Stye in My Eye in Shanghai: Day 3
(Warning: morning ramblings. Read only if bored.)
It's almost 8am, and I'm dressed and ready to head out for my first day of exploration. I make sure to take a baggy of peanut M&Ms with me in case I get lost in this huge city. (It may be my only form of sustenance for days.) My first obstacle will be exiting the building. I take pictures of everything so, if need be, I can access my "bread crumbs" later to find my way back like Handel and Gretzky (that was supposed to say Hansel and Gretel, but I like autocorrect's word choice better). I take the 3rd floor to the first floor, and the first door I see exits to a playground. The only problem is, it won't open. Am I just weak? Do I stay here and wrestle with the dumb door while the two grounds keepers on the other side of the glass door watch me for their morning entertainment? I can tell I am going to lose the battle with the door, so I look for another exit (sorry grounds-keeper dudes! You'll have to wait for the next sucker to entertain you!) Not sure how many dead ends I ran into before I found a door, but I DID find an exit eventually. I can't see a street from inside the complex so I just start walking until I find one. As I get closer, I can see that the street is on the other side of this gate that I am inside of...and it has chains and a padlock on it. Clearly this ain't the main exit to the street. So then I figure if I go inside the building next to it, I can walk through it and get to the street. I go into the building only to find a dead end and a elevator. Ugh! Right then, a Chinese guard comes towards me and asks: "Can I help you?" I'M SO EXCITED!!! She speaks English and now she's going to help me break out of this gated compound that wants to hold me captive! "OH! THANK YOU! YES! How do I get out to the street!? The gate outside is locked!" The sweet woman looks at me, eyes confused, and defaults back to speaking her native tongue. Shit. She only knows the English phrase "Can I help you". So I start doing my best miming, and it turns into a 2 minute game of charades. Eventually she understands me, points me in the right direction, and apologizes that she can't speak more English. (How is it that in countries like China and Japan, the people feel bad/ashamed when they can't speak your language, but in the US, if you can't speak English, many Americans are nasty and hateful about it? We may as well be French. I think I was born in the wrong country.)
Anyway, I digress. Now I am headed in the right direction, but as I approach the exit to the street, there is a guard and a thing you have to walk through and wave a pass card of some kind. OMG!!! What now!? Do I just get a running start and try to fly past him? Can I take him!? Looking like a dumb, lost, confused American has its advantages, and in this case, the advantage was that the guard saw my pathetic-ness and waved his own special card to let me through. And now I am off to explore the streets and scenes of Shanghai. I just hope I can make it back! (Fast-forward to mall) Eventually I stumbled upon the big mall. I grabbed some coffee at a place that overlooked the city and waited for the mall to open...an hour later, I found out I still had another 40 minutes before it opened. So my friend (who was at work) decided she would send her driver to pick me up and take me to the famous Jing'an Temple (YIPPEE!) where I could take pics and eat and shop and take some more pics (my favorite thing to do).
(Fast-forward to making it back to Katherine's place to get ready for Girls' Night Out). Here are my pics from my day at the temple...(notice how I deftly took one-eyed selfies...my one GOOD eye...)
It's almost 8am, and I'm dressed and ready to head out for my first day of exploration. I make sure to take a baggy of peanut M&Ms with me in case I get lost in this huge city. (It may be my only form of sustenance for days.) My first obstacle will be exiting the building. I take pictures of everything so, if need be, I can access my "bread crumbs" later to find my way back like Handel and Gretzky (that was supposed to say Hansel and Gretel, but I like autocorrect's word choice better). I take the 3rd floor to the first floor, and the first door I see exits to a playground. The only problem is, it won't open. Am I just weak? Do I stay here and wrestle with the dumb door while the two grounds keepers on the other side of the glass door watch me for their morning entertainment? I can tell I am going to lose the battle with the door, so I look for another exit (sorry grounds-keeper dudes! You'll have to wait for the next sucker to entertain you!) Not sure how many dead ends I ran into before I found a door, but I DID find an exit eventually. I can't see a street from inside the complex so I just start walking until I find one. As I get closer, I can see that the street is on the other side of this gate that I am inside of...and it has chains and a padlock on it. Clearly this ain't the main exit to the street. So then I figure if I go inside the building next to it, I can walk through it and get to the street. I go into the building only to find a dead end and a elevator. Ugh! Right then, a Chinese guard comes towards me and asks: "Can I help you?" I'M SO EXCITED!!! She speaks English and now she's going to help me break out of this gated compound that wants to hold me captive! "OH! THANK YOU! YES! How do I get out to the street!? The gate outside is locked!" The sweet woman looks at me, eyes confused, and defaults back to speaking her native tongue. Shit. She only knows the English phrase "Can I help you". So I start doing my best miming, and it turns into a 2 minute game of charades. Eventually she understands me, points me in the right direction, and apologizes that she can't speak more English. (How is it that in countries like China and Japan, the people feel bad/ashamed when they can't speak your language, but in the US, if you can't speak English, many Americans are nasty and hateful about it? We may as well be French. I think I was born in the wrong country.)
Anyway, I digress. Now I am headed in the right direction, but as I approach the exit to the street, there is a guard and a thing you have to walk through and wave a pass card of some kind. OMG!!! What now!? Do I just get a running start and try to fly past him? Can I take him!? Looking like a dumb, lost, confused American has its advantages, and in this case, the advantage was that the guard saw my pathetic-ness and waved his own special card to let me through. And now I am off to explore the streets and scenes of Shanghai. I just hope I can make it back! (Fast-forward to mall) Eventually I stumbled upon the big mall. I grabbed some coffee at a place that overlooked the city and waited for the mall to open...an hour later, I found out I still had another 40 minutes before it opened. So my friend (who was at work) decided she would send her driver to pick me up and take me to the famous Jing'an Temple (YIPPEE!) where I could take pics and eat and shop and take some more pics (my favorite thing to do).
(Fast-forward to making it back to Katherine's place to get ready for Girls' Night Out). Here are my pics from my day at the temple...(notice how I deftly took one-eyed selfies...my one GOOD eye...)
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