Pudong & Puxi

I don’t even know where to begin. Today was fantastic! I woke up showered and skipped breakfast-heehee. Talked to Ms. Evelyn for a bit, I wish you all could meet her; she is the sweetest most loving person I have ever met! I came back to my room to catch up on e-mail and do a few other things. Sitting on my bed typing away I hear the beautiful sound of the piano and Ms. Evelyn singing, it instantly put a smile on my face and I had to pause and take it all in.

The boys and I went out to lunch, I had a club sandwich, Bryan had ravioli, and Andrew has banana pancakes-it was all very good. The boys informed me today that they do not like Chinese food; this made me laugh pretty hard. The boys and I walked around in the misting rain and chatted; I got to know both of them better and enjoyed spending time with them. Andrew wants to become a teacher like his Humanities teacher because then he could play video games and be in a band and get paid lots of money. His enthusiasm was inspiring, I wish I still was full of that passion and eagerness that kids have. It’s really something that nobody should outgrow – if we all held onto it even a bit longer life would be better! Bryan doesn’t know what he wants to do but he loves music.We had an event that we went to then after that we headed home and dropped the boys off. Ms. Evelyn and I got changed quick and headed out with some of her friends for dinner and desert in Pushi.

Pudong for many years was not a part of the Shanghai Puxi area; it was the country so to speak. If you wanted to get to Puxi you had to take a ferry over the Pu River. Thirty years ago a bridge was built over the Pu River connecting Pushi and Pudong. Puxi is the city, it’s what you think of when you think China; shops, markets, restaurants, cars and people everywhere. I would have taken pictures but it was late and raining so it didn’t work out, but this is the first of many trips to Puxi. Anyways, Eleanor’s driver picked us up and we all headed to Puxi to some restaurant I can’t pronounce or spell! One of the guys we were with ordered, in China usually you have a bunch of meals and take your chopsticks and take from each dish. I don’t know what I ate, I didn’t ask!! I did make sure it wasn’t dog or cat though so don’t worry. It was all so good, I was a little nervous because of how some of it looked but the flavor and everything was amazing! I must say my chopstick skills deserved an A++ haha. They were going to order frog but decided that they would take it easy on me the first time, I was grateful haha. I had some drink that was something like tea, milk and doing something with strings? It was so delightful; I could drink it all day! After much conversation, numerous pictures taken by EVERYONE –I will have to get them because they all took more pictures than I did – and uncontrollable laughing we headed to a hole in the wall place for desert. Walked down an alley and went inside this nice little place. We got about four deserts and shared them all, once again sooo delicious! I am about to bust at my seams and just got home. Freebert and Eleanor leave for Seattle tomorrow so we said goodbyes and though I have only known them for a few days I was sad to see them go!

I have my first day at Home Sweet Home tomorrow so hopefully that will go well. I love it here and am so glad I came! Ms. Evelyn and I have had so much fun so far, she is so much fun to be around! Wish you all could experience this with me.

Chelsea