More stories from Shanghai

My jetlag would not let me get an ounce of sleep all night; this

twelve hour time difference is killing me so I stayed up watching Chinese

Soap Operas.  In the morning, all of the students met up in the lobby,

and walked towards the part of campus where our classes/seminars and

opening ceremony were to be held.  The buildings are quite beautiful;

they resemeble mini-twin towers.  The class rooms are very professional

looking; they have a long board room table with leather seats surrounding

it and a projector in front of the room. I felt more like a diplomat than

student.

The opening ceremony is short but interesting.  Many different prominent

members of the Chinese faculty were present and they explained to us how

China continues to develop international relations and the importance for

greater American- Chinese relations.  Particularly, Fudan University

attracts so many international students.  If I am not mistaken, the first

President of the University actually graduated from Yale University so

Fudan had great ties with Yale and other schools in the states.  One thing

I forgot to mention is something abut the students that surround me in

this program: they come from top schools.  Right next to me sits Cornell,

across the room sits Princeton and Georgetown, and overall I have a

mixture left of UC Berkeley, Stanford, Clemsen, and much more.  It was

alittle intimidating but then something funny happened.  One student who

is studying nuclear weapons said, " Your school is like number one for

nanoscience right?"  It is funny how you don't notice how great programs

are at your school until someone who oesnt even live on the same coast

comments on it.  Then, one of the directors in Fudan's faculty actually

attended UAlbany graduate school for education and knew my Professor for

East Asian Cinema, Professor Hargett.  After introducing me to his

colleagues and making sure I knew to say hello to Professor Hargett for

him, he added in his speech that "Fudan has close ties with many

universities like Georgetown and SUNY Albany." Not going to lie, it felt pretty good!

Following the ceremony, we took a big group photo with the faculty.  The

breakdown of the group is as follows: ten White-Americans, twenty to

thirty Asian-Americans , and myself.  We got free Fudan University shirts,

maps, and information about the school as well as tours from the freshman.

To close off this blog I have to tell you about one funny observation.

When arriving back to the dorms, I went to the student store to pick up a

drink but what I found on the bottom shelf was multiple brands of whiskey

and vodka and then a section of the fridge was filled with brands of beer

and sparking wine.  That is like Outtakes having Smirnoff right next to

the Odwalla protein shakes and oatmeal raisin cookies.  Wow is all I could

say on that one.  Anyway, time to keep exploring and have an amazing

dinner with some of my new friends!  Zaijian!

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Posted By: Alicia Tambe, Shanghai, China