Jay and Staci Come To China! (Part 1)

Hoorays! Jay and Staci arrived in Shanghai!!!!  They got in really late on Sunday the 10th, and they brought me red vines, because they're the best!  I had their room all ready for them, and everything in the house was picked up, well except for my bedroom because that's where I stashed everything I hadn't been able to put away before they arrived.  I think we're all guilty of doing such things when guests are on their way.   Anyway, Bob and I got them all situated and tucked in for the night so they could get a good rest and be ready to party with me the next day.  (Unfortunately Bob wasn't really able to party with us because there was a big meeting at Shanda that he had to go to.)

On Monday we got up at a reasonable time, and I took Jay and Staci for Yang's Fried Dumplings!  I feel like this is a staple on the tour of Shanghai now, everyone who comes to visit me must go to Yang's Fried Dumplings because they are just so delicious.  We hopped in a cab, and went to the location that Eric took me to originally because I think it's the best.  It has enough room for you to sit down and isn't super crowded.  We picked up some drinks at Family Mart next door and then ordered 4 dumplings each and we all got a soup.  Really the soup is just a little extra, and you might as well have it because how can you beat yummy soup for the equivalent of 1USD?  You can't.  Staci and I each had the hot and sour soup which was delicious and had peanuts floating in it.  It was good, but we probably should have just shared one because the portions were huge, and really we were there for the dumplings.  I was able to order all our food in Chinese.....while pointing at the menu that was in english :)   Jay and Staci agreed that those were some absolutely delish dumplings.  I feel like frying them adds and extra umph to the whole thing.  And they're soup dumplings which is even more awesome.

On a side note, I've perfected my soup dumpling eating.  I pick up the dumpling with my chopsticks and stick it on my little soup spoon and then i nibble a small corner off the dumpling.  I wait for a minute while I blow on the dumpling to cool it down and then I suck all the soup out!  That way when I bite into it all the soup doesn't explode all over the front of me.  And there's usually some soup left in the dumpling so it's a win-win situation.  I believe my t-shirts are secretly happy that I discovered this method, as they are no longer getting stained with dumpling grease.

After lunch we walked around the neighborhood and through a park.  I hadn't been to the

park before so it was nice to know there was one pretty close by.  We decided it would be good to head over the Bund so that we could walk along the river and find a place to get coffee.  We walked along the Nanjing East Walking street and stopped at a mall with a nice coffee place.  I had a really yummy green tea frappacino thing.  It was the really rich matcha green tea which I think is great because it's actually kind of bitter, but still sweet at the same time. The menus at the coffee shop were great because they had pictures of all the drinks, and the drinks actually came out looking like the pictures.  We all thought it was funny that you could order a glass boot of coffee.  Sadly none of us tried it.

After coffee we finished the walk down to the river.  The day was overcast so it wasn't as nice as usual but there where still a lot of people out and about on the boardwalk.  We wanted to jump into photos of big tour groups but managed to control ourselves.  Instead we took our own photos and walked all the way to the end of the riverside walkway.  After our afternoon walk we headed home so I could get some work done and we'd be ready for when Bob got home.

We lounged about and I got some work done and when Bob came home we (including Eric) headed out to the BullDog Pub in the French Concession.  Bob and I had scoped the place out the week before for the Pub Quiz, because Jay is a ringer for Pub Quiz and we wanted to be able to show him off.  Every Monday night the BullDog has a pub quiz, and two for one meals for dinner which is pretty awesome.  Jay had shepard's pie, and Staci, Bob and Eric had fish and chips, and I had a blue cheese burger.  The food is only okay, but it's pub food and sometimes all you want is a greasy meal and a couple of beers.  We ended up coming in 5th place out of 8 teams that night, but it's league play so we were prepared to come back and fight for a higher rank.

We were going to go for massages after the pub quiz, but I thought because Bob had to be up so early in the morning that it would be better for us to go home and go to bed, it was midnight after all.  And I figured Jay and Staci were beat after a long day of walking around.  We headed home, and I can't speak for everyone else but I was unconscious almost instantly.  Stay tuned for the next day of fun and excitement!

I stole all these photos from Staci!  You can look at her flickr account here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/girljournalist

Loves and kisses,

Margaret