The Plot concludes.

This last week has been a whirlwind of adventure, fun, and emotions.  My last week in Shanghai was full of final papers, presentations and final exams in Chinese. Wednesday we ended our morning classes to find it snowing outside. I emailed mom to tell her that it was snowing but that it probably wouldn't stick... I was wrong. By 5 o'clock there was at last an inch on the ground and a snowball fight happening on the third floor. You would've thought we had never seen snow in our lives. 

Thursday was our Chinese final exam and our last day of class. We went to our favorite restaurant out the back gate, Xue You, for dinner one last time. It was fantastic. We told the waiters and the door lady that we were returning to the United States and wouldn't be coming back for a while. It was the first of the emotional goodbyes! That night we went to M1NT a fancy lounge for a "birthday party" for Blair (who's birthday is actually in March) just because we wanted a reason to celebrate and go out. It is always fun to have a reason to get dressed up and see the boys in ties! Friday morning was our Farewell & Graduation Ceremony and we had "talent show" with performances from the different Chinese classes and talented students. Our class attempted to sing the theme song from the Beijing Olympics, Beijing Huanying Ni, but that was more of a joke than anything else. We were given diplomas and pictures and watched a slide show from the year. To end the ceremony, Chelsea and Charae sang "Friends Forever" and got the whole group singing. It was a great way to remember the semester we had together. That evening Lucy, Emily, Dan and I went to Tianzifang Art Street. This area is full of small alleys that are filled with art galleries, shops, and restaurants. We spent some time shopping until we were too cold to go on and then got some Vietnamese dinner in the warmest restaurant we could find. 

Snow in Shanghai

Our last meal at our favorite restaurant "Xue You"

Rob, Me, and Henrik before M1NT

Singing at the Farewell ceremony

A night on the town- Tianzifang Art Street

 Saturday was our last day in Shanghai and it ended up being one of my favorites as well. We went to M on the Bund for brunch to celebrate Emily's 21st Birthday. Happy Birthday Emily!! After an amazing brunch we went out on the balcony and took pictures of Pudong for the last time. It was a fantastic start to a great day. From there we went to my favorite little teashop and had some tea and finished our last minute shopping. We split into two groups and James, Min, Laurie and I went over to Pudong and up into the Bottle Opener. We wanted to go up to the observation deck but found that it was over 20 dollars a person!! Instead we went to Blue Frog and had happy hour drinks, 2 for about 8 dollars. Much better! We came back to campus, ate our last dinner in the caf and then went to the House of Jazz and Blues for our last night out. 

The last day in Shanghai, looking out at Pudong from the Bund

Emily's birthday brunch at M on the Bund

The Financial Center

Sunday morning I woke up and had to say my goodbyes. The van was leaving at 10am so I woke up and got showered and gave myself about 30 minutes to say my goodbyes. Bawling as I climbed in the van, I was ready to go home, but not ready to leave my Shanghai life and friends behind. Everything went smoothly through check-in, boarding, and then not for take off. We didn't even make it away from the terminal. One of the generators wasn't running so they cancelled the flight, but it took an extra hour to get off the plane because the government had to "approved" our entrance to the airport... 3 hours later they let us back inside, where we had the joy of going back through customs were they cancelled our visa stamps. Luckily I was with Dan because if I had been alone I would've been miserable. We met up with James, Drew and Emily at the entrance of the airport. Their plane had been delayed 6 hours and wasn't going to leave until 11pm. When Dan and I went to the United Airlines counter they told us our flight had been scheduled to leave the following day at 3pm and they would put us in a hotel until then. Shanghai has no other flights to the states after 5pm each day, but fortunately the American Airlines flight the other group was on had been delayed. After James and Dan finagled with the United workers for about 30 minutes or so, we got switched (for free) to the AA flight to Chicago. We had about 5 hours before our plane was going to leave, so James took us to the first class lounge were we relaxed with comfy chairs, free foods and free drinks. After a few glasses of champagne we made our flight to Chicago with about 15 other CIEE students. We got a hotel voucher for our long layover in Chicago and made our flights home to our final destinations. About 40 hours after my goodbyes in the CIEE dorm lobby I made it to PDX. Mom, Dad, Chris, Ellie, and Grandpa were there waiting for me. It is amazing to be home, but it is sad to leave. My first night home I fell asleep around 8pm and woke up around 1pm the next day. The jetlag is going to be difficult, but being home is worth it. 

Lounge at the airport during 40 hours of traveling

On other note...

Leaving for Shanghai I had no idea that I would be returning to the United States with so many more important people in my life. I had the honor of meeting some fantastic people and making some amazing friends. I wanted to take the opportunity in this last post to share with you some of the most important people from this trip. This list does not include everyone or give anyone enough credit, but these people made my trip worth every minute and every penny.

Drew- My teddy bear.

Laura- My beautiful smart fellow wineo.

Chelsea- A huge heart and full of spirit. 

Elliot- A fellow duck. I am so glad I get to see you so soon!

Min- The funniest person on the trip (don't tell James)!

Blair- Beautiful and fun. 

Lucy- The love of my life. 

Laurie- My adorable roommate and BFF. 

Robert- My little brother and fellow duck and Oregonian. 

Emily- My lovely, fun, fantastic friend.

James- Honorary duck fan. My best friend. <3

Brandon- Place holder until we have a picture together. Loudest kid on the program. ;-) Miss you!

Kevin- Another fellow duck and always a good time.

Thank you to all of you for taking care of me and being so important in my life.

Partyworld Karaoke, it couldn't get better than this.

A favorite evening pastime in China is Karaoke. This is their drinking culture. We obviously didn't participate in this culture, but they do know how to do it. Our Chinese class paired up with the Intermediate I class and went out for an evening of karaoke. We had a private room with couches and a giant tv that showed the music videos and words to the songs. We started the night with "Beijing HuanYing Ni" which was the song for the Olympics and we all practiced it in class so we would be ready. After that we got dinner at the buffet and brought it back to the room. Emily barely finished her dinner before she was back at the mic. It was a great time. We sang Chinese pop songs and of course the traditional English karaoke songs. Living on a prayer, Can you feel the love tonight, Hey Jude... The list goes on for 3-hours so I will stop there. It was a great way to start the weekend and by far one of the better CIEE organized events!

Beijing Huanying Ni (The song for the Olympics)

Elliot, Me, and Beverly

California Gurls with Liu laoshi!!

Can you feel the love tonight??

Getting the most out of the end of this adventure.

You may not have noticed but I decided to change the title of my blog. After this weekend I realized that my trip here in Shanghai has been nothing but shenanigans. Shenanigans ranging from silly mishaps to fun nights out to getting lost in Shanghai to speaking another language to losing track of time and finally to creating new friendships. Don't worry Mom and Dad, I have had plenty of time in between shenanigans to attend some classes and learn a few things. 

Last week I had a minor (compared to some I have had in China) panic attack. I realized that I had less than 20 days left in Shanghai and there were so many things that I still wanted to do. I decided to start accomplishing some of these things on Wednesday. I went back to the fabric market, went to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants and then went to Dada. Our night at Dada was one of my favorite nights out in Shanghai so far. This place played 1950s dance music all night long. They didn't play a single song from the last 40 years. It was so much fun! We danced all night long and my favorite part of the night was when I got Ding to swing dance with me! It is hard to get the Chinese roommates to come out with us even though we really enjoy their company. Ding decided to come out with us this night and I am so thankful he did. Not only did he come with us, but he DANCED with us!

Dada with Laura, Henrik, Ding 丁 and Lucy

Swing dancing with Ding 

Friday I spent the day in Shanghai by myself. I know that Mom and Grandma are both yelling at me while they read this. But in the middle of the day in the most ex-pat populated part of Shanghai I feel pretty safe. My goal was to go to a teashop near the Bund that I had been to earlier in the term with an owner that I really liked. He only spoke a few words of English, but he was so helpful and friendly and his prices were comparable to the tea market, which is supposed to be the cheapest way to buy tea. I went in knowing (or so I thought) what I wanted. When I told him, he said I needed to taste each tea before I bought it. I sat down while he made tea for me and he suggested different kinds of tea for me to try. Before I knew it I had been there for over an hour just chatting (in Chinese!) with this man and his friend and drinking tea. When I finished I walked down to the Bund just as the sun was beginning to set. It was beautiful. Looking across the river at Pudong is one of the best city skylines I have seen and the lighting made it a perfect picture opportunity. I took pictures, played peek-a-boo with a little kid, and then walked along the river for a while.

Tea with the owner and his friend

My favorite teashop

The sun setting on Pudong

The Bund

Saturday was a lazy day. Laurie and I went shopping for "tailgating food" for the game that night. A group of us decided to watch the Civil War that night at 4:30am and I promised to cater the event. We got the makings for 7-layer dip and chips, popcorn, and mixed nuts. Making true tailgating food is a challenge in China. While at the grocery store looking for cheese for our dip we found a Brie. Oops. We couldn't pass it up so we decided to have some girl bonding over white wine and Brie. Perfect. We followed the bonding by meeting up with a couple of the boys on the Bund for a drink before dinner. For dinner we went to an all you can eat and drink Indian restaurant called Punjabi. It was amazing food.  Sunday Robert and I spent the day out in Shanghai and at the Fake Market. 

Today Laurie and I spent the evening trying to get ahead on our papers and homework for the rest of the term at Starbucks. Three hours later and two dead computers we made our way back to the dorm and haven't worked on homework since. Writing this blog is still being productive right??

Homework date at Starbucks (星巴克）