So, it has been nearly a month since I wrote a blog entry. I think that I have pretty good excuses for this. I don't remember what my excuse was for the first two weeks, but the next week was mid-terms week, so I was busy studying, and the week following was VACATION WEEK! WOOO! Some fun stuff happened before mid-terms and vacation, like checking out a Buddhist temple for a weekend (I have a particularly fond memory of jogging up the mountain that said temple was on in the moonlight. Quite beautiful), but most of my mind at the moment is preoccupied with things a bit closer to the present, and I want to write about my fall break before I forget the details.
On Friday I had my Chinese mid-term: damn was that easy! I at least expected it to be longer than our regular bi-weekly tests, but it was both the same length (2-3 pages) and was pretty easy. I'd like to attribute that to my good study habits, but in all reality I got tired of studying a day or two before the test itself happened, so my preparation immediately pre-test time was minimal. After all, staring at a stack of 500 flashcards of Chinese words is pretty good motivation to go watch a movie or something. Anything to avoid another mind-numbing cycle of going through flashcards, really. Anyway, after the test, my roomie and I headed to the bank. This is because my account was running low and I wanted to check my activity to see if it was all correct. Unfortunately, there has been no errors or anything. I have burned through 1,000 US dollars already. Shit! Even in China where things are cheap, too many times eating out and too many taxis sure added up. That was disappointing, and I spent a little while mentally beating my self up over it. I decided that I would just use my credit card for fall break, and after that be super frugal. I plan to get a "job" in Beijing teaching English too, to add to supplement the 124 yuan in my bank account here in Beijing. But enough of money worries. On to the fun stuff.
Friday evening Jamie, David, Eric Swanson and I hopped on a train (soft seat) at Beijing Train Station, heading for Shanghai. I slept fine on the train, although it would have been nice if the overhead lights had been turned off. I finished my audio book of "Call of the Wild" while on the train, and we arrived in Shanghai the next morning at about 7. We hopped on the Subway to go to our host's place, and exited out of the wrong subway station (although it was just right across the street from the correct one) and spent about two hours wandering the streets first trying to make sense of the directions, then trying to locate the streets and landmarks, and finally being ecstatic when we managed to locate one of the streets he mentioned. When we arrived as Manfred's place, the door was closed, there was no doorbell, and no one came when we knocked. I was worried that it was a bust, but after a few minutes of knocking a skinny man in a towel came to the door. This was Manfred, and he had just gotten out of the shower. We soon met Shu Shu and Eric Xu, Shu Shu being Manfred's Chinese girlfriend (Manfred is Italian) and Eric being a Chinese-American who had just recently come to Shanghai, and was living with Manfred. We said some hellos, relaxed for a little bit, dropped our stuff off, and headed out. Eric was going to go out searching for a pick-up game of ultimate frisbee that he had located online previously, and when he invited us to tag along we were eager to go. We failed to find the game, but ended up spending the afternoon at Century Park in the Pu Tong area (eastern park of the city). We wandered around a bit, talked, and eventually settled on a spot of grass for napping, since the other guys were tired from having not slept very well on the train last night.
I was fine though, so I spent a while talking to Eric about various things. It definitely bordered on being one of those "deep" conversations, and we talked about his travels and work, differences between Chinese and American youth, and teaching and performing. After a while I got up and started playing with my ribbon, and Eric gave it a shot too. The other guys woke up after a while, and we walked nearby to an interesting structure. I think it used to be the center support pole for a tent or something, but now it was just a big steel pole with some cables hanging from it... or at least that is all it would have been to a lesser mind. I saw the potential for play, though. With David's help, we invented "human tether ball." Swinging on these cords got the attention of some nearby Chinese people, and one or two guys gave it a shot, while some families and ladies took pictures and watched. Chinese people are normally pretty timid and shy, but when you provide them with opportunity and set an example for them it is surprising what wild things they will do! Eric was certainly surprised to see the Chinese people participating in our crazy little game of swinging from cable to cable. While leaving the park, in such a good mood from the human tether ball, Dave and I did a little leapfrogging, and got some good pictures out of it too. 
We hopped on the subway and headed to downtown Shanghai for the Jin Mao tower, supposedly the tallest in Shanghai, but that info in our guidebook was false! We viewed it from a dozen different angles, and another building right next to it was at least a few stories taller. Nonetheless, we didn't know that yet, and Jamie and Dave wanted to see the top floor, the 88th. I didn't feel like paying the 50 kuai fee for getting up to the 88th floor, so I suggested we try and get to the bar on the 87th floor for free. After taking an elevator up to the hotel lobby, and then another elevator to a second lobby, and then a third elevator up to the bar, we were rewarded with a great view. We had a 10 minute wait (which was spent gleefully gawking out of the windows at the city far below), and then we sat down at a table and were shocked by the prices. I was all for leaving. After all, we had what we came for (the view), so why should be give them ludicrous amounts of money for their food and drinks? But, experiencing tyranny of the majority (not for the last time on this trip, I must say) we ordered a few drinks and a few desserts, ate a helluva lota free munchies which I guess came with getting a table, and enjoyed the evening view from the tower. After that though, we were hungry for some actual food, so we headed to a nearby mall and food court, ordered some fast noodles, and ate 'em up.
I'm a bit tired of writing right now, so I am gonna save the rest for later, maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day. I am interviewing a Chinese acrobat tomorrow, as well as doing my volunteering for the anti-desertification NGO at Beijing Agricultural University.
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