Mark had 2 classes today. During his first class, there was a very outspoken student who called himself �Cigar.� He said it was because his skin tone and physical appearance looked like a cigar.
When I introduced myself to the class, �Cigar� immediately asked me if I should be called, Mr. Jeff, Mr. Whittle, Mr. Jeff Whittle, or Jeff. I said Jeff was fine. He think asked me who I voted for in the presidential election. Knowing that answering this question could make for many arguments, I opted to discuss the election itself. I also talked about how Americans are not only concerned with foreign policy, but more concerned with domestic issues like taxes and other things.
After class Mark and I walked down to the Friendship Store to exchange money. The Friendship Store were westernized stores originally opened up in the 1970s to encourage tourism. Mark said they were pretty expensive and not to buy from them. Still, there was a band inside so we exchanged money there.
After getting more Yuan, I said to Mark, we should go to lunch. Gino Caf� was nearby, so we went there. I got lasagna. It was okay. There was very little cheese and even less tomato sauce. I joked with Mark and said next time I will bring a can of tomato sauce and tell them to use this. Mark had some type of noodles. He said he hadn�t had a good meal like that in a while. I paid with my credit card. Mark said that it was safe to do this.
After lunch we decided to go to the post office to get some stamps for my postcards. I was planning on writing the postcards on the train to Xian tomorrow. But I wanted to get the stamps on them so that I could just drop them in a mailbox when I got back to Shanghai. Mark recommended that I mail them from Shanghai instead of Xian. He said Shanghai was a more international city with lots of connections overseas. There would probably be less steps involved in getting the postcards overseas.
We got to the post office and bought the stamps. I think it ended up being about 50 Yuan to mail the 13 postcards overseas. Surprisingly, they do not have adhesive stamps in China. We had to take glue and paste the stamps to the postcards. There was a large bowl of paste nearby. We took a brush and glued the stamps to the postcards.
Mark was in a big hurry to get back to school. He was supposed to meet someone at 12:30PM. What I have found is that sometimes he had way too many responsibilities at school and has a difficult time saying �no.�
Mark, Bund, Ruth, and I visited with Grant, a former student of Mark’s, to a middle school. Grant was a English teacher at the school. He was having trouble getting the class’ attention.
Mark introduced us to the class. He also had all the students get up and introduce themselves in English. At the end, he taught the class the “I’m a little teapot” song.
As I was sitting with Ruth in the classroom, I noticed there was a cup of water with small tadpoles in it. I found this to be very unusual.
Afterwards Mark, Ruth, and I decided to try to make an effort to find a Chinese soccer uniform. Some students in Mark�s class had said to get it at the soccer stadium. Mark had consulted a map as to how to get to the stadium. We rode a bus to catch another bus. It was in the middle of rush hour and we had a long ride to go. Finally, after what seemed to be forever, we reached our stop. We got off and walked in front of the stadium. At the first store we came to we asked about it. Success! We were able to get a soccer uniform here. I decided to get the blue Shanghai team jersey and the red and white Chinese national team jersey. They also ironed on the number �5� on them. Ruth said that number 5 belonged to a good player who went to play for an English team eventually. I also got a Shanghai team scarf. The storeowner gave me a Shanghai key ring, saying because I was a foreigner.
We decided to go to the Subway restaurant on Nanjing Road to eat and to get a Subway to go for my train ride. As we were walking to Subway, a man approached us with coupons for Subway. He was wanting us to go there. Subway is on a side street in Nanjing. It is at an awkward location. Inside, I decided to get a �Cold Cut Trio� similar to a Cold Cut Combo here in the US. I also got a couple of bags of barbeque chips (much like 3-d Doritos) and a Fanta. I had a full card of Subway stamps from the US. They accepted my Subway card. The food was good, but not exactly the same as an American Subway. Inside there were mostly Americans in the mostly empty dinning area. It seems that Subway was having a tough time finding its nitch in Shanghai. We took pictures of the store and left.
I got back to the room and started packing for my trip to Xian. I was supposed to leave at 8PM for the train station. I soon found that my backpack wasn�t going to be big enough. After some persuasion Mark let me borrow his large backpack. This should provide a lot of room for souvenirs.
Paul arrived promptly at 8PM. Mark escorted us to the bus stop. We caught the bus to the train station. At the train station our bags were x-rayed as we entered. Inside of the train station there were specific areas as to where you could sit according to when your train left. The whole waiting area was dimly lit. There was a large crowd of people gathered. Many people were traveling home for the May Day holiday.
Paul and I sat down and waited. I told Paul of the expression �Hurry Up and Wait.� He seemed to get the joke.
Sometime they called for our train. There was a huge mob of people. We were guaranteed a �Soft sleeper� which meant we had a bed for the entire trip. We got on the train and I immediately got into bed. Sheets and a pillow were provided. I was on the very top (3rd) bunk, just a few feet from the ceiling of the train. They didn�t immediately cut off the lights. Mark said that he always sleeps well on the train, but I found it difficult to sleep. Someone nearby was snoring.