Late March

What more can I add to this web journal? I've settled down, found a pace of life I can live with, am doing the things I want to do, and having fun. But I'm not traveling anymore. I finished that two months ago when I came to Shanghai, save for a week-long excursion into the heart of China. I live here now. That means everything I miss about home is taking a back seat, and the missing fades every day. There isn't any need to miss things when things are as they are inevitably. What good is missing my home when I have a temporary home here, and will see my home home again in time. Not to mention the fact that I can do so much here that I can't do at home.

My roommate is the fucking man. I love this kid--and kid he is, being only a freshman. I can study and learn in an atmosphere completely different from detached and forlorn Brandeis. But I feel like I've said all this before...

In the intervening period since my last post I've mostly hunkered down and got to work. Every night is Chinese homework, on weekends a 380 character essay, and the occasional economics essay from another class. I dropped Finance in the end, not because I really wanted to, but it was definitely the class with the most work (which is still pretty little) and I needed some time during the week to begin searching for internships. Every Thursday afternoon I've been calling local American companies in Shanghai, asking what I can do to apply for summer work. So far its yielded a couple leads, but not enough for me to be satisfied. I WANT to stay here this summer. Living in Shanghai for the summer would give me the chance to explore China more after my semester is over--like Nanjing, Xian, Chengdu, Yunan, and Hainan. I would have place of my own in Shanghai to live (presumably), which would be badass. Here's hoping I don't get disappointed.

As a class we spent the weekend before last exploring Zhejiang province. I can't tell you everything that happened, because although it was a good adventure with lots of people on a bus, not a whole lot of it sticks out. We did see the home of Lu Xun, perhaps China's most famous writer, and exploring some beautiful countryside. We also saw the most two incredible taiji performances, the first of which ended suddenly with an enormous amount of water being unleashed into a cordoned-off area from up a hill. It was like real life special effects. The second performance, which was 45 minutes long, was even more incredible, with a backdrop of an enormous fake volcano, in front of which was a small stage surrounded by water. These dancers in butterfly and dragons costumes would run out from the base of the volcano while crazy light shit was happening all over, and suddenly an enormous metal dragon--or dinosaur or something--would rise out of the water and roar. Later on there would be lotus boats with girls plucking string intruments, volcanic erruptions, and huge ying yang signs.

I've become a huge fan of a tv show called 爱情公寓 or love apartment. It has the most beautiful Chinese women I have ever seen, which of course means such women don't really exist. These three bombshells act alongside these four Chinese dudes in a sitcome basically like Friends, where they are all friends with each other and have all sorts of drama and stuff living in this apartment together. Problem is, I don't really understand it at all, so when me and Joker are watching it before going to sleep he'll burst into enormous laughter all the time, and I'll just be like "what the hell did she just say?" Still, it's funny to watch Chinese people act like goofballs, because that's all they really are anyway. Plus it's good for my Chinese. Apparently Chinese tv shows only go for one season, and then they are completely done, so I bought the series for 8 kuai and am now watching it. I'm also watching South Park all the time, and when I'm done with that I'll probably move on to Entourage.

This weekend I'm going to Suzhou with a bunch of people. We are only going for a day, because apparently there isn't much to see there, but the Chinese know how to play up all their cities. One of the first things I was told when I arrived was that Suzhou and Hangzhou both have the visual beauty to match heaven. So I'm looking forward to that. The following week our class once again departs, this time for the southern tour, which will take us to Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Macao. I'm so excited about this trip that I've been hardly thinking about anything else this week. Guangzhou is a tier 1 city along with Beijing and Shanghai, and Shenzhen apparently has a more modern/futuristic skyline than Shanghai--which is amazing incidentally. I enjoyed my time so much in Hong Kong that I just can't wait to get back there and visit the bar with the peanuts and huge Hoegaardens. And perhaps I can meet up with Gary and Chris without that know-it-all fatty who hosted me last time. Macao is China's Las Vegas, and I fully intend to throw down a couple of my father's well-earned dollars on the riskiest game possible.

The weather is getting nice here, day by day. We've had some great weather recently, although it began down pouring just an hour ago when me, Joker, Brett, and Brendan were out to eat at Joker's favorite north-east style food place. The internship is going well. The Big Boss, Mark, whom I hadn't really spoken to since I arrived, invited me to a meeting he held with the English-speakers to teach us a webchat program which we are using for customer service with people who order food on the Sherpa's website, and then gave me a personal tutorial. Clearly I am filling a need, and that's all I could have asked for in an internship, although it can be repetitive at times.

It is Tuesday night, which means tomorrow I have my internship and no class, and thus have no homework to do. Given that, I'm about to do one of the following: 1) Play Fallout 2) Play Pokemon 3) Watch 爱情公寓. Either way, it's gonna be one sweet night. And either way, I'm very Asian.

PEACE
Nick