While in Shanghai, during the day I would explore, since my friends and cousin were at work or school. So I did a lot of shopping, went to the Jewish refugee museum and even walked by the famed graffiti wall. 

However, while on the subway one day, coming back to my cousin's house to eat dinner with him, my wallet got stolen. This proved to be a very frustrating obstacle that I didn't want to have to deal with on vacation, but provided, I spent all day Thursday working it out, by canceling my cards and such. So, my friend took me out on Friday night, first to Shabbat services, and then to a bar with dancing, in order to have fun and relax after such a situation. 

It was interesting to compare the Shanghai Shabbat dinner and the Kunming Rosh Hashanah dinner. They were both good, but the Rosh Hashanah services seemed to be a little more religious then what we wanted (the Israeli's and I). Maybe because Rosh Hashanah is the New Year, requiring a little more religious attention, but the Shabbat dinner was definitely more relaxed with fewer songs and more drinking. 

In Hong Kong, since our Chinese phones didn't work, my friends and I had to rely on the Internet to make plans. This didn't end up being as big of a deal as I had imagined though, because one girl and I were staying in neighboring hostels, both of which had internet access, so we ate meals together every day (we found a great ice cream place where you basically made your own sundae and paid for it by it's weight). While not eating, I went to the Big Buddha (the biggest sitting bronze Buddha in the world), did a little window-shopping, explored the nightlife one night and went to Victoria peak with another friend to see the Hong Kong skyline. 

Overall, it was a pretty decent trip other then my wallet getting stolen. I spoke a lot of Chinese in Shanghai but it was a little disappointing when I tried to speak Mandarin in Hong Kong and realized that they mainly speak Cantonese and English there. So this weekend I'm going to get back into the swing of school because classes start again on Monday.