So I haven't posted in a while since I've been so busy, so this will be a long-ish one. I should really be doing my homework right now, but this is procrastination at it's best. I realized I never described where I live, so I'll do that right now. I live on the 16th floor of an apartment that's in an apartment complex. All the apartments look ridicuously similar, I've already walked into the wrong one three times. The apartment itself is extremely small. You walk right into a small area that contains a kitchen table and a fish tank. Right next to the kitchen table is two doors that lead into two bedrooms. The kitchen table space also opens up to a small living room where there's a wooden couch set and a tv. Lastly, there's another door that leads to the bathroom and the kitchen. The kitchen is tiny, maybe just a little bigger than my pantry back at home. I guess I've never really appreciated how much living space I have back at home, but this is already a pretty well-off apartment in Shanghai, considering the real estate prices here.  Now for what I've been doing. Thursday of last week I went volunteering at a institution for mentally and physically handicapped people. It was truly a humbling, and even shocking experience. It was aboslutely heartbreaking to see some of the people there. There was one girl in particular that really stuck in my mind. She was 28 years old, but she could have passed for 11. She couldn't speak or move; she simply lay on the bed and looked at me. However, above her bed was a picture of a beautiful little girl. Her caretaker said that's who she had been when she was 13, before she was struck with a fever that robbed her of her intelligence and basic functions. There were also many people there who suffered from depression, seizures, down syndrome, and other mental illnesses I couldn't understand in Chinese. I tried speaking to them, and I feel like I succeeded in bonding a little bit with some of the children there before we left. Nevertheless, it was extremely, extremely sad to see.  I also spent my 18th birthday in Shanghai, whooooo! I started off by exploring a Shanghai church with my friends in the morning. We sat through the service, but goodness gracious it was the longest sermon I've ever sat through in my life. The fact that Chinese sermons are extremely hard to understand didn't help. (They had an english translation through a headphone, but the tranlator kept snorting mid-translation which would send my friends and I into fits of suppressed laughter, so we gave up on that route). The church itself was really pretty, it was built in the style of a gothic cathedra. Later, my host family took me out for hot pot, which is when you order dishes of raw meat or uncooked vegggies, and throw them in a huge pot of boiling soup in the middle of the table. The dishes cook really fast, so you then take out whatever's in the pot after a couple of minutes and eat it.  Although today wasn't my birthday, my friends on this trip celebrated with me again today, since I was out with my host family today. They got me some really cool presents, and took me out for sushi dinner. Afterwards, we all went to see the night scenery at the bund, which is the area where all the postcard Shanghai skycrapers are. The view was gorgeous, and standing there made me really thankful for having the oppurtunity to come here. This Saturday our whole group will be going to SuZhou, which is a hour or so away from Shanghai, so more updates later!