5 Days

I'm still alive! Been sick for the last few days, but I'm on my way back

In lieu of an actual update, here's a picture of me talking with a baby deer, and a picture of a panda:

I feel better

The Plan:

Tonight - finish laundry, pack, shower, sleep
Tomorrow - wake up, print maps, pick up visa, go to airport (and not get rejected by "the man"), go to Shanghai, make way to hostel, meet friends, be merry

Things I'm going to try to avoid: more food poisoning, getting ripped off to a ridiculous degree (I expect a little, I mean my Mandarin teacher loved to say (roughly translated) "Sam, you are an authentic American yes?"), getting tragically lost, death

Side notes from the consulate:

- Encountered the loudest guy ever. He was speaking/shouting into his phone to such a degree that the entire room was looking, pointing, rolling eyes, or laughing. It was like he was trying to shout instructions to someone locked in a room. Ridiculous.

-Sat next to somebody from the Republic of Gambia today, it's not very often that you can make that statement

-Chinese women basketball league: 99% sure that the intramural basketball team (Los Feesh) would destroy them (Audrey would drop 20 points on them). 1% is a loss because team manager GT might get the date of the game wrong so we don't show up. Has that ever happened before?

Here's to survival!

I do not feel good

Methinks a touch of the old food poisoning has struck - the wontons in UC canteen seem to be folded by the devil itself...

I've got this fever/headache too, don't know where that's coming from. Regardless, in a spectacular bit of timing I managed to throw up three times last night, each at pretty much exact two hour intervals. Plus idiot Chinese people were walking around yelling and slamming doors at 5 am. How do I know this? I went to bed at 10 (might as well just lay down), and was actually full on sleeping by 5 am, so not feeling great today.

Ugh I do not feel like doing anything...

Harsh Language Within

Ok so this was supposed to be a post about how I screwed up - I didn't realize that my China visa expired on the 10th, so getting stopped and turned back at the border was kind of a bummer, it being the 12th and all.

I was going to talk about how I was ok with this, I mean it is my fault, 100% so, after all.

I was going to talk about how kind and caring my friends are, even considering for a second not going on the trip to commiserate with me.

I was going to talk about how well I'm rationalizing this whole thing.

Then it hit me: fuck that, I'm going to China.*

See you in Shanghai








*These are the exact words I said out loud to myself while looking at plane tickets. And no, my roommate isn't here.

Travels

Leaving for China today, will be going to Xi'an, Nanjing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou - I'll try to update but who knows...

Side note: I'm done with academics for this semester!

In conclusion: gone fishin' - back 12/21/08

大家，加油！

Home Stretch

Well we're certainly getting down to it aren't we...If you're counting it's 23 days until I'm on a plane headed across the Pacific Ocean. Until then:

- An 8 page English paper
- Last minute China preparation/packing
- A 9.5 day trip through China
- An explosion of souvenir buying (any requests?)
- Too many goodbyes
- Trying to pack my life here in Hong Kong into suitcases that could never hold it all

Everyone over here (except Ana, she's done...) is working (somewhat) diligently on their various papers and finals. People are either holed up in the dorm rooms or in the library, refusing social activity and often mealtime. Turns up finals time is the same over here as it is back at Oxy, cafeterias are empty and study rooms are full.

Here's a glimpse of my master plan upon returning home (the first few days):

- Sleep a lot/get back on pacific standard time
- Maybe trouble the eye doctor some more...
- Continue to work myself into shape for the season
- Swap the Wii for a PS3, buy NBA 2k9, and make up for lost time spent playing video games
- Make sure my Oxy housing is set

Yeah that sounds alright...maybe get the old 2v2 game going again too...

Thanksgiving/bday/finals/misc

Thanksgiving:

Went to Tai Po Market (basically a food court serviced by actual restaurants, they serve you and everything) with a bunch of friends for a Thanksgiving tradition that probably won't catch on - Thanksgiving fish (hah see what I did there? Catch on? Fish? Ah humor is wasted on you guys). So for the record, here are the things that I'm thankful for:

1 - Family (parental support, brother actually giving useful advice ((I'm sorry but "That window is vulnerable to zombie attack" doesn't count, brother of mine)))
2 - Friends (to talk to, to eat with, to bet dinners with)
3 - Good health (here's to avoiding whatever HK maladies seem to be running rampant, family is doing well, friends are mostly still alive)
4 - Good fortune (I'm studying in Hong Kong, I'm still amazed by that fact sometimes)
5 - Well, I could go on...

Birthday:

Friends showed up at my door at midnight, and almost managed to surprise me (they whisper too loudly + my uncannily accurate sense of hearing. Yeah, that...) - I got cake, candy, tupperwear, and pictures! Then later that evening they paid for my dinner, and we got to play on a playground. Good times, thanks guys.

Friends from home (you guys know who you are) sent me a box full of goodies - more candy (I need to stop telling people I like candy), cards, pictures, and books! Again, good times, much love to those Oxy kids.

On Facebook birthdays - if I haven't talked to you in months, if not years, I always think it's kind of weird to just pop up and say "happy birthday!" It's nice, don't get me wrong, but it seems kind of disingenuous. I know I always feel kind of awkward about it and have to think "is it socially appropriate for me to say happy birthday to this person?. Ah well, by the bonds we once shared

Finals:

Done with classes, slogging through papers and finals - only two finals (Mandarin and English - crazy language classes), but a boatload of papers. It breaks down to something like:

English: 3 page paper (I wrote five, I blame my postcolonial literature course for that), 8 page paper

Microecon: 5 pages for a research paper

Anthro: 8 pages

HK/China/World econ: 4 pages

But the weird thing is that I'm not even complaining - I seem to be moving through them at a decent pace. Hope that holds up, or I'm going to end up swamped...

Misc:

Called the company that I booked plane tickets through, and though definitely sketchy, seems reputable enough...Still need to go shopping for cold weather stuff - maybe a coat and some gloves...

And that's all, back to work