So today I moved into my new apartment today. Upon move in, I owed the landlord his 15,000 RMB and the agent 1,750 RMB. So all together I needed 16,750 RMB. That's more than 170 bills (100 RMB bills). Oh my god. The stack of bills didn't even fit into one envelope. Since my ATM limits me to a few hundred USD a day, I couldn't withdrawal all that money at once, or even in the course of three days. I brought traveler's checks with me and had to cash all of them. I go to bank #1 and I [View Full Entry]

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So I went to Jing An to meet A and his friends for dinner! Jing An, which looks close on the map, is actually a 20 RMB cab ride (with a little traffic). I haven't learned bus lines yet, so it's a bit hard to go across town. Anyway, there were 8 of us at dinner, and most of A's friends were his teachers at the Mandarin school where he was taking classes at. All of them speak Mandarin as their native language. A is leaving for Taiwan tomorrow to start a new job, so I'm glad I got to see [View Full Entry]

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So as mentioned in my previous blog, I said I was going to meet people this week. So today, I attempted to go to Xintiandi to explore and meet other expats at Coffee Bean. I was there around the meeting time and didn't see any formal gatherings of people. Instead, I read the expat magazines and drank iced tea. It was pleasant. An ice blended is still $4USD. Too expensive. I am still jet lagged and not hungry during the day. Plus, the humidity and heat makes me lose my appetite. Shanghai, like most metropolitan cities consists of: restaurants, office buildings, [View Full Entry]

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I got an apartment today! I met up with an agent, named Eric Hong. He only really speaks Chinese, which was somewhat a drag. He was good at speaking to me at a 2nd grade level though. I met up with him near Jiao Da (Jiao Tong University) and he took me around. The first unit I saw was partially remodeled but a bit old and the bathroom was icky. It had very large rooms and good lighting, and the landlord like me because I am from California (her grandkids live there) and she said I looked nice girl to rent [View Full Entry]

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I'm still a bit jet lagged today and I woke up early and got breakfast at the hotel for 10RMB ($1.25). I was pretty impressed - it was like Chinese breakfast buffet. I wasn't so interested in the food so I had some porridge with some pickled vegetable and a hard boiled egg. Coffee too! I walked out of the hotel and saw all the other young people buying breakfast foods on the street for 1 RMB. I will go out and buy my own next time. My first priority was to get a working cell phone. I left the [View Full Entry]

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My internet works! I'm in China now! :) I am thankful that I got here with no problems. I checked in online the day before my flight, and United didn't assign me a seat. So I called the travel agent and the airline and both said I needed to get my seat at the airport. I get to SFO and the International check-in line for was so so so long. Luckily since I already checked in online, I could stand the shorter line to just check bags. When I got to the counter, the lady told me that I couldn't get [View Full Entry]

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Untitled C.F.I'm leaving for my 5-month long trip tomorrow! I can't believe I'm actually going! I hesistated for months (and months!) about taking a break from work, but I realized that I need to take some risks (just a little) in order to expand my life experiences and opportunities. Anyway, I'm looking forward to my time off and taking on this new adventure. I'm excited, but a quite scared. I don't have a place to live, my Chinese sucks, and I've never been anywhere alone. Yipes! Nonetheless, I think the people I'll meet, pl [View Full Entry]

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