Adventures in Shanghai

It is about 6 o'clock in the evening on the most gruelingly academic day that I have had so far and China, and I am very glad that I have gotten through it alive and with minimal injuries. Because last Thursday was Thanksgiving, they decided it would be a good idea to move our normal Friday tests to Monday. So in addition to 5 hours of normal classes, I also had two hours of testing, not to mention I had to hand in about 3,000 characters of essay today.
Okay, really, I should stop complaining, but all day what I was thinking was that I am a soft American whose relaxed work-ethic cannot keep up with the intense Chinese standards that are expected of me.
But don't think that I let the insane amount of work that I had ruin my weekend. Oh no. That would not be in character at all.
On Friday morning I had a wonderful video chat session with my family who were all gathered together on Thursday night. Then I went to Shanghai. I am only about an hour an a half away from Shanghai, but until this weekend had yet to spend anytime there. It was great. It has a completely different feel from Hangzhou, at times I felt like I was back in the states, at times I felt like I was strolling down a European street, and at times I was in Latin American. It is a truly international city, and it has a fabulously convenient subway system. On Friday night we went to a Club that has a live Latin band and dancing, something that I have been missing and craving for some time now. The musicians were mostly from Cuba, and the audience was from various far-off Spanish speaking countries. I am pretty sure I did not hear any Chinese spoken the whole night. It is really too bad that I don't speak any Spanish anymore because Chinese has taken over my brain. I'm hoping that someday maybe I can get it back.
After the music and dancing was over we ended up hanging out with some of the band members and some of them were guys who had been in China for years and years. It was really fascinating to hear about how they all got here, and the reasons why they stayed for so long.
On Saturday I got to have lunch with an old friend of my friend Kayla. Kayla lived in Shanghai for eight years and this woman knew her as a little girl. It was lovely to be in a home and eat home-cooked dishes and chat.
So I definitely had my fun in Shanghai, and then it was back home to Hangzhou, where I had piles and piles of work awaiting me.