A group of 8 of us then went to the Shanghai Wild Life park. It was so frustrating at first because it took us so long to get there! I really thought the taxi driver was taking advantage of us. The ride cost 130 yuan (about $20), which is really expensive over here. But once there, I didn't care. We were at the wild life park!! I was so excited! Tickets for the park were 100 yuan. This was definitely a more expensive day, but so worth it. Once in the park, we stopped at the pigeon pavilion and if I just held out my arm three pigeons would land on it. It was pretty cool. But not as cool as the rest of the day.
Right after that, I got to take a ride on a camel. He wasn't stinky at all. It was fun riding him too because the hump was floppy and he swayed more than a horse does. Plus it's cool to say that I've ridden a camel. But not nearly as cool as saying a got lifted up by an elephants trunk!! DAD! Elephants are hairy! Did you know that?! I did not. It was so fun to be picked up by the trunk. We stayed there with the elephant for a while. Her name was Mary. She liked something about my shirt or something on my backpack because she kept reaching her trunk out towards me. It was hilarious. It resulted in elephant snot getting on my shirt, but I couldn't care less. In fact, now I can say that that's the shirt that got snotted on by an elephant. My cool ranking just went up a few points because of the snot.
After the elephant was the baby goats. They were so cute. Brand new, too. Lauren, my roommate, caught the cutest one. It was black with a white dot on it's head. She let me hold it.
If you thought I'd done a lot by now, you might be correct. But none of it amounted to what happened the second half of the day. I held a baby tiger. A one month old tiger. Yeah, I held it. In my arms. Pretty much the coolest thing ever!! It was so adorable. I was the first one to hold it and by the third person, it was whining, so a few of us got to feed it too. Ah! So cool!
The lemurs were next. We walked through this dome and didn't see much until one of the last turns. I was eating an apple and there was a lemur on a tree and I lured it close to me with the apple core. Maybe not the smartest thing, but I still have nine fingers. Wait. . . Ten. I have ten. But it was so much fun that when we saw an apple core in the garbage can outside, Jeshua picked it out and broke it so we could go back.
Well, we hadn't eaten since 8 and it was now 2:30. We were famished! And guess what was for lunch?! A teriyaki burger from Carl's Jr.!! Talk about a little piece of heaven. Oh! And I can't forget the chili cheese fries and the Coldstone!!! It was much needed and as good, if not better, than any other meal I have had so far in my life.
Despite how achey my feet were, I pushed to stay out, so five of us walked around People's Square and Nanjing Road. This city really comes to life at night. We were taken to a little shop with a back room where we bought some DVDs. We did a lot of wandering after that. It was cool just to see all the people and all the lights. We didn't return to the hostel until 9:30 or so and we were pooped. But what a fabulous day!!
Sunday. I love Sundays! Lately, they've been hard because we've had to do church over a teleconference in our supply room where it doesn't really feel like church, but we actually got to sit among a congregation today! Remember the DeVris? Of course you do. I got a hold of Tonya last night and she gave me directions. I love the Shanghai metro. It's so nice and convenient- cheap, clean, easy to understand. So we just took the metro there and we even beat them there. It was fast and testimony meeting and I bore my testimony about how if it weren't for the gospel to keep me grounded here, I wouldn't be able to be doing as well as I'm doing. The gospel gives me so much strength when every thing else has changed. The Lord is the one constant in my life. He is the only person I can rely on. It is through him and him alone that I am happy. Even though I'm in a place where things are so different and I have 'less' than I do back home, I'm still so blessed. I have my health and my family and the knowledge that I can be with them forever. Sunday School and Relief Society were equally good. We got three dinner invites. The Devris offered, of course, so we went there.
THAT was the best meal I've had in my life. It was like an early Thanksgiving. Roast, crock pot veggies, creamed veggies, mashed potatoes, croissants, brownies, ice cream and some chinese cookies that were really good. I have not come away from a meal feeling so full for a while. And Cameron was nervous there wasn't going to be enough food to go around for the seven of us and the nine of them, but there were even some leftovers! Loaves of bread and fishes. That's all I have to say. It was pretty much a miracle. They were so nice. So hospitable. They talked to us for a while. We were there for a couple hours. They gave us the in's too. Told us where to shop and a few other places to visit. We stopped by the underground shopping at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum metro stop. Jackpot!! I got a 32 centimeter strand of pink pearls; a pretty, gold chinese dress; a green, chinese robe; an outfit for Grace; and some cool chopsticks. What a day.
Our last day in Shanghai was filled with more shopping. The Yu Garden was first. It as beautiful! I'm so glad we got to go to that part of town. The architecture of the buildings was the traditional Chinese and it was all so beautiful!!! It was a land-mine of beautiful art work, buildings and merchandise. I got seven more strands of pearls here. It was so much fun bargaining. Last night the girls kept asking me to get them things for a certain price because they thought I was so good at it. I was pretty good. After a while of watching me, they got a hang of it, so they didn't need me as much today. I also got some beautiful bracelets, gorgeous earrings, a silk fan, and some KFC for lunch. Living the high life.
After lunch, Tina and I were just wandering when we happened upon a pond in the middle of the shopping and there was a guy selling baby turtles that you were supposed to through into the pond. We assumed it was some sort of good look thing. Tina is in love with turtles, so she really enjoyed looking in the pond at all the baby turtles. We then left for the underground shopping again. I got a fabulous hat, a very pretty skirt and a floral scarf. They all pretty much combine to make the cutest outfit. I know you don't care, but I really like it. At this point my feet were about to fall off! Especially with my whole foot tendonitis thing. So as soon as Emily, Katrina and I got back to the hostel, we went next door and got an hour long foot massage for 30 yuan! Which is about $5. I could stand again! It was so fabulous. Once the rest of the group caught up with us we went out again to The Bund and saw the tallest building in China. We ate dinner beneath it's shadow. . . kinda. If the sun were out, we would have been in it's shadow. It was a good way to close our trip.
Tuesday morning. We still don't have our train tickets, and the train leaves in three and a half hours. It's suggested you get tickets twenty four hours before. Jeshua told us he was going to do it so that's why we left it up to him. Never again. I was genuinely nervous that we weren't going to be able to get a ticket. I said so many silent prayers. He was listening. We got to the train station and got all eleven tickets with no problem. The train ride sucked though. Sixteen hours in a straight seat. It was a hard night, but an experience worth having, but only worth having once. It's good to be back to my box spring after that night. I never thought I'd say that. What would really be nice, though, was if my bed was like the one in the hostel minus all the bug bites.
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