Shanghai in a Nutshell

The Bund, translated in German, means the River.  However, in English, it roughly translates to: AWESOME!!! They illuminate the city along the river at night with so many colors and a light show on the side of the taller skyscrapers across the way that I could watch for hours.  On the French side of the river, all the buildings have a yellow glow to them that make them look antiqued, vivid, and vintage.  It is quite the sight to see.
My roommate, Linh, and I walked along the river for a couple of hours just talking about everything and nothing - differences between cultures (she's Vietnamese, I'm American, we're in China...), her love of yogurt, my love of green tea.  It was so relaxing and slow-moving and romantic that I wished I had my boyfriend here to share it with.  In the daytime, the city of Shanghai is dull in color and everything kind of looks the same.  People try to run over you in order to get ahead quickly and everyone seems to be yelling at someone or in a hurry to get to their next destination.  So when we got to the Bund, it really surprised me at how different it is at night.
And they love to smoke here.  Everywhere.  Inside the lobby at the hotels, inside the clubs and bars, outside next to the gas station - you name it!  Smoking is a huge deal.  Someone told me it is a sign of prestige, like Starbucks.  It doesn't matter what you're doing, but just the fact that you are inside of a Starbucks means something to them.
As far as a comparison to Beijing, the collectivism here is not quite as strong as it is in the capital.  People are more concerned with their self-being and less with others (as is evident in the way the scooters TRY to run you over... I swear, they travel in packs!).  But the beauty of the city is evident in the way they try to preserve the historic monuments while merging with the western world.  It seems to be stuck, and not sure where to go next, but one thing is certain - they know how to do landscaping!
The streets next to the Bund are lined with planters filled with colorful flowers and even the common streets have trees that follow the road to your next destination.  Even though it seems to be a concrete jungle, they made sure to incorporate some greenery in with the bikes, scooters, cars, and houses.  It is especially apparent in the Yu Yuan Garden.
It takes a little while to find it, though.  My fellow classmates wanted to go on a hop-on hop-off bus tour of the city which highlighted all the popular areas.  We bought our tickets the previous day and when it came time to get on the open-top bus the next morning.... it started to rain.  So needless to say, we didn't see much.  And also by this time, the food differences were starting to set in with some of us so we weren't feeling 100% there as a group.  Everyone just wanted to go home because everything we really wanted to see was either too much money or not worth it (We could pay 120 yuan to go to the top of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower and see the city from one of the tallest buildings, but on an extremely cloudy day... we wouldn't see anything).
So I set off on my own, determined to find something of interest in the city, with my sights set on the garden.  After walking around for a bit in some undetermined part of town, I found what looked like to be a touristy area - a good sign!  Following the red lanterns and brown wooden buildings, I found a street market similar to that of the Silk Market but filled with shot glasses, postcards, oriental-style clothing, people offering to take your picture, and a sign pointing towards the Yu Yuan Garden!
But, after buying some postcards from the only people who spoke broken English (and who just smiled and nodded whenever I asked where the garden was) and walking in what seemed like a never ending circle of signs all pointing in different directions, I got frustrated at the thought of possibly never being able to find it.  Surrounded by unfamiliar buildings, no one that speaks English, and the ever-growing thought of "how do I even get out of here?" my fears were mounting like that of a small child who got separated from their mother inside the grocery store.  Instead of overwhelming myself, I decided to sit down on the street curb out of the rain, outside of a China POST.  People, as they walked by, just stopped and stared at me - wondering, I'm sure, why a foreigner is sitting on the side of their street.  Granted, by this time I'm used to people staring at me whether it's because of my height or weight or strange clothing items, but at this moment it was really starting to get to me...  So in an effort to ignore all the looks, I filled out some of my postcards, labeled and mailed them with international stamps, and set off again with new hopes to find the garden one more time.

Less than a minute later, I was there.  I was sure I took that turn before, but apparently I had not seen the small crack in the wall that was the entrance to the most famous garden in all of China.  But it was well worth it.  The garden - for lack of a better word - is beautiful.  From the Dragon Wall to the flower exhibition, I could stay there all day.  The rain made it all the better as well.  It relaxes one as you hear it hit the small ponds and lakes filled with koi and the smells of the flowers and bamboo were brought out in the mist.  The birds and butterflies were nestled deep in the bonsai trees and chirped their little hearts out when you passed them to let you know they were watching you.  Simply spectacular.
Now getting back home was another story...
I managed to find a McDonalds for dinner and the bus stop that will take me home the super long way, but with the daylight fading quickly, I thought, "why not take a chance" and I paid a guy to pedal me back to the hotel.  That's right: PEDAL.  And it was the scariest time of my life.  I was sitting on a straw mat on the back of some sort of motorized scooter/bike/camel/cart thing that didn't even start at first but was at least covered from the rain.  I showed him a map of where my hotel was located, he said "okay!" and we were off!  ...In the wrong direction.
I'm sitting backwards on the cart, so I can't see where he's going, but I can see where we've been and all the little arrows on the street were definitely pointed in the WRONG direction of how we were traveling.  He was going into oncoming traffic!!  All the cars were passing us, honking profusely, and all I could do was hold on to the two little side bars for my dear life, praying that I wouldn't die.  My feet were slipping off the almost nonexistent foot rail and that's about the time I realized that the straw mat I was seated on was not tied down, either.  If I let go, I was sure I would fall out the back!  Then we stopped.  And he got out.  And started to yell at me!  Now I don't know what he's saying, but I show him the map of the hotel again and he takes it and runs off.  Another little carriage pulls up next to us and they have a heated discussion pointing at the map and pointing at the road before he gets back in the cart.  And we're off again!  This time faster than before with many more twists and turns, but at least he's on the right side of the road.  A few minutes later, I was in the familiar territory of my barred-up window, bamboo fire escape hotel.  He starts yelling, "30 yuan!" and I almost had a fit!  That ride was SO not worth 30 yuan!  I'm pretty sure I just barely escaped with my life, but I paid the guy ('cause I'm still alive) and went inside, plopped down on my plywood-straight bed, and promptly fell asleep.