Day 7: Home Sweet Home

            I am back in Shanghai after dealing with yet another Chinese airport and Chinese airline.  It went pretty smoothly, minus the flight attendant being really strict about me turning off my electronic devices for landing, and I saw the funniest little boy on the subway.  He stood next to me for about 5 stops and was doing kung fu and shooting imaginary things and protecting us from all kinds of bad guys.  Little Chinese children are the cutest things ever.  Other than that, flying back from Beijing and a final choir practice ate up most of my day, but here’s some tidbits that I’ve been meaning to write about:

·      Weather: Shanghai is about 85 or so degrees right now and pretty humid.  It could definitely be worse, though, and I’m afraid it soon will be.  (Beijing was a little hotter, but a lot less humid)  Luckily, all of the subways that I’ve been in so far have been well air-conditioned and my room is pretty cool too.  So it’s really only when I’m walking outside that it’s uncomfortable.

·      Chinese food has not yet peaked my interest. This may be because whenever I go to restaurants, I can’t read what the menu says.  But it may also be because the food here is pretty different and I just do not have the stomach to try it.  I have found some good yogurt and noodles and bread and I of course have my 80 granola bar food storage that I lugged here with me, but I’m hoping to diversify my options here pretty soon.  There is good fruit here, which is probably the one thing that has given me any nutrients.  Is there such a thing as Tourists’ Scurvy?

·      I am the ONLY white person here. Well, I might occasionally see a few others, but really, there are not nearly as many as I thought there would be.  This means I get stared at.  A lot.  It’s a little unnerving, and last night I got full on laughed at in this market (this was right after the taxi in the rain/wrong bus/nightmare incident and I was desperately trying to find something to eat) because I couldn’t understand what the man at the counter was trying to tell me.  The best part- I’ve started staring at other white people too.