And the adventures begin .....: SHANGGERRSSS

Shangerss

so we luckily got a week off holiday so we decided to visit shanghai the five of us and meet up with some long lost fellow teachers gary lois and dave , we also met kim who was another teacher part of the TEIC group but he couldn't make it to camp so we met him for the first time in shanghai and so the trip began ...

Sunday :

so it normally takes 10 hours to get to shanghai but we got a 20 hours train there, as you do, on hard seats :/ there was no sleepers left :s. so we worried before the trip even started . sunday came the day of travelling we stocked up on snacks and food ready.we got safely onto the train no problems got our seats no issues so a great start to the epic journey. we made a friend within the first half an hour who wanted to talk about japan and china , WORST TOPIC EVER!!! it was so awkward everyone was listening on the train :/ . we killed the tension by me teaching the chinese guys sat next to us how to play snap it was the best ever, kept us entertained for a while. the train journey wasnt that bad i mean we didnt get a good night sleep and i felt really ill on the way there but it was cheap and we got there safe and sound.

Monday:

we arrived in shanghai at half 9 and made our way to the hostel , the hostel was lovely we were all sharing a room 3 bunk beds wooop . we chilled for a bit unpacked then hunger set in and we went to meet kim . we went to a beef noodle restaurant which was nice and where jen got lost when going to the toilet and rang us asking where she was haha was funny she found her way back thankfully.we wondered around shanghai taking in the sights exploring the bund the main river and side streets and we ended up bumping into the other teachers in Shijiazhuang kelly, david, dee , able and caught up. we were very tired so wondered and rested then we got ready to go out for food and drinks. We went to a restaurant not too far from the hostel for connivence turned out to be a halal restaurant so we couldn't have beer :( food was lovely ended up being very spicy . we went to a bar and drank beer played some drinking games then went to kelly's hostel drank some more and played pool was good fun :) . made our way to a bar windows too where we meet a lot of the other fellow teachers in our city was good fun to catch up i left early as i was still tired from travelling.

Tuesday :

we treated ourselves to an english breakfast the next day to prepare ourselves for the day . we went to a museum where they had lot of interesting pieces in particular russian fabarge eggs. when then met up with BGD - big gay dave who looked fitter as he had lost a lot of weight it was great to see him , we then made our way to the bund to meet lois and gary :D gary brought a chinese friend with him steven who was lovely. we decided to go to the famous bell tower all together we got a boat over which was beaut as the sun was going down so got some lovely pics of the river. we were all a bit peckish and wanted some english food so we went to hooters it was so nice eating english food and got to use a knife and fork again was so weird, it was stevens first time using a knife and fork it was so funny to watch . we got to the pearl tower and it ended up being very very expensive to go up steven knew of others to go to so we went to these but the queues were huge so we back to the hostel to get ready to partttyy. - pictures and info of this night will follow in another blog :)

Wednesday:

very hungover and wanted quick food so we got mc donalds terrible i know but we were on holiday. we went to the shanghai zoo ( another blog to follow up on this ) steven took us to one of his favourite restaurants hotpot its where you get a massive bowl of hot water which you add spices to and then boil your choice of meat and veg it was ok we added too much spice to the water we were distracted by the people next to us eating brain ewwwwwwwwwwwww a pigs one too :(.we chilled at the hostel and had a few beers there.

Thursday:

so we did what girls do best and shopped all morning i hung round with kim our room mate in the hostel and lois . kim was an amazing bargainer and i ended up getting some really nice jumpers, dresses sun glasses and shoes cheap :).we then went to a little side cafe for food was nice :) pointed out what we wanted with a mop haha. we then decided to all go on boat trip but we ended up separating up because we were all sick of waiting for each other. me, jen, dave and kim went off to the Shanghai World Financial Center (SWFC; Chinese: 上海环球金融中心) 472m high ( a blog with follow on this tower as i think its well deserved :)after the tower we had a nice meal for the 4 of us and had an early night ready for fridayyyy.

Friday:

todays was gary's fake birthday as we were leaving saturday as his actually b day was sunday. me jen kim and dave decided to explore shanghai as much as we could we went to yu gardens which i will tell you now it is the most beautiful place i have been in china the pictures will never justify the true beauty and amazingness of this place again these pictures have been given their own blog and this will follow another day :). after the gardens we wondered around shops and dave and I found a present for gary which was well suited to him , gary had a tendency to introduction himself to every chinese person as sponge bob square pant. 'Wor shi Hǎimián bǎobǎo' so we bought him a massive toy :)even though we knew he had no room in his suitcase and would have to carry it on the plane hahahahahahahahahaha!!! Then we went to the french concessions where is an area in shanghai where all the buildings are European i personally didn't find it the most amazing thing in the world i mean it was interesting but i think it would be more interesting for chinese tourists dave LOVED it and was very camera happy :P. Then we cleverly thought seen as we still had kim with us we would go shopping again and take advantage of the cheaper clothes and shoes so we went shopping againnn :). got dressed in our gladrags for our last night in shangerrsss and gary's birthday. we went for a meal all together it was lovely . antics of the night will follow with the another night in a separate blog :D

Saturday:

woke up hungover but also ill :( from drink and something else i was being sick and had the shits :( which was the best combo for the long train journey of the shorter version of 18 hours yaaayyy. it cleared up thankfully before we got on the train, this journey was much easier . I watched tv and listened to music and actually slept for a lot of the trip.

This week off was exactly what i needed i was having a tough time with the kids and losing my faith in teaching but this week of fun restored happiness and seeing gary lois and dave made my week it was so nice catching up. Had an amazing time wish i could go back 2moro but i am glad to be back teaching and the kids have been good recently the balance has been restored :)

enjoy ...