Crazy Taxi Drivers

Saturday, September 8th, 2008



So what are the odds? After 5 long years, I actually get back in contact with one of my cousins, and the crazy part is, she was in Shanghai today! So of course, I went to meet her and her husband! On my way downtown, I forget to factor in traffic, but that’s okay. The scary part of my taxi drive down there today was that the car kept stalling. He would turn it off, and then try to start it up again. And at times, we would just be on the road for like a couple minutes before the car started up again. I also took a look at the gas…which there was none of, so I’m like great! It only took us almost an hour to get down there. It was pretty crazy, on top of the traffic. Oy.

But! I got to meet up with my cousin and her husband and we went to the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall in downtown. It was amazing. I had no idea how Shanghai had been developing and what their aim for the expo is. It was interesting to also see the structure of how Shanghai is built and structured today vs. what it use to look like and what they are aiming for in the future. I’d load pictures but the blog says I can’t. And I’d like to load them on the snapfish, but the government seemed to have gotten a hand on that because I can no longer open it. Hopefully I’ll be able to figure it out soon. They exhibit was amazing. I’d also like to come back to Shanghai in 5-10 years or so to seem how they have come about their plan.

After the exhibit we went to Nanjing Road and took a stroll down. After that, we met their friend for dinner at this very nice restaurant. The food was excellent. It was great having dinner with them and seeing how they were, in their young 30’s and how much they’ve accomplished. I need to get on that! My cousin’s friend Catherine is also on a Gallic football team, so that might be something I may look into. It sounds pretty interesting. They are also have the FIFA tournament very close to campus and the tickets are quite cheap as well, so that would also be a great opportunity. And I was also looking at my Shanghai tour guide book (thanks again Julie!) and realized that there’s actually a marathon in Shanghai in November! Now, I know I’m not exactly fit enough to run in it, even though that would be amazing, but I think it would be great to get a chance to watch it since I missed the one in NYC:( So I’m also going to check that out. Well, I suppose that’s it for now! Zai jian!