Kong Laoshi wasn't kidding...

Monday felt almost like a normal day (in a foreign country). I don't want to speak too soon, but I think the gigantic bouts of anxiety brought on by culture-and-everything-else shock have subsided. I'm sure I will still have bouts of anxiety, because last time I checked I was still me, but at least they will be for more comfortable reasons. Also, I slept until 7 today! Also discovered the Swatties in China Summer 2007 facebook group and wrote to a bunch of them, getting some positive responses.

In the morning, Damin sent me on a bus to Lu Xun Park, named for one of China's most renowned authors. Got off the bus at an ATM and decided to give it another try...my card hadn't worked the day before. And indeed, it worked once I chose "check" instead of "credit". Wahwah. (Wahwah, or wahahaha, or whatever variation is something Chinese/Taiwanese people seem to write a lot. I'm not quite sure what it means, but it's useful...) I then went to Starbucks (I know, I know...but it was really good! They even gave me a real mug for my mocha. And I feel like I'm legit enough to get away with it once in a while. ) before entering the park. Speaking of, here are some elderly folks dancing in the park.

A couple of general things about Shanghai's parks: several of them, at least, were originally only for foreigners...I've heard there were signs reading "No Dogs or Chinese" (Although a Google search reveals that might just be a story.) Also, you never know when you're going to encounter someone doing tai chi, which throws you off just a little bit because they are in such a state of concentration. I feel like tai chi-ers are not actually there...they have been placed in using green screens or something. Anyway, to the right we have...the official flower bed of the World Cup??

The park contained a museum about Lu Xun as well as his tomb. I really enjoyed the museum (I'm such a museum junkie...), especially since it had things like illustrations from stories I had read in class. Equally interesting for that reason was getting a (personal, Chinese language, at least partially understood) tour of his final residence, as shown left. This morning was really important to me, I think, as far as connecting the things that go on in the classroom to the rest of the world...I can remember clearly sitting with my dictionaries and struggling through those readings during rehearsal, late at night, in Tarble waiting for friends...and here's a museum that presents them as key elements of the literary front of a revolution, and here's the bed where the guy who wrote them slept for 10 years...oh, and here's his dead body...

Hung out in the park a while, then came home and chilled for a bit before taking a long bus ride to Longhua Cemetery of Martyrs and Longhua Si. Not actually much to see, which surprised Damin who had recommended we go, but I didn't really mind since I had already had a pretty rewarding day. Also, I at least got a picture with a pagoda. Now it's like I've really been to China.

We stopped at the grocery store on the way home (I bought shampoo), and Damin made some dinner while I learned how to use an mp3 downloading site he recommended to find new stuff for my phone. :)