If you see a group of 美国人's that's us!

No personal space on Shanghai bus

So it's been about a week since I've posted. Not a whole lot has happened since then. We've mostly had lots of orientation meetings and that type of thing. We did have our Chinese placement test last week and I was really happy that I placed in the 3rd year here which was what I wanted.
Saturday was probably our busiest day yet. IES arranged a scavenger hunt for us that took us all over Shanghai. This was great because it let us get to know some people in our group better, see Shanghai, learn to use the public transportation system more efficiently and use our Chinese. After running around the city all morning and afternoon, we came back to IES to share our experiences with the rest of the group. It was funny to hear everyone talk about their different adventures and the crazy things you encounter in such a different culture. For example, one of the things IES wanted us to observe throughout the day and discuss with the group later was personal space in China. Long story short, there isn't much (see bus picture). However, it is interesting to see how, when space is available, the old and the young observe it very differently. Our group noticed this the first time we got on the metro. When we first got on it was fairly empty, just a few other people were around. As we continued along the line, it quickly started to fill up. My empty bench was soon filled with me, 2 teenage Chinese girls, and a not very clean looking middle age Chinese man. When the 2 girls joined our bench they immediately moved as far away from me and as close to the man as humanly possible and eyed me suspiciously for the rest of the journey. Clearly they were intimidated by my cheerful Americanness.

My New Shanghai Friends 

But don't worry, I wasn't an outcast for long. A few stops later I was joined by the lovely ladies in the pictures. There is really no other way to say this, they couldn't get enough of me. They immediately starting talking to me (in Chinese) and with a little help from some more fluent classmates we were able to have a nice little conversation. Initially, they wanted to know if I was Russian, because my skin "reflects the beautiful radiance of a Russian." True story. You can't make this stuff up. Later they told me I had a "beautiful baby face" and wanted me to be their daughter. What can I say, the old people love me. After talking for a while, they found out that we were in a competition looking for things so they volunteered to take us to the door of the restaurant that we needed to go to. We took them up on it and they were thrilled to march around Shanghai with 5 young Americans, beaming from ear to ear the entire time.
My group quickly took advantage of this apparent gift that I have and I was given the job of interacting with all of the old Chinese people for the rest of the day.
After the scavenger hunt and a short break to shower and get cleaned up, IES took us to see the Chinese acrobats. It was quite a show and I would definitely recommend it. They could do some crazy stuff and I'm not positive that the human body was meant to twist in such ways. But it was cool to watch.
Sunday was pretty laid back. We didn't really have anything scheduled to do. I was able to go downtown to church. It is an international church called Shanghai Fellowship. It was pretty cool. I think it may be the only place I've ever been where there was no clear minority or majority. It was literally a mix up of people from all around the world. I've never been to church and sat on the same row as a Brit, Australian, and Korean while listening to a girl from Canada give her testimony. They say that overall more than 60 countries are represented in their congregation. That's pretty cool. I look forward to going back next Sunday.
That's about all of the excitement. Classes started today and I go to my first day at the school I am interning at tomorrow. I'll update again soon!