I apologize for having taken so long to post anything new, but my trip to China has turned into everything I had ever hoped for and more than I ever dared to expect. I do not really know where to start, but I suppose I should first talk about the difficulties I had in getting to China.

It all began when I arrived at the check-in desk at the Paris airport (this was hour 20 at the airport). I was to fly from Paris to Milan, and then from Milan to Shanghai via Alitalia. However, I was quickly notified that Alitalia only allows a maximum of 20 kg on their flights while I had double this. The ticketing agent said this is a common occurrence because Alitalia does not notify passengers about the weight restriction, but with my flight taking off in a couple of hours and the language barriers (Italian and French) I had to quickly figure something out. I ended up finding a carrier in the airport who was going to fly it to Shanghai on a later date. The service is basically a mixture of FedEx and flying standby in that it uses airline carriers to bring the baggage from point A to point B. The bottom line is I parted with one of my bags (never expecting to see it again) and with 150 euros.

Once I arrived in Milan, I was greeted with the heartwarming news that my flight from Milan to Shanghai was cancelled. As if rubbing it in, the Alitalia agents laughed in disbelief that I had been allowed to fly to Milan, as I was supposed to have been re-routed in Paris. After an hour of scrambling, they found me a flight to Copenhagen, Denmark, and said I could hop on a flight from there to Shanghai. It was another whirlwind experience because my bags were originally checked to Shanghai, and were lost somewhere in Milan. Even though the agents promised the bags would go on the flight with me, I knew there was no way they would find them in time to get them aboard the Copenhagen flight.

In Copenhagen, I had an hour to run to the ticketing counter and get a ticket to Shanghai (all I had was a blank check from Alitalia). I made it to the terminal as the plane was boarding, and the only redeeming factor in all of this is that I flew business class on Scandivanian Airlines. It was a fairly significant factor given the luxuries of business class over a 14 hour flight, but nothing had gone according to plan.

Once I arrived in Shanghai, I made my way to the baggage pick-up while snapping pictures left and right. I have posted a great picture of Chinese security videotaping (with heat sensors) everyone alighting from the plane - it was a pleasant "Welcome to China".

As expected, my bags were lost and I was thrown out on my ass with nothing but a day pack. Fortunately, a student named Brown Liu from Jiaotong University waited at the airport for six hours since he didn't know my flights were being cancelled and re-routed. This was my first experience with the famed Chinese loyalty, and I was both incredibly impressed and incredibly grateful. Brown spoke excellent English and showed me around much of the campus and the nearby parts of the city.

This is when things really started looking up!

Shanghai is absolutely unbelievable. I do not know how to describe the sights and sounds, and pictures do not do it justice. I have heard all kinds of wild population estimates that claim there are 15 million people living in the city with another 8 million that commute in every day. I find the second number a little unbelievable, but the gist is true. My university is in a very chic shopping district, but is closed off from the hustle and bustle by traditional walls and imposing Chinese gates. Sadly, even this cannot stop the sounds of honking horns (Chinese people honk NON-STOP), screeching tires, or yelling vendors, but it does provide some release.

I get excited about the city just writing about it.

My first day I went with Brown (he chose the English name in middle school and has had to stick with it) to a Tea House near campus where I had the best Chinese food ever. It was Kung Pao Chicken and eggs (gong bao ji ding) that set a high standard for all food in China. As long as I stay away from food courts, the food here is great. The diverse Chinese cultures mean there are basically a large variety of types of Chinese cooking (Sichuan, Beijing, Shanghai, Hunan, Mongolian, Korean, Japanese, Thai, etc).

As a bit of an update on the classes I am taking, my Chinese course has been coming along very well. I have arranged with another student at Jiaotong to teach them English if they teach me Mandarin. Coupled with soccer every day and touring the city endlessly, I am developing a strong vocabulary and set of phrases.

I will not even go into my other courses as they are of the tedious engineering variety (see picture to the right).

I will post more later in the day, or tomorrow. Please let me know if there is anything specific you are curious about because I literally do not know where to start. I have an unbelievable story about Chinese customs and the corruption of a Chinese business. It is worse than any nightmare story I have heard so far, but I have escaped unscathed and spent several hours arguing with the agent who was trying to screw me over.