We spent November 14th packing up, traveling to Guilin, wasting a few hours and then getting on a train which traveled through the night to Hangzhou to meet up with Kiera, Whitney, and Amanda for the rest of our vacation. We arrived in the afternoon of the 15th, checked into our hostel and then went exploring around Hangzhou. Kiera, Whitney, and Amanda left for home that night, but the rest of us girls still had another day planned in Hangzhou. Sadly, a rain storm came through so we couldn’t enjoy Hangzhou and instead spent the day wet, cold, and trying to make the best of things.
Trying to make the best of a rainy day.
Shanghai:
On the 16th Alysa, Shayne, and Leah all went back to Bengbu, but I got special permission to meet up with my friend Katie Bell to go to Shanghai and get my mission papers done (see this post for more details). Katie and I took a train to Shanghai, checked into our hostel, and went out on the town. At the hostel we met this girl from Germany, named Jessica, who spoke a little English, even less Chinese, and just BARELY arrived in China where she would be doing an internship for almost a year. She was all alone, a bit nervous coming to this new country, and we remembered how that was when we first arrived so we invited her out to dinner and explore the city with us. We had so much fun with her and we spent the night teaching her about the Chinese culture (crazy how just living here over three months can give you so much experience to share). 
From left to right: me, Jessica, and Katie in front of Nanjing Road and pictures of us and other people dancing.
We introduced Jessica to a Muslim noodle place (aka THE BEST CHINESE FOOD EVER) and there we met a family with SIX kids! Chinese families are only allowed to have 1-2 years so 6 kids is unheard of.
Two extremes of the subway—completely packed and completely empty.
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