Chinese-Italian

   I've been in Shanghai now for over 2 1/2 months and have eaten a lot of lunches out with my teammates. Today is the first time that I actually thought the food was bad. Not sure if it was b/c it was supposed to be Italian food and didn't come anywhere close or b/c the food was so cheap that they must have used the lowest grade ingredients. I have to find a nice way to ask the team to not take me here again. My food was not good but I have to admit that no ones food looked good. Of course I documented it with a few photos :)

Left, minestrone soup (tomato broth with onions and cabbage). At least it had

some flavor. Then you can see the salad covered in a mayo based dressing.

Left, Ewgenia's meal of fried chicken with some kind of sauce on it. Right, my meal of rice

with an odd creamy "cheese" sauce and marinara on top. I ate it b/c I was hungry not b/c it was good.

   I left work a few minutes early this evening so that I could get the Shanghai Marathon Expo before 7pm when it closes. I needed to get there to pick up my packet, timing chip and t-shirt. Finding the expo was SO much easier then originally signing up for the marathon, I didn't have any trouble finding the location (all the banners did help!). There wasn't much going on at the expo when I arrived, only a few people in the packet pick-up and a few picking up t-shirts. They had another section for "Marathon Culture" which is were all the sponsors were supposed to have booths. At any given expo in the stated the place would be quite busy and companies trying very hard to push there merchandise and giving away free swag. Here, most of the booths were empty...it was pretty sad. The only booth that seemed to have anything going on was the Mizuno booth. I also found a group that will take pictures for you at different points of the course if you were a sticker on your shirt while running...I signed up for that since I won't have anyone in the crown taking pics of me. Also, there was a booth taking pictures at the expo of runners with their race numbers, of course I got in on that too.

See, the expo was dead

The color banners helped me to find the expo easily.

    After leaving the expo I decided to walk home. It was about 2 1/2 miles but the night was crisp and clear...really I was in no hurry to get home quickly. When I walk places I always learn something new or find something that I never noticed before. Here's an odd one, check out this building:

It's a high-rise with what looking like a made
 to look like traditional temple on top.

Close up

When I got home I checked out my new t-shirt. It's a little big but pretty sweet!

This was in my packet pickup items.

 Does anyone know what it is?

The package has minimal english, it says "phamaceuticals" on it.
I thought when I opened it was going to be a small first aid kit but
instead it is a weird vial w/ 8 little beads of "something" inside.
Iris, can you read the box? What is this? Help!