Sean Visits Shanghai

As I said before, these past three weeks Sean visited me in Shanghai during his winter break…how I miss those long winter breaks at USF!. He came three days after Christmas so we could spend the New Year together. I can't believe it's already 2014! It had been four months since I had last seen him!

His plane came in right after my last class at my weekend school so I took the metro the long way to the airport to pick him up. He had previously been to China in high school, but had forgotten some of his experiences, so he didn't mind coming to Shanghai again. It was pretty late by the time we got back to my apartment and he was feeling jet lagged, so we went to sleep and slept in for the majority of Sunday.

The next week, I took him around Shanghai, visiting the famous Bund, the Buddhist Jing'an Temple, and the road where a bunch of "antiques" are sold. We also went to a few bars like Zapata's (the expat bar) and this one his dad told us to check out in the Xintiandi area. Also, in the Xintiandi area I took him to the Merry Kissmas tree that was still up for a few more days after Christmas.

Throughout these three weeks, we had a lot of dumplings. I took him to this famous restaurant called Din Tai Fung, Yang's Dumplings (juicy fried dumplings), and this chain dumpling place by my apartment where you can buy 10 dumplings for less than $2. He couldn't believe that we could both eat dinner for about $4. The cheap food is definitely something I'm going to miss when I come back home. Besides dumplings, he wanted to treat me to food that I normally can't afford on my teacher's salary, like Mexican food and pizza, both more expensive than normal Chinese food here, since they are "western." Sean was happy to eat all the "western" food because he really didn't like the authentic Chinese food (besides the dumplings of course) especially the meat on a stick or "street meat" part. I hadn't eaten pizza in about three months (that has to be some sort of record for me), so I wasn't complaining. Authentic Chinese food is certainly very different than American Chinese food. Sad to say, but I have been craving some American Chinese food for a while now, especially orange chicken.

Us at The Vue Bar (Sean blinked!)

On New Year's Eve we decided to celebrate by going to The Vue Bar at the Hyatt on the Bund. The Vue Bar is constantly rated as one of the best bars/clubs in Shanghai. Of course there was a New Year's Eve party with free-flowing champagne all night long. Before we left, Sean gave me my Christmas/New Years gift--a necklace from Tiffany and co! :) The view from The Vue Bar (a perfect name) was extraordinary. We danced, drank champagne, and wore flashy gold hats until we counted down to 2014, which still sounds like a year in the future to me. From one of the windows we could see lanterns flying by. For the New Year, and especially the Chinese New Year, people light lanterns and let them go flying up into the sky. There was also a firework and light show over the Bund, but we were too busy dancing to notice. After about 1AM we decided to go home, but couldn't find a cab because it was so busy. We were basically stranded at the Hyatt. At one point Sean was going to get a room, but we weren't able to because we didn't have a passport. Finally, after about two hours of half-sleeping on their couches in their lobby and standing outside in the cold, we hailed a cab and made it back home without the driver getting lost (something that happens often).    

Our view from The Vue Bar at The Hyatt on the Bund

Hangzhou: 
 The last weekend Sean was visiting, we decided to get out of Shanghai and visit a city that was a little bit more on the country side. We decided to go to Hangzhou, a smaller city that is home to a giant lake called West Lake and the "Tea Capital" of China where they make pan-fried leaves--longjing tea, also called "Dragon Well tea," mostly by hand. Before coming here with Sean, I had not thought about adventuring outside of Shanghai to visit other little cities. Now, I'm really glad that I did. Hangzhou is a peaceful place. It was good to get out of Shanghai for a little bit and enjoy some nature. We took a train to Hangzhou and it only took a little over an hour. In Hangzhou we stayed at this nice bed and breakfast where the host actually had an app that allowed him to translate what he was saying into English--pretty cool. The room was really nice with our own little tea set and everything.

Our first day there, we got up and went to the front desk to see if we could get any breakfast. The guy gave us some toast, two eggs, and some sour milk. We had no choice but to go to the Starbucks that was outside of the temple we were going to check out. I joked, "What would we do without Starbucks?" But when we went walking through this park/garden next to West Lake, one of the old buildings there had been transformed into a Starbucks! The building was right in the middle of the garden as though it was supposed to be a memorial or museum or something. This was the first time I have been mad at Starbucks and/or the capitalism in China. People can come up to me all day in the streets trying to get me to buy something from them, but when people start to transform beautiful and historic places into places for profit is when I have a problem with it.

Besides the Starbucks though, the garden was beautiful. It began to rain and was pretty cold that day, but it made everything look five times prettier. There were little "teahouses" everywhere along the lake and a little path you could take to cut through the lake. The reeds in the lake were what really drew my attention. They added some color to the gray day and made it took beautiful. Apparently the views in Hangzhou have inspired poets and painters for decades.

While we were there we also checked out the Temple and had some more fried dumplings. The Temple here was not as epic as the one in Shanghai. Instead of deities, the main statues in this temple showcased a revered warrior. Later that night, we decided to take a boat trip around West Lake. The boat ride was so calming, but it soon got cold (Sean was even colder than I was). There are little islands in the middle if the West Lake and usually they put on a show that Sean's mom raved about but since it is winter time, the show is temporarily put on hold.

The next day, we went to see the Leifeng Pagoda. It was originally built in 1942, but was then reconstructed in 2002, to look like it does today. We went to the very top of the Pagoda and saw all of Hangzhou spread out before us. It was a great trip and I was really sad to see him go, not to mention slightly jealous that he was going back home which I won't see for another five months.

On another note, I am now starting to teach an AP English Language and Composition class, a class I haven't taken in about five years. Still, I loved my AP English classes I took in high school and I hope I can do a good job with teaching my new high school students who are hoping to go to America for college next year. I'm going to have them read The Scarlet Letter and The Catcher in the Rye, two of my favorites I read back then.    

Sean loves to lead dances. He took on the challenge of dancing with all the old women on Nanjing Road, the downtown area of Shanghai: 

Sean likes the workout equipment