Day 193: 4th Day with Zach

Thursday we got up and had bacon for breakfast...a bit unusual for us, but it was tasty! In the early afternoon, we took the subway to the Oriental Pearl Tower. The plan was to go to the Tower and also the Museum that's there, which focuses on the history of Shanghai. It didn't exactly work out that way. Zach sort of wanted to do his own thing, so he went off by himself while Kerry and I went to a restaurant within the Tower, a buffet near the main observation deck. It was a huge buffet, and it was a "revolving" restaurant, which was interesting. But we took a bit too long and didn't really have much time for much else. We briefly went to the main observation area, but we didn't see much that we couldn't see from the restaurant. Then we tried to go to the "bubble" on the very top, but it turns out that we didn't buy the right ticket for that. We quickly tried to go through the museum, but we had to meet Zach around 2:30, so we really didn't have much time for that, either. So the entire trip was frustrating, and we didn't get done what we wanted to.

A couple Pearl Tower pics:

Pearl Tower from the outside, on the Bund.

View from the revolving restaurant, Pearl Tower.

However, we had better luck at the Aquarium next door: we saw not only lots of fish, but jellyfish, sting-rays, spotted seals, sharks, and even PENGUINS!  They were so cute, swimming, walking, and avoiding two women who came into their cage to check the temperature. I wasn't feeling great while we were there, due to my hurting feet and the fact that I banged my head on an enclosure. But I did enjoy the trip.

A couple Aquarium pics:

Penguins!!!!  The Shanghai Aquarium.

Shark at the Aquarium.

This fish managed to get my attention....

Afterwards, we went to Hongkou Plaza for another dinner. This time we went to Grandma's, a place Richard recommended. We arrived early, and fortunately they gave us a table for nine (with the help of a couple younger folks who interpreted for us), but the menu was all in Chinese....and no pictures. Luckily, my grad students arrived shortly and they even brought me a cheesecake (from the Lillian Macau Bakery) and an apple! We let them make the menu selections; Richard, who arrived a bit late, was also fine to let them do this. They ordered some good stuff: chicken, pork with some fish, tofu, shrimp, green tea cakes, ice cream with bread. and green beans. Then I shared some cheesecake for dessert. We got into a good conversation about American versus Chinese education; I could chat a lot on the topic and really enjoy discussing it when I get into doing so. But soon enough, it got to be about 9 pm or so, and we all took the subway home. Richard followed us, obviously, since he lives in our building.

Dinner pic:

Outside Grandma's: (front row, women) Lydia, Leona, Yinming, Cora, Katniss; (back row, guys) Zach, Kerry, me, Richard

Once we got in the apartment, we had to do some packing for Hong Kong, and then we went to bed.