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Jing'an temple
Looks so out of place in the city, but is beautiful! Today i am leaving hangzhou to shanghai! I am so excited to see the city and go exploring! I had a rough start this morning.. Slept through my alarm but woke up just in time. I was supposed to skype with my class but it didnt work out, i had just enough time to brush my teeth and cover my bags with my ponchos and head out the door. It is pouring today! I had a 25 minute walk, or should i say run walk, to the train station. I got all the way in the station until i realized i had to go back outside to another building to get my ticket. I found a bilingual window and watched countless people cut, its normal in china, but i patiently waited my turn. I am so glad i managed to get here a little early, or else i would have been a stressball. I got to the window and used my chinglish to tell the lady i already had a paid ticket i just needed to pick it up. I am so glad to know a little chinese, it really makes a difference while traveling. Im getting pretty good at charades
too! Anyways i got my ticket and headed back to security (which is a total joke by the way!) and bought myself 2 bananas for the train. Its funny to watch the locals when i walk up to the counter, you can read their face like a book: "oh great a foreigner this is gunna suck..". But i am overly polite and speak only in chinese and always thank them twice. By the time i leave they are smiling and stoked that they didnt have to try and figure out what i wanted. I think it shows a lot of respect to them as well, and i know they appreciate my effort even if its not perfectly spoken. I made it to my terminal and have had a blast watching people run to their trains, its so hilarious! Girls wear heals EVERYWHERE like they are going to the club, all the time. So here they are, super late for their train, running in their stilettos, falling and tripping and obviously so pissed they wore heals to the train station! Now i am on my train, i had someone sitting in my seat, it was like pulling teeth to get them
Animal carrots
Nice touch. They always taste better when they are in animal shapes out, but eventually they gave up and i won! Last thing i wanted to happen is getting yelled at by some other chinese person for sitting in their seat. Unfortunately the family behind me is eating some kind of seafood and it reeks so bad! It reminds me of when my mom brought fish on a plane one time, and all the evil stares we got, haha. Im just gunna hold my breath for the next hour and a half!! Wow this train is fast! And smooth, im gunna enjoy the view, bye!!
I made it to shanghai!! My feet hurt, but i made it! Luckily the hostel is close to the metro station. I was so proud of myself for finding it so well! From the train station i got on the metro, i had to change subways twice but it only cost me .40 cents! I could have taken a taxi but that would have been too easy (and i would rather spend it on food). While i was at the station switching subways one of my hula hoops came undone, and i stopped to get it tapped up. Some random chinese dude stopped close to me to rest his hands from his heavy bags, he looked over and saw my hula hoops and got so excited! Haha it was hilarious! He got so excited he just gave me a wooden flute! I was not asking for one, nor did i really want one, but he insisted i take it. I think he was telling me to hula hoop and practice the flute at the same time! What a crack up! Then he just ran off to get his train. Now i have this big chinese wooden flute! Kinda cool i guess! The hostel i am at is huge!! So many rooms and white people! I walked into my room to see that the two girls i am bunking with clearly live here. There are clothes everywhere and piles and piles of shoe boxes, all the table tops and chairs are covered in stuff, and by the looks of it, i think they are super girlie girls, stilettos and make up everywhere! I was relieved to see that my top bunk was clean and un used, but there is no room for any of my stuff.. Oh well!its only two nights then the third night i booked my own private suite (it was only an extra 10 bucks!) i figured it will be nice to have my own space for the first time in 2 months and i can get some good rest for my trip to Europe. Ahh i am so excited, the culture shock is going to be extreme! Its so fascinating learning about different cultures and understanding how different parts of the world work. It is going to be so expensive compared to china. I find it so interesting how different parts of the world value things in different currencies even though money is money and its all the same thing just "different" value. Here my dollar stretches 6 fold! And in europe is will be worth something like 15% less, its so extreme! Luckily i bought all my gifts here and not there! I have a whole suitcase full of tea, herbs, gifts, and shoes. I cant wait to share them with everyone 😊 After i checked in was on a mission to find this special vegetarian restaurant by the buddhist temple on n. nanjing rd. it was a mission but i found it and it was sooo good. I went all out, in chinese the lady was like, are you sure you want 5 things? Haha. I had fresh melon juice, barely tea, brown rice, satay crunchy mushrooms, veggie soup, a mixed plate of stir fried veggies and nuts, and i think that was it. It was odd that all of my carrot pieces in my soup were shaped like dinos or dogs or something haha! It was really good and was a whopping $17.50! I love that in china you can have a feast and its so cheap compared to america, i am going to miss the local cuisine once i leave thats for sure. I barely made it back to my room because my feet hurt haha and now i want to take a nap but it is already 6 pm so i will have to stay up somehow. Tomorrow i am going to the bund to look around and hopefully find the postal museum!
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