It's the eve of July 4th, the most important holiday in American history, and I will be spending it shopping in Shanghai on Fuyou lu.
This is my second visit to Shanghai in eight months and I don't remember a damn thing from the first time. North becomes south, east becomes west, and I'm constantly lost in a whirl of streets, but that's nothing new if you know me at all. My sense of direction is pretty bad which is why I'm always armed with a map! Because no matter how bad my sense of direction, my map reading skills are top notch.
The guy on the bed across the room is watching a movie that I don't recognize on his computer and the guy on the bed across from mine is playing on his phone. While I sit here writing a random entry into a journal no one reads. Ironic.
Today I went to the French Concession, a section of Shanghai that was once colonized by the French, and therefore, looks nothing like the rest of Shanghai. There are shady back streets, crunchy maple leaves underfoot, strange statues, and shop fronts that look nothing like normal Chinese shops. It's a little European flare in the middle of the richest Chinese city.
The day started out hot and humid, the sun barely breaking the layer of smog, and by two o'clock, the rain was coming down in sheets. It looked like the rain does in movies. I treated myself to Starbucks instead of standing out in it like a loser without an umbrella because every Chinese person and their dog carry around umbrellas no matter what the weather. Consequently, I left both of my umbrellas in Xiangfan, never to see them again.
There was lightening and thunder, the first instance I've seen in ten months here, and Tony was just complaining the other day that the weather was too mild in China. And by mild, I'm sure he means absolutely freezing in the winter and scorching in the summer, but rain without thunder? Too mild.
Tomorrow the plan is to waste away the little money I should be saving on useless things like pearls and jade. And last, but not least - in fact, the entire reason for this last little jaunt in China - is the Shanghai EXPO, which hardly anyone in the world even knows is happening. Every country has a pavilion, inside of which are cool, local-type dealies. I hear tell that Isreal, Italy, ... and I've already forgotten the four or five others I was told, are cool to go to. So I shall venture into the unknown! And try not to get lost too much tomorrow.
