Shanghai Fun!!!

Shanghai Nights

So after our little adventure at the train station we finally did make it to Shanghai!  As soon as we got off the train it was apparent Shanghai would be a little different from Hefei.  For one thing we weren't the only non-asian people anymore, thus we didn't get as many stares as we did in Hefei (which I kind  of missed actually).  The train station was crazy crowded! People everywhere!!! We were all grabbing onto one another as not to get lost. 

We made it to the hostel miraculously enough, after having to split up into 4 different groups into taxis with taxi drivers who didn't know English.  The hostel we stayed at was actually way nice, with heating that worked and soft beds, which is more than I can say for where I live in Hefei! 

 

Fun at the Bund

Meghan, Tammi and me in front of a cool lookin', mystical somethin'...

Yay for being the creeper in the back!!!

Our first full day in Shanghai we went to this awesome aquarium with the worlds LARGEST underwater tunnel! 

I got to pet a shark!!!

Meditating on the moving walk way

Behold "The Pearl"

...

Now in Lego form!

At People's Park... mmm...

SO... there we are, walking down the streets of Shanghai when we run into Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse! Cool, right? So we decide to get a picture with them and psha, Mickey Mouse starts caressing my face, uh yeah... kinda creepy. Then, to top it off, they ask for five yuan (which is only like... 15 cents) for the picture! Yeah right! We just walked away. 

At the top of the use-to-be tallest (now 2nd tallest building) in Asia, Jin Mao. 88th floor baby!

View from the top

Had to get a cow picture! This one was at the top of the Jin Mao Building, for reasons I do not know.

Chugging water at the acrobat show.  Unfortunately we weren't able to take pictures of the acrobat show, but it was AWESOME!!!! I'm considering becoming a chinese acrobat myself. 

Shanghai was so much fun! But I was excited to get back home to my dear Hefei! Believe it or not, I missed my crazy kids!!! I love LOVE China. I miss you all so much! Thanks for all of your support. 

Missing our train

Last week we went on our first of six 5-6 day vacations.  After much ado, we finally decided to go to Shanghai for our first trip.  We woke up early Thursday morning so we would have plenty of time to make our 10 AM train. Little did we know getting a cab in Hefei at 7 AM would be impossible...  

After waiting around for about 30 min. or so we decided it would be best to take the bus. I was trying to be optimistic and kept telling everyone we were going to make it in time but unfortunately our bus got to the train station about 15 min. too late. Curses! We ran around the train station trying to find out if we could somehow get a discou

nt ticket for the next train leaving around 2:00 pm for Shaghai. (I was still trying to be optimistic) After waiting in line FOREVER (Apparently Chinese people don't actually believe in lines) we were able to get a ticket on the 2 pm train, for FREE!!! Yay!!! Only now we had a few hours to kill at the train station before we could leave.

 Having been in the rain, we were all soaking wet and our waiting lobby area was freezing! After sitting for awhile, m

y friend Meghan and I decided we wanted to get up and walk around.  While walking around the 

train station we stumbled upon the VIP

 lounge. Through the crack of the door we could feel warm heavenly air.  Meghan decided  to go in and take a look around and... because I was chicken... I volunteered to be her lookout.  

After waiting outside anxious

ly, trying not to look too suspicious, I decided to go inside.  A lady at the front desk was flipping through a chinese/english dictionary.  I guess she had tried to ask Meghan for her ticket but Meg played dumb.  We sat in there for a minute or so on the wonderful soft chairs until we saw the lady at the desk come back when we nonchalantly walked out of the VIP lounge.  

When we went back to our yucky waiting area someone was telling horror stories about the train station bathrooms.  Deciding the bathrooms in the VIP lounge would be much better, Tammi, Meg and I went to go try them out.  We brought our tickets, even though they definitely weren't 1st class tickets.  But we thought if they asked for them we would have something to show them and we could just pretend to be stupid americans (not that hard to do :) 

Well to make a long story short, we got to stay in the VIP lounge for the rest of the time!!! All of the workers in there started talking to us, practicing what little english they knew.  They even gave us chinese names, mine meaning "loves China" but don't ask me how to pronounce it. It was awesome! SO had we of made our train we would've missed out big time.  Things work out. That is all :) 

Tammi, Messa, Meghan and me with our new friend (Her English name is Meteor?) from the VIP lounge