Tuesday, September 2, 2008

The last two days have been.....

Interesting!! to say the least.
Shall we discuss the craziness we call the flight over. From Minneapolis into Chicago wasn't soo bad. We got into Chicago about half hour early, still just enough time for us to RUN to the next terminal. We got there in enough to stand for about 5 minutes and then board for our next flight. Wait...we did manage a QUICK bathroom stop in the airport. Our LAST bathroom stop on American ground for the next 2 weeks. AAh heavenly bliss! We then crawled onto our flight straight for Shanghai, China! AAH sleep!! We have 14.5 hours to sleep before we land in Shanghai. Awesome! We purposely sleep deprived ourselves the night before we left so we could sleep on the plane due to the time differences between here and back home in the States. We landed in China about 12:45am back in the States, which was 1:45pm our time here in Shanghai. We no sooner got on the plane and they were feeding us, which was a decent meal. We had our choice between chicken or beef, I had beef and Jess had chicken. I asked what the difference was between the two, and they said nothing. Apparently not! The beef came with mashed potates and gravy, and the chicken with white rice. But there's no difference? Um, ok! Shortly after eating we took a short nap. About 2.5 hours to be exact. We were awoken to a very young handsome man sitting behind us kicking our seats. For the next 9 hours or so we screwed around on the plane and wasted time. We did everything you could think of to waste time, we watched a movie, played games on the inboard council, talked to the handsome young man behind us, talked.... you get the point. We were fed a small snack in the process of this which consisted of a ham and cheese sandwich, not bad considering it was an international flight into China. With about 4 hours left of our flight we took another short, and I mean SHORT nap. I was awoken to Jess hitting me and yelling "food!" Food it was! I was awake. I was hungry by this time due to the time I was used to back in the states. Jess had the noddle dish, and I had the "cheese pizza." I wish I had taken a picture to show you, it was rather comical. The pizza is nasty, but Jess's noodles were good. Good thing something good came of that meal. For the last 4 hours of our flight we spent in really nasty terbulance. We weren't even allowed out of our seats due to the terbulance. For the last entire 12 hours we have spent listening to the young handsome man sitting behind us we shall refer to as "Alex" as he referred to himself as "Alex." Alex told us all kinds of interesting things, and asked us lots of questions, and told us lots of family secrets. He finally quited down and quit bothing us in the last 2 hours of the flight. At which point they fed us, cleaned up and we landed all with in a 1.5 hours! We got into Shanghai, and off our flight okay. We stood at baggage claim for a REAL long time wondering if our luggage even arrived in Shanghai with us, or not. Well as it turns out it did! We then cleared customs and immigration, and went to go find my Mom. We came out of the gate, and no Mom. So we walked, and walked and walked and...... BATHROOM!! Oh, um.. bathrooms China style? That was interesting. First, when you walk into the bathroom you have to go up a few steps just to get into the stall, then discover their idea of toilet paper, come out to wash you hands, (did I mention your lucky if there's soap to wash your hands??) and nothing to dry them with. So we used our sweatshirts we were wearing. Then off to find Mom again....Mom??? Hello? Where are you? You said you were going to be at the airport when we got in, where are you? So we walked back on down by the gate one more time, and to no avail. so we found a chair and went and sat down as I needed to tend to my blood sugar. After about 20 minutes of sitting Jess and had discussed multiple times what we were going to do, or well, not do if we didn't find Mom anytime soon. (we never did figure that part out?!?) Mom shows up. Turns out they had told people we were in the other terminal in a totally different building than where we were so she couldn't find us, and we couldn't find her. So off to the taxi to come home. Now that is some WILD driving. If you didn't have an anxiety order before crawling into a taxi, you will have one when you get out! Us poor unsuspecting victims! Do they secretly drive the city streets of Shanghai looking for their next victim or what?! Seriously, they drive all crazy like here. I count my blessings evcery time I get out of a taxi safe and sound and in one piece!! So, "home sweet home" We came home unpacked our stuff, and sat down on the couch. *OOPS* We were about asleep, that 5 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours was surely catching up to us. So QUICK change clothes, and off to dinner we went. We went to a lil' bar called Abbey Road, it's a based off the Beatles music. Neat quiet, lil' hole in the wall restaurant. We had Sangria, and burgers. Very good burgers! Back home took showers and off to bed. We were so tired we don't remember our heads hitting the pillows by 9:30pm that night. Yesterday, seems so long ago I can hardly remember what we did. Wait, I think it's coming back to me slowly......
We took our time getting up and ready to go, and around 12:00pm we finally left. We took the subway into downtown Shanghai, and spent some time walking around and checking things out. We ate lunch and this nice outdoor cafe, and walked some more. They have a really neat Hershey's chocolate shop here. If you can't find it there you probably won't find it anywhere in Shanghai. We then went to a restaurant called Kabb. Again really neat lil' outdoor cafe where we enjoyed a plate of chicken wings, nachos and a pitcher of Lemon margaritas. YUMMY!! Chicken wings here are huge compaired to what we are used to back in the States, and the nachos we're some of the best nachos I've had in years, and the margaritas well they were an added BONUS! Monday's are Margarita Mondays. Then home for the evening. We put a movie on and I most certainly fell asleep, right on cue around 7:30-8:00. Jess stayed a wake for a bit longer than myself watching the movie. Did I mention she's pretty sick right now with a sinus infection? Ha, I think not. More like a virus, or something nasty. Poor girl :(. Off to today....
This morning we again took our time getting ready to go. We left about ten to noon to go get pedicures and manicures, which took about 2 hours, but felt GREAT! Then we went to downtown Shanghai again Mom went tanning and Jess and I went to check out a lil' shop and have some Starbucks. Yes, folks I said STARBUCKS! They really truely are everywhere. Here in Shanghai alone, I can count 4 that I know of. There must be more! Then off to the grocery store to get some stuff for dinner, and some snacks for the evening. We watched "27 Dresses" ate some dinner, had a snack, and are approaching 9:30pm and thinking about bed again. Tomorrow, well that is yet to be determined. Tomorrow you will hear of our tails from Jess and will most certainly post you all some pictures of the nice young handsome Alex from the plane and Jess with the Dragonfruit, and some silly ones of us two girls. Until then...... night!