Today was SUCH a chill day it was AWESOME. In the morning, I went with my MMK team to breakfast at this wonton/ dumpling restaurant across the street from our hotel. It was pretty good…nothing special, though. It was more for the company I guess.
Then, we hung out with the cultural exchange students until they had to go to the airport at 12pm. We played mafia and other card games and just sat around and talked while we said goodbye…it was SO SAD :( :( :( :( :( I wanted to cry…and a few people did start crying. All the cultural exchange students are going back to America…and the Chinese university students are going back to their hometowns (a lot of them aren’t from Shanghai). So it was almost like the end of OUR program too, because their program ended. It’s so sad…I LOVED my team…I honestly feel closer to them than I feel to the study abroad group I’m with. I think I really clicked with them, a lot better than I did with the study abroad students. I always felt like I was with family when I was with them…and they always made me laugh. It’s not the same for the study abroad group…I don’t always feel so candid with them. I’m going to miss them so much…I hope to visit Tao in Texas someday, and Tiffany will come to LA for her sister’s graduation, and then I will see Michael in Beijing next weekend (we’re going there with our moms), and Alex is going to be here until August 5, and Ariel & Chris will be here next month too, so it wasn’t totally like saying goodbye…but it’s still so strange that I won’t be in the same hotel with them, seeing them as often as I did these past 2 weeks. It’s so strange..how close we could become in just 2 weeks. I almost feel like these people are my best friends, like they might know me better than my friends at home do. It’s strange what being in a whole different country can do to you. With my MMK team, it brought out my true self. (in the picture, we're finishing a team huddle)
After all the crying and reminiscing and sad, LONG goodbyes, we went to hang out with our MOMMIES!!!!!!! I can’t believe they’re in China..it’s so strange! Me and Joanna still can’t get over the fact that they came here just to see us. So for the afternoon, we went to People’s Square and SHOPPED AND ATE!!! Our two favorite things :) For lunch we ate some takoyaki, egg custard, oden stuff (I don’t know what it’s called in Chinese…that’s what it’s called in Japanese), and had some interesting dessert at Raffles City shopping center. We went to People’s Park too, and it was super pretty but SO CROWDED! Apparently there was like this matchmaking service where you post your resume & info on a clothesline type thing, and then I guess everyone comes around and looks at it and then contacts you. I guess it’s like the Chinese eharmony.com. Then we went to the underground mall and I bought LOTS of stuff :) I knew I would shop a lot with my mommy, so I haven’t been buying that much these past 3 weeks. HAHA :) I bought a French brand name bag (apparently my sister has the same bag in purple, but she uses it as a lunchbox…and hers was $175 and mine was 70 yuan = $10). And I also bought some earrings and some presents for my friends, and a watch. Oh! I bought the cutest Disney watch. It has Mickey Mouse in the middle and the wristband is made up of Mickey Mouses. And I bargained with the vendor! He started at 88 yuan and I got it down to 40 (less than $6). He told me I’m good at bargaining. Hahaha :) Anyways, that was very fun. And we walked around Raffles City shopping center for a long time, but we all started to get tired so we decided to pick up some dinner and go back to the hotel and eat. So we picked up some noodles from the food court, baos from BreadTalk (it’s a really good bakery here), and vegetables from the hotpot restaurant down the street, and ate in our mommies’ hotel room. It was so funny…it was definitely memorable.
ANYWAYS, amidst all of this FUN, Joanna and I have completely forgotten that we have a project to PRESENT in class next week, so we need to get started on that. Tomorrow we’re going to Hangzhou with our moms, and we’re leaving at 7am, so we’re planning to pull an all-nighter tonight working on our project and then sleep on the 3 hour car drive on the way to Hangzhou. Wish us luck!
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