There are many excellent aspects of Shanghai, but one of my favourites is all the shopping! What I like about the malls in Shanghai is the fact that they have basically everything you need compacted into an average of 5 stories with at least 30 stores on each level. I love shopping, but I hate walking long distances to get to stores.

Here is the majority of my haul (click for larger image):

I absolutely love everything I bought, but I think my favourite has to be the Wacom Bamboo Tablet (which isn't pictured here, I just threw in the pen).

My second favourite thing is definitely the small turtle keychain thing, here's a closeup:



I've named it after my own turtle, Happy. :P

From the above pictures, you can also see that I got a lot of pens and pencils. I absolutely love shopping for stationery (which is why I love back-to-school shopping).

Lastly, I'd just like to share this gorgeous item of clothing with you all:



I can't wait to wear it! :D :D

So in conclusion, I love shopping, especially in Shanghai. Do you have any particular places/stores that you love?

Or "Meet The Family".

Since I'm lazy, I will make a list to make this easier:

• Grandma(maternal): My grandma looked a lot older this time. I guess it was expected since for the past two years, she's gone to the hospital every single day to deliver food/meds to my grandpa, who had a stroke and a heart attack two years ago.



• Grandpa: From what I heard from my uncle, he's doing a lot better than he was a year ago. He can now get up, communicate, and eat all by himself. He's taken a lot of meds, and also had to have a third of his heart removed, but I'm so glad he's getting better now.
  
  



• Grandmother(paternal): I'm sad that I only got to see her once during my entire trip, but she looks okay and is still very healthy for a 76 year old.



• Uncle and Aunt: They took us shopping basically everywhere. Due to the huge changes in Shanghai (because of next year's Expo, they're basically rebuilding all the streets), we needed guides to take us places that my mom would have otherwise known if it wasn't for all the reconstruction.



• Cousin: My only first cousin. He's 12 this year and his parents are thinking of sending him to Canada for university, so my mom and I helped him practise his English. An avid gamer, he is basically surgically attached to his PSP. His favourite game? NBA Live 08. My cousin is also a little brand crazy and only wears Nike and Adidas, although he does love his Louis Vuitton bag. Other pasttimes include stealing and trying on his dad's Ray Bans and leather coat while humming the Mission Impossible theme song:
  
  

Those were the only people that I saw everyday, so I'll stop the list there. Also, the dragon-thingy from the previous post was a sword, so congrats to Kathleen for getting it right!

Part Three will be up after I take some more pictures. :)

After being tired, sick, and jetlagged for 2 days, I woke up this morning and said to myself, "I WILL blog about Shanghai today!" So, here I am! Part One will deal with mostly the events of the trip and my thoughts on them. Of course, this post will be accompanied by the numerous pictures I took.

Before I left, I packed a journal so that I can write everything that happened in it to make sure I don't forget. Therefore I will be using it to write this post, because my memory is horrible.

When we arrived at our old house, I immediately felt like a giant. The furniture was miniature, and seemed like it belonged to the set of Alice in Wonderland. Not surprisingly, my grandma still has a random picture I drew when I was like, five.



We didn't stay there for long though, my uncle insisted that we stay at his apartment for a while. Apparently, "a while" meant for the rest of our trip. I'm not complaining though, because I had complete access to his computer! Yay for technology! He also had some pretty neat things in his house, such as these items:

E-cookies for whoever can guess what this is/does:


The lamp has no switch, it just lights up when you tap it, and I love the style of the phone:


Here are some views if you look out the apartment, which is on the 14th floor:





Can you say "light pollution" ?



We didn't really go anywhere except for the hospital and shopping (which will both be in separate posts). The only other place we went to is Suzhou, which is where my grandpa and great-grandma's graves are located.

Where did all the tall buildings go?! You can tell we weren't in Shanghai anymore:



This is the entrance to where my grandpa is buried. Since it's on a mountain, it's a really long and steep climb, in 37 degrees Celsius weather, with plenty of mosquitoes to keep you company:



So, that pretty much sums up all the places I visited. Get ready for Shanghai, Part Two! I don't know what it'll be about yet, but I don't think it'll have this many pictures.