Free day in Shanghai!
Today was a really nice day because it was a free day! That means most of us either slept or went shopping This morning we said goodbye to our host families in Jiashan and left to go back to Shanghai. I think we were all very nervous and hesitant about our host families at first but they all turned out great. Many of us got sent with presents and some good food for our trip home. For me it was truly a great experience and I don’t think it could have gone any better. The bus ride to Shanghai however was a little different.
First off, the driving here is CRAZY! They have lanes and lights like we do but in most cities they mean nothing. People drive all around the streets, even into oncoming traffic. A couple times I thought our bus driver was playing chicken! (If you don’t know what that is, it is a game where two cars drive directly at each other until someone swerves out of the way) Also, they just aren’t very courteous drivers and don’t pay attention to anyone but themselves. Surprisingly, I haven’t seen any forms of road rage, just a lot of honking. Many of you hear this and think they are all just bad drivers but really that is just the culture. Just like at home when you go to New York City and think everyone is a bad driver. Anyways, we arrived at our hotel at about 10am then had to rest of the day to do whatever we wanted. For me, that meant taking a nap first, then lunch at McDonalds because I wanted something fast, then did some homework. For dinner a couple of us went to a restaurant across the street in another hotel and it was very good! They had one waitress who could speak English so she helped us pick out some good food. I have found that most people in China are more than willing to help us when there is a language barrier and we don’t understand. Most of the time when trying to deal with the language barrier, we all end up acting things out or pointing at pictures, so by the end everyone is laughing at how silly we looked. We have all had such a great experience and someone of us still can’t believe we have been in China for the last 3 weeks. While we have had fun, most of us are excited to get home and sleep in our own beds. Every day we list off things that we plan on doing when we get home or things we miss. At the top of the list of things to do is sleep! I have designated my whole weekend after I get back to rest and get back on my regular time schedule, then it is back to real life and work! The only thing we all dread when we think about going home is the 13 hour flight. Hopefully it will go by fast!