the lost entry (written a few days ago, but posted now)...

So our plane landed at the Shanghai Pudong Airport at around 4 am yesterday and that was the start of a very VERY long day. Our flight got in one hour earlier than it was scheduled so the group of NYU people that were supposed to pick us up were not there yet. After waiting a while they finally came and picked us up.

Housing in Shanghai is divided into "on-campus dorms" and "off-campus apartments." Carlos and I opted for the off-campus apartments because we heard that they were SUPER nice. When the NYU people came to pick us up, they put us all on a charter bus and we also had a smaller bus following us just for all of our luggage. What can I say...us NYU folk pack light, not. So, the off-campus apartments was the first stop and we all got off the bus and took our bags into the lobby. Chinese New Year was just a few days ago ( I think) so the lobby was still decorated with all the reds and golds you would expect. We have a 24 hour security guard who sits in our lobby. And our lobby is also fully equipped with an automatic shoe shiner. Grumpy airport employee not included.

Once we got all our bags, we all headed up to the student life room on the 7th floor and had a little pow-wow where we drew numbers from cups which would tell us which rooms we would be living in for the next semester. We were all put in an apartment with the people who we had requested to be roommates with, but this process allowed us to know which room in the apartments each of us would be living in. I thought I drew the master bedroom but it ended up being Carlos'. Oh well.

HOLY CRAP our apartments are so nice! Hardwood floors, Three bedrooms (one for the each of us). GIGANTIC closets, Two bathrooms with stone walls and showers and counters and floors, kitchen, washer & dryer, dining room, living room, and some sort of cool nook with a panoramic window. And of course....a fully automated rice cooker! I will post pictures soon!

Soon after we moved in (which entailed me throwing my bags into my room, thats about it) Carlos, Tiffany, some new kids we just met, and I went to explore and also just to buy some essentials that we needed. We went to Carrefour, which is the French equivalent of WalMart. Apparently they are all over China.

[THIS IS WHERE I STOPPED WRITING AND I NO LONGER REMEMBER WHAT I WAS WRITING]