On the 26th I met my friend Sara at the Museum of Contemporary Art to view the amazing Christian Dior exhibit.

I honestly did not know a lot about him but his designs were simply amazing. The exhibit was so well done! It had some of his famous dresses (including ones worn by Lady Di, Princess Grace and Elizabeth Taylor. It showed the steps it takes to take a Haute Couture dress from paper to final product.

They had one of their tailoring ateliers on hand to discuss the process ( he was so interesting and originally from the US but now living in Paris!). The also had some of their perfume specialists present who put the finishing touches on each bottle by hand.

In one of the final pictures of the show below (which is hard to see) the whole room was filled with J’adore perfume bottles hanging from the ceiling.

Amazing, amazing, amazing!

Afterwards Sara and I went to a delicious lunch in the museum where they created the Dior Cafe. It was redecorated to reflect the colors of Dior as well as accented with topiaries shaped like Dior perfume bottles and their famous Lady Dior Handbag.

On Wednesday the 25th I toured an area called TianZiFang with my friends Jean and Rachel. TianZiFang is considered the SOHO of Shanghai and is a area with small twisting alleyways filled with great art, interesting shops and restaurants. We had lunch at a wonderful new restaurant called Hillbilly Tea. They have a restaurant in Louisville and now one in Shanghai. We tasted their tea infused hooch and had a wonderful lunch. Afterward we went to the LiuLi glass museum.

Another wonderful day – I’m definitely a lucky gal!

Tuesday the 24th I toured the Shanghai Opera school with the SEA. Mr Zhao was our tour guide for the day. He is a former playwright for the Beijing Opera and the Kunqu Opera and he attended the school as a child. He provided us with a wonderful understanding of how the students train and we were able to see acrobatic and dance training as well as makeup application and costuming. The day finished with 3 performances by the students. I now want to see more Chinese opera!

Yummy Nasi Goreng (Indonesian fried rice) and Thai chicken satay!

They are trying to counter all the problems they have had with chicken in China so have come up with this interesting beef sandwich.

It looks like a burger but when you bite into it the sandwich has many layers like minute steak!

Pretty good!

It only took 2 1/2 months!

It’s a national holiday (the Mid-Autumn Festival) so a lot was closed today. Rich and I went exploring to see what we could find!

Fried Dumplings, cool statues and a nice dinner!

The dessert is a Moon Cake in honor of the festival!

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Tuesday I went to a lecture on Traditional Chinese Medicine. She first reviewed yin and yang as well as the 5 elements. Then using the concepts of TCM she explained how to better relax and “let go” of our concerns. Great lecture!

Wednesday I went to a talk/luncheon. The owner of the restaurant who is Chinese-American discussed the challenges of doing business in China. I then enjoyed a lovely lunch with some friends!