Visitors

We had our first house guests in Shanghai. Danny's parents came to stay with us for the last two days of our vacation. It was nice to see them, although it was a really short visit.

Danny's parents had never been to China before and are taking a tour, plus stopping in Taiwan so they are only spending one full day in Shanghai.

The day they arrived we took things easy. I was really excited they brought us a bag full of stuff from the states. We got a mattress pad because mattresses in China are all really hard and mattress pads here are like 10 times the price of the ones at home. We also got a few groceries I can't find here. After we unpacked and they took a nap, Danny took them for dinner at a dumpling place.

The next day we did some sightseeing. We went to see the Oriental Pearl Tower and the Bund. We took the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel. Danny and his parents were very unimpressed with the sightseeing tunnel and thought it was a giant waste of 50 RMB ($8) a person. I thought it was cute. It reminded me of the scene in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when they go on a train powered by soda fizz and it only travels like 10 feet. It is silly and kitschy and completely ridiculous. There was a very silly low tech light show and wacky inflatable arm flailing tube men. I had fun.

Afterwards, we were thinking about going to the restaurant on top of the Pearl Tower for lunch but it was really smoggy and we wouldn't have been able to see much so we decided not to bother.














Instead we just looked at the view and then walked towards Yuyuan Garden and had lunch at the bazaar by it. To be more accurate, they had lunch and I had juice.

After lunch Danny and I left and let them look around the garden on their own. We went home and got ready for Kol Nidre services.

I think as I get older Yom Kippur starts to have more meaning to me. The concept of reflecting on what you have done over the year and trying to apologize for wrong doing is a pretty powerful concept. The reform movement had their first Yom Kippur services ever in Shanghai. I had my first aliyah at high holiday services, mostly because there were only a dozen people at the time and not many volunteers. Danny didn't come with me during the day since it was his parents last day in Shanghai and he saw them off. He met me in the evening for the break the fast.

We had bagels, as is traditional, at a room they rented two blocks from the hotel where services were held. They were amazing! I was so happy they are as good as bagels from home. I'm never getting bagels from the places where they are all soft in the middle again! I found out the bagels were from spreadthebagel.com and ordered a dozen!