Things on bikes

Today, i encountered the busiest subways yet on the way to work. Any hesitations that i had before this morning about pushing, I had to let them all go or I would never had got on a train. I'm figuring out that pushing and cutting in lines are just a way of life here, not seen as rude but instead the norm.

Nothing else exciting happened until noon when Oliver and Michael invited me to join them for lunch again. As soon as we stepped outside I realized that I hadn't even thought about looking at a weather report since getting to Shanghai, it was raining and i was so not prepared! Luckily, lunch was nearby. We ended up at a pretty traditional Chinese food restaurant, ordered 5 dishes to share among 4 people. I enjoyed this lunch b/c one of the dishes used garlic spears as it's greens...LOVE garlic spears.  It rained hard the rest of the afternoon and was wondering what I was going to do to get home w/o getting soaked. I had concocted a few plans but it seems that I work with really nice people b/c I was offered an umbrella. YAY! I wasn't going to get soaked on the way home.

On my way to the Metro i came across something that I have always found intriguing ever since the first time i visited China...cargo bikes, not like you find in the US, these are normal bikes with stacks of stuff on them. Here are 2 examples that I have have seen so far on this trip. I will be sure to document more of the encounters throughout the trip.

Anyone need some Styrofoam?

Or a chair?! 

There might be a bike trailer on this one but I sure as heck didn't see it.

Now, I just got back from a quite run on the track and am enjoying some of the good chocolate that I brought over with me. I suppose this is a good time to thanks those that gifted or surprise-packed chocolate for me to bring....Shar, Trisha and Donald, thank you! Not sure what I would do w/o a little hit before going to bed!