Shangblah

That night we flew to Shanghai for the rest of the night and the next day. Our plane there was pretty amazing. It was 9 across, with 85% SAS students on it. They had huge screen TV’s that showed take off and landing through a camera on the bottom of the plane. Pretty cool I suppose, if flying is your thing. Let’s just say I usually take advantage of the free beer with your meal on planes to wear off the acute awareness of being suspended thousands of miles above civilization in a foreign aircraft. The fact Sydney next to me, after telling her I’m scared of flying, tells me that if we die, she’ll be fine with it because she’s lived a good life, doesn’t help. Not the usual ‘don’t worry, we’ll be fine’ response I was hoping for. On the other side Alex is remarking on the coolness of the giant screen and seeing the little lights go into the distance. Wretched. Anyways, the only day I had in Shanghai was wet, bleak, and gray. It was hardly anything to write home about. My shoes soaked through, the bottom of my jeans were wet, and I felt like a wet dog. Stephanie, Hallie, and I headed to the ‘city area’, where we had McDonald’s and wandered the streets in search of the art museum. We looked at an exhibit and as we were leaving a couples of young locals came after us. Now, we were warned about scam artists who trick you into having tea with them and then leaving you to foot this giant bill. They were nice enough but then they dropped the ‘tea’ word (haha get it, tea/ t word?). Immediately we all look at each other, smile politely, and excuse ourselves. We had walked away from the scam. On our way out of the park, Hallie noticed some other tourists being suckered, but they were taking the bait. She walked up to them and told them not to go with them. As we were walking away, the scammers must have realized what we had done because she started yelling, screaming and racing after us. We ran across the street and hide in a nearby Starbucks. Convienent hiding spot, right? Haha. Anyways, we were in search for a grocery store. A women overheard us talking about cheap food and mentioned that there was a Walmart nearby. Thus forth begins the adventure of our travels to Walmart. After months of shopping at markets, hole in the walls shops, and the occasional grocery store with everything in foreign font, a Walmart is more exciting Christmas and Taco Day combined. Although she wrote Walmart in Chinese, we couldn’t find anyone who understood where or what Walmart was. One cabbie even looked and said, ‘WAH-MAR’- something that’ll forever be engraved in our minds as the funniest thing ever. Finally we made our way to a hotel, that translated to the taxi cab driver, or so we thought. We drove around watching our bill slowly, but steadily, increase as we become very lost. We cross the bridge away from the city and farther away from civilization. We stop and ask for directions and we’re officially mindlessly driving around. Finally, that damn smiley face laughs at us for being such silly girls, and we go crazy in a two story Walmart. As it should, the Walmart was a far cry from home, but it had a touch of the familiar to it. There are huge tanks with live fish swimming around, and copious amounts of rice spilling over in baskets sitting in the middle of the room surrounded by row after row of foreign food. It’s kind of like a big game of ‘what’s this?’ What is this picture of crackers with yellow stuff? I don’t know, throw it in the cart. How about this brownish colored liquid? No idea. Don’t worry, I have plenty of candy to share with everyone back home to play the guessing game with. Word of advice, the nucleus-like substance with brown in the middle not only looks like shit, but tastes like it too. Mmm… yummy. Haha. We got back to the ship as nightfall came, wet and hands full of Walmart bags. I have nothing against my time in China, and was so happy I went, but it’s also not a country I’ll be visiting any time soon again. Let’s just say I was happy and ready to move on. Not to mention a newly restocked drawer with random items for my feasting pleasure.