Shanghai

October 1st is China's National Holiday. Unlike America's National Holiday, China gets 7 days off for the celebration of one day! October 1st through the 7th is a HUGE holiday in China. One of the biggest. This means, any type of traveling will be stressful, and most definitely a test of patience. So, what did we decide to do? We went to Shanghai to the World's Fair! (Expo) Probably the busiest place in China at this time. Well, it turned out to be very busy, but actually not as bad as we expected. The "we" in this case is me, Stan, Kevin Westmoreland, and Emily & Paul Richardson. So, while we were in Shanghai, we did other things than just going to the Expo. We went to see "The Bund" which is very famous in Shanghai. We walked up to where everyone would be to see the skyline of Shanghai at night and it was packed! It was just ridiculous. During these situations, I have learned to not try to fight it if I can. I didn't care about seeing the skyline with no one in front of me enough to fight the crowd, so me, Kevin, and Emily stepped back and had plenty of room around us. All three of us were standing in a horizontal line, looking at the skyline. We were close to each other, as in inches between our bodies. There was a 5 foot circumference surrounding us: plenty of room for anyone to walk by us without getting touched. Well, here's the reason for blogging...


Let me set this up for you: As if you were looking at the three of us from behind, Kevin is on the left, Emily is in the middle, and I am on the right. We were standing there, minding our own business when Kevin and Emily are blasted from behind and pushed out of the way by a woman who just NEEDED to get a picture of the skyline. So, when this happened we gave each other the "Oh China" look, chuckled, and quickly returned back to our spots. So, this woman took her much needed picture and turned around to go back through where she decided to enter the first time (through 2 human beings). This time, Emily and Kevin stood their ground and looked straight ahead. (Their stone-like ability was artistic). After the woman knew she wasn't getting through that side, she came to the other side of Emily to where I was and tried to burst through us. Keep in mind, we are completely facing forward...looking at this woman. Also keep in mind the 5 foot circumference surrounding us. Yeah. So, then the lady decided to call out to the person she was going to retrieve, and THEN walked around us. After that, we all shared blank stares and then Kevin said, "You need to blog about that Juliane." Haha! So, I did. I can't tell you how many times I have been pushed and shoved in this country in the past year. And it's something you can get used to (somewhat). But I have never seen anything like this. It was just crazy. This country is just so different and it definitely never gets old!

I knew all of you who have been in China would appreciate this one! I just hope you made it through it and understood. I'm sure you did. :) Well, thanks for reading! Don't forget to think about me in China! I love you all!