Shanghai

The two days went by fast and I still did not feel ready to take on another country.  We were prepared by the faculty and staff to stay away from conflict in China and do not talk politics.  As Americans we were not having the best relations with China.  They were less than enthusiastic about Obama meeting with the Dali Lama and sending aid to undesirable places.    It took forever for the ship to be cleared and while we thought it was Japan that would be checking our temperature, China was where they pointed to laser thermometer at our foreheads before stamping our visas. 

When I was finally able to get off the ship I went out with my friend Nancy and my friend Shanay to walk around.  We walked along the water and made our way to the Bund which is a huge shopping strip.  It was packed and people bumped into us going in and out of all the shops.  People on the street would stare at us, point and laugh.  At first it was really uncomfortable, but we decided to embrace it and say hello in Chinese to them every time we caught them staring.  The people would be a little taken back and smile and say hello back.  Shanay got most of the stares because people there rarely see black people and she decided we were finally experiencing life like a celebrity and we should just go with it.  People were trying to sell us tons of knockoff bags, watches and other knockoff things.  We went and had a drink in a park and just took it all in for a little.  It was freezing so we could only stand sitting outside for the one drink.  We kept walking around and went in and out of some of the stores including the Hershey’s store and an upscale department store.  Before we arrived in China, we were told by the interport students that China is full of malls especially Hong Kong and they were right.  We were going to jump on a bus to just ride around the city of Shanghai.  We were discussing where to go and a girl over heard us and told us which route to get on for the best sights.  She told us we would have to go underground to get to the other side of the street.  Underground there were more stores.  There were restaurants and it was so quaint and fun.  Our eyes came across a hookah bar and we were soon too distracted to remember we only went there to get to the other side of the street.  We sat outside the shop for two hours watching people walk by and saying hello hundreds of times.  Some of the little kids would be holding their parent’s hand and staring back as they walked.  I was waiting for one of the to just walk into something.  As our hookah dwindled we were brought back to reality and remembered our initial purpose of crossing the street and catching a bus.  We walked up to the bus stop and did not remember what bus was recommended so just got on one.  As if took us around the city we pointed out similarities and differences and waved to people on the streets and on the bus.  I was so tired and decided to take a nap on the bus. I was woken up to find myself and my two friends in the bus terminal with no one but the bus drivers and some woman handing me a cell phone to speak to someone who spoke English who could translate and tell them where we wanted to go.  Our intention was to just see the city and loop around on the bus.  I was so confused at first but became the means of communication between the bus drivers and my crew.  I told the woman the name of the place where our ship was and she told them we want to be on the same bus going the other way which was pretty obvious.  The drivers we laughing and so were we as we stood in the their terminal passing a cell phone and having such a barrier for communication.  I was laughing so hard at the whole situation because it was all we could do.  We got back on the bus going the other way and got off when we knew where we were.  We had to go to the bathroom really bad so went down to one of the maze like train stations.  I have a phobia of public bathrooms especially ones with just a hole in the ground and no toilet paper so I held it.  We were then starving and were torn between Burger King, McDonalds, and KFC before deciding to eat at the Chinese fast food place Kung Fo.  We left the train station in a pretty sketchy exit and to find ourselves on the same street that was so crowded with people earlier to be comparably empty.  We ran into my roommate and a few other SASers who were looking for a bar.  We did not see any and continued our walk to the ship.  We were exhausted and felt like zombies after such an eventful day. 

We woke up on time for lunch on the ship the next day.  We waited another hour for Nancy to be back from a trip and did not get off the ship until pretty late that day.  Nancy kept talking about going for dinner and getting Hot Pot which is a pretty popular dish.  We found a place near the ship and went to eat there.  There is a big pot in the middle of the table with a broth and you choose what to put in it.  We got some kind of meat, noodles, cabbage, dumplings, and a couple of other things.  It was DELICIOUS.   They kept refilling the broth and we mistakenly challenged ourselves to finish it all.  I felt like I was going to explode.  We knew we would be drinking and although you are supposed to drink on a full stomach we learned you should never drink on a stomach that full.  We went to a bar down the block that said karaoke but found out it was only Chinese music and they only had beer.  The people were so nice and the whole family who owned the bar came to meet us so we felt bad just leaving and had one drink there and got our waitress’s email address after taking pictures together.  Next door at another bar we saw a few SASers drinking and out on the street putting off fireworks with the locals for the New Year.  They were just leaving so we did not drink there.  They were headed to go to some place that has drunken go-karting.  It sounded interesting but I remember my first sober experience of go-karting and being yelled at because I thought it was bumper cars and opted out of going.  We headed down the road to Club 70 where we spent the remainder of our night.  When we first got there we were the only SASers and became really friendly with the bartenders and were able to get free drinks all night.  We found out later that most people did but felt special and VIP at the time.  It soon became really SASy and was a fun get together off the ship.  We all drunkenly got to the ship and most made it past security successfully but we heard stories later on that were not so successful.  Apparently you get quarantined if you are blacked out and run past security thinking the gangway is on the fifth deck instead of the second.  I went to sleep in my room that would be for me alone for the next 3 nights and woke up for my last day in Shanghai.

We woke up and Nancy, Shanay, and I headed out to see the cool looking building in their skyline and to venture around the side of the river we had yet to see.  We had to take a sightseeing tunnel to get to the other side.  It was awesome.  It was a little car on tracks that went through a tunnel that told some sort of story we could not understand but had really cool lights all around.  When we got to the other side we were too cheap to pay to go up in another building to see the layout of the city.  We were able to catch a New Year’s celebration with a band and people dressed up as lions in front of the building.  We also found a Cold Stone that tasted 100x better than usual.  We went into a huge mall once again.  It was 10 stories high and we just walked around talking about how big it was.  I somehow ended up breaking my camera a couple days before so headed to the Best Buy to get another.  Explaining that I wanted a camera with a battery I could charge and an American plug was very challenging but I got it eventually.  We took the cool sightseeing tunnel back again before heading back to the ship and setting sail for Hong Kong