Okay. We Really Hid In a Windowsill

So now, we are in Shanghai. The train ride was again pretty nice, but it was a relief to get off the train...too many weird people staring at us. One man seemed so intrigued by our Scrabble game that he looked as if he was trying to understand the words on the board simply by willing it. Anyway, Shanghai is by far the group's favorite city, and I could officially live here now that I know how to work the subway stations.

The first day in Shanghai was the best day ever. We went out with a family friend's nephew to see the Bund, and the Huangpu River. The river splits Shanghai in half, and on one side you can see the Bund, which was previously occupied by many foreigners working in banks. Their legacy can still be seen with the huge row of Western buildings from what was probably the late 19th and early 20th centuries. We walked by the Pearl Tower, which we will be visiting at a later date. But the best part of the day was when we decided NOT to buy umbrellas--we thought, 'hey the rain isn't going to get much worse than this.' This was not the case unfortunately, and rain went from drizzle to torrent in an instant. Our guides took cover with a huddle of people underneath the entrance of a tall building, but there was no room for us, so we followed Shacka's lead and leaped onto a windowsill, and took cover there. This plan however, fell to pieces quickly, as the wind turned against our favor, and brought the rain in our direction. THEN, the rain turned to rain + hail, so super fun for us. Antonio ventured off to get a better look at our surroundings, leaping from windowsill to windowsill in order to maximize dryness. He eventually discovered an entrance to an underground parking garage that we all moved towards, and hid under. Antonio Bear Grylls'ed his shirt, as did Alex, and we waited for quite some time before our friends came out to find us.

We walked out from the underpass only to learn that we had to get on a boat to get home. After getting off the boat, we walked around aimlessly, failing to hail cabs because of our sponge-like state. We eventually got on a bus, and walked from our stop to a subway. Cold ensued, along with people avoiding us like the plague. In any case, we eventually got back, and that was our day. We ordered Pizza Hut, because that was the easiest thing to order, and it was surprisingly good, compared to our last encounter with pizza, which made Alex puke.

Thank god we're all fine. No one is sick, Diarrhea has been conquered, and Shanghai is the coolest city ever. Today my friend Xia Ming (self-named Jack) took us around Nanjing Road, which is a huge western-style shopping district with malls and huge department stores. Then we headed to Cheng Huang Miao, which is a huge street-market area with real stores and a STARBUCKS. Then we pretty much wandered around until we found this awesome cheap street bazaar area. We bought...stuff...in...medium quantities...yes. Now we're leaving for a market to get Alex deoderant because he is the stinkiest person in the world. Also he is ugly, so I will buy him handsome cream.