Shanghai Trip

Warning this is a very long post. Make sure you have at least 10 minutes to devote to reading this post. If you have history of heart conditions, are pregnant or may become pregnant, please consult a doctor to see if Ben’s blog is right for you. Enjoy...

So we got back from shanghai and boy do I have a ton to report on.

So we began our trip on Friday afternoon and our train left at 2 in the afternoon. It lasted 20 hours so we arrived at 10 in the morning. I know 20 hours… Wow. On a plane I could literally get anywhere in the world faster then on this train. But it honestly wasn’t as bad as it sounds. We were surrounded by friends so we just chilled and talked for most of the trip. Also, we had beds on the train so we actually were able to get a decent night sleep. Originally we were supposed to ride on the faster train but somebody at the travel agency screwed up so we were stuck with an extra 8 hours on the train. But I am actually glad that we were able to experience the long train because it is part of Chinese life that you can never understand completely until you experience it.

Anyways after the train ride we took the sub way to ‘our hotel.’ The reason this is in quotes is because the travel agency screwed up again and they booked us a hotel that literally wasn’t able to host us. Chinese laws says that hotels must have at least 3 stars to host foreigners, and apparently the one we were supposed to stay in never had been ranked. So we spent the next hour trying to find a new hotel and eventually found a fairly nice hotel. After settling in and taking a much needed shower, we went to the Bund. This is where you see the most famous view of Shanghai’s T.V. tower and the rest of Shanghai’s beautiful skyline. It was awesome to actually be on the Bund and to see Shanghai, I mean you see the view on T.V. and in Movies all the time, but to actually be there was amazing. After taking pictures and spending a good amount of time walking along the river, we started to just walk threw the streets and get an overall feel of Shanghai. The area surrounding the Bund has old European styled buildings and it was beautiful to see. One interesting thing we saw while walking was the police driving up and down the streets busting the street vendors. I’m not sure why it was illegal, but I sure was funny to watch the Chinese sprinting away while pushing their little carts. I actually was trying to buy some squid kebab when the police came and the guy stopped everything and started to push his cart away. Unfortunately I happened to be in the way so I got hammered by this guy’s cart. I wasn’t hurt at all so it was actually really funny.

After the Bund we took the bus back to our hotel and while walking back from the bus stop found this Middle Eastern restaurant and enjoyed some of their cuisine. Sanjay actually knew all the good items on the menu because evidently Indian food was similar to the Middle Eastern food. After enjoying our dinner we went back to our hotel for the night.

On Sunday, we met in the lobby at six. The hotel provided a real bad breakfast so David and I decided to go on a hunt for a McDonalds. And I know you Americans wont understand this but their honestly was not a McDonalds with in a twenty minute walk. This is much different than In New York City where in some places there are McDonalds on opposite corners just so people don’t have to cross the street. But anyways after our failed explorations, we went to the Expo.

Entering the Expo resembled entering an amusement park like Cedar Point. Just to get in we had to wait in straight lines, and curvy lines, and lines that seemed to be leading away form the entrance. But bottom line is that tons of Chinese were their and they were their in vast numbers. And this does make sense because it was the second official day of the Expo being open and it was also a holiday weekend, so no surprise that it was busy.

Anyways I can never go through every single thing we did at the Expo so lets just give you a brief explanation. So the World Exposition is a fair where countries, if they choose to participate, build a pavilion and on the inside show different aspects of their culture. And these pavilions aren’t just some modern looking buildings; countries spend millions of dollars trying to make their pavilion the one that people remember. I would encourage you to Google “World Expo 2010” and just take a look at the spectacular pavilions that the counties had. You can also read about what they have to show inside.

The one pavilion I will explain to you is the one you all want to hear about; The USA’s. So first of all you have to understand that we were understandably really excited to see the pavilion but when we arrived there was one slight problem; about 3 million Asians waiting in a line to get in. As we had been doing all day, we decided that we were not going to wait 3 hours to see a pavilion so we reluctantly walked away. BUT, Ben doesn’t quit without a fight. As we were walking away I saw the exit manned by one wimpy Asian guard. I instructed our group to follow me and to just go along with what I did. So I first tried to just confidently walk threw the door with our American passports ready, like we were important and aloud to go in the exit. But the Asian had the audacity to step in our way and block our entrance. So I stopped and quickly thought of a plan. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that at the very end of the pavilion was a store where you could buy USA gear. So being the genius I am I told the guard in crude Chinese that we didn’t want to look at the pavilion but rather wanted to just buy things. HE BOUGHT IT!!! We were in. Needless to say we didn’t buy any thing but just looked at the last room in the pavilion. But there were doors that blocked our way to see the rest of the pavilion, so… we made casual conversation with the awesome American college student who were staffing the pavilion and then just told them that we snuck in and wanted to see the rest of the pavilion and they were happy to take us back through and show us the rest of the pavilions.

So the USA pavilion consisted of four parts. We didn’t actually visit the first room because the college students said it was boring so we started in the second room. Their was a movie where Hilary Clinton and Obama and other famous and average Americans were talking about working together and how much the world could accomplish if we unlocked the boundaries of standard thinking; Some real light-hearted stuff. After the movie we entered another theater and watched a 4-D movie about Perseverance and working together. The reason it was 4-D was because it actually rained on us and our chairs shook when it thundered in the movie. It was actually really cool. In the forth room was space where all of the American pavilion’s sponsors had a little area to display some advertisements. Evidently the US government is not allowed to fund any of these Expo’s so Hilary had to do some fund raising and find some sponsors. But she pulled it off and America had an impressive pavilion.

Another great part of the Expo was trying food from around the world. Some countries pavilions also boasted restaurants. For lunch we ate at my boy David’s restaurant, in the Austrian pavilion. Their I order Chicken Cordon Blue, and it was a very pleasant breath of fresh air for my taste buds after 2 months of only Chinese food. We also ate at the Ukraine restaurant. I had the Ukraine salad. I was expecting lettuce, but it was not the same type of salad we eat in America. It had egg, mushroom, chopped up chicken, all mixed up in a mayonnaise sauce. It was actually really good. At the French pavilion we also enjoyed some French pasties. And of course being only four guys we also enjoyed our fair share of Burger King and Papa Johns. By saying us four guys I mean that David, Leonard, Sanjay, and I ended up going around the Expo with each other. We have become the self proclaimed brotherhood.

When the sun started to set all of the lights started to come on and it was absolutely spectacular. Shanghai defiantly went all out for this thing, and it showed. Their where spot lights and lasers in the sky. Their where fake flames lining the river, and water shows for us to enjoy; and not to mention the pavilions. If they were spectacular during the day then I have no words to describe how awesome they looked when lit up.

Anyways we spent all day Sunday and most of Monday enjoying the Expo and our return train left shanghai at 8 o’clock at night. This one was a bit shorter it only lasted 18 hours. And we slept for 12 of those hours because we were so tired from the Expo. So once again, not a bad train ride at all.

So ya, we are back in Shi Jia Zhuang now and have returned to regular classes. I have heard rumors that next week some Americans from AFS are coming to see our improvement and our schools performance. So that will be a little scary. Ummm what else, our AFS culture trip has been scheduled for May 24 so only 19 days until were back on the road. The culture trip is to Xi’an. This is where the Terracotta Warriors are, so that will be amazing to see.

Other than that not much is new, I was happy to see that one of my friends from Brecksville received the scholarship and will be going to China for a semester next spring. We also had another girl from Brecksville who will be traveling to china for 6 weeks next summer. So go bees; way to rep it out.

Ok well that’s all I got for now, so ill check back in with you next Monday.
Peace and love!