延长路上海大学/Doraemon在麦当劳

Asia
August 10th 2010

Published: August 10th 2010

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JLim

Leaving Silas's Place

Silas woke up and left in the morning at 8am to go to work. He let me stay at his place until I had to go to the airport. I did laundry the night before at his place, so I packed away the clothes that I washed. I said good bye to Silas and he gave me the key and told me to lock up the place and put the key under the mat. I took a shower and made sure that I had everything packed. On my way out, I wrote a note to put with the key under the mat. I walked outside of the apartment complex with my 50L backpack and laptop bag. I crossed the street and was able to flag down a taxi. The taxi driver knew exactly where I wanted to go when I told him Bejing Airport Terminal 2 in Chinese. He asked me if I was Korean and I told him no and that a lot of people here think I am Korean. He asked if I like America or China better and I told him that I like both. He laughed. This taxi driver knew where he was going, not like that

Putting the Key Under the Mat

dumb fuck rat that I picked me up at the airport. I had to put on my glasses in order to read the signs in the terminal since I seem to mistake the "fork and spoon" sign as the bathroom sign from far away. I was 10 minutes too early to check in, so I walked around to find a bathroom. By the time I came back, it was 12 pm and I was able to check in.
When I arrived in Shanghai, I went straight to the taxi line. I told the driver that I wanted to go to Yanchang Road, Shanghai University. He knew what I was saying so I got there in one piece. When I arrived at Shanghai University, it felt like a flashback to 2009. The street looked a little different. There are a lot more shops now, and the area is a lot busier. My favorite bubble tea shop is gone, but my favorite xiaolongbao stand is still there. While I was walking towards the dormitories, a taxi drove by and then I heard someone call my name. I saw a little asian lady walking towards me with short hair and she looked like

Room 122

bed

my chinese teacher from last year, but I couldn't tell without my glasses. It was You Sha. She said that the room was ready and that she's leaving town for vacation, but I could still call her if I needed anything. I told her that I had a gift for her, but it was in my suitcase at Tristan's place. She told me that I could leave it with the front desk. Last year I lived on the 5th floor. This year I live on the 1st floor. I did not have any problems working with the air conditioning machine this time. For the most part, everything there is the same as it was last year, even the that dormitory smell is still there. I met up with Tristan later to grab my suitcase and then we had some street food around Lujiabang Road. I went to a DVD stand and I bought Inception and Book of Eli. We went back to his place and watched Inception since he hasn't seen it yet. He asked me if I could help him bring some of his stuff to the post office in the morning so he could send it to America.

Doraemon Sets

I told him that I could help him.
This morning, I went to Tristan's house to help him bring some of his stuff to the post office. After the post office, he asked me if I wanted to go on a day trip tomorrow to Wuzhen with his Chinese classmate from Fudan. I have no plans for tomorrow so I said yes. The cost of the trip would be 150RMB and everyone gets a Haibao (World Expo mascot plush toy). We met up with his friend from Fudan at People's Square. Her name is Irene and she's Chinese from Spain. We decided to go to the Aerospace Museum so we met up with her friends, Stephen and Christina (asians also from Spain). It was weird listening to asian people talk Spanish, but I was able to understand some of the things they were talking about. The ride to the Aerospace Museum was at the end of line 8 so it took a while to get there. When we arrived all we saw was a nuclear powerplant. The guy at the metro station said that the Aerospace Museum hasn't been built yet. We basically went all that way for nothing. I

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was dead tired so I decided to go home. Stephen wanted to go home too, so the girls and Tristan decided to venture off. I went back to my room to take a nap. I woke up around dinner time. When I was in Beijing, I saw that they were selling Doraemon plush charms at McDonalds for 12RMB that had Doraemon dressed up in 9 different costumes from different parts of the world. In Asia, McDonald's has some kind of deal with selling Doraemon products. I decided to go to McDonald's to eat so I could get some for my sister. I thought "Wow, I'm going to have to eat there a lot in order to complete 1 set". I was hoping that I would be able to buy however many I wanted. At McDonalds I ordered a Big Mac meal and I told them that I wanted the Doraemon charms. The girl at the counter asked "1 doraemon charm?" and my response was "2 sets of doraemon charms". I bought 18 Doraemon charms--an entire set for my sister and a set for me...I was not going to be a little "sir cheap ass" about it. The girl's response was

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toilet, shower

"WAHH 2 sets!". The employees seemed surprised because I bought so many...I might be VIP now lols. I told her that in America, McDonalds doesn't sell them. She asked me where I was planning to sit to eat so I told her where I would be. She said to wait a little bit so they could prepare the two sets for me and then they would bring it to my table. The girl brought over a big bag with the 18 plush charms and she showed me each of them one by one. I spent 203RMB ($30) at McDonalds which is the most I've ever spent there. I was happy that I was able to buy two sets...so Happy late Birthday present Michelle lols. I posted some pictures of each of the charms that they sell. If anyone wants me to bring one back (provided I have room), let me know. Can't make any guarantees since supplies are limited, especially if there are some other assholes out there buying 2 sets at a time like someone I know. Plus I'm not going to eat fucking McDonald's everyday. I am currently at Tristan's place using his internet and doing some laundry.