Renae's alarm clock went off at 715AM and I forced myself to get out of bed and make it to breakfast. I called Carson, who fell back asleep the first time, and we went and filled our faces with chocolate croissants and yogurt before the diplomatic briefing that was mandatory at 815. The briefing was kind of interesting and we heard from two consulates who are from the states and work in Shanghai. The first was an older man who has been working as a US consulate for 22 years, the second a really pretty young black woman who was in her fourth year of work. They explained Shanghai's safety and things we needed to know and then let us go. Around 1030 they started calling the LLCs, staff and faculty to come through customs, and then students go after. They started calling people who were not travelling with the ship from Shanghai to Hong Kong, meaning that it was going to take even longer since the seas would be split up. For some reason, at this point, homesickness hit. I missed Bobby and the meat and Bisky and there was literally nothing I could do short of coming home, which was obviously not an option. I didn't want to cry or miss anyone because I figured it would be easier that way, but the meat ended up with a page long email about it. I figured I would spare Bobby because his emails lately hadn't been overly emotional since our last web cam chat in Tokyo.

Thomas and I were finally able to get off the ship around noon. We left the port, took a left, and followed the road until we found something that seemed interesting. One of the first things that happened was Thomas and I became the tourist attraction. Some, I am assuming, Chinese guy thrust his kid in front of us and took a picture of her with the two of us. After that experience, we came across the Bund Tourist Tunnel so we decided to check it out. We walked underground, got one way tickets that also included a polar exhibit and marine exhibit at the end of the tunnel. The tunnel its self was a fun ride full of crazy lights and really strangely put together stories translated into English to match up with the lights. We got off and Thomas had a necklace made with his name in Chinese engraved on it while I looked around. Then we went into the marine exhibit which was a small aquarium with a few sharks and fish and turtles. The sea turtles were in a tank with only three or four inches of water for five of them which made me really upset because it was obviously not appropriate for them. From there we went to the polar exhibit; everything was in Chinese which made it complicated to understand but there was a sign that said "please no stampling" and I still have yet to figure out what it means.

We left the tunnel and went into a hotel to use their bathroom. It was a huge, fancy marble hotel and it was beautiful. There was a wedding going on somewhere because there were signs all over for it. In the bathroom I managed to slam my fingers in the door, right in the middle of my finger nails, and it hurt like crazy for a while. We passed by the bride as we left on our way to find lunch. It is freezing and windy so the first place we came to was good which I appreciated. It was called Tea Time and it was almost empty but had a lot of pictures. I got lemonade, chicken steak, white rice, and vegetables [which included really good zucchini]. We ate, and then continued being lost and wondering around until we ended up at the base of the tower.

We were supposed to meet Tolan, Sarah, and Carson there at 4PM. There was no way it was going to happen; there were too many entrances and too many people. Instead, we found a HUGE mall; it was ten stories tall and about three or four football fields long. It was overwhelming and crowded with people and some local and US shops. We checked out Best Buy to compare prices and looked in some stores that seemed foreign but neither of us found anything we didn't feel we couldn't live without. Outside, we found an aquarium, but after the amazing-ness of the Osaka aquarium I didn't think it could be topped, especially not so soon. Neither of us was really in an aquarium kind of a mood anyways. We figured instead we would just jump on the subway and see where it takes us. Wrong.

The subway was hot, dark, crowded, and dirty. There were people pushing all over and running to what seemed like nowhere. There were no maps in English, or anything in English that I can remember. We didn't even bother to try; instead we took the tunnel back under the river to the other side of Shanghai. I got postcards before leaving the tunnel so I could send them off early. We could see where the ship was docked, but instead took a left onto what we later learned was Nanjing street, famous for its shopping.

We found an underground store full of Chinese souvenirs and fake purses / polo's / wallets / watches. Thomas got North Face gloves and Oakley sun glasses. I got a set of nice chopsticks and a panda shirt for Bobby. Thomas was really bad at saying "no" and I am surprised he didn't end up with more stuff than he did at the end of the day. We walked around all over the place to see the lights and to hunt two important things: Hi-Chew and a post office. Hi-Chew is a Japanese candy that is basically starburst but better [my dentists will not be happy with me when I get home] that I needed to find more of because I had already eaten most of Thomas'. We also came across some condoms in one of the Family Marts we went to which I photographed for our global studies project. One box of condoms cost more than my lunch had, but I figure mixing them with the one child policy is probably a pretty reliable form of birth control.

We headed back to the ship on a side road and looked in every convenience store we found until Hi-Chew appeared and it was cheap so we bought almost all of it. I opened 4 packs later on the ship and am saving the other five to bring to Flowertown so the kids can try it when I visit them once I am home. We also lucked out and I found a post office so I got some stamps so I could send out post cards once I got back to the ship, which I did. We made it back, freezing and red, and I passed out after uploading some photos.

The next day I had a Semester at Sea trip to Suzhou which Lydia was also on. I woke up at 6, got breakfast, and then headed to the bus where I met Lydia for the hour long ride. Throughout the day we went to three different Chinese gardens, which I am officially sick of at this point, a museum, and we took a boat ride on the river. The gardens were called: the Humble Administrator's Garden, the Master-of-Nets Garden, and the Lingering Garden. They were pretty but it was freezing and windy and they all looked very similar. Our guide also had a tendency to walk much quicker than the rest of us which constantly led to confusion in getting out of the gardens. A lot of the walkways are formed in a zigzag shape because apparently evil spirits cannot walk in a zigzag pattern. I felt much safer.

The gardens each were pretty. There were gazebos and pagodas in all of them and everything was centered on small man made ponds. There were bonsai trees and bamboo and huge rocks everywhere. Some of the rooms surrounding the gardens still had their original opium chairs in them for when the owners would sit around their gardens and smoke. The first garden we went to still had a very small pile of snow on the grass which made me smile for some reason; I guess it made me feel like the freezing weather had been justified. The guide asked us if we minded taking another stop on the trip since we had such good luck with traffic and timing. Obviously, no one objected and we headed to the silk factory.

We entered China's number one silk factory and got to see silk worms at work. There were machines all over the place and we got to see how the silk was taken from the mouth of the worm, how it is combined to make strings strong enough to hold, and how it was stretched to make duvets. The gift shop was very overwhelming, but it didn't stop me from starting my Christmas shopping early. Lydia got a king sized silk duvet ["for when she is married and had her own place" was her reasoning] and some ties for her dad and boyfriend. I got gifts for a few people as well as two shirts for myself. If we are being completely honest, I got someone a scarf but it is so cool that it may not make it to you. You will never know the difference because I am being vague on purpose.

In between gardens we stopped at the Bamboo Grove Hotel for lunch, which was served Lazy Suzan style. It was good and consisted of rice, weird things I couldn't identify that turned out to be jelly fish and other foods, fish with the head still attached, chicken, and what may or may not have been dog. I had the rice, egg drop soup [which had corn in it and was really good], and the mystery meat. They had western style toilets with toilet paper which I was very excited about. After lunch we went on a boat ride in a very low sitting, but luckily enclosed, boat with dragons on the top. The ride on the river was through small canals which were fun, but definitely not as nice as Venice since the water is full of trash and other random things that I couldn't identify and probably didn't want to. We also spent a lot of time crashing into other boats because the canals were much narrower than the boats were.

We got back to the ship around 6PM and Lydia and I went to deck 6 for dinner. After dinner I cut my friend Collin's hair and helped him get ready for his trip to the great wall in Beijing. Why am I not going there, you may ask? Because it is 14 degrees there and you sleep on the great wall and I don't want to freeze to death, but thank you for your concern. I uploaded photos, watched some planet earth and passed out. At midnight there were New Year's fireworks that I missed. Renae told me that the lights in the city shut off and the fireworks were crazy. I was so tired from viewing gardens and walking around for 12 hours straight that I was almost unconcerned. She showed me a video of it before leaving for Beijing, so it was like I was there in my mind.

Today was the last day and I slept in, ate my cliff bar and got ready at my own pace which was nice. I turned on my Sophomore Slump Genius playlist and got ready to go shopping. I went back to Nanjing Street and did some more Christmas shopping the whole afternoon, mainly in the really cool underground store. I got good luck chords for New Year, a jade Buddha ring, two bracelets, five purses, chopsticks, a book, a fake Polo shirt for a friend at school, and three more t-shirts. Obviously this makes up a large amount of Christmas gifts because I do not need five purses. My feet were sore by the end of the day, but I had successfully spent 3 days in China and spent less than 1000 RMB [a little over 100 USD] on way more gifts and food than I needed. Today was a little bit warmer which was nice, I didn't need a hat or scarf or a jacket zipped up around my face. Also, no one [literally] chased me down the street trying to sell me things which I appreciated. Tonight we leave for Hong Kong!