So on the second morning in Shanghai (Tuesday, Feb 5th), my roommate and I took a morning stroll by the back gates to get breakfast. My dormitory is by the back gates, which is very convenient. There’s a lot of stores by the back gates, so we can go out to buy stuff whenever we want.

Before heading out we open our curtains and see this:

Shanghai has a lot of fog, and for these past two weeks, a lot of rain. I’m sensitive to the cold, so you can tell how much I’m loving the weather. In addition, the heater in my room literally sucks. It only goes up to 32degrees celsius and it’s not reliable. Sometimes it doesn’t turn on and it’s always resting. It has been freezing in my room for the past few weeks; I just can’t wait for the warm weather.

Directly outside my window is the other side of the dorms. I’ve never entered that side, but I believe another study aboard school is there.

So my friend and I just started snapping photos of the streets. These pictures are taken while going back to the dorm.
Not sure if you can see it clearly, but right across the street is a KFC.

There are A LOT of bikers (motor bikes and regular bicycles).

The back street name?




Some huge jar in front of a nice looking restaurant.

Shanghai public telephones!

Entrance of the back gate into the school. Usually there’s a couple of middle aged people selling phone cards, but because I went out early, the streets seem deserted.

Inside the gate…not sure if you can see, but there’s a white dog ahead. There’s a lot of dogs (and maybe some cats too) that walks around everywhere.

Lastly, here is a squatting toilet in my school that I tried for the first time. haha

So I haven’t blogged in a while because I have been busy. I am actually blogging from Shanghai for the first time! I’m currently studying aboard in Shanghai for about four months and just flew in this past weekend.  This was actually my first time to ever fly on a plane and even leave the country!  I have been in Shanghai for roughly five days.  So far things have been going well. This week was orientation and classes start this coming Monday (~1 day from now)!!

Surprisingly, the plane ride wasn’t too bad. My only complaint is that it was a very long flight.

A picture of the sunrise on the plane!

It was so cold that there were snowflakes on my window!

Shanghai is very big. On the night I arrived in Shanghai, my friend and I got lost trying to find the dormitory! No one knew where our dorms were located and we kept getting wrong directions! Thankfully it wasn’t a cold night, but lugging around our luggage was not fun at all. Finally a nice guard(?) helped us and even took out his bike with a wagon and helped us get to the location since we were in the complete opposite side.

Sneak peak of my room:
Entrance–

Beds–

Desks–haha you see my roommate :)

Exit/Entrance

We also have our own bathroom but I forgot to take a picture! It’s not impressive though ;P