城市，让生活更美好

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So today was a very interesting day, the first part of it, I hope I never have to experience it ever again. I woke up this morning with a call from Xuzhi saying that we should go to the Expo today later in the afternoon since it was too hot. I decided to meet up with Tristan for lunch. Since I had some time to spare I decided to get a haircut down the street. I was greeted by a chinese girl and she told me to sit down. She washed my hair and gave me a massage on my head, neck, arms, and back. It felt pretty damn good. When I started to actually get my hair cut, the guy was telling me how he wanted to perm my hair because it would look better than giving me a regular buzz cut. I kept saying that I just wanted a regular haircut but he kept saying that it would look bad. I was curious to see what the finished product would be of something that he thought would look good, so I decided to go with it. He gave me a menu that I couldn't read for shit with prices that were 400-800RMB. HELL NO. I explained to him that I only had (or was willing to spend) 250RMB (still expensive, but how often can I get my hair done in China? should have said 200). He basically told me "ok, how about I lower it to 300RMB"....What are you stupid? Does it look like I can shit another 100RMB? Finally we agreed to 250 RMB. They started putting clips in my hair and siran wrap and I had to sit under one of those heating things. I was a little frustrated because I was late in terms of meeting with tristan. After I was done I went back to my room to grab a jacket and umbrella because it was pouring outside. On my way to the subway station, I felt someone touch the zipper pocket on my jacket. I saw a hand that wasn't mine. It clicked right away and I stopped and turned at the guy. I looked at him straight in the eyes and yelled WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!!!!!?????????? Everyone around me stopped and looked. I was just about to ram my Columbia shoes so far up his ass but he ran away. The thought of almost being pick pocketed is not a good feeling, but luckily the only thing in that pocket was that tourist book that Xuzhi gave me. Good thing I do not walk around with credit cards or my drivers license.
I made it to the Lujiabang Road Metro Station to meet Tristan. After going up the escalator I got to the center part of the station so I called Tristan to let him know that I was there. As I pulled my phone out, this little asian girl goes "JEREMY?"....me: "oh shit".I don't want to explain the story behind why I said "oh shit" on this blog, but if you ask me and I tell you, you would probably say "oh shit" too. I called my buddy Silas about it and he laughed and said "oh shit". When I met up with Tristan I told him my story, and he started laughing and he said "oh shit" too. We walked over to his place and ordered a pizza to eat for lunch. Afterwards I headed over to Xujiahui to meet up with Xuzhi to go to the World Expo. Xujiahui station used to be another meeting point for us. When I arrived, it looked completely different. That's when I noticed how all of the subway stations have changed. Remember last year when you're about to get to a stop and the lady on the intercom says "Please get ready to alight from the left a side" They finally corrected it to "Please get ready to exit on the left side"..O.o!!! I met up with Xuzhi and we took the subway to Madang Road to get to the Expo. From Madong Road, you take line 13 which you can only take if you have Expo tickets. She bought Expo tickets which was very sweet of her, so I made sure that I paid for her food when we were there. The Expo overall was bleh, because people wait in line for 5 hours to see a 1 minute thing. Most of the buildings did not have much in them. Xuzhi and I decided to take pictures of the major pavilions and go inside the ones that didn't have lines in order to maximize our time there. It would be counterproductive to wait in a line for hours to see 1 pavilion when you could see a lot more by walking around. We stopped at the Ukraine Pavilion to get a drink and a snack. We sat and talked for a long time and by the time we went back outside, it was dark. We walked around European Square until we decided to eat some real food at a cafeteria-like place. I ordered noodles and Xuzhi ordered this rice platter and a xiaolongbiao. It came out to 36RMB. Carts went around which sold drinks and I ordered a Mango juice and Xuzhi ordered a watermelon drink. They were 18RMB each? wtf??...it was like Disneyland. I didn't complain though since she spent 160RMB for my ticket. We decided to end our day by going to the China Pavilion. When the Expo closed at 10pm, there was a mad rush of people going to the subway station. Luckily it was line 8 which took me back to People's Square. I'm officially going on to 2nd year of Pharmacy school. I found out my grade for Pharmacokinetics (the class that I had no idea of what I got on the midterm on the day of the final...and even to this day) and I'm not too happy about it but life goes on. The weird thing was that I was reading about pickpocketers this morning on the internet and sure enough I was almost a victim.

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