Day 18

Today we had decided to go to A.P. Market; and I was excited; rather since many days I was excited to go there.

I got up at normal time, and immediately got ready. We had heavy brunch, you can say lunch (as it was at 1:30). After that, we left the house around 2. We took a taxi to JuFeng road station, and got down at Century Avenue. We changed the line to Line 2, and took a train from there to Shanghai Science and Technology Museum station.

As always it was crowded. We searched for the market, and got it. (Thankfully it was open, unlike the other day.)

We searched lot of shops there, but everything was very, very expensive. I thought the rates would be normal, and then we would negotiate and get the stuff at 'cheap' rates. But in reality, the rates were extraordinarily high, and after negotiation, they came down to the normal-yet-expensive rates.
A.P. Market was disappointing, and so were all the shops across Shanghai. The prices are too high, and I don't know the reason.

Finally, after roaming in many shops, we bought Arsenal full jersey (obviously not original), one t-shirt, and ten Chinese hand-fans. Yes, that is it.

Later, we came out of the station, took a cab, and drove to Carrefour; it was a ten-minute drive. We were to go to Thumbs Plaza, but went to Carrefour instead, which was just next to the Plaza.
While taking the trolley, there was a different thing there -- while removing the trolley from the trolley-line, we had to insert a one Yuan coin. We cannot remove the trolley otherwise. We get the coin back when we put the trolley inside the trolley-line. This trick is used for proper organization of the trolleys. People use a trolley and leave it wherever they feel like. If they've inserted a coin, obviously they will return to the trolley-line to take the coin back. The coin acts like a 'deposit'.

We saw lot of different, fancy items there. Even a small toothbrush has so many variants. We shopped lot of food and other miscellaneous things, and the bill was too much. I hate departmental stores sometimes; they have the best marketing strategies I feel. (But there's a lot of wastage and losses in this business too.)

Today we met lot of non-Chinese people. While we were taking a cab near our home in the morning for JuFeng Road station, we met a Ugandan lady with her child. She smiled at me first, and I smiled back. Later she started talking with me, and asked where we stayed. She said she lived in the same compound (society) like ours. She also asked whether we were from India; I said yes. I asked her from which country she belonged, and she said Uganda. She must have felt nice to talk in her language (English) with someone. (I still wonder how she guessed we were from India.)

We met another young man on the Century Avenue station, who was an Indian, and was from Ahmedabad. He was here for a business trip. My dad told him the directions, and coincidently he was travelling to Shanghai Science and Technology Museum as well. We spoke to him, and we departed from each other near the A.P. Market -- He went to the museum, whereas we went to the market.

After the market, while we were buying drinks and cookies, we met a south-Indian man there. He was to leave for India tomorrow. He was from Tamil Nadu. He told us that he was working here.

Alright, so after we came out of the Carrefour, with three heavy bags, and a Chinese bamboo mat, we searched for a taxi, and drove home. I felt blissful after sitting in a taxi, (though we had taken a short break in the Carrefour's McDonald's) as my legs were hurting badly.

We reached home, and I clicked photos in my Arsenal jersey, and sent it to my brothers to make them feel envious. We had dinner, and the day was called in.

While I was sitting in my room, and writing blog, suddenly my laptop went blank. I tried an hour to reboot it and repair the startup, but with no success. So I quietly shut it down (somehow), and lied down. It was too hot; I know it was obvious, as I had taken a heavy quilt, the windows were closed, and I was frustrated maybe. I started searching the air conditioner's remote, and after a lot of search, I finally found it.

I switched it on, and slept peacefully.



Day 19

My parents woke me up. It was too cold, because it was raining. I remembered just last night I had switched on the AC, and today morning it felt so cold. I got up from the bed, after lot of time, because it was very cozy inside the warm blanket.

We couldn't go out today, as it was raining like cats and dogs. There was darkness inside the house, in spite of the time being afternoon 12. I took out the hoodie from my bag, and wore it. Mom was in kitchen, preparing lunch, and dad was watching TV. I had breakfast. The time travelled pretty fast.

At 2:30, a Hindi movie Haathi Mere Saathi was telecasting on Star Utsav. We were waiting for 2:30. So finally after my bath and lunch, we glued ourselves to the TV set. We all love Rajesh Khanna, and are his fans. We watched the movie from the start to the end, and it was awesome.

We had pieces of fruit-cake, potato chips and aloo bhujia along with the movie. It is a tear-jerking movie, and obviously I shed a few tears.

It was 5:30-6 by then. We had evening tea, coupled with whole-grain biscuits. All I did was had food and watched TV the whole day.

Finally now dad has recovered all the files, and the laptop is working. I hope I get back to the normal blog-routine again.
Goodnight, girls.
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