Dan got some bad news that his grandmother had passed away, so our plans kind of fell apart for the day. We had planned to take the train to Hangzhou, but Dan wasn't feeling up to it. Tim and I couldn't buy the tickets without him, so we just spent the morning laying around. I finished a book that I had been reading, and then Tim and I went and swam for a little while. We were really bored, and it wasn't looking like Dan was going to want to do anything, so we went out on a long walk. We headed in a direction we hadn't really gone before, and found a big shopping plaza that was more American in that you weren't crushed by millions of people in tiny walkways. There was a little swatch store, and Tim loves watches so we went in and took a peek around. There was a Dairy Queen, so we got a frosty! I think its funny how proud Dairy Queen is that their frosties are so thick that they can give them to you upside down. The girl that made our frosty seemed really scared that it wouldn't stay when she had to turn it upside down. It always makes me smile.
We sat at a bench eating the frosty for a while, and then we wandered around some more. On the roof, there was a big ice rink, and a miniature golf course! We decided to play some miniature golf to pass the time, and it ended up being a lot of fun. Some of the courses were ridiculously hard. Normally, the sides of the courses have walls, but some of these were plateaus. It was so difficult because you couldn't overshoot the ball, or it would fall off the course! On one of these, there was also a hill that you had to get over. If you didn't hit it hard enough, it would roll backwards, and fall off the plateau. If you hit it too hard, it would just shoot up and off the plateau. It was so infuriating that I thought I was going to flip out and scream and throw a temper tantrum while Tim sat there giggling himself silly at my predicament. He didn't have any issues with it. We ended up having a lot of fun, which was a relief; I had thought that we might have a kind of slow, boring day.
After we finished the golf course, we took a peep at all the children ice skating. They were pretty terrible. We had to leave so that we wouldn't laugh at them.
We headed back home after walking around for a while, and had some lunch. Then Sam told us that there was a Zoo that was a 10 minute walk away, so we headed over. We got some tickets and headed in! It was really spacious, but a lot of it was just open space for people. There was a wedding going on in a garden inside of the zoo. I thought that was a little weird because it's such a public space and everyone was gawking at them, but they looked happy!
I was amused that the fish tank section had a lot of fish that Americans constantly keep in their home aquariums...like neon tetras!
We wandered around the zoo, and I found the pandas really interesting. I don't mean I found them interesting because I like pandas, but it's interesting how differently American zoos treat pandas when compared to the Shanghai zoo. In the san diego zoo, if you want to see one of their pandas, you have to wait in a huge line. They've got it so that only a few people can see the pandas at a time, and you have to be really quiet. Here, they've got like 20 pandas thrown into a glass cage with a yucky concrete floor and very little entertainment. There is no crowd control and there are people screaming and banging on the windows of their cage. No wonder their pandas don't reproduce.
Another thing I found interesting is how the Chinese blatantly ignored all the huge signs stating to please not feed the animals. Children were ripping leaves off trees and hand feeding camels. People were feeding the monkeys Doritos! Some other monkeys were being fed large pieces of bread. All of these animals were on the nets of their cage reaching out with grabby hands trying to get morsels of food.
The saddest part of the zoo was the pet section. Dan said that in retrospect, he should have told us not to go in, but since we had no idea what to expect, we wandered through. They had all these dogs in tiny cages, all alone, with days of poop and pee everywhere. All of the dogs had really dirty coats, and they all looked really sad. They had no toys. They had a concrete floor, a small dirty bed, and that was it. Dogs are herding animals! It made me really sad.
We didn't really find much to take photographs of. The san diego zoo has much prettier landscapes and cages, so we couldn't really bring ourselves to take photos of anything.
After the zoo, we headed home and had dinner with Dan and Sam. After dinner, I went upstairs and read in the bath for a while, and headed to bed. Yay!
We sat at a bench eating the frosty for a while, and then we wandered around some more. On the roof, there was a big ice rink, and a miniature golf course! We decided to play some miniature golf to pass the time, and it ended up being a lot of fun. Some of the courses were ridiculously hard. Normally, the sides of the courses have walls, but some of these were plateaus. It was so difficult because you couldn't overshoot the ball, or it would fall off the course! On one of these, there was also a hill that you had to get over. If you didn't hit it hard enough, it would roll backwards, and fall off the plateau. If you hit it too hard, it would just shoot up and off the plateau. It was so infuriating that I thought I was going to flip out and scream and throw a temper tantrum while Tim sat there giggling himself silly at my predicament. He didn't have any issues with it. We ended up having a lot of fun, which was a relief; I had thought that we might have a kind of slow, boring day.
After we finished the golf course, we took a peep at all the children ice skating. They were pretty terrible. We had to leave so that we wouldn't laugh at them.
We headed back home after walking around for a while, and had some lunch. Then Sam told us that there was a Zoo that was a 10 minute walk away, so we headed over. We got some tickets and headed in! It was really spacious, but a lot of it was just open space for people. There was a wedding going on in a garden inside of the zoo. I thought that was a little weird because it's such a public space and everyone was gawking at them, but they looked happy!
I was amused that the fish tank section had a lot of fish that Americans constantly keep in their home aquariums...like neon tetras!
We wandered around the zoo, and I found the pandas really interesting. I don't mean I found them interesting because I like pandas, but it's interesting how differently American zoos treat pandas when compared to the Shanghai zoo. In the san diego zoo, if you want to see one of their pandas, you have to wait in a huge line. They've got it so that only a few people can see the pandas at a time, and you have to be really quiet. Here, they've got like 20 pandas thrown into a glass cage with a yucky concrete floor and very little entertainment. There is no crowd control and there are people screaming and banging on the windows of their cage. No wonder their pandas don't reproduce.
Another thing I found interesting is how the Chinese blatantly ignored all the huge signs stating to please not feed the animals. Children were ripping leaves off trees and hand feeding camels. People were feeding the monkeys Doritos! Some other monkeys were being fed large pieces of bread. All of these animals were on the nets of their cage reaching out with grabby hands trying to get morsels of food.
The saddest part of the zoo was the pet section. Dan said that in retrospect, he should have told us not to go in, but since we had no idea what to expect, we wandered through. They had all these dogs in tiny cages, all alone, with days of poop and pee everywhere. All of the dogs had really dirty coats, and they all looked really sad. They had no toys. They had a concrete floor, a small dirty bed, and that was it. Dogs are herding animals! It made me really sad.
We didn't really find much to take photographs of. The san diego zoo has much prettier landscapes and cages, so we couldn't really bring ourselves to take photos of anything.
After the zoo, we headed home and had dinner with Dan and Sam. After dinner, I went upstairs and read in the bath for a while, and headed to bed. Yay!
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