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Published: June 11th 2010
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Captain's Log
Stardate 07:51:44::06:11:2010
Location Shanghai China
So it's almost eight o'clock and i just woke up and showered. I went to bed last night at 2am which scares me a little because now i'll be tired tonight. Yesterday I wrote the second entry and created the blog. Then Zoey and I left to meet Dennis. On the way, she purchased a Peking Duck and made me eat some. It was really good, but i don't think i'm ready to eat the head and feet yet. Then we took a bus to meet Dennis. Dennis is a very educated and ambitious black guy from New York. His girlfriend (incredibly beautiful!) has been visiting him for the past month and leaves on Saturday. She's an engineer and going to double major with mechanical, electrical and architecture. Dennis has been here for six months already or something like that. They both crave American burgers and pizza which makes me glad that i had some burgers before i left. We went to Papa Johns which is a sit down restaurant with a 15 page menu of different pizzas, pasta, and other foods. None of the food tastes American. I meet an Chinese
American girl interning there. She was very amusing. :-)
Afterward, we went to his apartment. I met a nice Chinese girl on the subway and we have a nice conversation even though she didn't speak english. :-D Dennis' apartment has four bedrooms, a living room, kitchen and bathroom. He has an incredible view at a corner with two windows and his personal cooler. One of his roommates is a Chinese girl from a coastal city south of Shanghai and the other two are german. We took a shot each of a korean hard liquor. It had almost no taste to it and was surprisingly good compared to many hard liquors, but the drawback is that it smells a little like rubbing alcohol. Today is Friday and I'm going to move in with them on Saturday the day his girlfriend leaves. I'm going to sleep on the couch or floor (there aren't cockroaches there). He's going back to the states within the next week or two. I'm going to rent his room while he is gone. It's very expensive like 2000 or 2500 yuan a month (that comes out to $300-350). It's in the really nice part of downtown, near the
business district or something. Yangpu where i'm now is known as being a poorer part of town where everyone wears the pajamas and has no sense of fashion according to wikipedia.
One of my friends who i met online, Peggy (we are going to go out Saturday or Sunday) offered for me to stay at her place or for her uncle to help me (he runs an agency that helps people find apartments). I decided that i didn't need her help, but it is very good to know that i have a friend who would be willing to help me that much. :-)
If you read my previous journal entry than you know that my showering experience was very exciting. With my new short hair, i'm able to finish showing in three cycles of hot/cold (if you don't understand, please read the previous entry). I still haven't bought anything here. I won't spend my money unless it's absolutely necessary. Wait wait wait, then do you ask why i don't fight for my money from Abroad China since i'm not in a hotel? I learned long ago that the negative energy and effort produced by hounding people from money is not
worth the money itself. Karma, negative energy, inner peace, i don't know what it's called, but i feel it and it's not correct to fight for the money people owe you (in business it's different obviously).
After visiting Dennis' apartment we went to a hole in the wall place. It's a small restaurant and we went straight to the back and up to the third floor. There are two connected rooms in the back. One of the rooms has a bar and a pool table and the other room has two tables set up for beer pong. This was my first time actually watching. The place wasn't crowded but there were a good 50 people there, no one was chinese. The bartenders weren't chinese and the rest of the staff is Filipino. There is a score board behind the bar of US states and countries every shot of Absinthe purchased increases the state's or country's score by one. Absinthe comes in 45, 55, and 75. It tastes like liquid black liquorish. I had two shots yesterday and they were separated by about four hours.
At the club i met lots of people. There were tons of high school students which
really upset dennis because he's 23 or something. They just graduated or were going out. There's no drinking age here. An Argentinian girl in the club last night was 16. You can walk around in public in the metros and everywhere while you are drinking. I met a girl from Bolivia and got her number, she seems really cool. She asked me if i was a 'good boy' when i told her i didn't want to play beer pong which does scare me a little ha ha ha. I met a guy from german, two guys from spain too.
afterward i hitched a ride with dennis and his girlfriend to there's apartment and took a cab back to my apartment. It was really far. It cost $5 just for me to take a cab. Here are some things to note. There are some facts about China.
*Construction goes on 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They do not stop for anything and do not set up safety cones. I heard that Shanghai was completely rebuilt in 15-20 years.
*The driving is terrible, but there are no accidents.
*All cars and vehicles are clutch.
*It's appropriate to sit
on the side of the road or use the bathroom anywhere. The police will not stop you.
*There are x-ray machines at the entrance of every subway to make sure no one bombs it.
*It's appropriate for chinese people to pick their noses, knuckle deep in public.
Dennis has given me a program that should allow me to use facebook in China. :-)
My internship was set to start on the fourteenth. This is written in my contact along with the hours and final day. I was speaking with Zoey who told me that Monday through Wednesday is a chinese holiday, something about a dragon. So i figured out i was starting on Thursday. I had her call the man at the company to confirm this. I was a little surprised that my starting date was a holiday, but i'm not sure who did it. Everything is good and i'm set to start on thursday. this means i'm going to have more free time here with nothing to do... Hum.
The other day Zoey bought me some fruit. It was a weird cross between a grape and a melon but it had a skin that you have to peel
off. it's called a lychee and is always green.
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Evelyn - Brasil
non-member comment
Ohhh
Oh nice ride :)