I just lost my rain of thought

Sharon Stone, though she apologized for it later, recently implied that the SiChuan earthquake was caused by karma, because the Chinese were “not nice” to her good friend, the Dalai Lama. I’m pretty sure natural disasters don’t come around just because a large group of people isn’t nice to someone, otherwise a freak hurricane would’ve swept up most of America for criticizing Sharon Stone’s fashion sense and crappy movies.

I have personally been to SiChuan and there are descendants of people from Tibet there, too, in case you didn’t know, Sharon Stone. The Dalai Lama is a peaceful man and I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t wish an 8.0 earthquake on anyone–not his own people, not anyone–especially not a group of people who did nothing to deserve it. Is it wrong that he was exiled from his own home? Yes. And is it wrong that the government gives Han Chinese people economic incentives for moving into Tibet and making the culture there obsolete? Again, yes. But the Chinese population isn’t the culprit here, the government is.

So due to her comment, there has been a ban on her movies implemented in many of the theaters in major cities in China, which, according to the article is more of a blessing. At least people have a better excuse not to watch her movies now other than the fact that they aren’t very good.

Anyway, I never got around to writing about the earthquake, but it’s really devastating. SiChuan is a beautiful place with people who live rather simply but enjoy food that I swear was fermented in fire because just smelling it makes me cry a little. Oh, and I was once attacked by little kids on a hillside in SiChuan near the Jiu Zhai Gou area when my family and I went up the hill to put up prayer flags, because I had a Hello Kitty keychain hanging off my backpack, but that doesn’t really have anything to do with anything besides that it was kind of funny. I digress. SiChuan is not a very rich province overall, so this earthquake is really, really tragic and more than 5 million people are without a home because of it. So if you can, donate some money to help them out, or even better yet, for those who can and are extremely ambitious, go over there and do something!

PS Speaking of bans on people implemented by China, did you know Brad Pitt is banned from China for being in the film Seven Years in Tibet?

Okay, so it’s time for an update! I will start off with spring break. I didn’t really do much, but I did do all the things on the list besides rearranging my room. I flew kites one windy day. My fish kite flew very easily, but my new kites, though made of fancier materials than my old kites, seemed to only have like 20 feet of string so they couldn’t catch as much wind as my fishy. I went with Friendest on a hunt for kite string, only to fail miserably. Apparently, no one carries kite string alone. Our kite string hunt is to be concluded…

I had work every single day of my break besides Sunday night, because it was Easter and I guess Hell doesn’t stay open on Easter. Rumors had been floating around these past couple months that my position was being phased out due to the company no longer being as popular as they once were and losing monies, but they won’t ever admit that. We found out last month exactly what day we were getting the ax, May 3rd, and then one day during break, they told us we were being removed over a month early. I was a little unhappy that they told us with such short notice but at the same time pretty relieved. Later on that week, it occurred to me how much I wouldn’t miss that job and I probably would not keep in touch with anyone there except maybe one or two people, even though I have been there the longest. At the end of the week, my manager texted me and said that we were actually getting removed the Monday after the upcoming one, so I had another weekend of work to dread, which was this past weekend. I was so excited because it was going to be my last day of work there ever, but all of a sudden, my bubble was bursted. Towards the end of my supposed last day, I found out I’m being held captive for another month. Apparently, my manager “forgot to tell me.” He forgot to tell me that my job is never going to die, that this is actually my own personal hell. I’m thinking they are going to keep telling us on our alleged last days that we have been given an extension, so that I will continue to think, Oh well, what’s another couple of weeks? You can’t see this, but I am shaking my fist.

Anyway, with my kind of luck, I was called on the very last day to jury duty. I had only had about two hours of sleep and, with a purse full of reading materials, games, and Enchanted on my mp3 player, was dropped off near the courthouse a little before 8am Friday morning. I was confused about what to do, but the rest of the potential jurors and I were eventually herded into this large waiting room, where I would waste a large chunk of my day pretty much doing what I would’ve been doing at home during most of those hours anyway: sleeping. I situated myself on an uncomfortable but cushioned bench and waited and waited. I fell asleep (because I can pretty much sleep under any circumstances) almost instantly after attempting to read, occasionally waking up to hear what the guy on the PA system had to say. Each time a group was being called, the whole room tensed up. We all waited to hear our own names, hoping that they would never be read. Those who were called looked defeated, as if someone had just kicked them in the groins. When we were let out for lunch, I followed the rest of the cattle out the building and expected to somehow figure out which bus would take me to Little Tokyo so I could get some curry or ramen but found myself very disoriented. After all, though I do not live super far, I’ve really only been downtown a handful of times. I walked around in circles and upon giving up very shortly on hopes of Japanese food, I decided to go to the LA Mall. It took me quite a while to figure out how to get in because I kept arriving on the rooftop park area no matter what I tried and saw no food court in sight. I had to call my sister to ask her how to get in and after several more attempts, I finally found the entryway to Unauthentic Ethnic Foods Central. I spent my lunch on that rooftop park area that taunted me earlier and ate my salad gleefully, but eventually I had to return to the courthouse. I slept through the rest of it, waking up occasionally to see if I was picked and luckily, I was not! Yays. This one guy nearby was so excited at the end of the day that he jumped up and high fived everyone around him. It was quite obvious that he didn’t want to be there, because in the morning, I saw him walking in and grumbling, “Jury duty sucks!” And every single time they called names, the annoyance he emitted was almost palpable. So I was free from jury duty, and not only that, I was also one of the first few people called to leave. Yays! Somehow, I got stuck in the stairwell, though, and I kept trying to figure out how to get out. The first floor door seemed to be stuck and the second floor door wouldn’t even open, so I had to walk up to the third floor and take the elevator down. I wasn’t sure which was was north when I got out, so I just took the first bus I recognized to get home, but for some odd reason, it didn’t take me home. It stopped several miles early in Alhambra, even though that bus is specifically supposed to go to Arcadia, so I sat outside the Renaissance theater until Friendest came to get me. We went for celebratory drinks at Boba Express and I did not have to worry about jury duty anymore. I’m free for a year! Yee!

That was pretty much the rest of my break. It was nice to not be in school but it was way too short. I love vacations. This summer shall be a lovely one!

Unfortunately, this took longer than it should’ve, so I shall continue my updating (hopefully) tomorrow. There will be pictures too! Yeah! And by the way, both our bathrooms are occupied and man do I have to pee.

The roomie and I are very excited, because, although the fees are rather extravagant, today’s due payment marks Day 99 before our European excursion. That’s ONE day less than 100! Oh my gauze! I don’t know why that is relevant but I just felt like saying it. Woohoo! We will be traveling through 11 cities in glorious Europa for 30ish days and we are quite elated!

So I kind of give up on that whole journaling about each day in China thing, because I never got around to it and there were so many days I didn’t write about and to be frank, I don’t think anyone cares that much. haha. I’ll just slowly write about the highlights over time. We went on a tour to Zhang Jia Jie, which is very famous for its mountains, especially this one with a hole in it. I hear it’s really cool to watch the sunset/sunrise through, but we didn’t get to do that. The quality of the tour was sub-par and we had already gotten that feeling at the airport before we left for it because they handed out this new itinerary right before we got on the airplane describing all the things you could do if you pay extra monies. Shady business, I say. The tour itself was pretty fun, because we met this other family from the States and guess what, they are from NorCal. Craziness. We were told we’d be on the tour for four days, but not until the night before we were to leave were we told what time to be at the bus station to get to the airport, which was very late afternoon, meaning we wouldn’t get to Zhang Jia Jie until night time, MEANING it was actually a three-day trip. The first night we were there, we were in the biggest city of the Zhang Jia Jie area, which seriously looked like the projects or something, except not as many bums, and there were a few people out at night. We were not fed aside from the odd Corn Nut type bean things they served on the airplane, the equivalent of our honey roasted peanuts, so my mom and I walked around to see if there was anything worth seeing or eating. Turns out there isn’t much open past 10, but there were some people fruit peddlers. My mom bought some Chinese pears and from another stand this gigantor mango. It was seriously like a foot long and it smelled really good. It didn’t taste as good as it smelled but it wasn’t at all unpleasant. We also bought some barbequed-ish chicken and beef outside our hotel and besides the beef being kind of spicy, it tasted awesome.

The next day we drove for hours until we got to this city called Feng Huang Gu Cheng, which was a pretty cool place but very much a tourist trap. It’s supposed to be sort of like this ancient city, which is what I thought was so exciting at first, but then I realized all the cool looking buildings didn’t originally look that way as I passed by buildings currently being worked on. I suppose it’s hard to preserve buildings that are hundreds of years old, so I don’t blame them, but it sort of detracted from the charm, especially when I noticed all the townspeople we saw were only there to sell us tourists things that they seemed to have gotten from the Indigenous Souvenirs Factory. What is this Indigenous Souvenirs Factory, you ask? Well, it appears to be the place that all indigenous peoples of various Chinese towns get their goods to sell to tourists like us, because I totally saw most of those things when I went to Jiu Zhai Gou a few years ago. Some of the other things that I did not see in Jiu Zhai Gou were awfully similar to souvies my parents and sister have gotten on other Chinese tours. Interesting, isn’t it? I wasn’t mad. In fact, I bought some things, but I didn’t waste as much time looking as my mom and the other family’s mom did. Our moms got along very well.

The main attraction of the city is the river that runs through it. There was a boat ride touring the cool looking parts of the city that had been worked on, but dang was it expensive. So what did we do? We allowed some lady to sucker us into the alternative boat ride, but it was for the lower part of the river. Would the sights be the same? Yes, she says. Were they really? NOT AT ALL. But, I must say, though the sights we saw were mostly dingy and sometimes gross, it was still really fun and probably the best part of going to that city, except when these jerks we didn’t even know were splashing us as we passed by, because I guess it’s the thing to do when you go on the shady boat ride (which did not have enough life jackets), but it may have helped if someone had told us that’s what happens on this boat ride beforehand, because they got a little splashy splash on my camera and I would have jumped out of the boat and repaid them with a paddle to the faces if my camera had broken. Luckily, most of the left side of my face and body shielded my dear camera’s life. I felt kind of bad for the boat guy because he literally pushes the boat upstream with a pole. This is a river we’re talking about. A shallow river but a river nonetheless. I felt bad to the point that at this one rockier part where he has to get out of the boat and actually push it, I got out of the boat, figuring that at least it’d be lighter. My mom had gotten out before me because Chinese people seem to like walking on smooth rocks because it’s “comfortable.” That’s such a load of bull because it hurt like crazy and I regretted my decision to get out as soon as I began walking, slowly trying to catch up with the boat because the sooner I got back in the sooner the pain went away. Stupid experienced boat guy who can walk on rocks while pushing a boat, really fast. Not only were my feet in pain but my rolled up jeans began to disobediently unroll and I was soaked up to my thighs for the rest of the day.

At night we had some street food, which included more of that barbequed stuff, which I probably ate most of, some illusion dumplings (because they were all big but empty inside with a speck of meat), soup made of some mysterious seaweed-type stuff, and fried rice, all of which were AWESOME and only around 20 bucks altogether in RMB! Amaaazing! After dinner, we walked back to the “hotel,” which totally LOOKED cool but maybe was too accurate when emulating those of ancient times. Well, okay that’s an exaggeration, but they turn off the hot water after 10! There was no electricity before 6pm. The other family had a rat in their room..but we were on the top floor, where there is no food.. Think of how many rats there must’ve been in the kitchen! EW! I did not think of that until just now! Not only did they have a rat or mouse or whatever in their room but when the lobby guy couldn’t catch it, he just said to let it be.

The next morning we left to go to the Zhang Jia Jie mountains, which, my sister said were described as having grotesque peaks when she Googled the place. They really are beautiful and it really looks the way so many painters capture them in those Chinese paintings. I find that they look prettiest when there’s a little fog around them, but this particular day was kind of REALLY hot so there was no fog until towards evening. The peaks began looking the same to me pretty quickly, not that they weren’t cool and all, but I’m not really a nature gal. That kind of happened to me when I went to the Grand Canyon too. These kinds of sights are pretty and occasionally breathtaking but during those in-between-the-taking-of-breath moments, almost everything looks the same.

The next day we went mountain watching again but this time it rained. A lot. There was fog alright…COVERING EVERYTHING. I could barely see anything when we got to go up to “see” the cool stuff. There was something called Heaven’s Gate. Did we see it? Maybe? I saw something with a shape but I don’t know if it was that. We saw the Five Fingers. There were lots of other sights I couldn’t see that I can’t remember that were potentially awe-inspiring, but I guess I will never know. People, and by people, I mean me, were getting rather upset because we were walking in the rain in cheap raincoats, wet shoes (unless you decided to wear the footies), with open umbrellas around other CHINESE people looking at things we couldn’t actually see. I decided that that day that the thing I hated most is crowded places with narrow paths filled with Chinese people holding umbrellas, because they’re selfish. They don’t move to the side for you to pass, even though they see that you have an umbrella of equal size. They do no yielding whatsoever. If you’re in their way, they don’t mind doing that cold shoulder push thing. And you know what? When I’m pissed off, I don’t mind either, because I hate rude people and they deserve to be pushed with my cold shoulders!

There was this elevator thing we had to pay extra for that was not quite as exciting as I thought it would be. Basically, you just go down a really high elevator and the view is pretty much the same the whole way down. If not the back of someone’s head or someone’s face uncomfortably close to yours then a couple of the peaks. Luckily, I had a view of something outside and it was all quite pretty. I made a video of the whole ride, which went way slower than I anticipated. The bus ride to and from that elevator was miserable. The first time I had a seat but felt extremely nauseous due to the driver’s horrible steering abilities. The way back I recall standing uncomfortably swaying back and forth and probably bouncing. Here’s where it gets juicy. Supposedly, these buses are supposed to be included in the fee we paid to get into Zhang Jia Jie National Park but the tourguide made us pay him 100 bucks to feel nauseous. But if this said 100 bucks really wasn’t included, the tourguide was profiting off of it (because over there they get paid by the people that tourguides bring tourists to) and not cutting a deal with the our actual bus driver, which he is supposed to!

We went to this other place and this time the mountains were not only visible but a lot of them had cool shapes. There’s one that’s kind of famous that looks like an old man hunched over a little. Another peak looks like a hand with its index finger pointing up. There was also this one mountain that looked like some eyes with eyelashes. Very exciting stuff. I believe after that we did a lot of live infomercial types of things. On a lot of Chinese tours, tourguides take the tourists to these places where they put us all in a room and advertise products to us. The massage place sucked because I could not understand what anyone was saying and the guy refused to give me a massage because I was “too young” but it was really because I couldn’t understand anything and there was no point in him advertising to me, so they just left me there with my feet drowned in a giant bowl of herb stuff. I have to admit that the knife place was really cool though. My mom bought some really cool peelers. They cut wood! WOW! You know you get urges to do it too and with this you really can. haha. We went to a tea place as well, but those are usually a tough sell.

Well, that pretty much sums up my first Chinese tour of that trip. More to come soon, I think. Oh and by the way, I’m feel a bit stressed because my apartment is falling apart!!

I know so many of you were beginning to worry, so yeah, I’m bizzack. My fragging flight was delayed two hours so instead of leaving Guangzhou by 9pm and getting back at 6:50pm the same day, we left at 11 something and got back…at 9:30PM the same day, I think? I dunno. There’s a big difference between those two times, because if I got back at 6:50, I could’ve unpacked my things right away and shown all my spiffy gear to my sister, whereas getting back much later meant that I could only show her what was in the two suitcases I managed to get out of my mom’s room before she went to bed and locked her door, one of which was half filled with herbs and whatnot. Yech.

I hate how you have to fill out so many customs forms. So many people lie on those things anyway, cough, what’s the point of even asking? I was totally tricked in Guangzhou, because I forgot we had to fill out forms before getting on the plane. Maybe there should be some sort of warning about that outside, because we waited kind of late to go in, only to be smacked in the face with customs forms. I had a feeling we’d be late to board the plane, because for some reason, people don’t know how to fill those forms out and it takes them ten years to get through each place you turn them in to, causing sssllllloooowwww lines, which always amazes me, because I just hand them in, they look at me and then my passport (which still doesn’t have my real name, btw, so I was living in China as someone else, more about this later), then I’m free to walk through. And by the way, these forms are almost identical to the ones you have to fill out on the plane later! So after the forms, there’s still the X-ray machine, which sucked so much because people don’t really know how to wait in lines over there and everyone rushed to cram into the two openings. People also don’t read signs over there that tell you to wait behind the red line, so we were all getting pushed through and I felt like voices were coming from every direction, telling me to take off my shoesies. Yeah, I know, I get it, but I’ve got shoelaces so calm down. After that disaster, we run (my mom and I both with suitcases and backpacks because we wanted to bring back the maximum amount of stuff possible and my aunt with a bunch of stuff hanging all over her), with our luck, to the very, VERY end of the airport where our gate is because, CRAP we’re almost going to miss our flight, only to find out that the flight has been delayed two freaking hours…and there’s nothing to do but go on my laptop with no internet in sight and people watch because all but two shops have closed for the night.

I’ve always been very neutral about airports, because from my past experiences, you just go there, get on a plane, and get to your destination, but with all the security problems these recent years, I’ve decided I don’t think they’re that great. Most of the time I spend at airports is going through security or waiting in line to go through security. If I am ever so lucky to have a delayed flight like this time, then I get to wait by the gate next to overpriced shops (well, maybe just in Guangzhou). At LAX, I don’t believe they even have shops nearby. The best time I’ve spent waiting at an airport, though, is by far the time we had to transfer in Japan. I believe it was in Narita. There were some cool shops there and I bought Friendest a Qoo. haha. They had all sorts of things, from webcams and laptop mouses to Japanese snackies and little cat charms. Amazing, they was.

THE NEXT DAY…
So why did I specifically have to come back by the 15th? WHY? BECAUSE OF JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, OF COURSE. I went to the concert the next night with Wenderita, Joanna and Christina, but those two did not sit with us. It was so much effing fun and like I said to them, if Justin sang to me, especially if it was like the way he sang “(Another Song) All Over Again,” I’d pee in my pants and probably cry. But I know I probably don’t have as much love for him as Wendy does, because according to her, her clothes would just fall off. hahaha.

Anyway, he is a very lovely man and he’s grown a lot since his ‘NSync days. Something about him is just so attractive. I was always more of a Lance girl but he was a very close second. He’s got charm and vocals, both of which are requirements if trying to impress me, in case anyone’s wondering. I’m not even sure how to describe how awesome the concert was. He’s an amazing dancer, but sometimes the horror of seeing his hoochie female dancers was a little distracting. But the way he moves..is so crazy! haha. Kanye was a surprise guest and we were so excited! I love seeing Kanye dance because he kind of can’t, and yet he’s still so wonderful in people’s eyes. haha.

Timbaland was also there and he had this whole halftime show kind of thing, which was one of the maybe top five weirdest things I’ve ever seen. He was mostly mixing new age sounds the whole time and every once in a while, a random song would be mixed in, we’d all sing along and then I’d go back into shock over how weird he was, but that doesn’t make me like him less, I just see him in a different light now. He’d have video clips going on of like..anime…and this bunny puppet that would mouth the word “OHH” over and over again for the beginning of Missy Elliot’s “Work It”…and these psychadelic squigglies. I also recall clips of zooming on streets and this lady popped up a lot. Oh and there were clips of him dancing. I was really surprised when he first came out because he is BUFF. Ultra buff. I wasn’t even sure who it was at first. His arms are huge! I’ve always thought of Timbaland as a husky man, but he came out in a tanktop and it was amazing.

But back to Justin. I waited all concert for SexyBack of course, not that the other songs aren’t lovely. I knew he wasn’t going to leave it out! I still love that song. A lot. He did ”Gone” from Celebrity, but he always sort of stole the show for that song anyway. He did a few other songs from his old album, including ”Senorita”. I kind of regret not being as into him during his Justified days, because I was still upset that he was singing outside of ’NSync, but I have long since moved on and out of denial, though, as I have said before, I’m going to be first in line for that reunion tour!! ”My Love” is of course one of my favorites, as well, and I like how they used different sounds from the album for a lot of the songs, but it’s probably hard to recreate some of those noises. It’s inconvenient to lug dolphins on stage and such. haha. JK I don’t know if they’re really dolphins. Even though I love Justin’s dancing, I also loved when he sat down and sang, because he is ultra talented and can play instruments too! I love musicians! He closed off the concert with “(Another Song) All Over Again” and it was beautifullll and very cute because he was just wearing a plain t-shirt and jeans instead of his usual suit combo and playing a piano <3. I didn’t want the concert to end but all good things must do so. Sigh. I not-so-secretly hoped that I’d see Lance Bass there, but unfortunately I did not. But who we did see were THE BECKHAMS! They were sitting in a VIP box in our section, but we didn’t get any good pics. Boo.

It just amazes me that Justin is such a great dancer! And if anyone wants my opinion, between Justin and Usher, I’d totally choose Justin, because Usher’s nostrils are too distracting…and he cheated on Chili. That’s just not cool.

Sorry I only got to like Day Eight. You’re probably where the other, like, 20 days went. I guess I’ll transcribe my scribblings from my notebook when I get home because I am leaving China several hours from now and going back to the States gaining three hours (It is currently September 15th, 2:20 pm). YES! Smell you guys later! Hopefully you smell better than some of the people here (I do not know of anyone who wears deodorant here)! Please?

PS I think one of the things I miss most is being able to see Wikipedia. It’s blocked over here for some reason. Oh and pictures on Flickr! I can’t even see what I’ve uploaded!

Very early in the marnin’ my mom, uncle and I headed out to Guangzhou for a few days, which is where my dad’s side of the family is from. My cousin there took my mom and me to this hospital for my momsie to do examinations and whatnot because it’s cheaper to do it in China and even cheaper for my mom since shady business goes on at hospitals too. It’s this crazy place where they take care of pretty much all your physical problems, including dental ones, and we had to walk up and down several flights of stairs many times. It’s also a really dirty place, so I was afraid to touch anything and spent my waiting time sitting and doing Sudoku and people watching. What made me most uncomfortable was that my cousin’s nurse friend had blood stains on her outfit. :\ Yucks.

After our hospital visit, my cousin took us to this restaurant where we ate rice out of a bamboo shoot. It was rather interesting, but we waited like an hour for it or something because the service was crappo. From there, my cousin took us to where all the travel agencies are and pointed out the way to Beijing Road. We went to a couple agencies and took some flyers for later use. Then we went to this place to book flights for my uncle and his family because they were supposed to come back with us on September 15th. We got trapped in there because there was a huge storm (shocker, I know), but there were places that sold umbrellas nearby so we ran to the first one we saw and got ripped off because it was raining and there was no set price, but oh wells. My mom had to use the restroom, so we went to this mall area that the airline agency place people told us to go to because they don’t even have a freakin’ restroom in their own place and use that one too. While there, I saw with my own eyes (not on TV), for the first time in my life, someone with Fong Sai Yuk hair. haha. It’s that hairstyle guys used to wear way back where their head is totally shaved on the front half of their heads and then they wear a long braided ponytail in the back. Oh my gauze it was so peculiar. If you still don’t know what I’m talking about, think Jet Li in Fearless. I wish I had taken a picture, but 1) I was in too much shock and amazement and 2) that’s kind of rude. haha. I didn’t even get to point it out to my mom. So sad.

So after the restroom break, my mom and I went to Beijing Road to get our shops on. We bought a good amount of clothes, so I’d say it was a pretty good day. haha. The street is full of big (Chinese) brand name stores, so I got some nice basic clothes, but what I really love shopping for when I come here is the weird but cute stuff, even though the quality is usually crappier. There was this one brand name store we went into called Y’pay More. No joke. hahah. It wasn’t as expensive as it sounds. My mom and I bought some shorts and I wanted to laugh because this one guy who worked there was unusually loud, even for a Cantonese person. I kept wondering what he sounds like when he talks to people outside of work. My cousin had told us where the bus stop to get back to her place was, but we couldn’t freaking find it and walked up and down the street we thought it was on until finally she called us to check on us because she just got off work, so she came to get us and took the bus home with us instead. It turns out the bus stop was on that street but we were in the opposite area of where we were supposed to be. Sigh. My mom was kind of mad at me after that because I kept insisting it was over there, but I remembered wrong. That was actually where we had eaten and I thought the bus stop was nearby. Cry. She was more mad that Guangzhou bikers are such bungholes. We were crossing when the walking sign came up for us, but this guy on a bike insisted he keep biking across the intersection and friggin’ crashed into my mom’s wrist. Luckily no one was seriously hurt, but dang, he was a jerk. So my cousin came and found us and took the bus with us and I was so scared the whole time I was on the bus, because last year, my sister and mom was with her on a bus when this guy tried to steal her purse. Fortunately, Guangzhou people are loud as heck and she started yellinggg and everyone started staring at him. He was so embarrassed that he went and sat down, everyone keeping their eyes on him the rest of the time until he got off. hahaha. But I didn’t want to get jacked without my knowing it so my eyes were darting left and right the whole time.

After dinner at my aunt’s place, which is almost right next door to my cousin’s, we watched some TV and then it was time for sleep. My mom and I slept in one bed and my cousin slept on the floor next to it, so we didn’t have to open the AC in more than one room. My cousin is the loudest snorer I’ve ever heard. haha. It was like a foghorn or something. I can’t even describe it. What’s even funnier is that my mom told me that my cousin complains about how her husband is a loud snorer, so sometimes they sleep in separate rooms when he keeps her up. What a perfect match.

Day Five consisted of more shopping, but first we ate dinner at this restaurant with cute desserts. I got to see my cousin’s son and he is so cute. He’s like a miniature version of my cousin. He looks so much like her and the way he talks reminds me so much of her. They’re both very…sharing. That’s the only word I can come up with. He always announces when he has to poop or pee and she does the same when she really needs to go. One time, my mom, my cousin, her son, her husband, and I were in their complex’s elevator and her son said he had to pee. Then she said, “I wish this elevator would go faster, I have to poop really badly.” Her husband gave us this look of embarrassment. It was so funny.

So after the foods, there was more shopping. It turns out my cousin only really likes to shop at brand name stores and she doesn’t even look twice at the kind of stores I like to go into. I didn’t really want to drag everyone into the stores with me because I was only one who would be looking, so I didn’t buy a lot that day. I did buy some cute coats for my sister and me, though, because they were like 80% off or something since it’s insanely hot right now and they were from the winter season. Yayy! I really want some shirts though. I don’t like wearing the same few over and over again and I only bought two in China so far.

My cousin’s husband drove us to this place for dinner that is known for their beef noodles and it was really good. My cousin and her husband were telling us about some place opened by this guy from my grandpa’s hometown that is so good and well known that, despite it being one of those dirty looking street restaurants, even rich people come from all over the place in their BMWs to eat at there. They were saying how people from my grandpa’s hometown are really good cooks or something, because there’s quite a few places that are just that good.

My cousin’s son really, really, really wanted to swim, so we went swimming after dinner, despite the huge storm. Luckily there was an indoor pool, but the amount of chlorine in it was intense. My eyes were burning so bad after a while. I’m not really that great of a swimmer and got kind of tired of swimming around after a while because I didn’t want to run into people and I’m not a huge fan of exercise. I think we spent over an hour there and then went to 7-11 to buy bread and stuff for my cousin’s son’s breakfast. Then it was back to their home. My cousin’s son slept on the floor of the room and she slept in another room this time. Another reason I think he’s so cute is because he always sleeps with his hand behind his head. haha.

On Day Six my mom wanted to buy some jewelry, so we went to the jewelry district. None of us know how to look at jewelry so it was kind of hard to know what to look for. Most of the stuff there was probably fake, but it’s so hard to tell. We looked at a bunch of jade places and my mom decided she wanted some bead bracelets, which she has been admiring ever since. Every single place says that they carry A type jade, but it seems sort of fishy because is there really that much jade? China doesn’t even have a huge jade mining industry. Interesting. The jade is still pretty though and producing fake stuff has gotten so advanced in China that my mom didn’t care too much. While jewelry shopping, we took a break and went to this Buddhist temple called Hua Lin. They had the hugestestest incense I have ever seen! They had to be the size of my arm or bigger. Intense. We walked around inside this one area and there were like hundreds of buddhas.

When it got to lunch time, my cousin took us to another popular street place, which was known to have good wonton noodles, my fave. <3 Man the food was sooo good. We had congee, wonton mien, churng fun, and mango ice cream that they make themselves and it was all sooooo gooood. Best Chinese restaurant ever and I don’t even know the name. So good that the way people wait for a table is by towering over you, watching you eat, and waiting for you to leave. Like I said, lines don’t exist in China.

We did more clothing shopping afterwards. More brand name stores. blarghh. I really wanted to go to other places because I only need so many polo shirts and t-shirts, but I did end up with some jeans, so it’s cool. I was reluctant to try any on at first because the style here right now is saggy butt jeans that are kind of tapered, which I don’t find too appealing and I’m sure I didn’t make it sound very appealing either, BUT lucky for me, the pair I picked out fit okay and there was no butt sagging involved. My cousin’s husband picked us up to go back to their apartment, where we crammed the last few things from our shopping trip into our suitcases, and then we were off to Dong Guan. We were supposed to bus back, but they didn’t want us to get lost or anything, even though it’s a bus that drives only between Guangzhou and Dong Guan. haha. They decided it was going to be a family event, so we had to cram two suitcases, one wheelchair, and seven people into a small van. It was intense and lots of strategy went into finding spots for things and people.

So the first day I got to China I got this bug bite on my right hand that made my hand swell up until I couldn’t see my last two knuckles. On this special day, Day Seven, right after the swell of my right hand died down, I got a matching bite on my left hand, amongst other ones. It was almost in the same exact place and became just as huge as the right one. It was great!

We spent Day Seven like an hour+ from Dong Guan at this area known for its fish market. We took this car ferry across some large body of water, which was pretty cool. What wasn’t cool was all the trash floating around. Anyway, at the fish market, they sell pretty much anything dried that once lived in the water. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like the smell of dried things much, especially if they came from the water. It was so gross, but my mom, my aunt and her huge group of friends went crazy shopping. I just sat on the side and talked to my cousin a little, probably the most words I’ve ever spoken to him. I figured we should talk a little, since he’s probably going to live with us soon in the States. It was so funny because on the way there, we were all talking about what his English name should be (I continued this conversation with him later and suggested some names, all of which he turned down. Sadness.), because the name his English teacher gave him was Henry, which is my brother’s name, as well as the name my other cousin chose (We suspect that cousin was trying to steal my brother’s identity or something because he’s all sneaky like that.). I say his name should be Ben, because it’s close to what everyone calls him in Chinese, and then my uncle, who learned a little English in grade school was asking why he doesn’t use part his Chinese romanized name, Bin. He was like, “Bin is so easy. Call yourself Bin Bin. It’s that easy. You should add ‘easy’ to it. Easy Bin Bin.” hahaha.

After the dried fish market, we went to this other place that sells fresh stuff; seafood, veggies, fruit and whatnot. Once again, the ladies went crazy and bought lots of junks. A lot of stuff we were shopping for was for the big dinner we were going to right after, it turned out. I thought we were eating on a boat, meaning lots of deadly skeeters, but we got to eat in an indoor restaurant. With AC. It was really good and there wasn’t anyone waiting to pounce on our table as soon as we got up.

We had to wake up really early Day Eight, because my mom and I were going with my uncle, aunt and cousin to Guangzhou. Like I said, my cousin is probably coming to stay with us, but first they had to get through immigration. There is no shady business involved, so don’t worry. Long story short, it was a pretty sure thing and we had even booked tickets for them to fly out with us, but something lame happened, so he hasn’t been granted permission to go yet, but we’re fixing it and they’ll probably go not long after we leave. While they embarked on their three-hour journey, my mom and I went sightseeing nearby. We went to this huge park where you can’t step on the grass, which is pretty much the whole park, but you can take pictures next to the waterfall, so that’s where we went. We also walked around underground near the subway and then we checked out Ikea. I kept wanting to buy things (it’s the Ikea effect) but I just bought some spice jars because they were on sale and there’s no tax. Yee! We also bought my dad a new shoehorn because he loves them and because he bought one once at Ikea that was blue and this one was the same but white and now they can be cute together.

After my uncle and fam got out, we went to eat lunch at Zhen Gong Fu!! YESS! I’ve always wanted to eat there because their logo is a giant picture of Bruce Lee and I see them everywhere. It’s like the Chinese McDonalds and Bruce Lee is their golden arches. The difference is that their food is actually quite good and none of it is deep fried. Because I eat slow, my uncle and fam went to get their health papers together for the trip to the US while I finished up. My mom and I walked around the area while we waited for them and of course, we bought more things. I got a memory foam pillow, which I am so excited about, because the lady said it’s supposed to help with neck aches, which it totally does (:D!). My mom saw that it was so cheap here that we bought another one for my dad. We also got a blanket set for someone, but she likes it so much she refuses to part with it now. haha.

My mom and I stayed behind in Guangzhou, because we were going on a Chinese tour the next day to Zhang Jia Jie. I got to my cousin’s place and passed out for several hours, because I had nothing else to do while my mom was over at my aunt’s conversing.

Sorry so slow with the updates. I only have a week left as of today! :O!!

Day Two I went shopping for clothes on this street called Kang Le Nan. I didn’t really end up with much. I think all I got was a shirt or something because there wasn’t anything that good there and it was kind of expensive. I was very bummed because Stunner closed! It was the whole reason why I came. Just kidding but I was looking forward to going there. We also couldn’t find this store called Gray Mice. Yargh. My mom was really annoyed because people at big stores like to set up giant speakers outside and either blast techno or yell stuff about how great and cheap their clothes are so she got sick of shopping there. We walked to this market (with some crazy high tech lockers that use this scanner thing to open) that we went to the day before to buy more fruit. I missed my dinosaur eggs so I bought some plums because they are kind of similar. Unfortunately the ones here suck and there’s a reason they were so cheap. I ate a bunch anyway because no one else likes them and I felt bad for asking my mom to buy them. haha.

Before coming back to the motherland this year, I thought that my Uncle had sold the old family house, but it turns out they kept it and remodeled it to rent out to people. Crazies. It’s like five or six stories tall, which is the tallest house I’ve ever stayed at. haha. We did fireworks on his roof the last time we were there and my uncle’s son, who was a big butthead back then, got scared of those Roman Candle-type fireworks and shot them at the ground in our direction, causing some unwanted burnage. It’s okay, though, I couldn’t tell my burns and my hundreds of skeeter bite scars apart anyway. Luckily, he’s a lot nicer now and he’s coming to live with us soon. Oh my gauze!

At night there was a huge storm. Despite this fact, we walked over to this store my aunt shops at to buy some clothes. haha. I got a couple pairs of shorts and then we mosied on over to my aunt’s store so she and her worker peoples could close up.

The next day was not very eventful. My mom, aunt, cousin and I went to this marketplace where they sell food every morning. It’s pretty much a farmer’s market except it’s not some special novelty thing they do once a week. They go there every day, whereas we go grocery shopping like once a week. After that, we went to this supermarket to buy space bottles, otherwise known to us as unbreakable bottles. haha. That’s what I went there for but we ended up with other junks. hehe. We also went to the old house again so my uncle could do some bargaining with the people who did the remodeling. I don’t really understand business over here because a lot of it is shady. Later on, my mom wanted to look at curtains and we walked up and down this street looking for this fabric we used three years ago, but no one had it, of course.

Presently speaking, I have been diagnosed by the fam with a fever/flu. I think I broke my insides yesterday on the last day of our Chinese tour, resulting in today’s aches and pains. Cry.

I flew here on a tornado. I’ll edit this when I’m less sleepy!

[edit]
Oh my gauze freaking China finally let me post. I was away for a few days so I only have day one typed up. It should keep you occupied forevers:

Hello all. So, I made it to China in one piece. The plane ride here was, for the most part, unpleasant. The only pleasantness that took place was looking out the window and the lady sitting in the aisle seat, because she was kind of funny to listen to. She talked nonstop before she fell asleep and after she woke up and loved to comment on everything. The view outside the window was pretty cool, though, when I could see. The whole flight was dark because we left sometime after 12am Monday and arrived at 6 something am Tuesday. Taking off was one of the coolest parts because of the view. Unfortunately, I left all my useful things in the overhead compartment and I had the window seat, so I could not take any pictures. Everything I wanted to do was in my backpack. haha. I had my knitting gear in my totebag but all the instructions were in my backpack. Then I wanted to watch Music and Lyrics on my mp3 player but realized that was up there as well. Sigh. As soon as the aisle lady went on a potty run, I jumped on the opportunity to grab stuff I needed. Anyway, lifting off from LAX was amazing because there were so many lights spanning so far. I don’t think any other county would look the same. Vegas would probably be really bright too but it’s not as huge as LA. I felt like I was looking at a little model of LA or a photograph. It just looked so cool. Then at some point before nearing China, I could see the stars pretty clearly and there were some lights here and there down below. The nerd in me felt like I was in space because the lights below looked like little stars so it was like the sky was neverending. Then before we touched down in China, I could see the cars and farms below and they looked so cute. haha. The cars looked like little Hot Wheels driving around with their headlights on.

Now for the unpleasantness… Mang there was barely any room for me, especially when my mom took off her neck pillow and used it as an arm rest, because she was all up in my two square feet of space. I’m just kidding. It was probably three. haha. I had trouble moving around because there was so little room and I didn’t want to wake up my mom. I was so envious of the man behind me because before we even took off, he was freaking knocked out and snoring like crazy. I barely got a few hours of sleep in. Normally, I can and will sleep anywhere, even when I’m not that tired. It’s like borderline narcolepsy. But on airplanes, I have trouble sleeping, unless I am sleep-deprived. I only got some sleep because I was super bored and sad that my movie was so hard to hear over airplane noise, so I plugged my ears with the handy dandy earplugs provided by the courteous China Southern, and slept pretty well for a few hours, despite the crampage of my style. Too bad I couldn’t fall back asleep for the next eight hours after that. ‘Twas a long flight indeed. Right after we got off, already people were incapable of understanding the concept of a line. Sighs.

As soon as we got back to my uncle’s house, surviving super huge storm #1, we went for dimsum and met up with my aunt that lives in America, who we see pretty much every week so it was funny seeing her in China. After we got back, we just chillaxed and then it was freaking lunch time. These people never skip meals, it feels like. I was so stuffed, but I had to keep on trucking. My cousin and other aunt came over to eat with us and then they hung out for a while. It’s really hard for me to talk to my cousin because she’s a little crazors. My mom and aunt were catching up in our room and I was stuck downstairs making awkward conversation. I try really hard to get a conversation going on, but she doesn’t go along. It’s kind of like talking to a wall, except walls make me feel less uncomfortable, because they don’t have eyes to stare at me when I’m doing stuff like watching TV or going on the computer or even when I’m sitting in the car and there are other people to stare at. She seriously makes me feel so uneasy, because I was online Facebooking and she waltzed in and kept pacing back and forth behind me. Then she went up really close to my laptop and asked me who the person in the picture on my friend Amy’s Facebook was. It’s a picture of Britney Spears, by the way, but I didn’t really know what to say so I just said that it was some picture my friend found. I felt really awkward writing on people’s walls and stuff after that, because, even though she doesn’t know English, her watching my every move so closely wasn’t very fun. I don’t dislike my cousin or anything. I feel kind of bad for her, but no one really understands what’s wrong with her. Everyone says she’s just really lazy, which I think so too, with a little crazy mixed in, but she’s gotten so used to thinking it’s some sort of disease, because her mom made her think it so and does absolutely nothing to fix it. My aunt that I’m staying with says that she is so lazy, she doesn’t bother grooming herself, which I do dislike, because she pretty much has the worst body odor I have ever encountered. I kept thinking to myself that it’s so bad it burns my nostrils and then, what do you know? I got a bloody nose. I don’t blame her for it…but it is a possibility.

It is known to most outsiders that visit that mosquitoes here equal sad times. Lucky for me, right now there aren’t too many. Unlucky for me, I got bitten within an hour of walking around outdoors. At first it was just itchy, but then it got reeeeaaalllllllyyyy itchy. I got this bite on my right hand and the itch spread all the way up to my bicep. The upper itch died down after I took an allergy pill, but my hand swelled up and it hurts. I wonder if it is the cause of my Day Two headache. I was walking around with my mom, aunt and cousin and I just started itching like crazy. So not cool.

To the Chinese, bloggers are thought criminals. Giant storm number two had occurred later that night of Day One, so I thought maybe the storm was causing me to not be able to see some sites, but I realized that wasn’t the case. There are little spurts of time when I can get on WordPress but most of the times I’ve tried have been failures. They even blocked my old diary thing from being seen over here, but for some odd reason, I can post on it, I just can’t see it. When I first got online, pretty much the only things I was allowed to look at were Facebook, Myspace and Google. I guess it’s okay to network but not to hear others’ opinions. I learned in my info studies class about how the Chinese want to control what citizens see online to “protect them.” I guess I’m just too extreme…sometimes. Maybe at a certain times I just don’t sit well with the motherlanders.

By the way, everyone’s being nicer to me this year. You people who cannot read my blog are so shallow!
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Adventures in Guangzhou and whatnot to come!

This is my last week of summer school and then freeedom. I haven’t been doing what I had planned to but I have been trying to organize the room. I have rearranged some things to get rid of some cardboard boxes, though. I think I keep ignoring everything else I wanted to do because my cleaning hasn’t been complete. This week I shall be reading and studying though.

Regarding movies, so far this summer I have seen Ocean’s 13, Transformers (twice), License to Wed, Die Hard, and Knocked Up (the last four in one day, thanks to ninja skills). I have not been disappointed so I am glad. I hope to see the Simpsons movie when it comes out as well. I think the best part in Transformers is the twenty seconds they waste on the close-up of that screaming girl as one of the robots is flipping over her. Maybe she’s friends with Shia Lebeouf or something. And when I went to watch those four movies, there were so many cameos of people from The Office that I am getting the movies a little mixed up. When I watch movies with a lot of extras, I wonder how I can get in on the action, because it seems so easy to just walk around in a background for a living. I mean, I totally did it for free in the spring musical my senior year. I don’t see why I shouldn’t get paid for it.

Next month I will be going to China again. I hope we get to go on a Chinese tour because I don’t know how much shopping I will feel like doing this time. I am still bitter about everyone saying what they did, of course, but this time my mommer will be there to help stave off the meanies. Alright! I also want to go on the tour because I will get more usage out of my neck pillow that I bought recently. YESS. Maybe this time my mom can assist in finding me a hubby, preferably one who looks and sounds like Wang Lee Hom.

Yesterday I went with Wendy and Susan to Huntington Beach. It took forever and a day to find parking and all the lots were full. It was a little bit of a shock, because I had never seen a parking lot that you have to pay ten bucks to go into be full before. What sucked was that not long before we got to the beach, the sky turned dark and got darker as time passed. We were probably there for an hour before we started feeling drops of water. Since there were so many people, we were nowhere near the actual ocean, so it couldn’t possibly have been the waves splashing at us. The drops gradually fell faster and we realized it was sprinkling, causing us to leave in disappointment. So the day would not be a complete waste, we went shopping in Irvine/Tustin and then had dinner at Lucille’s, where my sister met up with us. Oh my goodness I thought I was going to burst after dinner. It was so delicioso and even more so because it was free since my sister paid for me. Teehee.

So I guess that’s all I can remember for now. Keep recycling, folks. Oh, speaking of being green, the reusable shopping bags from Target are freakin’ cute. I heart them!! <3