Day 2. It's going to be a long nine weeks...

Class was not bad, still excited about them, even though it's a load of work. My one on one laoshi today was Zhang laoshi. After talking (again... they are obsessed with the idea of fraternity.) with her for most of the hour, we went to the post office to send Liang laoshi (program director / the teacher from the University) a letter. Yeah, what? lol. Had to go to the chuangkou to buy the supplies, then write it (poorly, under the watchful eyes of Zhanglaoshi), glue everything together using rice (insert stereotyping joke here) and then mail it. To mail it, Zhang laoshi had me ask the police officer/official person sitting there in the youju.

Let me just say that not every thing in China looks like it has moved out of the backwardness it was once in. The official looked very Commie, and scared the living daylights out of me. I stumbled up to him and began to stutter at him with rice-glued envelope in hand. He angrily pointed me towards the mailbox outside of the post-office and I scattered off to the laughs of Zhang laoshi, who was commenting on the fact that I should be lianxi-ing (practicing) my Zhongwen.

LuoLan waited for me at the post-office, we stopped by a book store, but they didn't have any gridded notebooks. Went to Trustmart, and Zhang laoshi parted with us there.

I remember what Zhuo laoshi told us about Trustmart the first day during our campus tour: it's a little pricey for their likings. Trustmart is actually, as I found out, a branch of Walmart, which makes sense, as you can by the Walmart generic brand (Great Value?) inside. The prices, as high as they are, are generally still cheaper than their American equivalents, but that just gives you a glimpse at a comparison between the two countries.

Went back, did some homework, slept, same old same old. Time to start studying for Tingxie, the most painful thing in the world. At least today is just one lesson! The gifts you start to appreciate in life!

written by  waywardwahoo on June 3, 2008 from Shanghai, China
from the travel blog: Shanghai, China
tagged Trustmart
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