Shanghai, China

First, I need to apologize for procrastinating on the blog posts! This should have been written about a week ago; the result is that I am writing three different posts today (for Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon)

There was a delay upon arrival in Shanghai that consumed a few hours; we were supposed to go through the customs process early, but we didn’t start until several hours after the original time. My FDP to the Shanghai Bund was supposed to leave at 10:30 am; we didn’t leave until almost noon. Actually, my “sea” was one of the last to be called to go through customs, so my trip nearly left without me and a couple other people. The bund was pretty cool to look at, and I took some pictures. Then we went to “old town.” I have never seen that many people in one little area in my life. We were in China during the spring festival (Chinese New Year Celebrations), and the place we went was PACKED! I took pictures, but pictures don’t do the scene justice. Once we got back to the bund area, another girl and I signed out of the trip and walked around on our own. We went to Nanjing Road and checked out all the shopping opportunities – not that I actually bought anything. The people in this area were very pushy and busy, and every few feet there were people selling fake brand name sunglasses, watches, purses, and shoes. After a while, my companion and I decided to head back to the ship; we got lost. We found the cruise terminal, but the guard told us we had to go farther down the street to get to where the ship was, so of course we start walking in the direction he points out. We walk for quite some ways and realize that there is nothing in this direction, and we go back to where the guard was. Again, he points in the same direction and says we have to go that way. Once more, we start walking; we walked and walked and found nothing…again. This time, when we got back to where the guard was, we saw another “SASer,” and he told us that the ship was in the opposite direction to which the guard had been pointing, so at this point we are tired and cold and slightly frustrated. After being on the ship for a while, we met up with some other people, went back to Nanjing Road, and found a place to eat. Three of us got some really spicy rice noodle and chicken soup. It set my mouth on fire! After eating, we went to the ship once more to find a couple other people and then set off to find a place to hang out. (A club in other words…) First we went to a little bar and had a drink. The waitress that served us was from France! We sat and talked for a while, and then we left and walked to a place called Club 70 – it was pretty sweet if I do say so myself. The people I was hanging out with left early, but a couple other SAS people were there, so I stayed with them.

The second day in Shanghai was no more eventful than the first. I walked around (Nanjing road again) with someone until others were done with their trips. We did some shopping and bargaining (which I am very bad at). I should have written this blog post earlier than today because now I can’t remember anything that I did that sticks out a lot. I went back to Club 70 (with different people this time) and there were a LOT more semester at sea people there – I kind of told everyone I saw that day to go there at night…word spreads…

On the final day in Shanghai I went to the zoo with a friend…it was fairly depressing. I experienced my first major culture shock here – which is weird because you would think that the place and people would be what set me off, but no, it was the animals. We saw all the animals you see at a zoo in the US and then some, but the cages pretty much all looked the same. They weren’t specialized to fit the need of the animals. There were signs saying not to feed the animals, but people were still throwing orange peels and chips and paper in the cages to get reactions out of the animals. I think the part that hit it home for me was the “pet world.” Before going to this area of the zoo, I was thinking it would be just like a petting zoo or something. Nope. There were domestic cats and dogs in cages that were very similar to a pound. People were doing the same things they did at the wild animal “habitats.” In the US, we think of these dogs and cats as beloved pets – as part of the family. There were Saint Bernards, Great Danes, Dalmatians, golden retrievers, and German Shepherds – just to name a few. I think that if I had seen an English Mastiff, I would have cried.

Well, that is just about it for Shanghai. I need to write a paper for one of my classes now, so I will write about Hong Kong later today.

-KW-