So we had class today even though its Saturday. It’s to make up for the class we missed on Thursday for the World Expo I guess. After that class we had a “field trip” to the director of CEA’s home to get a look at a “chinese home” I guess. He served us a ton of food. It didn’t seem like much at first but after all those dumplings and tofu I was pretty full.
Then he made his kids perform poor things. He pretty much dragged his eleven year old daughter out in front of everyone to play her flute. She did it then ran out of there. Can’t help but feel sorry for her. Then he made her friend play the flute for everyone too. The other girls with me were laughing saying that the girl probably was thinking, “This is not what I had in mind when I said I’d come over for lunch”.
He tried to get his youngest son to show his martial arts but I think the little boy was demanding there be music or something (he’s like 6). So he brought out a Chinese violin and started trying to get people to sing. Didn’t work out so well. He wanted to bring us karaoke-ing too but no one was up for that so instead he took us on a walk around the area he lived.
His house wasn’t too shabby. It was 3 levels and pretty huge. It wasn’t exactly really clean but every kid had their own room (he had two daughters and a son). The appliances didn’t seem all that great and I couldn’t find a light in his bathroom though. I don’t know what’s considered great housing in China but his place seemed alright. The neighborhood was nice too; its like a small community and apparently there’s a mini golf course close by that we walked around.
When we got back, Anna and I had the super smart (not) idea to go to the Trust Mart to get more water and toilet paper. Of course it was like 100 degrees and crowded and several blocks down.
After that Anna wanted to go to the Puxi side of the river between Puxi and Pudong to get a picture with the skyline behind her. It was paaaccked. We had to fight our way to balcony to take a picture. For awhile I was behind this guy who kept rubbing his elbow on my chest. I dunno if it was intentional or not but I put my arms up in front of me after lol.
I think we were both tired of the huge crowded after that and got some green tea cream that Anna went crazy over (she loves the green tea stuff). While we were eating it outside we saw some mom helping her little daughter pee on the side of the road. Anna tried to get a picture of it but the dad (I think, or a relative) caught her and was like, “No, no”. She just laughed it off but we left after that lol.
And phew, if we thought the riverside was crowded, it was nothing compared to the train station. We passed up two trains because they were just so packed. I mean packed trains aren’t really anything new to me; SF Muni gets pretty pack especially during rush hour. But holy crap, I thought I was gonna get smashed getting on that train. Little old ladies were fighting to get out, one even turned back around to smack some guy that had shoved her.
I think Anna was scared for her life since she’s from Tennessee where there aren’t really super crowded places. When we finally got on our conversation went something like:
Anna: “Henrietta, are you here?”
Me: “Anna, over here”
Anna: “Are you ok?”
Me: “No, are you?” *guy smushed up next to me gives me a look like I’m crazy*
Anna: “Nooo, I don’t like this”
and then she starts taking pictures of me smashed in the crowd lol. I’ll have to get the picture from her so I can upload it later. The train we transfered too was emptier luckily; we even got seats. Finding a taxi back to the university from the station was a bit of a challenge. We couldn’t find the exit we left through last time that lead to the taxi area so we made do with waving our arms on the side of the road. Several sketch “taxis” and a motorcycle tried to get our business but we ignored those. Didn’t really want to end up somewhere we didn’t want to be lol.
And here is a crappy photo of me in Puxi trying to take a good picture. I don’t think my camera does all that well in the dark. I probably should have used the flash. I tried to edit it to make it lighter but now it’s just grainy:
