It's kinda hard....

to try to communicate so many different experiences all at once. it's 
hard to know what to tell you, or how to put some things into words.  
last night, we also ate chicken carteledge on a stick....the best way to 
eat that?  just say the word, "crunchy" and go with it, do NOT think 
about what you're eating, you're going to be happier that way, and 
whatever you do, don't try to picture where the part is actually from.  
Crunchy works.

we were on an elevator yesterday going up to the top floor of "food 
city" or whatever street we were on....and the chinese on the elevator 
got off saying that we were "too fat" and were going to be exceeding 
capacity, which i found amusing.  the problem was that they left a girl 
on the elevator alone, so, she hid in the corner, ashamed that she was 
on an elevator and in the company of only men.

we went to a pub to meet shelly and her aunt, who is 44 and very 
attractive (that's what i was told, she's 44 and pretty, i would say), 
but her aunt has forgotten most of the english that she's learned, so 
she sits quietly in shame that she can't communicate. we ended up 
playing dice games and a crazy dance version of rock, paper, scissors 
for 6 hours.  the days and nights tend to blend together at times, as 
you do need to go out to meet people, and it's near impossible to meet 
people except in an accepted public place like a pub, where you can play 
games, talk, get to know each other, but not break any of the thousands 
of rules (that you will never be aware of), or any societal norms, 
(which are also rules that you will never be aware of...accept it and 
move on).

thomas has lived here for 4 months, and lived in hong kong for a year or 
two.  he says that it's near impossible to meet chinese 
friends....it's easy to meet chinese "friends", who are those who are 
either sponges, or those who think that they can make money off of you.  
in china, there is no separation between business and pleasure, so 
finding those who aren't trying to figure out how to take advantage of 
you is more than a little difficult. of course, it also depends on what 
you think of as "taken advantage of".  everyone wants to learn english, 
they want you to just randomly babble, so that they can learn your 
language.  perhaps that's using each other...you get to learn your way 
around, they get to practice, and...honestly, mandarin is very tough, 
cantonese is worse, so, you both get something out of the deal.  
(mandarin has 5 tones, cantonese has 7, learning a village language is 
probably a waste of time).

you would be amazed at how many westerners here hate it because of the 
loneliness, that's all i hear on the expat boards now, and i've stopped 
really paying attention.

i signed up for an app called wechat here.  it allows you to find others 
using the application, read their small profiles, look at their 
pictures, and get together to go do something.  you can use it to date, 
or just try to find someone who speaks your language.  i've just been 
contacted by a girl who is recently back from the us, and wants to talk 
english, i figure, why not?   we'll go for a walk, talk, and perhaps 
i'll learn my way around or something.  she's also invited me to go to 
her hometown for new years, i don't know how she thinks i'm going to get 
a train ticket, they've been sold out for months.  i also need to join 
QQ and chinese facebook (can't remember what it's called), apparently, 
they're socially very important.

did you know that when you purchase an iPhone or an iThing, that your 
money isn't transferred to an american company, like apple, it actually 
goes to a chinese company in USD, and they're using it to build cities 
and infrastructure here?  shenzhen has been around for 30 years, and was 
built entirely in US dollars, the bullet train to beijing was built with 
american dollars (for $100 USD, you can take a train from here to 
beijing, takes 24 hours.)  to go to hainan island, you hop on a train, 
which ends up going onto a boat, and gets you to hainan, i think that's 
also around $100 USD, it's a little strange, but they've apparently 
timed the boats to the train and it apparently runs seamlessly.  there 
is so much american money here it's completely beyond understanding.