Shanghai

Shanghai is China's New York City. All the ideas of China that I had ever gotten from movies and TVshows became true in Shanghai. Thousands and thousands of people walking in different directions, neon lights with Chinese characters, huge skyscrapers, noise, pollution, etc. etc. '

This is by far the biggest city I have ever been in. The subway map is humongous with over 300 stops on over 12 different lines. Let's just say I have probably visited 0.000001 of it.

Our first day here it rained like crazy. It was one of the girl's, Claire's, 22nd birthday and we all wanted to go out. This tour is becoming more and more like high school by the second. There is a "popular" group with the "it" guys and girls, there is "the girl nobody likes" and the groupies who others make fun of behind their back, but still hangs around the cool people.

There is drama and gossip and lots of funny things that I am really not used to anymore. Like one girl called another girl a ho, etc. etc. I am really really happy to be the oldest, because that is my answer to everyone and everything. I talk to everyone, come and go as I please, sometimes I hang out with the cool kids, many times I just go by myself. I speak my mind freely and openly.

Well, clearly people think that I am cool, because EVERYONE has started telling me their stuff. It's probably cause I am married, so I am not a threat on the boy hunt. Or maybe it's because I definitely didn't bring any cute clothes and I have made it clear that if my bag gets stolen, it might be a blessing in disguise. Regardless, it is all too funny. Like a real life soap opera with british accents.

I have done a couple of things here, besides sit in a hotel room while it POURS rain outside. We went to an acrobats show and it was really impressive. They had the typical routines of the flying through the air, the balancing plates on sticks, tumbling and all of that. They also had a trick I had seen once in PR, where they take this gigantic steel sphere and start getting people in motorcycles in and they circle it around. Personally, I think that driving a motorcycle in the streets of Shanghai is WAY more dangerous.

Speaking of that. My number one complaint about China in general is that there is no such a thing as Yielding. People don't yield for anyone. THey just keep driving. Crossing the street is a NIGHTMARE. I use what I call "the human shield method" which consists of waiting for a small crowd to form (fairly easy considering there are 17 million people in this city!) and then position myself so that if a car/bus/truck/motorcycle/tuk-tuk runs over someone, they hit at least 5-6people before me. It's very very stressful.

My favorite thing about China are the kids. All children are absolutely adorable (and no, it's not my biological clock ticking!) The kids here are super cute! They shave babie's heads when they're really little so that the hair grows back thicker and fuller, regardless if it's a boy or a girl. IT really works! Also, toddlers pants are slit at the butt, so all they have to do is squat anywhere. I really want to take a picture of this, but I don't want to be super rude, so I have been waiting for the right moment. It's so funny to see them walking around with their little butts showing!