Good bye Shanghai...

Well this one is actually in real time. I've been going back to update the days I've missed, but this one is the real deal. Yesterday a majority of the group went back to North Dakota leaving only 4 of us to stay another day in this Number One city. I spent yesterday just relaxing and taking more time to see funny signs and take pictures of them. Including the MaoFC, a funny restaurant I just couldn't bring myself to eat at. I was finally able to see people painting calligraphy in the park with brushes and water. Thank goodness for small wonders that it must have been my time to see it. We visited the biggest mall I've seen in a long time and because I packed my dress shoes, went on a mission to find some. Not realizing that 9.5 is an unheard of size in China, I left feeling pretty down.

About two blocks from our hotel, I was half spaced out as usual when out of nowhere I spotted a small shoe shop. It was about the size of 1/3 of a UND dorm room and the shopkeeper was (to me at least) shouting at the other man in the store. This snapped me back into focus as I needed to realize 2 things: 1- This guy is Shanghainese and this is a normal volume level. 2- When I began to try on shoes, sitting on a stool brought me to his eye level. I bought a nice pair of shoes for about $8 USD and this small man saved the day. He even gave me a discount without me even asking, telling me that shoes on the close by shopping street (Huahai Lu) were too high and he was glad that I bought from him instead.

This morning I said goodbye to the last of my group that remained as they headed off to the airport at 6:30am. Yeesh, I'm glad I don't have to do that for about 2 more weeks. I leave at 5pm for Guilin. It is in south eastern China and is in the mountains. It's supposed to be one of the most beautiful places in China, and I'm on a mission to find it out first hand.

Don't know if I'll be able to access the web there, so if you don't hear from me I'll be in HK on June 18th.

I do also want to let everyone know how happy I am to hear that my dad is doing amazingly better than when I left in May. He's back in Northwood, able to be off the vent for large periods of time, and even goes driving around with my mom (although I'm pretty sure he's not doing the driving). Please give him a hug from me if you see him and tell him to keep up the good work. I look forward to seeing you back in better health, because we all know that "normal" is a very relative tearm in our family. I miss you and love you all.

Now I'm going to get on a train for 26 hours and see if I don't go stir crazy. As always, more to come...