Nex blog post

It's nearing the end of week four, and I can't believe time's flying by so fast. Today's really the first day in a while that I've had time to sit down and go through all my emails, and it's almost nice to have a breather. I'll start where I left off last time, which is with the trip to SuZhou. We visited three places: Shi Zi Lin, a place with really cool rocks that are supposed to look like lions; Han Shan Si, a famous temple; and Hu Qiu, an ancient burial ground/memorial that looked more like a cool garden than anything else. At Han Shan Si, people throw coins on the roof of the temple for good luck. I was standing on the balcony above one of the tiers (the temple was in the form of a pagoda), and I was digging out my wallet for a penny to throw. Before I knew it, my metro card had fallen out of the wallet and onto the roof of the temple. I almost hopped the rail to go get it, but some lady came out with a big stick to poke it down to the ground, and by the time it fell there was a crowd of people watching and being pretty entertained. My friend also somehow managed to break off a shingle to the roof of a 2000 year old house- go figure on how he managed to do that one. 

This week, I also visited YuYuan, a famous tourist attraction in Shanghai. It's filled with old styled Chinese architecture. Since I went at night, all the pagodas and such were lit with Christmas lights, and it was absolutely beautiful. I went twice- the first time with my host mom, and the second time with my friends. The first night I went, my host mom and I walked into the entrance plaza and noticed a small group of people crowded around five guys who were dancing to hip hop music. Naturally, we went over to watch too. What I didn't expect was my host mom shoving me into the middle of the dance circle. It was incredibly weird at first, but I figured standing there doing nothing was more awkward than dancing, so I decided I might as well. However, American hip hop is quite a bit different then what the guys were doing, so as soon as I started moving, the other guys just sat down to watch and stranded me by myself in the middle of the circle. Next thing you know, there's a crowd of about 100 people around the dance circle cheering me on. Definitely one of the weirder things I've done, but hands down one of the funnest and most memorable. 

I'm still not homesick, but I would be lying if I said I didn't miss pasta and chicken salad. Still, the one thing that I miss the most about America is the public bathrooms. I never realized how nice they were. Here, public bathrooms are usually squatty potties, lacking toilet paper (you have to bring your own), and lacking soap (which is where hand sanitizer comes in handy). They smell pretty bad, and finding a public bathroom with real toilets has become a pretty big deal. 

Last weird thing that I've noticed. Dogs in Shanghai are some of the cleanest, nicest, and most beautiful that I've ever seen. You would think there would be a lot of stray mutts wandering around, but there isn't at all. Every single dog looks like they just came out of a grooming salon. Many of them don't even have leashes, because for some reason dogs in Shanghai don't run away when they're not chained. Props to Shanghai dog owners!

 This weekend, my host family is taking me vacationing with them. We're going somewhere that's basically the China version of Venice- there's waterfront houses, boats, the whole deal. I'm super duper excited because I've always wanted to see a water town, so yay for wishes coming true!