We have reached the end my friend

Well I have arrived safely back in the good 'ol US of A. The flight back from Shanghai was so much better than the one to Beijing which made it much easier to survive. I was up for a grand total of 30 hours this go around so my bed Monday night felt fantastic. 

The wrap up in Shanghai was pretty fun. A fellow student and I, Robert, took the subway to the Shanghai Aquarium which is supposedly one of the best aquariums in all of Asia. It was pretty interesting, but nothing that I have not seen before. The penguin exhibit was shut down for maintenance which was very disappointing but the aquarium did boast the longest under water tunnel which was very cool.

For the final day I spent it with another student, Cosmo, who took me to a parkour gym so I was able to watch people run around and jump off extremely high places. It was a lot of fun, we went out to dinner afterwards with all the people from the gym for our final Chinese meal.

Overall this was a fantastic experience. I learned a lot not only about China but about myself.
I learned that I can do things on my own.
I learned that I can wander around a foreign city and not die.
I learned that I can handle a lot more than I ever thought I could.

For the final night we had a very nice dinner and shared our final thoughts on China. I think that if you are ever given the opportunity to travel to another country in a fashion such as this, you should. There is nothing like experiencing a different country (a VERY different country) like a local of some sorts.

Always take each experience for what it is and try not to put any expectations on the local people. Each city has its own vibe and feel and it should be respected for that.

Do not be afraid to try new things, I ate a scorpion for heavens sake!

There likely will not be a next time, for this blog at least, so I leave you here faithful readers with one of my favorite quotes from Confucius:

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.

Video from the Great Wall

My professor, Hamilton Bean, put together a video from our trek up the Great Wall.

Personal Space

I have realized that I hate being touched. I knew this before I came to China but this country has really solidified it for me. The concept of personal space is non-existent in China, well that is probably a fallacy, I am sure that they know what it is but they do not abide by it. I also do not do well in large crowds of people so visiting these historical sites has been . . . an adventure to say the very least.

Today was one of the worst days we have had so far as amounts of people are concerned. We went to the French area of Shanghai which was really interesting. We had about an hour to walk around a hu-tong (I think I spelled that right . . .) and I bought a fabulous clutch with brass knuckles and skulls on it (picture in slideshow). After that we went to a very traditional Shanghai(ian?) restuarant and had a noodle lunch. It was delicious! Following lunch we went to another garden that was beautiful but it had many more people than the one yesterday did which made it obnoxious. There were more huge koi that were being fed by people, it was super entertaining. When I worked at Petsmart my favorite part of pet care was the ability to feed the koi because they always lose their minds.

After the garden we were able to walk around and do some more shopping in the area. The amount of people was insane. I believe I heard one of the ICB students saying that today was children's day and so it seemed that there was a mass group of children everywhere you turned, and we all know how much I just love children.

So far we have bid farewell to two of our students that had to leave early, one of them being my roommate Jourdan so I will be in my room alone for the duration of the trip. It should be interesting but I am sure that I will manage, I always do.

Till next time gentle readers . . .