David Runs, Take III

Hello! Hello. This is between you and I.

Summertime is Chinatime in my undergraduate career. As a Richard U. Light Fellow, I spent the last two summers studying in Beijing, China, and Taipei, Taiwan. True to form, this blog is dedicated to photographs and thoughts from running around (literally and metaphorically) abroad.

Onward! To Shanghai, China. Home of the 2010 World Expo and David Demres & Co., summer 2010. Shanghai is the dessert on the menu of Chinese cities: tasty, a little sexy, and worth anticipation; I've been eyeing it all meal long, and now is time to strike. Not with studying, but with a job.

I have an employment visa for the first time and I feel important.

My job is at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA). I will create workshops for kids and adults, give tours, help set up galleries, write booklets and museum information, and hopefully plan an array of events during the World Expo. My goals for the trip are to (1) get experience working in China, (2) learn whether Shanghai is worth the calories, (3) gather contacts and friends, (4) develop ideas for my senior essay in East Asian Studies, and (5) do Great Things. All will be elaborated on this summer.

I'm living with seven other Yale students who are working at different jobs in Shanghai. Here are the important characters: Will, my apartment-mate, is new to China and working at Lucid360 with Andi. All they know is that it will be "innovative". Madison is working at Eno, doing fashion design. I also recently found out she is a stellar artist, so we'll be doing cartwheels through the Shanghai art scene. Lisa is working at a hip upscale restaurant at the Shanghai Museum called Kathleen's5, right next to MoCA. We will be commuting-to-work buddies. Sandy and Adam are working at eChinaChem, Inc., doing important business marketing. Finally, Kai will work at Magic Beans Media as a Media Assistant. He knows all about Shanghai and will be our go-to guide to the city. With all of us in one place, food will be cooked and adventures will be had.

Eleven days to go! Please shout-out, encourage, criticize, or otherwise comment below if you have thirty seconds or more. I appreciate you.