Photos taken by Avellina Colacurcio (Wellesley College), Student Correspondent for CET Shanghai, Summer 2026
Let me preface: I am a good student. I love learning, I love class, and most importantly, I look forward to a good Chinese language quiz. However, a week into CET Shanghai, I’ve discovered numerous ways to weasel my way out of review and into the welcoming,well-landscaped streets of Shanghai. As such, while I do not necessarily advocate for delaying the inevitable, IF I were to detail my newest favorite ways to do so, they would be as follows.
1) Follow People You Met Three Days Ago to a Well-Known Tourist Location
Follow People You Met Three Days Ago to a Well Known Tourist Location is of course a classic study abroad experience. Before I came to Shanghai, my lovely mother told me that my fellow CET classmates and I would bond over our shared home-language and our newfound experience of being in a new country. I was initially nervous to spend the next few months with so many new people, especially since they all appeared so extroverted and energetic—even after the many layovers. However, I quickly realized that only a special type of person chooses to study abroad, especially during the summer. I found my classmates to be considerate, kind, and open-minded. Each student was enthusiastic to explore, and especially eager to make sure everyone is included.
Just yesterday, I explored the Bund with about nine of my classmates. The Bund is, according to Google, a famous waterfront promenade with a beautiful view of the Shanghai skyline. This was my second time visiting the Bund, but the first time at night. It was amazing to see the skyscrapers lit up against the dark sky and the reflection of the lights on the water illuminated our faces. The view of the modern skyline was rivaled only by the late-19th century European architecture, just across the street. I began to love Shanghai because of its natural integration of the environment into the city, but after spending a week here, I find the mingling of more Western features, like the Bund’s architecture, with more traditional Chinese elements equally spectacular.
After walking around, I went with my nine peers—whom I met three days ago—to eat at a small local restaurant. My friend and I were joking that any image of the nine of us, chatting around the white dining tables, would look just like a picturesque university experience. Someone from New Jersey was even arguing about how great their state is, which I believe is one of the most conventional college experiences you could acquire. While I stand firm that nothing beats the state of Washington, I learned then that my mom was right: I did quickly bond with my classmates, but not over our love for English. Instead, as we chatted, we connected over Shanghai food and our mutual excitement to understand and explore the city that we all have the privilege of studying in this summer.
2) Find Coffee
There is nothing that drains my bank account and fuels my spirit more than an iced coffee or matcha latte. In fact, as I am writing this, I am sitting at Matcha Love Ma’ aicha, an aesthetically pleasing matcha café I found earlier this week on XiaoHongShu. You may remember XiaoHongshu, or Little Red Book, from a few years ago, when Tiktok was in the process of being banned in the United States. In China, many local students in Shanghai use XiaoHongShu to scroll and browse online.
I found out about its usefulness in locating caffeine from one of the local roommates in the CET program. After she recommended a few cafes to me, I couldn’t stop scrolling through more and more options that I now have to visit. Therefore, this week I have learned the importance of leaning into the resources and technology available to you in China, or wherever you choose to study abroad. Amaps, Meituan, and TaoBao are all great apps that many local Chinese people, and now myself, use to navigate everyday life.
One place you can use Amaps to navigate to is Capyland, a café that has the cutest capybaras. I had no clue that these 108-pound rodents were even remotely pettable, but they are, and I am proud to say that on Monday myself and thirteen classmates drank coffee while petting capybaras. If you’re not a capybara person, there are also many cat cafes in Shanghai as well, although I’m unsure how one could not be a capybara person. Nevertheless, I would highly recommend procrastinating your studying while at a capybara or matcha café you discover on XiaoHongShu.
3) Go to a Mall
Stay with me now. I don’t know about your American mall experience, but shopping in a Chinese mall is a life-changing event. One stop away from our university is the largest, cleanest, and most incredible shopping mall I have ever been to in my whole life—and I really love shopping, so I think that’s saying something.
My first night here, my roommate and I went to the mall to buy a Huawei phone, but we also ended up having dinner. One of the best parts so far about eating in China is that every time I go to eat, I have no clue what I’m about to order, so it’s always a surprise. Nine out of ten times it’s a taste sensation (the outlier was a surprise chocolate sandwich at 9AM).
You can always translate the characters on the labels if you aren’t keen on surprises (or lazy) like me, but I have had a great experience either grabbing something random or pointing to a picture that looks tasty. The bottom line is: the food is great here, and so are the malls.
Now I Need to Stop Writing And Go Study for My Chinese Test
Thank you for reading my first blog, and I hope you enjoyed learning my favorite ways to procrastinate studying for a Chinese assessment. Unfortunately, as aforementioned, I am a passionate student, so I am now going to leave Matcha Love Ma’ aicha and walk back to campus to study with other students in Chinese 301 for our first test of the semester.
Wish me luck! 再见！