I Always Knew I Was Meant to be a Superstar

Apologizing ahead of time for my delayed posting, I overestimated the amount of free time I would have while connected to WIFI. I will try my best to stay updated.

Anyone that knows me knows I love to sing. I sing in the car, I sing in the shower, I sing in awkward moments, and I sing when no one wants me to. If you hear humming in the distance, it’s probably me. I have vivid memories as a kid of my sister banging on the bathroom door yelling “shut up” because I was screaming Hilary Duff and All American Rejects a little too loud. The shower head was my personal microphone until I got the courage to sing into a real one around 3rd grade. I tried out for the talent show and sang a Mandy Moore song. I can barely keep up with that girl’s vocals now, someone tell me why I picked a song of that caliber as a 10-year-old. Forgot the words – traumatic. I eventually got over the PTSD of messing up in front of my entire school and got back on the horse. Until the age of about 13, I did regular concerts in my living room for my mom and dad.

“Fabulous” by Sharpay Evans? You know I brought out the sunglasses and beach towel for props. Always doing the most. I think my sister and I performed every Hilary Duff song on her album with it blaring through our mini boom box. I don’t think I’ve ever formally apologized but, sorry mom and dad for making you sit through that.

It’s still an ongoing joke how my next-door neighbor and Lauren put together an elaborate choreographed dance where I was supposed to throw confetti from a hidden location the whole time. I couldn’t stand not being in the spotlight so I did the dance behind them as a back-up dancer and stole the show – obviously. Again, I always knew I was destined to be a star. If you asked me as a kid what I wanted to be when I was little, I would’ve said a pop star or a singer. It’s pretty apparent I’m no Taylor Swift or child prodigy and my career goals have evolved over time, but during my time in China – my childhood fantasy of being a celebrity came true on a very small scale.

When preparing for Semester at Sea, I turned to my big in my sorority, Gabby for a lot of guidance because she went on a voyage a year prior. She gave me her “SAS Bible” which says what to do and what not to do in each country and gave me endless pro tips. As a fellow ginger, she told me to look out for people that will touch your hair and take pictures of you in other countries. I laughed it off and thought, no way is this going to happen to me, right? Like why do they want pictures of me, what are they going to do with them? After experiencing China for 5 days, I realize how naive I was.

Throughout the course of one day, my friend group got stopped seven times for photos. Mothers were throwing their kids at us to pose for a photo like we were Disney characters at Disney Land. They would have their husbands pose with us and then of course, the selfie. It was insane. Walking along the river in Shanghai, I even had a little 12-year-old come up to me and ask for a selfie on what I’m assuming was their version of Snapchat. Beyond the blatant photos being taken, people would tilt their iPhones a little too high where you knew they were snapping a photo or would point and whisper to their friends as we walked by. Although it was all fun and games and definitely something I’ll always laugh about, it made me think why the heck they want pictures of me on their camera roll in the first place.

My time in China may have made me feel like a mini Hollywood movie star, but it was also very isolating and eye-opening of just how much we stuck out. I have never been in such a homogenous society where I was the one who blatantly stood out no matter where I went. I never got used to the stares or the sneaky photos being taken of me, and I know my personal paparazzi will only escalate in future countries. It made me realize how lucky I am to have been raised in a country like America where there is so much diversity. Diversity is absolutely beautiful, and this was the first time I realized it’s not a norm in most places. With that being said, here’s a little glimpse of my time spent in China!

Day 1:

I spent my first day in Shanghai. When we stepped off the ship in Japan, we felt an immediate warmth from the people and an excitement that’s hard to put into words. When we stepped out of the terminal in China, we immediately felt the tense atmosphere we were not welcome. People scoffed at us as we walked by and combined with the rain and smog, we immediately felt this uneasiness. This started to go away throughout the day when we encountered more people, and I ended up really loving Shanghai and hope to go back some day.

To sum up the day we went to “Space Needle” looking building that’s signature to Shanghai’s skyline which ended up being way cooler at night. We went to the black market which is like Disneyland of counterfeit products. I honestly only bought fake Ray Bands because I lose all my sunglasses so why would I buy $100 ones, but some people went crazy. Some people were leaving with fake Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Lulu Lemon, and Yeezys. Literally everyone bought those Kanken backpacks because they’re so overpriced in the US. Anytime I saw someone in China with a Gucci bag, I was like I see you. I don’t trust anyone anymore. Also this was the first time I’ve ever bargained a price before. We probably had too much fun with it hehe. They’d give you an initial price and you’d end up bargaining it to like 1/3 of it by fake walking away or saying “this shop is selling it for way cheaper, I’ll just go there” even if it wasn’t true and it worked every time. We had a blast. Completely illegal. But so much fun.

We went to a place called the Yu Gardens that were decked out in Chinese New Year decorations. This was the year of the pig, and I will never forget it because little piggies were EVERYWHERE. It was so colorful and lively and such an amazing thing to experience the new year in China.

Other honorable mentions: We got cheap margaritas at Taco Bell that were actually fantastic. The US needs to up their game. My friend, Georgia got her card stolen by an ATM, literally sucked it right up. After battling the language barrier for an hour in the train station, she gave up and cancelled her card. I heard of so many people getting their cards stolen, thank God mine didn’t!!

Day 2:

We had to get on a bullet train at 5 am people. 5 am. In typical SAS behavior, we didn’t get back to the ship until early early in the morning, so running on actually zero hours of sleep was not our best idea. Somehow only one person in our group did not make it on the train in time. In a short 6 hours, we made it to Beijing. One lesson I learned is definitely go in with a plan, winging it is all fun and games until you’re standing in the middle of Tianaman’s square starving with a 20lb bag on your back with no clue what to do next.

I definitely have some insane memories from Beijing. Here’s a little list of the pure chaos and confusion I endured:

- Andrew buying a sim card from a lady who tried to bargain us for a portable charger, selfie stick, iPhone case and screen cover, and shoes. You heard that right. A ten minute excursion became an hour of trying to leave without her pulling us back in.

- Walking around at 11pm trying to find food and water but ended up starving because no ATMs took US cards and no places took Visa. Not even McDonalds. My pee was orange and my stomach was eating itself, but hey I survived to tell the tale.

- Walking around late at night and hearing people on the streets hack up flemmy coughs with no shame.

- Arguing with the hotel lady who tried to give us two rooms instead of one, only to go to the 3 star sketchy one across the street.

Day 3:

Today we went to the Great Wall of China. This was the first time I felt like a true traveler instead of a tourist. We had to check out of our hotel, so we had our backpacks on our back… the entire time on the wall. Again, plan ahead. Also unless you’re a local, its apparently extremely abnormal to hike the Great Wall without a tour guide. Now I know why.

The wall was about two hours away from our hotel so we had to use transit to get there. We got on a train and followed Google maps transit to a random train station in the middle of nowhere to transfer to another one. Thank God we were there in the daylight because I would NOT have walked around there in the dark. We’re trying to translate the signs to figure out where to buy the train tickets and we are getting swarmed by taxi men trying to drive us there. Andrew, being a boy does not have his “this is sketchy” radar going off like the rest of us and was like why not?! This nice local lady that knew English came up and asked us if we need help and said “take the train, don’t take a taxi” and we turned to Andrew and said “TOLD YOU.” The woman helped us buy tickets and after using our currency app, the ticket was $1 USD. A two hour train to the Great Wall of China was $1. We went into the train station and we were the only non-locals in the entire building. Andrew, being 6’2”, stuck out like a sore thumb.

All of a sudden people start shoving and pushing on the train. We were grabbing each other’s backpack straps for dear life and started sprinting on the train to get seats. When we sat down, we all looked at each other and burst out laughing. It was the craziest morning already.

We got to the wall and hiked for about five hours. It was the most breathtaking view I had ever seen. It was so vast looking out at the rolling hills and seeing the reconstructed wall go for miles. We entered at a touristy area so we had to hike a while to get away from people. Along the way we saw people on the verge of passing out and breathing super hard. If you’re from Colorado, the Great Wall is like the Manitou Incline on steroids. It was no easy hike and if I was in worse shape, I would not have made it. We got to an isolated spot and watched the sunset all by ourselves on the wall and it was a surreal moment. I was on the Great. Wall. Of. China. Omg.

Day 4 – 5:

We caught a flight to Hong Kong. This city was extremely Westernized and looked like a more rundown version of San Francisco. There were Starbucks and McDonalds on every corner and foreigners everywhere. The atmosphere was so fun, and we were able to experience Chinese New Year here!

We got Dim Sum a this popular little restaurant and I was an uncomfortable full afterwards. We ordered wayyyy too much food for four girls. Walking around the city, we started seeing groups of women sitting on the streets and overpasses laughing and eating together. They were sitting on carboard boxes, but had phone’s in their hands and a picnic in front of them so we figured they were there for a reason. I went up and asked a group of the women why they were all sitting and she responded in broken English, “It’s our Holiday. We work long hours all week and this is our only day off. We want to spend it together.” After doing a quick Google search, we found out that Sundays in Hong Kong are called “maid’s day” because women that work in the service industry have extremely low incomes and work extreme hours, so they all sit out on Sundays as a form of protest and a way to stay banded together. There were women everywhere you looked, it was incredible. My feminist self was screaming!

We took a ferry to an island to see the “Big Buddha” and let me tell ya’ll, this monument was huge. We hiked up a steep staircase to the top and the craftsmanship of the Buddha was incredible. The view at the top was incredible with the sun setting in the back. Definitely worth the trip to the island and the less than safe bus back down to the bottom of the mountain.

In summary, I had an amazing time in China and look back at it with so many fond memories already. Even with all the travel debacles and almost starving to death in Beijing, I was able to see one of the wonders of the world at the age of 20. I was able to see a population so rich in culture and so strong in their beliefs. Even in uncomfortable moments of not feeling welcome or wanted, we met incredibly kind locals that showed us compassion. You truly find good people everywhere. My eyes were opened to what communism looks like when I’ve grown up in a free world, and how it doesn’t define every person that resides in a country. I got a taste of what celebrities face on a daily basis, and I’m still wondering how many family photo albums I will be in and all the Facebook posts I was featured in during my time in China.