On day 14 we went to a festival/performance for the opening of the town, I think. I don't know if that makes sense but I think I remember someone saying that's what it was for. We were the only Americans there and as we walked to our seats every head turned to look at us. The whole thing was certainly an experience and we saw some local celebrities perform. We then walked through the "first city under heaven" and went to a sesame cookie factory. They gave each of us a big bag of the cookies as a souvenir. For the second half of the day we were at the new campus finishing up our projects. Jang and I sewed some cloud designs onto our map to make it flow better. The finished product looked great.
Day 15 was our last day in Shandong. We went to the new campus early to get everything done before the exhibition. We spent a good amount of time in the gallery space organizing and installing the show. Before the exhibition opening we had to honor of meeting the president of the school. President Pan. He gave each of us a gold coin with the schools logo on it. For the opening several important people made speeches, including a student from our group and the Chinese students. About 8 people cut the ribbon and then the exhibition was officially open. After taking many photos with the Chinese students and saying our last goodbyes we got on the bus to go back to our dorms to pack. It was sadder than I thought it would be leaving our partners. They were all wonderful and the experience of all working together was amazing. We had one last fancy dinner with some of the staff from the Shandong University of Art and Design before getting on an overnight train to Shanghai. We had first class sleeper cars, 4 to room. Braeden, Sam, Stan and I all shared a cabin.
When we were woken up on the train at 5:30am it was day 16. We went straight to the hotel and had free time until 2pm. We are at a nice big hotel right in Shanghai. It is nice to have our last few days in a nice hotel. When the whole group met up we all walked to the Yu Garden shops and explored all the way to the Bund district which is all the old bank buildings. After dinner we walked around the city and saw Shanghai at night, all lit up. Many of the buildings were all it up with bright lights. It was beautiful. We went to the top of the Jinmao observatory and got a 360 degree view of the city from above.
Day 17 was spent exploring the Shanghai Art Museum and the Shanghai Biennial. At the museum i really like seeing all the old Chinese furniture. The Biennial was really neat and had a lot of cool exhibits by all different artists. Sam, Stan and I then took a taxi over to an artsy shopping area before going back to the hotel for a little time of relaxation. A group of us went to a Muslim/ Chinese restaurant for dinner and the menu was even in English.
While we are at the hotel in Shanghai we have meal tickets for breakfast every morning. They have a nice western style breakfast with eggs and bacon and hash browns, among other things. On day 18 we took a long, hot bus ride, in which the bus driver had to stop and ask for directions several times. When we got the Humble Administrator's Garden we had free time to explore the grounds. From there we went to the historical block of Su Zhou City Center. Sam, Stan and I found a nice place overlooking one of the canals for lunch and had some really good pizza. The humidity was ridiculous, I was sweating without ever really feeling hot. We met back up with the group at another garden that had a zoo and saw all the animals. We then had the choice of taking the bus back or walking around a little more and taking a train back later. I opted to go back on the bus which ended up being the better choice because the other group didn't end up getting a train back until 8:45. I went back to the Muslim/Chinese restaurant for dinner with Sam and Stephen because we knew the menu was in English and that we would be able to order without getting anything to crazy like duck heart.
Today, day 19, we had free to explore the city and work on our projects. I went to Nanjing Lu Road with Stephen and Stan. The Chines compare Nanjing Rd. to time square in New York City. It certainly looked similar to what I would imagine time square would look like. We went in some shops and got a few things before the sky got dark...and then it got darker. When the thunder started we began heading back to our hotel but were caught in torrential down poor before we got too far. Since we were about a 15 minute walk away from our hotel we decided to get a taxi back as to not get absolutely soaked with all our stuff and cameras. I used the rest of the day to work on my Shanghai project and we are going to try and all go out tonight to experience Shanghai night life. Ill let you know how that goes.
Tomorrow is our last day here in China and I am sad and excited to be going back to Eugene. This whole trip has been an amazing experience and certainly one I could have never gotten any other way.
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