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Day 424 

Thursday April 20, 2017:

This morning Ashkan and I heading back to Shanghai and got delayed at the airport for almost two hours.  Rain was coming down pretty hard so everything was grounded due to a weather delay.  I was already on the plane and everything.  We just sat there waiting for the rain to let up.  We did get ice cream though while we were waiting so that was quite nice.  

Ashkan and I took different airlines back to Shanghai so when we landed (which was around the same time) we were supposed to meet at the baggage claim, emphasis on supposed to.  I waited and waited and he never showed up.  Turns out his plane got redirected to a different terminal…He didn’t have a SIM card for his phone, but luckily he had a few coins and was able to use a pay phone to call me.  By the time we got to our hotel it was dark, but our room was pretty nice so it was ok in the end.  

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Day 423 

Wednesday April 19, 2017:

Ashkan was very lazy this morning and we didn’t leave the hotel till well after lunchtime.  I planned for us to go to either Stanley or Cheng Chau Island, but we didn’t have anytime.  We just spent the rest of the day looking around the goldfish street for aquarium decorations for Ashkan’s mom’s boyfriend’s aquarium.  

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Day 422 

Tuesday April 18, 2017:

Follow me to Hong Kong!

Early, early this morning I made my way to the airport for a flight bound for Hong Kong to meet Ashkan.  It took me forever to find a taxi at five in the morning and in the end I had to use Didi to request one.  But once I saved my taxi from a group of old Chinese people also trying to flag one down in front of Donghua, it was smooth sailing all the way to Hong Kong.  

Ashkan arrived a bit earlier than I did, so once I made my way through immigration he was already there waiting with train tickets in his hand.  Wanting to save a few dollars we booked a very economically priced hotel called Mini Hotel in Central.  It definitely lived up to its name.  We did some research before so we were expecting a tiny room and the very basic of essentials when it came to this hotel, but the room was way TINY.  We opened the door and there was about a foot of space between the bed and the wall that served as a walkway.  The bathroom was located right behind the bed, with only a see through glass wall serving as a barrier.  Really besides the bed there was room for nothing else in this room.  No closet, no room to put your luggage (thank the lord Ashkan only brought a carry on sized luggage and I brought a backpack), no desk or chair.  They did have a sort of a fold out ledge that could be used as a desk.  The room was small but we weren’t planning to spend a whole lot of time in it so no big deal.  The thing that did give us trouble though was the humidity.  I’m not sure why, but even with the AC going the room was so humid and damp.  When we took a shower the walls of the room would be damp from the humidity to the point that they were dripping…

But after getting settle into the room we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around.  During the night we decided to get acquainted with Lan Kwai Fong a bit more and stopped in for drinks and Mexican food.  The Mexican food wasn’t amazing or anything but the drinks were fun.  We went to a shot bar where you can get all sorts of different shots.  We tried several and by the time we left I was feeling good.

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Day 420 

Sunday April 16, 2017:

Follow me to Anji! Day 3

Bedtime last night was much much later than anticipated so everyone was dead this morning.  Thankfully there was only a small hike to see the bamboo forest planned for the day then lunch.  Lunch was exactly the same as the last two days…EXACTLY THE SAME.  

Once lunch was finished we headed back to Shanghai.  Xiang Yi, Eun Jung, and I met for dinner and ate an impressive amount of salmon sushi between the three of us.  

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Day 419

Saturday April 15, 2017:

Follow me to Anji! Day 2 (Part 2)

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Day 419 

Saturday April 15, 2017:

Follow me to Anji! Day 2 (Part 1)

Wake up call was at 7 today and Zuo Tung and I made our way downstairs to a very mediocre breakfast.  We left our hotel around 8:30 and arrived at some sort of amusement park.  It was quite strange.  They had everything there: go karting, performances by some minority groups in the province, a dinosaur park, animal performances (tigers, bears, sea lions, etc), and rides.  The performance by the minority group was really boring so we skipped that and tried to see the sea lions but there were too many people.  We went to check out the tigers and bears, which was also quite boring but ended up waiting there till it was lunchtime.  Lunch was exactly the same thing we had yesterday…exactly the same dishes.  

After lunch we had some free time to ride some of the rides in the park.  Xiang Yi, Bara, and I bought a pass for 10 rides while the others just bought one ticket.  We choose to all go on this ride together that spins you around and swings you back and forth in the air like a pendulum.   It was much better than I expected, but it lasted so long.  Usually I don’t want the ride to end, but on this one I was wondering why it wouldn’t stop.  I’m normally ok on rides, but with this one we all came off feeling a bit woozy.  For a while I really regretted buying a 10-ride pass… We did though go on several more rides and got our moneys worth from the passes.  

For dinner we had Dong Bei food and again there was plenty of meat on the menu.  We picked up more beers and some soju this time from the super market and spent the night drinking, playing drinking games, and talking.  

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Day 418

Friday April 14, 2017:

Follow me to Anji! Day 1 (Part 2)

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Day 418 

Friday April 14, 2017:

Follow me to Anji! Day 1 (Part 1)

Today we embarked on our class trip to the beautiful Anji.  Classes A3, A4, and A4 left early this morning on the 3-hour bus ride.  Anji is not a very popular tourist destination but is known for its bamboo forests. Only five students (including myself) went on the trip along with our two teachers.  There were two Koreans, Xiang Yi (our class leader) and Eun Jung, Bara (she is from the Czech Republic), and Zuo Tung (a nice old Japanese lady).  I ended up rooming with Zuo Tung at our hotel.  

First thing we did upon arriving at Anji was have lunch we turned out to be a bit disappointing.  The taste was not too bad, but there was no meat, only some fish and vegetables.  In the end though it turned out to be a good thing because right after lunch we went on a hike up the mountain.  We felt full but not weighed down by all the meat.  The hike itself was rather taxing.  Although surrounded by beautiful scenery I wouldn’t say it was a very relaxing or peaceful hike.  The trail mostly consisted of stairs and it was quite hot and humid today.  With a little coaxing we managed to get one of our teachers to hike all the way to the very top with us.  We got some ice cream there, admired the scenery then made our way down.  About halfway everyone’s leg muscles were sore and shaking and there were promises of more muscle pain over the next few days.  About two thirds of the way down you could choose to zip line down the rest of the way.  Xiang Yi and I decided to try it and although a bit short, it was pretty fun.  

Thankfully after hiking we were done for the day and checked into our hotel.  Dinner was on our own so the seven of us (five students and two teachers) went to a nearby mall for dinner.  We made sure that meat was on the menu this time.  Afterwards we stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few beers and snacks and spent the rest of the night drinking and getting to know each other a bit more.  We found out that our new teacher is younger than Xiang Yi and I!  We are all born in the same year but different months with Xiang Yi being the oldest.  

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Day 413 

Sunday April 9, 2017:

Jesper and I met up for some quality time at the Beer Lady this afternoon. Let me say first that today we definitely embraced the fat life.  We stopped by City Shop for some sandwiches before settling in at the Beer Lady for a few beers, and then decided that some WIYF (ice cream) was definitely what we needed next.  We managed to walk off some of that beer on our way over to WIYF and found to our horror that WIYF had been shut down due to the owner using some expired flour in another bakery that they own.  The owner has fled back to France so I don’t see WIYF opening anytime soon….

Honestly we were so disappointed that to make up for it we went and got Taco Bell.

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Fusion Tonight

Day 412 

Saturday April 8, 2017:

Tonight was Sabine’s (my classmate) birthday celebration so I decided to go along with her, a few classmates, and some of the Dutch people to Fusion to help her celebrate.  Like always Fusion was packed and over crowded, but all in all it was still a good time.

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Day 407

Monday April 3, 2017:

Gucun Park (Part 4)

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Day 407

Monday April 3, 2017:

Gucun Park (Part 3)

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Day 407

Monday April 3, 2017:

Gucun Park (Part 2)

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Day 407 

Monday April 3, 2017: 

Gucun Park (Part 1)

Since the weather has been so nice lately Urte and I decided to take advantage of all the sun and go see the cherry blossoms at Gucun Park.  Unfortunately it slipped our minds that this weekend is a holiday weekend, so everyone and their mom was going to Gucun today.  With only one metro line going to the park and it being pretty far out of city center, the metro was so crowded.  We couldn’t make it onto the first train and it was like riding in a sardine can, all squished up against everyone.  

Once we arrived at the station we had to fight our way out (for some reason people have so much trouble figuring out how to check out using the metro cards) and then we were herded like cattle to the park’s entrance.  We did stop to pick up some flower crowns though on our way to the front gate.  I was very surprised that actually buying tickets and going into the park took very little time compared to how many people there were.  It only ook us about 10 minutes from the time we reached the entrance to buy our tickets and enter.  The good thing about Gucun is that since it is so big, even with so many people visiting, there is still plenty of space to spread out and take in some nature.  

After wandering around and taking photos of ourselves we stopped by the mall across from the metro station for a late lunch.  

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Day 406

Sunday April 2, 2017:

The No Home Tonight drink we ordered at Maia’s

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Day 406 

Sunday April 2, 2017:

Today was Heidi’s birthday so she invited Bara and me to eat hotpot with her parents to celebrate.  It was her parents’ first time eating hotpot so it was quite fun seeing them try it.  The restaurant we went to gave everyone their own personal hotpot so it was quite nice and easier than all of us trying to fish out goodies from one big pot.  Afterwards Heidi, Bara, and I stopped by Maia’s to have some celebratory drinks.

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Day 399 

Sunday March 26, 2017:

Tonight Urte and I got together and exchanged winter break stories over Japanese food.  The place she brought us to was really good and the prices were quite reasonable.  Our order of chicken salad, rice cake and cheese okonomiyaki, and skewers was more than enough for the two of us.  They even had homemade ice cream for dessert.