Shanghai Memories.

In early May, Amanda and I went to Shanghai for a long weekend. And it was a wonderful weekend getaway with a wonderful friend!

Shanghai is a fantastic city. Clean, scenic, peaceful, and shiny. There were even times when Amanda and I were walking around an area called the French Concession where we stopped and looked at each other and were both thinking the same thing - it sorta felt like we were walking around the streets of Fredericton, or some other Canadian city. Which is a scarce feeling when you are living in China...

We played the role of tourists while we were in Shanghai. We explored the Bund, the French Concession, the Pearl Tower, the Aquarium, Yu Garden, People's Square, and ate some delicious food. We have both agreed that we would love to come back to Shanghai and spend more time relaxing, taking in the Bund (which is the walk along the river that splits two major sides of Shanghai - see second to last picture), and just BEING IN Shanghai. You know what I mean? 

We even had a chance to meet up with some old university friends while we were in Shanghai. My friends Mallory and Andrea, who I went to University with for 5 years, work in another city in China. They were traveling to Shanghai that weekend as well with some of their friends (who also happened to go to STU at the same time) for Mallory's birthday. We ended up getting together for a couple of meals and went to this AMAZING bar called "The Boulevard." Unique, classy, and a perfect throwback to the 20s. 

While Amanda and I had a blast doing things, seeing things, and experiencing things, some of my favourite memories from this trip was just from the little things: 

* laughing about little China-isms

* running and making the train with only 4 minutes to spare

* squealing about the "Love Letters of Great Men" book in a Tiffany's store ("They have ALL OF THE SEX AND THE CITY THINGS!")

*  having pearl tea for the first time

* eating watermelon while people watching in People's Park

* also eating some great Thai food - twice

* and eating some great burgers at wonderful western pubs

* and drinking original brewed beer

* holding up a map at an intersection that made us look like a-typical tourists

* singing songs while in line to go up the Pearl Tower and being laughed at and not caring (but at the same time, we made a new friend who was slightly rude about my figure...)

* attempting to help a lost child, but doing a better job at yelling at the Security Guards for not doing their job (actually...that was mostly Amanda...I just kept following the crying little boy around hoping we'd stumble upon his parents...which we did...eventually). 

* laughing off the poor customer service when all we wanted was an extra towel. ONE EXTRA TOWEL.

The little things...

PS - 17 days!