Day Fifteen: College Visits (China Edition)

Day Fifteen

This morning, my dad left for the good ol' US of A... Jason and I were officially in China with no parentals!  We had a very lax morning, that I spent figuring out how to mail postcards from here and writing note after note to friends. Jason and I also packed up and switched rooms; now that he was the only male guest, he'd be staying in the single bedroom while my cousin and I would share the king-sized bed. After our lunch, my aunt and uncle took us for a college visit...of sorts.

I don't know whose idea it was, but they said that it would be cool to visit and drive around Shanghai Jiao Tong University, aka 上海交通大学. Obviously school was out for the summer, but they said it was one of the best schools in China and we should take a look around since we could. Okay...I mean, the four of us aren't really at the specific point in our lives for more college tours, but whatever. I mean, I just finished that whole thing and Im thankful to be done done done. Jason's not nearly there at all yet, and he should enjoy his youth while he can! After driving around, watching an utterly atrocious game of soccer played by students still on campus, and looking at the buildings and deserted campus, we decided we were done. Whew.

My aunt called up a colleague and asked her if there were any other places in the area we could check out. She recommended a little-known park nearby on the river. After getting lost a few times on empty streets, we finally found this place. It had a few pretty paths and lawns, and a walkway on the river. I was disgusted by how filthy the water was...oh, pollution. The river was filled with these huge cargo ships and it was pretty cool to see them all so close. 

On the way back, my aunt stopped at a little eatery and ordered Jason a big bowl of spicy noodles since he said his favorite thing to eat was spicy noodles with soup (辣汤面)...lol. I had some Shanghai pork buns (上海小笼包), one of the city's most famous foods. We also stopped for some bubble tea (Yuuuus. My absolute fave.) before heading back to the apartment, only a block away. 

That night at dinner, I had some more vegetables, and a massive amount of watermelon. I've eaten so so so much watermelon every time we come back to China, since everyone buys it and offers it to guests...the 6 watermelons my uncle bought (I don't think he got nearly enough) were all going to go bad, so it was an all-out "let's stuff out faces with watermelon" fest that night...I ate almost half a watermelon single-handedly. I definitely think I did my part. 

We stayed up again tonight for the Argentina-Belgium game...this time, all four of us stayed up. I finished writing all my postcards while we waited for the game to start at midnight. Once Argentina was proclaimed the winner, we all dove for our beds...night! 

A terrible shot taken of the main entrance of the university while the car was driving past...I wouldn't have included it in here, but it's the only photo I took of the school. Oops.

A massive ship in the water

My Shanghai pork buns...are now in my tummy. 

The place where we got bubble tea was named Demi Moore...what?

It was still delicious, so no complaints here...

Late-night soccer watchers! Those time-zone problems..

Day Fourteen: Crazy Tomatoes & the China Pavilion

Day Fourteen

Happy 4th of July from Shanghai! No fireworks for us today...today was my fathers last day in China...he had to go back to work, so us siblings would be staying behind and flying home on our own. After a homemade breakfast and lunch (my aunt made amazing dumplings), we went into the city to go to a bookstore there. My dad's a huge reader and wanted to bring back a  ton of material for home. The bookstore was huge; it had 7 floors and utterly immense. 

When I was going to the second floor, a Wall Street English worker (it's an English tutoring company) shoved a pamphlet in my hand and when I refused to take it, he  told me I needed to learn English if I wanted to leave the country...LOL. Puh-lease. I obviously explained that English was my first language cause I was a born and raised American, which he was very surprised by. We talked for a bit about Shanghai and my trip here before I left to go roam and explore. 

We stayed there for two hours, during which I bought a copy of George Orwell's 1984 for less than four bucks, and my dad bought a bunch of books. I ran into the Wall Street English guy again and he gave me his business card. It was then that I learned that his English name was...Tomato! Kind of ridiculous, right? I immediately burst out laughing and felt really bad because he had no idea why it was funny. Ignorance is bliss, I suppose...

After the bookstore, we went to the Shanghai World Expo Center to visit the China Pavilion. It had been impossible to get into during 2010 when the Expo was actually taking place, but now you could get in for free! There were a ridiculous amount of art and culture there, and we walked around for at least a few hours until closing time. The top floor featured a gigantic virtual painting, with a name like "Along the Qing Ming River". It's an adaptation of an actual painting with that name, and it's so cool because it shows an old Chinese city that was essentially one of the most prosperous places in Asia during that time period. A really beautiful and captivating piece to look at, since it featured hundreds of moving people and objects during both daytime and nighttime. 

The rest of the exhibits were also nice, and highlight many Chinese artists' work. The only downside to the pavilion was that it was absolutely freezing...they'd cranked the AC up so high I got goosebumps during the three hours we were in there...finally, we left and got back in my uncles car to drive to a restaurant nearby. 

Dinner was nice and quick- we ordered the perfect amount and finished it all, then headed back out to the Expo Center to look at the night lights. There was a huge concert that night at the Mercedes-Benz Center for an Asian singer named G.E.M. (I have no idea...) so there were huge crowds there. We stayed there for awhile and then headed back home to the apartment. My brother, uncle, cousin, and I really wanted to watch the Germany/France World Cup game that night at midnight, but the boys ended up snoozing while us girls stayed up and watched the whole thing (pssh, come on boys. Weak!). After watching Germany and their perfect goalie beat France, we went off to bed. 

Enjoying some Starbucks and lots of books...

The China Pavilion!! (And half of Jason's face)

We made it!!

The virtual painting...soooo long 😱

It seemed to go on forever..

Using more visuals to order our dinner 

Lots of concert-goers in front of the Mercedes-Benz Center

Always nice to see a couple pandas

Umbrellas and sass in the rain

An edited pic of the China Pavilion...so pretty! 

Winding down with my cousin and the World Cup in the wee hours of the night

 

Day Thirteen: Going Back in Time

Day Thirteen

Our first morning in Shanghai was great! We had a large breakfast with zhouk, desserts, breads, and more. Our relatives had bought quite a bit of food and snacks for our time here...my uncle bought SIX watermelons from a rural farm for us, so we were downing watermelon 24/7. 

Afterwards, we went to go visit the burial ground in which my late grandfather was. I'm not going to go into too much detail about this as it is rather personal, but the area is beautiful and very scenic, and many of shanghai's most well-known people are buried or cremated there. We spent the morning paying our respects to him and then went out to lunch at anice restaurant with many of our Shanghainese relatives. It's very interesting; the way you order dishes here is different from in America or other places with a traditional menu...they put out the actual dishes, all shrink-wrapped, and you point to the ones you want so that a waitress/waiter can punch the respective codes into a little remote and order them. 

The restaurant offered Indian breads, freshly made, but they'd unfortunately made a sign saying Indian Beards. Lol I was extremely amused. 😄 I'm just that mature...

The meal was wonderful; I was able to talk with a lot of family members that I hadn't seen since I was a chubby little girl, and there were great vibes all around. As usual, the food was great and we tried many dishes unique to that area of Shanghai. One of the funniest moments of lunch was when Jason and I noticed that the music playing in the restaurant was "Not Afraid" by Eminem. Yeah...let's get pumped up to feast and dine! Haha, so weird...it switched quickly after an expletive and went back to classical music. After many conversations, we packed up everything we didn't finish and said goodbye. 

We then went to an old-fashioned, traditional Chinese village. They're known as 老街 （literally old streets) and offer great touristy gifts, sights, and snacks. The views there were great and you felt like you were going back in time many years, to a simple, nice lifestyle. You could also bargain everywhere here for your purchases..yay! My Shanghai relatives are much more skilled when it comes to bargaining (they're very bold and not at all afraid to set verrrry low prices), so that really came in handy. I bought some postcards, a nice wood carving, and some small paintings. We wandered through the village that afternoon, sucking on some cold Popsicles and taking photos of bridges, rivers, and street views. A very relaxing afternoon! 

After we were satisfied, we started to return home. Dinner was also at a restaurant, at a very vintage-y place that had all wood everything and many interesting designs. My uncle chose it, and ordered our meal which consisted of all veggies, tofu, and fish (we wanted something light after the feast that was lunch). The restaurant had delicious food and really unique tea that we consistently got more of...and drank in our little wooden cups! My cousin, who is in her early twenties and is currently interning, joined us for dinner after work. Once we were all done, we walked back to the apartment and watched some more soap  operas. A very fun first full day in Shanghai! 

A shot of the cemetery area

The ordering process here: pick and choose your dishes the visual way!

Indian Beards....tehehe

The biggest bowl of fish soup I've ever seen

These are unique to this area! They're called grass-top cakes and are very yummy! 

Exploring the old streets!

Traditional views..

Here, we offer a lovely table...inside a bird cage!

A really cool lit-up kite we saw on our walk home

Day Twelve: On the Move Again

Day Twelve

Good morning! We were off to visit our relatives in Shanghai now...it was an early morning, with a breakfast of shuang pi nai, pastries, and fruit. Then, we grabbed our luggage and drove over to the bus station where we'd be taking a bus to the airport. We said goodbye to my Guangzhou relatives and were off! 

Once at the airport, my dad paid to have one of those people drive us through the airport to security (he was completely lost) and we made it to our gate on time! However, our flight got delayed for TWO hours because of bad weather in Shanghai...ugh. We ate lunch, waited around, and read our books before finally getting on that damned plane. 

After a few hours, we were in Shanghai! Oh, it felt glorious- waaay cooler than Guangzhou. We were no longer sweating buckets! Our aunt and uncle came to pick us up, and we made it home shortly after struggling through the crowds of travelers. My other aunt had prepared a dinner for us at home, which we ate before giving them their set of gifts and contraband. We also went out to the market to buy some bottles water, since us Americans are used to drinking cold water and it's tea all day errday for them. 

After that, it was pretty much time for bed! We watched some of the soap operas here since my grandma watches them, and then went to sleep. Ah, we finally made it to Shanghai! 

A homemade dinner welcomed us to Shanghai 

All the people dancing in the square! Such fun..

Day Eleven: A Reunion with Optimus & Bumblebee

Day Eleven

Today was our last full day in Guangzhou! Crazy to think we'd be leaving soon...our main assignment was to pack everything up today, but that wouldn't take all day of course! We waited for everyone to get up and get ready, and then my aunt took us out for a breakfast of steaming hot congee (zhouk). 

The soup contained veggies and fish, and although we were pretty hot eating it, it was pretty tasty! We ate in a ridiculously primitive, garage-sized restaurant that couldn't have screamed "local, tiny restaurant" any louder. I guess we truly get the local flavor everytime we're here! 

Our next stop was the Lucky City mall nearby. Jason and I had been interested in watching the fourth Transformers movie and so our aunt brought us to the movie theater inside the mall to see when they were playing it. Since they had a showing in a few minutes, we ended up seeing it right then and there with my aunt! My aunt got a movie membership while we were there, so we got free soda and popcorn for our movie! I'm glad we went to see it....it was really exciting and intense. Of course, it had all of the visual craziness and epic battles that the three before it featured. I know it's not deep or profound in any way, but it still provided plenty of entertainment. A lot of the scenes took place in China (Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Beijing), which caused many of the movie watchers to giggle excitedly. 

Three hours later, we stumbled out of the theater and made our way back home. We ordered some shuang pi nai from the restaurant, and ate it as our afternoon snack. Then, we made sure everything was packed and ready to go for tomorrow, and went out for one last meal with our closest family members. Every single dish we ordered was delicious! The main favorite they offered at the restaurant was a heaping bowl of rice, mixed with eel, scallions, and other flavors. It's so good...

Once our dinner had been eaten, we took a walk back to the house and watched this adorable tv show with my cousin. She recommended this show called "Dad, Where are you?", which basically revolves around different celebrity dads and their kids going on different adventures together. It's so freaking cute and I definitely would watch it again anyday I'm feeling down or upset. 

Last night in Guangzhou...definitely bittersweet! I'll miss it here for sure.

That local restaurant vibe...

A heaping bowl of soup

Our tickets to see Transformers 4 (my first movie experience in china!)

Delicious veggies during dinner

The eel and rice combo = on point.

 

Day Ten: An Insider Tour of GAC Motors

Day Ten

Well, we were off to Guangzhou today! Shunde, the town in which we were living, was around an hour from the actual city of Guangzhou. Today, we'd be visiting Boeing's dad's company: GAC Engineering! My dad's best friend was the Vice President of the company, which is a Chinese auto company. Pretty cool stuff! He had invited us to come check it out, so he could show us around. Jason is especially interested in cars and engineering, and my dad's friend offered to give him an internship once he's in college! If only it were that easy for the rest of us...geez.

We ate a quick breakfast of bread, buns, and other pastries that my aunt and I had bought that morning after taking a drive on her motorcycle. After our meal, we promptly were off!

My uncle was driving me, Jason, my dad, and my cousin to Guangzhou today...and although I love him to death, it ended up being a nightmare. We got lost because he didn't listen to the GPS and took wrong turns, which was apparently broken or on low-battery, and he wasn't at all familiar with the way. It should've taken us half an hour to get to the company headquarters, according to my dad's friend, but after THREE FLIPPING HOURS of driving, we still weren't anywhere close to our destination. I was furious and annoyed that so much time had been wasted. After all, they'd been SO confident back at the house in terms of how to get there! We were absolutely fuming in the back, as it was a cramped seating situation and my dad and uncle were proving themselves to be incapable in the front seats. My dad ended up bothering his friend and making him come out to get us. We were stranded near a toll station, and waited for at least 20 minutes there in agony. Oh, it was an awful experience. 

After my dad's friend's company car pulled up, we followed him to a restaurant for LUNCH since it was already past noon... we went to this restaurant on the water that had each table in a little wooden cabin type room. It was a feast, as my dad's friend ordered tons of dishes, which we unfortunately couldn't all finish. 

Once we were all set with lunch, Jason and I got in his GAC car and we drove off to his company. At the gate, he got us all passes, and showed us the lay of the land in detail. I'm not a huge lover engineering or cars, but this stuff was so interesting to me all the same...we saw the amount of testing they did on every facet of their cars, from sound (with quiet chambers and sound-maximizing chambers), temperature (with heating and cooling chambers), weather conditions (a car was placed under constantly running water jets), safety, and so much more. 

The building was enormous, and had these tall long hallways that you could easily drive two lanes of traffic through! The testing was so cool...they had machines constantly opening and closing the doors and trunk to test durability, an area to make dummies for the test drives, a massive racetrack in the back, etc. We walked through offices where workers were testing different batteries, charging the batteries, and working on the engine components. We walked through hangar-sized warehouses where car doors were being installed into vehicles, or engines were being installed. I've never been inside an actual factory or experimentation area like this before, and it was seriously the coolest thing ever! The process of building cars seems much more interesting to me now. 

We took a spin around the massive office that my dad's friend had, checked out the priceless view there, and then said our goodbyes. It didn't take us as long to get back (thank The Lord), and we enjoyed a homemade dinner once home. After taking more strolls around the city, we called it a day. G'night!! Only a few days left in Guangzhou!

Some of our breakfast! Yum yum 😍

On the way to Guangzhou...

The beautiful water-side restaurant

Feasting it up!!

Our pass to tour the building! 

A car on display

A real-life version of the model my dad's friend brought the other day! 

The workers at GAC built a Decepticon out of spare parts! So impressed...

Part of the amazing view from the offices there

Day Nine: Kafka, Biking, and More Relatives

Day Nine

Today was a day with relatively few plans, since we had been so booked yesterday. I spent a good chunk of the day finishing Kafka on the Shore. It was the first Murakami novel I'd read, but I've definitely been inspired to go through all of his works. He's an incredible writer, with really beautiful themes and ideas throughout the plot, and I loved his writing style. I don't want to give away anything about the actual plot...just give it a chance and read it! I highly recommend it and am still thinking about the ideas in Kafka. 

I also got a chance to Skype with my mother, as well as my best friend Sam, who is also currently exploring a foreign country. She's in India, doing research in the field in Mumbai!! I'm so excited for her, and was so happy to catch up with her. It's monsoon season there, so hopefully she makes it out unscathed! If you want to check out her amazing cooking blog, it's whatwillicooktoday.wordpress.com!

The dinner plan was to eat out with my dad's half siblings and thier families. My grandfather had six children total, and they all get along really well. Before we went to the restaurant, we stopped for an hour or so at a massive park and garden nearby. We'd gone here during our last visit as well, and had so much fun on the two and three-person bikes they offered. When we came back this time, we also rented bikes and after some shaky starts, were off and running on a three-person bike! 

Biking around the lake there and in the forests was so peaceful, beautiful, and breathtaking! There were dragon boat races going on that we saw, as well as the most beautiful buildings, views, and plants. I can't get enough of the amazing sights here, that's for sure! 

We then had a nice dinner with our relatives, in which Jason and I downed coconut milk juice like shots (they'd ordered way too much for us and we weren't about to waste such yummy-ness), and I displayed my Indian and British accents for the entire group (my dad had mentioned my skill for languages and accents, since he's always been extremely amused with my Indian accent). It was a great night with family, as always. I'm so happy I've been getting the chance to see them all again! 

The entrance to the park

A tea drink favored by countless Chinese...Jason and I love mimicking the dramatic commercials where they're seriously in love with these

Our three-person bike...before we tried and failed to ride it (feat. A very cranky and not-photo-ready Jason)

Dragon boats!! 

A government official's building? So so pretty.

Gardens

Such a great view

Contrasting the old and the new 

A cute little boy running down the bridge! Yeah, I'm a stalker.