Shanghai, China Part II

Our flight arrived in Shanghai at 10:45pm. We took one of the sketchiest cab rides EVER but long story short we made it to the port. I’ve never been so happy to see the ship before in my LIFE! It was freezing outside and the wind didn’t help. The check-in line to get back into the ship was about 400 people long! Our group was about 150 or so people behind the gangway. There were only 60 people on the ship when it sailed from Hong Kong to Shanghai, the rest were in Beijing. I finally got on the ship around 1:15am, took a shower and threw all my clothes on the floor. Our room was spotless, as always because our steward Andrew is amazing. I noticed that I had a HUGE stack of letters on my pillow, so I put my headlamp on (because Lauren was sleeping) and opened each letter one by one. It was a great way to end a very long day.

In the morning I forced myself to get up at 8am to grab breakfast and tour Shanghai. Kristin and I left to hopefully find an internet café to book a hotel in Tokyo for our ultimate Disneyland adventure! The skyscrapers in Shanghai are something out of the future! It has the third tallest building in the world which looks something like a rocketship. Kristin and I toured a beautiful shopping market where we found a Starbucks and a McDonalds (to use its bathroom facilities which had all western toilets, thank goodness). We jumped in a cab to go to the Hyatt which had an 88th floor observation deck. We discovered that you had to pay 70 Yuan (about 10 dollars) to reach the top so we were over that. The Hyatt, located on the 52nd floor offered a decent view through the hazy and fog. It had rained all day and it was cold, windy rain. We had one of the nicest lunches that I ever had on the 56th floor of the Hyatt where we had breathtaking views of the river and the skyscrapers down below us. After a delicious, three course lunch we headed back to ship because we couldn’t find an inexpensive internet café. The ship was very warm, dry and welcoming. I had a lot of housekeeping things to take care of like emailing my advisor for registering for classes and cleaning up our room. I also started writing a paper for one of my classes. It was one of those days where you just want to stay in your PJs all day, eat chicken noodle soup and watch movies while its raining outside. I miss those days at home.

This morning we are back on the seas for two days until Japan traveling at a S-L-O-W speed of about 12 knots. I woke to find 3 more letters on my door! I love mail! Back to school mode with two more days of classes! I can’t wait for Japan and 9days at sea to see my mommy and Aunt in HAWAII!!!