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New Blog Title: Our 2nd Day in Shanghai
Gentle Reader,
Our 2nd day in Shanghai, due to the typhoon, was filled with adventures!
The typhoon missed Shanghai, to the newspaper title "Shanghai Spared by Typhoon," but we still experienced some high winds and bouts of bizarre rain that would flood down just for a few moments and then quit... only to start back up again. My umbrella from Annelise and Scott's rain jacket were necessities today!
We were walking around the Pedestrian Street and the beginnings of People's Park Area when we were approached by a young couple that could speak English. I was in the midst of photographing Scott plowing through the storm, so they thought we were a bit strange, I think. Anyway, after the exchanges about our country of origin, what we are doing in China, etc... they invited us out for a Tea Ceremony. We tried jasmine, green, black, ginsing oolong, and a flower tea that emerged in the water like a beautiful sea creature rising from the floor of the sea. We were told that the Chinese keep this blooming flower from the tea in a glass cup or wine glass for up to a week, to enjoy its beauty. The couple, Yolanda and Charlie, then pointed us toward the Shanghai Museum.
The museum is actually free... and extraordinarily beautiful! I had been here before, but I had only viewed the Minority Textiles exhibit. We spent some time viewing the calligraphy scrolls, official stamps, and paintings. Beautiful.
In the evening, we ended up going to the Jazz Blues Club, which was phenomenal. We had our first non-Asian meal there, as the restaraunt that was recommended by the hotel, although it was local Chinese food, was too expensive and not very appealing to me. Scott will try anything, but my stomach is not as iron-laden as his. Too many instestinal pig parts, shark fins, and fish with eyes that glare at me. Lots of fermented everything, too. I was actually breaking out in a sweat looking at the menu, so we took off and decided to seek out something else. We ended up eating the fare at the Jazz Blues Club, which was a pasta dish for each of us.
Sunday night at this club is shared with many musicians, all of whom sign up to show they want to participate. Sort of like our Open Mike concept. The sax player was kickin', the audience didn't know quite what to do with the guy who rapped, and the guitarist who took the stage played a more reggae version of Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours." We even cut the rug a bit!
A fine last night in Shanghai.... and now we are off to Tokyo!
Wishing you a day filled with memorable adventures...
Namaste,
Mei Lan
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