I recently returned home from a semester abroad in Shanghai. I decided to stay more days after the program ended to maximize my time before coming back for New Years to my family. First thing I did was visited M50 with a good friend. It is the modern art area of Shanghai. There was a lot of contemporary art from local artist. There is a huge building that houses several art exhibitions and art shops. We walked in one of the Japanese shops where they sold a lot of custom clothing. They also taught how to paint in their workshops. We walked around area a bit more were photographers where photographing their photogenetic subjects for their photographs. Photo.
As soon as I came back home, my family had prepared for me a special dinner with bison cranberry burgers and Oreo ice cream cake. It was amazing! I was very delighted to see my family, who asked a lot of questions about my experience. I filled them in with the details of my trip and they updated me on all the things that had happened since I was gone. I crashed hard after my head touched the pillow to “rest my eyes”.
The jetlag is real. I traveled back in time 13 hours, and my biological clock is slowly adjusting. The first three days composed of me waking up at night and going to sleep in the morning. By 5 PM my body craved sleep. The time has slowly been moving up to 9 PM and now 11 PM. I think my bio clock is getting there.
I will miss a few things. I will miss Coco, a Boba tea place THE BEST CHAIN IN CHINA! I will also miss the fast delivery of packages ordered online. I could order something during breakfast and get it during dinner the same day. I will miss the VIP treatment at some of the venues. I will miss the friends I made during my adventure. I will miss the food, and the baozi I would get in the morning in front of the university for 3 RMB each (about 43 cents). I will miss their Korean BBQ, I will miss the prices and the haggling (that was an art form). I will not miss the pollution, the traffic, or the smells near the bund.
I reflect back on all of the experiences I had in China. The first time arriving, I didn’t really know what to expect. There was a lot of excitement, and a huge rush for all the new things I saw, like the old people doing Tai Chi in front of Starbucks in the morning, the music, the market, the traffic, and the food. By the end of my trip, they had become common to me, but I still felt intrigued by it. I think I will miss the people I met the most. They were very kind to me and hospitable, and some of the most unique people I met in my life. I learned a lot about their market and saw how it affected people at a very personal level. I felt I grew as a person. I will miss Shanghai, and its experiences it brought me.