Shanghai~

Thursday night I hightailed it out of work, frantically flailed around for a taxi and jumped in the first car that would take me to Baoan (come ‘shift-change’ you will get turned down no matter how much money you offer) and met my friends at the hotel. We booked it to the airport and flew to Shanghai. The hotel situation was slightly sketchy as I found out we were all sleeping in one room (what!?). Eric had planned for us to have some master suite in the Weston that house us all comfortably. Although the intention was nice, the room turned out to be slightly smaller than expected so we were somewhat like sardines packed on top of each other. However, to soften the shock of the size of the room, two bottles of Moet champagne were waiting for us. Weee! We cheered to being in Shanghai, finished the two bottles (I nursed one glass) and headed out for to meet up with some of Lanny’s friends. We danced to some refreshingly good music and I made my way back to the hotel around 3am with Long and Aaron. Lanny and Eric went out for a late night snack. The sleeping situation was pretty funny-Lanny and I had the bed (of course) and the boys had to figure out the floor-The first night, there weren’t enough blanks so long had the genius idea of using 1) a bathrobe and 2) the curtains which ended up letting in a draft.

Friday, around noon, we made our way out of the hotel and went to a ‘hot’ shopping area. We basically wandered in and out of bad fashion for a greater part of the afternoon. Around 5pm we headed to a mall because Eric insisted on buying a dress shirt. Despite the disappointment of not finding cute clothes, we headed to an all you can eat and all you can drink buffet. This place was AMAZAING (even more so because it had a REAL ginger bread house outside) and made all-you-can-eat-sushi night look like a can of tuna. This restaurant had rows upon rows of tasty treats ranging from sushi to steak to Chinese dim sum to Japanese veggies to American salads to teriyaki chicken to fresh seafood and more! The dessert ranged from chocolate brownie fudge cheese cake to mochi (I ate two covered with black sesame seeds in honor of my Jeffrey). The wine was endless and Eric and Aaron proceeded to smashed on a neon green drink ( I repeatedly stated, “Anything THAT neon, can’t be good.”). The best treat of all was my friend from Beloit Language program met me at dinner to say hello. I haven’t seen this girl in 3 years and she was my tutor in Mandarin. We finished our food and headed back to our hotel-Eric, Lanny, and Aaron crashed for a nap and I dragged my tired ass downstairs to try and read. At this point, I already had a cold and was beginning to feel a little cranky from my lack of sleep. About 11pm, I made my way back upstairs and Lanny, Eric, Long, and I wandered to the Jacuzzi. I love hot water and bubbles. Around 1 am, my friends went out and I went to sleep-The crazy-late nights really aren’t my thing.

Saturday, again around noon, we made it out of the hotel and went to the French concession area. I saw Haiyin (my friend from Beloit) and my friends went to TGIF. But before they left, all of a sudden 5 million german santas rode up from out of nowhere! They were passing out chocolate (I almost shouted out, “GELT!! I LOVE GELT” but changed my mind when I heard the accents.) Haiyin and I walked around and chit-chatted for a while and then ended up at this glass museum called the Liuli Museum (www.liuli.com). The exhibit was incredible and it felt so good to get some culture. (Lindsay, you would have loved it!) I honestly can’t begin to explain the elegance of this museum. It was rows up rows of beautifully sculpted glass with ornate images (often reflecting Buddhism). The pieces were set up to resemble a sea of art floating around you as you walked…it was breathtaking. Afterwards, Haiyin had to go buy a car and I headed to TGIF to find the gang. We ate and went to YuYuan (yu gardens) which was basically a tourist trap of little shops in ‘antique’ buildings. It was fun even though I only bought some prizes for mom, sis and the Novich Clan. After spending the day shopping in the cold, we all went back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner. Long and I went for a glass of wine and then we bundled up and went back to the French concession area for dinner. It was at Simply Thai were I got deathly ill-but I’ll get back to that later. Dinner was delicious and then we went to the Bund (river view) and hit up a club. We listened to music until about 3.30 and again I headed home while everyone else went out for a late night meal. About 7 am, my stomach began to hurt…and then I realized…I had either food poisoning or I ate something that f-ed my system up big time.

Sunday-I spent the entire day, pasty, sick and bundled up in front of my computer because I was in too much pain to walk. At noon we had to check out and while the group hit up a last minute site, I half-coherently sat propped up in a chair talking to Jeff and watching Scrubs. Sunday fucking sucked because I had to sit up, take a taxi, fly, and take another taxi before I could make it safely into bed. Sunday night, I sat curled up in bed with white bread and 7-up…gross.

All in all shanghai was fun despite the bumps in the road but I’m glad to be back (for once, I was not sad to return to work-I guess that def says something about my day job). I’m just taking my time to recover from the trauma to my system!