Greetings from the People's Republic of China!
Ok first of all I have to begin with letting you all know that, no, I am in fact not pregnant. However, this is what I told Continental Airlines when I called to get a seat upgrade free of charge. I told them that I recently found out that I was pregnant so could I please be upgraded, or at least have an Emergency Exit row. I was then informed that pregnant women are not allowed to sit in the emergency exit row (dir) so an upgrade will have to do. Hokay!
The thirteen hour flight was totally fine. After two Lorazepams I didn't even know where I was! I was so chilled out I think I might have turned to ice. My travel partner and I arrived at the Tokyo Narita airport and were making our way to the gate for our flight to Shanghai when our names were called over the loud speaker.
"Attension please. Will Meestar Monteiwo Wobewto and Miz Leeeza Gwadie please weport to gate number ferty-five."
I whipped my head around to Wobewto (Roberto) and said, "DUDE! THAT'S US!" Cue the scene in Home Alone when the entire family is running around in the airport. Yeah. It was like that except we didn't leave an annoying child at home. And we definitely were not going to Paris. Anyway no big thing. We arrived at the gate sweating and sore wondering what on Earth was so important that they had to page us and it was just that we were the last people to get our seats assigned. I'm not sure what the big rush was since the plane was pretty much empty and I had an entire row to myself. I passed out for all 3 hours 45 mins on the ride to Shanghai. It was amazing.
Our first order of business when we arrived at the sickly-amazing-nicest-hotel-I've-ever-stayed-in Shangri-La Pu Dong was to change and eat. It was 6:30pm local time and we wanted to tackle the jet-lagg head on. We went to the restaurant at the hotel and had authentic Chinese food. It was totally heinous and I totally barfed the next morning but I'm fine now. At least I tried it. I feel better about myself that I gave it a whirl and I do not let my Peptol Bismol tablets out of my sight.
Yesterday (that's Saturday for all those confused. The time difference is exactly 12 hours ahead of my peeps in the US) we took an 8 hour personal tour of Shanghai. It was pretty amazing! Did you guys know that 20 million people live in Shanghai? Iiiii know! Anyway, we saw the old part of the city, an official tea ceremony, the Temple of Confucius (yeah, that Confucius), a Buddah Temple, the waterfront, the French Concession and a place that sold fake Rolexs. I was trying to barter with the woman but she wanted $250 for a fakie. I told her to screw and that I can get it in New York for $10. I'm realizing now the danger factor of that excursion. And no, that was not part of the tour that we paid for. Our guide was a nice girl named Summer and we hinted to the fact that we might want to check something like that out.
By 6:30 last night I was falling asleep in my Dim Sum. I rallied and got a 45 minute Chinese Finger Massage. I told the girl who was all of 90 pounds that I wanted it rough and she basically stood on me and kneaded her elbows into my kidneys. During one part of the massage she actually took my butt cheeks (you're covered with a towel the entire time and there is no oil involved. This massage was no joke) and did some sort of voodoo with her fingers and worked out all the kinks. I didn't even know that you had knots in your cheeks!
Luckily I haven't been that badly affected by the time change. I'm basically making myself stay awake until around 9-9:30 and then I'm not waking up until about 6:30. Everyone kept telling me these horror stories of waking up at 4am and not being able to sleep. I didn't have the heart to tell those people that I can fall asleep at the drop of a hat. And I have (perscription) drugs.
I'm about to take a quick nap and then we are going to head to a theater to see some acrobats fly about. A couple I ran into at breakfast this morning said that it's a must see so I'm pretty pumped.
Well that's my China experience so far! I wanted to drop a line to you guys and say HI because starting tomorrow it's work work work until Friday afternoon and I will not have time to be blogging. Enjoy your week everyone!!
Xx
Lisa