One Girl, Two Coasts: Day Twenty-One: Some Shanghai Nightlife

Day Twenty-One

So many activities were packed into today! Our aunt wanted to take us out for a bit on the morning since we had no plans. After our breakfast, she took us out to a nearby park called Exercise Park（体育公园). Fitting name. We walked around there looking at the hundreds of lotus flowers in the water, and then got in our daily exercise on water and on land. We started with an hour of boating, in our own dinky little boat on the water. It was nice because we got a bit of wind blowing in our sweaty faces for once, and I played some music on my phone for an even happier mood.

Once our hour on the water was up, we then switched to a four-person, square-shaped bike with a ceiling and multiple pedals for each person. Jason got the sterering wheel, and we rolled all over the park on our new ride. It required a ton of effort to move the monstrosity, but it was really fun to bike and watch people stare at us struggling bikers rolling slowly and painfully past.

We took a taxi back to our neck of the woods, since there were many restaurants in the streets near the apartment. It started pouring rain though, so in desperation, we ran to Papa Johns, the closest thing near the taxi, for...some more pizza! Joy!

After a very similar meal of salad, appetizers, and pizza, we walked outside where it, naturally, had stopped raining. I really needed to wash my hair for tonight, and my aunt suggested I get it washed at the salon a few steps away. They waited for me inside while a hairdresser washed and massaged my head, and chatted with me about America. Ahhh, that is one thing I love about this country. You can get an amazing hair treatment and massage for literally a few bucks. Plus, the conversations I have with the hairdressers are always so enjoyable. Always a luxurious experience!

We headed back to the apartment, with my hair now billowing radiantly with the wind (just kidding). Right outside the complex in the sweltering heat, we found a blue cage with the world's cutest puppy inside of it, with no food or water or anything. We had seen this black little puppy on our way out to the park this morning, and had poked our heads into the nearby stores to ask whose dog it was, but nobody claimed it. To see it still stuck out here, without any food or water, made me livid. Melissa was not a happy camper.

I took my water bottle and poured water into the cap for the little guy. After refilling the cap over and over again, the puppy started playing with my fingers and pawing at the cage. Poor thing was sick of being stuck in there all day. I don't blame him. The gate guards came over and started talking to my aunt, since we had now been standing there for over ten minutes now. She explained that we were from America, where this sort of thing would never be tolerated, which was why I was so worked up. We eventually figurd out that the dog was the massage parlor owner's pet...so it had a home, but not a good one by any stretch. It's so terrible that a tiny little pup would be given absolutely zero attention or care. I wanted to cry when we finally left...my heart was broken.

I spent the rest of the afternoon preparing for my date tonight with a super attractive guy. Haha. Just kidding, Mom, put down the phone. It took a lot of convincing, but I finally got my relatives' permission to go out alone tonight, and I was meeting a friend for a night on the town! Her name is Julia, she just finished her freshman year of college, and she's interning here for the summer and living on her own in a flat in the city. SO jealous. We went to an Asian debate camp together back in the day, the summer before my first year of high school, and haven't seen each other since. It just happened to work out that we'd both be in Shanghai at the same time, so we wanted to meet up and hang out.

Jason would be going out to dinner with my aunt and uncle tonight, so they were planning on leaving soon too. I got ready to go, and they dropped me off at the nearest subway station, and then I took the subway to People's Square. Once there, I waited right there to meet Julia. We found each other and went up to find a restaurant for dinner. It ended up being noodles and bubble tea for dinner, in a large food court style mall, since we were lazy and didn't want to try too hard to find a formal place.

After we could eat no further, I took her to a mall that my cousin had taken me earlier, where you could spend hours bargaining for fake merch! We each picked up something (me a cross body purse, her a purse) and decided we had to come back later for more. Julia had made some friends here who were also college interns, and they'd invited her to go out to a bar, club, and rooftop party that night, so we met them at a bar called Window Garage (I don't get it. I really don't). It was really cool to meet other Americans in Shanghai and experience some of the nightlife in such an exciting city! We had some drinks and I wish I could've stayed longer with them, but I had an early morning tomorrow and had to get home.

Once I finally found a taxi, I said goodbye to Julia and the rest of the gang and made it home, although there was quite a bit of traffic on the road. Such a fun reunion!