Shanghai Knights

Well i haven't written in a while because i was on vacation. Yes, i have been here for less than 2 months and i have already gotten about 10 days of vacation. its pretty nice. So for vacation i went to Hangzhou (pronounced Hong-joe) and Shanghai. To describe it mildly, it was less than a vacation, and more intense than my normal work week. we had the most horrific traveling, train, bus, and getting lost issues. At one point, the night before we were to return home, we realized that the bus tickets me got were to Huangshan, instead oh Huangshi. HUGE difference, and because we're pretty much illiterate here, we almost didn't catch it! We got the right tickets that night, but it took us 4 hours to do it...and with almost a billion people traveling on a national holiday, all i could do was thank God that we were actually able to get tickets.

Abby got really sick the second day we were there, and didn't really feel better until we returned. Apparently Hangzhou is the most touristy place in China, and Shanghai is the largest city in China...so you can only imagine how many people we ran into, literally. When we were at the Bund in Shanghai (the bridge that overlooks the Huangpu River), i felt like i was at a concert. There were so many people on the bridge itself that not even a sardine can could have been so tightly packed. It sounds crazy, and it was, but we also had some fun, and ate some great food. Shanghai was great because we were actually exposed to American/Western style food. Which is practically a delicacy here. I got to eat Mexican food, which was incredible, and plain cheesecake. Two of my favorite things! I shopped quite a bit at the local markets, and made some fun purchases. And at last we made it home safely after a 15 hour bus ride back. Our trip totalled 7 days, and it was long, but it was time off, so i cant complain.

Oh! And i have my first volleyball game today...so if i'm not too embarrassed by the score i will post the results. Wish me luck!