Senior design sucks It's almost 5am and I am still at the design lab with my group members working on our project. And yes, it sucks bad. But at least I'll be in China in about 3 days. The weird thing is that I'm not tired, just frustrated that the damn thing doesn't work.
Can't sleep I've not had good sleep for about 4 nights now. I keep having these bad dreams and every time I wake up with my heart pounding or my fists shaking. Here are 3 dreams that I remember. Dream 1 I went swimming with some friends and somehow I end up losing my swim suit. I get out of the pool butt naked only to find that my clothes are no longer in my locker because someone broke into it. I run around the whole place asking people for an extra pair of undies. I become desperate and got a pair of women's boxers from a girl. So I wore these small women's boxers around and somehow I end up back in my old restaurant, serving customers. I woke up with the feeling of "THANK GOD THAT WAS ONLY A DREAM!" Dream 2 I was McDonald's with Amanda inside of a mall. Two guys at the restaurant got into an argument where one person is shoved into the glass window and shatters it. Then one of the men pulls out a handgun and shoots the other. Everyone at McDonald's freaks out and drops to the ground for cover. The gunman then gets psycho and starts shooting people who are laying on the ground. He is distracted for a moment by some people running in the halls and I see a chance to sneak out of the restaurant. So Amanda and I ran while he was looking the other way. Then the gunman turns around and noticed that we were running. He starts shooting at us and I just start doing all sorts of acrobatic moves to try and avoid getting shot. For some reason, my moves aren't cool and Matrix-like. I flop around in the air and land on the ground and just continue to roll. I woke up with the feeling of "OH MY GOD THAT WAS F**KING SCARY!" and I think I wet the bed. Dream 3 I went out with the buddies in my senior design class to celebrate the end of the class. We went to a restaurant where we had some beverages and appetizers and some dessert. When the check arrives, I thought it said $43.31 but I was wrong, it said $4,331.73!!! We freak out and ask the server why. She says that when I ordered my chocolate fudge sundae, I didn't specify which one I wanted so she gave me the $4k dollar gold-plated dessert. I was furious and ripping their menus up and yelling at them because they refuse to admit fault. Finally I settled down and went to talk to the server because she was pretty cute and it looked like she was having a bad day. To my surprise, she says we can't leave until we pay the tab. I become furious again and threaten that I will bring my lawyer and sue all their asses. Then my buddies and I sneak out the back door and ran for our lives. This dream felt very real, I woke up with the feeling of "SHIT I AM LATE FOR MY CAR MAINTENANCE APPOINTMENT!" and I roll out of bed still half awake to drive the car to the dealership. I've just haven't had good sleep in a while. Ever since I've been working hard on that senior design project because it wasn't going to get done and also trying to remember every little detail so I don't forget anything when I go to China tomorrow. Speaking of China... Instead of going there and then to Hawaii and then coming back on June 27th, there's a possibility that I will just go there and come back at the end of August. Two nights ago, while I was bitching about how Intel never got back to me, they got back to me with an email right after I finished bitching. So I had a phone interview with the guy last night. We spoke in English and Mandarin and got along really well. In the end he told me he likes me a lot and would like for me to work as their summer intern in Shanghai. If everything goes well, his manager will interview me and give me an offer. Seems like that is a dream too. But its not. Its a win-win situation, either I work in Shanghai for 3 months and get a gem on my resume or I go to Hawaii by way of NWA World Business Class and then come back to hang out with all my friends via First Class. Anyways... I think I need some sleep because my text is starting to swirl a little. I will try to keep this blog updated while I'm in China.
Shanghai is a piece of cake This is my fourth day in Shanghai I think. All I've been doing lately is hanging out with my parents and their friends. Before they came, I had the leisure of waking up at 9am and going to the nearby park to do some reading and enjoy the nice sunny weather. After wandering around the park and doing some people watching I like to go and practice my Chinese by going to restaurants by myself. I had an interesting experience at the park the other day. I needed to pee so I went to find the bathroom. Upon finding it, there was a middle-age woman standing in the doorway to the men's room. As soon as I came near, she said "xiao bian da bian?" which basically means "Piss or shit?" I was a caught off guard because the most I expected from her was to charge me a small fee for using the restroom. I quickly mumbled "piss" after coming to my senses and she gave out a sigh as if she was dissapointed. She let me pass and didn't charge me a fee, I wonder if she would've charge me if I said "shit". I've been having some weird dreams lately too. The other day I dreampt that a bunch of people came from MN to visit in Shanghai. The people that I remember seeing were Danny, Andrea, Julie, Joe, David, and Kenneth. We were all at a park fishing and there were a lot of big fish. For some reason I couldn't hook any fish, they would just eat my bait. Most of my dreams include someone from MN, I think its a sign that you guys should come here and check it out. I'm STILL waiting to hear back from that guy at Intel Shanghai. I think he is Santa Clara right now, I hope he gets back soon and gives me an offer for the summer internship. I wouldn't mind working in Pudong Shanghai, its nice here, a lot nicer than Puxi. Pudong is more industrial and commerial, it has a lot of new skyscrapers and a lot of foreign investments. Puxi has a lot of... traffic, smog, people, and nightclubs. I think Pudong is far from most of the action though. I brought my camera cable hoping to transfer some pictures onto a computer and upload it so you guys can see it. But I'm a retard and brought the wrong cable, so everyone will just have to wait till eternity because I'll come back to the states and get too lazy to upload them like usual. Its not like you're missing out on anything, just pics of food and buildings and stuff. I really don't know what pictures to take. It is hard to transfer the experience of being in Shanghai into pictures. You really have to just come here yourself and try to do things that ordinary people do to get a feel for you. You have to try shopping, eating and crossing the streets like a local, it is quite exciting. One thing that is really annoying is when young kids try to give you these travel discount cards. These are cards that travel agencies make that show their rates and stuff. They then hire these young hooligans to give them to you on the street even if you don't want them. There are two things to do to try and avoid receiving one of these cards that have no meaning to you. You can say no and wave your hand away or look where you're walking and just pretend that they're not even there. I prefer the ladder, but still, it is annoying as hell. God forbid if you ever accept one. If you ever accept one and there are other discount card hooligans nearby, they will swarm down on you and give you their cards as well. Pretty soon you'll have enough cards to become one of them. My dad on the other has a different strategy. He likes to snort at them when they get near, snort like a pig. He just makes weird noises to confuse the hooligans and make them think that he is mentally unstable. They usually start laughing and forget about trying to shove the card at him or they stare at him with fear. That's probably the best strategy, act like a retard. Saturday I'm heading to Shaoguan by train. The train ride is 22 hours and Amanda and I have to share the cabin with two strangers. I wonder how that will turn out. I feel sorry for the people who have to be in our cabin, they're gonna have to put up with my snorring. I hope there is air conditioning in Shaoguan, it will be hard for me to smile if there isn't. I brought two Under Armor shirts to try and help me cope with the weather if it gets too hot. Oh another interesting thing I've noticed about Shanghai is the Starbucks culture. I've noticed that people who go to Starbucks have more manners than the typical local Shanghainese. If you've ever been to Shanghai you'll notice that there is a lack of Western manner, eg. people don't say "excuse me", they just squeeze by. Well when you go to a Starbucks, people there actually say "excuse me" and "xie xie" and they actually form a line instead of budging infront of you if you leave an arm-length gap. Its as if people who go there feel that they need to have more manners because Starbucks is a western company where only the elite citizen hang out and can afford the expensive drinks. More on my observations later, must eat dinner now.
Three-day update The Mint Club The night before leaving Shanghai, Amanda and I went to the Mint Club, a prominent bar/lounge playing house music. Last time we were there we all had a blast sitting in the VIP section and getting krunk'd. This time it was just the two of us and we still got to sit in the VIP. But there was one catch, you must spend 1500RMB (approx. 180USD) to sit there. No way in hell I'd spend that much money just to sit in some place cool, but they let us sit there anyway, until someone with the dough actually comes and kicks us out. This place is pretty hip, I think 95% of the people there are foreigners, the rest being local Chinese. I was in the mood for drinking so I didn't order any beers. After about three rails, I didn't feel anything so I started ordering shots. Even after taking shots of Southern Comfort and Cuervo, I still didn't feel anything. Finally I got fed up and order the B52. They served us this shot flaming, there was blue fire burning, it was cool. Don't even try and sniff a B52, it is STRONG! Anyway we drank it, and I STILL felt nothing. It sucked. Between the two of us, we ended up spending 1000RMB and I didn't even get drunk! Poor Amanda was sure feeling it though, she couldn't even walk. Train ride We took a train ride from Shanghai to Shaoguan, it took 23 hours! The train ride awesome! If you've never rode on a train in China and you're feeling adventurous, definately give it a try. We rode in what they call a "Soft Cabin" where it is a room with 2 bunks. We shared the room with two older Shanghainese men. It was such a small room that I couldn't help not getting to know them. As soon as I taught them how to play Blackjack, they wanted to play, for real money. We were playing 10RMB to 50RMB a hand. After playing for about 4 hours straight, I won 1000RMB!! I've never won that much money off of people before and I felt kind of bad going to bed that night, but they're used to that kind of heavy gambling. The day after breakfast, we started playing again eventhough Amanda warned me I'd lose it all. I did lose it all, plus a little more. It was good, I'd rather lose a little than win a lot of money from someone. One of the guys ended up winning most of the money and he treated all of us to lunch. We had a huge feast in our little cabin and drank 16 cans of beer. We were toasted and I felt bloated, I think its because the beer wasn't ice cold and it was during the middle of the day. Anyway, those guys were awesome, we shared stories and took pictures. One of them gave me his business card and told me to contact him if I ever need to buy children's toys. DIRTY STREET FOOD!!! We arrived to Shaoguan and the first night there we went out for dirty street food! It was so damn dirty!!! We were in an outdoor shopping district and after the stores closed, vendors pushed their dirty carts out onto the street and started serving food. We got a lot of grilled stuff, like lamb, chicken wings, chicken feet, vegetables, and eggplants. My favorite was garlic-grilled oyesters and mussels!!!! Did I mention it was dirty too? The fact that it was dirty and I was sitting outdoors on a tiny stool on the side of the street made the food taste even better! I wish we had something like that in Minneapolis. Just think, after bar hopping, everyone could sit on little plastic tools with small tables on the side of the street eating things that you couldn't even imagine that could be grilled. I think there must've been a hundred people there last night. We're going again tonight. Speaking of tonight, I just got back from a motorcycle ride. They have taxi cabs here in Shaoguan and also motorcycle rides. People with these 125cc motorcycles ride around in a plastic construction hat will give you rides for about 4RMB, but you must wear a plastic hat too. It was awesome!! They weave through traffic like professionals, we almost collided with a guy on a scooter. I will try and ride that again tomorrow, its the closest thing I can get to riding my yellow beauty.
Bed rest Well not much has happened in the past couple of days. I've been sick with the cold and flu and just slept and sweated. Before I got sick, I went to Gulangyu island and did some sightseeing. The island has really developed into a tourist attraction. Just going to places where I used to go for walks will cost you money now. I still haven't heard back from that guy at Intel. However I've successfully gotten someone (who shall remain nameless) who works at the same office to get me his number and check his schedule for me. So I've called and left him a voicemail, I hope this guy will get back to me, damnit he better! Today I'm going to stay at a fancy hotel for fun because my uncle has extra passes. Then my parents are taking us to these cabin houses in some wilderness area or something. They describe the place with rivers, lakes, waterfalls and mountains. I haven't seen anything like that in China yet, I'm looking forward to it.