Shanghai and Yichang

Well Brad and I made it back to China with no problems. We landed in Shanghai and stayed one night since there was no direct flight to Yichang the first night. We decided to be very Chinese and save a little money by doing public transit instead of taxis from the airport. And well, I'll just say that I'm still sore. We each hauled over 90 lbs of stuff up and down stairs in and out of subways. Yeah. I'm proud that we did it, but I certainly don't ever have to do it again.

We got settled in our hostel then headed out to the Bund area of Shanghai to just see some of the major sights since we only had one night. After the Hong Kong skyline, Shanghai was a little disappointing. We did meet two very nice girls who told us all about the area we were looking at, so it was like having a tour guide. They ended up taking us to their art gallery, which may have been a ploy all along, but we talked about Important things with them and I got some art out of it. We also experienced the Sightseeing Tunnel which I was kind of excited about because I heard it was ridiculous with crazy lights and random effects, but mostly it was just ridiculous, and not in the good way. I'll go ahead and say it: It was dumb. We had an mediocre Subway sandwich (only three slices of cucumbers? Is there a ration I don't know about?) and headed back for a much needed night's sleep.

The next morning we had planned on going to the Yu Gardens but didn't have awesome directions despite all of my online planning and didn't have much time, so we had a sweet Western breakfast at an outdoor cafe instead and people watched. Just as satisfying for me.

We flew to Yichang that afternoon and arrived back just in time for a dinner with the Foreign Language College. We meet Zack and Elizabeth, the new married couple that just arrived. Also the new French teacher and two Danish students (we're still not really sure what they're doing here since they aren't studying Chinese.)

The next day we met Katie, another newbie, and helped Katie, Elizabeth, and Zack get cell phones and find peanut butter. Two very important items for survival in the first few weeks.

So all in all, glad to be back, and ready to get started! Year three!