School finished on Friday and I was OUT OF THERE! My cab came pretty much as soon as classes ended. We took the fast train this time so it was only 3 hours (instead of 5) to get to Shanghai. I laughed because my train tickets cost 104 RMB (just under $20) each way and my cab from the train station to the hotel cost 125 lol go figure. I had to wait in line, like the longest line I've ever seen in my life for a cab at the train station but there were steadily 3 cabs coming in at a time so it was only a half hour wait. I showed the driver the address Harriet wrote down for me and we were off. The whole time I was a little "sketched out" because I had no idea which way was the right way, so that was a titch unsettling. But then after about a half an hour of driving I looked up and saw the exact image from the hotel website and the driver pointed and asked me a question I didn't understand but I got there just fine!
Bryan and Laura were on the 22nd floor, so I went right up there and was all set! We hungout at the hotel for the rest of the night (I got there a bit after 9 pm). We ate the hotel buffet both mornings, it was pretty good; they had the best croissants! When I got there Bryan and Laura laughed because they'd also been hearing fireworks at random times of the day since they got here. On Saturday Laura and I went to the one silk market and it was a little disappointing. The people there are way less willing than those at the silk market in Beijing (Laura and Bryan have been there) to barter, so we actually both bought nothing; even at forever 21 when we went there later! It was kind of a gloomy day but we spent most of the afternoon in Starbucks just catching up (Bryan was at hockey practice). It's so nice to have people from home around!
We took the subway in and out of town, I still can't believe how good their subway system it but I can't believe even more how good Laura is at navigating it; we had to take transfers yesterday and she figured out my weird route I had to take today. We took a cab from the subway station to the stadium Bry was playing at, but it is a big place and we had no idea where the hockey was happening. I didn't have the word for hockey in my dictionary so I showed the word ice to a man who pointed us in the semi-right direction. Then Laura found the word for hockey on her app on her phone and that did the trick. We missed a lot of the first period but it was still awesome to watch the rest of the game! Bryan's team won, so that was nice too. When we were walking out of the game we met a guy from Buffalo who was there watching his friend on the China team who he played hockey in Ottawa with. Then we met a man from New Market who was visiting his son who also played on the China team; small world!
After the game we took the bus back with the team to the hotel and then watched a movie. I miss cable! I had to leave fairly early today to catch my train. I had to transfer on the subway twice so I wanted to leave myself lots of time. When we got to Jinhua Mel asked, "feel like you're home?" And as we came out of the train and were swarmed by a crowd, could only smell cigarette smoke and people were yelling to try to get you to take their cab, I said...sadly yes. Lol. Tonight again the cab drivers were trying to charge us too much, one guy tried to get us to take a cab for 50, when it'was 25, I was getting so mad until FINALLY someone just took us and used the meter. Now I'm back at the apartment and I need to get ready for school tomorrow and for bed!!! Happy December to everyone!
sounds like a time sister!!
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