pre-departure

Three days to lift off and my packing is almost complete.

I can't wait to begin my adventures in Shanghai. So far I have received conflicting opinions and advice on what the city is like and how well I speak Chinese. In no particular order:

1.a. "I love/hate Shanghai!"

1.b. "Chinese people are too loud."

2.a. "Make sure to try all the foods."

2.b. "The food is great."

2.c. "The food will give you diarrhea."

3. "Visit the Bund."

4.a. "Wow! Your Chinese is great!"

4.b. "What are you trying to say?"
4.c. "Your Chinese is good for a white person."

4.d. "No one will understand you -- they speak a dialect native to Shanghai."

5.a. "China is really cheap!"

5.b. "Shanghai is the most expensive city."

So, I will definitely visit the Bund.

I guess I'm as lost as ever about what I should expect from Shanghai and from my job. I should be most concerned about my job. I have yet to find out what I will be doing specifically on a daily basis despite emailing the person in charge of my internship and the program. Not too worried about it, though -- I'll figure it out when I get there.

Hopefully, though, this "laissez-faire" approach of figuring everything out when I get there will end soon. I'm pretty sure my whole life has passed by with me figuring everything out when I get there wherever that is. This summer I want to become more ambitious. I want to embrace the world, new cultures, etc. This sounds like a lot of white-person-discovering-self-BS -- and maybe it is. But I'm too tired of being recalcitrant; I think it's time to give in to (my Caucasian roots?) the world and having ambition and making goals and such.

I don't know if I'll be able to access blogger in China but I hope I didn't write this post in vain -- hopefully there will be follow-up posts.