So...I may have possibly lost my passport in China...

I left Macao Wednesday afternoon headed for Shanghai. Crossed the border with ease and found the bus terminal after about a good twenty minutes. After the 3 hour bus ride I arrived in Guangzhou, where my flight was delayed two hours and we didn’t leave until 11:40pm. While waiting I Dimitriev well, he’s a Russian who spent the past year studying

Chinese in Guangzhou. Finally we took off and after the to hour flight, arrived in Shanghai around 2am. I took a taxi to my hosts house, which I set up through couchsurfing.net, he let me in and I just crashed. I awoke the next morning. Began to prepare to head out and realized, uh oh, I don’t have my passport…to be continued

Shanghai was a great time, spent most of the time bouncing around on my own, and randomly meeting people here and there, doing some touristy stuff and meeting new people. My first two days were purely spent at the Shanghai 2010 Expo, better described as the World’s Fair, which was one giant cultural slap in the face. In the beginning it was rather overwhelming due to the massive size and number of pavilions one could visit. The expo site itself is actually bigger than the main island of Macao. It has 500,000 visitors everyday (give or take a few) and over 200 countries were participating. Many had their own massive pavilions, some had

smaller pavilions (which were still big) and other smaller countries shared large buildings grouped together geographically.When I arrived at the expo site, I was having trouble finding the entrance and I saw a blonde woman who looked like she spoke English. She turned out to have been from Switzerland. She pointed me in the right direction and gave me a VIP pass to the Switzerland Pavilion, as she had an extra one from volunteering there the day prior. With a VIP pass, you surpassed the line and were allowed to enter the pavilion immediate. This was very nice. Upon making through the entrance gate, which was orchestrated wonderfully by the security, it was time to begin my Expo experience.

In speaking with friends, they all prepared me for the lines, they said you could expect to wait anywhere from 30 min to 6 plus hours. So in the beginning I tended to walk around more, taking pictures of the pavilions, not willing to give up my time to wait in a huge long line. I had a lot to see only two days to do it. Finally I sat down took a breath and convinced my self to just start getting in lines and waiting it out. So I did, and the lines turned out not to be that bad, the longest wait I had was probably and hour. Now, even though I did decide to be proactive and just get in line, I was still selective. If it looked to be longer than a two-hour wait I just passed.

The pavilions I actually went in were India, Nepal, Israel, Pacific Islands, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Slovenia, Lithuania, United States of America, Caribbean Communities, Cuba, Chile, Brazil, Colombia, African countries pavilion, South Africa and Angola. I also went to some theme pavilions, such as the Urbanian Pavilion, the Pavilion of Urban Footprint and the Pavilion of Future.

Of all the pavilions, my favorite was the Urbanian Pavilion. Here you follow the stories of six urban families from around the world. There were five sections "Family," "Work," "Contact," "Learning" and "Health.” Each section had six video screens, which would play simultaneously. You could look around and see whatwas like to go to school, or work in all the countries. They would also include various demographics and facts for the cities throughout the videos as well. It was cool to see the similarities and differences among the families.

On my first day there I grabbed lunch at the German Pavilion, because bratwurst, sauerkraut and beer sounded awesome…and they were! I ended sat with a group of Chinese who had an open seat at their table. A couple of the younger ones spoke English fairly well, so we chatted for a while. It was very enjoyable lunch.

Later that evening, I saw a few people that looked like American so I chatted them up. Sure enough they were and to my surprise the University of Southern California marching band was going to be performing at the Expo that evening how sweet! They were supporters and donors of the USC marching band and come over to check out the Expo and support the band,

that is dedication. It was fun to chat with them for a while, because I was nearly interning in USC’s development office this summer. They were never in band or any sort of music, they just really enjoy the marching band so they donate to the program. I love stories like that.

On my way to the Expo on my second day, a Chinese gentleman stopped me. He was an English teacher in Shanghai and was super excited to get the chance to talk to me. I mean really excited! His name was Mr. P. He has been teaching English for a long time and has started numerous programs in and around Shanghai. He may be a good resource when I am looking for a job next year.

My last day in a half was spent being an uber tourist. I went to the Bund, which is a huge river walk with old buildings on one side and a great view of the Shanghai skyline on the other. It is a very beautiful and distinctive skyline. I walked up and down West Nanjing Road, which is full of shops and stores, but something every tourist must do. It began to rain (actually a pretty heavy thunderstorm) around lunchtime, so I had about a three-hour

lunch. Ha. I stopped in at a Thai coffee shop. The three hours gave me time to catch up on my journal which I have somewhat neglected as well I read a bit. My waitress, Pear, was from Thailand. She is studying International business in Phuket and has come to China for the past two summers to take courses. She will be graduating in a month. She was really cool and we ended up having dinner together later that night. It was fun to learn about Thailand from a native’s perspective. When I traveled there, I was more of a tourist and did not speak with many locals. So this was a great experience.

That afternoon I spent at YuYuan Gardens, which was a beautiful area with a lot of older Chinese architecture and a ton more shopping as well. I had a blast bargaining with the vendors here. They really try to rip you off big time. So it’s fun to see how low they will go…which is pretty low. I got a cool tiger screen painting and bottle. They were asking around 600 RMB for, but I ended paying 180 for them. Sounds like a good deal and I felt good about it, but who knows, I may have still gotten ripped off. Whatever, items with tigers are priceless.

I tried stinky tofu, which I read was a favorite of many Shanghaians, so how could I pass up the opportunity. I wasn’t searching fro it, but while walking around, I smelled it. This is a smell you cannot miss. It smelled like dairy farm, which has a strong scent of cow poop. I worked on my uncle’s dairy farm for a couple years so I am familiar with this smell. It did not smell good, but from what I read is smelled bad but tasted good and the line was long so it must be good. (I experienced a similar situation in Thailand with Durian (pronounced turian…as I was corrected by Pear) Which is a fruit that seriously stinks but tastes good) After waiting aout 15 minutes it was my turn, I stepped up received my plate with the tofu and a sauce that I am pretty sure was tobacco, which is not a favorite of mine either, but when trying food I always like to have it as is. So I just popped one in my mouth…ugh! Thos articles were freaking wrong! It tasted just like it smelled. It tasted like cow shit with Tabasco sauce, I nearly threw up. I was eating the smell of a dairy farm. Gross. So I still recommend you try it if you ever have the chance. Maybe you will like the taste of dairy farm, it just wasn’t my gig.

Also while walking around that evening, I ran into a couple of girls who went to the University of Texas, while I am super competitive and don’t love Texas by any means, it was nice to talk to some Americans. One was there working with international business, while the other was teaching elementary English. We talked about the new Big XII(10) which was fun, and I am pretty sure I convinced them to take a holiday to Thailand. They will be hooking me up when I return to China as well, so more contacts! Good deal.

So overall, a wonderful trip to Shanghai; met some wonderful people, literally travelled around the world at the Expo and had a wonderful first couch surfing experience. Wish I had time to travel more, but this is what I got and I am content with the trip.

Oh yeah the whole passport deal…well I kind of freaked out…but not really, because the first thought that came to my mind was “Yes now I can spend more time in China. HA!” Anyways, the evening was rather fuzzy, as it was actually early morning, but I remembered that when I got on the plane I had put my passport in the seat pocket in front of me. I just couldn’t remember if I had taken it out or not when I got off. So it was either still there or I dropped it somewhere.

I had to keep my priorities straight, so I got breakfast before heading to the airport. It was a wonderful helping of Xiaolongbao, A soup and meat filled dumpling that was oh so good! Now that my stomach’s desire has been fulfilled I was of to the airport to find out what in the heck happened to my passport…hopefully that is. I was waiting for a taxi when a guy pulled up on a motorbike and said Taxi? I usually try to stay away from the bikes as they are pretty dangerous (actually on my second there I saw a couple on a bike get hit by a police car, haha so funny, the police hit

them…it’s okay no one was hurt, you can laugh too) However, I had been persuaded to take the bike option after reading my friend Susan’s update from Vietnam where she went on a bike tour and said she loved it. I would have to agree that the bike was much more exciting than a taxi, weaving in and out of traffic with the wind in your face, not to mention the view is far better than the backseat of a taxi.

Finally arrived at the airport and made my way to the Spring Airlines desk. I explained my situation to the attendants and I could tell they were trying not to laugh. Can’t blame them, it was pretty funny not to mention that I was laughing, but they did a pretty good job keeping a straight face. They called someone and got some info. They told me a passport had been found but it had to be brought to the desk for verification and I would have to wait for a bit. A bit ended up being 20 minutes, and I thought about a lot. If it’s mine good deal, if it’s not mine at least I’m not the only dummy who lost their passport. If It’s not mine what is the next step, maybe I could get a fake one made, who knows…Well as it turns out I WAS the only dummy to lose their passport, and they had found my wallet. What a relief! I actually wanted to blog about this the night it happened, but facebook is not the only thing blocked in the mainland. Blogging sights are blocked as well, so I could not write or read blogs, quite interesting.

I will leave you with some words from the song from one of the videos in the US pavilion.

“You’ve got a dream so plant it in you’re heart,

then you can start to make you’re garden grow.

Water it with love and lend it to the sun,

now go and be the one to make your garden grow!

“Unknown” (I think Regina Spektor)

Still in good health, (knock on wood)

Brent