Inexplicable

There is a young lady who works at the hotel in the front at the bottom 
floor.  i know, you might think, "Blair, that's the lobby, you moron!", 
and in this case you would be absolutely incorrect. The lobby is on the 
33rd floor.  Anyway, her job is to greet you, press the elevator button, 
locate which of the 5 elevators opens first, then press your floor and 
welcome you to the hotel.  If you manage to do any of these things on 
your own, you will see a hurt expression on her face, which i've taken 
to mean is disappointment that you don't think that she's capable of her 
job.

i've mentioned before that the first thing you do upon entering your 
room is to push the "do not disturb button".  there are no people 
wandering around on the floor, but if you don't hit that button, your 
door gets rung every 20 to 30 minutes, regardless of the time, as near i 
can figure.  Housekeeping comes at crazy random times, as does the turn 
down service.  If you decide to opt out of any of these services, accept 
that your voicemail will be full of messages.  I finally realized 
yesterday, that the secret to happiness would be to use these services 
at your convenience. before you leave in the morning or whenever, call 
guest services to get your room cleaned.  if you're going out for 
dinner, call guest services for the turn down service, so that when you 
think you should be sleeping at 11 and you forgot to turn on the privacy 
light, you don't have someone ringing you at midnight for turn down 
service.  i can't really figure out if these people are paid per room or 
per hour....and if it's per hour, if there's a difference between that 
and per room.  it's simply their job, work with them, or you're working 
against them.  i knokw that it has improved the service of my room.  i 
generally drink a couple of the free water bottles in my room per day.  
now i have 6 available, instead of the 2 that i started out with.  they 
also now get replenished by the turn down service.

i've been trying to get things in order of first views since i've been 
here, but, honestly, it's pure sensory overload.  so many different 
things and ways of doing things, and sights and smells (some of which i 
have yet to determine - not altogether sure that i want to clarify them 
to myself.)  i find myself sitting down at the local cafe, the Sugar 
Box, enjoying a terrific pastry and some Pu Err tea (some sort of black 
tea, i think...maybe it's red, hard to determine, you apparently have to 
look at the leaf colour, but they're underneath the filter and it's sort 
of tough to determine the difference between red and black), in the 
mornings, contemplating the sites, and wondering why i feel so very, 
very comfortable in a seriously foreign environment.

i think that one of the big things that sticks out to me is seeing 
mothers with their children here.  i have yet to see a tantrum, at all.  
mothers are seriously doting on their children, and constantly play 
games with them in public, they are obviously proud, and random people 
will also play games with them.  it's always nice to see their faces 
light up when i wave to their staring children and smile or laugh at 
them.  they invariably wave and say "bye bye"  to me, to the distinct 
pleasure of their parent(s).  i absolutely love that.

it's also distinctly odd that you see small children wandering around 
without any parents in site, and nobody freaks out.  i assume that they 
eventually find their way home.  i saw a 5 year old girl wandering 
around the mall the other day, nobody else in sight, and clearly she was 
where she was supposed to be, it was i who was not, based on the dirty 
look she gave me.  hard not to laugh and obtain an even dirtier look.

i think when i first got here i wrote about power adapter problems. the 
only actual problem with power adapters, besides the fact that they 
sometimes provide you with fruit instead of an electronic version, is 
the third prong on your laptop cord.  this is the ground, it's not 
attached to anything, just remove it before you come to china.  every 
single power cord you own will fit into the plug in, just force it in, 
and all things are good.  you'd think that something will blow 
eventually, but, apparently, that's not the case.  don't worry about 
adapters unless you're attached to having that third prong on your 
cord..... i got a 3 to 2 adapter for that purpose.  why can't the rest 
of the world function like that?

the worst speakers of Mandarin are the Koreans.  i keep wondering if 
that's going to hinder me...also, how much korean i'm going to lose 
learning mandarin, and how difficult it is going to be to get korean 
back.  i've also been trying to figure out why their mandarin is so 
bad...i still think it's because of the tones...korean, theoretically, 
doesn't have any tones, but they whine constantly and vary their voice 
based on mood or what they're saying, or just random inclinations...it 
makes learning korean a little frustrating at times, you keep wondering 
if the drawn out speech actually means something...the answer is no, it 
doesn't mean anything, it's just what they do.  i think that they 
translate that to mandarin, and it simply doesn't work.  i'm watching 
korean television in the background, and while the translation is 
interesting, it's not all that good, i think that they actually just 
rewrote the script in English, and are putting words in that aren't 
necessarily said, implied, or whatever...perhaps that's why the chinese 
love the korean tv so much.  for example the last line the guy just 
said, in korean, "what kind of crazy sickness is this???", in english it 
said, "what is going on?", i wonder what it said in mandarin/cantonese 
or whatever they're using down here.  i think that another thing that 
screws up koreans, is that they learn the traditional chinese 
characters, and everything in this country is simplified.  so, the 
meaning sometimes changes based on what it's grouped with, how it's 
drawn, or some random thing that i can't figure out.  everyone tells me 
not to even try to learn chinese characters until i learn how to speak 
the language...i still find this to be backwards, and doesn't help me in 
reading the signs anywhere...but, perhaps i should just assume that 
someone knows what they're doing better than i.  i'm probably still 
coloured by the fact that every other language that is taught is taught 
letters first, except chinese.

I've been asked....

To write down first impressions while they're still fresh in my mind.  
Tell you the truth, i'm confused a great deal, and just using the 
attitude, "accept it and move on".

do NOT drink the red bull, it's awful.  it's actually a vitamin fruit 
juice that smells reminiscent of red bull but tastes worse than 
buckleys.  doesn't even keep you awake, and the ingredients are pure 
fiction.

incidentally, if you want to call me for any reason, the number is 011 
86 13602 659 650.  it's a cell phone, if i were you i wouldn't leave a 
message if that's an option, i don't know how to access it, and i 
probably never will.  everyone seems to think that there is working 
voicemail on their phone, but even those who speak chinese just shrug 
and say, "who knows?".    i suspect that in 6 months to a year i'll be 
able to read my contract and it will probably tell me that information.  
everywhere they asked me to sign on the contract i signed in a different 
manner, hoping that if i made a mistake, i'd be able to get out of the 
contract, i'm not holding my breath though, and i'm also fairly sure 
that it's a prepaid account anyway.  my phone did stop working when i 
doubled the minutes that i was allowed in the first place.

south china is kind of interesting.  everything that i read about china 
may be true in the north, but it's purely fiction down here. i don't 
know any families or any of those who i have met here who only have one 
child.  almost all of them have 3 or more.  there's random security 
guards wandering around who have even less authority than mall cops.  
when they tell someone that they're doing something wrong down here, if 
they're not ignored, you end up with a local yelling at them, "Shut 
up!!  go get a real job!!".  they're incredibly rude, but the truth is, 
that a security guard gets paid about 1200 yuan per month, and they have 
3 jobs to try to live, so, they mostly use the opportunity to sleep, and 
write reports of what they've seen, but nobody ever gets in trouble from 
them.  they give those reports to the cops once a day, and apparently 
all things are good.

it's funny that when i was researching china, and everyone that i talked 
to was afraid of offending chinese people.  so, you bring gifts, etc, 
try not to be the "ignorant american", etc.  the truth is, though, that 
you get a big allowance for being american, canadian, or any sort of 
white foreigner here.  most chinese people don't care at all about what 
you're doing, or even what you're doing wrong, which is comforting to me 
in an odd way.  you can get away with everything, simply by ignoring the 
fact that you've done anything wrong.  if you don't acknowledge it, 
nobody else will, so, it never happened.

money is frustrating.  nobody calls anything remnimbi, or however you 
spell it.  they right RMB and CNY interchangeably, depending on where 
the person is from.  Ren means person.  Ren means money, who knows 
what's going on.  nobody accepts american dollars, best just deposit it 
in your account, and good luck on the exchange rate, that changes 
everywhere you go, probably even between tellers.  it's going to be 
6.?.  Yuan is the currency that was here before RMB, but it's supposed 
to be pronounced Quay (coo aye), although you can also pronounce it 
you-ahn, who knows.  most people just wave fingers at you, so, hand them 
what you think two fingers means...it's probably 12-15 yuan.  there's 
counterfeits everywhere, and you're probably never going to figure that 
out until you go to spend it somewhere else, hold onto them, and 
transfer them to another foreigner if you can.  don't take them to the 
bank, you may get in trouble, or you may just lose it.  i just alternate 
what i call it based on who i'm talking to.

i'm still paying for my adventure with local cuisine, but, i think that 
the main problem is that i keep doing it.  i have decided to believe 
that i can convince my body that this is the way things are now, and 
that eventually it will figure everything out, and i'll be all set.  i'm 
not holding my breath, but, what else can you do?

this upcoming year is the year of the Snake.  i suspect that means that 
i'm going to be in a whole lot of trouble, i was born in the year of the 
rat.  is china going to eat me?  i suspect that the answer is a 
resounding yes.

the best part that i've noticed thus far in China?  i'm considered to be 
"Beautiful"!  tall and a bit bigger is what everyone wants to be.  all 
depends, i guess, if you mind being stared at, taken pictures of, 
pointed at, and random comments that you'll never understand.

there is no such thing as a "fake" in china, it is referred to as 
"chinese version".  in every part of the world, you can take an old 
iPhone in, and trade up to get the new version.  they don't do that here 
as they know that they will get more trade-ins than they have ever 
produced...probably worldwide.  i think i'm going to stick with samsung, 
because it's not manufactured here, i know that i'm getting the real 
product and that it will work properly.

i think i'm going to have to research General Mao.  apparently, the 
smartest move you can make is to become the ultimate admirer and lover 
of him.  chinese people may laugh at you, but they will accept you.  
whatever you do, don't say anything negative...at all, it will be a 
serious error in judgement and will cost you.

motorcycles are illegal in Shenzhen, and i think in Guangdong province.  
those you see wandering around are being ridden illegally.  i suppose 
the advantage to that is that you don't have to pay for registration or 
anything else.  the negative?  you're going to die very, very, very 
soon.  the drivers here are completely insane.  every time i take a cab, 
i'm fascinated by the lack of accidents that we get in.  i'd rather 
drive in italy than attempt it here.  there's no rhyme or reason to the 
lanes, they merge, they become more than one lane, less than one lane, 
disappear, go off in different directions...i think those who painted 
the lines were doing far too much hallucinogens.  i highly recommend a 
cab ride, it's better than any rollercoaster i've ever seen.  you drive 
beside people in the same lane, you usually get dropped off in the 
middle of intersections, i suspect that's because it's hard to get 
change back.  if you're in a normal cab, there's an additional 30 yuan 
to be paid...if you're in an electric cab, you don't have to pay that. 
getting change is a sweet miracle that only happens when someone else 
yells at the cab driver in some way.

pornography in china is illegal.  prostitution is legal.  there is no 
prostitution in china, the entire city that is one big prostitution zone 
does not exist.  can you follow that train of thought?  it's apparently 
the "party" line.  interestingly enough, if you want to completely shame 
the prostitute who's driving you crazy, just tell her that you have no 
desire for what she is selling, and she will run away in shame, because 
her product is therefore inferior.  it makes me uncomfortable and a 
little sad, but is apparently part of life here.

the beggers will stand next to you and shake and rattle their cup. do 
NOT make eye contact, and do not even act like they exist. whatever you 
do, do not give them money.  they make a ton of cash doing it, but it's 
shameful to them and to you if you acknowledge their presence.  if you 
give them money, prepare to have a horde head your way, best to avoid 
that situation.  i keep thinking that that's the easiest way to spend my 
.00001 cent coins that are completely pointless, but i've been advised 
to hold onto them until i figure out the monetary system.  everyone is 
convinced that one day they'll know what to do with them.  i think i'll 
probably drill a hole in them, and make a necklace for my nieces.

so, answer this for me?  i currently live in a city of 16 million 
people.  people rarely go out of whatever neighborhood they live and 
work in.  it's only foreigners who tend to wander all of the districts 
learning their way around.  so, how is it that random people that i come 
into contact with, can find me?  crazy.  you may think you're anonymous 
here, you're not.  it's worse in cities with less foreigners, you become 
instantly famous.

that's it for me, time to go find some random meat on a stick.....

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.

Just because something looks familiar....

...doesn't meant that it is what you think it is.  I was at a buffet 
the other night, and saw sweet and sour chicken, which is awesome.  it 
turned out to be sweet and sour pig snout, which is not awesome, and you 
can actually tell that it's pig snout.  hard to keep that down.

last night, my friends took me out to "the busiest place in Shenzhen."  
I saw well over a million people there.  it was straight insanity.  It's 
apparently not where you go to find fakes, but it is where you get the 
Chinese version of whatever product.  There were around 8 Apple 
stores....meanwhile, Apple is very exicted that they are going to open 
their first store in Shenzhen very soon. personally, i quite liked the 
Burbelly Store.  we went to what was essentially food city.  there's 4 
levels of streets that only sell food.  i thought that this is what 
people refer to as street food, and i managed to survive it, it was a 
bit hot.  i had some sort of "australian bbq pork", "korean bbq squid", 
and some other type of meat on a stick, along with a vegetable that 
nobody seemed to know what it was, we decided that the slightly fishy 
taste makes it seaweed of some sort.   my stomach is rebelling a bit 
from what i put it through last night....everything was delicious, but 
who knows what i actually ate.  i think i'm going to be spending some 
quality time with green tea today and hoping for the best.

the guy i have been hanging out with is Thomas, he's a black guy, and 
gets mistaken for african, indian, and sometimes latin american, but 
never actually american, which is highly entertaining.  a lot of the 
times, he gets called my interpreter, because i'm white and obviously 
the boss.  thank goodness he has a sense of humour about the whole 
thing.  what's interesting is that because we are of a different race 
and hanging out, we get stared at all the time.  he said that if we had 
a chinese guy hanging out with us, people would actually stop to take 
pictures and ask us what was going on.  it's apparently completely 
strange and out of place to see foreigners of different races as 
friends, a completely foreign concept.  you almost always see foreign 
guys with girls half their age (or less), but the thought of a black guy 
and a white guy hanging out is hard to conceive.

the only time i really feel clean is in my hotel room, immediately after 
a shower.  the combination of sweating and pollution make a thin layer 
of slime on you, that seems a little disturbing at first, best to just 
accept it and move on.

the number of languages here is unbelievable.  people speak mandarin, 
cantonese, and then whatever crazy village language that they have.  a 
village can be as small as an apartment building that people never leave 
and develop their own language.

women are seen as completely useless in villages, so they all come to 
shenzhen to get educated and to get a good job so that they can prove to 
their village that they are useful.  due to that fact, the women in 
shenzhen outnumber the men around 7 to 1.

i'll write more later, but i'm going to attach some pics, and should 
probably write in where they're from, i'll also be sending more pictures 
with descriptions in the next couple of emails:

1.  this is my hotel in luohu district.  the apartment buildings are 
also owned by hyatt, and can be had for around $5000/month.  quite often 
that's where mistresses for businessmen from hong kong stay. they get 
the apartment, and $500/month, and are expected to wait around, clean 
and do nothing until their men come to see them.  the will not cheat, 
they do not work, they just hang out going crazy with boredom.  there 
are other complexes that are cheaper, but this is where the big 
businessmen keep their girlfriends.  it's entirely acceptable as long as 
they take care of them.  chinese men tend to be ultra controlling, 
setting bedtimes, telling them what they can and can't do, etc.
2.  these are the 2 highest buildings in shenzhen.  the blue one is the 
tallest and has a club in the top that nobody but the relatives of top 
military and government officials can afford.  also, if you're a 
foreigner and go, you're probably going to get in a fight, it's best to 
avoid it.  the smaller of the two, the green building, is 66 floors, and 
is the second largest of the two.  i use them as a landmark to find my 
hotel and get my bearings.  there's also a building that looks like a 
knock off of the empire state building, and the top changes colours 
throughout the night, there's blue, red and green.  i keep forgetting to 
take pictures of it.
3.  at major intersections, the lights don't turn green, they turn to 
green numbers counting down, so that you know how much time you have to 
plow through the intersection, being a pedestrian is never really safe, 
but you can get an idea of where you think the traffic is going to come 
from and hope for the best.
4.  apartment buildings and the mix city mall, which is famous and 
EXTREMELY expensive...if you're looking for that $100k watch, this is 
where you can come to buy it.  you want louis vitton or prada, they are 
here as well.

5.  in front of the electronics warehouse.  people as far as the eye can 

see, just crossing the intersection.  this series of electronic stores 
is insane.  you can buy everything imaginable, whether that's cables, or 
if you're missing the power key of your iPhone.  perhaps the screen 
cracked on you?  buy a new one, they'll fix it here, and you're on your 
way.  are you missing the "2" key on your old flip phone?  well, that's 
here as well!
6.  in the middle of the shopping district, there are over 1 million 
people here, chances are, my pictures was taken at least that many 
times.  it's hard to get a picture that shows just how many there are in 
the sea of black heads.
7.  pointing the camera another direction.  my pictures didn't really 
turn out very well, i'll attempt it again, but perhaps i should just use 
a real camera instead of my phone.
8.  Thomas, me, and Shelly.  she teaches japanese at our school. she's 
wearing a very stylish Burbelly blanket or scarf or something.  (not 
quite burberry), the pattern isn't quite right, or something, you can 
see it, but it doesn't stick out.  she's dating a chinese guy who lives abroad

and who owns somewhere around 8 apartment buildings in shenzhen. He is 
somewhere around 50 years old, she's 23.  she is very much in love with him 

though,and is hoping for a ring!  

i'm going in search of green tea, bread, and going to hope for the best 
for my poor digestive system.  have a great day, all!

I'm sure it makes sense from someone's point of view....

I have been kind of taking it easy while awaiting crazy banking issues 
to be resolved.  you'd think that having multiple accounts at the same 
bank in different countries would be a simple matter for transferring 
money, wouldn't you?  turns out that all you really need is another 
layman to explain it to you.

i feel like i should have described my hotel room at some point. when 
you walk in, you're in the bathroom.  the centrepiece to the room is the 
shower area and bathtub.  there's some screens that you can close to 
block off this room from the bedroom, and it turns the glass to white so 
that if you're staying with someone they can't watch you shower....i 
think the room was designed by a voyeur.  i have the usual variety of 
toiletries, a couple of robes, the softest and biggest towels that i've 
seen in my life, and 2 gas masks with detailed instructions on what to 
do if there is a chemical gas attack.  i kind of want to try them out, 
but there's a full hood and canister, and i'm a little curious as to 
what they'll charge me for trying it out, i suspect that it's included 
in the minibar somewhere.

i've been reading a book that my friend Aram suggested called "poorly 
made in china", i highly recommend it.  it has some very interesting 
insights, and i'm taking my time reading it.  the funny thing is that 
many of those insights into production in china translate directly to 
every day life.  if you get into an elevator where there is a chinese 
employee who was taking the time to just enjoy the ride, or whatever, 
they will immediately stop whatever they were doing or not doing, and 
start scrubbing at the walls or the buttons.  it seems odd that they 
don't want to be caught being lazy or not working, even during a 5 
minute elevator ride, i think sometimes, they just get off at the next 
floor to not feel uncomfortable.

i also find it interesting that everyone always asks me where i'm from 
and what i think of china.  i always reply that china is beautiful and 
so very, very interesting, to which they respond with various 
compliments about me or my country.  compliments are always met with 
multiple compliments towards you or what they think that you find important.

tonight, i'm going with some friends from the school to a chinese bar.  
it should be entertaining.  apparently all of the chinese bars in this 
area are managed by a foreigner of some sort.  the chinese also feel 
that entertainment is necessary, so they generally have someone go up 
and sing american pop songs, that should be amusing. thomas says that he 
can't get enough of it, and that it's absolutely hilarious.

i said before that you can't really laugh at another's mistakes, but 
that's not necessarily true.  you can laugh, just don't appear to be 
laughing at them, and all things are good.  i laugh alot here, and i 
don't think that that's ever going to stop.  i find it amusing that many 
of the chinese are so stoic, but the women seem to laugh and giggle at 
the drop of a hat.  the men just sit there and look at them, that makes 
me laugh even harder.

i wonder if chinese women are brought up learning how to walk in high 
heels.  every single woman i see is wearing heels.  i was talking to 
thomas and he said that they even wear high heels hiking, which seems a 
little crazy to me.  he said that it still stuns him when climbing a 
thousand or so stairs that he'll stop to rest, and look over, and 
there's a chinese woman, happily walking up the stairs in 6' heels, and 
they never seem to complain about the discomfort that they have to be 
in, they just smile or giggle and keep at it.

walking down the halls of the hotel, you'll notice that all of the 
privacy lights are on, if people are in their rooms.  i highly recommend 
when you come here that you get into that habit.  if you decide to lay 
down for a nap, or get into playing on your email or whatever, you will 
be constantly needing to answer the door with an employee asking if you 
need anything.  i finally realized that the stop for this is the privacy 
light.

Chinese Character Fun

So it turns out that all of that time i spent studying Chinese 
characters as part of my Korean fluency endeavour was a complete waste 
of time, and actually hurts more than helps me, aside from the numbers 
side of things.  there are apparently two types of characters, 
simplified and traditional.  simplified is what the chinese use, and the 
characters change in meaning sometimes, or they're drawn completely 
differently, so, it's more than a little confusing.  in korean, the 
character for gold also means friday, and sometimes dragon....in china, 
it means gold, and value, and things related to gold.  it makes a whole 
lot more sense, however, it also means that the 80 or so characters that 
i do know have to be relearned and drawn properly, as well as the 
meaning relearned to reflect reality.  i thought that studying chinese 
would help korean, i talked to a korean today though, who said that 
learning chinese characters was a lot like having a lobotomy, and that 
it was beyond frustrating, i had wondered why there weren't more koreans 
studying chinese here, it's because they have to relearn everything that 
they were taught and educated about at an early age.  i think it would 
be like trying to learn newfie in canada.

i was watching the news and reading online today about how the middle 
class of china is really starting to travel.  what they don't define is 
what is considered middle class in China.  In China, to be considered 
wealthy, you need a net worth of over 100 million Yuan. That comes out 
to be about $16 million USD.  the middle class starts at around 12,000 
Yuan, or about $2k USD.  so, when they talk about the rise of the middle 
class in china, you really can't be sure what they're talking about.

Wandering around in the daytime, i kept thinking that there really 
weren't many people about.  You look around here and there are high rise 
apartment buildings as far as the eye can see in every single direction, 
and at every conceivable distance.  Walking around, however, there seem 
to be the same amount of people also wandering around as would be in the 
USA.  As i have some time to kill tonight, before attempting to call my 
bank manager in Canada, i thought i'd go for a brief walk tonight.  The 
crowds are beyond belief.  there's a serious line up for elevators, 
there's large groups of people everywhere you see, the streets are 
packed with cars, the crosswalks packed with pedestrians, it's pure 
insanity.

The housekeeping staff at this hotel are a little demanding.  they get 
upset if you're in the room when they are supposed to be cleaning it.  
you'd think it would be easy to be out for whatever time they do that, 
but it's actually not easy to predict.  they clean in an order that i 
have yet to determine.  i have had a few messages on my answering 
machine for when they determined that 10 pm should be the turndown 
service, or that 7 am is a great time to clean my room....  tonight, i 
was waiting for them to ring the doorbell (how do they do that, i can't 
locate the thing on my door???), so i went upstairs to the lobby to read 
a book while they straightened up.  i was reading a book on my kindle 
when a seemingly nice woman sat next to me and started talking to me.  
her english was not very good, but it's still a lot better than my 
mandarin, which now consists of:  hi, bye, thank you, it was delicious, 
and one other phrase that i learned from a chinese mechanic that seems 
to not be willing to leave my vocabulary.  so, i turned off my kindle, 
and answered a few of her questions.  she asked me where i was from, if 
i had friends, then she asked me to just "talky talky" to her in 
english, whatever that means.  i asked her what she was doing at the 
hotel, she said massage, and that for 170 RMB she would give me a great 
massage.... i suspect that there was a lot more on the table there, but 
i was still surprised that she cost less than my dinner did, which is a 
bit depressing...it was good though!  i think that means that i need to 
get out of this area, it's too expensive.  i'm still a little surprised 
that she was up on the lobby floor (33rd floor in this hotel), looking 
for clientele.  i suppose i shouldn't be, she was dressed more 
conservatively than about half the chinese guests here.

every book that i read on china, and almost every newsgroup or blog 
complained about the noise factor.  truth is, i didn't find it a whole 
lot noisier than most big american cities i've been in.  the hotel is 
certainly a lot quieter than any of the hotels in cranbrook, which were 
all inexplicably built next to the train tracks.  I also quite enjoy all 
the lights that you can see.  i'll post some pictures at some point, i'm 
pretty sure.  i've tried to take a few from my room, due to the view, 
but the flash keeps reflecting off of the window, which is a bit 
irritating.  perhaps i should turn it off?  the only noise that is 
driving me crazy right now, is the yappy little dog that i hear, i kind 
of want to find it, and then find some koreans for a bit of Po Shin Tong.

i actually thought that China would be a lot like Korea, but the two 
have very few things in common, outside of the obvious (the sea of short 
people with black hair).  I've actually found that on average, the 
Chinese tend to be far more polite than Koreans are...or at least were 
the last time i was there, i can't see that changing though.  i haven't 
had any kids call me "monkey man", or make fun of me, and nobody has run 
up saying "F**k you", which seems to be the first english phrase that 
most korean kids learn.... that phrase and "happy birthday", which led 
to some disturbing conversations.  most just smile and nod at you, and 
say "ni hao" or "good day", which i find quite pleasant.

Cantonese Food Rocks!!

I had the chance to sit down with a guy from Halifax and a guy from 
Florida who are also taking the Mandarin course in Shenzhen.  It was 
interesting, and while i'm tempted to take a lot of what they had to say 
with a grain of salt, most of it did have the ring of truth to it.  i'll 
probably ignore some of the advice and find out things for myself, but a 
great deal of what they had to say actually made me a lot more 
comfortable with my decision to come here.  they covered a variety of 
subjects, and offered their advice and help on anything that i could 
possibly need.  i found, today, by following some of the advice that 
they gave me last night, that my day went a bit smoother than the days 
previous.

for example.  there's a little coffee shop out in front of the hotel 
that probably has the best pastries i've had in my entire life.  i love 
to sit on the patio, sip some tea, and relax, look around, and enjoy my 
breakfast.  i was in the habit of ordering at the counter, waiting for 
the food, then essentially fighting to get control of it so that i could 
sit down.  it was an uncomfortable situation all the way around.  thomas 
and zane said that it's best that you never try to serve yourself 
anywhere.  order, and go sit down, they'll bring your food to you, even 
if it's far easier for you to just do it. whatever you do, don't attempt 
to clean up after yourself, or return any dishes.  anytime you do any of 
these things, it's a direct suggestion that the employees aren't capable 
of performing their tasks to your standards, and they tend to get 
frustrated.  they simply cannot understand why you'd attempt to do these 
things on your own.  even if you're at burger king or mcdonalds, 
whatever you do, don't take your tray and dump things into the garbage, 
they pay someone to do that for you, and by doing that, you're doing 
someone else's job, which is a serious loss of face for that person.

there are a lot of crazy things that you'll see in china.  there's no 
idea of personal space or even of keeping some things in private, so you 
may see a lovers quarel in the middle of an intersection with traffic 
whizzing past on both sides of them (i'm pretty sure that red and green 
lights don't actually mean anything here), as long as nobody 
acknowledges what's happening, it's not happening.  the same thing if 
you see someone do something stupid....if you laugh, or acknowledge it 
in any way, you'll seriously shame that person and everyone around you.  
it's apparently best to keep it to yourself until you're talking to 
other americans/canadians/whatever and then you can share the crazy 
incident.

people here have a serious obsession with smart phones.  it's simply 
amazing.  they wander around with their head down, playing on their 
phones, ignoring any and all surroundings.  instead of dodging out of 
the way, or trying to rescue some completely distracted person who 
wanders into traffic, just let things happen on their own.  if he/she 
runs into you, he/she will probably fall flat on their back, pop back 
up, and be on their way again, without acknowledging anything.  whatever 
you do, don't apologize for running into them, as it's actually their 
fault anyway, and nobody really cares what you have to say anyway.  
besides, you risk losing face yourself, and it's best to just assume 
that you're in the right, and get on with things.  zane and thomas said 
that they're amazed everytime they see a guy playing on his smartphone 
wander right into an intersection...they say that somehow he always 
makes it across, never having seen anyone swerve out of his way.  i was 
paying more attention today, and noticed that they were exactly right.  
i saw a lot of people wander across the street, completely ignoring the 
vast amount of traffic heading straight for them, it was a little 
disconcerting.

I went to a cantonese restaurant today.  Absolutely everything was in 
Mandarin, no translation, so i just pointed at 3 random things. the 
waitress said, no, you can't do that, and guided me to point at 3 
different things.  she then gave me the tea menu, and i pointed at 
something, she eventually just smiled and went to get "very famous 
chinese tea".  So, i had dim sum pastries filled with taro cream, the 
best pineapple pork i've had in my entire life, and oolong tea. she 
actually stood about 3 feet from the table, and got upset when i tried 
to refill my own cup.  the food was beyond fantastic, and i look forward 
to taking people there when they come to visit.  they also delivered 
what looked to be their entire silverware drawer, and essentially 
laughed at my attempts to use chopsticks to eat pastries...i don't blame 
them, if i hadn't been frustrated doing that, i would have done the same 
thing, it was a little ridiculous, but...i still have no idea how they 
eat the little dim sum pastries, do they use chopsticks or their hands?  
i think next time i'll just use my hands, it would be easier, and if i 
see someone look disturbed, i'll know i was doing it wrong.

i had dim sum for dinner today too, again, cantonese food is absolutely 
fantastic, and only the spices that they serve with it will burn the 
taste buds off of your tongue.  if you don't know what dim sum is, i'd 
recommend using wikipedia, as my understanding is not correct, and i'm 
not altogether sure either.  i'm okay with that, and will probably 
figure it out eventually.  chinese google has a few issues, and finding 
wiki is one of them, i wonder if it's blocked.  i can say that youtube, 
facebook, bloomberg, and a variety of other random websites are blocked 
here.  they removed the addresses from their DNS servers, so, you can't 
search for them or put in the numeric address or anything.  they do randomly work on my phone, but it's not something you can rely on.

Interesting Day

I had an interesting day today.  while i was waiting for the school rep 
to come meet up with me, i had an aussie guy walk up and ask if i was 
Canadian.  I was surprised and said, "yes, how did you know?".  he said 
that he always asks anyone who looks like they could be american if 
they're canadian because nobody ever gets angry...but canadians don't 
like to be confused with americans and rightfully so!  i thought it was 
funny.

the school rep, penny, got there a little late, and instead of taking a 
cab to the first school, we walked, it took about 20 minutes.  it was 
their first campus, they teach mandarin and japanese at the location, 
and it was a little run down...i was surprised because of all of the 
research i had done, and it was noted several times that they are the #1 
school in china for teaching mandarin.  from there, we hopped on the 
subway (i could get lost in a subway station for years and never, ever 
see daylight or a train...they are HUGE!!), and took it to the other 
location, which was brand new, had a terrific view, and was all state of 
the art. i'm not sure why they show the first school, i think that they 
should convert it to administration, and not show anyone at all!

the class sizes are all 2 to 4 students per teacher, apparently a few of 
my classes will be one on one.  Penny introduced me to a guy named 
Thomas, who was black and from new york, originally from california.  he 
was hilarious, and i think we're going to hook up today or tomorrow for 
tea, and to have a chat.  i told him that i was surprised that he was so 
friendly, as every other american i'd met was a little less than 
friendly.  he told me that that was completely normal.  apparently, 
there's two types of americans in shenzhen:

1.  those visiting from hong kong.  they are easily identified by the 
amount of cash they throw around for no apparent reason.  they are 
vaguely amusing, shallow, and tend to irritate all of those around them 
by throwing money at anyone or anything that moves.
2.  the worst people in the world.  these people have been kicked out of 
many cities in china, as well as other places in the world, and have 
many vices and habits that it would be best to steer clear of.  he said 
that the problem is that you don't really recognize it when first 
talking to them until you take a step back, and wonder if he would be 
someone you'd hang out with at home...he said 9 out of 10 times, you 
realize that he's the guy who's going to get you arrested.  the problem 
with even hanging out with these guys at all is that they're already 
marked, and people who are seen with them regularly get tagged by the 
cops as people of interest as well.

Thomas also mentioned that there are quite a few americans who have been 
kicked out of china, and that getting kicked out of china takes a whole 
lot of work.  you have to do something very, very, very bad.  at that 
point, you will be given the opportunity to bribe the arresting 
officer.  if you're not smart enough to figure that one out, then you 
get thrown in jail.  if you decide that you don't want to go to jail, 
you can usually get someone to post bail for you, then wander around 
doing more stupid things until your second offence, after which you'll 
be kicked out of the country.  anyone who posts bail for you will also 
be followed quite closely, and you can ruin your life by helping any of 
these people out.

he suggested that it was just generally easier and safer to make friends 
with aussies, canadians, brits, and only americans that you meet at 
school, and of course, hang out with chinese people.  he said that 
another telltale sign is if someone has been here a while, and has zero 
chinese friends.  it's best to just avoid those people, if the chinese 
hold them in contempt, you probably should too.

i told thomas about my adventure on the bus and about eating random 
Hunan food in a restaurant in the middle of the city, he laughed and 
said that the only thing hotter is Sichuan food, which is "Hotter than 
the fiery depths of Hell!!"  he recommended steering clear of that and 
any random restuarants until my system rebuilds itself into something 
that can take local cuisine...apparently it takes a month or two for 
your system to stop rebelling.  (is that subtle enough to say without 
grossing you out, dad?).

he also mentioned that there's another canadian guy he'd like to 
introduce me to from vancouver, who is very laid back, easy going, and 
taking language courses.  so, it sounds like i can meet quite a few 
decent expats from him.  he highly recommended that i stay away from the 
shekou area due to the large amounts of expats, and questionable human 
beings, and that futian or luohu districts were the best bet.  he 
suggested luohu was a bit better as long as i'm near a metro station, 
due to the fact that it's a bit older and thus better priced.  the hotel 
i'm in is in luohu, and i can also easily find the local HSBC, so, i 
think those are pluses as well.

i met about 3 of the language professors and they are all very good 
people, very friendly, with a great sense of humour.  they are also very 
flexible if you decide to alter how you want to learn chinese. they 
recommend focusing on language only for the first 3 months or so, then 
going towards chinese characters at 4-7 months.  learning the characters 
only makes things harder if you don't have a base to build them on.  
also, some can be pronounced quite differently, and learning the tones 
and pronunciation is key to learning chinese.  i learned how to say good 
bye today, and it was a struggle in itself to get my pronunciation 
correct, i thought it would be hard, but i don't think that i realized 
exactly how different chinese is from english and even korean.  it is 
doable though, as long as i'm willing to put the effort in...which is a 
given, i don't know why i wouldn't, just takes a lot of studying, which 
is why i'm here after all.

tomorrow, i'm going apartment hunting, which should be interesting. the 
hotel staff here keep telling me that i should get one of the apartments 
from the hyatt, they appreciate how friendly i am, and how much i 
appreciate their work and their country.  i wonder how many they've 
talked into moving into the hotel using those exact lines!  it's around 
$5000/month to live in a hotel apartment, and while it would be 
convenient in some ways, it seems a bit much to me!  additionally, i'm 
quite looking forward to getting settled into a neighborhood, and not 
being in a hotel, i'd love to unpack, and i'm not willing to fully 
unpack until i find an apartment, too hard to pack it all up again, and 
i don't have the space to get everything out of my suitcases here, i 
don't think.  the apartments that they rent here are nice, and around 
1,000 sq ft, and come with housekeeping (complimentary) and room service 
(extremely expensive), but i think it's worth finding an actual 
apartment, not to mention the fact that it enhances the experience a 
great deal as well.  i am going to find a 2 bedroom apartment, so if 
anyone wants to visit, just let me know.

i told Penny that my family was planning on visiting, she said that with 
advance notice, i can easily take the time off so that we can head up to 
beijing or wherever, and really get to know china.  they really 
encourage that anyway, as culture makes up a huge part of their language 
and is something that they are very proud of.

i was reading the "China Daily" paper today, and it sounds like people 
are getting very, very upset with the USA again.  apparently, the USA 
has decided to back the Japanese about the island that they're in 
dispute about, instead of being the mediators that they said that they 
would be.  China suggested that the US either back off, or stop being so 
ignorant about the facts.  there was some very strong language in there, 
and i wonder what the media in the US is reporting.  it's definitely an 
interesting paper to read and has a chinese and an english version of 
the paper.

well, i'm going to go for a walk, see some more of the surrounding 
area.

Mmmm.....Authentic!!!

my right eye and my stomach are more than a little upset with me right 
now!  i met a 3rd grade english teacher today.  she invited me to go out 
for a traditional hunan meal.   here's a tip for anyone who comes to 
china....don't eat traditional anything your first day, unless it's 
traditional american...and i'd be wary of that too.  i made a mistake 
walking past mcdonalds and kfc today!

so, i was playing at using chopsticks eating noodles, and they brought 
out this soup that she had ordered.    i attempted that dish too, but 
somehow managed to splash it into my right eye.  not sure how to explain 
that...it's even harder to explain in broken english!  it was "boiled 
fish in pickled turnip and hot chilli", wow did it hurt!  the letter i 
sent yesterday asked why they leave the skin on all the meat?  well, the 
same goes for the fish....they clean the guts out, then dump the fish 
into a pot and boil it with a pile of spicy things, then heaven help you 
and your stomach.  it's a little rough on me!

i did somehow manage to pick up a bus pass today as well, that was 
exciting, you would not believe the size of the train stations here.  
they're apparently putting in 15 different subway lines here, i have no 
idea how many they currently have, i think you'd have to be able to read 
the details of the sign to understand.

the bus that i took was an experience in itself.  i'm going to guess 
that the average height of chinese people is or used to be 5'5", i had 
to duck my head and sit in a children's seat, i didn't fit.

i did see a sign last night where i recognized 3 out of 4 characters.  i 
then translated the type of store for the english teacher i was hanging 
out with, she busted up laughing.  the first symbol was mountain, second 
i didn't know, third was the number 5, and the 4th was gold.  i took it 
to mean that somewhere in the mountain of goods were 5 useful items.  
apparently you can't take the actual meanings of the individual words, 
when put together they have an entirely different meaning.  i also 
thought, originally, that the more complex symbols had something in 
common with the symbols that make up the character.  but....if you take 
the mountain character and put it on top of another mountain character, 
it means exit.  i think i'm lost, but at least i'm still amusing others.

i went through "book city" yesterday as well, it was 8 floors of books.  
i went into the foreign language section, and all of the titles are in 
chinese, the book itself is in english, so, you've got to be able to 
recognize something about the cover to find a book that you want to 
read....good luck!  i think i'll stick with amazon....which is a whole 
lot cheaper as well.

i also learned that you are allowed to have more than one child in 
China.  apparently, though, you have to purchase the privilege....it's 
120,000 RMB, or roughly $20,000 USD....

i'm currently debating on breakfast.  i can go down to the square 
downstairs and have dim sum for roughly 10 bucks...OR i can spend 30 on 
an american style breakfast....i think i'm going to go with what my 
father would do in this situation....turned out to be a great idea.  the 
fruit here is amazing, a lot of it i don't recognize but it's so good.  
i love the apple-like things that i now call power adapters!  (i 
mentioned earlier that they sent them up when i asked if they had a 
power adapter.  i did finally get a power adapter that i could plug my 
power adapter into, so, it works...sort of, i have a power adapter 
plugged into a power adapter plugged into a power adapter.  it keeps 
things charged, but i can't help but wonder if it's a bit of overkill, 
there has to be an easier way.  i'll figure that out later.  
fortunately, there's a walmart near me, hopefully they will have 
something that i can use.  there's also an electronics marketplace 
nearby where i think my apartment is going to be, so i may have to give 
that a try too.

it's sunday right now, i'm actually taking a day just to wind down, 
relax, get things in order....and when i say things, i mean my system, i 
am just taking the day to relax, listen to some music, and read, 
tomorrow, i go in search of school locations.

Greetings from the Far East

i'm just relaxing back at the hotel, listening to some dire straits, and thought i'd write you back.  i decided that it would be easier to write a letter to everyone, anybody who wants to be out of the loop, just let me know and i'll remove you, or use your mail controls to send me to spam.  (love that word, always makes me think of the Spam song from Monty Python.) i've added sid to the family list.

My ignorance is leading me in all of the right directions!  actually, i'm having a great time.  i couldn't stay awake past 6 pm, woke up at 1 am, which was unfortunate.  fortunately for me, i had a pill left over from the dentists, and woke up at 9 am, refreshed and feeling great.  i'm not sure that i'll do that again, but i thought it was a reasonably good idea at 1 am.

i'm toying with the idea of just doing a webpage, recording my journal entries on there, then having annette compile them into a book for me, perhaps she can collaborate with dave shields.  i've noticed that everyone who ever goes to china seems to have a book, why shouldn't i?  at the very least, i can post it on amazon for $0.99.

so, what did i learn today?
1.  filling out a chinese contract is exceedingly easy!  all you do is sign everywhere they point to because they can't speak english, and i can't speak Mandarin.  that reminds me, i have a phone number now:  +86 13602 659 650, and i'm not sure how the spacing goes, i change it every time i write it, i'm assuming that eventually, someone will tell me.  i'm equally sure that i'll never remember it.  they asked me for an 11 digit number, i almost gave them my bank account number, and luckily realized that that was probably a bad idea.
2.  If you are going to attempt to withdraw cash in China, make sure that the bank will accept your card.  i put the right code in 9 times, now i need a new card, it authorized the card 9 times, then ate it.  didn't withdraw any money for me, because i was using the wrong machine....oops.
3.  HSBC rocks!  i found the branch.  they're open for coffee and tea on saturdays and sundays.  they're not open for any banking though.  so, if you want to sip tea in a bank, they are the way to go by far!  turns out that i can set up an account with them, and they penalize me $15/month for not having the right balance in my account (they want a minimum deposit of $16,000 CDN), and to keep that balance in my account, putting in additional funds for withdrawal.  The advantage of just paying the penalty is that everyone who works there learned english either in the usa or the uk, and thus are easy to deal with.  they're going to call me on monday to set up an appointment to meet and set up the account.  i availed myself of some very good red tea, and sipped it in the bank, trying to get into whatever cultural norm has a bank serving tea and coffee on saturdays.

i met some black people from England today.  After a full day of wandering around trying to get people to communicate with me, i ended up walking up to some black people, and said, "please tell me you speak english, can we hang out?", they asked me if i was american, i said that i was canadian, and they asked me if i hated the french.  i replied that i sure did, and we hung out for a bit and had a laugh, they were amusing, and just vacationing here for a week.  they're on the way to hong kong right now.  they were supposed to go back to england, but apparently weather conditions have cancelled their flights on them.

as far as i can tell, the only people here who speak english are the concierge, hsbc employees and fat people (who are 95% americans).  i had some little chinese kids run up to me today and make fun of me...at least i think that's what they were doing, their parents looked embarrassed until i started laughing.  my revenge is to bring my little sister's little terrorists (kids) here!

i'm not sure why the president of the university is going to pick me up and take me to show me the schools, i'm just going to believe that it's because i'm special, and everyone wants to serve me.  perhaps i should consider forming a cult following here.

the weather here is incredible, if a little humid.  it's about 75 out, and is absolutely perfect.  in the summer, it's supposed to get up to 95 or so, i think that's a great range of temperatures.

i have nothing else, if anyone can come up with a good title for my webpage, i'd appreciate it, nothing really clever is coming to mind right now... perhaps my nieces and nephews have some suggestions?  please send them, then we can vote on them.  i'll send some pictures soon, i have to figure out where my power adapters are to plug my phone into the computer....i really should do that sometime soon as the battery is about done.

Welcome to Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

This city is absolutely beautiful!  it's about 70ºF, and there is trees 
and shrubberies everywhere.  (isn't shrubbery a monty python word?).  
The people are very friendly and really don't speak english, but i'm not 
overly worried, and i seem to be getting around alright.  I have to 
admit that i loved the fact that nobody in customs spoke english, it was 
the least painful experience of my life, he looked at me, waved me 
through, i grabbed my luggage, and now, an hour and a half after 
landing, i'm already in my hotel.

the hotel is gorgeous, and has a view that is absolutely amazing. 
apparently, on the top floor is a restaurant, bar, and the pool, and has 
a 360 degree view of luohu district.  we drove past futian, where i want 
to live, and every building looked to be a minimum of 40 floors, and 
almost all apartments.  there's also a lot of parks, from what i could 
see from the car.  i'm going to go and explore but wanted to write you 
first, and i also need to seriously take a shower.

i wish i had had the foresight to get a power adapter before coming 
here, so far, i have gotten a power bar, and 4 apples.  i'm not sure 
that it's really effective to keep showing people what i need, but the 
contributions keep getting interesting, and the apples are 
fantastic....i don't think that they're actually apples though, and 
they're not pears, but they are delicious, and i think, far better than 
a power adapter.

i will write more when i actually go out and do something, i met a lot 
of people on the airplane who want to network from singapore, they're 
trying to do business in shenzhen but the language barrier is a little 
frustrating, so, i suppose, that's a good thing.

oddly enough, i feel kind of at home here...i suspect that's pure jet 
lag though, i didn't sleep well on the airplane, and i'm going to go out 
and explore before finally passing out.

i do think that you're going to enjoy visiting here though.  i thought 
it was going to be a bit like san diego, and it is in that it's right on 
the ocean....but the mountains don't look anything like california, 
they're green and covered in plants that i don't recognize.  there's 
beautiful flowers hanging from all of the streetlights on the freeways, 
and it's actually really, really nice out, whereas it always seems to be 
raining or kinda chilly when i'm in san diego.
===================
turns out that i am jet lagged and absent minded.  i went for a walk, it 
was fun, but truth is, i don't have a clue what people are saying to me, 
but at least they have the same issue.  i'm looking forward to exploring 
when i get up tomorrow.

i contacted the school, the president of the school has offered to come 
pick me up on monday at 11, and we're going to tour the schools, see 
which one i want to attend, then i'll contact the rental guys and find 
an apartment.  i'm going to check into getting a sim card for my phone 
as well, and i'll get the number for all of you too, if you ever need to 
call me.

i have to ask....why do they insist on leaving the skin on 
everything here?  i had some chicken for lunch, it was good, but 
different.  apparently i need to look into learning how to use chinese 
chopsticks... they're different from japanese and korean, and actually, 
for some reason, harder for me to use.  the tea is absolutely 
incredible, i've never had anything like it, it's very good but 
extremely different from anything that i've had, tea-wise.

i was complimenting the staff on their city, and how friendly they all 
are, etc, and they really appreciate it, they've told me that it's a 
pure pleasure to serve me....i wish others would see that as a fact, and 
i can work on building a cult following.

facebook and youtube are very much blocked in china.  i don't care about 
facebook, but i use youtube a lot for learning things, i'm going to have 
to figure out the chinese version.

i don't have anything else to really add.  

i'm going to go pass out for a day or two!