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!