Yesterday, after an exciting trip to the Site of the First Meeting of the Communist Party of China (which had a really ballin' wax person display) we went to Qufu Lu, which is a place to buy knock off stuff. A man followed us for 45 minutes. It was awesome. He simply followed us saying "hello American friends, i find you very cheap! Follow me!" It was insane. He was like Jason. We split up in an effort to ditch him, and my friend Joe and I managed to lose him. And we looked around for an hour bargaining and looking at stuff. And then when we decided to go back home, guess who managed to find us again? It was ridiculous. Luckily he didn't follow us to the subway station, but I was seriously scared I was going to go home and find him sitting on my bed, or in the refrigerator, or under my bed. "Follow me American friend!"

In other news, Thanksgiving is the day after tommorrow. My class is making mashed potatoes. We are all very excited. Also, we are going to try and dress up like pilgrims and indians. I am going to miss the Turkey trot, which sucks because I've always enjoyed the pretentious central Fort Worth crowd, and the free yogurt. But it's all good. Also, my sister had a baby! So now I'm an uncle! This is going to be the most spoiled baby of all time, because everyone in my family has all wanted to have a baby to play with for like 4 years. And now we have one! So congratulations Kyle and Joey!

All in all, a good couple of days.

Chinese Pants

So I haven't updated in a while. It's all good. Let's see, what all is new. School is going well. We are about to move up and start using the level 2 book, which I am not excited about. I dropped down from the class which started with the level 2 book because of the insane amount of homework, so hopefully they won't try and force that trend on us. Or I guess I just won't do it (a likely scenario) and just do what's necessary to stay afloat until the end of the semester. I'm concerned that when I get back to Southwestern I will have a laziness instilled in me that I won't be able to fix. But then I remember that at Southwestern my classes will be in English, and won't expect 4 hours per day of workbook exercises. In other news, I am excited to return to America. I found out I won't be living in the house I lived in this summer, because nobody will be moving out. But it's okay because for now it would appear that I've found another place to live that is just as close to Southwestern, and with two dudes whom I don't know all that well, but who seem like they would be good roommates. Oddly, I think this may be the same house that T-Dickson lived in this summer (it's with Jeff Elliot and is in a neighborhood across the street from the golf course, ringing any bells Tricia?). Also, I will only be having classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and will be getting 3 Comm. classes out of the way. Since I will only have class two days a week, and since I will be out of money when I get back, this means I will need to find a job. Hopefully, I can get some serving experience, because this seems to be the most versatile and useful job for somebody my age. In other news, I am not excited to leave Shanghai. I can see reverse-culture shock looming in the months ahead. I am none too excited about getting back to the heartwrenching dramas of Southwestern University. And somehow, I'm forseeing that the excitement of Georgetown will probably pale in comparison to Shanghai, China. But I'm excited to see my friends and family, whom I miss dearly. Also, I just don't know what I'll do when I can't get up and have delicious fried Jaozi for breakfast. Or be able to get everywhere without a car. Or think that a $15 meal is outrageously expensive. But on the other hand, it will be sweet to drive. And to cross the street without thinking I'm going to die. And to eat Mexican food. But I feel like it will be eerily, eerily quiet, when I take my first nighttime winter stroll down my street. It's a strange feeling, to want to leave and to stay, and to not want to leave and not want to stay all at the same time.


p.s-Mom, for Christmas I want Age of Empires III for the PC (try to get the one with the expansion pack)

p.s.s- everyone else, don't make fun of me for being a nerd

Quantum of Solace

Well, we went to see "Quantum of Solace" tonight. It was released a week earlier in Asia than it was in the United States. All in all, I thought it was excellent. While those who are expecting it to live up to "Casino Royale" will likely be disappointed, this is only because "Casino Royale" was so excellent. It was such a departure from previous Bond films, and "Quantum" simply follows this departure. It was also more frenzied and hurried than the leisurely "Casino Royale," and with a much darker tone. Some of the action sequences were a bit hard to follow due to shaky camera work, and it is somewhat confusing in parts, but it was good. In conclusion, it's not as good as Casino Royale (which in my opinion is almost like saying "not as good as 'Fargo'" or "not as good as 'Taxi Driver'") but definitely in the top 7 Bond flicks. So Garrett, enjoy it next week.

In other news, America has elected it's first black president. I never thought I would see the day. Also, between this and the fact that I'll be returning home from China, I can't imagine all of the racist backwater ignorance I will hear upon my return to the U.S. But it's all good. Maybe now we'll have an administration and a congress who realize that development of alternative energy is most crucial for national security, not a needless and expensive occupation. My hope is that one day my children will be able to drive around in fuel cell powered hummers making a "suck it" sign to all of the crazies whom we don't buy oil from anymore. And perhaps we will restore some dignity for our country on the world stage. Because right now America is like that drunk friend who won't give up the car keys. And the French are just sittin' on the porch smokin' their cigarettes and scowling while we vomit in the yard.

And also, at least Sarah Palin has no chance of potentially becoming the leader of the world's most powerful nation. Oh J-Mac, if you had picked anybody else I might have voted for you.

Oh, and Chinese movies have some pretty ridiculous trailers. I really want to see this one called "Super Typhoon."

An Ode to the Republican Party

There is a dirt track behind my apartment building where I run everyday. Usually, I am the only white person there. Lately, I have acquired a new Chinese friend, who accompanies me on my jogs and we practice speaking Chinese and English. I'm somewhat wary because my running time is usually my alone time/relaxation time, but he's nice enough, and I feel like I could tell him that I just felt like running that day and he would understand. Today we talked about politics. It was staggering the amount of information he knew about the American political system and American politics in general. Ironically he claimed to know very little about the politics of his homeland (this is either true, or he is uncomfortable sharing his true feelings with a new friend, especially a foreign one). Either way, it helped me to appreciate the fact that regardless of how we feel about the current state of American politics, we still have a say. And at least we are informed about the goings on of government (if one wants to escape the "liberal" or "conservative" bias of the American media, it simply takes a little bit more effort and patience to review better, albeit more boring sources of news, CSPAN, for example). And at least we are able to say who we want to lead our country. Not wake up one day and discover that another person whom we know nothing about has been appointed into a position of authority for reasons we know nothing about. Which is the case in certain places. ahem ahem.

And for this I am grateful.

And for another thing I am also grateful. And that is that regardless of who wins in the next few days, at least we will have a new administration. Not a man who's administration somehow convinced America that he, a Yale-educated, Connecticut-Born, Skull-and-Bonesman, son-of-a-millionaire-President was somehow a political "outsider" in Washington. And I don't want to jump on the "Bush Hate Train", because really it's his administration. And he's just a man. And I was one of those who was convinced he was an "outsider". (In my defense I was in the 7th grade).

But maybe now we really can change things. Regardless of who sits in the oval office next year. Maybe constituents can start influencing legislation, rather than special interest groups and lobbyists. Maybe Americans will wake up and realize that rather than worrying about being the victim of a terrorist attack, the real danger is that both our earth and our democracy is being eroded before our eyes. Maybe people will realize that America needs less poverty, not more billionaires.

Maybe. Let's hope.

On the Road

"They rushed down the street together, digging everything in the early way they had, which later became so much sadder and perceptive and blank. But then they danced down the streets like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I've been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars..."

-Jack Kerouac

Lost in Translation

Well it's been a while since I've written. And a whole lot has happened, but I've been super busy. Our break is in a week, and also Dad comes in a week, so that is exciting. Maybe I can convince him to take the MagLev train from the Airport to Pudong, I think it's the fastest train in the world, but don't quote me on that. Anyhow, that's exciting. In unexciting news we have our Chinese midterm on Friday. So that sucks. But it should be okay. Except that I've been barely passing all of my tests. But the most frustrating thing is that I'm looking over the test, and I'm getting like 2 points taken off for not putting a question mark, and one of my characters wasn't good enough, even though it was the right character. And I still got it wrong. And I'm like "Hey, isn't it cool that I actually know what character to put in this blank space" but they are like "hey you didn't write it perfectly so I'm gonna mark it wrong". But it's all good. All I have to do is pass. And I'm pretty sure they won't fail anybody who puts in effort.

In other news, I've decided I'm getting some sweet clothes made. The fabric markets here are ridiculous. It's just like an indoor mall full of different stalls with every single kind of fabric you can imagine. And you go and tell them what you want made, and they measure you and you pick your fabric. And the amazing thing is, you can take a picture of anything, and they can make it. My plan is to find a sweet suit from GQ and get it tailor made for $150. Garrett and I always talk about how ballin' it is to have a suit that's not black, so I'm going to get either a sweet grey or a sharp looking brown, if I can find it. And also a killer dark-brown tweed sport coat. And some handmade shirts. And hopefully, my wonderful family will opt to send money with my father to help fund this endeavor, because really, this is all I want for Christmas (hint hint).

Speaking of Christmas, it has occured to some fellow students and I that we will be missing the Christmas season. It will be sort of strange to get home and celebrate Christmas without all of the buildup. And also I hope they still keep selling Egg-nog for a while after Christmas. So that will be wierd.

Also, I discovered the joy of Element Fresh the other day. For those who haven't heard, Element Fresh is probably the best American restaurant in all of Shanghai. It's wonderful. It has legitimate salad. And legitimate salad dressing. And sandwhiches that are amazing. And hummus. And it's awesome. It's expensive (I spent 100 kuai on a sandwhich, salad, and the most amazing fresh squeezed apple juice ever to grace my taste buds, and 100 kuai is my more-than-ample daily budget). But really, it's about the price of a normal meal in America ($10-$12). I would also like to take this oppurtunity to make a large "suck it" sign (dX style baby!) to all of those who chose to study abroad in Europe, where they use letters. Probably the one downside to Element Fresh is that it's sort of a rich-white-asshole convention. But I've been going to one of those for like 2 and a half years now, so I'm pretty used to it (buh-dum-ching!). But really though. These are some pretentious mother you-know-whats. Like, people at Southwestern are affluent. They're upper-middle class. Children of Doctors and Lawyers and such. But these people. They're like upper class. Like, in that whole new class. And also a lot of them are European, so that doesn't help. But more on this later.

As of late, the night life has been rather exciting as well. And this weekend was interesting because I ended up sort of on both ends of the spectrum of things in the local/foreigner department. On Friday night, a lot of people in our program met up at our apartment where we enjoyed some pijiu (beer) and watched "Santa's Slay", a Christmas themed horror movie which stars Bill Goldberg (of WCW wrestling fame) as a viking-esque Santa Claus who goes on a murderous rampage through a small Minnesota town. It was as good as it sounds. After this, we made our way to Club Banana, which is the seedy local club/disco near our university. We were the only white people there. It was supposed to be sort of a guy's night, because we were going to try our luck with some of the local Chinese ladies. Turns out that Club Banana sort of lives up to its name, as there were very few girls present. I don't think it's a gay bar, but it could become one very easily. Also, it turns out some other people from our program had decided to go to Banana too, so there were plenty of ladies for us to dance with. Among the various ridiculocities that night, two of my friends were brought up on stage in order to help the guy who was singing perform a keg-stand of sorts (but with a pitcher of beer). Something was lost in translation, however, and they both ended up just trying to drink the pitcher of beer, and they were awkwardly escorted off the stage. Also, as I was dancing up on the platform at the front, I ended up falling in the gap between the two stage pieces and am now sporting some pretty serious bruises on my left leg. Luckily there were a lot of people on the stage too, so I don't think anybody saw me. So that was ridiculous. But it was fun. And the dancing was fun.

And this brings us to last night, which was Saturday. Joe, Kyle and I were sitting in our apartment trying to figure out what to do. All of us had done nothing but watch movies and lay around during the day, so were full of energy and ready to get out of the house. We were looking through the guidebook trying to find some cool bars to check out in a new part of town. We had decided on an art-deco themed place that seemed pretty cool, but the drinks were a little pricey. As we were about to leave I recieved a call from my lovely Japanese associate Risa, who told me that she had met up with some of her German friends and they were going to KTV (Karaoke) and then perhaps to a club. The KTV room was going to be free, and it was BYOB. So we were game. We gathered up some brew and headed to the KTV place. The KTV place, it turns out, was probably the swankiest place I've ever been to. It was near Jin'an Temple (which is where the Element Fresh is, which is in the shopping center under the Portman Ritz-Carlton). So anyways, we were a little out of our element. And when we arrive, Risa is there and a lot of her super-rich European friends whom she knows through a girl who went to her private boarding school in Connecticut and who attends Columbia. As I said before, we were a little out of our element. Not to mention the fact that none of us were dressed up (I was wearing my houndstooth sportcoat that I got at the Goodwill, but that was as nice as it got). The epitome of class came when Kyle, Joe, and I were sharing a fifth of Jim Beam we had purchased at the Lawsons whilst singing "Born in the U.S.A" by Bruce "the Boss" Springsteen (which I found out through reading the words was actually a scathing criticism on U.S foreign policy and the post-Vietnam era). I have never felt more like a white-trash American in my whole life. But it was awesome. And we followed the Europeans to a club that was supposed to have free drinks (one of the guys was part of a football club that was throwing a party), but that turned out to be bunk. But we club hopped and had a great time, and they were actually really cool.

And it was just nuts. I never thought I would be singing KTV with super-affluent Europeans in Shanghai, World City, China.

And I think when I graduate I'm going to try to get back here as fast as I can.

I got sick of writing last time

I will begin with two bits of excellent news. Firstly, Kyle got the internet working in our apartment again, so that is good. Secondly, it is no longer balls hot in Shanghai, which is also good. In fact, it's kinda chilly. Like, it's probably gonna be pretty cold before I leave.

I don't really want to talk more about our trip. I kind of got bored of writing about it last time. I'll just finish up and say that we went to Urumqi and it was cool. And we went to the Heavenly Lake, and it was as the name would imply. And also, we hiked to the top of the thing mountain where a pagoda is perched atop. It was nuts. Except a couple of us yelled at this one dude who wouldn't shut his yap. We were like "Hey, we're on top of ******* mountain, can we have some quiet for like two minutes?" And then we threw him over the side. Not really, but that would have been cool. Anywho, the whole trip was pretty dope. "Dope" is the new word, as this one guy has said it all along to describe things, and now we all do. So that's fun. But yeah, I'm sure I'll write more later, and also, you can ask me about it when I get back if you want. Plus I took like 2.3 gigs worth of pictures.

But there were some funny things that happened:

Firstly, in Xi'an at the bar street, there was a live band. I went to use the facilities and on the way out they immediately began playing the theme from "Beverly Hills Cop." This would become the theme for the rest of the trip. If you don't know the theme, look it up on youtube or frostwire or something, because it is a ridiculous song for a live band in Central China to be playing.

Also, the area we visited had a large population of Uygur minorities. The funny thing about "Uygur" is that it's pronouced like "Wigger". So our tour guide would constantly be saying "We are going to place with many wiggers" and "We are going to hear some traditional wigger music." The best was in Urumqi, where she warned us not to stay out too late because "wiggers tend to be more aggressive than Han people." It did not cease being funny for the entire trip.

Also, one of the people at the giant sand dunes looked like Kim Jong Il. And I managed to share the magic of Creedence Clearwater Revival with a Chinese man who was on our train. I don't think he was a very big fan.

All in all, an excellent and exhausting trip. Over 50 hours on a train. 4,000 miles traveled in 9 days. It felt strange to be "coming home" to Shanghai.