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Published: April 2nd 2011
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MARCH 31st---
I woke up and tried to go find an internet café. This was a complete fail and took almost 2 hours. We got an address from one of the people in a nearby hotel which ended up being wrong. Anyway, we were shown around the city by multiple people who said they knew where this place was…but of course no one did! Oh well… anyways, Charli and I still couldn’t find any of our friends so we decided to just go explore and not wait around. We ended up going to the most amazing marketplace. I ended up buying so much stuff! I was sort of out of control! But don’t fear because I used my awesome bargaining skills and somehow got 6 purses, 1 duffel bag, 3 pairs of shoes, 2 pairs of boots, jewelry and 2 pairs of jeans for all under $100 US dollars.
So around 7 we finally got back to the ship and were desperately looking for our friends. Still no luck! We were kind of upset because we had been trying to get in touch with my friend Christina who is coming to visit us once the trip is over. Her
family had prepared meals for us and wanted to meet us, but we somehow got separated in the beginning of the trip and well since we can’t text or call each other, we were kind of out of luck. We decided to just make the best of it. We found another girl on the ship who had no plans and we all decided to go to this district area that someone suggested to us. The taxi ride was very interesting. The driver seemed like he was on happy pills. The second we sat down he started freaking out and saying USA over and over again. Then he looked at Liz in the front seat and kept pointing to her skin (she is African American) and freaking out. Then he took out his camera phone at the first light and took a picture with her. The whole ride he just kept staring at us and smiling. He was a freak and it was hilarious, I couldn’t stop laughing. Anyways, we somehow made it to where we wanted to go and got out of the taxi. After we paid him he stayed by the side of the road and just kept waving
to us and smiling like crazy….weird! We found a Japanese restaurant to eat dinner at and then we went to a coffee house. We couldn’t find any cheap night life (everything is very expensive here). We headed back to the ship and just passed out. I have been so tired lately. Literally, anytime I just sit in a chair, couch or bed for more than 10 minutes, I just pass out.
I found out some scary stuff once I get back on the ship. Everyone on SAS received an email but I have a friend on the ship that witnessed this situation in Beijing. One of the SAS trips that went to Beijing hiked and camped out on the Great Wall for 2 nights. One of the nights, two of the girls tripped on some of the uneven steps and fell down. The one girl just had a bad leg injury and was taken to medical and she will be okay. The other girl is a completely different story. Apparently, she fell down an entire flight of stone steps and banged her head on the bottom (I wasn’t kidding when I said the steps were really uneven and hard
to see…I can’t imagine this at nighttime). She was transferred to the Hong Kong hospital and her parents are there with her. She has been in a coma for 2 days now and they don’t even know if she is going to wake up. They think that even if she wakes up she will have brain or motor development problems. We don’t really know that much yet, but in the email it said that we are all having a community meeting in the Union about it after China. I actually know who the girl is. I’m not very close with her or hang out with her, but she is in one of my classes and I have had lunch with her a couple of times. She is really nice and I’m really upset something like this happened to her. No one really knows all of the details but we’re all eager to find out. I really just hopes she wakes up…I can’t even imagine!
APRIL 1st---(Shanghai)
Happy April Fool’s Day everyone! I can’t believe today is the first day of April. This means only 23 days left of the trip…absolutely crazy! Time has flown!
After an hour or two I finally found my friend Christina and met up with her to go travel around. She took us to this shopping district. We first met her dad. It was really only brief, but it was still nice to put meet in person. It was sad because me and Christina tried to meet up the other day because her parents cooked dinner for us and everything, but we lost each other and it just didn’t work out. Her dad didn’t speak any English so she had to translate. She told me her parents were very nervous about meeting us, because they felt bad that we didn’t get to come over for dinner and spend more time with them. They also felt funny because they didn’t know any English. Anyways, her dad told us that next time we come to Shanghai we have a place to stay. It is so cool that I have all these connections around the world now!
After we met her dad she took us to a restaurant to have lunch. We had these dumplings that are filled with crab meat and soup. They were really good! We also had shrimp dumplings in this sauce. The sauce we learned was filled with baby prawns…we ate them anyway (it’s just weird when you can see the eyes on them). Oh well…nothing shocks me or grosses me out anymore!
After lunch, we headed to a shopping market to walk around. It was so much easier with her around because she could translate, bargain and ask for different sizes and stuff like that for us. People also treated us differently. It was funny because while we were waiting for an elevator, a man came over to us and asked if we wanted to buy anything. Christina looked at him and said no and some other stuff I didn’t catch in Chinese. She told me later that he told her that her Chinese was really good. She laughed and told him that she was a local. I guess me and Charli gave her away….oh well! She took us clothes shopping too. The fashion here is soooo funky! There is lace, gems, fluff, fur everywhere, and everything is made for such tiny, skinny people. I tried my best and bought a few things. Most of them fit okay but some just don’t fit well at all. Oh…well it was so cheap!
After that we had to head back to the ship. I was really upset because if we had an extra day, we would have been able to go home with Cristina or at least see more of the city with her.
So to sum up China….I absolutely loved it! I would come back here in a heartbeat. The cities here are unreal. They all look like something in the future and they are so crazy looking in terms of architecture. They are huge and there are so many people. I had never seen this many lights before in my life. All the food I had here was amazing and the shopping was great! Not everything, but most stuff is very cheap if you bargain well. I think everyone should get to China at some point in their lives. I know I will definitely go back, especially to stay with Christina.
But for now off to Taiwan. It’s weird to think that we would have been arriving in Kobe, but I still think Taiwan will be a lot of fun. I’ll be there in 3 days!
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