The Shanghai Grind
A friend of mine who studied abroad before in Shanghai shared with me that the key to surviving the Shanghai grind, is to find your own piece of peace. Upon moving here, I quickly understood the truth of her advice.
Despite being located in the heart of the city, East China Normal University has a quite serene scene on campus. Multiple paths are connected by wooden rustic bridges. Along the river that cuts across campus, there are pagodas and benches for anyone to chill in. As early as March, you can already see the first blooms of Spring on the walk to class.
For my study abroad program, CIEE, study abroad students have the option of living either in an international dorm or a home stay. In the international dorm where I live, I was pleasantly surprised to have a spacious room that came with weekly cleaning services. The dorm is a nice mixture of Chinese students and foreigners making meeting new people fun and easy. Whether it’s just talking to someone new in the elevator, or joining a group of people to explore the city, there are definitely many ways to make friends. By far though the best part of living on campus has to be eating at the dining hall. Without a doubt, the biggest surprise for everyone on our study abroad program was discovering how amazing the dining hall food is here and how many options are served everyday. In a single cafeteria building there are 3 floors, each filled with multiple food stalls serving everything from hot pot, pho, Japanese curry, dumplings, hand pulled noodles, roasted duck, steamed fish, fried rice, made to order fruit smoothies, and fresh tofu. Regulations and standards for university food establishments are high in China due to recent government initiatives, so as a result everyday is a chance to feast. Cafeteria food never tasted so good.
