11.16.09
We woke up this morning and were greeted with a rainy day in Shanghai. Yuck. I met up with Kelsey, Christina, Rosario and Kate and we headed to find internet. We tried to find a cab and we asked a doorman and he said to just to take the bus. Christina all the sudden busts out into Mandarin – who knew? Turns out that her dad is from Hong Kong and she speaks Mandarin with her grandmother and she took Cantonese in high school. She made it a lot in easier in getting around. We could never really find the bus station, so Kelsey and Christina went into a little store and we stayed outside. We were just hanging out outside. We are watching this white car try to pull a u-turn in the middle of the street…who does that? Not only does a huge truck almost t-bone him, but then as he finishes his turn, this guy on a motorbike comes from the other side of the truck and then the white car hits the guy on the motorbike literally right in front of us. Kate screamed and we just couldn’t believe what had happened. It’s not like we could really do anything.
We had to flag a cab and that was a task and a half. When we finally flagged one down, this other guy tried to take it from us. They have no line etiquette or concept of personal space. All 5 of us piled into the cab and eventually made it to the You Gardens, which is normally a beautiful garden, but on a rainy day it really isn’t that exciting. We ran around trying to find the Starbucks. WE found it, but it didn’t have wireless. They said to try KFC. Well that didn’t work either. Kelsey and I broke off from the other group and explored every restaurant possible and asked everyone we could find and no one knew what we were talking about. We ran into 2 flight attendants and they tried to help, but they didn’t know where internet was either. They did help us figure out where we were, which was a plus because we had just been wondering aimlessly through what I only know how to describe as China Town in NYC.
We eventually gave up and went to McDonalds. I was craving a cheeseburger so bad. It was delicious. We then decided it was time to give up on internet and it was time to shop. We just wondered around and somehow ended up in a 5 story whole sale warehouse. It was really neat, but I wish we could have found someone that spoke English so they could explain to us what was going on.
We wondered some more and eventually found a lovely woman with a pearl shop. Kelsey and I ended up spending the next hour in her shop. After bargaining, we walked away with 6 strands of pearls and 4 silver and pearl necklaces for 520 yuan (~$76). So I think that is pretty good considering it is real silver and pearls (she lit them on fire to prove it). The woman gave us her business cards to give to our friends so she could get more business.
We said goodbye with much lighter wallets and in search of a duffle bag. I found a place and a very colorful bag, but it was WAY more expensive than I wanted. He originally said 320 and I offered 60. He laughed at me so we left. Next thing I know they are running down the street saying 60 was good. So I got a LeSport Sac bag for under $10. With all of our goals accomplished, we decided to head back to the ship even though we had some time to spare.
We ended up stopping in for some food at Pizza Hut. I loved it. All the waitresses had Christmas hats on and the place was playing Christmas music. That was a nice change of pace. Kelsey and I split and cheese pizza and it was glorious. Some more SASers came in and they told us that Dunkin Donuts had internet. Go figure.
We finished our pizza and headed to Dunkin Donuts. We caught a cab and eventually found it through lots of hand gestures, pointing and a map. When we got there and even though it was almost one in the morning at home I called Dad. It was really exciting because Grammy was in town and I got to talk to her on skype. The best part was that I was sitting next to window in the restaurant and while talking, I had a crowd of Chinese people watching my conversation video. It was rather entertaining. I also got to talk to mom.
We left Dunkin Donuts and headed back to the ship. We tried to walk, but got lost and got directions from a local student. The sheet with the ship address written in Chinese was wrong, so he wrote it correctly for us. He was super nice.
Cab drivers wanted nothing to do with us, but we somehow ended up in front of the Westin. So we had the valet there get us a cab. We got back to the ship and had to wait in line with a bunch of people in the rain. People in line, especially a particular life long learner, were getting pretty feisty. When we were finally able to get back on the ship we found out that because of bad weather we were staying Shanghai another night and on ship time was extended until noon tomorrow. Great.
I went back to my cabin and began organizing all of my stuff, which took a lot longer than I expected it to. We grabbed some dinner on the ship and hit the hay early.