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