SHANGHAI, CHINA

Shanghai has been the first place I have visited in Asia. It was 2006, I went there to study at the SISU. I wonder how much the city has changed since then!

Studying at the University has been, by itself, an interesting experience. After taking some language tests, I had been put in a class where most of my classmates were from Japan, Thailand and Korea. And yep, already back then the Korean classmates were handsome and stylish (and gentleman), way before the BTS era!!!

We had to do homework every day, somehow it was like stepping back to the high school times. And we couldn't miss many school days, otherwise we wouldn't be allowed to take the final tests.

For this reason, and for the fact that, as student, I didn't have much money to spend around, the trips were very limited. My roommates and I, however, tried to enjoy the experience at the best we could. We even won a singing competition at school, when our classmate Tomoko convinced all of us to sing and dance on the University stage. If you ask me today, I can still sing the song (terribly, as mother nature gave me other gifts but not a good voice)!

Sun yan zi (孙燕姿) - Wan mei de yi tian (完美的一天)

In the afternoons, some times I loved biking around in the neighborhood, trying to merge with the locals. Some of them would laugh at me, as they probably thought that it was unusual to see a westerner on a bike and not on a taxi.

One day my roommate and I decided to hang up a piece of paper in our building, looking for someone to teach us how to cook baozi... and magically one of our neighbors was a young cook, very excited at the idea of teaching us! I still have the recipe somewhere, just a pity that I don't remember this very kind kind guy's name. He did a good action, he deserve points!

Then I decided to try to put my head in the hands of a VIP hairstylist and get hair extensions! I am pretty sure that if I were to remain longer in China, I would have lived a "japanese doll" period in my fashion transformation...

One of the funniest experiences has been when I modeled for a photo studio adv (and tried to model for some magazine adv, thru a contact given by one of my teachers. Needless to say that it had been a good self love booster time!

I hope my photographer friend is doing fine!

I wish to go back again to Shanghai, as everyone says that this is a city that keeps changing and changing, and nothing is ever equal to the day before... It would be a sentimental trip for me, back to my school and where I used to live at.

And I would definitely try to go back to the amazing dumpling restaurant my roommates and I used to go to treat ourselves, as long as someone of us would remember the name!