update

so agreeably it's been a long time since i last updated thing thang. i've been lazy! i'm sorry! so SHANGHAI! it was so fun! i wish i had more crazy stories from there to tell you, but it was pretty basic tourism. the bus we took there was so cool! it beats a greyhound a thousand times over! only about 30-some people get on the bus and instead of seats they have beds! YEAH! the trip was about 15 hours long so it was NIIICE. however i had a bad bed on the way there and they were bunk bed style so the bed above me was too close so i couldn't sit up at all. after laying down for 15 hours it kinda gives you a teeny headache. and a couple men were late getting on the bus so they had to sleep on the floor.. riiight beside me. so spent most of the way there spooning with a complete stranger. the way back was much better! i got a top bunk! wa hoo!
we saw a lot of buildings and places. we went to Madame Toussauds wax museum it was great! they had people there like princess diana, michael jackson, david beckham.. they had EVERYONE famous you can think of pretty much. we got some pretty good pictures so if you're ever on facebook check out my albums! we went to the people's square which is a really cool block blocked off from traffic (except this little train that takes you on tours around the block.. it look like a little toy train but can fit a surprising amount of people in it!) and the street in lined with shopping areas, restaurants, bars. it's a great place to go at night! the neon lights are amazing! we went up to the VEERRRYYY top of the oriental pearl tower. it's the third highest tower in the world. the inside was incredible! when you are finished viewing, instead of taking an elevator down you go through a bar/restaurant, and two different museums. one if a museum of old chinese culture and the other is a space museum. random. and there is a roller coaster inside. ji hye is scared of things that like so we didn't go. it's no fun to go alone. it takes about two hours to get through the whole thing but you're never lacking entertainment. shanghai was so nice because there were so many foreigners! now when i'm back in weihai and i see a foreigner i don't feel an irrisistable urge to run up to them and introduce myself. that's a good thing :) we met a lot of people.. it was surprisingly hard though to find foreigners who spoke english! we met a group of asian people from australia. i spoke more chinese than they did it was hilarious! we hung out with them for the rest of the week. i went on the super train! it covers (i forget how many miles, but driving by car it takes about an hour) but this super train cover the same amount of ground in a shocking 8 minutes! it was a little scary but so worth it! i think it's the fastest one in the world. so that's kinda cool. we also went to this place called Xin Tian Di almost every night which is a place that is all renaissance style buildings and it's all blocked off from traffic and it's cobblestone streets strewn with fancy outdoor restaurants and clubs. it was really cool to see. i wish my pictures turned out better they don't do most of the scenery justice at all. what else did we do? we went to the Yu Yuan gardens, which was INCREDIBLE! what kind of architecture do you think of when you think of china? i hope it's those curved topped roofs and dragons and things like that. yeah this whole part of the city is buiding upon building in traditional chinese architecture. so beautiful! and there was market upon market! (ANNND a starbucks!) then when you get into the actualy garden it's beautiful! it's so hard to describe. it was buing during the Quing dynasty i believe and it was so cool to imagine all the emporers and other people walking through that exact garden (although a lot of it had been restored so there were very few ORIGINAL parts). that was a ridiculously hot day though! actually everyday in shanghai was ridiculously hot! you take five steps in any direction and you're completely soaked. it was nuts. we didn't do the river cruise.. after so many days of go-go tourism you just want to relax.. so we'll hit that next time. we did a lot of shopping in some of the famous shopping centers.... A LOT. haha. it was a good time. found some good deals. we went through these tunnels.. the brochure made them seem incredible.. but if you ever get to shanghai.. don't waste your time!! really.. i generally like everything i try.. but these tunnels were LAME! but they were in a great location. they were in a place called The bund which is crazily crowded with people. it's a cement path that winds along the Huangpu river, and has the loading dock for the river cruise. it's a nice place, and it's easy to see why it's craawling with people all the time. i got my eyebrow pierced! haha.. did somethign random.. all that heat plays with your mind. i'm lucky i stopped at the piercing and didn't get a whole sleeve of tattoos! we checked out a Buddha temple. it was really beautiful. it was sad.. there were so many idols. and the size of them! there are bell towers and drum towers. most of this is all included in my pictures. people come into the temple grounds and they buy prayer incence sticks and light on fire on these big coal pitts and then they stand in the middle of the courtyard and bow to all four surrounding walls holding the prayer sticks either in front of them or over their heads. it was interesting. when they're finished praying they lay the sticks on the side of the coal pitt and leave them to burn. like i said.. interesting...but sad.
so that's all i can think of as of now for shanghai. getting back to weihai was NICE! the pace is slower, the air is cooler and there's an OCEAN! the day after we got back we went straight to the beach for the day. we bought our rubber water tubes and floated in the water all day. well we stayed in the water until we swam into a HUGE jellyfish. those things feels DISGUSTING!! i was swimming and felt somethign jelly and screamed louder than i have for a long time and looked and it was a little jellyfish, and then the deeper we got the more i saw everywhere and then all of a sudden this HUGE giant mother jellyfish came out of nowhere! we're lucky we didn't get stung. that thing could have killed. we paddled our tubes as fast as we could outta there.
so for the summer prgram we got two new teachers. both are from england. one teacher's name in johnathan and the other is Essy. actually the other WAS Essy.. she was a bit of a princess and when she found out she couldn't have her own apartment she left so we are short one teacher now and so we have an extra week off. ok with with me :) although i am missing some of my students a bit. we found a replacement teacher who is from america, her name is Jenna.. she's coming tomorrow. i guess she'll be my new roommate for a month. either mine or johnathan's... but i'm pretty sure she would probably rather live with me haha but who knows.
today me and johathan went rock climbing! it was SO nice. we climbed up this big mountain and had such a spectacular view. after that we walked through town and stopped for some street food and i showed him around the night market. it was fun. i love china. you see so many random things in a night. you wouldn't believe this place unless you were here. every minute something unexpected is happening. you're never lacking entertainment in any degree. sorry guys i'm never coming home! haha.. i'm ruined! tomorrow we're going out in the morning to see if we can get out on a fishing boat. can't wait! i've been wanting to try fishing here since before i came!