And so it begins...

Today’s the first day of classes.

I still can’t believe I’m here after how awesome the 2.5 weeks before I got back on campus were. It was the most relaxing 2.5 weeks I’ve had in a lonnggg time, and yet really productive…meaning I did everything. This calls for a list! Yayyy

In order of what comes to my head first (sort of)

1. I biked (to the library, Phillips middle school, to the library and through booker creek w/my dad)

2. went to the US national white water rafting development center in charlotte and in addition to WWR…

a. didn’t fall out of the boat...

i. carl did

3. I rock climbed…and made my forearms tight for the next two days

4. Completed a high ropes course…

a. Pretty sure it was b/c of this that I strained my lower back muscle

5. And thought I was going to die when I went down a zipline

6. Visited Louisa before she left for Belgium

7. Visited mary at UNC

a. Ate at jack sprat for the first time =)

8. Played tennis w/peter and Terrence at unc

9. Played ping pong w/jae and jimmy at unc

10. Had a free lunch @ Lenoir w/molly

11. Had lunch w/peter and Jessica

a. at panera…

b. And again the 2^nd week, had an egg platter at the Ye Olde Waffle Shop

12. Watched jasmine win as east’s #1 tennis player…vs. rival chapel hill high

a. Thanks for not telling me about the game not being rained out vs. the good team…Jessica.

13. Visited jean

a. Ate at devil’s bistro à ran into joon à who went to central with me and saw the newspaper’s managing editor, toni, at the chronicle office, where she sat on a couch and talked to us but still managed to boss and direct 4 or more people around

14. Played cards --zhaopeng you!

15. Watched molly play soccer again at the unc club soccer game vs. ecu

a. Remembered that ecu is still really hick

b. Saw molly’s room…she has a slide from her bed!

i. Went down the slide while gripping her pillow…crashed into the bookcase 1 ft away from the bottom of the slide and bumped my head on the bottom of the chair of her roommate, katy perry.

16. Visited duke and saw jean and joon

a. Finally got to sit on the rocking boat chair thing

b. Saw toni for like a minute

17. Biked to Phillips and saw ms Campbell…

a. And Ms. Bryant! I didn’t know she still taught there

18. Had lunch w/lisa @ unc

19. Went on a walk w/Katie at duke

20. Bought the 4-pk of yogurt parfaits and yo crunch yogurt

a. Washed and saved the containers…

21. Read something borrowed by Emily giffen…

22. And then borrowed Something Blue the next day from toni

a. Which reminds me that I accidently made the cover of toni’s book blue with a big smudge of my thumbprint…SORRRY ><

23. Also read a Thousand Splendid Suns

a. I feel like I’m forgetting another book I read…

24. Bought two former nytimes #1 best sellers for $1 each at the library

25. Went to PF Chang’s with Toni’s family like old time’s

a. PF Chang’s was surprisingly yummy

b. Got free lettuce wraps b/c

26. Built the Titanic...which also crashed...

>

can't you tell it's the titanic from the two towers?

27. Made dumplings w/my parents

28. Watched Salt (AWEESOMME movie btw) w/David and Sean when they came to my house

29. Skyped with Louisa in Belgium

a. And Jeremy in Germany

30. Got super hugs on my last day

31. Blogged

32. Got my retainer reglued to my bottom teeth

33. Watched movies

a. Too many to think of right now, I’m sure I left out a lot: Salt, Ratatouille (I really liked this movie!), Up (disappointed by this one), the kite runner (not sure how to feel about this movie), Michael clayton, half of the curious case of benjamin button (why did it have to be so loonnng, I want to finish it), body of lies (pretty cool movie)

34. Watched the US Open at Jessica’s

35. Watched some tv

a. Simpsons! Friends! ANTM hahah

b. Does it count if I streamed the season finale of monk at school, but before classes started?

36. Ate yellow peaches. FINALLY!!

a. I think I averaged 5-7 a day depending on how big the peach was. Mmmmm peaches

37. Had tons of grapes and watermelon!

38. Ate yummy vegetable dumplings

39. Ate many lobster tails…as in I had mine and most of my mom’s and dad’s, and even a bite of victor’s

40. Ate seafood pan fried noodles at HK restaurant

41. Ate couscous and realized it tastes better than my 6^th grade memory of it

42. Balled at the community center

a. 1^st week home, played full court pickup on Wed at 7 – 830 AM; Friday from 620-8 AM; 2^nd week: Wednesday from 620-8 AM.

i. I’ve never been so glad to be jetlagged

43. Stared at the BLUE SKIES EVERY DAY

44. Enjoyed the dry heat and how a “bad” weather day was better than average in Beijing

45. Did I mention the deep Carolina blue skies?

46. Baked peanut butter butterscotch cookies…but cutting the sugar in half and accidently putting in half a stick too much butter made me make the crumbiest cookies I’ve ever made. Literally and taste wise, as in they were probly the worst cookies I’ve ever made. One touch and they’d fall apart and the cookie part wasn’t sweet at all, it only had a light taste of sweet…so pretty much my “cookie” became crumbs and butterscotch chips covered with cookie crumbs. Haha since I just got back from china tho, I liked them because they weren’t too sweet.

47. …and white chocolate blueberry bars

48. And peanut butter nutella cookies…

49. And Oreo brownies…

50. AND Raspberry Tiramisu cupcakes with two of my oldest and best friends. Although it took us three hours…by us I mean me and toni, because Jessica came, left, and came back to eat the food from my house and not help hahah. Look at how complicated the recipe was!

a. Discovered that the little yogurt containers I saved are PERFECT cupcake holders! =D

This is what we baked:

Well, attempted to bake at least.

This is how ours turned out:


Check out the cup cake holders!

Yay for reusing!

Quotes after tasting the cupcake: "I want 400."..."Those cupcakes are sooo freakin amazing!!"

Maybe I'll just open a bakery after I fail this semester.

1.3 billion means NO customization

China has too many people. I don’t know why I never noticed it before in all my other trips to China, but there are WAY too many people in China. It’s not that I’m particularly bothered by the fact that there are tons of people everywhere or that it’s crowded on the subway, etc., but I’m more annoyed by how because there are so many people, most people tend to be selfish, inconsiderate, rude, and strict rule followers. (I don’t want to say everybody, but it’s pretty damn close). By selfish/rude, I mean people tend to have an “I’m gonna get mine”/me first mentality, ie lines disappear once the bus comes and become mobs as people try to do the loop around move and cut to the front, cutting people off/not letting people in traffic lanes, not letting pedestrians cross even when there’s a walk light—pretty sure yield does not translate in Chinese.

At first, when I was disturbed but not at all surprised, I decided that I was not gonna become inconsiderate as them, but after dealing with this day in and day out for weeks, I noticed that waiting in line was pointless and developed just have an eff you, let’s see your little Chinese ass push me mentality—which was incredibly entertaining because the men never pushed me (at least intentionally), only the women. My fav part was that the women who were trying to push me out (b/c I just did the loop around and go wide to the door move to get on the bus) were 1. Clearly trying to be subtle (b/c they would only look straight ahead, never at you) but still push you hard enough to try and get you out of the edge of the mob circle and 2. Reached my shoulder and were probly under 100 lbs. haha I loved it. In return, I just pushed them back and squeezed on the bus before them. ><

(Note that this only occurs with a mass of strangers. A Chinese person among a group of acquaintances is overly polite.)

Anyways, because of there are too many people in China, customer service sucks. Actually, nonexistent is a better adj. Maybe it’s because you don’t tip in China, so they have no incentive to be courteous, helpful, or considerate, but somehow I doubt it. Maybe it’s just because I was in a big city for the majority of my 10 ½ weeks in China, and city people everywhere are just impatient…would New Yorkers would be the same of there were like 10 million people who lived in Manhattan? My uncle's reasoning was that there’s no such thing as customization for your food in a restaurant, esp big and busy ones, because there are so many people…if everyone wanted their pizza a certain way, then there’s no way that you food would ever finish in time…that makes no sense. What kind of restaurant is that? What if I had some sort of health issue and had to control my sodium intake?

Maybe traffic would be similar, but somehow I think customer service would still exist. I think during my 3 days in Shanghai, the sentence that I heard most often was along the lines of “I can’t do ___ because it’s against the rules.”It’s not like we were requesting anything remotely far from reasonable…I mean is it that unreasonable to request a small red bean shaved ice?

This is how hard it is to get a small cup of red bean shaved ice.

Me: I’d like that 8 yuan cup of red bean shaved ice, but I don’t want the green beans (not the vegetable).

Nice vendor: I’m not sure we can do that, let me ask…

Old lady who clearly hates people and her job but can’t find a better job to let her quit and thus has been working the same job for too many years and is a strict bitch rule follower b/c she has nothing else going for her. (She’s kind of like the lady at Walmart who you know is a Walmart-lifer and won’t let you film in the store, but a complete bitch instead of just plain mean and bitter): No you can’t, that’s not allowed. (not even a sorry, just an I hate my making smoothies island tone)

Me: But I don’t want the green bean part, I only want red beans.

Mean old lady: Well if you only want red beans, you have to get the red bean shaved ice mountain. (It’s 17 yuan and like 2-3 times bigger).

Me: But I don’t want that much. I want a small cup of red bean shaved ice. (I had a feeling that she was trying to make me spent 17 yuan instead of 8).

MOL: We don’t have small cups. You can only get that mountain if you want red bean only.

Me: What if you just give me the same amount of red bean that you would put in a normal red bean-green bean cup and then just didn’t give me the green beans?

MOL: No, that’s not allowed.

Me: Why not?

MOL: Because, it’s against the rule. For that 8 yuan deal, you have to get the combo.

Me: But I’m planning on paying the same amount of the same amount of red bean that you usually put in it, it’s not like I’m asking for extra red bean.

MOL: You still can’t get it without the green beans.

Me: Why? (Starting to get frustrated and slightly amused by how stupid this convo is). I’m gonna pay the same price and you save some green bean toppings.

MOL: Because. It’s against the rules.

This is pretty much the debate that I had with her for at least 3 minutes before I realized that she was a lifer and gave up.

Then, my uncle tag-teamed for me…

My uncle to the nice vendor: Hi, I’d like this small cup of red bean shaved ice.

MOL now fixing the smoothie machine: No, you’re not allowed.

My uncle: Why not?

MOL: Because. It’s against the rules. You’re not allowed to get the special without getting the green beans.

My uncle caused a little more trouble and caused the smoothie island lifer to return to the register and summarized my 3 minute debate to the lady…twice. 10 some minutes and a very pissed off hag later…SUCCESS.

We were pioneers for all of the New World Mall food court customers who wanted a small cup of red bean shaved ice that day, making it easier for everyone else. Right after I got my small cup of red bean shaved ice, the lady behind us approached the counter, points to my cup, and was like “I’d like a small cup of red bean shaved ice”…hahahah I think the MOL wanted to strangle somebody after that, so I didn’t hang around to watch.

Fortunately, for the MOL, she probly won’t end up being a smoothie island lifer because it wasn’t very good. In fact, I didn’t know red bean shaved ice could taste so flavorless…hahaha. Maybe it woulda tasted better if I had got it with green beans and she just was looking out for me…

Even tho I didn’t get my red bean fix that day, it was ok because on the first floor, there was a BreadTalk!

Mmmmm red bean nian gao inside soft chewy bread.
Red Bean Mochi--now easily the best thing that BreadTalk has.

The land of the few and the home of the toilet

I'm sure you're all wondering, did I make it? Yup. My plan worked. I slept for most of the car ride to Shanghai. We made it to the outer edge of Shanghai (about 575 km) in prob approx 5.25 hours of real driving because we stopped two or three times for prob 75 min…my uncle drove insanely fast. On the highway, he was probly avging 150, driving btwn 140-180 km an hour, which is like 80-115 mph. And I can't say for sure, but at least on the outside, the rest stops in China have been renovated and are a huge upgrade from years past, but that's only b/c they were THAT bad. Like scarringly bad.

I spent the first few hours of the Tokyo-Narita à Detroit flight worrying about what to declare on the customs form and then worrying about if I had made the right decision to declare food, but then I was so excited to come back to America that I couldn't sleep for the last 3/4 of the flight back (and none of the flight to RDU) even tho I went to sleep btwn 230 and 3 and woke up at 5 to go to the airport and stopped worrying about getting all my luggage confiscated at customs. (BTW, I got thru w/o having my bags checked at all! =DDD)

After today, I have been back in the US for a week, and god it feels good to be back. Not that China was bad, but I forgot how amazing Chapel Hill is and how I'm so used to American life. I'd tell everybody in China that back home, the skies are always blue…but I hadn't been in Chapel Hill for so long that I forgot and was wondering if 1. I was exaggerating and 2. If that's even possible. Let me tell you, 1. I was not exaggerating and 2. It is possible. I love waking up and not having to wonder what color the sky's gonna be. Even when it's 95 out here, it's a dry 95 and feels better than 85 in Beijing/Shanghai/Linyi.

Other than the weather, other adjustments/differences/observations during the week about life here vs. china:

1. YELLOW (freestone) PEACHES. Oh how I've missed you so much. I think I've ate like 40 some since I've got home because I think I averaged at least 5 a day…mmmm
   
2. It's weird not having to log on to the Princeton VPN everytime I want to use the internet and weird not taking a picture of everything that I eat at a restaurant now…
   
3. Nothing tastes as good…I really want mapo tofu and kungpao chicken, but it's still inferior to a restaurant in china. Sigh.
   
4. Where did all the people go? When there's a "crowd" on Franklin, it doesn't seem like a lot.
   
   1. It was weird (and nice) that I didn't have to be paranoid about if the car next to you was gonna cut you off.
      
5. I love you harris teeter. So I haven't actually gone to the grocery store at 11 pm this time b/c of my (possible) jetlag that makes me insanely sleep around 9 pm, but I love how I don't have to go to the grocery store before 9 pm to get milk. I also love how the fridge at home is full.
   
6. People saying bless you after you sneeze.
   
7. Everything seems so close now. After traveling for an hour by subway/bus/walking/car to get almost anywhere worth going to, everything is pretty much within a 10 min drive!
   
8. I love not being afraid of the ground (outside and inside) anymore, esp because now I don't feel compelled to wash my feet when I come home after wearing flip flops outside. I could lie on the road in my neighborhood and not feel like I was dirty.
   
9. Great customer service. Customer service in china was abs horrible/pretty much non existent. More on this later.
   

I wonder how long these habits/opinions will last for before I become accustomed to life in the US again.