Thursday we did a lot of packing: we packed up our silver bag (that we bought here) with gifts for others. We thought we'd have room for other things too, but we quickly realized that we didn't. So...that bag is going to have to be our "gift bag," and then later on we had to make a trip to Hongkou Plaza. We decided to have dinner there and opted for Kiwiana; we hadn't been there since Valentine's Day. Today, it was not crowded at all. I was curious to try their steak, so Kerry and I ordered both their fish (which we both loved) and their steak for two (which Kerry, especially, wasn't crazy about...and I didn't like that they didn't give us a steak knife). I tried to show the waiter the translation for "rare steak" that Kerry came up with on Google, but he clearly didn't get it. The next thing I knew, he was handing me a phone. A man who said he was the manager asked if "everything was okay." 'I told him that I wanted a rare steak. The manager, who spoke perfect English, must have conveyed this to the waiter, because my steak was rare. Yay! For dessert, I had their ice cream buns (which were multi-colored buns with different ice cream flavors in each. SO GOOD. Kerry's dessert was puff pastries with strawberry jam: they looked like eclairs. It was a pricey meal, but I thought it was quite good. Kerry had a lesser opinion. Afterwards, we went to Carrefour and got another suitcase, and a container for some smaller items, like the dried flowers some students gave me. That also was pricey, but we did need another suitcase. When we got home...around 10 pm...we packed the new suitcase full: 22.6 kilograms, which is pretty much the limit.
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| Engrish poem from Sugar Report, Hongkou Plaza.... |
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| Kiwiana's fish! |
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| Amazing ice cream buns, Kiwiana! |
Friday-one last visit to the Shanghai Museum. The line wasn't too bad even though we got there around 10:00 am; we only had to wait five minutes to get in. This time we check out the Painting Gallery....beautiful ancient paintings all over! It took us an hour to go through. And that was enough; the weather was bad--lots of rain when we left. Later on, I went to dinner with some of the faculty: I shared a cab ride to Pizza Taxi with Peter and Richard. Peter is feeling very down about the whole housing situation. And when we met Kizito there, he voiced a lot of complaints about it as well. I feel exceptionally sorry for him: he has three kids and a wife who was coming in September, so he was thrown for quite a loop. Tomasz, the Polish faculty, also joined us. Kizito and I split a pizza, Richard had a burger, Peter had soup and a veggie pizza on his own, and Tomasz had a salad. We also had some wine and some liqeur shots (except for Tomasz). It was really fun to socialize with them; I think they had a lot to get off their chest about being evicted from Hua Hong Yuan. What horrible timing! Kerry and I empathize so much with all of them...but there's not a lot we can do. In the evening, when I got home, I talked to both Mark and Nathalie on the phone. It was wonderful to talk to them both, especially Nathalie, whom I hadn't spoken with in a long time. Connecting with dear friends is a wonderful thing.
Pics from the museum and dinner--
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| Fascinating detail in ancient Chinese painting. |
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| Another detailed painting. |
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| Nature scene. |
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| Another gorgeous nature depiction. |
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| Love the colors in this one. |
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| I love tigers. |
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| This one was also on a pretty postcard sold at the museum store. |
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| Bees and monkeys--detail. Art would like this one. |
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| (left to right) Peter, Richard, Tomasz. |
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| Kizito! |
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