first weekend(what a doozy)

Success breeds success.

Went on a boat trip on tuesday. Met a ton of people. Got a phone number. Got social proofed to hell and back because I was never not talking to a group of girls.

The next day all the girls wanted to talk to me again. And my cute teacher took notice. I blatantly started flirting with her in class. She brought up this learning to sing Chinese songs class being offered one afternoon this week. She asked me if I sang, and I said: “why yes of course”. I sang the Chinese kid song that everyone knows “Jiao jiao jiao pengyou ni xihuan de jiao pengyou.” Chinese people think its hilarious when white guys sing this. She was laughing, told me I was “lovely” and then she asked me to sing something else. I said “no its your turn” She said “no its not, sinnnnng” we went back and forth, in the middle of the class(during the break, but everyone was still there just watching.) “no you” “no you” “no you” “no you” etc. finally she says “I hate you” and starts to leave, and as shes half way to the door I say “I STILL LOVE YOU”. The class erupted in laughter, and she laughed too, but continued to leave. I looked around and the class was just full of astonished faces. I was the alpha male of the class. For the first time in my life. It was unreal.

Anyway, waited until Friday, and continued my cocky funny attitude. She mentioned she was getting a cold during class. After class told her I was busy Friday and Saturday, but on Sunday I wanted to hang out with her. I told her it was a secret where we were going. She didn’t seem to really believe I wanted to go out with her. Anyway she said OK and I got her number.

I had the most successful weekend I've had since that freak lucky weekend junior year when I had 2 girls in two nights.

This weekend was better. I owned the party. I'm finally finally finally able to get in touch with my inner wild child. Not the mischeivous one, but the guy that everyone loves me for. Before he might come out rarely, and people would know "hey, he can be cool, alright" but it was rare. However, I've finally figured out the key to being that guy on command. Holy shit I love it so much.

Friday, I went out with two girls. One of them was cute, the other not. I decided I would learn to enjoy social proof. I put one on each arm as we walked in and let everyone see me. We joined a table that had been reserved, and the guy there let us stay because he wanted to hit on the cute one. I warned her to not get too drunk, and that if she did I would carry her home, so not to worry.

I drank my face off. I met a girl who claimed to be a bigger alcoholic than anyone at our table(for those of you not of my generation, this is said in gest, none of us are acutally alcoholics. Get with the program), so I decided to see what she was about. She was European, 7.5(face=6.5, body=8) We shot the shit, I told her some interesting stuff about her rings, qualified and did the question game. I told her I would do dirty things to her. She told me she had a bf(poo) and that he was sitting two people down from her(double poo) and THEN proceeded to tell me how much she hated him, and how needy he was (HAHAHAHA YAY) Anyway, I had some drinks with her, but she had her pathetic BF there(they had only been together for two weeks, and it seemed like she wanted to deal with it rather than cheat on him. I told her I would do dirty things to her again, and she seemed to like the statement. When I left, she was sitting on the front steps of the bar, with the guy, obviously having “the talk”. I just sat in the cab and we stared at each other as I pulled away. I made her want me really badly. I was proud.

Went to Windows (my favorite place) and got more drunk. Danced like a crazy person. Made out with the cute girl I was with. Had one last shot of tequila with 2 african guys I had never met before. I just passed out against the window of the cab on the way home. We got back to my hotel. I woke up and felt better. Tanenobu’s friend went back to her place(next building over from mine).

Saturday. Woke up, kicked Tanenobu out. Found out that blue ice had a free open bar from 8:30 till 11, no cover. WHAAAAAT free drinks? For free? I’M THERE. Jason was sick Friday, but he came out tonight. The place was pretty much deserted, but we met these sweetish guys, and drank with them for 2 hours. It was fun, one of them knew hockey inside out like me, and I had a great conversation with him. After that, we left, and went straight to windows. I love that place. We got there, 7 dollar cover(50yuan)I grabbed my free drink, and hit the dance floor. I got blown out of the set I tried first. But the sweed was in with his, and there was no way I was going to lose. I kept going up to new groups. Going nuts, and then asking why they were dancing so lamely. I would then “show them” how to dance sexually, and finally I found a cute girl who just started dancing with me. She started playing hard to get with the kiss thing, so I took my thigh stuck it between her leg and dragged it along her crotch. Then she tried to do it to me(but more of a playful knee to the nuts). I caught her leg between mine and pinned it there, grabbed her face and started making out with her. She loved it. We made out all over the place. In a chair, on the dancefloor, outside etc. It was just fun touching each other. Later I got her number but I couldn’t split her from her friend.

This morning, I woke up and texted her. She sent one back and said that she was at work, and would text me later. She did, she called me darling. I love knowing what that means now, and what I have to do about it. She’s leaving on weds for something and coming back in September, but whatever, I’ll use it as practice.

My teacher sent me a text saying she had caught a really bad cold. Which works out great, because I never really planned anything to do with her. I couldn’t find the driving range. And I figured I’d improvise when I had to or something. She was sick before, I believe her. I sent her a text saying not to worry, “you can make it up to me later ;p”.

Now I just need to figure out what to say to Cecile(night 2 hookup).

I love China. I own this town.

first class

This is hard, Im rustier than i thought i was, but not as bad as i was my first class last fall. I'll be able to catch up within the week rather than within the first 2 months. Classes here put you in the spotlight more often. We would go around the room being asked individual questions, or sometimes we would be called up individually infront of the class for success or humiliation. Other times it would be a listening comprehention, and you were given a multiple choice. If you got it wrong, the next person had a 50/50 shot at making you look like a retard. Its a little stressful. on the other hand, it keeps my heart pumping and my brain engaged for 4 straight hours. There is no escape.

Unlike last year, im not the worst in my class. My speaking is my shiny beacon of light, while my character reading could use some work. Before I was pretty bad at both. I can usually understand what the teacher is saying, the only exception is if she just starts speaking at her normal speed when she starts talking to more to her herself than anyone else.

The second teacher I have is pretty hot, and she just couldn't stop smiling at me yesterday. ooooOOOOOoooo. There is also a japanese girl who sits next to me who isn't bad. I think she's interested too. Unfortunately her english is pretty bad, but her chinese is about as good as mine in terms of spoken ability, so maybe that will go somewhere.

I've got to stop waking up at 5:30 in the morning. I hate Jetlag.

Last day before class

Today was our placement test.

I have come a long way since i took the Fudan placement test the first time last fall. I remember having trouble answering almost all of the questions asked, aside from the most super basic, like what my namewas and some stuff about the weather. I think the only reason I was able to skip the A section and get into the B class was that I could write my Chinese name perfectly.

This time around was much more fluid. I was able to write my name as before, and fully introduce myself, telling her about what country i was from, where i went to college, what state it was in, read a few passages out of some different books, and argue that i should be in a harder class. All in chinese. I was a little proud of myself, and I'm pretty rusty, so I've still got some wealth effect to enjoy over the next week or two.

One of my favorite teachers who I had last fall was there too, and she remembered my name. I guess she must have liked me. I think I have her again, so thats good news. She was the best out of the three at making us speak with more fluidity. I really fit into her teaching style well.

The afternoon was spent running a few errands and watching a movie. During the movie it started to rain really hard. It rains hard every day here i've found. It was just like the monsoon I described in an earlier post, except this one didn't stop after a half hour. This one went on for hours. It was pretty cool. when the movie was finished, there was about 4 inches of water on the driveway outside my window.

We needed to eat dinner, so we got our bikes and started plowing through the water. Riding bikes through water is a really cool feeling. The closest thing I can compare it to would be skiing in powder, but stranger. we got about 10 feet out of the driveway from our hotel, and the water doubled in height.

We looked around and saw a restaurant we hadn't tried just across the street, and decided we'd gone far enough. The food was mediocre, but I had the first beer I've had since I've been here. It was nice. Beers here are (in my opinion) the perfect size for dinner. 600ml(about 2 regular beers).

My bike broke again, so I guess i'll be taking a cab to class tomorrow morning, no biggy, but i really wish this would stop happening. Its getting tedious much faster than its getting expensive.

Believing that my class will be full of cute girls tomorrow......

chinese massages

Today was a slower day. After figuring out the tuition situation along with a few other things, we went to lunch at the Fudan restaraunt. That was some DAMN good chinese food.

During the afternoon, we were hot and slothlike, and just ended up watching "Thank you for smoking". If you havn't seen it, leave your house immediately and rent/buy/steal it. Its fantastic.

Dinner was beef sticks(including chicken hearts, my favorite) and this pancake thing made with some sort of batter, an egg, soy sauce, spices, and this weird cracker. We followed that up with the most expensive full body massage we could buy(about 15 bucks). It was an hour and a half long, with oils, a seperate head massage and a shower with one of those shower heads that makes it feel like its raining rather than being in a shower. One part of it was actually pretty difficult, their hands would come dangerously close to my unmentionables on several occations, and I had to muster all of my will power not to pop wood. That took some real concentration and some unpleasant memory recall skills, but I made it.

It was also the second time(out of 2) that I thought i heard the women commenting that we were good looking guys. It was between each other, and i don't think they thought we could understand, but I could pick out certain words and phrases, and I'm pretty sure thats what they were saying. At one point one of them asked me my age. "22" I said. "ohhhh 22!" i guess they were 21, and had we both not been incredibly rusty on our chinese, Im sure we could have gotten dates. Too bad, they were cute.

I love this country.

Morning

Woke up this morning to find:

a)It was 3am and I was wide awake
b)I had fallen asleep in all my clothes on top of my blankets at 7pm the night before desperately trying to stay awake to battle the jet lag.
c) I was absolutely starving, because in my wearyness the night before, I had forgotten to eat dinner.

It wasn't a highlight by any stretch of the imagination.

however, around 7, we went out for breakfast, and guess what I found.

A BIG HAM EGG AND CHEESE SANDWICH!!!!!!!
It was some sort of Thai thing, the bread was this fried dough sort of thing, and i bought my own ham and cheese at the store to use on it, but it was fucking amazing.

Thank god.

Still have to pay for the course(needs to be in cash), but my credit card has this safety feature which only lets me take out a certain amount of money per day. Its stupid, but oh well.

my very own disclaimer, and events from day 2

After reading my first post, a certain unnamed person demanded that I show him the 'R' rated version of this blog. I would like to make one thing very clear. My posts thus far have been simple because what I've been doing has been simple. If you are below the age of 18, go away. Seriously, I mean it. Im happy all you guys are following along with my blog here, and as much as I do love entertaining you all, thats not why I'm writing this. This blog is here so that years down the line, I can look back and see things as I see them now all over again, through my 22 year old eyes, and for better or for worse, this is me and my personality. Just a forwarning. (don't get scared, it wont turn into a penthouse forum journal)

Phew! now that we have that crap out of the way, lets move onto todays events.

Jet lag, what more can I say about jet lag. It sucks, I hate it, and its kicking my ass. Both jason and I woke up at about 4AM this morning after going to sleep around midnight(at least we are sleeping in the right part of the day), and found ourselves wide awake. We had both fallen asleep trying to watch the movie '300' the night before, so we started it over from the begining.

300 is a great movie,,,,if you are a guy. You know all those romance novels that women love to tell you are outselling every other genre by leaps and bounds? This movie is the equal and opposite side to that idea. The movie was powerful, goal oriented, and even the women in the movie spoke with authority, logic, and had a viciousness to them that is just plain hot. None of the characters were annoyingly hindered by fear. It uses images of being on the brink of life and death as a way to instigate the bliss of the 'male mission'. If you don't understand what I'm saying, go watch the movie, and read up on some male/female pychology, its cool stuff.

After the movie and a few episodes of US tv shows, we went out for a tasty breakfast of dumplings and a banana. I would have really liked to have an american breakfast, but unless you have a kitchen, no one is up that early to cook them for you. Jason had this thing that was sort of like fried dough but tasted like soup crackers. Not bad, but not really my cup of tea. He seemed to like it.

Today turned out to be hotter than yesterday. It was 7:30AM when we decided to get breakfast, and within 20 feet of exiting the hotel, I already had beads of sweat falling down my face. Im not exagerating, its just that humid here.

After we got back we moved out of our hotel and into our actual dorm for this month. It was a hot, burdened(from all 5000 lbs of my luggage), and miserable move. BUT we were rewarded. Jason and I are living in a suite together. We have a small common room with a couch and a wide coffee table, with 2 single rooms branching off of it. Oh, and we each have queen beds, all for the pleasantly low price of 10 dollars a day.

Today was more successful than last night.
1) We moved into our room(free internet yayyy)
2) We bought bikes(before we bought them we figured that over the last 2 days we had walked over 7 miles just trying to put our lives together, so having a bike is going to make a tremendous difference. turned out to be 22 bucks with the lock included)
3) We bought cellphones(just local use)

Oh, another thing of note. We were cought in a flash monsoon that lasted for about a half hour we were packed under a 10 foot by 30 foot canopy generally used for keeping bikes out of the elements. I've never seen rain fall that hard for that long and be that violent the whole time.

Also one of our cab drivers today kept asking how much things in america costed, and he was really interested in what (we think this is what he was saying, he had a thick accent) jewlery costs in the states. he asked us all sorts of questions about american jewlery, watches and other accessories. I named him Bling and refered to him as such for the rest of the cab ride. I was entertained.

My digestive track has yet to start fighting with me about this new food im shoving into it 3 meals a day. Maybe I'll get by without too bad of a time, knock on wood.

Its 6:45pm right now and im exhausted. Till later...

The longest day

Today started like any other day. Let me rephrase that. Today started like any other day would if you got up at 4 in the morning. Poorly. I mean, even my dad waits till 4:30, and that’s saying something.

The rents accompanied me to the airport security checkpoint, and I must say, neither one made a scene, I was quite proud. The flight to Chicago went by cleanly. Turns out Jason’s flight was delayed by half an hour, so I had plenty of time to look around the terminal for who I hoped I would be sitting next to. Sadly, the options weren’t too amazing, which I found strange as Chicago women are one of the best looking groups of people I’ve ever seen or heard of. Don’t say you know better unless you’ve been there.

Our flight ended up being delayed by almost 2 hours, and I was super duper bored.

Somehow my Tylenol PM slipped out of my bag after I packed it, but thankfully the guy next to me had some(it was packaged mom, don’t get upset). I got 4 hours of sleep early on and then watched tv shows I had downloaded for the rest of the 14 hour plane trip. Numbs the brain, but not having them would have been infinitely much worse.

We got ripped off big time by the cab driver from the airport, but he had a sweet car and his A/C was cranked up, so 60 bucks for a 1.5 hour cab ride split between two people seemed like a worthy choice, especially because it was 99 degrees Fahrenheit and humid. It was like Satan’s cruel twist on a swimming pool.

We arrived at our dorm, only to find that the lady at the front desk couldn’t help us get a room, and that we would need to call a certain number tomorrow during business hours to get one. She gave us the address of a nearby hotel and sent us our merry(translation: pissed off) way. The hotel is fine, we are sharing a room, nothing new there. Two beds, A/C, a water cooler with no outlet that fits the plug it has, and there is also a power strip that doesn’t fit in the wall either, don’t think about that too hard or you’ll be heading down aneurism ally.

We changed out of our sweat filled clothes, and set out with goals of:

1) Buy a bike

2) Use bike to get to cell phone store

3) Use bike to get to muslim noodle shop

4) Park bike at the dorm and walk back to the hotel

This isn’t exactly how it happened, the bike shop was closed, so it went more like this:

1) walk to bike store only to be utterly disappointed(bike store is farthest point from everything but worth the walk if you are actually going to get a bike)

2) walk to cellphone store(it’s a 20 min walk from the bike shop) and sweat my balls off only to find out that that was closed too.(Most things don’t close before 10PM in china so these were strange coincidences

3) sweat more more more

4) Eat delicious piping hot noodles which while delicious are just adding to my core body temperature. I actually started lifting my shirt up so it would expose my stomach and upper chest, and leaving it there. It’s a Chinese thing and it looks pretty stupid, but you feel better almost instantly.

5) Bought dvds

a. Got the fifth season of curb your enthusiasm and 300 for about 3 dollars total

6) Got an hour foot massage for 2 dollars and forgot about all that pointless walking I did earlier.

After that we headed back to the hotel to watch a movie and fall asleep. Jason is already asleep as I’m finishing this blog, that sure didn’t take long.

Walking these streets again was really sort of like dreaming. I’ve thought about this place so much over the passed 9 months, that while most of my memories in are spot on, the feel seems a little different, so it has this ethereal aura to it all. Maybe that will go away as I’m here longer, but I hope not, I can’t wipe this smile off my face for the life of me.