Lazier Afternoons

So I got a dorm room in the foreign students dorm on the fifth floor. Apparently I'm legally not allowed to live with a Chinese citizen. That's nuts. Anyway, My dad's best friend and his wife housed me for a couple days and then helped me move in. They are super nice. Also, he looks like a guy in a manga that I read (20th Century Boys) that looks like a frog. Apparently in the dorms here you have to pay for pretty much everything because only the room and furniture are included in the dorm fee. That means I'm getting charged for the internet per hour, have to pay for the TV, and have to buy my own toilet paper. Oh, and water. No drinking tap water here.

Oddly enough, the first meal here I braved alone ended up being across the street from my room at an Indian restaurant (I took Simon's advice) where the lao ban spoke English. Some exciting adventure that was. While in China, I have started to be a bit more observant of the things around me, probably for a couple reasons. The first is that walking around right now I don't really have anyone to talk to, and if I do, it's a pretty big challenge to say interesting things in Chinese. A possible second is that there are just some things that I think are really peculiar here. For instance, pedestrians have like the least precedence, even on sidewalks. Cars go first, then mopeds, then electric bikes, and people on the street (lots of them) try not to die while walking around. There are condom dispensers everywhere along the streets, which I think is a little creepy. But I guess it's for a good cause - they are trying to prevent AIDS and the dispensers say so. There are a lot more sexually-ambiguously dressed people in China. Lots of guys wear really skinny pants and tight low-cut shirts and have really really long hair styled like girls' hair. Some girls also dress like dudes. I guess that's cool.

Walking around now since I can't talk as much, I end up thinking about things I would write in my blog, but then realize no one wants to read super long diatribes anyway. I went to a Wal-Mart to buy all my dorm stuff. How lame and American. I ran into some interesting people here at Fudan U too, including a girl I went to middle school with, another Warriors fan, and one of Stephanie and Teresa's freshman year suitemates. Who I creepily recognized. Lots of kids here are from the UCs on that EAP thing.

Paul Hildebrand (hi!) wrote me a fantastic email saying that I write like I talk. That's pretty cool. Anyway, for regularity, there are trade rumors going around (reputable ones) about either a Monta Randolph/Stoudemire or Beidrins Randolph/Stoudemire (or C. Bosh, but apparently the Raptors aren't interested) trade possibly going down. I feel so torn! I love Bosh and Stoudemire is sick, but I also love Monta and Beins. What to do as a Warriors fan! Can't we just drop Jamal and Magette for either! Also, would it be too ridiculous to blow $900 (American) to fly to Harbin and ski for five days and skip class? My parents read this now so I wonder what they think. I'm seriously already going through ski withdrawl though. I might go ski sometime this week or next week at the indoor place in Shanghai.

Most of the cool abroad blogs I got to read last semester had exciting adventure stories about climbing places or hitch hiking places or jumping into things. I don't think I'll have to many of those since I'm in a big city, but I really want to. I'll try to mire myself in something.