Hi everyone!

I have arrived! We got to our hostel around 9:30am in the morning and checked in. Things are pretty cheap here. Water at the airport was about 30 cents, the bus shuttle to the city was 2.50€ and our hostel is 6.25€ a night. It's clean and centrally located. In the afternoon we took a short walk around but it was so humid that we took shelter at the mall. I don't say this often because the phrase itself is absurd but O-M-G, the mall has everything! It really reminded me of home with all the American companies..I mean there was even Carl's Jr and Coldstones creamery. It's not that I'm dreaming of these things all the time but somehow seeing familiar names amongst a sea of Chinese characters was comforting. People have been very nice as well. A local lady saw us struggling with our maps and helped us get a taxi. We took a nap in the afternoon. I did laundry. And I found out that I indeed have access with my VPN so I'll still be able to work for my company back in Berlin. Anne arrived later in the afternoon and we met a nice fellow German traveler in the lobby so in the evening we all went to get some food. We walked to the Bund where we got THE postcard view of Shanghai. It's unreal. To be honest, I'm walking around in denial. I can't believe I'm here and I certainly can't believe I will call this city home for the next 5 months. But besides my state of mental confusion, I'm happy. To walk around with friends on a warm summer night in Shanghai just puts a smile on my face. The Tsingtao helps that as well ;) Attached are the first few pics I've taken with my iPhone. For now, it's bed time. Tomorrow we will work on getting sim cards for our phones and finding a place to stay! Night night!