Day 3 (2.5?) in Shanghai

I am starting to recover from jet lag, but if I misspell something I will still blame it on the fact that I'm tired. We've been busily exploring Shanghai since we got here Tuesday afternoon. Yesterday we went to the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, the research organization that is "hosting" our group. I was pleased that I was able to understand most of the conversation between Dr. Wilson and one of the researchers at the university; it seemed like maybe a year of Chinese classes has really helped. At lunch however, with 3 Chinese members of the Academy and with me feeling increasingly tired, I was only able to catch bits and pieces. Especially when the pace of the conversation sped up. Dr. Wilson told me later that for part of the conversation they were speaking Shanghainese, a different dialect of Chinese--I wasn't sure whether to feel vindicated that I hadn't understood or frustrated that I hadn't realized it was a different dialect. Ah well.

I've had a few food firsts here already; I've eaten octopus, jellyfish, and mango pudding for the first time, and had strawberry juice and watermelon juice. The seafood I didn't really care for, although I didn't just hate it, but the fruit products I really liked.

My impression after 2 days is that Shanghai is both more affluent and more Westernized than Beijing. The people here seem more accustomed to foreigners; for example, I'm not stared at as much, have yet to use a squat toilet, and have been given a fork at 2 restaurants. The fashion here seems a little closer to what I'm accustomed to as well. There are a lot more green spaces around the city, which really make walking around more pleasant, and the traffic doesn't seem quite as bad, partly because of an extensive system of highways/overpasses. I still would have no desire to drive here, though.

I'm really looking forward to starting our interviews. We've visited a couple of the streets that we're going to be looking at, and I'm really excited about our work. It promises to be interesting, for sure!