DAY EIGHT:

(Aka: Finally, that lazy good-for-nothing decided to update her worthless blog.)
The night before, despite the fact we had been afraid to open the curtains, Ash and I had packed all of our stuff in time for the bell-hops. As a side note, the bell-hops really do have to wear those cute little hats. I didn't think they still did.
Anyway, we were ready to leave for our final destination; Shanghai. We were going by train which I, who had not looked very carefully at the itinerary, thought meant it was going to be a short trip. It was actually two and a half hours. It wasn't hugely awful, but it wasn't so hot, either.
When we arrived at the station, we had to wait in a room for a little while. The seats were really comfy. I talked to Mrs. Jay for a while, then Meg started talking about the places her family has gone. WOW. She's been everywhere! I had no idea she was such a traveler.
Half of us were herded upstairs in the train, the other half downstairs. None of us knew that the upstairs was first class. Score! I was upstairs, where the AC, though slight, made all the difference. Not to mention the dollies on the seats. I sat with some kids who mostly slept (pretty much everyone slept except me; I was engrossed in Girls in Pants, which was an excellent book. Eric. *drools*
Anyway, when Jill and Camp's brother woke up, they decided to play BS. At first I said I didn't want to play, and I'm a horrible liar (this isn't actually true, I'm only a horrible liar when I play BS, but I don't lie very often), but they made me play. I did, and I BS'd every time. Ash was in the seat across from mine, and she kept laughing because
a) the expression on my face was SO fake, but they never called it, and
b) I kept putting down the next card I needed.
One time, Jill put down a 4, and I said "one three" and put down a five. The funny thing was, I really did think I was supposed to lay down a three. When Jill called it she said, "You're supposed to lay down a five." She flipped the card, and lo and behold, a five! She had to take the whole pile. It was awesome.
Jill went to get her bag from the overhead compartment, and someone said "Look out!" I went to help her, but she'd already pulled on the suitcase. It started to fall. Everyone jumped back.
THUD!
It hit the table really hard. The empty can of pop it had fallen on was completely crushed.
"WHAT THE HECK!" I shouted. "YOU NEARLY KILLED ME, YOU CRAZY KID!"
Jill rolled her eyes. "I did not. C'mon, let's get out of here."
Lunch was uneventful, except I think we had potstickers, which one of the girls was really happy about. Checking into the hotel, however, was far from uneventful.
Upon arriving in our rooms, Mrs. Jay and the choir managers were shocked and dismayed to discover that the maids hadn't finished cleaning our rooms. Ash found beer bottles, cigarettes and a suspisious stain in her room, not to mention that her room was filled with smoke. This was a serious problem, because both Ash and Lena, her roommate, have athsma. My room was okay, but still smelled faintly of smoke, and was a little dingy. This was the only bad luck we'd had with hotels, though, so I'd say we did pretty well on our stay.
After lunch we visited the Bund. It was a gorgeous garden, and really peaceful. It was one of my favorite places we visited. I think we took another boat ride, and Kris, Ann, Ash and I talked about jumping in (since this was the second-to-last full day we were going to be in China, we wanted to do something spontaneous). Mrs. Jay walked by, though, so we decided to turn the subject to safer topics, like how so-and-so was such a watermelon hog, and wasn't it so weird that there was this list floating around with a list of people who should be couples. *coughcough*
We took a tour through the Bund, and passed a huge mown meadow. The grass was so green, I wanted to run and lay down in it. I refrained, of course, because people would think me insane. Apparently I wasn't the only person to think the gardens peaceful; there was a middle-aged Asian woman doing Tai Chi on the other side of the field. I tried to get some pictures, but it just didn't do justice. It doesn't help that I don't have that great a sense of composition regarding photography.
Dinner was great. We weren't tired, which was rare, and spirits ran high. Virginia told us all about this weird list someone had left in her bus, and all involved pretended we didn't know about it. It was fun to see that SOMEONE at least, thought it was funny. We looked on fondly at Camp and Mil, who were really cute together, with the added bonus that Camp would probably stop stalking Ash, what with his new-found romance and all. This serenity was not to last long for me. Kris said something to me like "This is too sweet," which I unfortunately heard as "Kiss me." I didn't do it, of course, but I did choke on my Coke.
"What did you say?" I asked with not a little trepidation. She looked confused.
"This is too sweet." She held up her Coke and swirled it in the glass. I sighed with relief.
"Oh. Good." I took a sip of my beverage. Kris was not satisfied.
"What did you think I said," she asked, raising an eyebrow. I made the mistake of telling her, and she continued to mention it the rest of the night. Ann took it into her head to act like a salesperson from the silk alley and stroke my face. That was a little creepy.
Before things got too out of hand, we made it to the acrobatic show, which is famed throught China, and for good reason! It was absolutely amazing. I can't even begin to describe all of the different acts, the funny gags, and the gaudy attire. The acrobats seemed to defy death at every turn (okay, the ladies with the yo-yos didn't defy death, but it was still cool) and I was amazed that no one was injured. One of the acts involved men climbing up onto chairs that were resting on other men and chairs until they were high in the air. I was sure someone would fall, but nothing happened. Well, amazing things happened, but nothing calamitous. We applauded wildly as the show ended, and were in such high spirits Mrs R had to tell us to settle down.
The other bus had a dancing party, which mortifyed Camp because he could see his brother dancing with Jill from the other bus. It was great to watch his face. I laughed hysterically. It was mostly funny because I was so tired. As soon as we went into the hotel room and got showers, we fell fast asleep.