We brought in 2009 in Shanghai. Matt met up with some out of town friends so Shea, Sarah, Gabe and I headed downtown to find somewhere to celebrate. When we reached downtown traffic came to a standstill so we decided to get out and walk. We then began to mesh into a sea of young people (see picture 3). Shea and I got lost from the girls and ended up in a standstill counting backwards in Chinese. Apparently there was a big concert going on nearby (thus the crowd of young people). When the countdown ended there were fireworks (see picture 4). I have never been in a crowd that large in my life (which is saying something because I brought in 2004 in NYC in Times Square). In order to get out of this crowd I tried a method that worked amazingly. I would scream "WOOO Happy New Year!!!" And people would stop and turn around, thus making it easier for us to get through. I did this probably 50 times and it cleared our path pretty much the whole way. We found the girls and sat in a McDonald's nearby, knowing that traffic would be bad for awhile and that it would be hard to find a taxi. 1 hour later we hit the street to try and find a taxi to take us back to our hostel. 1.5 hours later after standing out in the 20 degree weather and no taxi, for fear that we might freeze to death, we started running. We finally reached out hostel at nearly 4 in the morning. The day after new years the girls and I (after realizing we had nothing in our backpacks that we hadn't already worn 4 times) decided to do laundry. This was an all day process seeing as that they only have 2 tiny little washers and 1 dryer at the hostel that has 150+ guests. I ended up wearing a swimsuit, skirt, & sweater around the hostel all day (because we had to wash everything else). Mind you that the hostel is NOT heated. So that was 2 days of Neerly freezing to death in Shanghai. Yesterday we took the fast train to Suzhou (see picture 5). This town is called the "Venice of China". Our hostel was right of the canal, and this little town was really cool. Unlike most cities I've seen in China thus far, it has many traditional style buildings. While taking pictures of the beautifully lit canal last night we met a Chinese couple who spoke English. The guy had lived in Michigan for awhile and the woman in California. We ended up going to dinner with them and they taught us a lot about Do's and Don'ts of Chinese culture. This evening we had to leave Suzhou and come back to Shanghai. Tomorrow we catch the all day train (18 hours!!!!) to Shenzhen. 18 hours on a train is sure to bring many stories. I'll be sure to share them next time I update.
