TANYA ROBBINS (fiction writing major) writes:
Tongji University is one of the biggest universities in China, and today we went to the main campus to meet with Chinese students. The girl I spoke with the most called herself Paris because she wants to study French in Paris and is studying French currently through the school.
The school is for arts and communication, and she is majoring in news, or journalism as we would call it in the States. Her English was very good and we had fun talking about everything about life in Shanghai, from favorite bands and movies to what we want to do when we graduate. It was a great experience to be able to speak with someone one on one who is so culturally different from me. She was fascinating and we exchanged email addresses and hope to keep in contact. She wants me to send her some of my writing, and she is going to send me some of the articles that she’s written for the school newspaper. We had lunch with all the students, and she told me that apparently I can use chopsticks very well. (I was under the impression that I was not so great, so that was good to know.)
It was sad to leave, as I was having so much fun talking with her and getting to know both her and more about Shanghai from a Shanghainese person. After that, we left there and went to an animation studio.
Radiance is an animation studio that mainly puts out internet games, and they showed us the three main ones they are working on now, one of which is about volleyball, and they have spent a lot time working on how to get the women’s breasts to look just right. I’m not really a gamer so this wasn’t my forte, but it was rather interesting to find out all the work that goes into making a video game. The guy who runs the place, however, seemed a little sexist to me, saying that guys like to blow things up and women like to solve puzzles, which is why there aren’t many video games for women. I know that I certainly like to blow things up every once and a while. Overall, it was an interesting experience.
Then we finally went for massages! The massage hurt so badly in some parts, but felt phenomenal at the same time. They pressed so hard in all the sensitive spots, but they got out all the knots in my body, which definitely needed to be done. Now, when I got in there I was under the impression that we were getting shoulder and back massages, but it ended up being full body. I was definitely not complaining. This is the first professional massage I have ever had and boy was it good ... and not horribly expensive as this would be back home. However, right now I can feel the bruises forming along my shoulder blades. But it was so worth it.
After this we went to a giant DVD store called “Even Better Than Movie World” (Movie World is across the street from this store). They have really cheap DVDs and box sets of every TV show imaginable, but I decided not to get anything. I’m not a huge fan of watching movies, but it was still cool to see all the different box sets of things that I never knew were on DVD.
We had dinner at an Indian restaurant with Xing Yu and some of her friends and it was very tasty. I’ve never been to a specifically designated Indian restaurant before, so it was quite the experience. They had a drink called Mango Lichee, or something like that, which was really good and the perfect thing at the time. We had a variety of food, most of which was mildly spicy, just what I like. I took a cab home after that and now it’s time for bed.
We have a long day tomorrow. We're going to different museums and then to hear some Bandu music and then to a hip-hop club. Goodnight.
Tanya Robbins is a junior in the fiction writing department.
