All Work and No Play Would Not Be Good

It’s getting to be test time. With the HSK, Chinese AP test and finals coming we have all been nuli xuexi-ing (studying hard) and are all a bit nervous for the plethora of exams. But, alas, all work and no play would make Paris a dull boy, wouldn’t it? So, we have been finding ourselves going outside more and exploring the city. This may be because the weather has warmed up, or possibly because we know our year in Shanghai is coming to an end.

Since the spring weather has arrived, lots of botanical bijoux have been blooming. A couple weeks ago we went on a field trip to the Shanghai Botanical Garden, where we saw lots of tulips and some odd caves and “Shanghai’s only waterfall.”

 

At a University near where I live, there has been an explosion of Japanese cherry blossoms that are very pretty when the sun is out. Other than watching flowers bloom, we also watched the school’s international division destroy the Chinese student teams in the school-wide soccer competition.

April first brought some April Fool’s Day pranks, but none were too series. Someone (and I’m not saying who) was involved in the TP-ing of another dorm room. The victim liked it and had no hard feelings against anyone. 

 

Over 清明节 (qingmingjie, tomb sweeping festival), I went to my host dad’s hometown in Zhejiang Province and met some of his friends, former classmates and neighbors. While there, my host dad asked me if I liked bamboo shoots and I said “sure,” and thus our quest for the perfect bamboo shoot began. Bamboo shoots were in season so we ate numerous helpings of various styles at just about every restaurant or house where we ate a meal. We had fried, steamed, boiled, grilled, roasted, and raw bamboo shoots. In our travels, we discovered that not all bamboo shoots are equal.

While in Shaoxing city in Zhejiang Province, we went to a couple historical sites with old Chinese buildings. They were the homes of some of China’s greatest literary masters, including Lu Xun.

 

On our last day in Zhejiang Province we went to a tea market that sold some of the finest tea in China, but for a very good price, so we decided to buy some. During the whole trip we had been collecting and giving out gifts, but by the end of our trip we had collected more than we gave and the trunk of our little Volkswagen car was about to burst. It actually did pop open on the ride back -- riding over a few potholes, the trunk popped open and we had to stop the car and close it.

 

I spent Easter Sunday with three Italians, a Norwegian, and another American at the Formula 1 race at UBS Stadium in the outskirts of Shanghai. Out of the two days we went to see the fast cars, the first day was rainy, so the cars did not go at their fastest speeds to avoid crashes. We did see one small accident on the first day. A rider in a Mercedes-Petronas car was going a little too fast around a corner and spun out of control, performing a 360  ̊ spin. Luckily no one was hurt in the act and the rider (Lewis Hamilton) went on to win the prix. The second day the riders drove much faster because the road conditions were much better. Seeing cars go 350 kilometers per hour was quite a sight, and hearing the roar of the engines was thrilling. It was an event I would definitely go to again. Heck, maybe when I get back to North Carolina I’ll have to see NASCAR.

 

A few other recent adventures included strawberry picking in the suburbs of Shanghai, a trip to the Shanghai Film Museum, and shopping.

But now, back to studying.