Blind masseurs and friendly cabbies

The final entry about wednesday:

Somehow (I forget) we ended up back in high society again, at another pedestrian court with cafes and bars aimed at tourists and expats. We sat down for tea, after which Professor Ferry left the five of us to ourselves. We decided to go for massages... by blind men. A little weird at first, but a good massage. After the massage, we went to a bar/cafe/restaraunt. Whatever it was, it had goldfish in the tables. We didn't find anything particularly appealing on the menu, so we just ordered drinks. A gin and tonic in China is still a gin and tonic.



The cab driver on the ride home was an aggressive driver, even by Shanghai standards. I tried to shut it out by turning around and talking to Tara and Alice in the back seat, but between the motion, the gin on my empty stomach, and the constant uneasiness that I have felt in my stomach since arriving here (still getting used to the food), I had to turn back around from time to time and witness the insane driving to avoid carsickness. Tara, having fully enjoyed her Long Island iced tea, showed off her Chinese speaking skills to the driver, "Ni hao ma! Ni hao ma!" She also knows "wo ai ni," but had sense enough not to tell the driver that she loved him. We had fun demonstrating our somewhat basic skills in each other's languages, and the driver commented that the girls were very American. Perpetuating the foreign stereotype of Americans as loud, crazy, and intrusive, all over Shanghai... all in a day's work.