Another Wonderful Weekend in Shanghai

Well I have had another amazing weekend here in Shanghai. This past week was a very special week in many ways! I celebrated my 21st Birthday on monday September 20th. Although I was not in United States to celebrate it, it was still a very special day. The day before my birthday, my Chinese roommate was very sweet and bought me a mouse for my computer, since the Mac computer can be a little annoying. She also gave me an adorable planner. I have been very lucky because we have committed to only speaking Chinese, which has been so helpful in so many regards. On the morning of my birthday, I woke up at about 8 am and called my family on skype, since I wanted to see them first thing on the morning of my birthday. My mom, dad, and Jesse all started singing happy birthday to me. It was the sweetest way to wake up on your birthday, though it did make me a little sad as well since I really wanted to be with them to celebrate this special day. After talking to them, I opened the many e-cards online that I received, then went out to find a bakery where I could find coffee and pastries. I was able to find the bakery pretty easily. I had class right away beginning at 10 am so it didn't feel like too much of a birthday at first. My day was pretty long since I had class until 6 pm. However, after 6 pm, I had such a special birthday. My adoptive family here in Shanghai took me out out to a delicious Italian restaurant. I invited my roommate which was a great decision, and it was so much fun to be able to have good conversation and be surrounded by such kind people. We had two delicious italian salads, pizza, steak, fish, mushroom risotto, and marinara pasta. My adoptive mom bought me a delicious cake and got candles and everything for me to blow out. It was truly so kind. Even though I'm so far away from the US, I definitely felt like I was at home with all of the love that I was surrounded by.

I went out on Tuesday night to celebrate my birthday with classmates; we went to a place called windows underground which is like a sports bar with a small dance floor. I loved just being able to dance and release my energy after having to take a very difficult test on Tuesday.

This weekend has been exactly what I needed. I came to my "family's" house on Friday and we had a delicious home cooked meal that my "mom" cooked for me. It was so nice to be able to have a family dinner. It was soooo sweet, they know how much I love sweets and so they bought a pie from Marks and Spencers and cooked it in the microwave. It was something very unexpected and also something so warming and made me feel like I was celebrating the wonders of fall in China instead of in US; it made me feel so at home. After a very filling dinner, we went to walk around their neighborhood which is in a very convenient location of Shanghai. It was so beautiful and comfortable at night. There is a huge shopping district right near their house which has all of the famous brands that you can imagine. It was really fun to just look and see all of the people walking around. It definitely felt in a way like I was in New York. We went to a cafe to sit and chat that is actually a cafe that originated from Taiwan, but I had never tried it when I was there. The coffee was delicious and the pastries looked so good, but I was sooooo full from dinner that I couldn't eat anymore. When we got home, we watched a really sad Chinese movie love story. I really enjoyed getting to watch it, though it was so sad, and it was a tear jerker.

Today, I went shopping in this cheap market that has a lot of knock off brand names, including purses, bags, and scarves. I ended up finding a beautiful pashmina scarf and a cut head band. The clothes were cute, but nothing that really grabbed my attention and for the most part since I'm so tall hard to find things that fit well. I was really exhausted after the shopping. We went to have lunch at a delicious Japanese restaurant and then headed home. I did some homework, I wanted to nap, but knew that I really needed to do some work if I wasn't going to be overwhelmed tomorrow.

After working on homework for the afternoon, we went to another delicious restaurant that serves food from the North East area of China, specifically from the area of Xinjiang. I was so full again.... but everything was sooo tasty that I ate too much. I'm sooooo lucky to be taken to all of these delicious restaurants in China. I was reflecting today in a way how fast time is going by... it is almost October! I'm really looking forward to having a break in a week. Just four days of school this week and then I have ten days to relax. I'm sooo looking forward to my family coming as well. I can't believe how quickly it is coming up.

Ok well thats it for now, I'm going to bed soon. I hope everyone is doing well back at home!