Yesterday!

WHEEEEE these have been a very interesting two days. I just have to type it up before I forget...pictures to come later, promise!
First off, an update on Yesterday:

Samantha woke me up at six cause she couldn't sleep. We spent two hours looking at Autocorrect fails and watching Pokemon. I was horrified when she had to ask me "who is Team Rocket?" How did she not know?!

We ate breakfast then went to a jewelry making class. The teacher sells her creations in museums and stuff, so it was a great honor to learn from her. She taught us two threading techniques, so that we can make bracelets! I'm wearing one now.

After jewelry making we headed over to Sanduo Commercial Circle, which is basically an intersection surrounded by huge department stores and photography studios. We ate soup dumplings (xiaolongbao) in the Sogo food court then grabbed some bubble tea and went to our first glamour shot appointment. What are glamour shots, you may ask? Well, for those of you unfamiliar with the "go back to the motherland and take glamour portraits" phenomenon, glamour shots are a big deal. You spend an entire day getting your makeup done (to the Asian ideal meaning paler than Edward sparkleface Cullen), your hair done, squeezing into expensive outfits, and posing cute Asian poses for a cameraman.

They then take your best pictures, photoshop the shiz outta them, and put them in a big, fancy album that (hopefully) your grandparents and parents will love and show to everybody. And since my grandpa is adorable, he really wanted all three of us to take glamour shots. It's just the Asian thing to do!
Our first appointment was only a consultation, where we decided on the packages we want (these things are crazy expensive!) and booked dates for dress fittings (tomorrow night at 7:30) and shooting (all day Christmas day, starting around 7am). I'm actually really really excited! Lots of girls wear different types of outfits, like casual, wedding dresses, ball gowns, sexy, etc. but we're basically only going to do glamour glamour shots. Which I love! Hopefully they don't paint me too white and I look okay and not like scary photoshop perfect with some star/heart designs in the corner special effects. But these people are true professionals. They even gave us lipglosses that come with a side mirror AND a LED light on the applicator.

Yesterday we also went karaoke-ing and at night went to RuiFeng night market, where they have basically every street food under the sun plus more, as well as loads of shopping. The place is so crowded you don't even have to walk, you just get pushed along. Grandma navigated the place like a pro, but I was kinda fail and kept on getting distracted (typical). We got lost three times. I bought two ridiculous sweaters: one that looks like the American flag (v. patriotic) and one with reindeer frolicking among Christmas trees and zigzags.