shopping!

14th October
Today we went to the yu gardens so that we could go to the tea house. We got a seat upstairs and we both got flower teas which were really nice. They also gave us some interesting snacks to eat! There were some little eggs that were really brown and I wasnt tempted to try them. The other things were ok, but not sure what they were. Afterwards we went for a little walk into the centre of shanghai and then we got the metro to the jinmao tower so we could go to the cloud 9 bar. I had a nice fruity cocktail and dad had a james bond martini which was so strong! It was really nice to go the bar during the day because the views were amazing.

15th October
Today was shopping day. We went to one of the fake markets and it was sooooooo exciting. It was just in one of the underground metro stations and as soon we got into the market there were people shouting "you want watch?you want bag?you want shoes?". We went to look at one of the watch stands and all the watches looked a bit crap, but then the guy started unlocking the drawers and pulled out loads of fake watches that looked really good so dad got one of those. I got a new Abercrombie coat which is really nice, altho its still really hot here so I wont be able to wear it for a while. But they had so much stuff that I really wanted to buy. We went to a cafe afterwards and there was an american guy there talking to a chinese couple. but he was asking them loads of questions like: "what do you think of the government?" "do you think censorship is a problem here?" etc etc. I felt so sorry for the chinese lady because her husband just got a magazine and ignored the american guy so she was just left to answer all the questions and she seemed really scared.
After that we went to peoples square because there was another market there. It was sooooo exciting. There were so many bags that I wanted to buy. Before I go home next year Im going to take loads of money and just get soooooooo much stuf.
In the evening we went for tea to a restaurant on the same road as the uni. The food was really nice and the woman was so excited when she realised that I could speak some chinese. After we finished the meal she came over to talk to me and asked me to follow her, so I did. And she took me to a fish tank to show me a huge fish. It was quite strange but she seemed really excited about the big fish so I pretended that it was really interested and so she was happy.

16th October
Frankie came back last night. I woke up when she got back but the light was off and I couldnt see her properly, and because I was half asleep I didnt think it was frankie and I was really stressed because I thought someone had broken into our room. So i lay in bed and didnt move, and then I thought it might be frankie so i said her name and she said "go back to sleep" so i did.
Didnt really do much today. Had class all morning, and then just dossed around. I bought a dvd at one of the markets so I watched that, and then did a bit of work.

17th October
This morning I had to get up at 5.30am to go to the airport with dad. After I said goodbye to him I got on the bus back and I was back in time for class. When we were in class the koreans were listening to umberella by rhianna and they were asking if we'd heard of her so obv we said yes. And then they were saying english bands that they liked - westlife and blue!!! During the break, one of the korean ladies had made some sushi for everyone so I had a bit of that and it was so nice. Altho she said it was korean food even though I thought that sushi was japanese.
Frankie and I went for lunch in the canteen. I hadnt been for ages, and it was sooooooo nice. I did some work in the afternoon, and then in the evening frankie and i decided to go somewhere different for tea and one of the guys on our course said that there uyghur restaurant just down the road. It was really nice and only 7yuan each!! Definately going to go back there. Afterwards we went to the supermarket and frankie got some dried fish for us to try (its a popular snack for chinese people). It was tasted alright, but I couldnt eat a lot of it because it smelt so bad. It smelt like those fish flakes that you feed to goldfish!