As forecasted, we woke up to drizzly rain. Luckily we had plenty of food from last night’s shop, so we had real coffee, cereal, and fruit. We took our time getting ready and did some art.

When the rain let up I started getting cabin fever, so we decided to go to the “M50” area, which sounded like an arts district similar to the one we went to in Beijing. It started raining again as we descended into the subway station.

When we arrived 20 minutes later the streets were empty. I’m not sure if it’s the rain, or the area, or that people do other things on Saturdays, but it was surprising considering the size of Shanghai. It felt more like we were in a suburb of London.

We walked about 15 minutes until we saw galleries. We ducked into any that seemed interesting. The area was much smaller and much less developed than where we went in Beijing.

The art did not blow us away. It was a mix of higher end galleries, working studios, and then what seemed like gift shops. It lacked the “cool” factor that Beijing had.

Still, it was a nice enough way to spend a couple of hours on a rainy day.

We were all a bit tired and varying levels of grumpy. Nick and I are feeling burned out from planning, parenting, and just the general difficulties of traveling in China. The language barrier is starting to wear on us. So instead of trying to push through to do something else, we decided to just head home. Millie watched a movie and we finally figured out our plan for Korea.

We were hungry and went out for an early dinner. It was so early (4:30pm) that none of the restaurants we wanted to go to were open yet. We found an English bookstore and killed 30 minutes reading Tin-tin. It has not aged well!

At 5 we went into a restaurant. It was quiet and two other tables had couples on dates. While we were reading the menu Millie would not stop acting up so we decided to leave and find somewhere else. We all got frustrated, a mix of hangry and tired and just sort of needing a break from each other. We regrouped, looked up, saw an Italian restaurant, and decided that would do.

She got her beloved Margherita pizza, and Nick and I shared pasta carbonara and a chicken dish. The Chinese waitress spoke to us in perfect Italian and the food was surprisingly great. Nick and I talked about how silly it is that we’ve been eating primarily non-Chinese food in Shanghai, but it’s what we’ve needed. And we did a good job of eating local until now. Tomorrow, for our last night in China, we will make up for it in Xiaolongbao consumption.