My first few days in Shanghai

I know that it’s about time for a new post, but I’ve been kind of busy during the last few days. But now I want to let you know what has been going on here in Shanghai.
Our arrival was great. After filling out a few forms in the airplane we had to go through some body scanners that were checking our body temperature. The government seems be doing a lot in order to keep the swine flu out of China. Luckily, we all passed the first test. Immigration was no problem because we had all gotten our VISA in advance and after we had picked up our luggage and gone through customs, there actually was someone to pick us up and take us to the dormitory at the university campus.
The rooms are not great, but it is a place where we can stay for little money and there is air conditioning. Outside, we have been having about 30 degrees Celsius during the last week. Furthermore, we have one desk per person and also internet access. Please don’t ask about the connection speed…
In the evening of our arrival day we went to a Chinese restaurant near the university. We just picked one randomly and it was a lot of fun to eat at that place. In almost all restaurants at which we have had dinner so far the menu was written in Chinese characters, which means that we couldn’t read it. Luckily, at our first night the waiter knew two English words: meat & chicken. That narrowed down our choice and we pointed at random items on the list. We ended up with some pork, chicken, ribs and a plate with vegetables. And we loved the food. So far, I haven’t had anything to eat which I disliked! I’m always thrilled around dinner time because every time the food is so different and still good. On our second day we went to dinner with a Chinese friend who had been to the University of Karlsruhe during the last semester. His name is Kaibo and he is a great guy. He was incredibly friendly and helpful and made our first days great. Kaibo, if you ever read this: you’re the man! Thank you so much!! We told him to go ahead and order food for us since (again) we weren’t able to read the menu. This was my first time to try swine ears without even knowing :) But I can’t complain. Except for the gristly part, it didn’t taste bad! By the way: 5 people ate dinner including appetizer and desert and we only had to pay about 17€ total!!
Speaking of food: the procedure of eating is a little different over here. Usually, several dishes are ordered and placed on a rotatable platform. Then you rotate the platform whenever you want to try something from the other side. That way, everyone gets to try some of each dish. If you can’t imagine, look at the pictures below.

IN: Chinese food, friendliness and helpfulness of the locals
OUT: cars that honk their horn for no reason, scooters with headlights switched off while it’s dark outside

Here you can see the typical set-up when eating at a restaurant. In the middle you can find the swine ears that I was talking about:


This is another way of eating your meal. It is called "hot pot". You cook the meat and other foods in the pot in the middle. Everyone at the table uses the same pot. It is similar to "fondue", but you don't use just water for the cooking. The red half is a very spicy soup, the other one is milder and you can actually taste the spices. Very yummy: