Day 190: First Day with Zach

On Monday, we got up late, but we had enough time to go get Zach at Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station after we got some cash from the ATM. We used Didi to get a taxi, around 1:30 pm or so. I was able to say "Railway station" in Chinese to the driver, thanks to Pleco--yay Pleco!--and he understood me. Unfortunately, though, the ride took awhile (about 45 minutes), and he dropped us off at the "Departures" rather than the "Arrivals" area (which was not entirely his fault--we didn't give him any guidance on this). So when we got there, we had to ask at the "Inquiry" desk how to get to the "Arrivals" area, but they didn't seem to understand what we were talking about, but an English-speaking gentleman helped us out: his English was wonderful!  We also got some assistance from a security guard--in Chinese.  Eventually, we ended up there: Zach texted us that he was at the North Gate, #1, in a taxi line...but he came out of it before we saw us. We went back in the taxi line and chatted with him about his trip. 100 RMB for the taxi--not too bad, but already we'd spent about 186 on taxis that day.

So we got home, had a snack, then soon headed out again to the restaurant: we decided to go to Beijing Dexin Roast Duck. I, however, had lost my transit card, so both Zach and I had to pay using 1 RMB coins (2 RMB each for the bus, which is about 30 cents for a bus ride!). We took the bus to the Chifeng Road area (the 132 bus), and then at the Chifeng Station I bought a new transit card (20 RMB) and added an additional 80 RMB to it. Then we rode line 3 all the way to Hongqiao Road and found the restaurant.

Bella, my grad student from last term, was there when we arrived. Carol joined us soon after. Samira was about 30 minutes later, but she was very sweet, hugging everyone, as always!  We feasted on roast duck, Chinese greens, squirrel fish, steamed buns with spinach (which they brought to the table with dry ice!), and green tea. Wonderful meal! The only problem is that they forgot to bring the eggs with shrimp for some reason, so I had to take those home (I still wanted them, after all). It's okay though--we ordered to much food and took home duck and fish as well.

Afterwards, we all went to the subway together--all to Line 3. We got to the subway just while it was there, and all of us managed to jump on....except for Bella, so we just waved goodbye to her!  Sad. We took the subway all the way to Jiangwan Town station and then walked home. Zach went to bed soon after, but I stayed up to do some reading and writing (like this blog!).

Tomorrow, we plan to go to the Shanghai Museum.

Couple pics from our first day with Zach:

Zach and Kerry on the bus!

After dinner pic: (left to right) Kerry, me, Samira, Carol, Zach, Bella.