Teacher friends in Iowa, be jealous.   I know we’ve been spoiled these past 2 weeks, but last night was just too good to be true: complementary cocktail hour at the Ritz Carlton in Pudong.  Of course I’ve never stayed or visited any Ritz Carlton hotel and considering the stores surrounding it were Cartier, Tiffany, and Armani, I knew that this would be a treat!   Our bus arrived first and we were escorted to the elevators.  After stopping at the 30th or so floor we were shuffled into another elevator where we arrived to the Flair Bar on the 58th Floor!  Here we were eye to eye with the top of the Pearl Tower.   Take a look at the photos!  It was really amazing….of course it was really hot, but because we were the 1st group to arrive it was nice to have lots of space to take pictures etc.   Also this high up, you really see the pollution.  Either way it was beautiful!

Once other school staff was organized we all received a glass which was immediately filled with Champagne.   There was also lots of finger foods available…you know the usual sushi rolls, chicken skewers with peanut sauce, duck and pineapple, crab spring rolls, and braised beef with wasabi mashed potatoes.   Myself and some other girls ended up sitting at the end of the bar which turned out to be the best place to grab food as it came out!  After many glasses of wine I finally found Jason and we enjoyed the outside lights.  There was a nice breeze a great conversation.   This amazing event only lasted until 8:00 so we decided to hit up some other places by the Jing’an Temple area.  We even got the bus to drop us off there!   Over all it was an amazing night.

Saturday morning we ventured to the Pearl Market with some other co-workers.   There are lots of places like this in Shanghai; however, this one is very well known and close to our apartment.  The 3rd floor of the market is where you can get custom made clothes!  This will be VERY DANGEROUS for me.  Sean and Jenny showed us where they normally go to get clothes made.  I brought 2 dresses with me that I wanted copied and all I had to do was pick out fabric. They also have magazines with pictures you can pick from. I also managed to rip my dress last night so they will fix that as well!  Jason didn’t end up getting anything because he has more self control than I do…but now that we know where it’s at we will definitely be back!    The heat was unbearable today and I just could not handle it and managed to get a little heat exhaustion that hasn’t made the rest of today much fun.  Thankfully, Jason has been taking care of me!