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!