Zhou Dynasty

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.