Today was a fun day (it would've been wayyy better if I hadn't been on my period, but I promise I won't get into that...TMI Melissa)! We spent the morning at home in the apartment wishing my dad a happy birthday through the wonderful technology that is Skype, WeChat, and FaceTime. I was unusually productive that morning and cranked out some blog posts before I decided to spend time with family.
That afternoon, we met my cousin at an amusement park in the area called Jin Jiang Amusement Park. It's a place that I've been obsessed with ever since I was a little girl, and we've basically come every time we go to Shanghai. Yep, this girl has proudly been an adrenaline junkie since she was a wee little young'un.
We had lots of fun on the different rides. My favorites are obviously the most intense ones, but there are also some smaller ones that are really cool. For example, there's a motorcycle-style coaster where each person's seat is an actual motorcycle and you lean over in the seat for the entire ride just like you'd be if you were riding an actual motorcycle! There are no flips or drops but you do go pretty fast and it's racing-themed, so I really enjoy it. Jason, on the other hand, hates intense rides, so he stuck to bumper cars and also persuaded us to go on the "It's a Small World" style ride here. Ugh...I hate that ride with a passion. The song is so repetitive and unnatural and supposed to be happy, but it's just weird.
Plus, those dolls and machines haven't been changed in years and they're all dusty and broken and plain creepy. Hate it, hate it, hate it.
It's kind of weird though, because they charge you for each ride you go on (each ride has a specific price and you need to choose which rides you go on first before you pay). Weird, no? I guess it's just China making sure they get the most profit out of their overly sized population. No all-day passes in this place!
After we were finished, we walked to a mall nearby for dinner. We were craving something sweet though, so we first made a pit stop at a place called Mango Mountain. Umm, this sounds like paradise, can I stay here forever??!! The three of us ordered mango or aloe drinks and enjoyed them in the air-conditioned comfort that was the restaurant. Once done, my cousin decided to take us to the nearby Pizza Hut, since Jason and I said that we'd never tasted pizza in China and wouldn't mind doing so. Thus, we ordered a pizza with drinks, appetizers, and salad to fully get the experience of eating pizza in China.
It's very interesting, I'd say. They love cheesy crust over here, and have most of the pizza toppings/flavors that we do over in the States; however, their pizzas are much smaller, thicker, and have more cheese and less sauce on them. It's not bad, I guess, but I'm not a fan of having a teeny bit of sauce. And the cheese is a bit overwhelming.
Other than that, I'm just amused at how high-end Pizza Hut seems here in comparison to the ones in America. I mean, they offer SO much on the menus here; smoothies with aloe, fancy desserts, pastas and rices, etc. It's so interesting how different a single chain can be in various countries! Fascinating.
After finishing up our meal, we went to a nearby supermarket to buy some household items needed by the family, and some feminine hygiene products for yours truly. Another observation: literally no one uses tampons here. Why is that?? How come different countries of women have different things they use for their periods? Okay, I'll stop with my contemplative rants and arbitrary questions. When you look at the aisle for feminine hygiene, it's literally all pads. My cousin didn't even know the Chinese word for tampons. I had to scan every inch of that aisle, and ended up finding only ONE brand/type of tampon that wasn't even like the normal tampons you'd think of. They were really weird...but I had no choice but to use them.
That's basically how our day went. We had lots of fun revisitng our fave amusement park here and it was nice to spend the afternoon with our cousin. It's been four years since we last saw her...God knows we need as much quality family time as we can get!
The entrance to the amusement park!
Me and my cousin in the first row...best seats in the house.
Entering the dreaded "It's a Small World" ride. Gross.
They were selling pets outside the amusement park and it made me want to cry. Everytime we come back and see these minuscule little animals on the street with harsh sellers, I cry inside and want to take them all with me. I've tried tirelessly to persuade my parents to let me get a puppy here in the past, but as you might guess, that worked out just swimmingly.
A refreshing stop at Mango Mountain!
Our pizza (split with two flavors). What do you think?
My haul from the supermarket trip (from left to right): pads, roll-on cooling gel that my cousin showed us (it's actually. so refreshing), a facial cleanser for a few bucks, a green tea juice box for my inner child, mints, and the only box of things- remotely- resembling-tampons in China.
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