Mini honeymoon in Austria

On Monday evening we came back from our little honeymoon weekend, which was GREAT!!!

We drove south on Friday afternoon, taking the old road (Roßfeldstraße) that used to connect Germany with Austria. Some of that road goes on the mountain range right on today's border. The views from there are amazing, really breathtaking.

On the way to Austria

You basically cross the border in a village called Halein, which some of it's houses are in Germany and some in Austria. Totally cool, but also a bit funny... Imagine that your neighbors that live just across from you live in a different country. Today with the EU there is no real border in between, but there used to be a check point there.

Bumblebee!

So we drove down to Salzburg (the region not the city) and ended up next to Abtenau (a small town), in a nice B&B that Rob's siblings booked for us as a wedding present. The B&B was really in the middle of a very small not-even-a-village, and the view from our balcony was so beautiful, it was nice just to sit there and stare.

The view from our balcony

The next day we went to some gorge in the area, and had a nice walk in it, next to the river Lammer. It was a really nice one and a half hour walk, very easy and pretty.

Lammerklamm

The Lammer

After that we drove to a lake (Halstättersee), and did a bicycle tour around it. Of course I was all tired when we had to go up hill (sometimes the path next to the lake went on the hills) and had to push my bike up...

Halstättersee

I managed to ride around 3/4 of the lake, and then we sat down on a nice beach and got a little bit of a tan.

Halstättersee

Rob went to get the car from where we left it, and we drove back to the B&B. In the evening we went to the "Big Festival" of Abtenau, only to see that a big festival in their eyes is the small pedestrian when it's full of ppl, and the choise between saussage and chicken in the food stands. It was really nice though, and we sat most of the time with the daughter of the owner of the B&B and her friends.

On Sunday Rob went up the Postalm (a mountain nearby) with his bicycle, and I met him afterwords in the parking lot (I came with the car).

On the Post alm

View from the Post alm

We walked up the mountain, had lunch on top, ran away from mad cows, went down and drove to a really nice lake to swim and catch a bit more tan.

View to Wolfgangsee

The weather in these few days was so amazing, the sun was always shining, and everything looked so clear that it was so tempting to take more and more pictures. I promise to add them to this post later, but now I don't have time to download them- and apperantely also no space on my hardrive...

On Monday morning we went white water rafting, which was also a part of the present from Rob's siblings. It was so much fun!!! I, of course, was a bit worried and afraid before that, but it was really not as chalanging as I thought it'll be, and I really enjoyed it.
After that we had lunch in Abtenau, and then we went to a Summerslide (which is actually called a Toboggan in English), we waited on top of the mountain for more than an hour in the sun, and in the end we both thought that it wasn't quite worth it. Anyway - it was a nice experience for me, since I never took one before...

We came home tired but really happy, we got to see so much in such little time, and also got to relax and really get away for 3 days. One really nice surprise that awaited us in our room in the B&B was a bottle of champagne with two glasses, on each the initials of one of our names. That was aranged by Rob's family of course, and was really really cool.

So, that's it- I really promise to put here some pictures as soon as I solve the capacity problem. I guess I'll have to start using my external hardrive only, when it comes to downloading pictured... bummer...

Wish you all a nice end of the week,

I have to continue studying now (exam in 2.5 weeks)...

Computer says noooo

My computer screen went crazy... The light wont go on, and although I see the shadows of what's on it, it's totally dark. I'm writing now from Rob's computer, hoping I'd get mine fixed quickly, knowing that here in Germany everything takes a long time and costs a lot of money.

Since this isn't my computer I'll be short and just say that x-mas was really nice, the wedding in Austria was nice and very long (was a whole festival) and that Goni and Amir were here in the last few days for a visit with their really cute daughter, which was a lot of fun although we didn't do much with them (every day someone else was sick...). One thing that is worth mentioning is new year's eve- we had it in our apartment- I made a spanish dinner with Tapas and Tortilla and we watched the fireworks from here- which was so great!!! Sixth floor rules!!! It looked as if the city is jumping! We could see fireworks from all of our wondows (and we have quite a few of them) and it was a real show.

Today I'm not feeling at my best, and I hope that by tomorrow I'll feel better coz I need to go back to work!

Oh, and I got myself new ski boots and new skis! yey! Haven't tried them yet, so I'm waiting for next weekend- we want to go skiing if the weather allows it.

Will update soon!

New friends

I have so much to tell that I don't even know where to start.
Last week started like all the other weeks... Nothing special... I had my Hebrew class on Sunday, and then on Tuesday we went to a Hanuka celebration only for Israelis and their partners. I met some ppl I already know, and also a nice Israeli guy, who lives here with his German girlfriend. It was nice to meet new ppl, and make friends. On Thursday he called and we met for a coffee, and it was so weird for me to talk in Hebrew in a public place! (first time for me here to do that). While we talked I got an SMS from my Tandem partner. I'm not sure I wrote about it here, but I was looking for a Tandem partner in the last few weeks, someone local I can practice my German with, someone that is interested in learning and practicing Hebrew. I was surprised to even get an e-mail back from this girl (girl? she's not a girl anymore... how would you call a young woman of 30? woman sounds so old to me...). Anyway to get to the point: she SMSed me on Thursday, asking if I can meet her the same evening, I obviously said yes, what else do I have to do??? I met her in a really nice cafe and it was so great! She's a really interesting and nice person. She just finished her med studies and now she's specializing in psychiatry. She spent 2 years of her life volunteering in Israel as a nurse, and learned Hebrew. We talked the whole time only in German, which was really really nice, and I was so proud of myself... The thing that was funny was that even though usually I speak better German when I'm drunk, this time this wasn't the case... As I drank more I made more mistakes... And that helped me feel more relaxed about talking with mistakes. It was the first time I realized, or better say: felt, that I can make mistakes in German and the world will not fall apart. It was not just an exercise for my language skills, but also a lesson in perfectionism, or rather- against it.
So that was Thursday, and then came Friday, as usual I went to school and at night we went to a party at the dorms. Was a boring party, and in the end we found ourselves in the dorms' club, which as usual was way too loud and way too smelly from cigarettes... After an hour or two I was dying to go home and breath some normal air...
On Saturday we went to Königstein which is a castle not far from here, in Sächsische Schweiz (swiss Saxony in German). There's a mid-evil x-mas market on top of the hill in the castle, and it was a nice experience, even though we already attended the mid-evil x-mas market here in Dresden. Of course we mostly ate there all kinds of "mid-evil" food, and drank some nice Glühwein (hot wine with fruit and spices). In the evening we went to the mall, not to shop but to watch the Hanuka candle lightning of the Jewish community, met some more ppl, and went with A the Israeli, his German girlfriend J and a couple of new guys (E the Israeli and M the Italian) to a cool Italian chain restaurant. The concept of this restaurant is that you get a plastic card, on which you charge everything you order, you serve yourself, and in the end you pay at the cashier at the exit. The food there is really good, especially the Pizzas, only the drinks are a bit too expensive...
That's it for now, I really need to study, but have no Lust (passion in German, they use to say that they feel or don't feel like doing something, I have Lust for... or I have no Lust for...). I ate 3 Sufganiyot (the Jewish donuts for Hanuka) already, I never eat more than one a year, and 3- that's really too much! oh well, it's not like I eat these things on a regular basis.
Still don't know what to buy for Rob's brothers and dad for x-mas (I have to think about something for him too...) it's so hard to buy for men!!! Any ideas will be welcomed...
Suppose to get my first paycheck from the Hebrew lessons kinda soon, it's not much money- but it's something and it's nice :-)
Hope to have another nice week now, wish you all a good one too...

Chinese Freezin New Year

Chapter 1 - Getting there

Our flight from Shanghai to Harbin was scheduled to 20:55 on Thursday. We were at the airport an hour and a half before that, and we knew that because of the holiday - there's a really good chance that the flight will be delayed a bit. We were lucky- it wasn't delayed officially but we only took off at 22:00. We landed in Harbin airport at about 00:30 and it took us an hour to get to the hotel in town. At 01:30 we were in our warm nice room, we slept a bit less than 4 hours and had to get up and catch the tour bus to Yabuli- the ski resort. We booked the whole trip in advance coz of the holiday knowing that if we wont - we just wont find transportation to anywhere, and no hotels. Our travel agent told us there's no public bus from Harbin to Yabuli, so she booked us on a tour bus there, which goes there everyday. This bus was very expensive (about 30€ return ticket, for 250 km drive) but she said that there's no other way- so what could we do. They picked us up at 06:00am, after getting almost no sleep that night. We were first on the bus, and after picking up another 30 ppl, we were on our way to Yabuli. The problem was that it took us 2.5 hours in Harbin to wonder around and pick them all up. We were really pissed off, knowing that if our travel agent had a bit more sense she would have asked for us to not be picked up first and have a few more hours of sleep, and not pay for a night in a hotel- for only 4 hours of stay... The bus took forever, I slept a bit of the way, Rob slept a bit of the way, and obviously they stopped in a really dodgy place for lunch. At 12:30 we were finally in Yabuli, well actually not in Yabuli town, but next to it- where the ski resort really is. We found our hotel, and checked in. This hotel: "Tong Xin Shan Zhuang" was picked by our travel agent coz it was much cheaper than the famous one in the resort: "The Windmill Inn". In the later- a room was 100€ per night (!!!) and we thought that's outrageous so we asked for something cheaper. Our hotel cost a third of that. When we entered the hotel the ppl there were really nice to us. When we entered the room it looked a but like a room that was stuck in the 70's, but it was really clean and nice. They treated us with apples, and everyday brought us something new, like nuts or fruit- for the holiday. The ppl in that hotel were so nice- I've never met ppl as nice in China. On the other side of the coin, as we say in Hebrew, there was the Windmill Inn. A big known Inn, who owns a lot of the resort. They were the exact opposite to the ppl in our hotel. Not nice, never smiled, always wanted more and more of our money. In the beginning they said there's no place to withdraw money there (that wasn't a lie...) and that they don't take credit cards... We thought we're in trouble so we asked if we can change some dollars. They said that we can- for a rate of 1$=7RMB. The real rate in the banks is something like 1$=8RMB so we didn't really wanna do that. Obviously they were planning on getting our dollars, so until we insisted on not changing them, telling them we don't have and such- they wouldn't let us pay with our credit cards even though it was obviously something they did often. Also we were told by some foreigners we met who stayed in the Inn that the rooms were not so clean, and not warm, the showers only had hot water between 18:00-21:00 and that they also felt like the staff is trying to get more money out of them. All that made us really happy about our hotel- where we paid so much less and got so much more...

Me on skis. Who knew.

Chapter 2 - The silence

Wow. It was so quiet there. Coming from Shanghai to that secluded place was like 2 definite opposites. At night there was no sound. Nothing. The sky was black, filled with stars, and the silence ruled. We slept so deep those nights.... incredible. Also the fact that it was so dark- no lights through the window... so different than Shanghai...

View from the lift.
This year there wasn't much snow,
but was enough to ski.

Chapter 3 - Skiing and snowboarding

The ski-pass includes full equipment rental, but it's really not cheap. We were there for 4 days, the first day was not really good weather so we took a half day ticket (=4 hours) for 38€ per person, the second day we took a full day (it was great weather for the rest of our stay) for 48€ and the last 2 days we took half days as well. In the first 2 days we skied, and I tried a few runs, just the problem is that they don't groom the runs at all so for me, after only one year of skiing in my life, it was a bit of a challenge with all the moguls. That's why on the 3rd day we decided that maybe it's just better that I learn how to snowboard, to use the time in a better way. I was excited to learn, and after 2 days, 10 million falls on every inch of my body, learning that I have muscles in the front of my neck, hurting everywhere, and generally having a lot of fun and being really tired- I'm really happy that we did that! In the last day, on the last 10 minutes I had to practice, I crashed really hard into a stupid Chinese guy with a snowboard, even though I was waiting for him to go out of the way- he stopped right in my way again like a total asshole. The fall was so painful... My head started hurting as if it was falling off. But I didn't let that put me down, and I know that the next time I have a chance - I'm going to practice it again!

Me on a snowboard.

I was actually able to board down a bit!

Chapter 4 - Going back to Harbin

The trip back was just as annoying as the trip there. Apparently, the tour guide of the bus taking us there forgot about us (that's what we think) and just handed us over to a friend of hers that had exactly 2 spare seats. In the beginning that tour guide told us to sit in one seat, then in another, and then asked us to sit separately. I was so annoyed with the treatment we got that I started to yell and say that we're not sitting apart. I was so annoyed that I didn't even wanna talk Chinese to her, even though she knew no English. In the end there was only 1 nice person on the bus that moved and let us sit together. It took a lot less time, and with great timing, not even knowing that we're making the right decision, somewhere in Harbin where the bus stopped for a few minutes and the guide went with some ppl- I told Rob- lets get off here and just take a taxi to our hotel- God knows how long it's gonna take for them to drop all 50 ppl off the bus. We did so- and our hotel was a 5 minutes drive away. We were so happy! Also we were really hungry, and after having to eat only Chinese food for 4 days, with nothing western on the menu we were craving for Pizza. I saw a Pizza Hut on the way, and told Rob- hey! here's Pizza Hut- remember where it was so we can go back there after checking in to the hotel. The time was already 21:00 and we haven't eaten a thing after skiing that day, we were tired and hungry. Suddenly the taxi driver stops next to Pizza Hut, turns around and stops at the other side of the road. That was the entrance to our hotel. We started laughing so much, having so much luck after a crappy day...

Zhong Yang Da Jie- The pedestrian in Harbin

Chapter 5 - Finding my roots in Harbin

My grandfather was born in Harbin. His parents were Jews from Siberia that ran away to Manchuria in the beginning of the last century. I already visited there last time I was in China, but then I got sick and only saw a little. This time I asked my mom to get me the old name of the street her dad lived in (all the streets had Russian names then, and now they all have Chinese names) so I can try to find it. On Wednesday morning we started our day by looking for information everywhere, and found a travel agency close to the main known pedestrian street. There was a lady there that was an angle, and even though she knew no English, and I knew just enough Chinese to tell her what I was looking for - she made a few phone calls, gave us some maps, and took us to the old synagogues and Jewish school 10 minutes away from there. She was so nice... We took pictures of it all, and went in the buildings. We found out that in the big synagogue they opened a museum for the Jews of Harbin. We read all that was written under the pictures, and found some info that helped us, and it was really interesting.We also investigated the ppl there (just a few Chinese workers) asking them to help us find out the name of the street nowadays, and we did. We took pictures of the street, and it was really nice knowing that 60-80 years ago my family was there...

The old Synagogue in Harbin

A picture of my great grandfather's
pharmacy license in Harbin

Chapter 6 - Ice and Magic

In the same afternoon we went to see the Ice Sculpture Festival in Harbin. It happens every year, in winter- they build huge famous buildings from ice. It was a real treat, we went there just before sundown so we can see it both in the light, and in the dark- all illuminated in colored neon lights. It was so worth it and it was definitely the nicest man-made thing I've ever seen in China.

It's all from Ice

Chapter 7 - Last day in Harbin

We woke up late, skipping the horrible breakfast of the hotel (Chinese breakfast) and went to a nice French cafe in the pedestrian street. We had nice croissants, good coffee and good bread. After that we went to Santa Sophia church, an old Russian Orthodox church, and inside we guessed what was written under old pictures of Harbin- coz it was only in Chinese. Was good practice for our character reading, and we were even asked to take a picture with a Chinese girl who found us interesting just for being foreigners...
Then we went to pick our things back from the hotel, took a taxi to the airport and obviously found out that our flight was delayed 1 hour. The check in was a huge mess, but in the end we were finally in Shanghai - after a really nice holiday.....

Hangzhou

Warning: This post is kinda long

Yesterday I puled myself to Hangzhou, even though deep inside I knew I should stay in bed for at least another day or two. I took the subway to the new train station in Shanghai - they build it in the past year or two, it didn't exist last time I lived here. I see it from the outside all the time - it's just amazing- it's supposed to look like a big Chinese umbrella and it actually does... you can see for yourself in this picture:

Shanghai South Railway Station a view from the outside

I change metros there every day on the way to uni and back, but I never got to go to the actual station. This place looks totally like an airport rather than a train station in east Asia. It was absolutely easy to find my way around (I think it would be easy for ppl who don't know any Chinese at all too), and it's definitely efficient which is a very surprising thing when talking about China... I arrived there in the morning (after getting a wake up call from Rob at 8:14AM - wake up shmake up- there's nothing sweeter than waking up from a phone call from you tipsy loving boyfriend...) so that drove me to leave on a normal time- being in the station at 11:10AM. I asked for a ticket to Hangzhou - and the teller told me the train leaves in 40 minutes. I was really relieved to hear that there's seats, and that I don't have to wait for long. I bought the the cheapest there was (I guess that's what was left) it cost 25RMB (= about 2.5€） and headed to the entrance to the gates. There I found an x-ray machine (they have one in all the train stations- even the ones you think are so not worth the security coz they look like a dump) went through that and looked for my gate. The nice lady in the entrance told me to go to waiting room number 7 - so I headed there and was very impressed with the inside design of the place too...

x-ray machines even in the crappiest train stations

As soon as I set down on the seat- I noticed that my train was "boarding". I followed the herd and found myself going down an escalator to the platform. I found my seat on cart number 13, and set down. It wasn't the cheapest ticket for nothing: my seat was one out of three crowded seats (out of five in a row divided in the middle making a 2 seats row and a 3 seats row with an aisle in between). My seat was just next to this kid and his grandpa, and here in China I must admit- I haven't figured out a way to tell who cares about those seat numbers on the ticket and who doesn't - it appears to be 50-50 in the population... In the end instead of sitting on my aisle seat- I found myself sitting between a Chinese guy (later on he left and came a young woman) and the grandpa with the 4-5 year old (spoiled like all of these one-kid-per-family-kids) on his lap. The kid I must say seamed kinda smart but as I said- very spoiled. across from us set a middle aged couple that was just as noisy as all the Chinese ppl, and a young guy that while sitting down on his seat was finishing his noodle-meal-in-a-box (it's very popular here as travel food or something to eat at work). The whole time I was being squeezed by the kid / grandpa that were moving around as if it's a new national sport. The kid saw one of the food carts ladies walking through - and told his grandpa that he wanted to eat lunch now (it was almost noon and the Chinese ppl can not go through a day without eating their lunch at noon and their dinner at 18:00. Really - they just can not). He looked at all the nice boxes the lady had and picked them all up looking at them to see if they're nice. He picked a blue box and said he wants that one, but the lady told him that this one is spicy and he should better pick something else. He looked a bit confused for a second, saying that he wants the blue one coz it's just the most beautiful one... but his grandpa and the nosy lady across from us agreed that he should take the orange one. The nosy lady butted in and told him: "it's beautiful, but it's also spicy!". The kid was convinced and there was peace for all. Until he decided he doesn't wanna have more than a few noodles and the chase after him began in the whole train....
After 2 hours and 10 minutes of being a playground for one little kid and one old grandpa, we finally arrived at Hangzhou. By the way- I totally managed to fall asleep on the train- even if it was only between squeezing and only for 20 minutes). To start telling you about the differences between the old east Hangzhou train station (there's a new one in town) and the Shanghai South Railway Station - it's like telling the difference between an airplane and a horse carriage. The smells, the colors (well the lack of colors in this case), the lady who was laying on the platform- not moving when the security guys touched her frightfully... Third world compared with state of the art. Got out of there as quickly as possible and took a taxi to the youth hostel to meet Omri, whom I know from the China forum online. The youth hostel is located in the center of town, right next to the lake, which is a great location. I really liked the streets next to it, and this lake, as touristy as it is- has something special about it - especially under thick mist. I checked in the hostel, got a lower bed in a 4 bed dorm room, put my things in the locker and headed to meet some more ppl.

The entrance to Mingtown Youth Hostel, Hangzhou

We met Diego and Adriana, he's an Israeli who was born in Argentina, she's Colombian. We had lunch and then headed to the place where it's all gonna happen: Adriana's place (lives with a few more lovely girls- just like her) to cook the x-mas dinner. After a lot of ppl in a small kitchen (well, bigger than mine) and a few hours - we had some dishes set on the table- and we dug in... The evening was one of the most pleasant, fun, warm and welcoming I've ever been to. I even got a nice bracelet from one of the girls- as a x-mas present (thank you Cecilia) - this little gesture of giving presents to the ppl you love- I think I'll have to write about it one day too (we don't have a holiday like that in Israel, well at least we just like giving presents for fun...). Even though I still didn't feel totally healthy - I didn't wanna leave. In the end we left at around 02:00 and I was asleep by 03:30 (it takes a while to get ready for bed when you're doing it in the dark to not wake up any of the other 3 ppl you have in your room).

In the morning I met Omri and Diego for breakfast in one of the endless Starbucks coffees in China. This one is just by the lake, and it was really nice walking there on the bank while rain drops were falling on my head (had to say that line from the song...).

A golden ox merging from the lake
West Lake (Xihu), Hangzhou

As it was raining a bit and I wasn't feeling very well - I decided that I'll go back to Hangzhou soon, and of course take Rob with me... I took my backpack from the hostel, and went home...

(still not feeling great- laying in bed since I got here...)

Happy Hanukah

Tomorrow's Hanukah. Used to be my favorite holiday when I was a kid. It's supposed to remind us that the Hebrew ppl in Israel won over the Greek thousands of years ago. OK not a lot of thousands but a few... The story tells that after the victory the big temple was ruined and the Menorah - a big lamp with 7 candle spots (one for each day of the week) was the only thing left. As well they found a small jug with oil to lit the Menorah up. There was so little oil left that they were sure it's not gonna last for long- but then it lasted for 8 days. We call it the miracle of Hanukah, and the holiday is also called in Hebrew the holiday of light. We celebrate it by lighting candles every evening in the Hanukia, or Menorah (that's how Jews outside of Israel call it) every night we lit one more candle- for 8 days, to remind us of the miracle. The special food is everything that is fried in a lot of oil- like big puffed donuts with jam inside.
I used to like it so much especially coz of the candles lighting up in the evening - standing proud next to the window until they're gone. It's usually in December and the darkness outside, the winter- which I always disliked to a certain extent- would go away and make room for light, fire, warmth and the colors of the candles. Kids in this holiday get 8 presents - one for each day- usually some chocolate, or a Dradle (a spinning toy with the Hebrew letters saying- "A big miracle happened here" - or "there" if you're not in Israel) to play with. When we got older we usually got a bit of money from our parents and close family.
The last time I was in China- 2 years ago - I met my later to be best friends here on a Hanukah celebration with the Jewish community. I remember I only arrived here 2-3 weeks earlier and decided to go to the celebration - to meet new ppl. I realized that here if you don't make the effort- you'll never make friends. Even things that at home seem absurd and too straight forward- like calling someone you don't know and saying: "hey I got your number from this and that and I'd like to meet" this kinda thing here would totally make sense. That time I didn't celebrate Hanukah in any way at home- but this time - I decided that I want to. It's weird- coz then I was living alone and basically lived life the way I wanted to- and now I'm living with Rob- who's not even Jewish and I decide to do it... LOL
But I thought it would be nice - I do it with no religious feelings, more than that- I think one of the reasons I love this holiday so much is because in the whole story "God" is not mentioned even once- which makes it easier for me to relate to.

I didn't have a Hanukia here so I decided to make one of my own the same way we used to in kindergarten. I bought paint and painted some old candle holders (like the ones you get with burner candles). I bought candles at the Jewish community and I'm ready to go. I'm waiting for a reply from Charles - one of those good friends I made last time I was here - and I hope he'll come with his girlfriend and join us for a Hanukah dinner.

***

I've noticed how much I enjoy cooking lately. I've always liked it, and I've tried cooking all sorts of stuff in the last 2 years of living alone, and obviously have cooked stuff at my moms. Every now and then I would have had a project and cooked something interesting for all of us. But now- I really have someone to cook for- and if I wont cook something that is more than simple paste, then... hmmm... no one will or at least- untill we cook together it'll be so late in the evening we will starve (I feel obliged to say here that Rob likes cooking- and I really like it when he does). I don't have an oven here - so I'm chalenging myself with stove cooking only. I think after these 6 months I'll be a master...

***

I watched a movie last week - I got it from Liya. It's called Garden State. It took me a bit of time to get into it but when I did- I was captured forever... It gave me a sense of reality, especially because it has such a real life - weird story... Yes yes- there is such a thing as real but weird. I'm putting a link here to the movie's website- you can check it out- I especially loved the soundtrack (it plays on the website a bit for your enjoyment) and I haven't stopped listening to it over and over in the last few days...

Garden State (2004)

And here's a bit of trivia about it - but you shouldn't read it if you haven't watched yet- to my opinion it'll mean nothing to you...

Garden State Trivia

Chinese holidays...

This week is a week "off" in China coz of October 1st- which is their sort of independence day. I said "off" coz obviously a lot of them still work. They have a system - each worker gets his days off at another time- and this way places and work are not totally shut down for a whole week. There's not even one day in the year, not even one- where all the businesses are closed. Not even one day that all the people are off work. Not even one day where its totally quiet... And even so- on the holiday weeks- all the flights are booked, all the hotels are booked, all the trains are full, all the places are full of people. Two days ago we decided that we should do something - see a bit of Shanghai. So we went to the other side of the river, to the new area, to see the TV tower and maybe a museum. As soon as we got out of the subway- we realized that its pouring down cats and dogs... The rain just didn't stop. It wasn't really cold- just so so so wet. There were huge puddles everywhere, and we got wet to our bones. So I offered that we do get in the tower- just not all the way up- only to the Shanghai History Museum (which I really liked last time I was there) - it's on the bottom floor of the tower. We bought tickets and ran in to the building. We were soaked. Then we realized that we couldn't have made a better decision- the line to the tower was looooooooooooooooooong and there was no line to the museum!!! We passed all the people going to the tower, felt like VIP's not having to stand in line... We were there for about 2 hours, got dry while walking in the museum, and then left. It didn't rain anymore... The amount of people, especially Chinese tourists everywhere was amazing. They were everywhere. And it was really easy to spot who's from a city and who's from the smaller towns: first according to their clothes, second according to the taking pictures everywhere (even on the subway, and in a restaurant) and of course according to their loudness, to their saying hello to and having a conversation with the manikins in the museum (yes- even adults did that) and to the fact that they were generally astonished by the miracle called "the subway system". For example- when I went to uni a few days ago I saw one old woman standing in front of the machines that sell tickets to the subway. She was standing there for about 15 minutes trying to figure out how to work the thing. It has instructions both in Chinese and English by the way- it really couldn't be easier to use. When she finally decided what kind of a ticket she wants and clicked the right buttons on the screen (with the help of a kind man) - she took her coins and tried to put them in the bills entrance. she's probably never seen one of these things in her life I guess... Ha ha ha... Thats it for today, more stories about the aliens called "the Chinese people" next time.