I made some friends today!

I have friends in Shanghai now! Well, technically they do not live in Shanghai, but they live in the next city about 30 minutes outside of Shanghai; and they say they come often. They are two Chinese girls from Suzhou (the next city) who are in their last year in college. I was in People's Square and they approached me and started chatting with me. The reason they approached me was so that they could work on improving their English; as it turns out, we got along really well and decided that we would be friends and hang out again when they come back to Shanghai for a weekend. They wanted me to be exposed to Chinese culture, so they took me to a tea house near Nanjing Lu and experience the whole Chinese tea time. It was very neat and interesting. I tried seven different kinds of tea--China has over a thousand kinds of tea!

Well, this whole experience was very relaxing as well as eye opening to the Chinese culture. The Chinese take huge pride in their tea and for them, tea has many different properties that contributes to healing and improving the body. The waitress took us to a private room where we sat on an authentic wooden table. She prepared the seven teas right in front of us one at a time. She spoke to us on how each tea was good for the body in several ways. Of course the girls had to translate what she said for me. Also, I had to drink the tea a certain way and hold the cup a certain way to symbolize beauty and wellness. I could only hold the cup with three fingers: thumb, index and middle fingers. I could only drink the tea in three sips. It was all very organized and very spiritual as we toasted to Confucious (well, I think it was Confucious). One of the tea cups had a black dragon on it and when the hot tea would pour into it, it would change color. I thought it was really neat and I eventually bought it! The teas that were served were green tea, jasmin tea, ginger tea, black tea, fruit tea, hibiscus flower tea, yellow flower tea, and one other kind that I can't remember. I really liked the black tea, so I bought one can for me to take home.

The girls, Helen and Shirley (English names of course), and I exchanged our emails and I hope to hear from them soon! Or maybe I will go visit them in Suzhou! Well, they said they are definitely coming back to Shanghai.