Shanghai - the summary

So, I am rested/have clean clothes/have groceries and I can get some of the good stories down.

Shanghai is an amazing city. As I said before, there is extreme poverty and wealth in the same place. All the big stores are there: Prada, Louis V, Coach, Farragamo, Chanel. Then the cars: Ferrari, Maserati, Prosche, Benz, BMW. In one area there was a luxury car dealership on every corner in an intersection. Then down the street, a woman with her child in her hands held out her cup for change. On the subway, some children crawled around on the floor from person to person asking for money. Many of the poor people didn't look Chinese though, they looked Mongolian, with rounder faces and bigger eyes. Their cheeks were red and scaly. European aristocracy dominated the city for a long time and the architecture is very French and English. Beautiful buildings are everywhere, with large windows and ornate entrances and doorways. The other half of the architecture is that of modern Asia: huge skyscrapers soaring 80 floors above the streets, constructed of glass and metal, and in various shapes.

Highlights? Number one for all of us was the Propaganda Poster Art Centre. This man has collected hundreds of posters created during the Mao era. He features groups of them in a museum, organized by important years. Explanations on the type of art and the influences of society are posted so that the visitor can understand the message of the poster. The museum is in an unassuming apartment building in the basement. He has so many posters because after Mao died, people simply threw away the posters in the garbage. I believe that there were orders to discard all of the posters from the new government. This man had gone around and collected the discarded posters over time and now has this amazing exhibit. He also has hundreds of posters for sale. All sizes are available. He had postcard-sized pictures, black and white photos of workers, Mao and several other propaganda photos. There were 2 magazines from North Korea that were propaganda driven, with anti-western messages and photos depicting a starving and struggling South Korea. The store also had old Red Books, which were page after page of Mao's messages, poetry and ideas. The only bad thing about this was that he didn't take credit cards. Nor did I have any cash. I would've loved to have a large sized poster. However, it not really the right time to buy one anyway. I have his email address and one day I plan on getting a poster for my house, whenever that is. Anyway, Denise, Leesa and I were so impressed with the whole thing.

We also shopped. There is an H&M there. Since non of us have really bought any clothes in Korea, because we can't (too small, ugly and only one piece of most things), we were in this store for 3 hours. It was 4 floors of retail heaven. My arm hurt from carrying so many things. I'm surprised how little I walked away with. I was very selective and ended up with some shirts and jewelry, for under $100. After shopping, we went to a spa. Denise and I got a Japanese massage, manicure and pedicure for under $50. We were there for a few hours. Definitely time well spent.

Other highlights were the Maglev train from the airport (max speed of 431 km/h), the old town (very poor part of town, small houses, no flushing toilets or plumbing systems. Imagine the smell, but that is how most of China lives.), the market (thousands of people in one place for the new year), acrobats (the really tiny flexible ones), walking around with no agenda and meeting amazing people at our hostel. We partied in the little pub in the hostel every night. We didn't meet many teachers, but mostly people were just traveling from Argentina, England, Brazil, Spain, France, Scotland, Australia, Canada.

Some of the most random things happened too. One night we all got in a few cabs to go to a club. Turns out the club didn't exist and we all ended up driving around for about an hour. We nearly got run over by a few cars while crossing streets. I guess its pretty normal in most parts of Asia, but we had a walk sign each time. There was the swiss guy at the hostel who LOVED poutine and asked every single person that walked by if they knew where he could get some. Then there is the beauty of staying a mixed dorm hostel, for $4 a night per person. We met some really cool people in our 6 bunk room over the 5 days. One guy that was in our room talked, cried, wailed and moaned in his sleep. He had something going on, and I really felt bad for him. But we were woken up by him yelling "Why!? Why?!". It went on for a few hours. A while later, I woke up and he was standing in the middle of the room. Every other morning, he would rip a huge fart while he was still sleeping. I couldn't help but laugh out loud. I'm still in that potty stage of humour and farting makes me laugh, what can I say.

Its hard to sum up trips like this in a few paragraphs. I was looking through my pictures last night and so many things came back to me that I had forgotten already. That happens to me on every trip I go on. The trip happens, I feel a bit crazy and confused when I get home. But then I look at my photos and remember the fabulous moments that made the trip so awesome. Denise and Leesa are the greatest people to travel with. Through all the insults going back and forth, the really degrading nicknames and the tear-jerking laughter, I love them to death and would go anywhere in the world with them. We are all so different, and they both have qualities that I really admire.

Now I am back in Seoul. The people are better looking and have much nicer teeth, on the whole. The streets are a bit cleaner. I have a new appreciation for this city that I will call home for another 6 months.