American Students with our Chinese host sisters.

Calligraphy from the Shanghai History Museum. Pearl Tower at night- time, lit up with tons of lights.

View from the Financial Center in Shanghai.

We started off early this morning waking up and leaving at 7:30 after a western buffet breakfast.  We headed out on the tour bus with our tour guide Jackie.  We stopped at Tiger Springs and took a few pictures of the fountains and tiger statues.  Then we climbed the mountain in groups.   We had about 45 minutes to climb and meet back at the bottom.  The climb was tougher than we would have thought for some of us, including myself so it took longer than expected.  The climb was tiring but the view was amazing.   When we were making it down the mountain,  most of us took a wrong turn and went on a long hike out of the park to find the rest of the group.

We were running very late but made amazing timing to get to our train.  We came just in time and took a 3 hour train ride from Hangzhou to Nanjing.  We had sandwiches on the bus and a Chinese food dinner and then headed to the Hotel Ramada where we stayed for the night.  Many of us were hungry so we had a delicious room service dinner and then went to bed after a very long and eventful day.

The first stop of the day was the West Lake.  Even though the clouds rolled in, it was still a beautiful lake.  This picture was taken from boat that we were on as we took a tour of the lake.  The picture is of a tower at the edge of the lake and of a small boat passing in front of it.  The boat was a floating restaurant.  It would dock along the lake until filled with people and then would take off around the lake as people ate.

The next stop of the day was the Six-Harmony Pagoda.  The view was great from the top except that the view was exactly the same for each floor on the way up.  On the top of the pagoda, there was a sign that ment to say no littering but with the translation error, it said “no throws the thing”.  I found this little mistake to be very funny.

We then went to Flying Rock.  This was a mountain that had over three hundred Buddhist statues carved into it.  We were able to walk through caves were there were even more statues.  Most of us hiked up to the top of it only to find a rock that had Chinese written in it that would be translated into “top of Flying Rock”.  It was disappointing hiking up and only finding this.  We did so many things today and there are only going to be more places to see tomorrow!

In the afternoon, at the farewell party that the Shanghai students so graciously held for us we did all sorts of fun activities. At the beginning we showed them the slideshow that the Darien students made. It was required that each student make 4 slides with photos and captions to show what their stay was like with their host sisters. Each individual had to have a photo with them and their host family, a photo with their host sister doing something fun, a food they ate, and a photo of somewhere they had been. Afterwards, the Shanghai host sisters showed us their slideshow. Everyone had a blast and was laughing a ton with each photograph because it is true that a photo says a thousand words and each photo definitely had its own story.

After the slideshow the three hosts of the party invited everyone to play a game. It was similar to the game of charades where one person has to guess what another person is doing without speaking. It was hilarious watching the students try acting out a “crab” or the teachers acting out “martial arts”.

The next part of the farewell party was gift giving. The director of the international programs handed out presents to the Darien delegation. The gifts included the school’s uniform shirt and a framed picture of the Darien exchange students in front of the Shanghai No. 3 Girls’ School welcome sign. In return, the Darien students gave the Shanghai girls a bracelet that was blue and white and said Darien-Shanghai on it.

Unfortunately, everything comes to an end, and the party did come to a close. Not only did this mean that the Shanghai students were going back to class and the Darien students started to head outside to play volleyball and basketball, but it also symbolized that our time at the school was coming to a close. After our amazing two weeks here, we will have to say our goodbye’s, hop on a bus, and head off to our next destination – Hangzhou.

Our whole group met on the black top and all lined up in height order.  After a long warm up our teacher gave us a brief introduction to Kong Fu then began to teach us the basic steps.  It seemed that we all had a natural talent for Kong Fu, though some were better then others.  After attempting some more difficult moves, the teacher told us that time was up and that our lesson was over.

We went back up to the “Darien room” where we were told that we had to go attend a class with our host sisters; luckily most of us had physics.However, I was very jealous to hear that Stephen and Lidia got to watch a full episode of Law and Order in English during their sociology class.  After the music began to play (the equivalent of a bell, but prettier) we excused ourselves from class and scurried back to the Darien room.  The next period was spent in many different ways.  Some of our students enjoyed Bananagrams, while some just talked about the new prom gossip.  However, the most studious, such as myself, used the time to read.

The day started out as a very gross day and just before noon it got even worse. The addition of rain to the already cold and cloudy day was beyond terrible.  To make matters worse, our afternoon activities were outside.  At around 1:00 we boarded a bus to the Art Workshop.  As we arrived none of us knew what we were to expect. All we knew was that we were being taken to an art workshop.  It turned out to be an outdoor area set back behind a fresh food market.  It could be best described as a bunch of small alleyways lined with stores full of art and cafés.  We were told that we were to meet at the entrance after an hour and a half, and until then we were free to roam.  Graham and I immediately ducked under my umbrella and made our way through the tightly wound alleys that made up this Art Workshop.  Every step we took left our not-so-waterproof shoes soaking wet and by the time we found the New York Style Pizza we were already drenched.  It was the perfect thing for a not so perfect day.  We sat for about an hour enjoying six pieces of pizza and wondering what cafes or restaurants people had taken refuge in.  Although the weather wasn’t very cooperative and I would have loved to see all the art in the galleries, we had a great time and definitely took advantage of the tourist attractions.

Graham by a sign at the Art Workshop

With sopping wet feet we made our way back to the school via the school bus.  When we got back most of us again spread out and enjoyed our game selection.  With about ten of us surrounding one table with two packs of Bananagrams, and three people on the other side of the room using a chair to play Gin Rummy, we sat until our host sisters came to pick us up.  I went back to Lucy’s house and spent the night writing this summary of my day.

Stephen in the Art Workshop alleyway

As I sat watching with Emily Luongo and Annie, a group of Chinese students swelled around the court to watch the game, and soon afterwards, a game of Darien students vs. Shanghai students (plus one teacher) commenced.

Good effort was put forth from both sides, and Darien won by a slightly larger than narrow margin.  Although the Chinese students were disappointed by the loss, hopes for a rematch were in the air.  Shortly thereafter, we went back to the Darien room to learn the ancient Chinese art of seal carving.

Most of us found this to be somewhat arduous as we attempted to carve butterflies out of rock with flat, blunt blades. However, the payoff was worth it, and the teacher presented everyone with red ink stamps of our handiwork.

We spent the rest of the day playing basketball and sitting on the grass discussing our trips thus far.  After school, Zac, Katie, Catie, Graham, and I walked with our host sisters to get soup dumplings from a nearby restaurant called Yang Fryen Dumplings.  Soup dumplings look like typical dumplings on the outside, with dark golden brown fried bottoms, but the insides are filled with piping hot “soup” as well as typical meat fillings. They were delicious, and I was particularly happy because this was my first time having Shanghai’s famous soup dumpling on my trip.

At about 11:30 my host sister and I left to go to the science museum.  The museum was very big and an amazing building.  One part of it is a giant glass globe that is about 6 stories high.  The museum has many exhibits including ones about animals, humans, space, physics, etc.  All the exhibits are very interesting and amazing.  For example, the animal exhibit had real animals that have been stuffed.

Later in the day we saw an Imax show in the museum on the mysteries of Egypt.  It was one of those shows that is in a globe theater so when they do aerial shots it feels like you are actually there.  The show was pretty cool but in Chinese so I didn’t understand, but I was still able to somewhat follow the story.  After walking around some more we ran into Katy M. and her host sister and together we walked around for a bit and saw some more exhibits.

For dinner we had rice, broccoli, tofu in a creamy sauce.  There was also pigeon which tasted like chicken but it had a lot more bones and not so much meat.  There was also duck like the kind you can get in Chinatown, spare ribs, and mushrooms.  After dinner I responded to a few emails and then went to sleep while my host sister did homework.

We also had the pleasure of trying some of the delicious snacks that our host sisters often enjoy when they visit the Yu Garden. Some of the snacks included syrup covered strawberries and coconut milk. After finishing our snacks and shopping we stopped for a quick lunch and enjoyed sushi at a Sushi Bar there in the Yu Garden, then we were off to the Shanghai Zoo.