Beginning of Shanghai

Knowing that I'm skipping ahead by not talking about Jiu Zhai Gou or my Three Gorges Damn cruise on the Yangtze River, but since I have not been able to find an internet cafe where I can upload pictures, I am just going to skip ahead. So this post is going to be entirely without pictures then.

When I first got to Shanghai, I got to say I was quite relieved. Immediately in PuDong airport (there are 2 main airports in Shanghai), I immediately got a waft of civilization. In the bathrooms in the airport, I felt a little like I was in Japan. The bathroom was relatively clean, and the hand dryers were the high-tech ones in Japan where they dry your hands in under a minute. Leaving, the airport, Lynn and I went to the Maglev train (the bullet train in Shanghai that goes 250 mph). I got to say that it was just fast. You could feel that the train was well-built and not a shady-made Chinese product. haha

Getting to the end of the train line, I met my uncle that I haven't met for a long time. He took us to dinner really fast on the subway line. Even the subway in Shanghai is better since they had more hand railings for people. The walk to the restaurant was pretty funny, since my uncle being about 86 was really funny since he kept repeating the same thing to himself. You could tell he was mentally sharp and physically good since he swims 1 mile everyday non-stop in 46 minutes, but just hearing him repeat things to himself was pretty funny. So at the restaurant, my uncle first asked me and Lynn to choose what to eat, but then when the waitress came over he just ordered for us. It was really funny when the waitress told my uncle they were out of one dish or another since my uncle always responded whether or not they get the dish from some other restaurant that they just bring over. haha

When we got to my grandma's house in Shanghai, I felt quite bad for Lynn since he had to sit through the whole talk we had her. To make things pretty straightforward, my grandmother has had Alzheimer's for I think about 2 years now. So naturally, when I met her, she had no idea who I was. Actually she sort of freaked out when she first saw me. She also had trouble remembering who her own son (my father) was. In turn, we basically spent about 1 hour at least in the late night trying to explain that I was not a bad person that was going to steal her stuff and that I was her grandson. So these 2 topics were mainly the only topics that we said for an hour to my grandmother since she kept forgetting, and us having to remind her. You know, I got to say I wasn't frustrated at all, since she was my family, and I could not even imagine what she was going through since even she admitted that she didn't remember a lot of things. Imagine, half of your life you couldn't remember, and you just have to rely on others to tell you about your life. After that long talk, we went upstairs into my room and went to sleep.

Overall, I thought that night was pretty emotional for me, in a sense. I mean, my grandmother couldn't even remember who I was, and I would have to repeat to her that I was her grandson every time I saw her. Everyday I try to remind her who I am and my name, but she keeps forgetting. On the bright side, she now doesn't think I am a bad person, and since I keep repeating the same thing over and over, I get to practice my Shanghainese with her. haha I think it's interesting that I'm actually not really sad about my grandmother's state. I don't mean that I am insensitive, but I from what I have been taught, the Lord always does things for a reason to help me grow and continue in my walk. And I just think that this is a challenge that I have been blessed with to cope with. So unlike my father, who I feel just avoids her, which I think is because he is sad that she has trouble even remembering him, I try to talk with her at least a couple minutes everyday. I mean I need to spend every possible minute with her as possible, and just maybe, maybe I could help her remember the memorable moments in her life.

Going back to the timeline of this post, the next day when we woke-up, I got up early and then ventured into the different rooms of the house. I first went to the one next door to my room, which was my late grandfather's. I sort of went through his things (closet and looked at pictures). I was quite touched by when I went there since one of the few pictures that my grandfather had there was one of me and him when I was a child in San Jose. Looking at his face, he was so happy. I got to say that this also brought up a lot of emotions. Going through this room made me realize how selfish I have been in my life. Both times when I came to Shanghai, I never really spent any time with my grandfather at all. I was always self-indulged in what I wanted. And this is just such a poor example of how selfish I have been in my life. I never really took advantage of the chances that were given to me in my life to spend time with my family. I have failed so many times in what the Lord has given me. And now I can only regret that I never took up these chances. This I feel is a really pivotal moment in my life, since I knowingly have always rushed through things, and made mistakes consequentially by doing so. And this is just something I need to cease doing. After this moment, I now have earnestly tried to improve myself by taking slower, casual walks in Shanghai and taking in the scenery. I got to say that this is quite hard in China since everyone is always in such a rush, but it's just another way of separating myself into the Lord's grace. Overall though, I am not sad that my grandfather has passed away without me knowing him. As Pastor Patrick had said in one of his sermons, people should not be sad that their loved ones have passed away since you know that they have moved on into a better life in the Lord's light. It is with this thought, that I feel I have learned so much in my couple days in China.

And from this, I can only feel some notions of hatred at my dad's side of the family for never really taking any care of my grandparents. My uncles have all moved away from this house which they all lived in and stayed in there spheres in the U.S. They both keep saying how they want to come back to China, but I feel that their main reasons is to just visit China, and not my grandmother. And my cousins I feel have succumbed to the heavy pressures of American society in taking care of only themselves. I don't think many people realize how us Americans are actually so self-indulged into ourselves. We say that we take pride in helping each other, but one must also take note in how it is actually a sort of expected obligation that one's parents are supposed to live with you once they grow old so that you could take care of them. Not just throw them in a retirement home. I feel that this is a major flaw in our American society. I don't feel that my father is a good person, but at least he did something right by going against the American government by coming to China to take care of my father's funeral immediately, while also defying the U.S. government's clear intentions to prevent this due to his security clearance. I mean his boss even tried to get him fired for going to China. I just feel that this is something that us Americans fail, in which we take pride in our family values that I feel are extremely lacking. I can only hope that my experience can teach others and prevent such precarious and detrimental activities in other people's lives.

So now on to the bright side of this trip. I got to say that I really do love Shanghai. The city I feel is nothing like any other part of China. People are more cultured here. The streets are clean; I mean they have public bathrooms scattered throughout the city. I think I have only seen 2 people pee on the streets, which I thought was since these people are not really shanghainese. And when I heard in Beijing that people in Shanghai are rude, I don't think this is true. People are just busy and go on to their own business. If you see someone that is quite idle, such as the street guards that actually manage the flow of traffic in the city, they will kindly direct you to wherever you want to go. And the food is a LOT better. A $3 dinner here I feel can easily be comparable to the $80 dinner I had in Beijing. I got to say thought that the city definitely is not that large land-wise, but it is large since they really do know how to build up. There's skyscrapers everywhere and the skyline in the night is just beautiful. I'll post some pictures later on when I probably go back to the U.S. since I can't load up my pictures here.

Oh, so there were some funny moment in Shanghai though. I got to see half of a rear bumper of a decent taxi car get ripped off by a bus when it tried to cut in front of it. Oh and I got to see Lynn get seriously hurt at the subway station. So you have to insert a card into the machine to go through one of those revolving gate thingies that just let one person through with each admittance. So he put his in, and it rejected it, but Lynn didn't notice. So Lynn unwittingly swung into the gate and got hurt. I wish I had my camera with me since his face suddenly changed from one full of accomplishment to one of pain. hahahahahahhahaa Oh my goodness, I can just replay that moment in my life a couple of times and just laugh about it again. hahahahhahahahahahaha

The only word of caution I can give about the city is be careful about giving money to beggars. I got to see first hand how a woman purposely dressed herself up as a poor lady that was pregnant with no money, and then the pillows fell out of her dress. It's like, "you gave birth to pillows!" haha So I feel that this is something that Shanghai still has to work on since you can't knowingly give to the poor since there's always that fear that you're just giving money to a con-artist. I would gladly give money to the poor; I mean I would like to again give another 100 RMB (~$13) to a poor person, but I do feel wary about doing so now.

Overall, I got to say that the trip was quite pleasant, and I myself have grown a lot. I do feel that I have been blessed with this chance to grow, and I can only hope that I would be given the chance to actually come back to Shanghai next year. I know; I actually want to come back to China in some sort of way. Definitely different from when I was in Beijing. haha

Pandas and Renmin Square

So things have been pretty cool I feel. Three days ago I went to go see the pandas in Chengdu. In the city, there’s a really famous Panda Research Center. From what I understand, this is supposed to be the premiere research center for pandas. They supposedly artificially inseminated a panda successfully within the past 2 months.

Anyways, we left at about 7 a.m. to get there. The place was definitely different from the rest of China I felt. Surprisingly here, they actually enforced the rule where no one could smoke. I know that this is odd, but this was really rare here for China since everyone smokes. So over here was some of our first foreigners on our trip. Since we got there early, there wasn’t really anyone; actually the visitor’s service center was closed at the time we got there.

Our first stop was some panda habitats where they put the pandas individually in this huge cage. Here’s some pictures of these pandas:

I even got a pictures of a huge panda turd!

It actually looks exactly like a horse’s fecal matter; doesn’t it?

After that, we checked out the RED pandas. I know, RED pandas. Their actual name literally translated into English is “red panda”. They are actually an early evolutionary branch of the giant pandas that the pandas that we associate with today. Instead of being in cages, they’re actually in this huge artificial nature habitat as you can see from the picture below.

Also, doesn’t the red panda look like raccoons. It’s interesting that they still have tails. Actually, pandas when they’re born at first have a tail within the first 2 weeks. They actually had a picture of this in the panda museum, but I forgot to take one. Sorry ‘bout that. Getting back to the point, while I was just about finished with the red panda area, I saw a random sign that said that we could hold the red panda and take a picture of it. After some inquiry, I found out that it cost ONLY 50 RMB! That’s just a little over $7! So what did I do? Obviously … I paid to hold the panda and take pictures with it.

So before you can hold the panda, they put me in some makeshift scrubs as you can see in the picture below.

Then I got to hold the RED panda! The panda was surprisingly light. I guess it was about 40 lbs.

Yeah, it was just eating some apples that the lady fed it, as you can see below.

The fur was really coarse, and the claws were amazingly sharp. The whole time, the RED panda basically just ignored me and ate the apple. How rude! Sorry, didn’t get any real pictures of me actually really posing with the panda in my lap, but I was just so into having a panda on my lap, as you can see from the big smile on my face there.

So I was actually quite surprised that they didn’t advertise the chance to hold the RED panda in your lap that much. It was basically just this one sign that’s in the back of the building where you hold the panda in some obscure spot. So yeah… like any of us could do this in the U.S. HAH! And on the bright side, since no one really knew about it, and since there weren’t that many people, I was able to hold the panda for what I would think at last a few good 5 minutes. So this pretty much made the whole trip to China worth it.

Later on, we checked in on the panda nursery. We weren’t supposed to get take pictures of these baby pandas, but I took one at first, since I didn’t see the sign, and then I later snuck one in. hehe I know, that was bad of me, but dude it was a baby panda!

This one is about 14 days old.

This one is about 2 months old.

So after that, got some pictures of the giant pandas in their habitat. Pretty cool. Was at first disappointed a little since they were all sleeping in the trees, as you can see below.

But later on, they called in a panda with some bamboo shoots that they’ve been picking around the park.

Then people got the chance to pet this huge panda that was just sitting on some chair and eating bamboo shoots. It would’ve cost 400 RMB. If there weren’t so many people, I might have done it, but sine there were, people basically just got two pats of the panda, and NEXT! So I definitely think the red panda was a lot more worth it. Well I got some pictures of other people taking pictures with these pandas.

I guess it’s possible that I could ask my girlfriend to photoshop these ugly people out and put handsome me in there instead. haha Just kidding.

So there wasn’t much else here; just a crappy “Swan Lake” with some birds. I was glad that we went to the panda place so early since just about when we were finished, it started raining. After hearing from Ryan that the pandas go crazy when it rains, we ran back to the giant pandas area to check them out. Sadly, they were just sleeping higher in the tree. So nothing much on that. Since it was raining so hard, we just hid in the entrance way where you could take pictures with the baby pandas. I know; you can take a picture with a baby panda too? Well yeah… It’s China. Anything goes. Haha I would’ve taken a picture with these too, but I think 1000 RMB was a little too pricey for me though. Well anyways, because we hid in this entrance way for so long, the people there let us in. Here we got to see the kid pandas. They were pretty cool, I just wish there was more lighting there so that I could get pictures. But I guess these pictures will do.

So later on, we left the panda place and went back to our hotel room to dry off and take a rest sine we’ve been getting maybe 5 hours of sleep for the past 2 nights. There, we decided to walk around the area a little; nothing much there. Then we went to what I found on the internet to be Renmin Square. Being the cheap Asians that we have become here in China, we refused to split 30 RMB ($4) to take a taxi there, and we just walked there aimlessly without knowing where we were going. At least we got to see some cool things like the Sichuan Technology Museum that was closed. Got to also see the Place where they held the FIFA 2007 Women’s World Cup in Chengdu by the Hilton.

Well when we got there, we got to see quite a bit of culture. If I haven’t seen so much of people like dancing in the plaza as seen below, this probably would’ve been really cool, but I’ve seen a lot of this in Beijing.

So the main attraction here in Renmin square was the tea houses here that were supposedly really famous. Some former Chengdu tour guide I met in Beijing highly recommended that I go try these teahouses. Being the backpackers we were, we found them only to be disappointed. It was basically just an outdoor place to drink tea where people either talked amongst their own table, played mah-jang, or played 13 (the card game) while betting.So after this, we just left, and went home. On the way home, we got to see a Chinese version of Red Asphalt on the streets. You remember, that video that you were forced to watch in Driver's Ed.

Since nothing really wrong has gone on this trip so far, something was bound to happen. Well what happened? Well right when we went into Carrefour (a French competitor to Wal-Mart in China), Lynn said “uh-oh”. When I first heard this, I was thinking, did he just crack his glass lenses while cleaning them on this shirt, or did I do something wrong. Actually, the most random thing happened, his frame broke and his pair of glasses, turned into 2 separate eyeglasses entitities. Luckily, we found an optometry place right next door to Carrefour earlier in the day when we were exploring. So I just walked the blind fellow to the place there.

It was here, that Lynn had a revolution where he converted to contacts! I got to say that it was not all that fun, since it took him about 1 hour at least for him to put on his bran new spanking contacts. It was actually quite funny. There were 2 of the workers there and I that tried to either force the contacts in his eye or help him. None of this worked, so a bunch of us gave up after awhile and let him figure it out. Actually, it was quite funny. You could totally see how that when the contact got close to his eye, his eye would just suddenly retract. So I thought that this was great. Haha.

So this was my cool day in Chengdu. The next day I flew to Huang Long / Jiu Zhai Gou, which is where I am currently writing this entry right now.

Beginning of China Trip

So what’s been happening lately? Well actually a lot. At the time I’m writing this, I’m about 2 days into my trip. On Thursday night, we had our farewell dinner. We had hot pot. Not too special, but the fact that everyone in my lab was together was quite great. I will miss Yu Jianjun (my mentor), Nan Kai (the PI), Dr. Liu (another PI), Kevin (someone I took as my mentor haha), and Sun Yuanhua. At the dinner though, it was quite funny. For some reason or another, Nan Kai (my PI) asked me about the iPhone. So we got into a whole discussion that I got to say I was fully happy to talk about, since I guess I am an Apple fanatic. I don’t quite think that has anything to do with me having invested about $7k in the company. Anyways, it was also quite funny that Nan Kai and Dr. Liu both commented that I’m just like a kid. I’ve heard this many times, but I got to say that I take this with pride, since I’ve always thought that I should always keep my kid-like spirit kindled within me. As they say in the famous old Toys ‘R ‘Us song, I don’t wanna grow up. I’m a Toys ‘R ‘Us kid… So anyways, Friday was my last day at work. I actually came into work to finish on my final presentation that I’ve been working on for a week then, write a paper, finish some way overdue PRIME things, and see if I could get the job script that I’ve been working on for about 4 weeks finally working so that it would be finished when I got back to the U.S. But obviously, I didn’t get the job script working, and I just went home later rushed to clean-up my apartment and leave rather abruptly.

So I was quite happy to leave Beijing. I got to say, Beijing was driving me crazy since I always felt like it was a really boring city. Also, the beginning of my trip would have symbolized the beginning of my venture to what I would like to call my “home land” Shanghai. I will finally be able to understand people there, since learning from this experience, shanghainese is extremely different from regular-old mandarin. So I got to say, the prospect of backpacking across China is both daunting and exciting. In the middle of this trip though, the whole experience has been all but positive.

So Friday night, I took an overnight train to Xi’an to see the Terracotta statues. I got a 4-person soft sleeper going there. The people in the top bunks in our cabin were taking there son to college in Xi’an. Well, when the attendant lady came by to get our tickets, she laughed outright when I was talking to Lynn in English. Apparently, a lot of people do this when I talk in English, and I’ve never understood why. Anyways, the train ride itself was quite pleasant. It was hard to go to sleep at first, but when I got in the rhythm of the train, I was knocked out cold.

When we got to Xi’an, what was the first thing that happened? Well, I got hustled. A bunch of people just started following me and started trying to hustle me to try to go with them somewhere or something like that. I got to say, it was quite annoying. Another thing was that immediately I just started seeing a bunch of people puking all over the place. So what did this mean to me? Don’t eat the food there. Haha Getting back the story, Lynn and I just started walking around Xi’an looking to where we could drop off our luggage. Took us about 30 min. to make a loop back to the train station to drop off our luggage. I got to say that was quite funny. Then it took us about 15 min. to find how to get to the Terracotta statues. Took a bus there for 45 minutes. And finally … we go to the Terracotta statues! Walked around into the pits where they were unearthed. There were 3 pits. I got to say that I was quite impressed, especially in real life. Apparently, when the Terracotta statues were made, about 200 B.C., the Chinese had chromium plating technology to prevent corrosion of their metals. They said that when they found the pits, the swords were in near perfect condition. Then the statues were pretty cool … obviously. Here’s some pictures of me and the statues having some special time together.


Here's some pictures of one of the three pits of statues . That's a lot of statues. Don't you think?
After we went into the pits to see the statues, we had a lunch buffet there. The food was okay, but nothing special. The most important part … the food was safe and no puking. From what I noticed, most of the people that went to this attraction all came in large tourist groups. I thought that was quite interesting.

After the statues, we went to the train station to pick-up our luggage. On the way back to the train station though, we visited Egypt in China. Got to see the sphinx and a Gaza pyramid. Don't believe me? Well look, I can prove it!

We then went to the airport. The airport was quite nice. A pretty small airport, but nice enough. An interesting thing though was that at the gate, they drove us all in a bus to the plane. There was not walkway to the place. The plane ride I got to say was comparable if not better than a standard domestic flight in the U.S. Also, this was my first time ever flying in an Airbus place – specifically the Airbus 310 – which is made by a French company.

So when we got to Chengdu, there was an immediate difference in the city. First, the people that usually hustle you were actually nice. If you just tell them that you don’t want there service, they’ll usually go away. Second, the people in Chengdu were a lot better looking. Before coming here, everyone in Beijing told me that the women here in Chengdu were beautiful. I got to say, that when I heard this I was skeptical. But now, I can see what they’re talking about. Apparently, the facial complexions and skin tone in Chengdu are a lot better. It was ridiculous! And the people here freaking had style! Style in clothes I mean. Finally, some people with style! Third, no one really honks here unless necessary, and there were a LOT LESS cars on the road. People for the most part obeyed a lot more of the traffic laws here. Well, when we got to our hotel, and the hotel room I feel is better than my apartment in Beijing, even though it’s only a 3 star hotel. The full-size table that they have here converts into a mah-jong (shanghainese → moo-jang) table, which I thought was quite cool.

The next day, we went to Le Shan. Took us a 42 RMB bus ride to Le Shan for about 2 hours + what we didn’t know was a 1 RMB insurance thing . Then took a 1 RMB bus ride in Le Shan to the Da Fu (“big luck”), or what we foreigners would like to call the Big Buddha. It took 70 RMB to get in there, but I got to say that it was expensive, and nothing all that great.

While walking in the area, we got to see a lot of scenery. Like after it was raining, there were a bunch of these caterpillars all over the ground.
Here's a pagoda that they had in the park.
Here’s some pictures of me and the Big Buddha.

Sad to say, I wasn’t literally able to climb the Big Buddha like I would have liked. Also, the humidity was killing me! The whole time I was sweating like crazy, and I was never thirsty. I had to force myself to drink some water. And I got to see a bunch of these crazy caterpillars on the ground. They were just falling out of the trees after it rained.

Came back to Chengdu after that and ate the hot pot. The hot pot here was crazy! It was so hot! I eat a lot of hot food, and I got to say, that this was unbearable, but good nonetheless. After that, came back to the hotel room and here I am. Tomorrow, I go to see the pandas. Whoopie!

Beijing Smog Experiment Hilarious

I just had to post this immediately when I read this article from the New York Times titled "Cars Stay Away But Beijing Smog Remains" on August 20, 2007. It states that "the city doubled the number of traffic police on patrol to 6,000 to make sure drivers behaved" for the past weekend. I got to say that this was hilarious, because I have not seen a single change in traffic over the past weekend. And to make things even funnier, I haven't seen a change in the funky polluted haze that blocks out the sun in Beijing. haha I love propaganda.

Guy's Night Out

Lately, a lot of us have been getting bored here in Beijing. So yesterday, Alex and I decided to be sort of adventurous. First we went out and explored the underground mall near us that we never knew that existed. It was pretty dang big. I think it took us at least a good 2 hours to explore the place. We got lost in there a few times too. Here's some interesting pictures of some things in the mall.
Here's a picture of a store called Cache. What's so special about this store? Well, because I have a girlfriend and have had to go shopping with her for prom dresses, this is a store that she has gotten a few dresses from. I think one cost about $180 and another $300. So I thought I had to get a picture of this place since everything was on sale, and the stuff cost like 30 RMB (~ $6).
Here's a crazy picture of a lamp inside the mall. It looks like some kind of bird's nest.
This is a picture of some kind of sculpture outside of the underground mall. Surprisingly, I've walked probably 30 yards away from this thing, and have never noticed it, including the sign behind it that says "Zhongguancun Plaza Shopping Mall".

Yeah, after we ate on one of the ground floors, Alex and I freaking found a huge food court that a huge variety of stuff. For the longest time, I've been looking for dim sum and what's called in shanghainese san ji mu da. I found it here! hahahaha So Alex and I made an oath to eat here as much as possible, for example, for every possible dinner where we don't eat out something special, we HAVE to come here to eat.

Anyways, later on, we went to Carrefour, basically a Super Wal-mart center (I think from what I understand) with a larger grocery area. For some reason, we stumbled upon face masks, and Alex mentioned how Elaine from last year wanted some with the brand name Magic. Out of pure boredom, I suggested that we try some to see what the whole fuss about them were. So, Alex and I got 1 for each of us, and tried it. Don't worry, we are just exploring our boredom and feminine side. haha

August 16, 2007

So I guess quite a bit of stuff has happened recently. Project wise, I'm beginning to slack-off I admit. After working my butt off for the first few weeks (about 12 hour days), you start getting burnt out. I feel that my project is a little screwed right now, since I don't have the computing power I need right now, and I'm having trouble submitting my job to the UCSD clusters right now. Right now I'm making a sort of pointless database I feel, that does not have what I want in it. But that's my project, and I prefer not really getting into it right now.

I went to watch Transformers with a co-worker Sun Yuanhua. It was 25 RMB per ticket which is maybe about $3.50. I thought that the movie was really good, but it was still quite irritating how the Chinese government censors the movies I pay for. For some reason they bleeped out a part where they mention a country that was supposedly in the movie the only possible country to perform a hack on the government. Been trying to search what that country is, but haven't been able to find it yet. So if you find it, post it in the comments for me! Anyways, before we saw the movie, I got some quick McDonald's. I know, I know. It's McDonald's (unhealthy), but in my defense I only had 30 min. to find somewhere to eat, and eat. Well why I was there, I was talking to Sun Yuanhua, and I asked her what she believed it. It was the funniest reply every. "I believe in science, and communism.... If everyone has money and is happy, communism must be good." I thought that was great. I love China! haha

After that, I went clubbing at Vics and Baby Angel Club. Vics I thought was really overrated. The male to female ratio was quite disappointing I thought. This is how I characterize the club. Too many men, females in pairs, or just couples. It was fun overall hanging out buzzed/drunk with Ocean (a native in China), Ryan and Lynn. I think that's all that happened. So peace out then.

August 15, 2007

So quite a bit has happened, but I forgot most of it already. haha. So I'll try to go through a run-down with what has happened lately.

Research wise, I basically got a lot done. I'm getting some data, that is something but still sort of useless since I don't having any of the docking data. Mainly just waiting around for my simulations to finish. Taking about 21 days for them to run. Trying to get one job for one of my simulations working on a UCSD cluster, but haven't been able to get my job script working. Well that's to be expected since I'm not a CS major and I'm having trouble contacting the people in UCSD about it. So yeah, that's about it for research (the short version at least).

Now something I really wanted to talk about was how recently the blogs were removed from the PRIME website. I've had a lot of time to reflect about this, and it's something I feel I would like to express, and I feel many other students feel also. Although I understand the reasons why they were taken down, I feel that this should have been foreseen - referring to the reason of safety and personal information in the blogs. Talking to past people about the program, apparently this sort of personal information in the blogs have surfaced before; not safety wise though from what I now, but there might be. Anyways, these blogs I feel were created solely for the PRIME program since I felt like I was indirectly asked to make one. So I made a website and a blog just for the program. Even though it was not in the requirements, I was under the impression that it was sort of expected from us in an off the record way. And now that the blogs have been taken down for reasons that I thought were obvious, I am quite disgruntled. I don't believe I was ever mad, but I do believe that before and still now I am irritated. So yes, I just wish such an obvious thing like PERSONAL information in PUBLIC blogs would've been considered earlier in the beginning of the program. So that is my schpeel about this topic.

So Ryan's gone from the program, a little sad about it. I thought it was quite sudden how he had to move out. Basically, the night before he moved out, he just told me he was moving out. It was quite sad how sudden it was. At least he's still in Beijing.

And now since the program is over, I guess it's time for some thinking about where I am. So I have learned a lot. I guess everyone does that. So I'll make it short. blah blah blah Bl- blah blah BLAH! haha Going into this program in the beginning, I would've like to go down under in Australia, just to go down under, or go to Japan since for the whole school year before I was in a Japanese lab, and at least I would've had some connections in Osaka. And in my first couple weeks in China I have to admit that I was quite envious. But now, I don't think I am since a lot of what I have learned has come from a different side. Instead of just being exposed to a new culture, I have been exposed to a, I don't know... ghetto lifestyle. My bathroom floor floods all the time. I am used to being splashed with some funky China puddle water stuff all the time. Stepping on spit. Seeing little kids take little cream or brown colored poops on the streets (man I wish I had pictures of these things. I just saw one today!). People laying on China streets. Almost getting hit by cars all the time and always getting honked at. Now looking back at what I've just written, this does make China look pretty bad. But I don't think that's necessarily the right way of thinking at it. I think this is just one way of seeing how much I've been blessed with, and something that I have always taken granted before in my life. So I think living in would at least I call a "ghetto" environment for my high American standards has taught me a lot. And this is why I'm now happy for being here in China

Back to what I've experienced. Saw the new Harry Potter movie in a real Chinese theater. It was okay; lots of technical glitches though with the movie. The theater was in this huge shopping building. I think it was about 5 floors. I finally found out where people our age spend their time other than internet cafes in China. They go to the freaking arcades! Never knew that. The shopping there was really expensive; about American price for stuff. Got some LEGAL dvd's there - 300 and City of Angels. Watched them, and I got to say I am a little irritated since they censor stuff of the dvd's. Mainly the nude/sex scenes, but I still got to say that I am annoyed since I never asked them to censor or cut my movies. I just feel like my movies have been violated in one way or another. So lesson learned, don't buy legal dvd's here in China. Who knew? haha I think it's interesting how rude people in China can be, even in the rich areas like this high class shopping mall. When we left the theater from the fifth floor to get out of the building, the elevators got packed. Well so when I got on the elevator, where I was one of the first people to get on, like usual the elevator became overweight and wouldn't budge. So people just stood there for awhile not wanting to get off. Out of courtesy, I just got off the elevator out of free will to help everyone out and waited for the next one, even though I was one of the first ones to get on the elevator. I mean I don't mind getting off; I just think it's I think odd how not even the rich people in China have much courtesy, like the last people onto an elevator to get off so that it would move.

Did some more shopping in the Wu Dao Kou street earlier too. Sort of like Silk Street, but more for locals. Got a pair of fake Aeropostale shorts for $7, and got some good gel pens there for about 10 cents each. If anyone needs stuff there, you can tell me if you really want to. Hey, it'll just be a fun excuse for me to go shopping. haha

Found a random mall underground in the Tech district by my place. I know, a random mall that I never knew existed. But in my defense, it was underground. I usually don't look underground for a whole mall. haha Lots of expensive stuff there. Apparently there's Playboy shoes. Wanted to get some, but they don't have them in my size. Dang it. I plan to go there and do some shopping. Wow I love shopping. I finally found a decent Hello Kitty store there. So going to buy a lot of stuff there. Not for me of course, but for friends back in the U.S. Plan to go back there tomorrow and buy some stuff when I watch Transformers with a co-worker there.

So what else has happened? Went to English Corner again (a place where Chinese people go to practice their English on Friday nights). I basically went there because I wanted something to do and I was pretty much bored out of my mind in Beijing. Just wanted to listen to people and laugh how people crowded around people with light skin (denoting that they're Caucasian). Weren't that many foreigners there as last time. Out of curiosity there though, I wanted to see how long it would take to build a crowd if I made it known that I was American. So started speaking, and then lost count. But I was told I was able to make the crowd in about 1-2 minutes supposedly. Planning to go back there again this Friday to try it out again.

I finally got my trip after my work at CNIC ends arranged. I expect it to cost a little over $1000. This is in U.S. money, not RMB; so that's quite a lot. First going to Xi'an for one quick day to see the terracotta statues (the statues of a chinese army). Then going to Chengdu, for some good old food and tea houses. Apparently there are a lot of "beautiful girls" there as I'm told by locals here. Eh, don't really care, got a girlfriend back in the U.S. Then going to Huang Long and Jiu Zhai Gou. Two nature areas that are supposed to be really beautiful and famous. A lot of Chinese film scenes are filmed there, such as the lake scene in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon where they fight is in Hang Kong. Then, I am going to go to Yangtze River cruise. And FINALLY I get back to my roots in Shanghai. Planning to do A LOT OF SHOPPING THERE! HAHAHAHAHA And I'll finally be able to understand people there in good old Shanghainese. Zei wei Beijing and nong hao Shanghai! hahahahahaha So excited! I will finally be able to UNDERSTAND PEOPLE! And people will at least have some fashion sense there. So obviously, really excited for my trip and getting out of this forsaken, boring city called Beijing. I wish the program was in Shanghai, but that would never happen since probably no one would be able to understand sanghai eiwu there.

So soon until the program is over. So soon until I'm in Shanghai. So I can't wait.