"Look at all those people," I say as we pull into our hotel and the bus
just about runs over a bystander. After 20 hours of flying and
traveling we have arrived in our hotel. The travel time was not that
bad actually; I made nice acquaintence with a 16 year old
Chinese-American dude from Texas. His name is Josh. We
talked a bunch and he even let me watch a cheesy Chinese kung-fu movie
with him. Moderately sleeping in a cramped area helped make the trip go
faster. Josh and I played a bit of video games which was fun as well.


Most of my thinking when I got into Japan was "I cant believe I am in
Japan." As we walked through Narita, I just had a huge smile on my face
the whole time. I eagerly walked up to a woman in a booth and asked,
"Can I have one of these?" pointing like a kid at halloween to a
bookmark that had Japaneese characters all over them. She allowed and I
observed the interesting separation of garbage as I threw out my gum.
The garbages in Japan have 4 seperators and each sector got specific
with what kind of trash you can throw away. I also observed a cafe
where I saw people eating big bowls of ramen noodles. I perused a lot
of the products and that was very fun, at this point I knew, "we ain't
in Kansas anymore Toto."

I slept on the 3 hour flight to
Shanghai and we all acquired our luggage and met up with some more OU
alumni who would join us. We met our national guide, Rocky, who took us
to the bus for the hour long ride into the city.

We got to the
hotel and it felt like a 5 star hotel. It was huge! It had these
beautiful fountains (SEE PIC) and we headed up to our room with ease.
The great thing about these "pampered" tours is the fact that you dont
have to think about navigating the city for your hotel.

We
got to our room and lied in bed watching Chinese TV. We had a basket of
friut sent from OU, which was a total lifesaver. Rich, (Professor Stamps), and I decided to go for a little walk. I think the others just
went to bed. Before that, I called Susan to tell her I wasnt dead in a
ditch (or the pacific ocean); I would of called my mom too but she
never has her cell phone on. We went down an elevator and noticed that
the 13th floor was missing. This is because the Chinese are smart and
they know that Westerners believe that 13 is bad luck..... luck is very
important to Chinese.

So we ventured out of the hotel; a bell
boy opening the door. Two people immediately approached us and we
ignored them. Later, the same guy approached us as we finished our walk
and we saw his true inquiry. He wanted to inform us of this place for
"massages.." Oh brother!

Anyway, Rich had mentioned that sometimes people also approach you to work on their English.


Our first stop was the corner 711. Wemostly perused products and
talked about them. We looked at how I could buy a beer for less than 50
cents. Yumm.

We did a lot of window shopping and Rich would
tell me about how some of the crafts are made. The most interesting
thing was a small vase that he said was made of brass.

He
stopped and commented on some of the street advertisements as people
stared a bit. We checked out some restaraunts and talked about them a
bit. Hestoped and commented on some of the street advertisements as
well.

We found an electrical crew and their van fixing a
telephone wire. They actually used bamboo ladders.... it was so cute.
It serves their purpose. Dr. Stamps knelt down and started inquiring to
them in Chinese about what type of wiring job this was. I just smiled
as they seemed shocked that he could speak and understand it. It was
such a cool thing to witness, I felt comforted he knew the language. I
really need to learn another language.... Joe V. you down to learn
Chinese?

We also found a Catholic church. This was a huge
surprise! As we walked past the front park, we saw a couple hugging and
kissing. This would not of been tolerated some years ago. Rich
commented about the registration process for people of the catholic
faith and also talked about the underground believers as well.


We next saw some homeless people sleeping on the street. This could of
been true homeless people or could of been part of the floating
population looking for work. There are close to 20 million living here.


We got to another 711 where he tried to ask her if she would
take american dollars. He pointed to her shrine of a Budda where she
made an offering of friut to him. This would bring good luck. It was
really fun watching them speak.

We got as far as a mall and I
took my last picture of the night along side a monument in front of the
mall. This monument is meant to sway away bad spirits according to the
feng-shue belief.

Very very interesting stuff that this
foreign land has to offer. Waking up the following day at 5:30 was easy
because back home it is only dinner time!