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Amusement Park
One of Jen’s English students and good friend, Audrey, invited all of us to join her at one of Shanghai’s local amusement parks. Despite the fact that all the signs were in Chinese it was very similar to an amusement park back home. We started out with a ride that had us all feeling sick. BJ said I turned a pretty dark shade of green. After recovering we took our turn in the bumper cars and also rode a few roller coasters, staying well into the evening. Our last hurrah was on a giant Farris wheel that overlooked the entire city. Each car on the Farris wheel was actually enclosed and had its own small air conditioning unit.

Hot Pot
After the amusement park we all went out to dinner at a place called the Dollar Shop, which specializes in hot pot dinners. You choose your flavor of broth, which is delivered in a pot over a flame, and the entire table orders a ton of dishes of raw meats, vegetables and tofu, which you toss in your hot pot to cook. You then simply grab the cooked food, dunk it in a sauce and pop it in your mouth. It was quite an active dinner but delicious. The only thing that I stayed away from was the chicken blood pate. I at least tried it but that very popular Chinese dish was not my cup of tea.

Playing Soccer in 100 Degrees
BJ and Brandon were invited to a “friendly game of soccer” on Sunday which turned into a pretty intense three hour match. Jen and I decided to sit along the side lines and read. I was exhausted after three hours of sitting in the heat so I can only imagine how tired BJ and Brandon were. At one point BJ said he thought his blood was boiling.

Chinese Massage
Since massages only cost about $10, Jen and Brandon have frequented the local massage parlor at least once a week. The four of us went after dinner one evening and got a room with four massage tables and our own massage therapist. They give you a very light weight pair of pajamas to wear during the massage. I never would have guessed that something so pleasurable like a massage would cause me so much pain. The Chinese massage therapists might look like they have small hands but they are powerful and I woke up the following morning with shooting pains in my lower back. I’m sure it was all therapeutic but I think we all felt like we got beat up.

Yu Yuan (or “you” “you” “N”)
Since BJ and I have our days free we have been trying to get out and explore a different part of the city every day. We spent Monday on an adventure to Yu Yuan all by ourselves. Jen was a little worried to let us go alone and made us take a card that said where we live in Chinese so that we could hand it to a taxi driver if needed. But we weren’t worried and we hopped on their two bikes to head out. Taking the ferry across the river was an experience in itself because you pile on with bikes, motorcycles, scooters and tons of people. It reminded BJ of the starting line at a motorX race because of all the revving engines. It was pretty fun to be on our bicycles and made us even feel a bit more local. Yu Yuan is the “Old Shanghai” and although very touristy, it is really pretty. All of the buildings have been restored to their traditional Chinese architecture and stand about four floors tall. Lined with souvenir shops and restaurants, the area is a little cheesy but we still had a great time and even contemplated buying a tea set and chopsticks to bring home with us. The best parts of Yu Yuan were the small residential streets that surrounded it. Most of the tourists stay within the walls of the Old Shanghai but we almost had more fun cruising up and down the dirtier but more local streets outside. The streets were barely big enough for a single car to drive on and the windows were filled with drying laundry. We’ve noticed that people spend a ton of time just sitting on a chair on the sidewalk in front of their house. It may be the busiest street in Shanghai but an old man or woman will still be sitting in their pajamas on a lawn chair in the middle of the sidewalk just watching the world go by or visiting with neighbors.

Shanghai Museum
We spent yesterday afternoon at the Shanghai Museum with Jen. We only had a couple hours to see it so we cruised through the exhibits on calligraphy, ancient pottery, paintings and furniture pretty quickly but BJ took a ton of photos (which we were surprised was allowed) to capture what we saw. I liked the paintings the best, all done on really long scrolls or paper and so detailed. We couldn’t read the stories that went along with the paintings so we had fun making up our own versions.

A few more words

• “Say” “Jen” = Goodbye
• “Boo” “How” “Isa” = Sorry (I learned that one cause I fell into another woman on the subway)
• “Boo” “How” = No Good (it’s a very useful term when you are being harassed with people trying to sell you things in a market)
• “Wa” “Yao” = I Want (a good term for restaurants, markets, just about anywhere)
• “Pee” “Joe” = Beer