I forgot I had this

Yeah I've been really bad at keeping up with this. So I've been in Shanghai about 4 weeks now and I love it here more than I thought I would. The city is like New York City on crack. There's so many people and it's impossible to go on the street without hearing car horns and smelling a mixture of street food and trash. The area of Shanghai I am living in is considered residential but to me there's nothing residential about it because it feels like I'm living in the city. Our school campus is beautiful and a nice escape from the city. So where do I even begin to describe my time here so far?

Night life:

Ok I feel like I should start with this because this is literally all I ever do. I would say that I go out every weekend most of the time Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. I never thought I'd be someone who goes out that much but it's actually been a lot of fun. So most of the time we go clubbing which is a refreshing change from the house parties I'm use to in Indiana. The clubs here are all incredible and I rarely pay for anything. From what I understand the clubs here want foreigners at their clubs to make the place more lively. It's weird because most locals at these clubs just kind of sit around? Yeah I don't know why but they all must be like ballin because those tables they sit at cost a fortune in terms of RMB. It's going to be really weird when I get back to The States and can't order a drink at a bar because I've gotten so use to it here.

Food:

The food here is AMAZING and it's everywhere and it's killing me. It's getting to be a problem because I want to eat everything and it's disgusting. My favorite thing here are Lillian Bakery egg tarts, if we pass by Lillian I have to get an egg tart and they're only 4.5RMB which is about 75 cents. Food is so affordable here it's not uncommon for my full on restaurant dinner to be less than 5 usd. In fact if I'm paying more than 10 usd for a meal here then it better be pretty fucking incredible because I am not about that life. I'm gonna be so fat when I get back. Kill me.

Shopping: 

As far as like mall shopping goes, I haven't done much of it. To be honest I really haven't done much shopping in general which is like really surprising because thats like literally all I do in the US. Clothing stores here are pretty pricey...well actually it's pretty comparable to US prices which in Chinese terms is very expensive. Unless you're shopping in the small like kiosk markets outside of the mall most clothing stores range from 200-1000rmb. I've also noticed most the stores at the mall are foreign stores which begs the question...are there any Chinese clothing brands? I also spent an afternoon at the Fake Market underneath the Shanghai Museum of Science and Technology. It's a pretty typical fake market mostly catering to westerners. I didn't really buy anything but it was a fun experience and I'll probably go back to pick up some sunglasses. The problem is that I don't like to bargain because I always feel like I'm being ripped off. I may need to start using TaoBao instead.

School:

The actual reason I'm here or whatever. Basically my classes are from 10am-4pm most days. I take Chinese Mon-Thurs 10-12 and then my business classes from 1-4. I don't particularly like any of my classes here but they're not too bad except for one. Chinese class is ruining my life. I do like 6 hours of Chinese a night which is absolutely ridiculous and unnecessary. Basically they put me in 3rd year Chinese and considering I don't know how to read shit I'm struggling hard. Send help.

Ok I'm tired of typing now. Bye.