Random topics In a weekly update

Today, I want to quickly touch upon a few topics. The first, being the concept of voting in China. It's a very foreign concept for most Chinese people. For example, my Chinese teacher did not know that you shouldn't ask people who they voted for. She found that out by asking us in class. Also, I noticed that our economics professor never wants to tell us his opinion in class. He feels that it isn't important which I think may be correlated to the fact that they don't get to express their opinion often so they are not used to that.

The next topic is self-confidence. I have not met one person who is extremely confident in themselves. Most people will tell me that they want to be skinner, have smaller faces, bigger noses, bigger eyes and whiter skin. Most Chinese girls comment on how pretty I am because my face is so skinny. I think this lack of self-confidence is a major problem, and I never would have imagined it to be this bad. Since fashion is so big in Shanghai, I expected that they would be happier with themselves. The Western influence has really changed the way they view beauty.

Another topic I want to talk about is marriage. Here in China you have to be 21 years old to officially be married. I have heard that some young people here want to be married sooner so they will unofficially get married, but I’m not quite sure how that works. This last weekend, my co-worker got married! The customs here say that a small, but loud ceremony will take place, and since they don’t invite many people besides family friends, they have to treat everyone else with small gifts, typically sweets. Also, they oftentimes treat people to lunch. So not only did I get chocolates from my co-worker on Tuesday, today we went out to lunch. It’s just so ironic that we learned about all of this the class before she told me that she got married (in Chinese by the way). I am so glad that the things we are learning in class can be carried over to my workplace and even just everyday life.

This Friday is 清明节 or Qingming Festival. What that means is that it is a day to respect their ancestors. Most people will go to the cemeteries or just go home in order to celebrate. This is as close to religion as most Chinese get. They value their ancestors so much; they do not want to do anything to disrespect them or make them lose face. Our Chinese professors want to celebrate this holiday so we have the day off as well!

Ultimate Frisbee exists in China. On Saturday, I found out about it through Smart Shanghai (website with restaurants/bars/activities throughout Shanghai), and it said that their season started Monday. So I showed up and sure enough, there were at least 40 people there warming up to play. I got a jersey, and we played one game. I was so happy to be playing, and they are actually really good! I have learned so much and plan on going back every Monday that I am free.

Finally, I have decided to do my capstone project for my Economics class on the reasons that Chinese students decide to study abroad, what they plan on doing after they graduate as well as why there has been an increase in studying abroad. By doing this research I can not only apply it to this class, but also to my internship. I hope that I will be able to learn a lot about this topic and help recruit more students to study abroad. In my opinion, there is nothing better than studying abroad. You learn so much about yourself as you travel the world and study at the same time.

Next week, I will be traveling to Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macau, and Zhuhai. I am so excited for this trip. We have two company visits, a stop at Hong Kong Stock Exchange and plenty of time to tour around. Trust me; I will give a full report on everything when I return.

The pictures which are below are my frisbee jersey, a cute restaurant in tianzifang, and my Australian friend Mandy and I at The Beach Boys concert!