and somehow, I'm in Shanghai again.

A final little relax trip until finals hit in two weeks. To my credit, I brought my notes and textbook too so that I can study. And I actually DID study today. Went to Xintiandi on the 109 route bus (a mere 2RMB my friends) and bought an iced coffee (25RMB) and two croissants (11RMB each) and sat down to study, outdoors in the brilliant sun, surrounded by little chirping sparrows trying to eat some of my crumbs, for 2 hours.

The cafe that I was at is called Paul and comes directly from Paris. In fact, the last time I was there, the two Americans that I happened to found myself in a conversation with told me that the croissants in the Shanghai Paul were exactly the same as the ones they had in the Paris Paul. And honestly, the croissants were heavenly. Before, on my "best croissants" list, T&T croissants came in number 1 (it's sad when the best croissants I had were from a Chinese supermarket in Vancouver) but now, they're definitely Paul. I might consider buying half a dozen to bring with me when I leave Shanghai...

Currently listening: 小步舞曲 - 陳綺貞

1 Corinthians 13

Recently, Karen told me a simple way to "checklist" myself and see if I really love the people around me. It comes in the form of 1 Corinthians 13:4-8:

Love is patient,
love is kind.
It does not envy,
it does not boast,
it is not proud.
It is not rude,
it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects,
always trusts,
always hopes,
always perseveres.
Love never fails.

So, everytime I am not doing one of these things, I am not loving the people around me enough.
The plan is, every now and then everyday I'll try to run the list through my head. However, I still haven't managed to memorize the whole passage yet but I guess I don't really need to since I rarely fulfill the first "requirement" of love anyways: patience. Maybe when I get the patience part down, I can finally move on to kindness, etc.

Currently listening: Put on Your Sunday Clothes - Michael Crawford

Back in the BO

Yes after a one week absence from Ningbo, I am back to my daily grind of exchange, living-on-my-own life.

Both Nanjing and Shanghai were excellent and I took too many photos, went to too many places and ate too much food to post all of them here.

However, I will show you this:



On my supposedly 4 hour bus ride from Nanjing to Shanghai, the bus driver decided to overload the bus by having people sit in the aisle on little stools too. Extremely crowded, uncomfortable, stuff and dangerous.

That's the uglier part of China.

Currently listening: 今日 - 陳奕迅