a peaceful reminder

This morning I woke up feeling incredibly rested.  I went to the bathroom and then walked back in my room with a calm presence over me, somewhat hyper-aware, admiring the way the carpet felt on my feet.  Kind of in a surreal state where random thoughts just pop in your head, like "I'm so thankful my feet and legs work."  I laughed to myself and looked at the clock to see what time it was.

It was fucking 2 a.m.  At this point I really started acting like a grandpa and I started chuckling.  Immediately I thought of the last time this sort of phenomenon occurred, I was alternating between staring at the ceiling and peeking out the blinds in a serviced apartment in Shanghai, the first night/morning after I arrived.  My travel partner was asleep but I was already seething with the desire to get out and explore this crazy new place, filthy with lights, filthy with people and filthy with general uncleanliness....

Shànghǎi!!

Umm...we've been in Shànghǎi about a week now.  We have been unbelievably fortunate thus far, receiving money from a handful of people before we left; my father paying for a portion of our plane tickets and vaccinations and one of Shawna's uncle giving her money.  Upon arriving a different uncle of Shawna's had a car pick us up from the airport and drive us to the serviced-apartment which he paid for through the 28th of June and just the other day asked us how long we would like him to extend it.

This city is beyond belief, stretching too far to see any hint of its ending.

View from back exit of where we were staying on Hong Mei Lu.

Okay, I wrote this last week and didn't finish it.  So much stuff happened in Shànghǎi; hopefully I can go back through and write more about it.  I will try to be more timely and complete these from now on.