Good morning everyone! It's night here, but soon you will all be waking up on this nice Saturday and hopfully you will all enjoy a wonderful day. I'm going to make this entry quick because we are heading out to the Canadian bar tonight. Hopefully I will see some people from The Homeland again tonight. Maybe this time they will have authentic Dutch names rather than German names. Anyway...

This morning we went into Shanghai with Professor Shang. We were originally supposed to go to the Development Center and the Museum, but rather than just Kendall and I going, some other people from the group went as well because they did not go to the Development Center last semester. So we went to the Development Center which was really cool. They had this amazing small-scale set up of this city, which was actually huge since the city is huge! It took up a whole room. They also had great exhibitions of what the city used to look like, and then again also exhibits of what they are planning for the city. Did you know that they are in the process of building this HUGE long 33.2 kilometers I believe (that's bigger than meters right?) anyway, it goes from the coast of Shanghai out to these islands where the ships will be coming into, and then trucks will drive from the mainland out and back in order to bring the shipments in. They are also going to build this little city on the mainland right off the bridge. I took pictures, it looks cool. Anyway, I really enjoyed the Development Center.

After that Shang took us to this AMAZING restaurant. It was so nice, and expensive! We walked into the building to this awesome entrance-way, and we were brought upstairs on this elevator. By upstairs I mean the 3rd floor of 6 floors. Then they brought us into our own personal room with this beautiful wood table and chairs with a really beautiful lazy-susan in the middle. The food ended up being great. I had eggplant for the first time since I got here and it was SO good. I took some pictures of this place so I will have to post them once I put them on my computer.

After lunch we decided not to go to the museum. The previous group went last semester and said it really wasnt great at all. They said that everything was a replica of what once was and the replicas were made in the 1990's. Everything had been destroyed when Communism occurred. I was okay with not going, I feel as though I've been getting plenty of Chinese History, and the Development Center was enough of a museum for me- sorry mom.

Instead we went to a foreign bookstore. It was pretty cool, but it was expensive because they were western prices. But I did find some chopsticks with my name on them! I was so excited. I was never able to find anything with my name on it when I was little, so it was impressive.

On the way home we got caught in a HUGE rainstorm. Of course we kept walking and got soaked. I didn't like to think about what was in that rain. Sick.

Then I read my book that I'm reading right now, Memoirs of a Geisha. It's a great book, better than the movie! I highly recommend it. And I ended up falling asleep for about 3 hours. Another nice nap. Mom you're right, it probably will take me 12 days to get on track. But I'm doing good so far.

Dinner tonight was really good too. We went to this muslim/chinese restaurant. We had this great beef dish that had American mushrooms and peppers in it. I miss real mushrooms, even though I had them at Hot Pot the other night. We also had this great lamb dish. It's a good thing I don't mind lamb, we get a lot of it over here.

Okay, well we are ready to head off to Plan B, the Canadian bar. I will write more tomorrow.

Devon, thanks for the message! I miss you and it was so good to hear from you!

Mom, I could do without chair covers if they are that expensive. Sorry that the fridge is busted again. Stupid fridge.

Baby boy, I will write you back soon. I don't have time right now. But I love you and I miss you tons. Show your mom the blog this weekend when you are camping. Have fun camping and know that I wish I was there with you. Enjoy it for me k? Tell Christopher Robyn I said hello and that I miss him. Hopefully when we head up to Glen Arbor we can spend a day with him. Anyway, I'm heading out. I Love you.