Yesterday Yuri wanted to go to the Bund since she hadn’t been there yet and also because most of us are leaving at the end of this week but she isn’t (she’s staying all 4 years – yikes). What we didn’t know was that it was the hottest day in Shanghai (told to me today from Laurel). Whew, we were all drenched in sweat by the time we got there. I resorted to wiping my face off with tissue every few seconds. There was a ton of us though – like 13 people. I feel like its a lot funner with a lot of people though harder to keep us all together.
We ate this Japanese restaurant and at the bottom of the mall they had a life sized claymation of Yao Ming – the super tall Chinese dude. My roommate Anna wanted to take a picture with him and and I went to snap a picture Theo shot in and felt up Yao Ming to see if he actually had balls, and what do you know it – he did. I got a picture of Anna with her mouth open since the shot went off right after he did it. It was so funny.
After dinner we went down to the riverside by the Huangpu river. Boy was it hot. We managed a group picture at least before we decided to head back. We walked all the way back to People’s Square since I knew the metro station before there would be death trying to get on (refer to past post on violent old ladies getting out of the bus). We managed to lose parts of our group during the walk though. Surprising we all unintentionally met up again at Caobao Lu.
When we finally got back to campus we had the unpleasant surprise of finding the gate chained and locked and the guard gone. The two skinny Chinese guys managed to fit between the gap between the doors and the other guys jumped over the gate. Although Anna and I are pretty skinny we couldn’t fit through the gap like the guys and we were wearing skirts so we didn’t want to hop the gate. Yuri didn’t want to either so us girls had to trek back through the dark driveway and walk around to the main entrance and finally back to our rooms to glorious AC and a shower.
Today Zhuge Laoshi went back to her hometown to finally get a cast for her foot. It sucks she can’t stay til the end of our program but we rather her not ruin her foot for keeps. It’s a shame too because we’re going to have a closing dinner and a river cruise this Friday and she won’t be able to attend it.
Margaret and Laurel rushed to get her our going away gift before she left for the bus today (Zhuge sent us an email today while we were in class to inform us she was leaving at 2PM today esh). We got her a gift certificate for a pedicure and manicure and managed to give it her before she left.
Afterwards Anna and I went with Margaret and Caroline back to the Pearl Market to do gift shopping. I got 3 polo shirts for my dad for 100 yuan (around 15 bucks). I also got some earrings and I got one of those Chinese signature stamps with my Chinese name on it. I’m pretty sure I totally got ripped off though. Caroline got a smaller one for 85 with the box and ink and I got a larger one for 100 and paid 15 for the box and ink and the ink dish is too small for the stamp! I really can’t wait to be back in the US where things are just a set price and you buy it or don’t. Bargaining is just tiring and even moreso when the shop keepers are trying to squeeze every cent out of you. Now I have to go to Chinatown when I get back to find an ink dish that fits my stamp.