Hi everyone!

I have arrived! We got to our hostel around 9:30am in the morning and checked in. Things are pretty cheap here. Water at the airport was about 30 cents, the bus shuttle to the city was 2.50€ and our hostel is 6.25€ a night. It's clean and centrally located. In the afternoon we took a short walk around but it was so humid that we took shelter at the mall. I don't say this often because the phrase itself is absurd but O-M-G, the mall has everything! It really reminded me of home with all the American companies..I mean there was even Carl's Jr and Coldstones creamery. It's not that I'm dreaming of these things all the time but somehow seeing familiar names amongst a sea of Chinese characters was comforting. People have been very nice as well. A local lady saw us struggling with our maps and helped us get a taxi. We took a nap in the afternoon. I did laundry. And I found out that I indeed have access with my VPN so I'll still be able to work for my company back in Berlin. Anne arrived later in the afternoon and we met a nice fellow German traveler in the lobby so in the evening we all went to get some food. We walked to the Bund where we got THE postcard view of Shanghai. It's unreal. To be honest, I'm walking around in denial. I can't believe I'm here and I certainly can't believe I will call this city home for the next 5 months. But besides my state of mental confusion, I'm happy. To walk around with friends on a warm summer night in Shanghai just puts a smile on my face. The Tsingtao helps that as well ;) Attached are the first few pics I've taken with my iPhone. For now, it's bed time. Tomorrow we will work on getting sim cards for our phones and finding a place to stay! Night night!

The time has come to leave

Hello World!

So this is my first post on my new blog. I never considered doing a blog before until now. Thing is, this whole decision to go to Shanghai for a semester was rather spontaneous. The plan was to "settle" and stay put in Hamburg for two years. But I think I suffer from the same North Wind syndrome from the movie "Chocolat". I just can't seem to sit still. I've been in Germany now for 2.5 years and it's incredible to now look back and see all the ups and downs. It's been all that I hoped it would be. But now I'm ready to open a new chapter and look ahead towards the unknown. I'm going to Shanghai with no expectations and with an open mind. I know it won't all be sunshine and rainbows as there's always difficulties when adapting to a new place and culture. But I hope that I can put to work the lessons I've learn during these past two years being abroad. I'm really excited (and scared out of my wits at the same time).

Some background info: This is will be my third semester of my Master's program. I will be in Shanghai for 5 months. Afterwards I plan to do an internship in Hamburg and write my thesis. Official date of completion for Master's Program: TBD. There will be 6 others from my program studying with me in Shanghai. On the men's side: Mike (German) and Alejandro (Mexican). On the ladies' side: Anne (Germann), Anna (German), Lara (German), and Jitka (Czech). I thought I would introduce them now since they will definitely be a big part of the Shanghai adventure.

In true Karina fashion, I left my packing to the last minute and stayed up all night. I have no idea what's even in the suitcases but "ist doch egal!" I need to get going to the airport now anyways.

To all my friends, family, and readers of this blog: I will post as regularly as possible with all the juicy updates. I'm going to miss you all very much.