Tea, Marriage, and Martial Arts

Tea market

Advanced II Chinese had our first test Tuesday, so on Wednesday our teachers took us on a field trip to a tea market called “天山茶城” (tian shan cha cheng). We split up into groups and went into different stalls to talk to venders about tea and do a tasting. My group asked a lot of questions and we all bought tea. There were some teas that cost hundreds of kuai. This “tea city” was only two bus stops away, which is perfect because I love tea, but dangerous because, as my family can attest, I really like to buy anything tea-related.  After the tea market, our program paid for our class to go out for lunch, which included chicken feet and delicious sweet plum juice (酸梅汁).

 

On Friday, some friends and I went to a Sherlock themed restaurant in the French Concession. As I was fangirling, the waitress handed me a Sherlock hat. THEN, if it couldn’t get any better, she handed me a violin (Sherlock plays violin), and THEN to top it all off, she gave me a pipe. It was super cool and not at all nerdy. The food was also pretty good, albeit a little pricier than we are used to, but totally worth it for the experience (plus, “pricy” in Shanghai is still decent compared to the States). 

Later that day, we went for burgers, marking this day the longest amount of time I had gone without eating Chinese food. The burgers were awesome and we plan on returning to compete in their burger challenge. You have 15 minutes to eat 2 (or 3, we weren’t sure) burgers, fries, and a milkshake. If you complete it, your meal is free and you get a t-shirt. Otherwise, you pay double.

You don't miss it until it's gone

That night we went to a bar called Southern Belle which is owned by two Americans, has flags of Southern US colleges (big Georgia flag!), and has rugby playing on the big screen. Needless to say, I was pretty happy. We ended the night at a microbrewery where we relaxed and played some pool.

Marriage Market at People's Square

Saturday morning, I went to a marriage market in People’s Square as a field trip with my class on “Issues in Contemporary China.” Parents go there on weekends to find potential spouses for their children and it was incredibly interesting to see the vast number of people and “advertisements” filling the park. The flyers typically include: gender, year of birth, job, education, salary, and where the individual lives. I talked to a number of Chinese parents to understand how their children feel about them going there, and I asked some teenagers how they would feel if their parents were there. I loved practicing my Chinese and a lot of people were excited to hear me speak, to the point where I would be talking to a couple and by the end of my conversation, 10 more people had gathered around me. Many parents even suggested that I date their sons, to which I politely declined. It was definitely an interesting experience that is not something to be found just anywhere.

All the single ladies

The final highlight of my weekend was Sunday night at the gym. Becca and I took a “kickboxing” class without knowing what to expect. The first half was tai chi chuan, which involved moving back and forth in a lot of very deep stances. The second half was kicking and punching, which obviously I loved. The instructor was surprised and impressed by my kicks (I might have a little experience with kicking) but it was also fun to see the differences between our styles. People kept looking into the room to watch the two Americans taking class. We are used to people staring at us there, but it is always entertaining to see how much attention we get. Another student in the class kept stopping to take pictures and at the end, they took a group picture with us posing in the center. That night, our instructor friended us on WeChat (social-media/messaging platform) and wrote a whole post about the “two beauty from the United States” in class, compete with pictures and a lot of emojis. We laughed for a long time about it but we also really enjoyed the workout and the environment, and we definitely plan on going back.