Day one of exercising worked out pretty well. I woke up alan and erik to go running around the xi hu lake with me at 7:45am. We wanted to get out before the sun beams on us and the humidity gets overbearing. I also decided to bring my ipod to escalate my running pace. As always, my first tune is young folks. Nice pace with a catchy beat. Alan did not like my new strategy that morning because he wasn't feeling too well from the previous night of drinking. I was leading the run, and he was shocked at my pace (which wasn't fast at all because alan is a marathon runner) saying to erik "she normally doesn't run this fast. Must be the music.". Alan was a big sweaty mess at this run. He even had to take walking breaks, which is very unlike him. Erik was happily testing out his new trainers, which also almost look exactly like mine in a different color.
Both erik and alan seems to like to copy my taste of items. Erik has identical sunglasses as mine but in black shades instead of brown, while alan has an identical raincoat as mine but in black instead of green.
So our run, or at least my run, was very successful. The lake was very nice and it was amusing to see people staring at us, especially at erik and sweaty alan, as if running was a foreign idea. I want to do it more often.
After our shower, we decided to go grab a bite. It was just the three of us, since steph decided to go on the brat (bread, rice, apple sauce, tea) diet since her stomach isn't feeling so well. Everyone's stomach had their moments of illness except mine so far. Knock on wood it stays this way.
We went to a big chinese restaurant which had a canteen to order and pay. We stuck to out policy and point at what we want to eat. We had tiny steamed buns, beef noodles, and sticky rice. Pretty good, but by now I am pretty sick of tiny steamed buns. We eat it almost everyday. I'm going to turn into one soon.
I did a bit of shopping by myself, while erik went back to the room to rest, and alan went to the atm. I was happier with this round of shopping as they were european stores and I can fit into normal smalls and mediums. I got myself a new tank for $7. Good deal!
We then packed our bags and went to the train station to write our postcards. We continue to be impressed that chinese learned the concept of a line. Everyone stands on line to buy things, to get on the train or bus, to get a taxi, to use the toilet...everything has lines. Totally not what we expected. We were also shocked that we had assigned seats on a very nice train to shanghai. Looks like a nice metro north but the 2 hour ride is only $10!!!
We arrived at shanghai safe and sound, hopped on a taxi to our 24K hotel. Again we were amazed how metropolitan china is. The buildings are tall with funky design. When we got to the hotel, we thought we had a good deal since the lobby was nice. Little did we know our rooms were gross, with a nasty carpet. Oh well, what can you expect for $32 a night per room.
We quickly tried to find a laundry, since erik was in dire need of some clean clothes. We figured we're in on of the biggest metropolitan cities of the world, laundry mats or drop off services should not be an issue. Boy were we wrong. They only have dry cleaning services, which is a bit ridiculous to do for undies or normal laundering but they charged per item. We gave up and decided to try again tomorrow.
That night we met up with my friend Tony for dinner. I haven't seen him in 5-7 years, and so much has changed since. He has moved from ny to tokyo to shanghai; got married and has a beautiful daughter.
The Jishi restaurant was at xin tian di. We heard it was an expat community, which we clearly noticed. Lots of diversity in terms of food selection and people. We even found the paulaner house to stop by for a quick drink before meeting tony. I got tricked by erik that they had delicious german pear schnapps. So I ordered one and it was regular gross schnapps, so erik had to drink it along with his dark beer. Alan had the wheat.
Dinner was yummy in my tummy. It was nice having someone that knew what he was doing order for us. It was also very nice catching up with him. Tony said we're seeing more of china than he has even though he's been here for 2 years. I feel that's always the case. I've seen more of norway than most and most travelers to the US have seen more of the states than me.
After dinner we walked around the area. It was very colonial and nice. I was impressed and started to feel like I prefer shanghai over beijing. But time will tell. As we were wandering, we bumped into a mall, and of course we stopped into a store and I picked up another tanktop for $7. I'm excited to trash some of my wife beaters. We then went back to paulaner for another quick drink. I opted for a diet coke which was ridiculously expensive. It was the same price as the beer $8. They obviously want people to get drunk. I was so exhausted at that point that I started to fall asleep while they were talking. I think the lack of sleep is catching up on me. So I needed to sleep. Eventually they let me go back to the hotel to pass out.
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