hyundai means modern times

I feared I would neglect the blog in time. But I'm not going to let that happen!

I may only have a few days to live, so I'll have to make the best of it. I'm going to start with a long overdue blog post about Shanghai.

A few weeks ago I met my brother Lap and his girlfriend Andrea in Shanghai. They were coming up from Hong Kong and stopping in Shanghai on their way to their final destination of Beijing. I showed them all of spots: tianzifang, people's square, street food, nanxiang shanghai dumplings, yolata, lilian's danta....The scary thing about Shanghai is that it really is constantly changing. For example, the entire Bund was under 24 hours of construction in preparation for the 2010 World Expo. I guess that's a bad example because it doesn't nearly encompass how much actual construction was going on.

OK, I remember Ross telling me, "You know how they say New York City is the city that never sleeps? Well if that's true, then Shanghai is the city that never even sits." I totally understand what it means now -- it's not that a reference to the nightlife in the city, but rather the rate at which Shanghai is growing. Just on Dingxi Lu, I counted multiple buildings that weren't there before. Businesses come and go faster than the time it would take to get a building permit in the States.

All in all it was a great experience. I got to go back to my favorite bar - De La Coast - which is always the greatest experience in Shanghai. On my last day in Shanghai, I checked out of my hotel and went to Nanjing Dong Lu to do some last minute shopping. I rushed back to my hotel, picked up my stuff, took a taxi to the subway station, and then got on the MagLev to the airport. I managed to do all this in under 45 minutes (I'm summarizing a lot, but it is impressive). I made it to the airport at 2:25, flight being at 3:00, and to my astonishment, the airline attendants told me that they had "closed the gates." It was absolutely horrible to argue with the managers for hours after that. Had I have come 10 minutes earlier, they would have been able to allow me to board the plane. The remaining half an hour before the flight was the most frustrating experience I have ever had. Simply knowing that the plane was still there.

Here comes the interesting part. I lingered around the airport, short of cash, for a few hours. I called a travel company in Beijing, I sent messages to travel agencies in Seoul, basically doing all I could to try to get a ticket for that same night. Prices were fluxuating by the minute, and I nearly broke down in at the Business center in the airport for charging me a ridiculous rate to use their phone and computer. They wouldn't even hold my luggage in the corner, which caused me to have my first expeirence of cussing at someone in English in China. These two women were remorseless. Finally, after speaking with the head manager of the airline, they agreed to set me on the next flight to Seoul. Which happened to be in the morning of the following day.

The lady who told me the gates were closed was avoiding me the entire time I was in the airport. I ran into her again, and after a bit of talking, I made her take me to dinner for bringing me such grave news. She helped me get settled into a hotel near the airport, which in turn was definitely in the countryside of Shanghai. Check it out!

my delicious street food fried rice and bubble tea - a little bit more than a dollar

see the sandy yellow powder in the red bowl? that's msg

funny dvd store

my gross hotel

the view from my window! the hallway!

we also encountered a street market that sold various ware.

ajisen ramen! at 5 am!!!

Basically to sum it all up, I missed my flight, made a lady take me out to dinner and help me get settled in a shoddy hotel in the middle of the country, then bought two pairs of brass knuckles for less than a dollar each.