I Need to Cut Back my Redbull Consumption

Entries in my phone from last night: Gillian Singapore, Tall Girl, and Matt-oz. 

I apparently met a lot of people last night, all of whom I don't totally remember.  Its a good thing I know myself well enough to know that descriptive names are a completely necessity for me to remember who anyone was the next day. 

Non-china related comment: go watch transporter 2 because apart from being a wonderful piece of cinematography, it has one of the best characters ever created:  Really awesome girl that kind of looks like an attractive alien that just walks around in lingerie and shoots people.  She is awesome... I'm kinda obsessed.   I kind of want to be her.   

Anyway, back to my real life:

Last night I met up with Alicia, the chinese girl that came to Suzie Wong's last week, and her friend, who is studying to be a doctor in Beijing.  We went to a really good chinese place and had really delicious fried eggplant and this drink that was kind of like sangria but had coconut milk instead of wine.  It had lots of the dragon fruit in it, which is the one that is kind of white and opaque with the black seeds.   

At the end of the meal I cast a glance at the dish of boiled baby cabbage I had been scarfing to see something small and black squirming to the surface in a desperate attempt to get out of the boiling water.   I didn't say anything because I didn't want to cause a scene, and we were finished eating anyway... so instead I just tried to concentrate on the conversation while keeping one eye on the mini-centipede-larvae thing that was valiantly struggling to keep above the water.   On the bright side, at least it was still in the dish, not in my stomach, although then maybe I would have gotten some protein since larvae are very high in protein -- Adam told me this yesterday.   Bottom line is: I really don't have good luck with food, the first night I was in japan I turned the tofu in my udon over to reveal a very large cockroach. 

After the dinner we walked around HouHai to a part I had not been to before, which was much quieter and less neon.  There were tons of little boats puttering around on the lake and Alicia said that you can  have dinner on them.  I am definitely going to do that if I ever have need for a romantic occasion, since I go on so many romantic occasions (sarcasm).  Really though, I need to start acting like an adult and assimilating into the dates/flowers/etc world or else I'm going to end up old and alone.  Maybe I'll take my parents there or something instead.  

I went to Gongti afterwards and met up with Emma and her friends, stayed there for a while then went to another bar that was having 80s night, which was awesome.  I rode on the back of Emma's bike there and I think we nearly died quite a few times, but we were both too full of redbull and vodka to care.   I feel like biking under the influence maybe should be deterred a little bit more.   Everyone left at 3, but I was just hitting my stride so I decided to stay completely alone (sounded like a great idea at the time) and make friends, which I did, with a bunch of brits, and went to white rabbit with them till really far to late at night.  I'm thinking of allotting myself a limit of redbulls per night, this staying out till 5 is getting out of control.  I was actually really disappointed in white rabbit, there weren't that many ppl there and the music wasn't that great, but I think it might have just been too late in the night for me to be a good critic anymore.  

Upon arriving home I decided that just drinking water and going to bed was insufficient, and instead I thawed some of the gnocchi I made last week and whipped up a pesto cream sauce from scratch, then proceeded to lick the sauce pot afterwards, because to my drunk self it was absolutely delicious.  It really probably was't that great seeing as my culinary skills were no doubt impaired... but it tasted pretty damn good at the time  -- kind of  like the time Arun and I made tempura at five in the morning and created "the best dipping sauce in the world!!" from Sriracha and Soy Sauce, only to discover later while sober that it really wasn't all that great. 

Anyway, that is the reason why I am not out drinking. Instead I am getting my life together.. especially since I spent 300 kuai last night which is waaaay over my limit.  

hopefully you are doing something more interesting than me, but if you are reading this it means you are at a computer, which means you are at home, which means you are a loser. get out. 

Night.

Madness Hamsters are gnawing my brain

Ouch

I am at work.  Hungover, maybe possibly still drunk.    I just slept for an hour here though, so I'm feeling better than I did on the cab ride in.   Sleeping is one very culturally interesting thing about the chinese workplace.   It is completely permissible to take naps at any point in the work day; In fact, most people bring a pillow to work. I kid you not. After lunch most of the office is asleep and snoring for a good 30 minutes, although in their case it stems from hard work, not too many shooters with crazy aussies. 

Last night was great in a random sort of way.  Went to dinner with three other guys from Pomona, then went to Nashville near Solana Plaza and listened to a really good chinese guy sing Simon & Garfunkel songs while we played spades -- Jeff and I won of course.  I also had an amazing drink called a Gin Fizz, sort of like a fizzy gin creamsicle. Next time I will inquire as too the ingredients. 

Onward into the night, we went to shooters in SanLiTun, which I need to remember since all shots and beers are 10 kuai. (thats about 1.30 US).  Danced with the guys for a while which made me remember that american guys really can't dance.  Then I ran into the flamboyant spanish guy that I salsad with on saturday night, named Ernesto, which is awesome cause now I have his number!  Made friends with three aussies, got Kebab, went home at like 2 to wake up at 7.  No wonder I am struggling.   

Since I'm trying to build an empire of friends I decided I would not turn down any invitation to go out / hang out, no matter how hungover I am or how early I have to get up.  So I am having a greeeeat time, but my sanity and liver are suffering.   Luckily for me, a retarded child could do my job so a hangover doesn't stop me from being excellent!   Emma texted me last night saying she wanted to go out tonight, so I am going to try and drink as much water as humanly possible and sleep for another hour at work to prepare. 

Luckily my workload is really light right now because we just did  a demo to the client and they loved it... so unlike Adam, who has a miserably horrible client... I can just keep working on my project in peace, which only occupies about three hours a day. 

I havent talked at all about prices so here is run down on what stuff costs in china: 

7 Kuai = 1 US $

Large beer from a convenience store: 3 Kuai

Dish at a semi-nice restaurant: 18 Kuai

Rice: 2 Kuai

20 min cab ride: 20 Kuai

Full american breakfast at Rickshaw: 45 Kuai

Batteries: 16 Kuai

Beet at a bar: 10-20 Kuai

Drink at bar: 10-40 Kuai

Recovery

Not unlike Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan, I have spent the past two days in rehab.  But unlike them, what led to mine was my great desire to see the great cultural relics of china, kind of. 

Rehab means watching movies, cleaning my room, taking my vitamins, and eating ice cream. 

I also spent a good 6 hours trying to straighten out my: I-have-no-return-ticket-from-vietnam-sitch, which in the past 24 hours actually denigrated into:  an I-do-not-even-have-a-one-way-tic-to-vietnam-sitch.  Apparently I waited too long to verify my credit card information so they canceled my flight to Vietnam.  

So I began looking again.... I finally found a great round trip flight to Hanoi and spent a few minutes filling out the tedious information required to book, excited that I would now have a a vacation.  Not so.  A nice little error message came up informing me that "the name of passenger 1 could only be made up in English!" 

I then tried to book on the US Air China site instead since the chinese site wouldn't accept my name as not "being made up in English".  The ticket on the US side was $1000 more!! --Ridiculous form of somehow semi-legal price discrimination.   After a few more hours of angry searching I found a really good website called Wego.com , you should try it out; they use squirrels instead of an algorithm, apparently thats a good business strategy since they work for nuts not dollars.   So here are the places I am going as it stands right now: Hanoi, Halong Bay, HCMC, Mekong Delta, and Phu Quoc Island. If you have been to any of these places and have suggestions i.e: that place sucked, or: I got the best acid of my life there!! (just kidding mom), then tell me cause I would love to have any info on Vietnam since I know nothing about it.  

Im about to hit up some bars with my new FRIENDS!! (which isn't saying that much though since they are all guys.. much easier to make friends with than girls... but its a start)

oh I've also been in Beijing exactly one month.  Crazyness!!!

P.P.S : Check out the igoogle themes by Edward Monkton, in particular the "Madness Hamsters" I am obsessed. 

Ciao

Impromptu trip to the Great Wall at 5 AM

The title pretty much sums up my weekend.  After friday night I did not think the weekend could possibly get anymore crazy, but nooo, I was mistaken.  The events that I am about to relate are the kind of antics that you would expect Jess Perri to be involved in. 

But first, so that I can keep up my: reporting-on-the-cultural-side of-china bargain, A little about what I did during the day:  Went to the Temple of Heaven, one of the three most famous sights in Beijing which was built t0 be perfectly semetrical down to the placement of the plants in the huge garden surrounding it.  I actually found the garden to be far cooler than the temple itself because it was packed with people singing, playing ma jong, twirling long ribbons and dancing with fans.    The highlight was when a tall gangly british guy decided to try his hand at ribbon twirling and ended up so completely tangled in the ribbon that he fell over.  He then decided that his talents were better suited for the fan dance and drew a large crowd again with his antics there.  The old ladies loved it, (although I couldn't tell if they were laughing at him or with him), and he seemed to be enjoying his first foray into the world of dance as well.  It was a little like seeing a really spindly, tall stork surrounded my tiny birds trying to imitate them but failing miserably. 

Now on to the night:  

 

8:00 PM: 

Leave the apt, reassure john that I will under no circumstances be coming back after midnight. 

8:10 PM:  

Turn down two offers to go to clubs since I definitely will not be staying out past midnight.

8:30 Pm: 

Get to Nanlouguxiang, discover that one of the girls there is Becca's roommate and two of the others I met a few weekends ago - small world.  Start playing a drinking game involving animal movements; beginning of the downward spiral

10:00 PM: 

Wipe out while trying to get a cab, reassure all present that I am in no way drunk.  Go to Rickshaw.  Play pool, drink copious amounts of redbull vodka. 

12:00 AM:

Head to Kokomo, still slightly lucid at this point.  Over the next four hours: get in a fight with an aussie, talk about dostoyevsky for an hour, talk to the same dutch guys from Club Bud with whom I seriously discussed Hans Brinker last week, speak in spanish for one hour, salsa dance, and probably much more, we shall never know.

5:00 Am:

Meet a kid living in Singapore named Matt who is leaving for the great wall in 30 minutes, decide that it would be a great idea to get absolutely no sleep and go immediately hike for 11k on the great wall, wearing flats, a miniskirt and a nice top. 

5:30 AM: 

Have a rare burst of clarity and think better of the clothing situation and change into a T-shirt and head over to Matt's hostel to catch the bus.  My excitement about climbing the great wall is interrupted by a guy yelling CMC very loudly.  Turn around to see a blond guy wearing nothing but black silk boxers standing in an alleyway holding a jump rope (completely hammered as well).  Side note: has anyone even seen / let alone owned a jump rope in the last 15 years?   Turns out naked-silk-boxers-while-jump-roping-kid went to CMC.  After a lengthy introduction during which he told me four times to say hi to Christian Wolfgruber for him he demanded a CMC picture and then ran off back down his alley, disappearing from whence he come. 

6:00 AM - 6:00 PM : 

HIKED THE GREAT WALL!!!!

In retrospect, this was probably one of my greatest drunk adventures ever considering others have ended up:  accompanying jess to the emergency room , and lighting a senior's couch on fire (by mistake).   

I sobered up by the time we arrived and the wall was extremely amazing.   I was expecting it to be much more touristy because of pictures I have seen, but we were really the only group walking it.  At one point I went ahead of our group and couldn't see or hear another person for miles.  That was truly amazing because the area is so remote and expansive, and the wall becomes exponentially cooler if it is devoid of other human presence.   

The walk was long and hard, but we all made it, although today I can barely walk.   After we got back I went out to watch the closing ceremonies with some girls I met the night before: Emma and Alessandra, then I met up with Matt again and grabbed some drinks in NanLouGuXiang and HouHai with him.   All in all it was an eventful 24 hours. 

Tonight I am taking it easy and going to watch Pulp Fiction at Lush with Veronica and maybe have a beer or two if my liver hasn't completely pulled a coup' d etat by then. 

Later Skater

Suzie Wongs

Day ?

8:30 PM

I am currently: cooking pasta, cleaning my room, answering work emails and drinking a beer, all in preparation to go out in 30 minutes.    I also just downed a prescription strength Ibuprofine with that beer since I'm out of milk, again, thank you teebs..this stuff is awesome, I need to find some over here.  I always thought it was the 11th commandment not to drink and take painkillers at the same time, but I was told by my family that this is a fallicy.   The conversation happened when we were at the ocean and I was ridiculously sick (having just gotten back from partying by brains out in europe for two weeks) and was on antibiotics. It went like this:

Mom:   have a beer, they are really good, they are local and organic

Me:   I can't I'm on Antibiotics

Mom / rest of extended family:   So?

Me:   you can't drink on antibiotics or painkillers

Mom:   really? I always do

Uncle Doug:   I mean, you need something to take the pill with...

Love my family

Anyway, today I had my first experience with chinese medicine.  I lost my Campho-Phenique, which i'm sure you can only buy in the US, so I went on a mission to find more.  I knew no one would speak english, so I painstakingly researched the active ingredients: Camphor and Phenol, and then translated them into chinese via google translator.  Armed with this piece of paper I went to the pharmacy.  I was right, no one spoke english, but the doctor took one look at me and then at the paper and said: bu hao (not good).  All of my effort was in vain since apparently US medicine is not very well respected.  Instead he gave me weird little tablet things to put in my mouth and vitamin C.   Hopefully it works since I'm running out of teebs's painkillers. 

Another fun fact of the day: For the olympic sport of taekwondo their helmets say, in huge letters on the top, WTF.  thought it was funny. 

Morning after

Wearing it yet again.. i'll just give a one paragraph summary since the night lasted for about 9 hours.  We had three bottles at our table, 2 of vodka and one of 151, .... for 10 people.  One of the guys has to wear my extra pair of sparkly flats because he came in sandals and they wouldn't let him in without shoes.   Then, when we all went to go dance, I got pulled into another table because an aussie women on it thought I was a good dancer (and she asked me if I was brazilian! I was ecstatically happy).   This table was: bank managers and athletes. It was awesome. So then I proceeded to drink my way through their really expensive champaign as well.  I woke up this morning with five business cards that all say either senior partner or manager, and tons of pictures of middle aged chinese and Australian men along with a bunch of african athletes.   The athletes that I talked to were really cool, a guy from Nairobi who I think won silver, and a woman from Ivory Coast who I cant remember her event.   All in all it was an awesome night, I didn't get home till 6.   AND I returned home with ALL of my belongings, that is epic. 

Now I am going to Rickshaw to watch Argentina beat the crap out of Nigeria in football, have some brunch and a few beers to tame my hangover. peace bitches. 

Back to HouHai...

Day 9,

Chinese quote of the day:  "the authorities however, have refused to explain what happened to applicants who disappeared after they submitted their paperwork." 

Article: Two Elderly Women Sentanced to "Re-Education" in China

Shobhit has some sort of nasty viral throat infection, so i'm hoping its not contagious... although he is keeping himself quarantined in his room pretty well so that is a bonus.  

Last night we went to our favorite bar in HouHai again.  I think we are their only customers ever, so they love us and let us plug in an ipod and play music in the bar.  There was a strange contraption leaning up against the wall that looked like a skateboard but instead of being one piece on top that you stand on, it only had diamond shaped pieces for each foot connected by a really narrow piece of wood in the middle that let the two different pieces twist back and forth independent of each other.  Also, instead of like a skateboard where the wheels keep the board upright, the wheels on this could flop all the way over, so that you had to balance each foot individually to keep it upright.  

Basically, it looked impossible... but once we started playing with it we couldn't stop.   Especially me since I hate it when I can't do something.   The guys who worked at the bar got theirs and we all went outside into the street and spent 20 minutes tripping and wiping out while the chinese dudes were wizzing back and forth past us on theirs.  Apparently is an inherent chinese skill, because they all seemed to be able to do it and got much amusement out of watching our attempts.   After a few to many near-catastrophic wipeouts into angry tourists, we admitted defeat and went back into the bar for more beers. 

Thats another thing... I've only been here a month but at this point feel I have the privilege to look down on all of the tourists who are here for the olympics.   Its pretty sweet; I get to walk around like I know where I'm going (which I don't most of the time) and mutter things under my breath when fat balding men wearing fanny packs and chacos with socks get in my way.  AND I had my first real conversation with a cab driver last night! Usually I can't understand a word anyone is saying because of the beijing dialect - mumbling and putting an rrrr on the end of every word, so that men is mer, and sanlitun is sanlituar, but last night we actually had a convo about where I was going.   That was a big step because I think it meant he didn't take me around in circles for too much more than he would have with a chinese person. 

Roach Sighting!!

(The exclamation points are not in a good way)

Day 8,

8 PM

Today I hate china.   I saw what I thought was a cute little beetle scurrying across our floor  - but it was a ROACH.  gross.   Ever since my dad told a story when I was a kid about two crawling up his pants at an airport I have been mortally afraid of them.  

On the bright side though:  Veronica is in china!!  Hopefully I can find her though because Becca already cant find her, and it has not even been  24 hours yet since she landed in Beijing.  She brought a valuable cargo of items that I forgot in the US and can't find here, mainly: rainbow sandals.   I have been wearing the white canvas shoes that I bought for three pesos in Salt for the past month, and now they are not white anymore, but a disgusting shade of grey streaked with patches of darker filth.  I realized a few nights ago when I sat down for a moment in Guijie that I must look like a bum. 

We are planning on going to Rickshaw tonight to watch the US bball finals against Oz.   Hopefully there will be a big aussie crowd.. they are always down to make some noise and have a few beers. 

Midnight

We got confused about the time and missed the game, but I heard it wasn't that great, we won by a lot.   Instead I watched transporter 2.  Which was awesome, and they left it completely open for a third one.  I recommend it to anyone, as long as you like crazy action movies that have negligible plot and a lot of unrealistic moves.  

 

I love living with boys

Day 7,

Everyone in my apartment is sick. First Shobhit got Adam sick, and then Adam got Shobhit sick again, and now he got John sick... so it is a giant cesspool of hacking , coughing, spitting people who are constantly stealing my nyquil. Luckily I am not a girly girl to begin with, but I can slowly fell myself becoming more of a boy every week I am living here. (to be totally fair though, I am not living with meatheads, our DVD collection includes: 27 dresses, made of honor, becoming jane, and my favorite, shanghai kiss) And in some aspects I am way more socially-retarded than they are.

Case in point: Adam was trying to figure out what to get a girl he was going on "dates" with for her birthday, and I told him to get her nothing, then when he said he had to since they were dating (which is completely unnecessary, because hes not going to get into her pants anyway since shes chinese) I told him to get her a badminton racket - I got laughed at. In my opinion badminton rackets are great, very functional, everyone here seems to have one attached to their wrist at all times. I also got laughed at for: hating dates, never having gone on a real date, never having a boyfriend etc.... all the things girls are supposed to be good at. They have stopped asking me for girl advice at this point.

But anyway, if I get sick I will smite my entire apartment; just like I used to do in SimLife, when you could play god and smite the sargum moss that was taking over the world. ( just googled it, Sargum Moss doesn't exist, it is a creation of Simlife)

Today I did not do anything cultural in Beijing, but I did go on a wild goose chase for Tahini, and the Vietnam Airlines ticket office. I employed my prowess of chinese to try and find the airline office once I was inside the glitzy shopping mall it was allegedly in. Due to my awesome skills I got these responses: 1st floor, 4th floor, blank stare. It ended up being across the street in a building I did not know existed. Oh and it was also closed - I'm going back tomorrow, at least I know where it is now.

Unrefrigerated milk and other fine foods

Day 6

Today I bought shelf life milk because I have decided that I never want to set foot in Carefour again.  It is a black hole; I go in to just buy milk and don't come out till an hour later.    Becca actually got lost in a carrefour for 20 minutes, which shows that I am not the only one who finds their labyrinth impossible to navigate.  Also, they have people yelling out advertisements at each section and the first time I went in I thought someone was being massacred in the soy sauce aisle.  

Anyway, there is a nice organic-and-therefore-more-expensive store across the street, but I think I am willing to pay more, and drink shelf life milk, in exchange for my sanity.  

Tonight I went to Guijie food street after work to get out of the apartment and walk around.  The entire street is festooned with luminous red and orange lanterns so the entire area kind of glows.    I had read up in my camera manual a bit about night shooting and so I wanted to go test out my new skills here.  Unfortunately, almost immediately my camera died, but I was able to find new batteries after a couple of attempts at convenience stores (one of which turned out to be a porn store actually...which it took me wayyy to long to figure out. embarrassing).   

I got a few pictures that turned out decent, but I still feel like I can't capture exactly the way things look, even with my new snazzy camera.  Tomorrow I will read the manual more, because as mom says: you can learn everything from the manual;this is why men do not succeed, they throw the manual away. 

I love sundays

Day 5

I did not leave my apartment today.  It was awesome.  In the morning I pretended to myself that I was going to go to the llama temple... but I guess I should have known better.  Instead I sat in bed and made bacon on three separate occasions during the day.  Being a vegetarian really broadens you horizons.   I also talked to jess for a really long time about why all technology, but mostly skype, hates her existence. 

Productive things I have done today without leaving my apartment:

1. Read about crazy frenchmen brandishing swords and how evil cardinal Richelieu was (The Three Musketeers) 

2. Decided to dedicate my life to a culinary odyssey in which I will learn about the cuisine of every country in the world

3. Made a spending limit that I will try to stick to (haha, how many times have I done this?)

4. Decided to open a hostel in thailand with jess 

5. Cured cancer

6. won 9 gold medals

7. world peace

8. Case in point = lots of great things can be accomplished from your bed

Ciao

L

Currently wearing it

Day 4,

Its only the fourth day and I am already a day behind. My goal was to post last night after I got back from clubbing, but that, lets face it, was obviously not going to happen.

Yesterdy I forced myself out of bed at noon and went, along with my hangover, into the city with the intention of going to see the llama temple. (I say intention because things did not work out that way). I also say forced since going anywhere in this city is a huge struggle between you and the evil thing that is the subway / beijing traffic. first you have to walk 2o mins to the nearest ditie (subway stop), then ride the stupid thing until you have forgotten where you were even going in the first place, get off, remember where you were going, then walk around aimlessly for another 20 minutes in the scorching heat until you find it, if you are lucky. To compound this, many places in the city require both a cab AND the subway, so then you get to deal with traffic and drives who try and take you

in giant circles as well.

Anyway...

After this epic struggle against public transportation, I arrived at the llama temple, tired to buy a ticket for 25 Kuai, and realized that I only had 15 due to my monster breakfast from four in the morning the night before. Trying to find a bank in china is about as bad as public transport. By the time I found one I had to go meet Alex at Yashou, a big market where you can buy everything under the sun for a few Kuai. The area around the llama temple was really beautiful

though, and actually had TREES, a rarity for beijing. There were groups of old me sitting under the trees playing majong, and countless stores selling incense and other buddhist wares. It was a really nice change from the modern section of the city.

Went to Yashou and engaged in a battle with the sunglass sellers to get a pair of hot pink Kanye sunglasses which were a big hit at the club later that night. We went to Banana, the dance floor bounces, so it is a little strange, but the sound system was great and they had some interesting entertainment... (cage dancers of both sexes.. it was strange). I ended up talking to an Iranian athlete for a long time about Sharia law, which was really interesting, but then I managed to drop my glass and break it all over him, so he was not happy and that was the end of our convo.

I'm going to go back into the city now and actually try and make it to the llama temple this time.

Ciao

L

Handball is Cool

Day 3,

Last night I finally got to go see the olympic venues! They are at the complete opposite side of the city from our apt so we had to ride the subway for 45 minutes to get near the area. We had no idea where the gymnasium was, but this turned out to not be a problem, there was a herd mentality coming off the subway so we just followed the crowd. It was dusk so light was reflecting off of the Birds Nest, and the lights in the water cube had just come on. They were both much more beautiful than I had expected them to be (if a building can be beautiful).

Our tickets were only 11 dollars, so I was expecting handball to be a bust, but in fact it is an awesome sport! The match was Norway v. France (still prelims) but the crowd was pretty much all Norwegian, all pretty rabid fans, with face pain, cowbells, and viking hats. There was also a tremendous amount of flag waving. I felt a little bad for the four french fans gallantly cheering for their team. I got to try out my new fancy camera, and took some great action shots, but I still haven't mastered it so although they are clear they color is a bit off and they are a little grainy.. I'll have to play around on photoshop with them.

After we went to HouHai:

A really pretty lake rimmed with bars. Not the best place to go out though because all of the bars are the same: a chinese person singing inside and then seats outdoor, its more of a dinner / lounge spot. we only go because there is a little tiny bar we like where they give us free drinks, and there is a really cute chinese kid I play with.

Then we went to Club Bud (budwiser) which they apparently have at every olympics and is free and all you can drink. The crowd was mostly foreign, and I had a great convo with three dutch guys all wearing soulja boy shades about Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates. Love the conversations I get myself into. Left at 3 to go home but ran into the rest of my apt on the way out, and walked to Sanlitun to get breakfast instead at Rickshaw, which is open 24 hours and has awesome american food. I proceeded to consume a disgusting amount of mozzarella sticks, eggs, pancakes, bacon. It reminded me of the epic breakfast Arun and I had in Vegas at 7 in the morning. I still feel sick today - but that could be a hangover, right now I am very thankful for Tyler Bradley-Hewit's prescription ibuprofen, that I somehow ended up with after graduation, thanks teebs.

I hate Fengtai

Day 2

So lets see... today I dragged myself out of bed at 7, sat in a humid cab for 45 minutes to get to the office, intermittently slogged and perused facebook hoping for people to do entertaining things or post incriminating pictures. I also learned of the existence of the snack cupboard and spent a happy ten minutes riffling through "snacks" which all seemed to feature cartoon character, artificial color and an ungodly amount of sugar. I still wonder how chinese people are so skinny with the food they eat. maybe its a biological chemical. If I could find it an sell it to trophy wives for exorbinant sums I would never have to work again. I also traded smiley faces online with my engineer for a decent amount of time, the highlight being one which he found that did the function of all the others in a sort of montage. (I also go lots of work done, but thats boring so I will bypass it)

I found a new favorite dish today to - I can't remember the name (seems like that is a common theme in this country) but it is grilled green beans with garlic and some sort of sichuan topping, I don't think they have it in US chinese food.

I also had a great conversation about my inability to distinguish attractiveness in asians. (also remember names). I can tell when the girls are hot, but all the guys look exactly the same to me. Maybe this will change and i'll end up living in beijing married to chinese dude.. but i'm highly doubting it... I have far too much of a thing for blonds.

Now we're all back home watching olympic badminton instead of the US basketball game, much to Adam's chagrin -apparently the Chinese authorities think badminton is more important. Shobhit is still doing work and cursing his fortune to be stuck with the clients from hell (their VP of engineering is so inept that he took two hours of our time to try and fix a "bug" in the log on system, when really he was entering the incorrect password), and I am going to watch a movie.

Adieu

L

Resolutions

Despite the fact that no one will probably ever read this as I will be too cowardly to show it to anyone, and lets face the facts - my life reeealy isn't that exciting ( a lot of people move abroad and too cooler places like niger), I am still going to attempt to write in this thing everyday for the dual purpose of maybe improving my writing and giving myself a record to read when I am 80 and can't even remember the names of my cats anymore - because I am destined to be a cat lady, more on that later.

Anyway, having committed to transcribing my awesome (irony) life to paper everyday, I'm going to need to go out and do things so that I don't fall asleep while writing about myself. this is actually a fairly hard task, because who really does more than a few interesting things everyday? When you consider your life as a whole it seems pretty sweet, but then when pressed to recount events from a single day or even week which are worth writing about people begin to sputter and grasp for some sort of a response. So i'll have to fix that somehow and become an really interesting person.

OK but enough bitching... now I will really start this blog:

Basically my impression of china thus far is a hot, humid polluted blur, filled with food i'm not too crazy about. My apartment is really nice but lacks the feeling of community you get many other places in the world that have local hangouts and coffeeshops etc. I think it is just the area that I live in and not the city itself, this is what I hope at least since I have meet a few really awesome people at coffee shops, you know who you are. Also you can't drink the water, walk anywhere, or eat anything that is uncooked. sounds like paradise. Other than this its great! really. just very different from the US and every time i go outside i find myself covered in sweat and gasping for breath within five minutes. You also can't even see the sun because it is obscured behind a thick and grayish cover of smog, making everyday look not unlike a gray winter day in seattle... my apartment complex, although being one of the nicest in the city has definite communist lineage and reminds me of the huge boxy complexes in siberia clustered around a sad excuse for a "park" in the middle - some scrubby trees and wiry grass attempting to survive amid concrete - i have been told this was all planed for the olympics.

The city is best enjoyed at night when darkness pierced with multitudes of neon lights transform the city into a completely different place. The pollution becomes invisible, the buildings look more graceful and the temperature cools down to bearable levels. Especially if you have a few beers the city becomes quite poetic.

My best experiences here so far:

mastering the art of riding a bike, talking on a cell phone and dodging the many cabs who I think get points for hitting pedestrians or something... that is all that could explain their driving style

Partying at Hohai, a lake ringed with bars which during the day is a cesspool of pollution but at night with the reflection of the neon signs is beautiful.

Trying to sneak into the tent for the russian athletes with my limited russian phrases and being blatantly laughed at by the woman running security, who I have no doubt, could actually speak russian

Watching the opening ceremonies at the annual Yen party (awesome hardcore techno / rave). And realizing in my alcohol and music fueled state, just how amazing it is that countries who are blatantly killing each other like georgia and russia, manage to make it to the olympics and at least outwardly smile and hold hands. The olympics might possibly be the only really successful diplomatic event we have.

Anyway, that is it for today.. tomorrow i'll start daily posts. good times

Ciao