Shanghai and More

Last Friday we took a trip to Shanghai! Our first stop was the French Concession which is littered with shops, restaurants, and other fun things to scope out. Not wanting to force Hunter to look at dresses all day, I mostly window shopped. I am looking forward to a day where I can really bargain hunt as everyone keeps telling me that clothing is pretty cheap in China. Side note, we did find out later there is a tailor in Shanghai who allows you to pick out your favorite fabric in the store, gets your measurements, and then proceeds to sew a nicely fitted shirt or dress for roughly 90RMB which is the equivalent of about 15 USD!!!

Moving on... while looking at different shops we stumbled upon a bootleg DVD/CD store. There were all kinds of TV shows and movies lining the walls, some that haven't even come out in theater yet. We ended up buying the third season of Spartacus and Rosetta Stone for Mandarin. We learned the hard way that not everything you buy in these types of stores is guaranteed to work. Spartacus is good to go but sadly the Rosetta Stone failed to come through. That's alright, we are still learning the corruption ropes around here and are only out about 10 bucks.

Afterwards, we ate at a westernized vegetarian restaurant that was really good and then headed to The Bund. The Bund is a stretch of shops, some beach area, and banks in old 1920's style buildings. It also boasts the famous view of Pudong (the downtown area) across the Huangpu River. We then walked around taking pictures of the pretty areas that surround The Bund and also explored a mall close by. We eventually had dinner at a well known Chinese food restaurant called Shanghai Grandmother. The food was pretty tasty but I am starting to dislike the copious amounts of sauce and oil the food is always swimming in around here. Also, the meat plates are mostly a ton of bone or fat you have to pick through. It really makes you appreciate the delicious morsels you do find.

We ended the day with a night walk on The Bund while the buildings lit up across the river. It was very beautiful and surreal. Can't wait to go back!

Some good news that I am both excited and anxious about is that I accepted a 4th grade position at the same school where Hunter is teaching. I am really nervous but also grateful for the opportunity. Luckily I will have a mentor/sort of co-teacher guiding me along the way. The past three days have been spent in new teacher orientation and have kept us both pretty busy. Hopefully we can do some more local exploring in the next couple of days.

Talk to you guys again soon! Miss you all.

Chelsea

 Yummy vegetarian restaurant! 

 These are the old buildings from the 1920's I mentioned earlier. Very cool to look at. They are mostly just banks.

 The famous view across the river.

 Found a lot of random statues and small parks around the area.

This is a blurry picture but the camera was dying so it was the best we could do. You get the idea!