Brrr! It's cold in Shanghai.

Today was a slow start because most everyone went out last night and had a little too good of a time. Went to the grocery store this morning and bought tons of water and Gatorade. I'm feeling much better today, but I really wanted to make sure that whatever I had that was making me sick was out of my system.

Grabbed lunch with some of the gang, so that everyone could trade war stories. Sounded like I missed on heck of a night, but knowing this crowd, it's surely not the last.

It's getting bitterly cold here, with snowfall projected for Monday. I can't describe how cold it is here, but I'm wearing leggings under my clothes every day and often two or three layers of shirt. For some reason, though the forecast says it's only 32 or so, it feels much, much colder. Perhaps it is because we are between the river and the ocean... some effect similar to the lake effect, maybe. As a result of this cold weather, my hands and toes are always freezing. Plus, as I packed for 6 months and did it all pretty much in one duffel, I really only had 4 or 5 long sleeve t-shirts. So today I set out for some more warm clothing and some boots.

We cabbed down to the yu yuan garden district, which is very near one of the smaller fabric markets. They have some very cool handcrafts there and a lot of jewelry. From there we headed to Fangbang Zhong Lu, which has many Chinese clothing and shoe shops.

Elinor and I paired up and went on a boot quest. Because you are walking around a city that is dirty and cold, shoes get destroyed fast here. The pair of boots that I brought with me are so beat up after only a week of wear. So we were looking for a nice pair of boots that could withstand some wear and tear. That was surprisingly hard to find, as my tastes are a little bit more preppy and it seems Chinese people really love everything bedazzled. I did find a pair of fur lined ankle boots, they're really warm and cute, too!

It's fun for me here, because every shoe store only carries my size. Good luck if you wear size 8 and up. It's a nice change for my little feet though, because in the U.S. I can hardly ever find shoes that fit. The Chinese people are somewhat humored by my existence. They can't believe that an American wears size 5... they expect all Americans to have huge feet. The other day a woman came up to me and after speaking to me for a minute and learning that I was an American, she bluntly asked me why I was skinny. She knew all Americans were fat and couldn't comprehend how I was an American. I think it helped that I've lost weight... I'm not sure that she would have been saying these things to me a week ago. I don't have a scale, but my guess is that I have lost about 5 pounds so far.

We went to dinner at a Japanese restaurant. It was very good. I think we're going to call it an early night. We've had a week full of excitement and I think it is catching up with some people.

Oh!!! and apparently, the dish that is pictured at the top of the last post is sweet and sour squirrel fish. Very good. Name could use a little work...