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!
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| Dada with Laura, Henrik, Ding 丁 and Lucy |
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| 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.
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| Tea with the owner and his friend |
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| My favorite teashop |
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| The sun setting on Pudong |
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| 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??
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| Homework date at Starbucks (星巴克） |
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