chapter 5 - sleepless nights.

Alyssa spent her first week in China exploring Shanghai with Austin. Every day, eating a big street food breakfast, often a big street food lunch, a big dinner in a local restaurant, and a trip to the bakery for dessert. With copious amounts of beer throughout the day. She loved experiencing Chinese culture and all the food was incredible. She was over the jet lag after a few days, but had yet to get a good night's sleep at her 5 roommates were always coming and going at all hours, none of them spoke English, and one was a terrible snorer.

One morning she caught Austin down in the kitchen area making his morning coffee. "Hey Austin, do you sleep well here". "Most nights terribly, why do you ask?" he replied. "I am hardly getting any sleep either. Look, you can say no to this, but they offer private double rooms here. It's more expensive than just a bed, but if we went in together on one, it wouldn't be that bad". Austin replied "if you are a quiet sleeper, then I think that is a great idea." That being settled, they went down to the hostel's office and booked a double room together. It was nice having a room with just two beds and a private bathroom. There wasn't a refrigerator in it, but there was some shelves and cabinets so they would have more storage space.

That made all the difference. They were both good roommates, kept the room neat, and they both enjoyed a good night's sleep every night from then on. Only two of Austin's afternoons a week were spoken for with his work as an English teacher, so they had plenty of time most days to explore Shanghai and the surrounding areas. They visited ancient canal towns, took the high speed train to area cities, visited Buddhist and Taoist Temples (they were so peaceful), and even found short nature hikes to go on. For the most part though, no matter where they went, their days revolved around food. Austin stayed lean and fit by running and working out early every morning. Alyssa tried running a few more times, and was never able to get more than a couple of blocks before she felt she couldn't breath.

As her first month in China went by, her clothes became tighter and tighter. She didn't know where there was a scale, but she knew she had to be gaining weight. She felt powerless to do anything about it. I mean what do you do in China other than explore and eat? At least Austin was nothing like her old boyfriend and never remarked about her weight even as her clothes grew too tight on her and she developed an obvious muffin top.