emLogs #03 - Over Population + High Humidity = Shanghai

What a hot, sweltering day. I am beyond needing a bath, especially since we'll be on a train to Xian tonight (no showers or luxuries like that). Leavitt and I had a surprisingly easy time adjusting to the jet lag-- mostly due to my friend Windy's recommendation to take No Jetlag pills (miracle pills).

Actually, we got a knock on our door last night and we were so dead asleep that we thought it was time to wake up and we would have been okay with it. Until we looked at the time and it was 1:30am. Some guy got his room wrong and knocked on ours. We walked EVERYWHERE around Shanghai and it got perpetually hotter, stickier and smellier. I'll be ready to get out of Shanghai tonight.

It was funny, I was standing at a corner getting some shots of the bustling city. When two guys in robe-like outfits looked at me and said, "Welcome to Shanghai" and I thanked them and shook their hands. He then took my wrist and started to slip on these Buddhist looking bead bracelet on my hand. I thanked him, but was mostly on the confused side. A policeman drove by and quickly pulled over yelling at the guy and demanding that the guys in robes open their bags. Was this a strict communist no no? I had no idea, I fled the scene.

I went over to Leavitt and Nat at the ATM. The two men in robes were surrounded by more policeman and I felt so bad for abandoning them. Eventually the police officer waved for me to come over and I was like, "Huh? What's going on?" Realizing I couldn't make a statement they waved me off. I know, not even 24 hours in the country and I've already managed to cause trouble. We hit up the markets in the downtown area and man haggling is exausting! It's not my favorite, I let Nat do all the work. I got a sweet chess set from 320 yuan to 100 yuan-- then I went and got ripped off on a pair of chopsticks (I didn't have Nat with me). I'm trying to keep purchases to a minimum since i have to pack it around for the next month in a wee backpack.

We took a break for lunch and Leavitt and I hit up the McDonald's. I can honestly say, it tastes the same. Fries to Big Mac, tis the same! Sure there is a McEggroll on the menu, but it's got the basics and no big shockers on there. As we made our way back to the hostel it was a tedious weaving in and out of streets and alley ways. The hot sticky smell from the rotting food on the pavement was something like a garbage dump.

Again, Shanghai is not our cup of Chinese tea. One hilarious thing we started to notice is how many people take pictures of us. I'm not even kidding you, Asian tourists (oh yes, they do exist here and in droves!) have been going nuts taking our pictures. Some have gotten so serious as to have us pose with them. I keep trying to pawn off Nat as Kelly Clarkson-- no go yet.

We'll be jumping on the night train to Xian soon. Tomorrow is Terracotta Warriors day. I hope we can leave this humidity behind, it's not my favorite by any means!

Talk to you all soon!

Em aka the problematic tourist

emLogs #02 - Fun and Games Till Someone Gets Puked On

Leavitt and I got all screwed up with our internal clocks. Even though it was a one our difference then normal we woke up to catch our bus before 7am (we didn't even have to wake up till 8am).

We get to the airport and it turned out there is a 3 our delay for our plane, so we had to hang out at the airport for 6 hours. Fortunately we've got the ukulele and some sleep to keep us occupied! Nat will be picking us up in Shanghai and the poor girl keeps getting mixed signals-- We may have told her to meet us at 5pm, then we realized it was 3pm and now our flight is delayed until 6pm. If I were her, I would let us figure out how to get to the hotel for being travel tarded! Our flight was um... interesting.

Once we got underway it was flying as usual. I didn't think 12 hours would be that bad-- boy was I wrong. I was so bored and what made it worse is the b-movies they showed on the flight. I was sitting across the aisle next to this kid. Out of no where the kid totally ralphed into the aisle. Yep, I got the tail end of that! Fortunately it hit my blanket that I wrapped around my legs (won't be taking that as a souvenier). Yeah, he made a nice little obstacle in the middle of the aisle with a smooth sour scent to it.

It wasn't until later in the flight when I learned two very valuable things while flying:

1. Make sure and seal your barf bag when full
2. Don't put your barf bag in the seat pocket in front of you-- your liable to kick it while sleeping (oh yes he did, all over himself)

It really wasn't the worst flight imaginable. It was more like a very, very long flight. Leavitt was completely oblivious to all these events, she was completely engrossed in her Genghis Khan novel. I found Ralphy McVomit more interesting than our inflight entertainment.

Once we landed they had us stay in our seats and they came by with these laser things and checked our temperatures. People in full on quarantine suits came through our cabin and checked us-- don't worry, I totally got pictures!

Nat was waiting for us dutifully at the airport with a sign saying: Welcome to China Shrek and Donkey! It was very cute. We're in our hostel here in Shanghai and it's surprisingly decent. It's really unbelievable that we're here-- that we're half way around the world!

Well I better get to sleep, I think we've been officially up for 24 hours and oddly enough I haven't hit that wall yet. Tomorrow were going to run around Shanghai and then catch our night train to Xian!

Talk to you all soon!

Emily aka the vomit victim