MY LAST FULL DAY IN CHINA.
I can’t handle it.
But I held on and stayed strong, I did.
I had to.
Okay enough about guts and glory, ehm, and to my lovely day-
My. Feet. Hurt. So. Much.
I have no idea why. My toes started off, and I think they’re
getting blistered as if they haven’t been walked on at all for these last four
months [they have never done so much work in their lives and just now they’re
beginning to hurt like it here?], and trying to stay off them, now the pads of
my foot were hurting. And then with all the pressure off my right foot now my
left hurts too. It’s so dramatic and painful and not fun!
So that went all day, not a happy thing, that’s for sure.
All right, so first thing… we chilled around until about
nine before heading out. We wandered out to the bakery, where I bought a small
[almost half loaf size] of some yellow honeyed bread- with sugared honey or
something seeping through the whole thing! Very good! Then we caught the metro
into town, towards the People’s Square. We passed through some food areas into
the park, which was so lovely! Seriously, these Chinese parks are the best, I
love them. They were so peaceful and serene, it was almost ridiculous. I took a
lot of pictures, obviously. A few gazebos, lovely trees, a bit of ice over the
ponds… perfection in nature!
Then we wandered from there finally, and found that the
Urban Planning museum Abby and Greg wanted to check out was closed on Mondays!
So stupid! It was ridiculous… so we ended up crossing over the street [through
an underpass] and over to the Shanghai museum. We passed all these pigeons,
some being totally white and kinda pretty, and wandered inside.
Free! And super cool. There was a Roman section as well,
which was definitely random but still thoroughly enjoyable because I love that.
It was super neat! We moved on towards the second level where we got Greg hot
cocoa because he hadn’t eaten all day and he needed something in his stomach…
and hot cocoa counts, so there.
My feet were exhausted, so I stopped to join the elderly
people on benches outside the tea/coffee shop while Greg and Abby progressed
onto the third and fourth levels. I know, it makes me feel super old and it’ll
never change over the next 80 years and all, but… well… I was tired and my feet
hurt! Haha. And then I ended up dozing off a bit. The older woman next to me
kept glancing over and hopefully it was more of concern than anything creepy or
suspicious…
Greg and Abby ended up joining me about a half hour later,
finished with that. They had to wake me up and it was, to be honest, a bit
embarrassing. But hey, that’s life! I’m amused with it now, haha… And we headed
out after that.
We were barely out of the building, back by the pigeons,
when we ran into three guys from the CH program! That was pretty cool. We
stopped to chat for a few minutes before we went our separate ways and wandered
back to the hostel.
Gotta love metro systems!
Anyways, I grabbed dumplings Abby had earlier that day on
the street next to ours. They’re baked with meat inside, super juicy, with
green onions and sesame seeds outside. They’re a bit pricy, but I really wanted
to try them.
It was then that I split with Abby and Greg so they could go
together to a restaurant for a nice meal. I took the key card, they turned out,
and I continued towards the hostel. On the way I stopped once again at the
bakery to look for a hot dog thing because I wanted another before leaving the
country. They had a weird thing, kinda like a thick hot dog but only half the
sausage, with cabbage and mayo and ketchup. Nor was it warm.
Still, I bought and took my treats with me back to the
hostel. I sat down and enjoyed my food- A FREAKING TON- because those were
basically some of the best dumplings I’ve ever had in my life and if I could
eat them for the rest of my life I really would, I don’t think you understand.
I would marry them. And the hot dog thing was weird but okay. And the dumplings
were to die for. I would probably kill for them, too. Just saying.
Anyways, I chilled in the hostel for about an hour until
Abby and Greg returned. Thence we continued to chill in the hostel together for
almost two hours, computers and dozing between, before we finally headed out
again.
For shopping!
We’d heard about a few possibilities, so we decided to try
them out. We tested line 10 twice, going out to the stops and wandering down a
few streets to no avail. It was disappointing, but it was still enjoyable to
see the city from different areas and such, I really enjoyed that. Our third
attempt made us switch lines to go a little further down line 2, our line, and
that was successful! A shopping area basically in the metro station.
And it was
pretty darn big!
And holy crap they tried to rip us off so bad you have no
idea. As in Abby and I wanted “I Heart
China” shirts and they tried to do it for like 240 I don’t know about for both
or just singular. THE POINT IS we talked them down to 25 [the basic price for
non tourists for tourist shirts] each. Seriously, it’s ridiculous. But I refuse
to spend more than 25 on a tourist shirt in China.
But I did get more goodies… SORRY KATIE I GAVE IN. We found
me a lovely teal robe. I personally think I paid too much, but it was good
enough for me. Something else… oh and a really fun gift for my brothers because
I’m a super nice person and didn’t think I got them enough gifts and didn’t
want to hear them complaining and if they don’t like them then I will light
everything on fire [which’ll seem funnier when they find out what they are…],
and dance around them like a caveman. Woman. Thing.
We were there for about two hours at least. Reminded me of
the big market in Beijing with some of the pestering people but otherwise it
was pretty swell!
It was getting late so we finally headed back on the metro
to our stop. Just down the street there was a “3 RMB” shop that I wanted to
check out- a few last things to get, and everything there was super cheap so I
may have gone crazy and spent nearly 40 RMB but hey, it was fun and totally
worth it!
I even got the funniest thing for Katie [I think it’s
awesome] but I can’t say what it is until she gets it…
After we finally left the shop, we went the other way, away
from our Hostel, to Happy Lemon. The funky drink shop with SALTED CHEESE DRINKS
and no I still wasn’t brave enough to try them, sorry. If I ever return… I’ll
try it. But not until then. Seriously. Too sketchy, haha.
Then, limping, the three of us returned to the hostel.
We went over our goodies, and attempted to repack things. Hopefully
everything works out!
And we watched Mulan! Because obviously that’s a must-do in
China!
Good night, China. I’m leaving you tomorrow. You’ve been
good to me.
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