20080806-Good bye Guiyang, Hello Shanghai (Andy)

After all the craziness of waking up at 5:30AM with everyone still half asleep, we finally arrived to the airport. We travelled on plane for 3 hours and arrived to Shanghai around noon. The taxi from the airport to our hotel was only 34 Yuan surprisingly and it was insane seeing a lineup for taxis at the airport and 50 taxis waiting there for people. We got to our hotel which was a two star hotel, and unpacked our stuff. We went out to lunch with Nhat’s friend Eagin at a dumpling place, which was awesome! It was one Yuan for one sew long bao and 5 Yuan for a bowl of dumplings. We finished off our afternoon by eating at a dessert place after our lunch and walking around some streets playing a game where we had to spot white people. Surprisingly, we saw about 5 or 6 of them on different occasions. We played “Bang!” and napped until 7:30. Next, we met up with Nhat’s other friend who showed us to this Hong Kong restaurant that was the equivalent of your typical Congee Queen/Wong, etc. in Toronto. We ordered so much food and it tasted even better than the food in Toronto.

After the meal, Jack and I went to the barber shop so I could get a haircut. Jack went off for a walk, while the barber tried to converse with me even though I did not understand half of the things he said. Next, the barber took advantage of the fact that I could not speak mandarin and asked me if I want to do extra stuff with my hair and not being mindful, I agreed to it. By the time Jack was back, the barber had already started his “procedure” and I realized I had to pay an extra 188 Yuan for them to put aluminum foils around each large strand of hair. The barber used a machine after to heat up my hair and dry off the special gel he put on my hair. After the haircut, my hair has been able to stand up or go down every time I brush, so now I don’t have to use gel. The lesson behind all this was, G takes every penny from you for every penny you take from him. Although these barbers have scammed me, I think G was trying to reveal to me that I haven’t been giving to offering for a while. We ended the night with devos and here I am blogging about our day. Please remember me and ask that I be healthy, since I had 5 upset stomachs today, and right now I get tired really easily. Thanks for remembering us.

Andy