June 28; "its never the right time to say goodbye" sung by TanG

Day 144

This is an extremely bittersweet morning. On the sweet side, we wake to up a buffet breakfast, and our adventure is finally going to commence. On the bitter side, it is the last buffet breakfast, and Sigrid and Tanjin are heading off to Beijing. 

Gonna miss these girls :(

After saying our farewells and bon voyages, I felt that the real summer vacation began. So we head to the (dreaded) train station to buy tickets. Whenever I go to a hospital or airport, I get this unpleasant, sad, anxious feeling. I get the same feeling whenever I walk into a Chinese train ticket office as well. We don't get the tickets we want, but I feel so fortunate to get something.

The next thing we do before enjoying Shanghai is finding our host, LL. There's a bit of walking, but we find her with ease. She's so nice, her place is amazing, and she even made dinner for us: homemade pasta.

our host =)
Photo Cred: Cat

Later that evening, we went to a couchsurfing meet up in the financial district. 

Apparently, there's a bar on the 94rth floor. of the tallest building. Can't see the tallest building in this pic because of the fog, but it looks like a bottle opener.

fantastic view on the patio.

It's always really nice getting to meet new people and hearing their story about how they ended up in China. After the story of why we're there, people tend to me curious about 2 things: age and ethnicity.

Its always fun to let people guess. One person thought I was a 17 year old from Hong Kong who studied in the States because I sound like I have a bit of a L.A accent. Although not accurate, it makes a pretty good story. 

One thing I learn this evening is that Hakka is an ancient language. That makes me feel a bit cooler.

yummy mango pudding =) 

Here's to a good start on couchsurfing (- def recommended if you're travelling)!