Now that our brains have been filled with knowledge let me extend my sincerest apologies to any readers who felt neglected the past month. Things have really picked up around here and I feel like I've been preparing for finals for about the past month, and it's just getting worse! Since I last wrote I have done some INCREDIBLE things. Most notably my travels during my second break of the semester and my more recent talent show performance which won my group third prize! But let's back track all the way back to the end of October where my story left off...
I happily greeted my Mom and Miguel at the airport in the late afternoon on Saturday October 29th. We made our way from the airport to their hotel which they would be staying in for only the next two nights. We made our time in Shanghai short because we had SO MUCH to see and Shanghai really only has a few necessary sights. After they were settled into their hotel room we went to see my apartment and also made the trek to my school in the rainy weather, braving the public bus, to see where I spend most of my week days. The highlight of our visit to my school was eating at the back gate, a collection of food stalls that pop up as the sun sets and whose delectable delights fill the air with exotic smells and tons of smoke. This was a brave first meal out for my Mom and Miguel but they faced it bravely and amazingly our stomachs all came away unscathed from the street food! Unfortuntely, much to every NYU student's displeasure, since then the police have shut down the food stalls on the back gate.
Expert Chinese Speaking Skills At Work.
SO SAD.
We then returned home for a good nights rest before heading out early the next morning. The following day we hit all the hot spots, Jing'an Temple, Yuyuan Gardens, the Bund, and the Oriental Pearl Tower. Many of these have been the subject of previous blog posts so I will just skim over them, but we had beautiful weather and ended up having a lovely day out in Shanghai, with skies clearer than we hardly ever see. The only new things I did was go up into the Oriental Pearl Tower, which was my second tower observation in Shanghai, and seeing the Bund at night. We had an amazingly clear night and it was incredible how in one day we managed to hit all of the Shanghai hotspots, but we sure were tired at the end of the day. These first two days also gave my mom a taste of the almost celebrity like status you receive as a foreigner here, and many people asked (and didn't ask) to take pictures of us. We headed back to the hotel feeling tired and accomplished and ready to head off to Beijing the next day....
Jing'An Temple
The Bund!
All three of us at the Bund...we were reluctant to give up the camera for someone else to take the pic.
We're hilarious.
Hilarious.
Free Falling.
To be continued...
