Today started out as a typical day of class and went extremely uphill from there. After materials class, I came home and caught up on my online class lectures and then got an unexpected knock at my door. I yelled at them to come in but when no one did I walked to the door assuming it was the lady in charge of the dorm since everyone generally just walks in. It was a very nice surprise to see one of my sorority sisters, Shannon, at the door and I gave her a huge hug.
She had just arrived to visit her boyfriend, Matt, who is also on the trip and stopped by. It was great to just see her, but she made it even better when she pulled out a pack of letters from my friends back at school and a giant bag of starburst jellybeans. My day was instantly made and it was great to see another familiar face from home. We chatted for a while but I had to let them go since it was a great day out and they had tons on their agenda.
After they left I sat in my room and read all of the letters, which seriously was one of the most comforting things ever. Even though I am still in contact with everyone it is great to know that so many people back home care about me and miss me enough to send a letter halfway across the world just to say hi; I am so lucky. They made me miss everyone of course, but definitely put me in a great mood for the rest of the day.
With that I headed outside to enjoy the great day and played some volleyball and football until I had had enough of Bryan slamming balls at me and we were all worn out. Once I got back, I hopped in the shower and got ready for yet another night of a delicious dinner. Joe and Catriona’s moms are in town visiting and offered to take Bryan and I out to dinner at Outback Steakhouse with them, which we happily accepted. We took the subway to their mom’s hotel and met up with them in the lobby. They were both happy to meet us after hearing so much about us and it was funny to see how much they were each like their children.
After they rounded up their stuff we headed over to Outback and got seated in no time since it wasn’t very crowded at all. I think I have only been to Outback in the states once or twice so I really didn’t know what to expect but my expectations were blown out of the water. We all ended up getting the meal special that included bread and butter, a bowl of soup, a salad, your choice of steak, loaded baked potato, vegetables, dessert, and free refills for about $22 when just a steak was only about $5 cheaper. Realizing what a great deal it was, we all went for the same package. My full meal consisted of a shared bloomin’ onion, bread and butter, cream of mushroom soup, Caesar salad, Denver cut steak, a loaded baked potato, veggies, and crème brulee for dessert. I don’t know if it was just the fact that I haven’t had a steak in 2 months but everything was absolutely amazing. I left the meal probably more full than I have been since I got to China and couldn’t have been more satisfied.
After agreeing that we would definitely have to come back, we headed over to their moms’ favorite part of town, Tianzifang, which turned out to be a really cute area. We went into this DVD shop that is definitely the most impressive I have seen since I have been here. All of the DVD’s were in legit cases and they had so many options that I just had to buy something. I ended up with Friends with Benefits and Silver Linings Playbook for only $4! Bryan got all 7 Harry Potter’s, 4 Rambos, Les Miserables, and Slumdog Millionaire for a pretty great deal as well. After forcing ourselves out of the store before we bought more, we headed into the actual shopping area. There were tons of cute shops and restaurants with all kinds of food so we looked around with Joe and Catriona and their moms for a while until they were ready to head back to their hotel after a long day.
Bryan and I decided to stick around for a little while until the shops closed. Bryan somehow managed to eat a piece of pizza, while I am on the verge on not being able to walk I am so full, and then we looked around bargained for some watches I liked but never actually got one. After deciding we would definitely have to come back to look around more, we got back on the subway and made our way back to Minhang. With the rooms to ourselves, Bryan and I took full advantage of just lounging around for a bit and going to bed early.
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