Since facebook refuses to let me post a new note, I'll do it here and then transfer it when it decides to work.
Shanghai day 1-
Arrived and did the customs thing with no problem, if you have nothing to declare you just stroll through the gate. I caught a taxi and finally got through to him where I wanted to go and off we went. The ride was...well interesting. I now have a full understanding why asain drivers are so bad. there dont really seem to be many rules here. The right side of the road is clearly just a suggestion, not a rule as is turning right from the right lane (4 lanes over seems to be just fine with everyone). And if there is a car in front of you in traffic and he was dumb enough to leave enough space for you to get around him via side walk or oncoming traffic, then he deserves to be behind you. Bikes routinly play chicken with cars and honking means everything from Look out, to thank you to Hey look, my car has a horn. Shockingly enough none of the cars have a scratch on them. I have no idea how that can be. Anyways, after 3 wrong turns we found the school and I managed to track down my aunt. To get to the school you go through a village in the middle of a really industrial area. Its all small cement apartments and stores with ladies on the side of the road selling melons etc. Then you get to this big gate and its like you are suddenly in middle america. The houses are all brick with huge sweeping lawns. My uncle told me that they wanted the houses to be a western as possible so they shipped everything in from canada, right down to the light switches. Aparently the chinese ones just will not do. He said that the whole lawn will be ripped up as you leave school and the next day it is all re done. They will do this several times for reasons no one seems to understand.
Anyways, we caught the bus back to their apartment, passing everything from a british prep school, a neighborhood where all the blocks are modeled after different countries, chinese ladies sweeping the road with this branch looking things, guys with mountains of foam on their bikes. All and all a pretty diverse place.
The aparment I am staying in is beautiful. Its very americanized complete with a starbucks right across the street. There is also a weird wal-mart rip off store where you can buy everythng from socks to eels and turtles to candy. We took a quick walk around the area so I knew where I was going and I pretty much called it a night.
Crazy cool city.