You are not 21 anymore Michael ...

Today I decided to go and take some photos of Shanghai that is known to most but not always photographed. Well that is what I thought. yesterday when I was coming back from downtown and at the bus station at the end of the subway. Wait let me just make that clear. The college I am at is in Nanhui right. Ive already told you that before. Nanhui is part of Shanghai but quite a way outside the downtown area. Big cities like Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing even thought they are cities they are also their own province. So Shanghai is bigger than a normal city. Well way bigger actually, even the downtown area is huge. So Nanhui is part of Shanghai province but as I said a long way out of metro Shanghai. In fact I have to get the subway to the end and then catch a bus that takes one hour to get to the college. ... ad it is a long trip.
So anyway to get back to yesterday. I was coming back home and i get to the end of the subway and am in the cue for the bus. This cue is like one at the theme parks. Up and back up and back. And there are many people as always in this cue. And this is the first time I will be taking the bus. So I have some info to make sure I can get on the right bus (these buses don't have numbers, just Chinese characters). I don't read Chinese characters, except maybe just a couple I know. Unknown to me this cue is for other buses not just mine. So I wait and when my bus comes the cue moves .. a bit but not enough. So I figure that I am gonna have to cue jump and so start to make my way thru the masses along the cue. Bus if filling up as they all do and I don't want to have to wait more. So I decide to jump the rail. Very bad move. I am not 21 anymore and even though i get over it my muscle in the back of my calf is now freakin spasming really badly. Dam, now I am a cripple. And there are no seats on the bus as usual. excellent I have to ride the bus one hour standing up as a cripple. not happy.
In fact the pain is ok standing still on the bus but man when I get off the bus at my destination, I cant walk. I can hobble like skippy who lost his walking stick. So the last 200 m to get home is a painful walk. What an idiot.
So after getting home and trying all sorts of things to improve my pain I go to sleep late and hope that tomorrow is better magically. And it is ... marginally. At least the serious pain is mostly gone, and I decide to venture out. It is Saturday and the sun is out for the first time in a while. Actually it is 8 degrees, positively warm i think so I am going out.
I thought it is a good idea to get you all some of those pics, didn't quite turn out that way. The next blog post will have the story of what i did today and how different to my original plan ....Although here are some of the pics I took today. Just to prove that I am actually in Shanghai. Nanjing Donglu(East Rd) at various times in the PM. Plus some symbolic pics of The Bund and Pudong with the river and pearl building. Incidentally in the pic "up the hungpu river" there is a bldg looks like it has a big piece cut out of the top. That is where I had intended to go later today after visiting Nanjing rd. It is Jinmao tower, tallest building in Shanghai and China. Ah, next time ...