Shanghai Aquarium 05-04

Bonus: Jay Chou & Edison Chen on a outdated Pepsi ad! BTW, the Aquarium is partially sponsored by Pepsi.





On a sunny afternoon, Erik & I went to the Shanghai Aquarium.

It was peaceful, quiet, not a lot of people (which Erik absolutely loves) and so many fish!

There were big ugly fish, fish with huge eyes, small eyes, we also saw sharks, spotted sea otters, penguins, deep sea crabs............

I'm actually scared of fish. I don't mind eating them but I don't like looking at them. I didn't tell Erik that I didnt like fish, because he REALLY wanted to go to the Aquarium. I later apologized for rushing Erik to skip all the fish to watch the feeding time of the penguins. I later told him it was because I wanted to get out of the aquarium as soon as possible!

Unfortunately, my secret plan didn't work too well. We ended up saying hello to most of the fish in the Aquarium. We didn't get to see the feeding time for the penguins. I got really scared several times in the underwater tunnel because I didn't realize some fish were swimming towards me and staring at me.


Aquarium was fun! We went shopping afterwards, which was even more fun! :D



Tickets:
120 RMB per person
No student discounts
Veterans /over 70 yrs old w/ ID: 70 RMB per person
Try to go on a weekday (less people)

Labor's Day Weekend at Zhu Jia Jiao (朱家角)

freshwater eel and the crayfish

cotton candy man and the bicycle man

Group pic w. Rhea who's hugging her bag

Rhea's old grandma is the only believer in her family. She displayed her Christian calendars in a row, dating back 5 yrs ago. So sweet!

line drying baby pants with holes. in China toddlers wear these pants instead of diapers. when they need to go potty, the mother/grandma conveniently sqats the baby in the right position, and it's all theirs. i dont know why, but my only guess is they do it so it's better for the baby's bottom since it has air ventilation.?! this is one custom that took me by surprise. anyways, this is a priceless picture of the actual bottomless baby pants! woo hoo!

Rhea's parents raise fish, shells & other edible water creatures here. We had a lot of freshwater fish for lunch!

Rhea's "Old House"

Rhea's pets - three hamsters in a tub. (the third one is not in the picture). Their names are 老黄Lao Huang (Yellow), 老白Lao Bai (White) and 老灰 Lao Hui (Gray). Very creative!

Rhea's "new house" - we're so exhausted.

yay! I mastered the perfect Asian "V" pose! We love this red couch!!!

Zhu Jia Jiao (朱家角)

also commonly known as the Suzhou Creek to foreigners

is famous for its "Water Village" because a whole village was built around the canals where people used boats to transport goods and people. Imagine the gondollas in Venice, Italy. Yeah, this is the Venice of China.

Our lovely friend, Rhea, invited a bunch of us to her hometown, which happened to be Zhu Jia Jiao (朱家角). We had lunch at her "old house", (because she recently moved to a "new house" and her "new house" has no kitchen stuff so they can't cook there yet) and "old house" in Chinese is synonymous with "hometown" (老家). If you know Chinese you'll get the pun :p

After lunch we headed out to the Creek Zhu Jia Jiao (朱家角), and we got on the boat, had cotton candy, walked around the village. It was FUN! :D

Then we came back to Rhea's "new house" and chilled - we were so exhausted. We explored her "new house" which, by the way, is BEAUTIFUL and modern - it has a 2 storey loft, a sun room, 5 rooms and super sweet red sofa bed! We almost didnt want to leave...

Thanks Rhea for your kind hospitality! :D

HSK test & Subway Lunch 04-18

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Last month - Erik & I both took the HSK test at Jiang Zhang Gao Ke (Jiang Zhang Technology Park). This was the most eastern part of Shanghai that we've ever been to. This station is the last station of Pudong. After the test, we were looking for places to grab lunch and we found this small yet pleasant outdoor mall area (with nice gardens). Erik and I agreed to treat ourselves to Subway (the American NY deli place). I ordered a 1/2 chicken teriyaki sub on italian bread with dijon mustard (you never find this anywhere else in SH). The sub cost me 15 rmb (approx$2.20US) since it was part of the daily special. And I wanted something to drink so I got a bottle of Peach Snapple. I asked how much it was and the cashier said it was 15 rmb. My drink and my sub cost me the same amount of money....*sniff* but I bought it and drank it anyway since it was the HSK.

(BTW, in SH you can buy a bottle of juice for approx 3RMB so a bottle of imported Snapple was like 5 times more expensive. And I stopped thinking stuff in American dollars otherwise I'll use up everything in my savings account in no time! )