NOW, they're saying I start teaching on Monday. Does this concern anyone? And yes, Linda, I get the comments sent to my email :) It is lovely to hear from you!!
SO. ShANGHAI.
One time, we by some miracle got out of Pooptown and into Shanghai. You can read the story from the last post about how miraculous it was that we got tickets and made it on the last train of the day. I don't know that I was extremely clear about the circumstances, though. I've certainly been more than clear about our trials with Masty and the Chinch (I've introduced those nicknames for the school board, right?), but I'm talking about the trip to Shanghai.
Obviously, there isn't any passive or active proselyting allowed in China, but we are blessed enough to be able to meet together for church at various times and destinations throughout all of China. In the Shanghai district, there are three branches. Nanjing, Pudong, Shanghai South (? I reallly don't know?). Brother and Sister Johnson are the adult leaders of the Shanghai District young single adults, so for district conference this weekend (like stake conference) they offered to have everyone together to tour Shanghai on Saturday and go to meetings on Sunday. We are technically in the Skype CCID branch, but anyone was allowed to come.
We have a lot of friends in Zhenjiang, Nanjing, and Shanghai, and Blythe (the friend in Shanghai) graciously allowed all of us to come crash at her apartment for the festivities. There's a group of us that bonded on the Beijing trip and we've basically stuck together ever since (as well as we can in a country with a sixth of the world's population)! Her apartment is in a gated community, but don't get any misguided ideas that it's anything like America. It is a super quality apartment for China, though! Shelby and I arrived late Friday night, or should I say Saturday morning, and we probably should have crashed but we ended up staying up till two in the morning catching up and telling stories about Irishmen and Pooptown.
In the morning, exhausted and sticky with ever-present dewy air, we departed to the subway to meet up with all the other young single adults in Shanghai. We were so grateful to be able to meet up with lots of people from our arrival tour and a lot more people doing study abroad at BYU! I can't say I've ever been more excited in my life to be surrounded by white people for two days. Plus there's infinitely more foreigners in Shanghai than Pooptown, so the creepy stares and sly photographing of us were decreased by tenfold. I can appreciate that immensely.
The church even paid for most of it, which is lovely in itself. First we went to a museum (THAT'S a loose term) which involved walking into an authentic Chinese home (also a loose term) from the forties. It was quaint, but also extremely tiny and a place I would not want to live.
Our little group of friends broke off for lunch and grabbed some fried dumplings and some pastries from a little bakery. Shanghai has such a different feel than Beijing. It smells the same, for sure, but there's something different about it. It's like comparing New York to Chicago. They both have their own attractions and cultures, but they also have a different and distinct feel to them. I found that Shanghai is, for one thing, a heck of a lot more humid, but it also is more relaxed--the people aren't as uptight and the streets are more welcoming in a way I can't describe more succinctly than just that.
We then visited a famous garden that was, to put it simply, beautiful.
We also grabbed an oreo blizzard on the way out. I've been craving certain American foods. As much as I love the yogurt and dumplings, I still miss pizza and German pancakes.
After the delicious weather-named milkshake, we jumped (literally, in many cases) back on the subway to go to church. They meet in this giant office building in a dome-like area much like a compressed version of the Bountiful bubble (not the ice rink, and it's not a turtle, MILES). Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the seventy and his wife spoke to us for the adult session in the afternoon. It was so good!
Little gems I learned:
- We must be worthy to receive personal revelation--undefiled in our heart and mind
- Concerning marriage: you cannot change the other person. Get used to them instead.
- "The big things are actually the little things"
- Laman and Lemuel lost their willingness to fight--never forget what YOU are fighting for
- "The advesary knows the enormity of his cause. Let's make sure we remember the justness of ours."
- "Being light-minded is different than being light-hearted."
We then changed back into our street clothes and headed off to the Bund. Yes, the Bund. Not to be confused with the bundt, which is a delicious cake shape. The Bund is reminiscent of Times Square. And since I have a fetish of cartwheeling every which way, here's a nice cartwheel for you.
I ended up meeting a bunch of people from BYU! One had a nickin sick mustache, whose name was Troy, and I thought of Uncle Troy's fantastic goatee! Needless to say, I haven't forgotten Mustache Troy's name. I also met someone from Rupert, Idaho, who ended up being cousins with someone I worked with at my properties job. I also met Greg Tanner's brother, Marcus, who Kelsi knows from the MTC. It was lovely and refreshing to have legitimate connections with these people.
And it's bizarre to think that we are somehow connected to every single person in this world, however distant they may be.
We rode a ferry around THE BUND and ended up walking up and down the long strips of shops. Our magnificent little group was cravin' some America, so we stopped by the classy sit-down restaurant of Pizza Hut for some deep dish quality. I've never visited a Pizza Hut, or any pizza place for that matter, with that much class. MMMM!! I satisfied my pizza craving and I feel a hundred percent better. When we came out of the restaurant, it was raining. Yeah, it might have been acid rain. But that's not going to stop me from enjoying the warm rain in my already wet hair (from the humidity)! The ground was enjoyable slippery, so Jon and I spent a quality amount of time running and sliding across the tiled ground like we were two years old and running across the wood floor in slippery socks.
The next morning we went to conference. After listening to the speakers, a small group of us were fortunate enough to be able to partake of the sacrament in a small side room. I have never before taken the sacrament with such gratitude and hope in my heart. What a blessing it is to have so many worthy priesthood holders throughout the world who can administer an ordinance to us that will purge us from our sins of the past week and endow us with power to resist temptations for the coming week. Though my mind is swimming with simple English and Chinese words and I can't write my thoughts with the eloquence I wish to, suffice it to say that I am more grateful than ever for the sacrament.
This is the point in my posts where I get a bit A.D.D., so in a nutshell, we hit up the Shanghai Zoo and rode an elephant (NBD) and went to the French Concession, which is like some epic shopping. We even got some Indian food which was DELISH.
Shanghai = the greatest.
Or maybe the Great Escape.
At any rate, we skipped out on Pooptown for it, and it was the best decision ever.
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