I hope to go down to Huangpu District tonight and hang out near the Bund I think, and will try to take pictures. Sunday I'm doing English Corner again in People's Park, and I'm not quite sure what I'll do Saturday. I don't think I'll go out to the bar this evening: I'm trying to budget down so I can stow away some extra cash for Chinese New Year.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Thursday January 28 0909
Another day another dollar, although I will be putting together a cool simulation today, so I'm looking forward to that working.
Conducting my financial affairs remotely from China is a real right pain, primarily because of having to use an internet proxy (which makes online bank transactions very difficult to get verified) and the fact that such verifications require that I be available at a phone-line, but my phone being incapable of sending or receiving international calls. I have to jump through hoops everytime I manage a transaction back home. Ah well!
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Wednesday January 27 0846
I woke up to see that it was raining outside, and got excited: the streets of Shanghai have quite a load of dirt and dust, and my jacket was turning from black to not-black, so I was looking forward to a free jacket-cleaning from Mr. Cloud. I also wanted some of the background smell to get washed away and get replaced with Seattle-ish air, if only for a day.
Well, the rain isn't as crisp as it is in the states, and it seems only to have made the streets muddier, so oh well. Today should be an interesting day at work, since I'm switching to another task for a while to avoid burnout on my previous task: should be fun!
Monday, January 25, 2010
Tuesday January 26 0838
Things are going pretty well, although I have to admit I don't do much on the weekdays that I can discuss about here: work does go well, however, and it is an exciting project to work on! I'm being given a free hand to do my part, and so it is nice being able to design creatively with little pressure other than to communicate what my design decisions are to the team members. It's a great workplace, with cool bosses (!), great coworkers, and ping pong over free lunches.
Sunday, I went to a tea ceremony with two chinese girls who had approached me in the park and invited me, and it was very fun until I saw what my part of the bill was: 344 rmb! I only had 85rmb, so the lady from the tea ceremony had to come with me on the subway to Jing An where Blake loaned me the debt (I paid Blake back that afternoon). No hard feelings any which way, I don't think, and I learned a few important lessons:
- Always ask how much
- Chinese girls on holiday like to bring foreigners to expensive fun things
- Tea can be made really complicated!
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Friday January 22 0838
Yesterday, I had a pretty good day at work, mostly teaching myself SQLite: it should come in handy for my work! I'm having jiao-zi right now with what I assume has a chicken (rather than a gou or mao) filling. I also picked up some Fanta, since I've found that my preferred Pepsi over here isn't as consistently 'good' as it is in the states. On an interesting note, it is nigh impossible to find Sprite, but 7up is everywhere, which is sad, because Sprite is much better.
This weekend, I won't have internet access again (since Garrett is gone until Tuesday, I can't take him wifi router shopping). However, I am kind of glad I don't have internet at the apartment because it discourages me from spending my evenings in front of the computer, so I will likely only get a wifi router if Garrett pushes for it. This weekend, I will likely go to bars with Sean this evening, go to the building where the first meeting of the Chinese Communist Party was held on Saturday, and then on Sunday go to English Corner and try to make a friend or two. As for today, ping pong and work! :-)
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