shanghai, china

wow, it sure is amazing how easy it is to fall behind with my blog. after hong kong we were at sea for two days before we arrived in shanghai. i had hoped to write my blog during that two days at sea, unfortunately my time was filled with dock time letters, conduct hearings and follow up letters.

my first day in shanghai was filled with the shanghai city orientation-we left at 10:30am and did not return until 10:00pm. we started out the day with a quick walk through of the old town bazaar-not really much of a visit since we were trying to get to the yuyuan gardens. we spent part of the morning at the gardens enjoying the temples, the gardens and the koi fish. after the gardens we returned to the old town bazaar where we were set free for forty five minutes to find an atm, wander and shop the bazaar. i had hoped to get a venti, soy, no water, no foam, extra hot chai from starbucks but could not justify spending five dollars for a tall soy chai so i wandered, window shopped and found a little pearl stand where i got a pearl with brooke's (my sister's oldest daughter) name etched on it. (you have to use a magnifying glass to see her name) i had hoped to get one for maya (my sister's second oldest daughter) but i ran out of time and did not think i would be a good role model if i had to give myself dock time for being late.

after the old town bazaar, we boarded the bus again and headed for lunch. it was decided that the eight vegetarians would sit together in order to make the serving of the food less complicated for the restaurant staff. we had a great lunch filled with lots of veggies!

after lunch, we got back on the bus and found ourselves at the jade buddha temple. we were greeted with the delightful opportunity of getting to see the monks of the temple as they were celebrating the anniversary of the temple. the jade buddha is an amazing statue sprinkled with rare gems, diamonds and gold. the jade buddha is 1.9 meters high. unfortunately we were not able to take a picture :(

after the jade buddha temple, we again hopped on the bus and made our way to the shanghai museum. the shanghai museum is four stories high and filled with galleries of ancient chinese sculptures, ancient chinese ceramics, chinese calligraphy, the chinese seal, chinese jade, chinese coins and chinese ming and qing furniture.

after we left the shanghai museum we stopped at the historic bund area. the bund area is the historic area of shanghai across from the sea. we stopped long enough to take pictures of new shanghai before we raced to dinner in order to eat before the acrobatic show at the shanghai centre theatre.

the vegetarians again sat together as we dined at the hao yan lou restaurant. i had to chuckle to myself as we sat eating together since both of the meals we had shared that day had been filled with conversation about food-about how people were tired of eating pasta and potatoes for every meal on the ship, had anyone ever seen peanut butter so gritty and where was the protein.

after dinner we ended the night by attending an acrobatic show at the shanghai centre theatre- wow, what truly amazing and talented individuals. i'm still not sure how anyone can twist and turn their body the way these performers did. i had hoped to take pictures but we were asked to refrain from doing so. it amazes me how even when we are asked politely to not take pictures or video some people believe they are exempt from this request. i was appalled at those individuals who chose to take pictures and were blatant enough to use their flash which almost caused the performers to drop each other at times.

after returning to the ship, i met up with some folks in the faculty and staff lounge. it was there that it was decided that we would spend the next day searching for pearls in china. we met for breakfast and searched wikipedia for pearl places in shanghai, china. after finding what seemed to be two reputable places we were off to shop for pearls! once outside of the port area we searched for a cab only to realize that although we knew where we wanted to go we had no way of communicating that to a cab driver. we walked to a business building close by, asked for their assistance in translating our desired locations into chinese and again attempted to catch a cab. after being kicked out of two cabs, we realized, with the help of a public safety officer, that we could not have more than four people in a cab. since there was five of us we were contemplating taking two cabs when three students approached us asking for directions. in the end we hailed two cabs with the students and hoped for the best as we made our way to our first pearl location. we arrived to the first location only to learn that we had lost one of our pearl shoppers who had volunteered to ride in the first cab with the students. we had no way of knowing where she was or how to find her. :( after waiting for a bit, we reluctantly made the decision to continue on with our search for pearls. as we entered the pearl mall it was as if we had entered an oyster filled with pearls. after walking around in circles and trying to decide which pearl shop to enter we took the plunge and casually strolled into a place called rupeipei pearls. we acted like we knew what we were doing as we tossed around words like fresh water and sea water. after a couple of hours in rupeipei we each walked out with at least one pearl necklace but most of us carried bags filled with bracelets, earrings and necklaces.

we had lunch a at diner that served bacon cheeseburgers, chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and a great sauteed veggie sandwich with pesto. after lunch we realized we only had one other place we could go to shop so we caught a cab and made our way there.

we ended up at a mall close to pedestrian street. we went into the mall in search of postcards and we were immediately bombarded with requests to purchase coach purses, rolex watches and north face clothing. janetta was in search of thong underwear (not sure she would want you all to know this and i am also not sure you want to know this) to wear with her dress for the ambassador's ball so she walked into a booth selling undergarments. the woman in the booth told janetta she would give her a pair of thong underwear for twenty dong and when janetta said not thank you and began to walk away the woman grabbed her arm. the woman again repeated her request and janetta again attempted to walk away with the woman tugging on her arm. janetta told the woman, "i don't want your panties" but when the woman told janetta she would give her two pairs for twenty dong, janetta said, "i want your panties" and the deal was sealed.

when we left the mall, we ran into two of our other colleagues from semester at sea and decided to spend the rest of the afternoon together. (laurie had to leave in order to get back to the ship in time for gangway duty) we decided to walk to pedestrian street and ride the mall trolley. while on pedestrian street we were attempting to find hot chili peanuts when we ran into two other friends. we walked together as we made our way back to the ship, walking in and out of little stores that lined the street. we got so caught up in trying to find hot chili peanuts that we lost track of time so we attempted to catch a cab so as not to be late for on ship time. after forty five minutes of trying to wave down a cab we gave up and made a run for it. we weaved in and out of the construction that was taking place in the bund for the 2010 expo, we ran, we jogged, we took a shortcut through the bund tourist tunnel and sweated (literally and figuratively) the whole way in hopes that i would not have to assign us all dock time. even though it got tense at times when we lost our way and we cussed under our breathe at each other and mumbled to ourselves questioning why we could not get a cab we made it with fifteen minutes to spare!

we spent the evening on deck seven port side taking pictures of the night skyline since shanghai boasts the tallest building in asia and the second and third tallest in the world! the picture to the left is of the pearl tv tower.