Shanghai - Day 16

After flying during the night, we arrived in Shanghai at 6:30 am. We'd hoped to check in to our afternoon flight upon arrival, but as we should;'ve expected, flight check-in wouldn't open until 2 hours before the flight. So we put all our bags in luggage storage, and ventured out to see Shanghai. We took the Maglev bullet train from the airport. We'd heard that the taxis were incredibly cheap, but also that it was a long way between the airport and town, and we didn't have time. We bought round trip tickets on the Maglev, and riding that was amazing. We went 30 km in about 7 minutes. The train went at 430 km/hr. It was incredible. I felt like we probably would've taken off if we weren't attached to the tracks.

We spent the day walking around town, and it was much easier than walking around anywhere in Thailand, since it was about 80 degrees in Shanghai instead of the 95+ in Thailand. We walked around People's square and park, the Bund, and the old street/town. From there we took the metro back to the airport, and waited for our flight to leave. Our whirlwind tour of Shanghai was a nice break between flights, but after not sleeping over the night, I was tired. Our plane to Atlanta boarded on time from Shanghai, and after the grueling 14 hours of flying time, we arrived an hour early in Atlanta. But honestly, on a flight that long, an hour doesn't seem to make a huge difference. When we arrived in Atlanta, Moshe was there to pick us up at the airport, but before we could get out, we had to go through customs. While in Thailand, DZ and Leah purchased pre-packaged seeds to plant themselves some chilis, basil, and eggplants. Being the honest citizens that we are, we declared them, and of course, the customs agents confiscated them. Oh well.

We got home and I traded DZ his stuff that I brought in my bag for his 1000+ pictures from the trip. After trading, he went home, and I stayed awake to attempt to prevent jet-lag. I went to bed at 11:30, but once I woke up a little after 5am, it didn't seem to matter to my body that I hadn't slept in days.

On a good note, my bathroom looks awesome. I will post an entry soon with the pictures of the renovated bathroom!