Jin Mao Part Two

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I had no plans for that night and didn’t really even have a group to go out with and if all else failed I was just going to go to JM tower and see who else was there, but I ended up hooking up with Helen and Heather to get a ride over and hang out for that night at JM.  They hadn’t been there before and I told them that it was seriously beautiful and just a really nice atmosphere and a chill place to be and they should come with me, the whole thing would only cost $15 max.  So they came with me.

 

We got a table near the window right near the entrance and we took some chocolate from the front desk (mostly me).  They actually looked through the drink menus to try look for something they’d never tried before, so I figured I would look too – especially since they charge you anyway.  Heather ended up getting a Mojito, and I got a Moscito, which is the same thing but with no alcohol – just Sprite and mint leaves.  Helen got something fruity which I forget the name of and don’t think I’d really ever heard of before.  I forget how long it was until they brought out our drinks and when we had the conversations we did.  Heather said it was seriously the best Mojito that she had ever had, and Helen said her drink was actually very good as well.  My Moscito was okay.  At least it wasn’t just plain Sprite.

 

Helen asked me why I was at Semester at Sea, and I told her as best as I could, although I’m actually not really even sure why I’m here.  I just kind of always felt that it would be the best thing to do.  I brought up Brown and Penn State somewhere along the line, and she asked me why I switched.  I told her the reasons (math, act sci, roller hockey, drumline, THON, etc.) and she asked me what Thon was.  I explained.  I’m guessing that pretty much everyone reading this (if anyone reads this at all) knows what it is, so I won’t tell here.  But when I was talking about dancing and what it takes to become a dancer and what happens that weekend when you’re actually on the floor for 46 hours straight and the parents come up to you and just say thank you for everything you’ve done for four years, I teared up.  I actually did just a tiny bit when writing this too.  I’M SO EMO.

 

There was a very pretty candle on the table.  I used it to put some light on the ice cubes left in the bottom of my drink and took a picture with my macro lens and it came out really pretty.  Helen did the same with what was left in her glass.  Eventually we took pictures of each other, and I had her take it in zoomed in black-and-white over top of the flame, and that came out really nice as well.  I took some pictures of her, which also looked really nice, although I’m a black-and-white elitist and I think they’d have looked better in B/W  :-P

 

At some point they both said something to the effect of “This place is awesome.  Good call on coming here, man.”  I was really glad they enjoyed it.  I heard that some other people I had raved about the place to didn’t enjoy it so much.  I felt bad for them.

 

The music was really good this time around, too.

 

Pierce had told me that if you went down the first of the three elevators you needed to take to get out, you could see the entire hotel straight down from the 84^th floor to the 54^th floor.  So I told them that, and they followed me, and all three of us were blown away.  I have some pictures I can show you sometime, but it seriously almost gave me vertigo to look at it.  It was incredibly lush, too.  I leaned on the railing and held out my camera to take a picture, and for a fraction of a second I lost my grip.  I got a hyper-shot of adrenaline and was able to catch it before it really even left my fingers, but it was a scary idea.  I had like 200 pictures on there at that time.

 

If I do ever make it back to Shanghai, I’ll be going there on the first night.