Shanghai!

March/April 2015
I had a really fun time in Shanghai, this biggest city in the world. I must say, it was really really really big. I really got the meaning of the Chinese phrase "人山人海“ (people mountain, people sea). Because this was the first city I went to, I didn't realize how modern it was. In the places I went to, I really couldn't see anything old. Going to Shanghai was also my first time to ride a train. I learned from my friends that in Europe people ride trains all the time. I feel like I have more transportation options here. I can ride a train, bus, taxi, and other things.

I would say I did pretty well on spending in Shanghai. I expected everything to be really expensive, so I didn't open my wallet for just anything!

 The Bund!

Going to the Bund was the last thing we did in Shanghai. I felt like the only other time in my life I had seen that many people was when  I went to the Super Bowl (or do I need to say big game?) village in Indianapolis. My friends told me that, if I come earlier I could take a boat to the other side, and there are even more places to go shopping. Alright, when I become a 土豪 (rich person) I will come to Shanghai all the time to help circulate the economy. lol

It was around the time when Cinderella came out, so they had a lot of princessy things.

Looks like Japan at Christmas time. 

This building here is called Jing'An temple. Just so you know, the subway station for here is very hard to get out of. I was afraid we were going to be in there for the rest of my life, but I did get to buy some macarons there, so that was pretty awesome. If you know me well, you know I am a huge fan of macarons. 

This sculpture was made by Salvador Dali. It was pretty cool that I got to see some of his artwork just there at the stoplight for free!

I always like to take pictures of the adorable handbags at the Kate Spade store. In this one they had a sheep clutch. Sheep are so popular in China right now, because it's the year of the sheep. My friend said that this bag might have been specially made just for China.

 Shanghai is a great place to go shopping!

Happy Easter!

My first hot pot in China!

Shanghai is famous for sweets!

Who needs a chocolate bunny when you can have a chocolate darth vader head

Met my Ball State buddy Cecilia in Shanghai!

I had a fun day trip with my friend Beth, who is another teacher at my school. 

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We saw a turtle just walking on the sidewalk. My friend said that is really lucky. As you can kind of see, there was a crowd of people around taking pictures of it. 

At this point we had just escaped from being lost inside the subway station not knowing how to get out. I exclaimed "ah, finally fresh air!" but then I quickly took it back, because I remembered that I was in Shanghai. Nothing fresh about that air!

My time in Shanghai was really nice, but getting back to Haining was a little bit scary. The train tickets back were all sold out, and we had no idea what to do. There was a lady standing next to the ticket office who told me she had a car that was willing to take us back to Haining. It was a 黑车(black car), and taking a 黑车was one of the things that my Chinese sister, Judy, told me never to do! My first month in China, and I was already breaking the rules. I was really nervous, but I had to focus on speaking Chinese with this guy. I let him know that I was very wary of the situations, and that Beth and I were taking pictures of their plates and keeping in contact with our Haining friends. It was a really scary situation, but in the end it was ok, because we got back alright, and it became nothing but a cool story to tell people. Thus, we close the book on this very eventful first trip in China. Yay!