SUMMER 2015: Where Is She Now?

Happy summer, everybody! May your days be filled with sleeping in, drinking refreshing ice-cold mudslides, and binge-watching your favorite shows. 

Well, it’s really been terrible of me for not posting anything on here lately. What happened to me?

Not surprisingly...college kind of took up a lot of time. I was pretty much busy around the clock, with classes, work, and the maintenance of a semi-existent social life. 

I definitely developed quite a dependence on coffee as the year went on. 

So in other words, I didn’t get lazy with my blog, really. Okay, well maybe I did. 

There were just so many things going on, but that was obviously what made my freshman year so great and so memorable. And of course, I'm going to try and write about all of those experiences. It's in the works.  

I know I basically didn’t update this old thing at all while I was there, so I'm going to try and do better. The key word here is "try". 

I guess I should also explain what I’m doing this summer. I completely lucked out and am interning at a top corporate law firm in Boston called Murphy & King, Professional Corporation. The firm specializes in litigation, bankruptcy law, real estate law, employment law, and more.

This internship is honestly perfect because I’ve always considered law school as a post-undergraduate path. It seems at least like something I would love doing; I need to be in a profession that involves working with people, and reading/writing are things I consider to be my strengths.

Therefore, I’ve really been trying to get a better idea of whether or not law is something I want to pursue…. and what better way to do that than to intern at a top law firm in the city? The firm is on the 21^st floor of 1 Beacon Street, so every window gives you the most incredible view of Boston. 

It felt like I was in the classic law firm that you see in the movies. Extremely business-like, high-scale, and successful. So what in the hell is a rising sophomore in college doing here…

The first time I went into the office, I was able to sit down for an interview with one of the co-founders at the firm, Harry B. Murphy. He’s won multiple awards for his work as a bankruptcy lawyer, and is considered one of the top lawyers/experts in Boston…so I was absolutely terrified to meet him. 

I was wearing a dress, a black blazer, and flats with a set of dangly pearl earrings…and I questioned my outfit decision from the minute I stepped into the lobby to the minute I got back into my mother’s car, trembling. 

He walked us into one of their many conference rooms; and I was immediately floored. 

There were bookshelves lining the walls, stacked neatly with green and blue leather-bound books on every topic of law that you could imagine. The glass windows went all the way from the floor to the ceiling, and gave you an unreal view of the ocean, downtown Boston, the bridge, and so much more. It was insane. “You are in so over your head...” I kept telling myself.

However, our conversation went decently well, as in I didn’t stutter over my words the whole time, or give him some ridiculously terrible answer, and Mr. Murphy was a really pleasant man. He talked about how the firm normally never hires people my age, since we have zero background in law and haven’t taken any law-related classes yet (true, and very true). 

Sometimes, there would be an intern or two just to do very simply, administrative things that really don’t require any thinking…but he suggested that I actually enjoy my summer and use it to have fun or work at a job like waitressing or babysitting or something. I was feeling pretty discouraged and dejected, having to accept the unfortunate truth, but he then invited his Director of Business to come and speak to me about getting an actual position here. This man was very nice and slightly more encouraging, concluding our conversation by saying that he would confer with his Human Resources Director, and would give me a call early next week.

So I went home still not expecting anything to come out of it…I mean, why in God’s name would a top law firm take in an inexperienced college student to help them with anything at all? I wasn’t expecting to get a position, and I certainly wasn’t expecting to get paid.

On Tuesday morning, I was in the city again with my high school friend, Jackie, when I got the call. It was the firm’s Human Resources Manager, and she gave me the breakdown of what my role would be. 

Basically, they were willing to have me come into the firm and help in the bankruptcy branch. I would be helping the associates and partners with whatever they needed; it would mainly be administrative tasks, but I would definitely be able to see what the lawyers do on a daily basis, and get a better understanding of how a law firm works. I would be coming in 3 days a week (because they know I’m in college and still need a semi-restful summer, so they were willing to give me 4-day weekends), from 9 am- 5pm, with an hour-long lunch break.

I can’t tell you how excited I was when I got the call. I was scribbling all of her words down in my planner, trying not to jump out of my seat. Jackie and I were at a table outside, enjoying our Dunkin Donuts iced coffees…and a car pulled up right next to us blasting these rap songs.

Not that I don’t adore hip hop/rap music at like, 10 am, but it also sucked because I was probably coming off as some ghetto-ass, inconsiderate little teen who didn’t even feel like turning off her music for the most important phone call of her entire summer. Perfect.

I told her I could start that week, and thus began my kickass internship at Murphy & King. This will be the end of the 3^rd week that I’ve been there now, and I’m so happy to say that I’ve finally mastered the schedule, the commute, everything. 

I struggled hard-core for awhile with so many things…just to give you a rough idea of how far I’ve come, here’s a brief list of my challenges:

·      Waking up at 6:15 am everyday I have to work...the old, high-school Melissa used to be an enthusiastic morning person. Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. (Everything changed when college started). 

·      Buying commuter rail tickets the old-fashioned way every time before I realized that (like everything else in this world nowadays), there’s an app for that! Gasp

·      Deciding which stations to use (Back Bay or South Station, Westborough or Southborough) in order to optimize my travel time and seating choices 

·      Using Google Maps to find my way to the firm and getting lost quite a few times

·      Being an idiot and only wearing newly bought flats for the 35 minutes of walking back and forth…and wincing in pain every time I took a step. I have the blisters to prove it.

·      Not knowing whether or not the glass doors at the main entrance of the firm are Push or Pull doors. The very first time I tried opening them, I struggled for at least 10 seconds before Paula, the awesome receptionist that I now adore and really enjoy talking to every day, mimed that I had to push them. This one is still tricky- those glass doors fool me every time for some reason.

·      Trying to buy my lunch everyday…this isn’t really challenging. Just expensive. I just kick it old school and bring my lunch everyday now. 

The biggest challenge: trying to adult...just in general. Flats/heels? Gross, get those away from me. Blazers and purses? Do I have to...? 

However, like I said, I’m beyond thankful for the opportunity. Even though I’m not necessarily carrying out the most glamorous jobs sometimes, I really am happy there and I still feel incredibly lucky.

I get my own desk right across from the lawyers’ beautiful offices.The lawyers at Murphy & King are extremely intimidating, because they’re so good at their job, and super knowledgeable. In fact, I help enter a lot of their timesheets into the computer system that we have, and I would never put that type of information on here specifically, but let me just say..."damn. That hourly rate is...unreal." 

The amounts of money that these lawyers make in a day is absolutely unimaginable for a broke little college student. 

 I only work 3 days a week (living the dream with these 4-day weekends), I get an hour-long lunch break, and it pays really well. Plus, I take the commuter rail into and out of the city everyday, which has also proved to be enjoyable, as long as the train is on time and it isn’t crowded af. 

I normally use the time to listen to music and type out all of these entries for whoever bothers to read it afterwards. I feel really happy avoiding all of the obscene traffic that I would have to deal with if I were driving in a car. 

Short & Sweet: Weekend Trips in New England

Happy Thursday! It's almost Friday, which means it's almost the weekend! (And for me, it's essentially Friday, since I don't have to work tomorrow...much excitement. Such joy.)

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day Weekend :) It's weird to think that I've had such a very relaxing few days leading up to the long weekend this year, as well as after that short vacation period has gone by.

Usually, I'm already caught up in the flurry of school assignments, projects, and homework, so I lug along a pile of readings and packets to do on the car ride to the lake or something. However, this year, school has NOT started yet, which means I get to enjoy myself a little longer! You're not gonna find me complaining.

As exciting as it is to not have anything to worry about this Labor Day, it SUCKS to be the only one around town who hasn't left for college yet. I'm rather antsy to get going, actually. Seeing my friends making new friends in college, and having fun, and going out is really depressing when you're still at home, and that plane ticket won't be whisking you away to beautiful Los Angeles for another nine days...

Is it so bad that I want to leave already?

But that's not what I wanted to talk about today. I've been traveling around New England a bit these past few months, and it's been quite lovely, so I wanted to do some reviews. Hopefully this helps you get an idea of these two places, or helps with your next trip to New England!

Cape Elizabeth, MaineThe prettiest lighthouse at Fort Williams Park 

We headed up to Maine for a wedding (Congratulations, Yan and Craig!) and ended up staying an extra day to just relax and have fun. It was also the first wedding that I'd ever been to, which is rather sad, so I was super excited for this trip. Originally, the plan was to head up on Friday night, spend the night in a hotel, and then have the morning and early afternoon to wander around Cape Elizabeth before the wedding started.

Instead, laziness and procrastination took over, and my parents decided to have a relaxing Friday night at home, sleep in, and then run (walk) out of the house for some errands in the morning around town. After a lot of yelling, last-minute packing, and quick changing of outfits, our Toyota Highlander was speeding out of our driveway....at 11:30 am. Oooops.

Word of advice: DO NOT do what we did and procrastinate. Leave as early as you can to beat the hordes of people going up to Maine or Vermont for the weekend. Trust me, traffic will absolutely kill your plans and leave them to die if you leave that late. Our car barely moved at 5 mph the whole time....worst traffic I've ever experienced.

We ended up spending over 3.5 hours in the car (without stopping for lunch, only to run to the bathroom in a ridiculous frenzy, wearing our dresses/suits) and still were late to the wedding, which was at 2:30 pm. How late? We could hear Pachelbel's Canon playing as we ran to the church from our car. Disgraced, we had to wait until the bride and her father had walked down the aisle until we could tiptoe in and steal a pew. It was pretty bad.

The newly married couple in their first dance!

Jason and I get one name card for the two of us...sigh. 

The cake in all its glory

Anyways, after the wedding, we went to Peak's Island for the day, and that ended up being terrific. There are a handful of islands around that area, and we went to the closest one by ferry. There are bikes to rent, and also cars there, but the best mode of transportation is the golf cart. You can rent them right when you get off the ferry, and they're surprisingly reasonable in terms of price!

I got to drive most of the time, and took a recommended scenic route along the ocean that was absolutely fantastic. We had the water on one side, and all of these charming, adorable little oceanfront cottages on the other. It wasn't particularly crowded, so driving was a breeze. I was on Cloud Nine the whole day.

Loving the golf cart life

We stopped quite a few times to just walk around, take in the sights, and watch the sailboats. We all laughed as my dad grabbed fistfuls of seaweed and mussels, lamenting the waste of not cooking them for dinner. You can take the man out of China, but you can't take the China out of the man, folks.

I'm pretty surprised by the fact that Peak's Island only had one ice cream shop, but that was the sad truth. It was in this other shop, right near the ferry dock, and there was obviously a huge line. We waited for our ice cream, though, and I tried the Rocky Maine Shore (your choice of ice cream with chocolate rocks and blueberries) while Jason got the classic Mud and Dirt (Ice cream, gummy worms, and crushed Oreos).

I have horrible focusing skills..sorry! You get the idea of what the ice cream looked like, though. 

Once we had gotten off the island and were back in Cape Elizabeth, we went to a local seafood place for lobster rolls. I love Maine; it has such beautiful scenery and landscapes, but also has the quaint feel of a bustling place with lots of tourists, visitors, and locals alike. At night, there are lots of people out and about, and I hope I can come back at some point when I'm older...it seems like a great place to go. In conclusion, I can understand why so many people want to go up there, but I refuse to sit through that traffic another time. We will leave early next time, mark my words.

Burlington, Vermont

A shot of the lake

This Labor Day weekend, my family decided to go on a solo trip to somewhere in New England. One of my dad's co-workers had recommended Burlington, VT because it was right near Lake Champlain, and that was apparently a great place to go. Thus, my dad employed me to do some research on that area and create an itinerary for us, because the Zhangs were headed to the riveting city of Burlington! Off to get a taste of Vermont!
(If you can't sense my sarcasm by now, I'm writing with a very sarcastic tone right now. Jason and I were pushing for Martha's Vineyard or the Cape, but it was decided that Lake Champlain was a must-see. Pssh.)

After looking through the Interweb to find something to do in Burlington, I was beyond shocked to find a wide, extensive list of once-in-a-lifetime attractions!
 (Okay, I'll cut the sarcasm now. Apologies.)

I'll get straight to the point. We drove up on Saturday and went first to Church Street, essentially the "downtown" area of Burlington, with lots of shops and food carts and things to see. It was pretty nice there; there were street performers doing their thing, lots of outdoor restaurants and tourists walking around, etc.
I must say, though, that the neighborhood areas of Burlington are pretty run-down and shabby. We parked pretty far away from Church Street and it didn't look all too friendly or happy. But we'll forget about that for now.

Vermonters are a bit intimidating for me. I ran into a lot of them who were super hard-core "Vermont", in that they were sporting flannels, huge backpacks with a gazillion tools and gadgets, rumpled hair or many times even dreads, worn tank tops and frayed jeans, etc. There were also a ton of Canadians there, having driven down from Quebec. I actually noticed a ton of foreigners there, which is interesting because I didn't realize so many tourists came to Burlington. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I felt a bit out of place. But never mind that.

Church Street treated us well; we window-shopped around and got a bite to eat outside at an Italian restaurant (I ordered duck tacos, which were pretty decent).

The next stop was the lake itself. I had reserved tickets for a scenic cruise on Lake Champlain, which was pretty pricey ($16 per person) given that it was only an hour and a half and really wasn't all that exciting. We just went around the lake, listened to the history of the lake and it's geographic importance in different wars, and then came back. I think it was rather obligatory, though, to come to Burlington and do a scenic cruise on the lake. So, we went through with it. Neeeext!

After that, we checked into our hotel (which was also very "meh", but was surprisingly full for the weekend) and went out to get dinner. We ended up choosing "Joyce's Noodle House" (not a huge surprise, but my parents were in the mood for Chinese food...typical), which offered a great dining environment and wonderful service. The food was good too-- we ordered steamed pork buns, noodles with soup, veggies, and seafood, and eggplant.

At the end of the night, I convinced us all to go back to Church Street, because I wanted to check out the nightlife (pretty typical of me) and be where everyone else was. We walked around and found Crow's Book Shop, which had a nice collection of used and new books. Every member of the family purchased at least one thing; for me, it was a book entitled "After Dark" from one of my favorite authors, Haruki Murakami. Can't wait to crack it open...I'm thinking about saving it for the plane ride to LA!

The next day, we hit up the lake again in the morning for a family bike ride (awwwww.), although it was drizzling and looking pretty damn dreary. Nevertheless, everybody hopped on their rented bikes, and we took off along the Burlington Bike Path. Our goal was to get to the Causeway around 10 miles away, where the path narrowed and became a small strip of land with the lake on both sides.

It was pleasant, biking along and seeing the small neighborhoods, as well as the ocean and beaches along the way. Finally, we pedaled until we literally could pedal no further (the causeway ends and you need to take a ferry to an island of your choice, if you wanted to keep going), and turned back.

Unfortunately, the wind was now against us, and we were literally biking in hell. There were no trees or any sort of barrier to reduce the brunt of the wind's force, so moving the bike forward was a brutal assault on your quads, that literally continued throughout the loooong causeway (it must've been at least 3 miles).

After we finished up our biking adventure, we walked up to "the Skinny Pancake", a place nearby that I'd heard lots of good things about. Their main thing is crepes (hence, the name) and there was a line out the door from the moment we saw it before we went biking to the time we left after we ate. Pretty impressive.

I personally loved the food and atmosphere here; everything was wooden or rustic-style, and they offered a huge menu that made me want to spend the next year here so I could try everything. No joke. We all ordered savory crepes, and added a side of poutine to share. I only know about poutine from my best friend who goes to school in Canada, and this was my first time trying it. My personal verdict? So good.

How can THAT possibly taste bad?

As far as I know, poutine is french fries, with gravy and cheese curds on top. However, it can be prepared in a variety of ways, and you can add whatever gooey, delicious, artery-clogging toppings you can think of, so long as it still tastes amazing. Example: there's apparently kim-chi poutine, of which I'm a tad cautious. French fries and kim-chi...unique, I suppose?

My crepe was called "the Sass-squash", and it had squash, brie cheese, apples, baby spinach, and more. All of our crepes were wonderful, and despite waiting a while to order our meal, we were verrrry satisfied. My only regret is that I did not get a chance to try any of the sweet crepes. Not to worry...I'll be back.

The afternoon was spent at the Ben & Jerry's factory nearby! There were tons of visitors (apparently, they get more visitors on rainy days then on sunny days...hmmm) and a gigantic line waiting for the ice cream windows there. We had around half an hour before our tour, so we stood in line for ice cream and made it about 2/5 of the way there before we had to go for our tour. Such disappointment.

Ice cream madness

 Of course, my parents and I discussed the innovation and genius business strategies employed by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield in order to create such a profitable company entirely surrounding ice cream. That's the trademark parenting style of my mom and dad: integrate worthwhile lessons about careers, life, and education into as much as possible. Even a trip to Ben & Jerry's can be valuable preparation for the business world, folks. That's how Mama and Papa Zhang roll.

The factory itself is really cool, and I recommend checking it out if you get a chance. At the end, there were samples of the Flavor of the Day (Milk and Cookies), which was a great conclusion to the tour.

Fun fact: In the United States, Half Baked is the most popular-selling flavor, but internationally, it's Cookie Dough. We opted for a pint of Half Baked instead of going back to the monstrous wait, and shared the ice cream between the four of us as the day wound down.

The flavor graveyard...RIP, ice cream.

That night, we went to the Champlain Valley Fair, which was a huge exhibition of animals, rides, artwork, and much more. I have to say, I'm not the biggest fan of fairs....the food trucks offer rather slim pickings (nachos, wings, fried dough, corn dogs, fried Oreos, and just about anything else you can fry), and it's just rather messy and chaotic. Still, we had a pretty good time, and went home satisfied after a long day.

The third and final day was spent entirely at Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont. It's by far the coolest museum I've ever been to, because it's made up of a large number of buildings, so you walk from place to place, looking at a huge range of stuff. They have a carousel, a circus exhibit, and a full-sized steamboat that was used back in the day called the Ticonderoga. My parents (huge museum nerds) were in love with this place...they were very sad to bid it adieu when we reaaally had to get on the road, but vowed to come back someday to finish looking at everything.

A Monet in the impressionist exhibit

The vintage carousel!

Whoa...bears.

The Ticonderoga! Pretty sick, am I right?

That's about it for my recaps! I know that was a lot, so I apologize...but if you take anything away from that post, it's that Cape Elizabeth, Maine is lovely and you should go visit, and Burlington, VT is also nice, but not as welcoming and ideal for a weekend getaway in my opinion. Both good places, though! Hope y'all had some great trips this Labor Day Weekend as well, or at least got to relax...

Talk to you soon!

Days Twenty-Seven & Twenty-Eight: Our Last Day Here & the Journey Home

Day Twenty Seven

Alright, friends! We made it to the last day in China, which means my last blog post about it. It was very bittersweet and although I was excited to go home and see my parents and my kitty, I was also very sad to be leaving. Our family members had been so good to us, and I would definitely miss them. We would not be seeing them for a long time again...I guess that's the price of living on two different continents.

Today was our rest day, and would be spent almost entirely at home. We had to pack and get ready to leave early in the morning the next day. I used my time to blog, clean up my living spaces, and arrange everything in my backpack and suitcase. Today was also the only day that I took a nap after lunch, like most Chinese people do for siesta. It was a lovely nap, but the temperature was getting higher and higher throughout these past few days. I was sweating profusely because my grandma felt like it was unnecessary to turn on the apartment's A/C.

In the afternoon, my grandma's youngest sister came over to visit us. She brought us peaches and grapes, and talked with her sister and my aunt for a long time about recent events/news. I helped my aunt prepare these Chinese herbs so that they could be cooked, and then we went out to dinner at a restaurant nearby.

Dinner was, once again, delicious. We ordered so many dishes that I'd never tried before, and it was a memorable last night out with my family members here. My aunt took me and Jason out for a walk after dinner; we got some pastries for breakfast tomorrow morning at a bakery (boy, do I wish we had the vast selection of sweet and savory snacks that they offer there...donuts don't stand a chance when there are such amazing rolls, breads, etc.) and we also grabbed some more snacks to bring home from a chain in China called Lyfen (in Chinese, the name is"let's get a few" or "a few snacks").

It offers rows and rows of little snacks and bites of all different kinds. There's sweet snacks, like jellies, brownies, or cakes, salty snacks like seasoned peas, little black eggs, shrink-wrapped meats, and much more. The main thing that we like to get there are these peeled, sweetened walnuts that are flavored with honey. They're amazing, but you can only really get them in China. My aunt insisted that we get more besides the walnuts, though, and tossed eggs, jellies, and meats in our basket as well. Hmm...I'll let my parents take care of those ones.

Once back at home, we went to bed early. I stayed up for a while and talked with Claire for a while. She's been able to speak with Jason and me entirely in English this time we've gone back, which is super impressive! There's still so much we hadn't talked about and wanted to chat about... unfortunately, we'd just have to rely on WeChat until we see each other again.

Our last dinner in China

Delicious balls filled with black sesame

The bowl of red stuff is sweet congee soup, with little glutinous balls...trust me, it's terrific.

Enough food pics? Okay, let's move on.

Cakes at the bakery. They're so cute!! 

I want macarons topping my cakes from now on.

The rows at Lyfen...snacks beyond your imagination.

Day Twenty Eight

Time to go home! We headed to the airport around 5:30 in the morning, after waking up groggily to hug Claire and say goodbye. Once we got to security, we said goodbye to my aunt and uncle, who have seriously had a lot of work dealing with us while we were in China. Thanks for everything! I promise, I'll bring you guys out for a lot of fun when you visit me in LA.

It was a marathon of three flights until we could be back in our beloved Boston.

First: Shanghai --> Beijing (~ 2 hours)
Second: Beijing --> New York (~13 hours)
Third: New York --> Boston (~1 hour)

After suffering through more airplane food, uncomfortable naps, and crying babies, we were finally, FINALLY in our parents' car and speeding towards our sorely missed house. The flights weren't all that bad though...thankfully, none were delayed, Jason and I got a three-seat row to ourselves for the 13 hour stretch, and we had gotten into Boston safe and sound with all of our luggage. Phew. On the way home, I watched the Lego Movie, Saving Mr. Banks, 47 Ronin, and Ride Along. Best way to make 13 hours go by much faster than you'd think: TV, TV, TV.

Well, that just about wraps things up, folks! Hope you've enjoyed reading these. I'm back to the US, which means that these next few days, you will find me thoroughly jet lagged and sleepy, as well as adjusting back to American life and surprisingly missing certain parts of China. In other words: I won't be leaving the house too often...I'm going through a weird phase right now.

Until my next blog post, friends! As always, thanks for stopping by!

Quenching my thirst in New York...almost home!

Boston is as beautiful as we left it. 

Hello, blue water and clear skies!

Day Twenty-Six: Vampire Hunters, Alice in Wonderland, & KTV

Day Twenty Six

Today might have been one of the best days of our trip! We slept in, had a great breakfast, chilled at home with our relatives during the morning, and then enjoyed a homemade dumpling lunch made by our aunt. Her dumpling-making skills are no joke. She wraps her dumplings so well and doesn't even taste-test her stuffing before she uses it. She simple smells it to gauge the taste. What?

After lunch, we left with Zabrina, who'd taken a day off from work for us, to bring us out again for another adventure! She had told us earlier about a new phenomenon in Shanghai that was basically known as "Room Break" or "Room Escapes".

They were interactive games in which you and a bunch of friends were trapped in a room or several rooms, and you had to try and use the clues/solve puzzles to unlock each lock to get into the next room. Each set of rooms has a different theme, whether it's scary, exotic, or fantastical, and there is a time limit for the entire experience. If you don't get out in time, you essentially lose.

Young people are absolutely in love with trying these "Room Breaks". A bunch of clubs have been established in the city to meet this new need, and we would be going to one of the best Room Break clubs today! I couldn't believe how cool this sounded. Why, oh why, didn't we have this in the States??

Our taxi dropped us off at a place called Three Quarks. I looked up "quark" when I got home and apparently, it's an elementary particle. Hmm...I thought the Chinese had misspelled something else or created another word. Did you know what a quark was? Am I just extremely unintelligent?

We stepped into their lobby, and I felt like I was in the real-life World of Warcraft. Bold red and blue banners hung from the ceilings, all of the furniture was wooden and medieval, and they had these huge, mystical figures standing near the walls, brandishing weapons. There were these fictional maps on the walls that showed weirdly named lands and large posters on the walls that were covered in little wooden slates, individually decorated by each group that had successfully gotten through the specific set of rooms. Whoa...I can't imagine the excitement that some people might get from stepping into this place. Such a perfect place to geek out!

The theme that my cousin chose to try was "Vampires". We were playing the game with four other people, because three people was too small of a group. After waiting for a bit, our other teammates showed up. My cousin described them perfectly: they were the Asian versions of the Big Bang Theory characters! Haha, they were pretty nerdy and seemed rather smart, and were fun to work with. Once we put away our bags in a storage locker, a crew member brought us into the first room and explained the instructions. Game time.

Essentially, we'd have 70 minutes to try and get through 7 rooms in total. Each group of players was watched in each room by cameras, and the group had two chances to "get help" from a crew member. You'd signal that you needed help by waving at the camera, and a crew member would pop in after a few seconds. Each room had a clock showing how much time you had left, but the other rooms that we went into were still stuck at zero, so we didn't have any sense of the time we had remaining. The group got 2 flashlights and 2 walkie-talkies, because we'd soon be splitting up to go through two doors, and then would converge back together to escape the final room.

We confirmed that we understood the directions, and he left us in the dark, spooky room that was filled with creepy, horror-movie music. We were now vampire hunters, and we had to figure out how to escape these rooms without being killed by vampires! So cool.

The first room that we were in was a dining area. A dining table was set up with candles, plates, and silverware on the table. There were dusty portraits on the wall of the family who lived here "before the vampires took over the house". A huge copy of "The Last Supper" was hung upside down on another wall, and there were also a few small stands, seats, and a locked cupboard.

Using the envelope on the table, we figured out that we had to unlock the cupboard by figuring out which of the family members were being mentioned in a riddle that was in the envelope. Each person had a number in one of the corners of the portrait. I let the Big Bang Theory boys figure that one out, since it involved a lot of reading and analyzing. Once they unlocked the cupboard, we found more clues inside these chests.

There was a copy of the Last Supper on a piece of paper and a black light flashlight. Once we shone the light on the paper, we found 3 triangles done by invisible ink, clumping the figures into 3 groups, and the number of people in each group ended up being the combo for the door! There were 2 passageways that we had to open; the one we'd just opened was a door, and the other was a tunnel in the fireplace. Each group had to take one route, and we could only split up once we had opened both.

That gives a pretty good idea of what you had to do with the clues and whatnot. There were so many locks...the Vampire rooms apparently were the hardest, and I could see why. It took us a while to move forward, especially since Jason and I can only read and write basic Chinese. I won't go into the teeny tiny details of what we did in each room, but we unlocked both routes and split up. I went with two of the BBT boys, and Zabrina and Jason went with the other 2. My group decided to be kind to them, and crawled through the dark tunnel inside the fireplace.

When we reached the next room, we found ourselves in a smaller room with a chest, patterned tapestry, and many decorations that completed the vibe (severed hands, rats, skulls. Super cheerful decor). Using the walkie talkies, we figured out that our combo was hidden in their room and theirs in ours. The tapestries were the key to unlocking our locks, and we each had to count the number of 2 key images that were pictured on each group's tapestry. Since it was really hard to communicate the images we were looking for and the other group kept giving us impossible numbers, we got a crew member to help us through that room.

The third room was even harder. There wasn't anything inside except for a huge locked armoir that you could climb through, a bunch of eerie candles, etc. We had to figure out the combo by matching up a set of letters to a set of numbers through a bunch of convoluted lines. This was especially hard because it seemed like the other group had our combo once again, and we would have to rely on them to get through our armoir.

We continued trying to work it out and didn't even realize that 70 minutes had gone by until a crew member announced it through a loudspeaker. Darn...we failed. It wasn't really fair though, since we hadn't been able to keep track of time. We could've used our second "get help" card a lot sooner if we'd known!

After crawling out of the tunnel and meeting the other group, we went back down into the lobby to rest and go over what had happened. The lobby had free soft drinks (Pepsi, Fanta, and 7 Up), and we drank up while we complained about our failure. Soon, we decided that we wanted to try another one (since the Vampire one was the hardest, by far), and we decided to go with the Alice in Wonderland themed one. There were a few other themes, like the Egyptian rooms and the Prison. They were in the process of making more rooms, which was why we continuously felt/heard construction while we were playing.

I thought the Alice in Wonderland one was cooler than the Vampire one. We started off in a room that had a huge chess board on the floor, with a locked Queen chest at one starting point, and two locked doors on the other side of the room. We had to unlock the Queen to figure out the combo for one of the doors; both had to be unlocked because there was an essential tool through the left door (and a very difficult shortcut beyond that) that needed to be used if you wanted to get through the right door, which was the normal pathway to get through.

After unlocking the Queen, we got through the right door and found an amazing pathway that had been filled with hundreds of colorful balls and leaves. You had to slowly make your way through the pool of balls (or if you were a nerdy, excited boy, you could kick the balls everywhere and cause a mess) and then get to the next room.

It went on like this, and we had one group go through each door to try and see which path we could take to save time. One of my 2 moments of pride was unlocking the door to the music room (the shortcut in the left door that would save us tons of time). There was a simple picture of 5 musical notes, and I hadn't really tried to figure it out since I was busy with another lock that apparently held the essential tool we needed.

However, I tried to solve it because there were so many people crowded around the other clue. It took me only one try (the lock used letters, not numbers, so I tried the piano letters that corresponded with each note, like A, B, C, D, E, F, and G). Once we were in (much to the surprise and delight of the BBT boys who'd tried many other tactics on that lock before) , we decided to just stick with this shortcut route. The music room was really hard, though. You had to unlock 2 locks; the first used a little musical player, which played a little bit of a song (I knew it was Fur Elise right away). You had to then find the song in the pile of sheet music in one corner, and then there would hopefully be some set of numbers to unlock the first lock.

My second triumph was when I found the correct sheet music (I'd played the song as a child) and gave the right combo for the lock to open! Yes. The next lock we had to unlock was even harder. It required you to find a certain bar of music by Fuga of a certain song in the pile of music. I thought I'd found the exact match, but none of the attempts we tried would work. Sadly, our time ran out again trying to figure it out, and a crew member came in to walk us out. We asked about the lock we were on, and he said that only one person had been able to figure it out, and that person was a music teacher. Whoa...we felt a lot better about ourselves now.

I hope that these Room Break games can be brought to America someday. They're so interesting, fun, and exciting; I definitely could have been more effective had it been in English, and I bet so many of my American friends would love playing these games. It's like being a real-life detective, or being in a video game! Such a great idea.

Once we drank a few more sodas, we decided to leave and walk around Huai Hai Road, a very well-known street with huge designer stores in the center of Shanghai. It was a quick subway ride over, and then Zabrina took us to these two shopping areas to just look around. They were in the very wealthy, affluent part of Shanghai that catered to many foreigners (there were restaurants with international cuisines, cafes, bars, and buildings with a lot of European influence).

We had dinner at K11, a ridiculously nice shopping mall with high-end stores, unique, modern restaurants, and a giant winged pig in the front of the building. The restaurant Zabrina chose was called Champè and it was a  fusion of Asian and Chinese cuisines. We had Thai-style linguine, Sichuan noodles, mushrooms baked with cheese, Asian vegetables, roast duck, and spicy Asian fish. Dessert was also amazing, but I really don't know what it was (some type of cake with aloe in it and these wrapped pandan roll things with cheese? It didn't taste like cheese though).

It was a delicious meal (my relatives seemed to be treating us to the best food for our last few nights here) and once we were finished, we took a cab through the terrible traffic to get to another mall, where we'd be meeting our family. Jason and I had expressed our interest and love for KTV (essentially karaoke, but in a booked private room where you could order snacks, drinks, etc. and sing all kinds of songs regardless of their language or genre), since we didn't have it back in the States, and my relatives were happy to bring us to a KTV place before we left. 

KTV is utterly huge in China, since people love to sing, pretend they're great singers, and go out with friends. You will see huge, glowing signs for KTV everywhere, in every city, and I am personally very upset that the US of A has not brought KTV to its people. It's a lot of fun, and it's really rather affordable to book a room for a few hours. 

We suffered through bumper-to-bumper traffic but finally made it to the KTV place, which was one floor of another massive mall. Our relatives had already started singing, but let us order a bunch of songs off of the little electronic screen once we got there. Jason and I chose all of our favorite American music, while my other cousin chose a bunch of English songs that she liked as well. 

I haven't been using an English name to address her because she's been deciding what her name should be during our time here. Her English name has been changed a few times now (it was Greyna at one point, then Rose, and most recently Alan) but she wants to have a new one because she isn't loving the current one. We've been helping her think of good names, but I think she decided around this time that her new name would be Claire (yay!), so I'll just call her that from now on.

Claire also loves karaoke, so the three of us basically hogged the microphones for the rest of the night because our relatives insisted that they preferred to hear us sing in English. We did all types of music: Calvin Harris, Coldplay, Eminem, Leona Lewis (at Claire's request), PSY, the Spice Girls, Jason Mraz, Lifehouse, etc. 

So so so so much fun! I really wish we could've stayed longer (we had so many songs all queued up and ready to go), and Jason and I were nowhere near done, but our time was up so we headed back to the apartment. Tomorrow would be our last day in China, and Zabrina wouldn't be able to get out of work that day to say goodbye, so we hugged her and thanked her for all the fun we'd had these past weeks. The first of many goodbyes...I definitely tried to treasure these last few days with the family. Who knows when we'll see them again?

My aunt, the dumpling master

Such cute little guys!

And they look even better when they're ready to eat!

The following are the photos I took from the lobby of 3 Quarks

Free drinks and a 3 Quarks brochure, with a BBT boy strategizing in the background

I really wanted to find better pictures than the ones I took at 3 Quarks, so that I could give y'all a better idea of the actual club, so these next four were all found at: http://www.dianping.com/shop/8370128 You weren't allowed to bring phones into the game, which is why there are next to no photos of what the rooms look like. You'll just have to go check it out yourself!!

This is one of the rooms in the Vampire sequence that we sadly did not make it to...

If you beat the game, you get to decorate a little block and hang it up. *Sighs wistfully*

The first room in the Alice game: unlocking the Queen of Hearts

A nice fountain near Huai Hai Road

Cousins! Me and Zabrina

Beautiful, old alleys

The majestic flying pig

Fly away, big guy!

Not used to these pristine, modern restaurants. Where are the germy, crowded local eateries we're used to?

Pasta? In China? 

Dessert #1

Dessert #2

The Lotus Mall, where we sang our little hearts

Anxious to start karaoking ...where's our room??

Deliberating over what we should sing first

Our disco ball

A questionable man selling a large turtle on the street...look at that sneaky smile. Yikes

Having a bit too much fun on the exercise machines (more like pieces on a playground) in the apartment complex