Shanghai and Home

My computer is still fried, which means a short entry sans pictures.

Shanghai was a completely different world from Anyang. It felt like two different countries. Within 2 hours of our arrival in Shanghai (by the way, our train was 8 hours late because of the massive rainfall and flooding along the way... the storm was pretty fun, actually), me and some others were sitting outside in large wicker chairs on a pedestrian walkway, eating Subway and listening to the Maroon 5 that was playing from the speakers.

Um, Subway sandwiches in Anyang? No. Maroon 5? Definitely not. Large, comfortable, wicker chairs? Nope. CLEANLINESS?! I think not.

(Note: I am not proud that I ate at an American fast food chain in China. Let it be known that I was frothing over the idea of bread, milk, and cheese, and Subway covered two of the three. It was also hard to find a place that wasn't western on the Nanjing shopping street. Plus other people were going. Yeah, blame the other people, that's good.)

That's just one way to put how different Shanghai was. I could also tell you that there is a Starbucks on pretty much every corner. That's also a decent way to describe it. Orla, my friend, put it really well, too: in Henan Province, we were foreigners. In Shanghai, we were tourists. She's completely right.

The trip ending in Shanghai was marvelous. Lots of sightseeing, lots of hanging out with cool Orbis people that I hadn't spent too much time with before, an awesome hotel... it was nice to just frolick around for the few days before we left. I also met Tasha twice, and that was phenomenal. Um, Angie, Matan, Sam, and whoever else: you have one awesome friend.

Because Shanghai was so, so different from the rest of my experience in China (oh, they obey traffic laws -- another huge difference), it obviously got me thinking a lot about all the different experiences someone can have in China and all the different ways one can view such a developing country. I thought about how my kids and fellow teachers in Anyang were just as amazed to see pictures of Shanghai as they were of Canada or the USA, which in my mind shows how detached the two places are. Shanghai is connected with the west in a way Henan Province is definitely, definitely not, and experiencing that contrast was eye opening.

I had much more to say. Good thing I waited this long, huh?

The journey home was 31 hours. I now have 17 days before I head off to Spain for the year. I might continue to update this with more pictures of China and other little vacations I'll be taking in the coming 2 weeks, or I might take a brief hiatus. At any rate, the wonderful world of Emma will be back in action no later than the 24th of August!

(Thanks to everyone who has read this. Really. It gave me a purpose to writing and sharing everything.)