China - Day 7

We met in the lobby nice and early and divided into small groups.

• Middle: Caffeine good.

Each group was led by multiple CLFM students who would take us around the city based on our preferences of what we wanted to see (shopping, historical, or modern).  We elected to do a mix of modern and historic sights.

We started out at The People’s Square which is a small park surrounded by museums and the main government building.

Next, we headed to an old market area and walked through on our way to a famous garden.

• Top middle: Our first (the picture with me and this girl's boyfriend is on another camera) of many encounters with Chinese people who just want to take a picture with foreigners.  I don’t really understand why.
• Top and bottom right: Holy crap they have DQ (my all-time favorite) in China. I had to have some.

Then, we went to the tallest building in Shanghai and headed to the top.  The building had an awesome walkway at the top with glass floor panels that let you look out into the city.  It was a little foggy (actually smoggy) but it was still a nice view.

After that we headed back to the hotel to prepare for our river boat trip.  The boat trip was a couple of current students/alumni from MBA programs in Shanghai (including the CLFMs) and us mixing on a boat.  We were told that we had to prepare a cultural dance and since America has no culture this was quite difficult.  We elected to do the Electric Slide.  We met in the lobby before the tour to practice the dance and had everything planned out.  Well it turns out that the Chinese students did not really prepare anything.  They had one guy play a traditional instrument and it was while we were mixing with students.  After two hours of mixing (with an open bar) we were ready for something else so we decided to kick it up a notch and dance anyway.  We started with a little Electric Slide, transitioned into a little Cupid Shuffle, and then finished with the song Tonight’s Gonna be a Good Night which involved us jumping and regular dancing.  After that we just kept the dancing and music going.  We had B-rad rockin the Iphone playlist and it was hot.  A fist pump battle between Jeremy and myself definitely broke out and when Cotton Eyed Joe came on Jeremy and I introduced the Chinese to a hoedown.  The Chinese students mostly stood to the side and watched (one girl continued to try to network in the middle of the dance floor) but we did not care, we had a good time.

From 3-20-10 Shanghai

From 3-20-10 Shanghai

From 3-20-10 Shanghai

From 3-20-10 Shanghai

From 3-20-10 Shanghai

After they kicked all of us off the boat and we got back to our hotel we went out for food.  My group was hammered (open bar on the boat) and we somehow found a hot-pot place with absolutely no English menus and no one who spoke English.  The pictures tell the story which involved the employees laughing at us for most of the meal.

• Top left: Jeremy selecting random items on the menu to throw into our hot-pot
• Top middle: Confirmation that the random things we ordered is correct (followed by laughing)
• Top right, middle left, middle middle: Discovery that our chop stick/napkin pack contained plastic gloves
• Middle right: The hot-pot arrives
• Bottom left: The food we ordered arrived…what is it…so does it go in the pot…which side of the pot…is it done cooking…where we eating after this?
• Bottom middle: Me embarrassed by Anuj…story to follow

So after trying the random things we ordered, a table near us had a large plate of meat and normal vegetables delivered…and this excited us greatly.  Anuj chased down our waitress and brought her to their table and pointed at the things we wanted…so in the end we had fun and a great meal.  After that went to a club and got in sometime around 4 AM…and the sight-seeing cars were scheduled to arrive at 8 AM…