Food in and near the Village

One very important part of life is eating (more important to some!), and is no less important here. Shanghai is a very large and densely populated city, and the phrase "Chinese food" covers such a huge gamut that saying "I had Chinese food for dinner" means nothing specific. For example, did you dine in a large, popular, very visible restaurant? If so, you may have overpaid for your pan of fried dumplings, bowl of dumpling soup, pot of tea, or plate of spring rolls. Tea is typically served free of charge here. Maybe you visited a street vendor who was pushing a steaming cart selling ears of corn, steamed buns stuffed with vegetables or meatballs, or craw fish (they're in season!), in which case you probably spent $0.50 for a very satisfying meal (questionable sanitation, however). Next up there's the small, out of the way restaurant that may or may not have a sign on the door. I ate in a place like that a couple of nights ago: only 4 tables but there wasn't a wait, comparatively clean, and they offered free napkins(unusual) and tea (usual). These are the places where you fill up with 4-5 distinct ethnic dishes, brought steaming and delicious to the table, for only $1.50 per person!

What if you prefer to eat prepackaged food from the grocery store or convenience store? Some have pots with hot liquid that store meatballs or ears of corn, or there's a hot case filled with dumpling-type objects near the register, or there's some individual-sized containers of scrambled eggs next to rice, long rolls of sushi, and the list goes on and on.

Last but not least, there's adaptations of foreign restaurants, especially those originating in the U.S. Pizza Hut, Papa John's, McDonald's, Burger King, and don't forget KFC!

You'll find it all here in Shanghai.

The first few days

Ni Hao! Today was the final day of classroom training, and it's both sad and relieving. Over the past few days, we have learned about everything from how to greet certain dignitaries to layouts of the Expo and our pavilion to first aid and how to save people. We were given very quick introductions to Chinese culture, history, values, etc., hospitality techniques and their importance, and many other valuable lessons. The reason I typed "both sad and relieving" is because we had a lot of fun interacting with each other in those classes. We found out who has a sense of humor, who is timid in front of others, who unabashedly speaks his/her mind, and who has artistic talent. Quite a lot for 4 days, I agree!

Anyway, here's a little bit about the area I live in. It's a brand spanking new area of Shanghai called the Expo Village. We live in apartments that have never been occupied, use appliances that were taken off the shelves of Wal-Mart and delivered to us, and go through checkpoints for everything! I swear, this place is so locked down and secure that I would never dream of being afraid. Seriously, security is everywhere and you need special passes to get into the Village.

I'm starting to learn my way around here, which is a feat let me assure you! Everyday I walk for hours and jog in the morning, there is only some yogurt in my refrigerator, and the food I eat is very light, so I'm already losing weight! I feel like it's been such a short time since my last time here, but some things here remind me the length of time, like the fact that there was an old sim card in the back of my previous Chinese phone, and that and the metro travel card were both inactive and obsolete.

The Expo site is huge and there are so many amazing pavilions so far. Most of them are colorful and very creative, some of them aren't, and some are not yet complete, but the opening day is quickly approaching so the urgency is becoming apparent.

The rough estimate of visitors to the USA Pavilion is 35,000 people/day, though that's an estimate for something that has never happened before.

More to come!

你好！

Hello everybody! Guess who just signed up for VPN and uncensored internet access? Not that I would ever type anything negative about anyone!

If you don't know my whole story (why is Mark even interested in China? How did he get his start? What else has Mark done over the past few years?), so here it is:

July 2005, I was hired at mosa Asian Bistro in Memphis,TN as a waiter. That August, upon the recommendation of my good friend Adam, I followed my interests in cooking and entertaining by declaring myself a Hospitality Management-Culinary Arts major, so I would specialize in restaurant management. I had the idea that Spanish would be a good language to teach myself given my career choice, so I bought a cd set called Learn in Your Car. I took to it so well that my Chinese coworker Xing suggested I try Chinese. Turns out to be the most life-changing experience of my life (sorry Adam). Because I followed through with it, and picked it up fairly well, I decided to use it to the most valuable end: in September 2006, I set my sights on University of Memphis's International MBA program. Given my choice of academia, I was no longer able to work 60 hours/week at mosa, so I left and applied at Papa John's, where I stayed for 3.5 years.

During my remaining year at Southwest TN Community College, I took prerequisites for the International MBA and continued studying Chinese on my own. I graduated from there with 3.5 GPA, so when I transferred back to U of M(emphis), they offered me the Community College Transfer Scholarship, which I gladly accepted. I planned on majoring in Hospitality Management again, and would still be in that major now, except the first day of the fall semester 2007 I discovered an advertisement for Dr. Hsiang-Te Kung's major ASIT (Asian Studies & International Trade), which was an undergraduate version of the IMBA program. When I explored it, I discovered that it better prepared me for the IMBA and in a much shorter time. I changed majors and set my sights on graduating May of 2009.

Following a successful first semester at U of M, my Chinese language teacher Dr. Zhang Lan suggested some fellow students and I establish a Chinese club. At the first meeting, we had an election to determine officers and I won the Presidency; along with Jade Powell (Vice President), Marie Dennan (Press Ambassador), Daniel Graubman (Treasurer), and Kristina Thomas (Creative Director), we operated for 3 semesters as the Student Consortium for Chinese Awareness. We had a great time, several successful events, and got the club off to a good start before handing leadership over to Silu Wang and Julian Poon.

In order to graduate May 2009, I still needed 2 more semesters of Chinese language study. The opportunity to earn those in China presented itself, so I came to study from June through August of 2008. I returned in August 2008, had a very successful senior year with such extracurricular activities as the Chinese club, Hillel of Memphis (Jewish student union), and MILE business leadership club, all while working weekends at Papa John's.

I was eventually accepted into the IMBA program, graduated May 2009 (per my goal), and began the IMBA program fall of 2009. That semester was very challenging for me. First, my mother died on September 29th. Despite that, 5 graduate classes, working at Papa John's, and volunteering at the Confucius Institute all still required my attention. Then in October, a unique opportunity was presented to me: represent the United States, Tennessee, Memphis, the University of Memphis, and the International MBA program at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo! I was eventually accepted to work for the USA Pavilion, but then a problem arose: how to convince the director of my program, Dr. Benwari Kedia, that this was a valuable business internship and that he should allow me to leave Memphis 4 weeks earlier than the end of the semester? After doing some research, I discovered that Deloitte and Touche was the official accounting firm for the USA Pavilion, and through the hard work and selfless efforts of Hans, Mark, and Jacob, I was awarded THE internship that a business student who studies Chinese could never dream of in a million years!

After receiving approval from Dr. Kedia, I continued to work my tail off and finished 4/6 classes early. Unfortunately, I have to complete the final 2 from China.

Well, that completes my story thus far! I just arrived in China on the 15th, and I'm ready to post more info about that!

谢谢！(Chinese for Thank You!)

This is my new blog

Hi, some of you may remember me from my previous blog: theyoutaithatbinds, but a good friend of mine suggested it would be better to match my youtube channel name and that this sounds better anyway (has my name and purpose in it).

My name is Mark Wlodawski, I study Chinese and international business in the University of Memphis's International MBA program, and I will spend the next 3.5 months in Shanghai reporting from this year's World Expo! I'll blog about some things, but I will post several videos on my Youtube channel, so you should check that out as well.

再见 for now!