Shanghai

We have just returned from our FIRST international trip.....together. We quickly realized that this is the first time in over three years that we actually were able to sit BESIDE each other on the plane. Usually one of us is travelling to see the other one...but not this time.

Shanghai Skyline

Clayton's college roommate and close friend, Russ (yes he said I could use his name) hosted us for a 4 day trip in Shanghai, China. What an amazing experience it was. For those of you who love chinese food and tea, you should seriously consider taking a trip to China to experience THE GOOD STUFF. You have no idea what you are missing. Unfortunately now, we are very much aware that unless we move to China, we will forever be eating horrible Chinese American food and drinking garbage for tea. We loved the tea so much that we even purchased our very own tea set, table, "good luck" figurines, and a life time supply of tea. More on this later.

Clayton has visited Shanghai once before, about four years ago. So for him, this trip was nothing new. He had experienced what it was like to be among 20million+ people and sky scrapers at every corner you turn. I, on the other hand, have NEVER been to Shanghai, or even a city that comes close to having 20 million + people and sky scrapers everywhere. I had cramps in my neck once the trip was over from looking up at all the reallllllly tall buildings. Russ lived in a super cute apartment, very similar to ours, but on the 29th floor. I sadly broke the news to both of them that Russ's apartment was officially the tallest building I had ever been in before. Prior to this trip, the largest building I had ever seen was Cinderella's castle at Disney World. It's hard to compare Cindy's castle to the sky scrapers in Shanghai....

Since I knew absolutely nothing about Shanghai, other than it being located in China, I didn't have a whole lot of expectations going into the trip. Our first night there we actually saw all of the "touristy" things there are to do, The Bund, Nanjing Road, Old Town. We also realized that we just so happened to fly into Shanghai on what they call their "Independence Day." We went out to Nanjing Road, a very popular spot for shopping (Gucci, Prada, Coach, Cartier, you get the picture). It was slightly crowded walking around. I felt like a cow being herded to the next grazing field. I have never in my life been around so many people at once. I swear it was like all 20 million people in Shanghai decided to come out to this exact spot. We made it down to the end of the road which is where the Bund is located. I had never heard of this Bund before but apparently it's where old meets new? It has a lot of old European style architecture from the 1920's, which I believe is where a lot of the old government buildings used to reside in. I'm hoping that if I state anything that is incorrect that Russ or Clayton will correct me.

We spent most of our trip drinking and learning about tea...seriously. I'm not sure if it was planned that way, but either way it was by far the highlight of our trip. During Russ's time in Shanghai, he has made friends with a couple who own two tea shops. Russ has learned a lot about tea from this couple which was great for us because he could translate and tell us what the heck was going on. Prior to this trip, all I knew about tea was that my grandma makes the best sweet tea in the world, it comes in little filtered bags, and that you never wanted to drink it unsweetened. As I stated before, Clayton and I were heartbroken to know that we have been drinking what has been deemed the "hotdog of teas," (all the crappy tea leaves piled together in one baggy). The tea we had in the shops were quite simply amazing. I never knew that there could be so many types of tea...but trust me there are. We had green tea, yellow tea, red tea, flower tea...YOU NAME IT. We loved it so much that we purchased almost a year's supply of it. I was a little nervous coming back through customs...I didn't want them to think we were smuggling drugs or anything like that. Luckily they didn't and we made it home safe and sound. The couple we met with on two separate occassions. We met with the wife our first day and then the husband our second day. Both of them were amazing and knew so much about tea and answered any questions that we had (through Russ). The husband even thought that I looked like Hilary Clinton....it must have been the short blonde hair and because we're both white... we found out from Russ that a lot of chinese people like Hilary Clinton, so I should take it as a compliment. While I tried to take it as a compliment, I couldn't help but think about other blonde white females...Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Carrie Underwood, Jessica Simpson...WHY CANT I LOOK LIKE THEM!! WHY HILARY CLINTON...SOMEONE 3 TIMES MY AGE!?!

Noodle and Beef Dish

So other than being tea nerds, we had a lot of amazing food. Russ did not disappoint us in the least bit. We had dumplings, noodles, chicken, "hot pot" with lamb, bubble tea, all the good stuff. I was so shocked at how amazing the food was. I, and most that know me, would say that I am extremely picky when it comes to eating...but there was not one dish on this trip that I did not love...not like...LOVE. The chinese know what they are doing FO SHO when it comes to cuisine. I'm still struggling with the whole chopstick thing and I'm not sure if I'll ever be very graceful when it comes to using them. I developed a large blister on my thumb after this trip. Clayton is still unsure as to how I got a blister on my thumb and unfortunately I don't have a good reason. Another highlight of the trip was getting to eat dinner with one of Russ's chinese friends, we will call her "J." Well, while we were eating dinner, Clayton was engaging her in conversations, you know the typical where are you from, what are you studying in school, what do your parents do, do you like chocolate or vanilla, kind of conversation. Well, the entire time she would look back over at me...almost like she couldn't keep her eyes off of me. You know how when you see a person that's just either really gorgeous or maybe not so gorgeous and they have some kind of growth on their face, and you can't help but look at them...no matter how hard you try you just gotta look one more time. Well....that was me....only I was the one that had the large ugly growth on thier face. In mid conversation J looks over at me and finally says to me, like she's been dying to say it all night...."You have really big eyes." I felt like I was having flashbacks to the subway where those 14 year old girls were pointing at me and making their eyes really big. I did one of those awkward laughs and said thank you of course because what else am I supposed to say? Later in the evening, Clayton and J were discussing why we got married "so young." J asked Clayton "Why did you marry her? Is it because she has big eyes?" She was actually completely serious. My sarcasm radar was not going off, at all. Clayton said yes (correct answer) and then elaborated on other very good reasons why he married me (a great choice on his part). We later came to find out (from Russ) that having big eyes is a very desirable thing in the chinese culture for women, which def. boosted the self esteem and made China that much more amazing.

HOT POT for dinner (lamb and veggies in really hot soup stuff)

I feel like I could go on and on about our time in Shanghai...but I'm not going to. We are so thankful to have had the opportunity to have gone and to visit Russ, Clayton's good buddy. We are so appreciative of his hospitality because without it, we would have been lost, and not had nearly as good of a time. We're both excited to be going back to China this Thanksgiving. We have plans and plane tickets to head north of Shanghai to Beijing. It will be Clayton's second trip to Beijing and of course, my first. We will keep you all posted of our adventures in the meantime.