* 8/10/09 Day 37: Me and my CREW :) *

Today was another typical day in my life in China. We went to class, where we learned more pinyin and new words/ dialogues. Today’s dialogue was, “Do you want to go to the bookstore? [你去书店马?]” and “What are you looking for? [你找什么呢？] I’m looking for my wristwatch. [我的手表] Did you look on your bed? [床上找了吗？] Did you look on the bookshelf? [书架上呢？]” Yes, I know, very useful. Anyways, after class, I ate lunch with the usual peoples – Hiro (the Japanese guy), Henrik and Cilia (the Norwegians), Alvand (the Indonesian-born Singaporean guy), and me and Joanna. I like them…we all get along really well. They’re so funny! We ate lunch together at Student Street, and then we had to go register & pay for a trip that we’re going on this weekend. As part of the language class, we have weekend trips to some cities around Shanghai, so this weekend we have the option of going to Suzhou, Zhouzhuang, or Zhujiajiao. Apparently Zhouzhuang and Zhujiajiao are both canal towns and they’re pretty much the same as Tong Li (the canal town we visited with the previous program group). So me, Joanna, Henrik, Hiro, and Alvand are going to Suzhou this weekend. It’s a one day trip, so we leave on Saturday morning and get back Saturday night. It should be fun…I’m excited. We have the option of going on another trip the following weekend, to Hangzhou, Nanjing, or Wuxi, but that’s our last weekend here and it’s a 2 day trip, so I think I want to stay here and spend time with my Shanghai friends before I leave. Besides, I’ve already seen Hangzhou and that’s the best choice out of all 3.

So, after we registered for that, me and Joanna came back to the hotel to study…the class is getting harder so we need to study a lot more. We studied until 7pm, then we took the subway to meet Laurie for dinner. OMG, dinner was AMAZING. We went to this restaurant in the financial district called Blue Frog. It was like a bar/lounge place that served Western food. It was SOOO good…plus, on Monday nights they have buy one get one free burgers, so all 4 of us got burgers for half price J and the burgers were SO good. They were like better than most American burgers, because it only cost 40 yuan (=$6), and it was like this HUGE THICK JUICY burger with some fries (see picture). MMM yum. And I added a fried egg on mine, so it was even better. Yep. That was probably one of the best burgers I’ve ever had, and it wasn’t even in America.

Sigh. I’m getting tired of China. I miss California WEATHER! I miss going outside without sweating. I miss wearing jackets and sweatshirts and long sleeve shirts. And I miss customer service! Gosh! I never knew how much I appreciated customer service until it was gone. And OMG. YOU WOULDN’T BELIEVE HOW MUCH I MISS MILK AND CEREAL. It sounds stupid, but that was my staple food at home. And I CAN’T EVEN GET IT HERE. I can’t find friggin cow’s milk for the life of me. All the milk here is soy bean milk. Yeah, not good with cereal. Laurie said there’s cow milk everywhere, but I can’t seem to find it. But she said it tastes different here because of the grass that the cows eat and how they’re raised and it makes the milk taste different. I don’t doubt it…that makes sense. I need some freaking fat free American milk with cocoa puffs or something. Jeez. What else do I miss. Oh, I miss DRIVING. Today, we were in a cab, and the cab driver was CRAZY. No joke. He was out of his mind. He was turning right onto a busy road, and even though he SAW there was ONCOMING traffic, he still went. The oncoming traffic had to swerve into the next lane (which was also filled with cars) to avoid us. And he kept cursing at the other cars in Chinese (Geneva told us he was) and swerving in and out of lanes, and driving on top of the lane lines, and almost crashing into other cars. It was insane. It was completely ridiculous. I can’t wait to get home and drive Melvin in a country where people obey the traffic laws and respect your rights as a pedestrian. OH, and I miss having SPACE. I want my personal bubble back. There are WAY too many people here. Especially when it’s hot and humid, and people are squished into a tiny little elevator or subway or restaurant or store, generating their own body heat….it’s just disgusting beyond all reason. Yes, those are the main things I miss. No, I don’t miss my family or friends; I miss my milk and cereal. That’s the one thing I miss most. Milk and cereal. But it has to be together, not separate. I don’t miss just milk or just cereal. I miss milk AND cereal. 18 more days until I get me some milk and cereal.