Shanghai 2

Well time keeps flying by. I cannot believe that I am home in just a week and half. Wow. Shanghai has been amazing.

Thursday was a super busy and fun day. We got up early to catch a train to Su Zhou. Su Zhou is about a 45 minute train ride outside of Shanghai. It is a suburb of Shanghai. We went out there for one reason and one reason only. In Su Zhou they have water cities. They call it the Vince of Asia. It is an old town that has rivers and canals flowing through it. It was super pretty. We took a Chinese boat ride around the town. It really has now turned into a tourist attraction. There were a lot of pretty gardens and temples. After the gardens we went pearl shopping again. Then we went back to Shanghai. Once we got back to the city we were supposed to go and pick up our suits that we had made. Only three of us had to go so we split up. Well the three of us went out of the station a different way. That was a big mistake. We ended up coming out in the ghetto. We got to see the real Shanghai. Like in most touristy cities as long as you stay in tourist locations of the city like looks nice and you feel safe. The ghetto is different. It took us twenty to twenty-five minutes before we found a major street and the whole time we were walking everyone just stared at us wondering what three white people were doing in that part of town. After we found a main street we spent another twenty minutes trying to find a taxi. By that time it was too late to go pick up our suits. So we went straight to the Chinese acrobat show. The acrobat show was one of the most amazing things that I have every seen. People are not supposed to be able to bend like they do. It is so amazing.

Friday was our last day in Shanghai. It was super busy. We started with class at 7 am grr. I don’t think class should be allowed that early especially since we had to have our bags packed before class started. We spent the majority of our day with Honeywell. I didn’t realize how expansive their company was. We started off in their turbocharger facility. Apparently they are the world largest manufacture of turbochargers. We spoke with them for a while then we took a tour of the turbocharger plant. It was really interesting to compare the scale of this plant compared to the GM plant. They almost aren’t comparable. After the Honeywell plant we went to their Asian headquarters. They fed us and amazing lunch then they talked for an hour and a half. I feel really bad sometimes when everyone is starting to fall asleep. Some of the people are really good at engaging us then the others just talk and when they just talk people start dosing. With as little sleep as we get combined with how much we are doing sometimes we just crash. Even I have a hard time not having my head bob a little (which is really surprising to anyone that knows me). After Honeywell we went and got our suits and then got some delicious dumplings and did a little shopping then called it a wrap for Shanghai. We took the bus to the train station to take a night train to Beijing. A bunch of white people caring their luggage on public transportation is always a sight to see. The night train has actually been an adventure. We are all in the same car. Our beds are stacked three high and in open compartments. So it is us and all the other Chinese people all just chilling in this car. My experience is has been an even greater adventure. When got on the train there was a Chinese woman in my bed. Talk about awkward! The even more awkward was that both our tickets were assigned to that same bed. It took us a while to figure out what happened. We both were actually assigned to that bed but she was supposed to be in it the next night. She had gotten on the train a day earlier. So she eventually moved and found a bed somewhere else on the train. I am just glad I didn’t have to stay up all night or share a bed. The beds are not the softest things in the world but since in I like sleeping on the floor I slept amazing. I actually got more sleep on the train that have any other night on the trip. I wish the plane home was like this. It was really nice to not have to wake up at any specific time. The bathroom on the train is actually quite funny. It is just a squatter. But the funny part is that it is just a whole in the ground and it all falls down on the train tracks. You’ve got to love Asia!