Well, I'm finally at school and starting to get settled in. It's turning out that all my fears about a sudden drop in quality of life were ill-founded; the dorms are incredibly comfortable, in a brand new building, and we even have air conditioning and our own private bathroom with a western-style toilet. Which is truly a blessing, because try as I might I still can't for the life of me figure out how to use a squatter. I've tried. I really have. And I'm not a stupid person. I don't know how something so simple could escape me so completely.
I had my first day of class yesterday, which was quite an ordeal; I tested into too low a level, so I asked to be moved up a class. But they didn't have any space in the next level up, so they put me in the highest level. The textbook was do-able, but I couldn't understand the teacher at all. They finally found a spot for me in the appropriate level, which I'm grateful for, but all in all the experience was slightly exhausting. Over the course of the morning I had to argue with several people in Chinese, all of whom thought all of my problems could easily be fixed if I would just ask the teacher to please speak a little more slowly.
"You're talking to me now, aren't you?" one of them said. "So you must understand something."
So now I'm in the second-to-the-highest level, which is kind of alarming because I had no idea my Chinese was this good. Or at least I had no idea I could fake my Chinese being this good. I'm still finding it a little difficult, and I have to spend a lot of time studying every day, but it's definitely workable. I will say, though, that I'm going to be pretty darn fluent when I get home.
One other thing that seems interesting enough to mention: my roommate speaks no English. She's from Japan, and her parents are both from Beijing. So she speaks fluent Mandarin with a Beijing accent, but that's the only way we can communicate. It's been great for me, because the worst part of my Chinese is my listening comprehension. It's been great for her, because she keeps asking me how to say things in English. The only problem with that is that I'm finding more and more things that have no literal translations. But it really has been beneficial to both of us, I think. I spoke with a Chinese friend on the phone today who told me he simply couldn't believe how quickly my Chinese has improved. I have a feeling that the majority of what I learn on this trip won't be in the classroom.
We took a cruise on the Huangpu River tonight, which would have been beautiful had it not been for the pollution. Seriously, you have an amazing night view of the entire downtown area of Shanghai, old and new, but you can only see it for about ten minutes before it disappears behind a haze of smog. It's kind of ironic, really, because the price they've paid for all this modernization is that now that they have it, they can't see it.
So other than that I've just been hanging out a little. I bought a bike, which in a silly way makes me feel a little more Chinese. I've made a ton of new friends, all of us bonded by the camraderie of not knowing what the heck we're doing, which has been fun. I even went to a karaoke bar for the first time the other night. Shanghai feels weird because it doesn't feel weird. I feel like I already know this city, like it's already part of me. I must have lived here in a past life. I don't know how else to explain it.
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