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Yes!
I've actually been here for...a day and a half now, technically, but haven't had the chance to get internet until now. I'm in an internet Cafe! That is, handily, right next to the Hostel we're staying at, here in Shanghai.
But let me go back a little bit. I was, of course, incredibly freaked out over the flight, as I always am, but it went off without a hitch. Got to the airport, flew to Chicago. I had about a 2 hour layover in Chicago, so I wandered around the terminal for a little bit, got some walking in. Ended up ducking into a bookstore and picking up a Chinese travel phrasebook. It has 14 different dialects in it, and basics for each, which was pretty handy. I know I was a bit stupid not doing any study before I left, but I forgive myself, considering the weeks that led up to going (busy). I've got the book now, and working on my numbers. Brittany's helping.
Brittany, by the way, is the friend I'm visiting over here, the one who invited me up. She's teaching at a university in Nanning for the year, and has a month off for the Chinese new year celebration. Long story short, now I'm in China.
Anyway, did some stretching in preparation for the 14 hour flight, and then soon enough it was time to go. The flight itself went fine; I like flying. I made sure to get up and move around; logged about 1,000 steps in the air (always, always get an aisle seat). I was next to a Chinese couple who were very nice. To, uh, the point where they started watching a movie that had English subtitles and it kept catching me eye and they noticed, and ended up repositioning their laptop so it was in the middle so I could see better. It is lucky that I have no shame, seriously. When it was over, they restarted it for me, so I could see the beginning. I said "no, no, it's okay! No, thank you! I'm sorry!" a lot. But I did get the name of the movie (The Flowers of War) and think I'm going to find it later. It was. very sad. Which is another reason I declined their incredibly nice offer; didn't really want to cry on the plane.
Arrival went fine too! It was definitely nerve-wracking on account of being in China, but I went through customs fine, passed quarantine, got my luggage all without any problems. And then I went out to arrivals, ChineseChineseChineseChineseChineseChineseBlonde.
Hi Brittany!
Then it was off to get tickets to the Metro, to head out to Shanghai, where we plan to stay until the 15th.
First view of China, outside the train window.
We spent kind of a very, very long time wandering around Shanghai with our collective luggage trying to find Jiangyin road, where the hostel we were staying at was supposed to be. I think it's become a thing now; find self in strange place, get horribly lost while carrying lost of heavy things. It would have been very bad at all, except that my of my items was a duffel bag (packed with things I was taking to Brittany, so that I could empty it out and fold it into my suitcase) which didn't roll. Ouch shoulders, ouch ouch.
But we found it eventually!
Except that's not it. See that tiny ally to the left? The little blue and orange sign?
Haha, yup. But it's much bigger inside!
We got a private room, even though it's more expensive. I have to say, I was pretty glad for it though. In a country the doesn't believe in privacy, it's nice to know there is a place to go to in between being out.
Got to the hostel at about 6pm, and it took a good half hour to check in, so we got to our room around 6:30pm. Now, our plan had been to drop our stuff, take showers, rest for an hour, and then go out about 8:30pm to find dinner.
That, uh, didn't happen.
In other news, the beds were really, really comfortable.
So fastforward to 8am on the 13th. We are up, dressed, and out finding breakfast.
It was eight in the morning. See that sky? That's the sky pretty much all the time. There's this haze that is always there. Most polluted place in the world, I believe it. No wonder I was asked to bring along Vitamin D capsules. There is no sun! At all!
A group of people getting ready for what turned out to be a performance thing with banner waving and drums. And yes, they're next to a Haagen Daz.
We found a really nice bakery to sit down and have breakfast. I wanted to eat all the things, but I settled with trying two. Something called Milk Pudding bread, and a "mango creme brulee" (that's exactly what it was labeled).
They were really delicious! The milk pudding bread tasted was a little softer and sweeter than Challah, and it had some pudding-type stuff in the bottom of it. The "brulee" was mango. Like, actual mango taste, with mango jelly! Very cool. Quite sweet though; more of a dessert thing, or...a topping for toast, maybe?
By the way, all baked goods are very pretty and delicious-looking.
I think it's a Thing.
Another thing would be the wonderful English-by-people-who-clearly-don't-know-English!
"chicken rolls short Bread of chocolate!"
I am considering making a post dedicated to just these, I mean it.
After breakfast, we wandered around more, and found the local Giant Park. It was sort of like being in a park in New York: CITY BUILDINGS...trees? But it was very pretty, and we had a lot of fun.
There were a lot of very interesting rock formations and places to take pictures, and so we did.
I'm in China, by the way. (This was actually quite high up off the ground. We climbed.)
Trying to find our way down was interesting, as I found 'stairs' that looked like they led out.
Turns out they didn't.
Abyss. Of Doom.
Walking!
Standing!
It looked like a tiny table and chair. What.
The time-honored tradition of using rocks as steps.
Actual rock steps.
And then. And then. AMAZING THING.
It's the exercise part of the park. Apparently they're really common. I wanted to climb on everything. And yes, those are barbells made of stone and everything. As we went in, a Chinese man middle-aged-ish, was standing by the barbells and gestured over to us, picking up the smallest barbell and hoisting it up easy as pie. 'Come on, you should try it!' he was saying. 'See how easy? Go on!' And I knew it was a having a little fun with a foreigner and that those weights were going to be fairly heavy but...hey, I've been working out, right? Sooo...okay. Why not. And I could.
He got very excited about it, but there was a heavy dose of surprise thrown in as well. And after that we were all accepted, and he showed us to other things and equipment and Brittany and I did many things, including stretches and climbing and pushups and whatnot. Gained a bit of an audience for some things, but once you get over the fact that everyone stares at everyone forever, it was less weird.
And this was the sign for the store we stopped in to get water. Tea Time is serious business.
We spent a good four hours at the park, and so it was time for food. While walking around to find a place to eat, Brittany overheard and translated comments, such as, "Only one looks like a foreigner, but they both are!" which I am always going to find amusing.
After stopping in a little side shop to buy some notebooks (and getting my travel dose of what I've decided to name foreigner-fraud; in this case I got a packet of something and got charged per thing in the packet), we found an underground shopping mall and went in there to get food.
Of course, we went to a Japanese-style restaurant, because we're awesome. I got stir-fried Udon and did not take a picture of it, but I got a picture of something much, much better.
That's for you, mom.
Further wandering around in the mall resulted in stopping at the arcade for a ridiculous amount of time to watch people play the Chinese knock-off of DDR, a lot browsing, and quite a long conversation in broken English and Chinese in the store between Brittany and a girl manning a shop filled with brightly colored Chinese decorations and things. I contributed to the conversation through very elaborate and amusing mime.
Sleepwear. The hat thing is attached to the shirt.
Stopped for gelato (Chinese vanilla, or 'vallina,' as the sign had it, isn't what I'm used to, but it wasn't bad), and then around 4:30pm we went over to the internet cafe. So I've come full circle. Except now it's two hours later. Entries take a long time, okay. Not to mention that working with this connection is interesting. But I'm not complaining; I'm glad of having it at all (China...really doesn't believe all that much in the basics of technology, for all that it likes bells and whistles). Though it does mean that entries might happen less often.
In short, I'm safe, we're having fun, and plan to go out for dinner shortly.
And as of 6:35pm (with the past 2 hours being seated typing), I've logged about 13,000 steps. Rock.
I've actually been here for...a day and a half now, technically, but haven't had the chance to get internet until now. I'm in an internet Cafe! That is, handily, right next to the Hostel we're staying at, here in Shanghai.
But let me go back a little bit. I was, of course, incredibly freaked out over the flight, as I always am, but it went off without a hitch. Got to the airport, flew to Chicago. I had about a 2 hour layover in Chicago, so I wandered around the terminal for a little bit, got some walking in. Ended up ducking into a bookstore and picking up a Chinese travel phrasebook. It has 14 different dialects in it, and basics for each, which was pretty handy. I know I was a bit stupid not doing any study before I left, but I forgive myself, considering the weeks that led up to going (busy). I've got the book now, and working on my numbers. Brittany's helping.
Brittany, by the way, is the friend I'm visiting over here, the one who invited me up. She's teaching at a university in Nanning for the year, and has a month off for the Chinese new year celebration. Long story short, now I'm in China.
Anyway, did some stretching in preparation for the 14 hour flight, and then soon enough it was time to go. The flight itself went fine; I like flying. I made sure to get up and move around; logged about 1,000 steps in the air (always, always get an aisle seat). I was next to a Chinese couple who were very nice. To, uh, the point where they started watching a movie that had English subtitles and it kept catching me eye and they noticed, and ended up repositioning their laptop so it was in the middle so I could see better. It is lucky that I have no shame, seriously. When it was over, they restarted it for me, so I could see the beginning. I said "no, no, it's okay! No, thank you! I'm sorry!" a lot. But I did get the name of the movie (The Flowers of War) and think I'm going to find it later. It was. very sad. Which is another reason I declined their incredibly nice offer; didn't really want to cry on the plane.
Arrival went fine too! It was definitely nerve-wracking on account of being in China, but I went through customs fine, passed quarantine, got my luggage all without any problems. And then I went out to arrivals, ChineseChineseChineseChineseChineseChineseBlonde.
Hi Brittany!
Then it was off to get tickets to the Metro, to head out to Shanghai, where we plan to stay until the 15th.
First view of China, outside the train window.
We spent kind of a very, very long time wandering around Shanghai with our collective luggage trying to find Jiangyin road, where the hostel we were staying at was supposed to be. I think it's become a thing now; find self in strange place, get horribly lost while carrying lost of heavy things. It would have been very bad at all, except that my of my items was a duffel bag (packed with things I was taking to Brittany, so that I could empty it out and fold it into my suitcase) which didn't roll. Ouch shoulders, ouch ouch.
But we found it eventually!
Except that's not it. See that tiny ally to the left? The little blue and orange sign?
Haha, yup. But it's much bigger inside!
We got a private room, even though it's more expensive. I have to say, I was pretty glad for it though. In a country the doesn't believe in privacy, it's nice to know there is a place to go to in between being out.
Got to the hostel at about 6pm, and it took a good half hour to check in, so we got to our room around 6:30pm. Now, our plan had been to drop our stuff, take showers, rest for an hour, and then go out about 8:30pm to find dinner.
That, uh, didn't happen.
In other news, the beds were really, really comfortable.
So fastforward to 8am on the 13th. We are up, dressed, and out finding breakfast.
It was eight in the morning. See that sky? That's the sky pretty much all the time. There's this haze that is always there. Most polluted place in the world, I believe it. No wonder I was asked to bring along Vitamin D capsules. There is no sun! At all!
A group of people getting ready for what turned out to be a performance thing with banner waving and drums. And yes, they're next to a Haagen Daz.
We found a really nice bakery to sit down and have breakfast. I wanted to eat all the things, but I settled with trying two. Something called Milk Pudding bread, and a "mango creme brulee" (that's exactly what it was labeled).
They were really delicious! The milk pudding bread tasted was a little softer and sweeter than Challah, and it had some pudding-type stuff in the bottom of it. The "brulee" was mango. Like, actual mango taste, with mango jelly! Very cool. Quite sweet though; more of a dessert thing, or...a topping for toast, maybe?
By the way, all baked goods are very pretty and delicious-looking.
I think it's a Thing.
Another thing would be the wonderful English-by-people-who-clearly-don't-know-English!
"chicken rolls short Bread of chocolate!"
I am considering making a post dedicated to just these, I mean it.
After breakfast, we wandered around more, and found the local Giant Park. It was sort of like being in a park in New York: CITY BUILDINGS...trees? But it was very pretty, and we had a lot of fun.
There were a lot of very interesting rock formations and places to take pictures, and so we did.
I'm in China, by the way. (This was actually quite high up off the ground. We climbed.)
Trying to find our way down was interesting, as I found 'stairs' that looked like they led out.
Turns out they didn't.
Abyss. Of Doom.
Walking!
Standing!
It looked like a tiny table and chair. What.
The time-honored tradition of using rocks as steps.
Actual rock steps.
And then. And then. AMAZING THING.
It's the exercise part of the park. Apparently they're really common. I wanted to climb on everything. And yes, those are barbells made of stone and everything. As we went in, a Chinese man middle-aged-ish, was standing by the barbells and gestured over to us, picking up the smallest barbell and hoisting it up easy as pie. 'Come on, you should try it!' he was saying. 'See how easy? Go on!' And I knew it was a having a little fun with a foreigner and that those weights were going to be fairly heavy but...hey, I've been working out, right? Sooo...okay. Why not. And I could.
He got very excited about it, but there was a heavy dose of surprise thrown in as well. And after that we were all accepted, and he showed us to other things and equipment and Brittany and I did many things, including stretches and climbing and pushups and whatnot. Gained a bit of an audience for some things, but once you get over the fact that everyone stares at everyone forever, it was less weird.
And this was the sign for the store we stopped in to get water. Tea Time is serious business.
We spent a good four hours at the park, and so it was time for food. While walking around to find a place to eat, Brittany overheard and translated comments, such as, "Only one looks like a foreigner, but they both are!" which I am always going to find amusing.
After stopping in a little side shop to buy some notebooks (and getting my travel dose of what I've decided to name foreigner-fraud; in this case I got a packet of something and got charged per thing in the packet), we found an underground shopping mall and went in there to get food.
Of course, we went to a Japanese-style restaurant, because we're awesome. I got stir-fried Udon and did not take a picture of it, but I got a picture of something much, much better.
That's for you, mom.
Further wandering around in the mall resulted in stopping at the arcade for a ridiculous amount of time to watch people play the Chinese knock-off of DDR, a lot browsing, and quite a long conversation in broken English and Chinese in the store between Brittany and a girl manning a shop filled with brightly colored Chinese decorations and things. I contributed to the conversation through very elaborate and amusing mime.
Sleepwear. The hat thing is attached to the shirt.
Stopped for gelato (Chinese vanilla, or 'vallina,' as the sign had it, isn't what I'm used to, but it wasn't bad), and then around 4:30pm we went over to the internet cafe. So I've come full circle. Except now it's two hours later. Entries take a long time, okay. Not to mention that working with this connection is interesting. But I'm not complaining; I'm glad of having it at all (China...really doesn't believe all that much in the basics of technology, for all that it likes bells and whistles). Though it does mean that entries might happen less often.
In short, I'm safe, we're having fun, and plan to go out for dinner shortly.
And as of 6:35pm (with the past 2 hours being seated typing), I've logged about 13,000 steps. Rock.
This is BERRY exciting...
from brittanys mom
From TheMom
P.S. --I thought the ChineseChineseBlonde thing was pretty funny, too!
Love to both of you.