June 22; luxury finds us in Shanghai

Day 138

Comparing Beijing to Shanghai:

• fashion. Old/young, fe/male, rich/poor - WHOEVER it is,  Shanghainese dress better than Beijingers hands down. There's less gaudy colour on colour, flashy jewels, tasteless platforms...and tacky.
• subway etiquette. Beijing is full of seat hogs no matter what time it is. These seat hogs come in all variations too, it'll surprise you that the worst are the elders. People in Shanghai do not run for seats. Today, an old lady insisted that we sit on the subway.

One more great thing about this hostel is there is free breakfast.

Cereal and milk, baozi (steamed bun), youtiao (Chinese donut), and "orange juice" Yum!

A few of us go to the mall to do some window shopping/air-conditioning. I don't see anything I particularly like except for the poster below:

hi moshisoyo

We check out of the hostel by 12 and set off to check in at the hotel. Google maps is not as accurate as I thought. After having a bit of trouble finding the place, we finally spot it: The Holiday Inn. Imagine sitting in a five star lobby and watching five young girls (unaccompanied minors?) checking in, three of them with backpackers bags bigger than themselves. We don't exactly fit in, but we could not care less. I sense luxury! For the first time in many years, I check into the 5 star hotel. Kristie and I share a room for the first night and when we enter the room, we have this moment of pure exhilaration. 

When we enter the washroom we have another moment of pure joy and excitement. 

Here's a list of this things I fangirl over:

• soft beds! The beds we have been given over the last 6 months were firm.
• automatic bathroom curtains
• tv with HBO! and hell's kitchen! and movies!
• clean water kettle
• chairs that we probably won't actually use
• nice smelling complimentary soap, body lotion, shampoo
• tea!
• clothing line
• ironing board in the closet
• being able to turn a knob and hear the TV from the washroom

These are more or less ordinary things, but we have been away from these things for so long. It's exciting to have these things back in my life. I forgot what luxury was.

The view from the window - pretty gloomy day.

After soaking it all in, we once again head out to the French concession area in Shanghai where the shopping district had me at hello. The area got its name after the French claimed the area for French settlement back in the mid 1800s. The Chinese got their land back, but the influence of French society in the area remains prevalent despite attempts to rebuild.

Theatre - the Shanghai Film Festival was happening

hot dog truck!

So many brilliant stores, however I didn't end up buying much (only earrings from h&m) because space is scarce in the bag that carries two months worth of stuff... After an hour browsing in h&m, we get huuungry. Tanjin finds a Punjabi restaurant with Chinese Indian food (Hakka food!!)

Veg Manchurian gravy - 38 RMB plus 10% service charge.

Outside of Haagen Dazs waiting for Sig to get her dose of coffee

We get back to the hotel and browse the amenities and I break my 5ish years pool haitus today. We have the whole pool to ourselves. So awesome. After the refreshing late night swim, we go back to the room to snuggle in our big comfy bed while watching TV (documentary on the third sex on National Geographics) and sipping on tea.

Oh luxury, how I've missed you so much.

June 20; bon voyage

Day 136

Today is the day when our real summer begins. I have prepared a few outfits, my medical bag, essential toiletries, 6ish rolls of toilet paper, chargers, important documents, and a few souvenirs for the two month of the backpacking tour of Eastern Asia. (exhausted just thinking about it).

one last family portrait before we separate
Photo Cred: TanG

After we said our final goodbyes to some friends and see you later to others, we made our way to the train station. The train ride will take approximately 12-14ish hours. It's not as bad as it sounds because it's an overnight train and we have sleepers, food, and Mean Girls.

along with our personal belongings, we had 3 bags of food. 

watching Mean Girls

The lights in the train shut off around 10. Quiet time.

June 12; starting of seasons and closing off the semester

Day 128

My friend gave me a dose of Chef Gordon Ramsay today: the premier episodes of Masterchef AND Hell's Kitchen. Yumm.

As I munch on my mac and cheese (I mistakenly chose the weird sweetened milk from the cafe instead of normal milk which made it taste weird so I loaded it with pepper to cover the weird milk taste), I watch some Ramsay. When my mac and cheese and tv time ends, I look up at the room and realize it is not my mom's room, the room where I would normally watch Ramsay's shows. I kind of miss the unnecessary commentary my mother usually gives while watching reality shows. After daydreaming about home, I return back to write my final essay. Ugh, ya it's not all fun and games. I have to write essays and journals too.

On another note, I ran into our head coordinator/boss/go-to-person today and she is organizing a farewell party for us. You know time is running out when you have final papers to write and farewell parties to attend.  : (

June 11; who needs tv when you've got the internet

Day 127

Patio dinner with a few of our favourite friends =)

It turns out that Tanjin and I are not the only ones who watch HBO's True Blood. With the North American season premiere yesterday, we had a little True Blood viewing party with a little help of Tanjin and her magical internet powers. Who needs tv when you've got the internet!

I usually watch tv by myself just because of show preferences, but it's so much more exciting when watching it with other people - reactions, commentary, afterthoughts...

Things I'll miss about Beijing: Watching shows with other people.

Jan 13; MJ saves dinner

Day 5

What I learned about Korea today: The only fault I found in Korea so far was the broken escalator in the subway. (Everything else, we broke and Korea fixed...like the toilet.)

What I learned about tae kwan do today: I'm not loud enough. It's not natural for me to make sound effects when punching and kicking in mid air.

What I learned about the markets today: I will NEVER get enough.
We went to Insadong today to do a little shopping. Insadong is full of souvenirs, artsy things, and a pair of singing Korean cooks.

They retold the story, in the form of a song, of how the food they were making came to be. 

All the major beauty brands/stores in Korea seem to have some sort of celebrity endorsement. There are always cardboard cut outs of them in front of the store. Here are some of the few I've seen:

Ah! spoiled City Hunter girl

 

Korean McDonald's with meat, meat, and more meat! (sigh)

Catherine and I on the subway with our T Money cards -
our key to the subway,  laundry machines, and some vending machines

Back in the university area, a few of us decided to get some dinner before heading back. The place was kinda their version of a hole in the wall restaurant where no employees spoke English and the menu consisted of 4 different things all written in Korean.So what did we do? I asked if anyone in the restaurant spoke English. Lucky for us, a lady beside us spoke English and explain what was on the menu and helped us order. She noticed my backpack was Roots and asked if we were from Canada. Our new friend actually studied in Alberta years ago. With this immediate connection, she offered to take us around Seoul and "support" us if we wanted. She even gave us her business card. Why are Korean people so nice?

Naengmyeon (cold noodles) = 4500 won

Jeff Winger on Korean TV? YAY!

I end this post with something wonderful I saw on a bridge.

Graffiti on the bridge. Everything in Seoul is so positive!

Jan 11; I'm permanently black and blue, permananently blue for youuuuuu

Day 3

The first tae kwan do lesson was held today and it was a lot more fun than I anticipated! For one, I could do all the stretches with ease - thank you P90X!

There was a special lecture in the evening time about Korean culture, past and present. We got to try a variety of traditional snacks and traditional Korean outfits called hanbok.

Special Lecture Hall

Demonstration of how adults give children money on Lunar New Years

practicing

Kristie and her special drink

Reena (from Australia) on my left and Diana on my right.

destructive roomies in hanboks

Meet Maya. She's from Japan.

CTEP gang!

I woke up with a massive red/brown/blue/purple spot on my forearm this morning. I figured it was just a bruise (because I bruise easily) so I didn't bother with it. However, it didn't look like a normal bruise. A friend suggested it might be something else so I went online to check out my options. With the help of google, I saw that the so called "bruise" might have been caused by: ticks which is related to lime disease, spider bites which is related to infections, and other scary stuff. I carried on with my daily tasks until the evening where the paranoia kicked in and I was ready to go to the clinic tomorrow if it didn't get better. 

At the special lecture, one of the Aussies volunteered to help take me to the clinic after the lecture to get it checked out. This comforted me a lot because he spoke Korean and English fluently (annnd I was slightly paranoid). For those who have not experienced being sick in another country, it's no walk in the park. Not being able to communicate with others in one common language can be very frightening. I ended up going with a volunteer from the university instead, but I love knowing that there are nice people in the world.

Doctor's appointment = 15,000 won

(it turned to be only a nasty looking bruise. the doctor gave me a sample cream to use and it works like a charm!)

After getting home, we watched some Korean music video and discovered this awesome band called 10cm.

[There are two people in the band and the height difference is 10cm.]

Look what was on tv!! HIMYM! Yay!