Today was a good day. I woke up at about 8am. Cousin wasn't around. Yeh yeh and auntie came to pick me up along with my dad's luggage since he's coming in tonight. After we dropped it off at auntie's place, yeh yeh took me to dimsum in the middle of this park. I didn't know half of the people at the table but I think they're somehow related to me. After we finished eating, we took a walk around the park together and we saw this group of about 5 guys doing taichi. We stop to watch and 2 min later, half of my family has joined in perfectly in sync with the whole group. I was impressed.

After we parted ways with my unknown family, yeh yeh took me shopping at the brilliance mall and then took me to get a haircut. It was very hard to try and tell them how I wanted my hair, especially when I didn't even know. I'm used to going into a salon and kind of describing it and having the stylist finish my sentences. Anyways, I ended up with something I don't know if I'm happy or depressed about but who am I trying to impress anyways?

After the haircut, we went back to auntie's place where I fell asleep waiting for my dad, only to wake up and find out he wouldn't be in for quite a bit longer. So here I am, back at my place, I gave up waiting because I didn't want to impose on auntie. Hopefully I can wake up early enough to take a taxi there to say goodbye.

Some things:
1. today was the first day I really spent time with yeh yeh in a long long time.
2. being a girl has suck moments
3. i can't wait to watch more prison break when i'm done writing this.
4. i need a really loud ringtone so i can stop missing every call
5. i want a webcam now.
6. goooodbye.

I'm here!

The trip here was long. We stopped in San Francisco for a few hours and rode the BART to get lunch in some Spanish looking area. We had burritos! The plane trip to Shanghai was 12 hours and 38 minutes. I didn't even get a window seat. It's weird that it was the first time I didn't get to sit by the window in my life and I've traveled alot. It's always nice to have something (not someone) to lean on when you fall asleep. Well, I guess someone would be nice too, just not a stranger. I had an unspoken "who can play their gameboy the longest" contest with the guy 1 seat way from me. I won of course.

My family has been great about trying to get me settled in. My grandfather from HK has been running all around town with us for the past few days just to make sure we stay safe. He's been a real champ. I can only imagine how tired it makes him. I already feel like I'm going to fall over by 7pm. My dad and I have been at each other's throats trying to make a bunch of decisions before he leaves but I know i'll totally miss him when he leaves next week. Mainly because he's my only translator and i'll be left with only the chinese/english dictionary that I don't even own yet! jk..!

I just got settled into my temporary place yesterday. I've been living here for a few days but it doesn't feel like home until it has internet and my hair straightener works. I'm going to have to thank the internet guy from Maldives for this post. He got me all setup. I didn't even know a place called Maldives existed. Apparently, it's a country! The place I'm in now is really simple. Hopefully, when I transfer to the university I'll be at for a year starting Fall, our apartment will be alot bigger and higher up with a view. We have to stay here for now because Shanghai is so huge that if we got an apt closer to the other university we'd spend an hour and a half trying to get to class everyday.

It's a little difficult to get accustomed to everything. My laundry is currently hanging outside on our balcony to dry. Panties, socks and everything! My bed is crazy hard. I miss my pillow mattress from back home. My main transportation is the used bicycle I bought from a little shack in the middle of the university. It's lavender and says FOREVER. Very pimp. I'm thinking about buying it a little bell so i can pretend like i'm honking at people. If I die here, it'll be because I got run over by a taxi. Streets are chaotic. Everything is very loud and the city never sleeps. I'm still pretty stoked about being here but I'm sure the novelty will wear out soon and I'll be yelling out my window for everyone to please SHHHHH!

Another thing is I can't get streaming video of grey's or heroes from the abc/nbc site. They don't cater to people from "my location". I have to BT everything which is kind of sucky. Most of the blogging websites seem to be banned. Maybe it's just me. Wikipedia is definitely banned. Myspace works though! Actually, China has their own myspace now.

Anyways, I guess that's it for now. I miss everyone so much, especially Jack. Kristen gave me a best friend necklace the day before I left. I haven't gotten one of those since 4th grade. I would have thought she was silly if I wasn't leaving the country but since I was, I wanted to cry.

Deuuuuuuce