I slept so soundly! I didn't even hear Angela's alarm. I drempt about Maleficent (from Sleeping Beauty) chasing Natalie - for an unknown reason - and it was very strange.
Anyway, I rushed around and got ready and went to breakfast. Oh, I had real orange juice, hashbrowns, fruit, and a made to order omelet! That was an extremely welcome change from our hotel in Beijing, which served only Chinese every morning. They also served cereal and bacon and spaghetti, but I passed on those.
I was exactly on time getting to the bus, but in Husky Band culture, early is on time, on time is late and late is to be left. So I picked a seat up front, near the "adults" (the high school chaperones and the tour coordinators from World Projects) It was that or sit next to the high-schoolers again in the back of the bus.
Today's first stop was at a silk factory. We got there at 9 am and we were told we had until 10:30. The tour took 3 minutes, and then we were in a store. We were shown examples of silk worms, at their various stages and then the two different types of cocoons; one with one worm, and another with two. The second kind can either be a set of twins, or two worms that weave their cocoons around each other. Since the thread on the second kind is a tangled mass, it is unusable as what we all recognize as silk, and used for a soft fabric instead. One the other side of the room, there was a giant silk loom that was spinning, taking the thread off of 6 or 7 cocoons at a time.
The store opened with a room, full of silk bedspreads; so at first we were all confused. The guide then pointed to a hallway that led to the clothing, and practically everyone followed. I looked at a robe, but I didn't feel like paying 580 yuan (around 90 USD) for something I'd never wear. It was gorgeous though. And then there was this creme silk box, covered in orange dragons with
brown flowers, with a matching silk-covered photo album inside. Unfortunately, that was around 60 USD, and I couldn't justify that either, so it also was left. Then, over by the postcards and silk embroidered pictures, I found a Chinese, Chinese history book, written in English, covering all the periods of history, from ancient
times to the present. It's beautifully illustrated with portraits and pictures and maps and photos of objects from Chinese culture. I am very pleased with it, although I was surprised to find it at a silk factory.At ten o'clock I was in a corner, looking at rolls of silk they sell for tailored clothing, when I noticed that no one from my bus was near. Apparently, we decided to leave a half-hour early. I frantically moved towards the door and saw my guide, May, looking for people. I went and got on the bus, and at least I wasn't last; but that makes twice today almost late on the bus.
Once we were all aboard, we went to downtown Shanghai, across the river. May offered to take people up the "Oriental Pearl TV Tower", the Shanghai equivalent to Seattle's Space Needle, only much taller, and with a museum of Shanghai history underneath. Natalie and Rachel (along with Chuck and Erik, I found out later) were going, so I went as well. It cost 
100 yuan, because it was not included in the World Projects tour, but it was worth it! It was just the five of us and May. The views were great! One could see for miles over the city and up and down the river. I thought it very similar to going up in the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. Except it was the Huangpu river below us instead of the Missouri.At one of the shops on the observation deck, I saw one of the most random things for sale that I had ever seen. It was a mini French horn, about 6 inches tall, mounted on a music box with a three inch bottle of green fluid, that at first glance, looked like a mini bottle of booze, under the valves. It turned out to be an air freshener... With Brad's hearty approval, Rachel bought it immediately for 88 yuan. It was the perfect thing for her.
When we got back down, we went through the museum. It was filled with models of houses and people - there were different sizes, ranging from life sizes to doll houses - setting scenes from different periods of their history. It was certainly very different from any museum I had seen before. Natalie, Rachel and Chuck flew through it, because they were excited about lunch. Erik went slowly and took pictures, and I took a couple pictures as well, so we ended up together. When we didn't see them at the exit, we continued on to the mall, where we ran into Natalie. She had been left behind at an ATM, and was searching for Pizza Hut, which was the meeting place. We finally located it on the fifth floor. Chuck and Rachel had ordered a large meat supreme for the three of them, because they didn't know when or if Erik and I would join them. So we ordered a medium for the two of us when we sat down.
Pizza Hut in China is very fancy. You may not believe it, but it was a regular sit-down restaurant, where the waiters wore white, the interior was decorated in glass and modern sculptures, and everything was spotlessly clean. The pizza itself was made on artisan bread and tasted delicious. When we arrived they set us plates, utensils and glasses. They put American Pizza Hut to shame, because even with all this, the prices were similar, if not less.
The buses presently picked us up and took us to the walking street, Nanjing Road, which is most famous for its great variety of shops, both big and small. Neither Natalie or I were in the mood for it, so we went to Haagen-Daz, where she had a scoop of ice creme. After sitting for a moment, we decided to go next door to a mall, partly to stay cool, partly to not be bored. Only the first goal was met. It was all high end clothes, and we were so not interested. We then set off down the street and found another ice creme place, Mr. Geleto's. We both had some kiwi flavor. Gosh, we've been eating a lot of ice creme! I generally don't eat it that much, but when with Natalie, and when hot in China, it is practically unavoidable. :)
We went into the Olympics store, but nothing really caught our eyes. Thankfully, we were only allotted an hour for the shopping, so we turned back to go to the meeting place. The sun was starting to peek out from behind clouds, so it was getting warmer as well.
After returning to the hotel and freshening up for the evening, we were taken to dinner, which also included some live dancing and music. It was pretty low-key, but some of it was enjoyable. Most of us had dressed up a little bit, because after dinner we went to a small theater to see an acrobatic show. Our group only now consisted of the Green and Red bands, and we filled up the entire theater. This was a send-off night for most of the high-schoolers, who were leaving in the morning.
I was skeptical at first about the quality of the show we were going to see, because of what the theater looked like, but I need not have worried. It turned out to be an incredible show! After a short opening sequence, one boy came out and started doing hand-stands on the tops of chairs. Only they kept bringing out more chairs, so at the end, he was doing them on top of a dozen chairs, stacked one on top of another, almost clear to the ceiling. I was amazed. There were several other acts that required great agility and balance, but the one I really liked, was the girls balancing on the bicycles. They had at least twelve on one bike by the end. Another act was a young couple flying through the air and doing a routine on these two sashes. It was well orchestrated - you had to be there for that one... it's hard to describe. And then these two young men were walking in these two spinning wheels, going around like a Ferris wheel. One of them climbed outside and started walking on the outside of the wheel as it went up 50-60 feet in the air. And then he started juggling... and then he did some jump roping... and then he walked blindfolded... all on the outside of the wheel. I held my breath on several rotations the last few times. He looked like he wasn't going to make it once or twice.
In the grand finale, six motorcycles, one by one, drove into this huge metal ball cage and drove around at what seemed the speed of light. That was ridiculously crazy, scary and awesome. Overall, the show was a real treat. After journaling at the hotel for a few moments, I fell asleep. It was another late night.
Jp
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