Shanghai Trip - Day 7

I woke up a little before 5 a.m. on Day 7. Had to pee. On my way back to bed, I nearly died of a heart attack when I ran into Grandma, who must have heard me get up. She said, excitedly, "Come, look!" opened her bedroom door, and surprise, both Aunt Marilyn and Grandpa were awake and chatting. Aunt Marilyn, had managed to sleep the entire way on the plane and was ready to hit the streets of Shanghai. Since it was only 5 a.m. no one else was though, so it wasn't until a few hours later that we finally moseyed down to La Seine for breakfast and then out of the hotel for Day 7's activities.

I should mention that at this point, I was REALLY sick. Aunt Marilyn had brought some cold medicine and in my sickness-induced haze, I had uncharacterically taken some of it without reading the label. I normally read the label on everything. EVERYTHING. Even one-a-day vitamins. Anyway, had I read the Sudafed Cold/Flu label, I would have noticed the "May Cause Drowsiness" warning. Daaaaammmmnnnn. They are not kidding. The effect the meds had on me was immediate. I promptly fell asleep in the minivan, and when the driver pulled up to the street we were supposed to go shopping on, 10 minutes later, I actually had to turn down the shopping and ask to stay in the car. With the driver, whose name I learned was Mr. Chen.

Mr. Chen the Driver didn't seem to mind too much. He was paid for a 12 hour day to drive or not drive so it didn't matter to him that I was passed out in the back of the van like a frat boy. I think he pulled into a parking lot somewhere. Frankly, he could have driven me to Mongolia and sold me for all I cared. I just needed to sleep. He tried to chat with me a bit, and I tried to muster up all the Mandarin I'd ever learned and said something back to him...but I'm not quite sure what I said. I know he asked me if I wanted to listen to music, and I thought I told him I didn't care, but his somewhat strained glare made me think I might have said something else. Finally, I just stopped trying and made the universal charades gesture for "sleep" (palms together, placed up against my cheek, with my eyes closed and head slightly tilted to the side)...

Woke up later to find the rest of the family piled back into the minivan. We were on our way to the Old-Apartment-Turned-Party-Clubhouse for homemade wontons with Great Aunt, 14 lbs and a whole bunch of relatives I'd never met before. I've put up a pic of meal, but I was so drugged up that I can't even describe what these dishes were. But at the very least, now we have an answer to the question, "Why is my poop SO Green?" which, as I had mentioned, was often heard during the trip.


 

Here's a picture of the "Sisters" and their great aunt. Incidentally, I could barely figure out where the camera was when this was taken. And, apparently my Aunt Christina and my mom had decided to dress like identical twins. Because my family is funny like that. Or they both wanted to match my Grandpa, who was also wearing baby pink.


From left to right: Aunt Christina, Great Aunt, Aunt Marilyn, Mom, Me 

The wontons were really good and after some more requisite small talk, we said bye and piled back into our mini-van. We were on our way to the flea market again, since neither Aunt Christina or Aunt Marilyn had been there yet.

A few minutes later I thought, "Hmm...That's weird. I didn't eat any Hai Fun - why is my stomach feeling yucky like that??"

Another two minutes later, I realized, Hai Fun or not...something bad was happening in my intestines.

I'm just going to share that I CANNOT STAND pooping in public places. I will avoid it as much as possible. And certainly I would never entertain the thought of pooping at a portapotty in a Chinese FLEA MARKET. So....I leaned over, whispered to my mom that my stomach was hurting and I wanted to go back to the hotel and poop. Her eyes widened with concern and she nodded in agreement that absolutely no, one could not poop in a public place, particularly at a portapotty in a Chinese FLEA MARKET.

So then, she said to the driver, "Excuse me Mr. Chen, but my daughter is not feeling well. Can you take her back to the hotel after you drop us off at the flea market? She has to go back there to...."

(please god, don't let her say "poop" - PLEASE!!!)

"......take her medicine." Whew.

Not like I really minded anyone in my family hearing. But somehow the thought of Mr. Chen the Driver knowing that he was taking me back to the hotel to poop seemed really inappropriate. Blogging about it for the whole world to see, however, is not. ;) (seriously, will someone post in comments if the poop talk is getting to be too much?)

Anyway, the rest of Day 7 was really boring for me. There was little doubt that my cold/flu had turned into a 24 hour stomach flu. Nothing stayed in the system, and I got nauseous just eating crackers. The fact that they were seaweed flavored and deep fried did not help.

And that was Day 7.