follow driving rules!!!!

Hong Kong: Got off the train, walked outside instantly fell in love. Went through an underwater tunnel, surrounded by huge buildings, lots of English everywhere and tons of shopping. Also noticed everything is a bit backwards…. they drive on the other side of the road and drivers seat is on the right side. Hong Kong basically reminded me of a huge San Francisco. I’m absolutely in love. Also, I ate the best pizza here. We visited big buddah, the HK stock exchange, and got stuck in a typhoon.

Macau: with a delayed arrival due to the typhoon by some miracle we made it safely to Macau. Who knew you could actually think you were going to die while taking a short ferry to a different island. Let’s just say within 3 minutes of leaving the dock nearly everyone had barf bags in hand. Then let’s say within 15 minutes people are running to the back of the ship knocking over anything in their way to throw up. Then about 10 minutes before arriving the entire upper level of the boat is screaming. Let’s also say that there’s this very loud thud sound going on every couple of minutes… what is that and where is it coming from???? Just making memories here in China. anyways, so onto Macau… Kind of a disappointment. Not all that I hoped for. It was a ghost town due to the typhoon. We went to the Macau tower and had a delicious buffet lunch while some kids bungee jumped off the tower. Before leaving I played roulette for the first time in the Venetian (it looks just like the one in Vegas) and I won!! It was very aggressive people we’re climbing over me to get their chips down…. China I tell you.

Zhuhai: nothing spectacular besides the super fun ride thing we got to go down… Kind of reminded me of the mattahorn (sp? At Disneyland) only it was definitely not legal because it felt like we were going a million miles an hr and we definitely lifted off the tracks multiple times. Its okay though because there was a small net to save us from falling down the cliff.

Zhongshan: mini stop at the natural hot springs = amazingness. Great way to end the trip. I played in the pool and hot springs the entire time, only stopping to eat and get a massage.

All in all it was a great trip despite China eating my computer. Sorry for the lack of photos, I will try and get more up later.

Now im just back in the grind of school… Japan in t-18 days :) can’t wait for Tokyo!!!!!

Procrastinating = time for a new blog. It’s only Monday...

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 03:35:00 -0400

Procrastinating = time for a new blog.

It’s only Monday and I’m already exhausted from all this damn Chinese homework. I knew it was going to be hard work to learn Mandarin however, I underestimated the amount of work I would be doing each day. I definitely had to double take the class schedule the first day when I noticed classes were 3 hours long. Listening to stories from friends who already went abroad around the world, it definitely sounded more like a travel/party/sight see-abroad program. But somehow I have definitely found myself on a study/swamped with homework/too much reading abroad program. Not that I’m totally complaining, because I am learning so much however, I’m just finding it hard to get into my good ol’ Redlands routine…. play hard and occasionally do work. Work has definitely come first these past couple of weeks and its starting to exhaust me. Senioritis has kicked in already.

Needless to say, in true Redlands fashion, I played this weekend…maybe not the hardest—if anyone from our program reads this Gladstone takes 1st place of the weekend. But, anyways it was nice to go out and dance my butt off in my party hat with some cool cats.

It was a pretty fabulous weekend, nearly perfect according to the tally a few of the girls and I are taking.. an 8:1 ratio (good:bad). The one bad thing being when we were laying out in the courtyard area, doing some homework, and listening to music two Chinese guys come and sit right next to us (OF ALL THE OTHER SEATS, they choose the ones right next to us) and proceed to take photos of us with their iPad.

Now come on…. here in America 1. we don’t do that its just a social norm and 2. if we do we at least try to make it sly. For some reason I never expected these kinds of things to happen here, I just assumed that these types of social norms applied all over the world not to just one country… but China you just keep amazing me.

Nonetheless, it was pretty damn funny and we got a good laugh about it… but then I sit and think to myself like what exactly are they going to do with those pictures? weirdos I tell you…

Anyways, heres some pictures from the weekend!

Photo

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 02:59:26 -0400

Field trip to the Yu Garden: a look at traditional China. It...

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 02:20:15 -0400

Field trip to the Yu Garden: a look at traditional China.

It was an overall good day. The gardens were so beautiful I really enjoyed myself; it was unlike anything I’ve ever been to. However, it was so crowded, my personal space bubble was invaded all afternoon. We had a delicious lunch of xiao long bao (soup dumplings), meanwhile lots of Chinese people took pictures of us eating. Great to be an American tourist… it feels like we’re practically famous.

I am currently enjoying myself a lazy sunday afternoon. God bless the USA today, its 9/11 here in the future aka China.

Plan of the afternoon: Visit 2 temples. Our journey began on the...

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 05:35:14 -0400

Plan of the afternoon: Visit 2 temples.

Our journey began on the metro, followed by walking around in circles while munching on delicious mooncake until finally reaching the first temple (forget the name, something like Jade Buddah). We quickly found out that:

1. this temple was not where it said it was on the map

2. it closes at 5. Temple 1 #FAIL.

back onto the metro we went, to temple 2 (no idea what this one was called) but it was in a very nice part of Shanghai, tons of laowai (tourists) everywhere. Got distracted by the fancy stores, the Donut King and lots of animal statues. What we learned at this temple:

1. Wait, this temple is connected to a mall??

2. It closes at 5:30. temple 2 #FAIL

3. Its okay, because Hagen Daz has a stand here and their selling mooncakes… wait in line and discover you must pre-order the mooncakes #FAIL(AGAIN—is that possible?)

4. Expensive mall= Yummy dinner. yay for mexican food & delicious pesto chicken wraps.

all in all, even though the mission was to see some temples it turned out to be a great non-traditional afternoon.

Fun day and night. Traveling around the city, going to the...

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 04:55:00 -0400

My roommate Sara and I!

Birthday girl and I!

Fun day and night. Traveling around the city, going to the museum, eating at pizza hut (a fancy, dine-in restaurant here in Shanghai). Then celebrating at Shanghai Win for Maggies 21st. and finishing the night off with taking pictures with a monkey!!!!! Needless to say I am thankful for this lazy sunday. Quality R&R before I have to hit the books for another week of school.

Amazing adventures today. Probably the best day yet. We started...

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 05:09:12 -0400

First subway experience!

Post-bargaining adventures

Pudong skyline

View from the highest hotel in Pudong!

Maggie & I

Another huge building!

"the ricebowl"

Amazing adventures today. Probably the best day yet.

We started the day off with taking the metro into the city to try at our bargaining skills. Although we weren’t very successful we did manage to find some new “friends” (two women who were trying to sell us things) that followed us around the 3+ story building full of shops to bargain at. At one point in the day they actually became like tour guides, they were quite helpful. Minus the times when they were pulling on our arms to go back to their store.

Once we had enough shopping, we took the metro to Pudong. We had the best meal I’ve eaten since I’ve arrived at what we’re calling the winky girl restaurant since we can’t read what its called we named it by the logo. We had miso ramen, a skillet of rice and steak, and delicious spring rolls (all for just over 6usd each). I will definitely be going back to the winky girl restaurant.

Then we made our way to the 3rd tallest building in the world—Shanghai World Financial Center (or the ricebowl as some of the students call it), to have a cocktail and enjoy the view of this beautiful city we are currently calling home.

It was an AMAZING DAY. Sitting in the grass looking out at all the skyscrapers in Pudong, I realized how thankful and blessed I am to be here in Shanghai experiencing all of this. (Thanks Mom & Dad) :)

Loving every minute of Shanghai….. even if it’s sunny one minute and the next it’s as if the town were going to flood and of all days of course this is the one day I hadn’t brought my umbrella with me.

Wal-Mart shopping day. By far this was my favorite shopping...

Sat, 27 Aug 2011 02:22:26 -0400

Wal-Mart shopping day.

By far this was my favorite shopping excursion yet. 3 stories of amazingness.

I absolutely love waking up to this view every...

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 22:55:00 -0400

I absolutely love waking up to this view every morning.

I’m definitely not in Hawaii anymore, no blue skies or ocean views. However it is a refreshing change to see the hustle and bustle of the city life.

Hoping for better weather soon—it’s been so muggy and rainy lately. Thankfully the dorm rooms are air conditioned unlike every other place in this city.

Finally figured out how to call internationally (its hard when all the directions are in Chinese, but the 100th time is a charm)! Next on the list, find a way to get onto facebook.