China

China was amazing!!! I had a blast!!

There is roughly 20 million people living in Shanghai. THeir houses are high rise apartments and yes they have laundry poles outside the windows to dry their laundry. THey live in compounds... The family I lived with lives in a compound with villas and high rises. They live in one of the villas, a 3 story house. It was a 3 bedroom 4 bath. Both kids had their own bathroom connected to their room. The floors were amazing, they were part hardwood and marble. That house would rent for 3500 usd a month. There are some that go for 6000 usd. Crazy Expensive!

The driving there is nuts!! I thought I was going to die the first 20 mins I was in the car. There are no rules basically. Luckily we had a personal driver, Mr. John) Oh yeah, pedestrians... don't have the right of way. You pray a lot when you're crossing the street.

Eating wasn't as bad as I thought. There were many westerized restaurants to eat at. I had Greek, Mexican, Italian, American, and of course Chinese.
There was actually a Hooters in Shanghai. The girls were soo funny! After I did the Chicken hokey pokey with them they asked me to fill out an application to work there! ha ha. They said I had the boobs for it!! now isn't that funny!!

Let's see what did I do... I went to the Pearl Market, lots and lots of jewelry for cheap. The fabric Market... I had a coat made for a little over $50 usd. I bought a ton of gifts for my family (I haven't even started in Korea, Jayson's a little nervous!!)

Oh... I had an hour long foot massage. Holy cow it was amazing. They started with a neck and upper back massage then did our feet. It was soo cheap 65rmb. Don't ask me to convert to USD... I always asked Shannon for help.

We went to a town called Puxi (I think that's how you spell it) anyways, it was the older part of Shanghai. Extremely poor area. They live in lane houses. There's a picture in my photo album that looks like an alley, that's it! That was a clean one. I couldn't go in half the stores because the smell was really bad.

The one thing that really grossed me out was everyone spitting, and peeing on the ground. Hello there are bathrooms. Oh yeah.. the bathrooms. I was fortuanate enough to have a westerized toliet to go to the bathroom, but there are squattie-potties. Basically a hole in the ground. Sorry I have no pics of that.

I was also amazed at how many Europeans actually live in China. Interesting I thought!

Lets just say it was a memorable experience! I've finally been somewhere Jayson hasn't! One for me!! he he