Saturday, July 26, 2008

Shanghai (can't think of a good title)

I arrived in Shanghai this morning after an overnight train from Zhengzhou. Actually, I was a little sad to leave the dusty, god-forsaken hell hole and I was especially sorry to say goodbye to Wojciech, Xiao Fu and all the other people who have not simply wanted to practice their English with me. I had my last lesson with my summer course class on Saturday morning (I say lesson, we actually just watched Spiderman [although I made them do a dictation from one of the scenes where the number of explosions did not exceed the quantity of dialogue]) and a number of students gave me some gifts, which was very nice but as I received each present my luggage conundrum increased in difficulty.

As I said, I took the overnight train. Unfortunately the combination of all the vodka that Wojciech and I shared in the Korean restaurant in (what I imagine to be) a typical Polish farewell (....or hello, or congratulations, or consolations etc.), and the large quantity of tea I then drank made it particularly hard to sleep. But it wasn't so bad.

Shanghai is bloody hot: it may be so hot that even the mosquitoes have given up which is why I haven't been pestered by any so far. From what I have seen of the city in the hours I have been here, it is, for a Chinese city, extremely developed. However, this has not stopped them, in typical Chinese fashion attempting as much building work as possible. I don't really have any plans here apart from spend a few days wandering the city, not spending too much money and eating as much Chinese food as I can before I go.

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