Today we decided to venture away from our hotel area. I arranged for a lady from Shanghai to help us while we are here. She is a college student and will not be out of school for a couple more weeks, but came today for a couple of hours to help me a bit and figure out how to travel around. She bought us transportation cards, which we will need to ride the subway or take a bus. We decided on a location that I could get to without making any transfers as our first adventure. She couldn’t go with us; she needed to get to school. Her name is Farah. Btw, I think it’s very interesting that everyone here has an English name and their given name. I offered to call Farah by her given, Chinese name, but she said she never gets to use her English name and really wants to hear it. So, Farah it is. We took the Metro (subway) to People’s Square to visit the Shanghai museum. I think I’ve been pretty naïve about some of this traveling in a country where there is no English. I headed down to the metro; I knew where the opening was near by. We managed to find the entrance to the actual gate and then proceeded to mess that up some how. Lucky for me a nice Chinese lady helped me figure this all out. I had to squeeze three of us through the turnstile at the same time to fix my error. I was really hoping I wasn’t breaking some rules that I would get in trouble for later. Next, I couldn’t figure out which subway to take. The signs had pinyin on them, but never haven ridden the subway before (or really any form of public transportation except the city bus when I was in Jr. High.) I wasn’t sure which direction I needed to go. So…we jumped on a subway and hoped for the best. I figured the worst case scenario we wouldn’t end up where we wanted to, but would learn from our experience. Aiden wasn’t thrilled with me and was really nervous about my uncertainty about where we were headed. I wasn’t too worried, how hard can it be right? Very lucky for us as soon as we got on the subway (which by the way was the right one….whooo-hoo, success!!) a woman heard us speaking English and started talking to us. Turns out she is from St. Charles, MO and has been living here for two years with her husband. She explained the entire process to me. She showed me where to look to know when to get off and how to make transfers. I’m so set now. I can go anywhere! We went to the Shanghai museum. It was very interesting.
It was huge and full of artifacts that are 700+ years old. There are 11 galleries and apparently has the best displays and interpretations in all of China. The above picture isn't a very good picture, but it is of Riley and some masks that they were facinated by. Claire was the only one who didn’t stay interested the entire time. We have been doing a lot of walking and she was tired by this time of day. Aiden made the observation that “man this stuff is old”…I don’t think until that moment Aiden realized what an absolutely fascinating city we are visiting and how old the civilization is and how we don’t have that history where we live.We are still trying to get over our jet lag. We wake up way to early and are way too tired by dinner time. Poor Claire fell asleep at the dinner table tonight. It’s bad enough that we have people gawking at us because of the color of our hair (you’d think it was green or something), but a sleeping blond child on the edge of a table is apparently quite the site.
I forgot to mention that we eat out for nearly every meal. This is going to get old. We have dishes in our apartment, but not many and no oven. I tried to buy eggs today, but I wasn’t sure what kind of eggs I was buying so I passed. Even the meat is marked in Chinese so I’m not sure what I am buying. So far it’s been easier to eat out and point at what we want….and hope we are eating what we think we asked for. This is an adventure after all!
1 comment:
Hello Hollie and Kids
Thank you so much for sharing your adventures with me. Love the pictures to add to the story.
Love Heather
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