Wow! I can’t believe that my trip has been going by so fast.
I’ve already done so much and am excited for everything else to come before I
fly back on Tuesday.
This will end up being a rather long blog post about the
first part of time in Shanghai. I’ll break it up by day and then put some
general stuff at the bottom help move things along. Also, ignore typos.
THURSDAY, MAY 16 -
FRIDAY, MAY 17
My flight from Chicago to Shanghai took FOURTEEN HOURS! It
was really cramped, but thank to sleeping pills and OZ: The Great and Powerful,
it wasn’t too bad. When I arrived, I met Dori and we went back to her
apartment. It’s super nice, I couldn’t believe it. I’ve had my own bathroom
WITH A TUB!
After a bath, we left to meet up with some of her friends
here in Shanghai. Most work in with the State Department, and all were really
cool. Our first stop was at a bar they frequent, which had this lovely Texas
flag, and then we had dinner at Hunan, a Chinese restaurant. We stayed up super
late, which helped me sleep through the night.
SATURDAY, MAY 18
Unfortunately, the weather really sucked on Saturday. But
after lunch, we went to see the TV Tower on the Pudong side of SH. The first
floor had a museum depicting the history of Shanghai through wax figures. The
bad Chinglish and noticeable dislike of Westerners was a hilarious bonus to the
museum.
Outside the tower, I had my first interesting experience
with being a white person in China. A Chinese tourist (from the country I’d
guess) came over with his iPhone, obviously wanting a picture. I thought he
wanted me to take a picture of him and his friend so I agreed. All of a sudden
it turned into a selfie of the two of us. This was not the last time that
tourists asked to take pictures with Dori and I. We only agreed to one girl who
was nice enough to take a picture for us. There were other times when people
were blatantly taking pictures of us. Awkward.
In case you didn’t know, pollution here sucks majorly. I was
having difficulty breathing so we had to head to a pharmacy to buy me some gas
masks. Let me tell you, they are the height of fashion </sarcasm>.
Dinner followed
(pizza) with some more of Dori’s friends before we went back and all
played an awesome game called CARDS AGAINST HUMANITY. It’s basically a version
of Apples to Apples, but for horrible people. It’s extremely offensive and
dirty, but the fun doesn’t stop. No judging allowed.
SUNDAY, MAY 19
It was actually a nice day out! For lunch we went to this
AMAZINGLY themed restaurant called Abbey Road. C’mon, of course Dori would take
me there. My sister knows me so well.
There’s this really great market called Tian ZiFang that we went
to that sells a lot of different things. Think of New York’s Chinatown only
cheaper. I bought a fake Longchamp bag that roughly came to $7. Of course
different stalls tried to cheat us since we were tourists, but thankfully I had
my sister with me.
We got done shopping and headed over to The Bund. It’s this
great area on the river that looks over to Pudong’s skyline. The actually Bund
is a set of colonial style buildings which are also very beautiful. Again,
people tried to take pictures with us. Again, it was awkward.
We checked out the Peace Hotel, which was very fancy, and
did some shopping at a 4-story Forever 21 before going to play LASERTAG! One of
Dori’s co-workers is moving on to a different post and chose lastertag as her
last hurrah! Let me tell you, the Enderle girls are not that great at this
game. Although a few times we seemed to have faulty equipment. Blurg.
We had dinner with Dori’s friends Peter and Neil at her
favorite Chinese restaurant (delicious!) and then gelato (also delicious!).
MONDAY, MAY 20
Dori took the day off of work and we started off with a trip
to a Buddhist Temple in the middle of the city. It’s known locally as rather
touristy, but I didn’t care. It was beautiful and we took A LOT of pictures! My favorite part was seeing a monk on a
cellphone. Classic.
Next on our list was the South Bund Fabric Market where a
lot of people go to get clothes custom made. Of course, I took advantage of the
prices and got two skirts made for about $80. Not bad, right? I saw one girl
getting fitted for an evening gown. I would have gone with a fancy dress, but
where would I wear it?
Shanghai has a lot of trade in pearls, so Dori took me to
one of the Pearl markets. We took the Metro on the way there and it was SO
CLEAN! While we were riding I wasn’t paying attention to the TV screen, but as
I was walking out, I glanced up and who should I see but DARREN FREAKIN’ CRISS.
I was like “whaa?” but they were showing previews to his new movie with Kristen
Wiig. Bit surreal..
The Pearl market was really cool. I got a pair of earrings,
a necklace and a ring for really cheap. There was a store in the building
called LENNY that leads me to believe that my dad has been holding out on us
with this hidden business.
So we finished up shopping and went to look at Nanjing Road,
the Times Square of China. It was all lit up and very commercial, like TS. But
get this, they have FANCY Pizza Huts here. It’s a legit restaurant where people
go on dates. Weird.
It got dark and we went back to The Bund for night pictures.
I got some great ones, if I do say so myself.
So this is where I will leave off for now. But here a few
things that I didn’t find a way to include:
1.
Squatties are the bane of my existence. I won’t
take Western restrooms for granted again.
2.
The fashion and shoes here are cray-cray. Don’t
know how some of these girls are able to walk.
3.
I’ve been using a burner phone and had to
relearn how to use T9 texting.
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