Exhibition Day

This weekend everyone was busy putting their projects into the gallery for the exhibition. I think it came together really well and I'm happy with how my project turned out. The official opening for our show is tonight at 5 but the gallery has been open since 10am and just from passing by I have seen a lot of people checking it out. Everyone is so creative in different ways that it really adds a good variety to the exhibition. I'm excited to hear feedback since it is the first and probably only time I will show there. 

Dinner at the Great Wall

Pictures I Never Posted

Last Day

Our last full day in Shanghai was Sunday and it blew by. The majority of my time was spent in the hotel working on my last individual project. Ariel and I worked on a video by combining our footage from the various destinations we visited throughout the trip. The idea I had was to put random Chinese activities to a track by Daft Punk. The part we got done was pretty good but I'll have to finish it for the final exhibition. We all met at 4pm in a conference room at the hotel to go over our projects. The meeting lasted until 7pm but it was really nice to see what everyone had accomplished during our three weeks in China. We headed out to a vegetarian restaurant where we had a delicious final dinner. After we got back to the hotel I convinced Ariel to help me find another bag for my souvenirs. We wandered for a bit until we found a massage parlor and Ariel twisted my arm to check it out. Surprisingly we found Steven was already there getting a body massage from a little Chinese lady who was standing on his back. We decided foot massages would be enough and for only 25 yuan it was a steal. We were a little skeptical when two guys showed up with hot water. We put our feet in the water and it was scalding. We got a back massage while our feet soaked.  At times Ariel and I were both wincing in pain but it was all worth it. Three weeks of heavy walking quickly melted away and my back, legs and feet felt like new. It was the perfect way to relax before the 16 hour flight home. We flew out at noon-thirty the next day but left the hotel by 9am. The flight was long but there were a few movies including Kung-Fu Panda, which was appropriate for the trip and made it go a little faster. We made it back to Eugene at 12 noon the same day, 30 minutes before we left. Time travel is exhausting. It's good to be back in the USA but I'll miss China  and my new friends at SUAD. We will have an art exhibit at the University of Oregon in late October and it will be nice to see everyone again from the trip. I'm really glad I got to know everyone we travelled with and had the opportunity to participate in this invaluable experience. Thanks Ying and Edwin for all of your hard work and persistence to ensure our amazing journey in China.

Shanghai and Suzhou Randomness

It's Always Sunny in Shanghai

So today we found out the hard way that it is NOT always sunny in Shanghai. We had a whole free day to enjoy the city so after breakfast at the hotel we ventured out to find some shops. Ariel got some directions to a store that was supposed to be good but it turned out to be a pretty average department store. The good thing was that it gave us a chance to walk from a different part of the city. We hoofed it up Huanghai road to get back to some stores we had visited a few days ago. We then headed up to Nanjing Road on a recommendation from Ying and Edwin. It was a really busy street and there were a lot of great stores and restaurants. We followed a lady into a shady little store selling fake ipods and watches and then we saw a taxi rear-end another taxi. It was all going so well until the sky went black, the lightning started and the downpour came. We ducked into a few stores and then finally took a cab back to the hotel. The rest of the night was pretty slow but it was a good chance to relax and catch up on our projects.

Humble Gardens and Bus Drivers

Today we visited the Humble Administrator's Garden in Suzhou outside of Shanghai. A travel agency arranged for a bus to take us there but the bus and the driver turned out to be dysfunctional. What should have taken about 1.5 hours turned into 2.5 and the air conditioning only cooled the driver and the first two people in the front. By the time we got off the bus we were all pretty disgusting. Once we entered the garden we only had about an hour to explore. The gardens were really great and I'm just sorry we couldn't have stayed longer. Then plans changed after we discovered the next garden was under construction and so we visited the zoo. There were a lot of exotic animals but the cages were really small and it actually made me sad to see the local people throwing garbage in the crates, handing the monkeys cigarettes and poking them with umbrellas. Sounds ridiculous but that's what I saw. I did see one panda but it mostly had its back to me. We then split up into two groups and I decided to go with Edwin because he was taking the train back rather than the crazy bus. Stan, Christian, Braeden, Edwin and I all visited a really cool temple with a big Buddha sitting in front of it. We climbed to the top and had a lot of fun taking pictures and goofing off. We met up with Brooke, Silvan and Ila at the train station/KFC and discovered that we couldn't get a train back to Shanghai until 8:45. They had already managed to get earlier tickets so we broke off again to get something to eat without them. Edwin had a nice restaurant picked out but the prices were a bit exorbitant so we found another one where I got curry beef, Shanghai dumplings and a couple pijious. This is when the night really got interesting. Ready? After a good meal we hopped in a couple taxis to head back to the train station. Edwin took one and the rest of us another. The driver drove hard and crazy but we got back with only 10 minutes until the train departed. Where's Edwin? Braeden swore she saw him pass in a cab so while Stan scouted the station and Christian manned the taxi drop-off, Braeden and I ran to the other side of the square. With no luck we ran back to Christian and told him we would wait for Edwin inside. We couldn't get on the train because Edwin had all the tickets. Find Edwin.  Stan saw us and came running over. Just then Braeden sees Edwin with her eagle vision and burst into a sprint. I think Christian yelled something about Edwin running towards the station. Stan and Christian and I started sprinting to keep up with Braeden who had been jogging a lot before the trip apparently. I thought I would take a short cut only to be stopped by a rail and I saw everyone run past me on the other side. After maneuvering through a crowd of Chinese people like I was in a live action version of Frogger, I got through the turn-style and found everyone. I can only imagine what all those people thought when they saw five white kids sprinting across the train station. Uh oh! We had maybe a minute now and were relieved to find the line that was formed under our train number. We congratulated each other on making it in time and started joking about how ridiculous we must have looked. Edwin's face quickly changed however as it dawned on him that our line was actually waiting on the platform already. Once again we took to a sprint and flew down one flight of stairs and then up another. Thank god we made it. The train pulled up just as we stepped onto the platform and we saw our car number 14. Then we saw 13, and 12, and 11 and so on until we realized that we were at the wrong end of the train now. So we sprinted again down 14 train cars until we reached the other end and hopped on the train. Just in time. As we sat down the train was already going. After 40 minutes we were back in Shanghai and jumped on the subway to get a few blocks from the hotel. On the walk back we saw a giant LCD on the side of a building normally used for advertising. It read "Windows 2000 Professional It's now safe to turn of your computer." Hilarious! Maybe you have to be a nerd to appreciate this but it made my day 100x better. What a night.