Friday, July 17

Today we head back to Changsha, our last day of the trip before flying back to Shanghai. After another long bus ride I was looking forward to just relaxing in the hotel and doing whatever I felt like in the city. Of course that was not an option. We went straight to another school. Apparently Mao Zedong went to this one and they pretty much displayed every possession of his they could. They showed where he sat in class and what his activities were throughout the day. I never knew he was from Changsha but I didn't care much for touring the school. After that we went to some sort of park/garden that got bombed in WWII by, I'm assuming, the Japanese. After an afternoon of walking and looking at things I wasn't too interested in, I was glad to get back to the hotel and have the night free. I had been hanging out with a group of guys from Taiwan that went to school in Shanghai, so that night I went and watched them play mahjong. After a few hours I think I got the hang of how to play, then I got bored and went back to the hotel.

The next day we headed back to Shanghai and everybody went their separate ways. I decided to stay in Shanghai for a few days because I wanted to explore the city on my own, I also had a lot of gifts to buy still. I spent the first day going to the stores, I wanted to get all my shopping done in a day so I wouldn't have to worry about it. I went to Yuyuan Market and Pearl City Market and bought more clothing and paintings. I had the lady at the company dormitory write down the dorm address in Chinese and I had a Shanghai map with me, so getting around the city by taxi was very cheap and easy. That night I went to see the new Harry Potter that had just come out. I was shocked that the ticket price was 100 RMB (about $15), but paid it because I really wanted to see the movie. After the movie was over I just went home.

The next day I decided not to take taxis, but to just explore the city via the subway, a very cheap and easy way to get around the city. I figured if I got lost I could just call a taxi and get home easily anyways. I started by going to People's Square and walking down Nanjing Road, a famous pedestrian street. I took my time looking at the different shops and also did some people watching. Next I went to the Metro area which is a mall entirely of electronics shops. I shopped around and bought some new headphones since my old ones had recently broken. There was a large bookstore on the top floor of the mall which had an English section. So I spent time looking through the books, I already brought plenty of books with me, so I didn't buy anything. I got back in the afternoon and spent time online researching a good place for eating some Western food. I found a restaurant about 1km from the dormitory called Abbey Road so I wrote instruction on how to get there and set off for dinner. I had a delicious burger with fries and 2 pints of beer (I think the second was free because I was eating alone). I brought my book with me so I had a pleasant meal of reading and eating. After dinner I stopped and got some dessert on my way home.