“The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.” - 

Rudyard Kipling

Shanghai is definitely  a huge city- one of 14 million people.  There are people everywhere!  I’ve never seen so much traffic in my life.  There are also beggars and pushy sellers everywhere you walk.  I wouldn’t call the city very pretty and it kind of smells bad wherever you go.  

Okay- it’s only day 2 but I’m already praying for normal food at breakfast- it’s going to be a long month of Chinese food.  Leslie, you would never make it here!  I never thought I’d be so happy for toast.  But, I’m not going to complain- I’m getting a chance to try different types of food that I probably would never actually order in a restaurant.  This program is so great because all the meals are included.  You really can’t beat a whole month of lodging, airfare, food and touring in return for two weeks worth of teaching. 

This is just a sample of the food that is offered for lunch and dinner.

Do you see the duck's head?  It looks so gross but it actually tasted pretty good.

I also ate congealed duck blood soup.  I thought it was tofu and had already eaten some before I was told what it was.  

Today we went up to the top of the Pearl tower (the spacey looking thing) to get an aerial view of Shanghai.  The World Financial building is the tallest in the world (or in China?).  They left the hole in the top so they could build on when another building gets taller than them.   Here are some scenes of Shanghai from the top.

This is Erin and Kristen with me in front of the Pearl Tower.

We went shopping down a busy street.  There were a lot of interesting shops and food. I'm still working on the bargaining for a cheaper price.  I'll let you know if I get any good bargaining deals.  

Just an example of some things we saw in the stores!

Things are definitely more affordable here than in Europe.  In most touristy places in Europe, getting even water is super expensive (like 4 Euros which is about $6).  Here you can get two bottles of water for 6 Yuan, which is like $1.  I bought a wooden fan and a jade bracelet for $10.  I’m also really bad about bargaining people down which you are really supposed to do.  I did bargain for the bracelet and felt very proud of myself for getting it for half of what they asked.  It’s also really weird to use Yuan because everything looks so expensive- I feel like a playa walking around with a bunch of hundreds in my wallet!

Now we are off for a 4 hours bus trip to Nanjing.  We will tour there tomorrow but will also  be settling in for the next two weeks since this is where the school is.