Day 1 - Shanghai

Shopped til my feet started hurting, which was sooner than the spirit was willing. :p Bought some clothes that I didn't really need but looked nice. I'm turning into a clotheshorse...

Clothes Tally:
light qipao - 50 RMB
pants + orange sweater - 140 RMB total
white sweater - ~80 RMB

Also picked up a few bootleg English DVD's at 10RMB each. I found Alexander, then I also threw in HP3 and Ocean's Eleven/Twelve.

Breakfast was consumed at a clean-looking eatery and consisted of sweet soy milk, li'l dumpling-ettes, and 小笼包. Yummy.

Our train to Nanjing was in the afternoon. Since the trip itself was nice, karma exacted vengeance when we arrived at Nanjing station, which was renovating. So we had to lug our bags over a skybridge and then over a rail to hail a cab. I think I hurt something.

Day 1 cont. - Nanjing

First couple hours at my grandparent's place seemed to consist of getting caught up on the latest family gossip.

Disturbing news heard about my older cousin (let's call him Y): His mom, while accompanying grandma on a hospital checkup visit, spotted an intern there that she recognized as one of Y's former classmates... from 3rd grade, ie ~15 years ago. She then proceeded to set them up. Scary. And now the two of them are considered a couple and grandma's already hearing the wedding bells and wondering if Dad can donate the house he inherited from his mom (my other grandma) to the (not-yet-by-far) newlyweds. All of a sudden, I'm glad I usually live an ocean away from these scary people. As for this new relationship thingy of my favorite cousin's... I'm going to reserve judgement until I've actually met the girl.

And speaking of said cousin, he did come by later today. Apparently my grandparents left their phone off the hook (improperly placed)... the entire day. So mom couldn't reach them from Shanghai. Dad couldn't reach 'em to know if we'd arrived/contacted. My uncles/aunts couldn't reach them to get news... it was basically a breakdown in communication. So my cousin came over in a hurry as soon as he got off work to see what in the world was going on.

Listening to him talk, it's interesting to note that he's rather psyched about his new girlfriend, which is something, I guess. The poor guy's been forced into enough situations in his life already, he ought to be the champ at making lemonade out of life's lemons, so to speak. I dunno if I should be envious or pitying.