life is good

so i never did leave work early that day. i did however, leave the internship about 4 days early. bringing me to xiamen the tuesday of the week before classes begin.

yesterday i ran into 2 slash 3 other guys from the program. it was nice to speak english. but by dinner time we had decided to only speak chinese. this didn’t hold up that well, but still was mildly frustrating.

ohhh it was nice. i think this is going to be a good time. even if it’s awful i can’t see not looking back in 4 months and thinking that this was one of the most ‘amazing experiences’.

oh yesterday and last night were a trip. stephanie and qing bin’s day of fun. dancing at very chinese clubs. etc. etc.

and that weekend that i wanted to start early. was quite entertaining. went to huanzhou and got cupped. that’s right cupped. as in cupping. didn’t understand so i said ‘dui’ in the spirit of adventure and within 2 minutes i had about 20 burning hot glass bowls suctioned to my back. this was fine. kinda nice actually.

what’s not as cool - is that the circular marks are still all over my back. i haven’t told anyone yet, but i will. actually that’s a lie i had my friend take some pictures. but the ppl from the program just think i wear very conservative clothing all the time. even last night to the clubs where i wore a long sleeved shirt b/c that’s the only thing i had to cover my back up.  a bit warm. but actually quite funny.

anyway.

so it turns out at least 1/3 of the other students in this program have spent the summer studying in beijing. and the other 2/3 are pretty freaking amazing academically. mildly intimidating. mildly. i realized yesterday on stephanie and qing bin’s day of fun, that i remember noooo chinese. he’s a chinese teacher, and got a kick out of looking through my
chinese text. and then he started asking me about the text and the lessons and it was a little upsetting how little i knew. eh.

so MIA. her stuff’s all over the room - which has been great. i have a dvd player and nail polish…
i’m assuming she’ll show up sometime soon.. and i think i might be moving rooms soon..idk what’s going on though. i think that’s the theme of my china trip: idk what’s going on.
anyway.

at the advice of ujb, i’m gonna go ahead and -enjoy life-. i think that ducking out an hour early to start my weekend falls under the category of enjoying life. i know i’m going to enjoy when i do it in t-minus…2 minutes.

peace homey.

so after all the ranting about the ridiculousness of this internship, the president came over and talked to me a bit before we left friday evening. he told me that i would be doing things on monday, after getting settled for a day or two. then he asked how much interns in the US generally get paid, and how much i wanted to get paid.

saturday emily took me around shanghai. see also: paid my way into everything in shanghai. i’m not gonna lie, i got over the uncomfortability of it all quite quickly (it also made things a lot more comfortable when i tried to argue..) and just enjoyed myself. it was freaking great.

i’ve noticed that going along with things has been the best way to go. people get upset when i don’t. from what i can tell, there is always a plan, i just don’t know about it. sunday i made my own plans, and in the end it was a fantastic day, but it didn’t start out so smoothly. which is fine. but i’m okay with going along with things.

 i guess this is sort of great. better than filing.

on sunday i’m pretty sure i almost got one of those dirty massages.

i got my hair cut, and the guy gave my head a massage, which i read was to be expected in shanghai. this was okay. but the massage overall focused more on my boobs (or tried to) than any massages i’ve heard of, and wasn’t really that good. also the guy kept asking if i had a boyfriend - nanpengyou. i said hell yes, or dui, wo you yi ge.

the whole thing cost $2.50. but i feel like i should’ve gotten paid.  

in the end it wasn’t the nasty kind of massage, it was just that the guy wanted to be my nanpengyou. he ran after me in the street and asked for my # and if he could be my chinese nanpengyou. i said i had a nanpengyou, and didn’t want him. he said, you should have 2- one in china, one in US. we went back and forth for a bit and eventually i pretended not to understand anymore and walked away quicker. he was harmless, but annoying.    

also, this place is a bit like haiti, where if you’re white, blanc, bairen, - you get stared at intensely everywhere you go. and sometimes hassled to buy fake purses. this all happens less when i’m going around with some shanghainese.

on the up side, the italian exec, Fabio, at work, asked me to tell him if i wanted to go out or see shanghai anytime. this, along w/ some small talk, all went down at the watercooler. fabio is a very attractive guy, and idk if he literally means go out b/c i’m the new kid here, or not, b/c i’m intensely naive when it comes to reading those things, but either way i was happy. 

i do, however, have a nanpengyou. and though he may not be my favorite person right now, that’s not a reason to go out seeing the shanghai nightlife with a guy named fabio.

a very attractive guy named fabio.

anyway. seeing as i’m sitting about 2 feet away from F’s office and other coworkers’ desks right now, maybe i switch topics..

okay the one child policy: basically you can only have one legal child. if you do have more than one child, you have to pay thousands of dollars per year until the kid is 18 for him to exist, or really to have citizenship and to be recognized as your kid. basically who ever has siblings, their parents are paying OUT OF THEIR ASSES for them to be theirs.

siblings are for the rich…soon to be in debt.

so that’s why people are so interested. it’s about status.

i feel like i learned all this in school many moons ago.

this is ridiculous.

i do absolutely nothing at work. am not expected to even pretend to be doing anything. i get driven to and from the office. i get an escort if i want to walk somewhere, to make sure i don’t get lost. my hotel, my food, and everything except for ‘personal calls and laundry’ are paid for.

when Mr M said that i thought he was exaggerating.

i’m also pretty sure i’m dating a coworker.

we eat together. walk together. ‘work’ together. don’t speak much as he knows as much english as i do chinese. but i’m pretty sure that in most other situations this would be considered dating. he pays for everything and holds doors, etc.

in this case (THANK G-D) it is simply a case of hospitality and the fact that i’m pretty sure his bosses told him to do all of these things.

either way, spending this much time with someone and barely being able to speak is awkward. my job is to improve his english and his is to improve my chinese. boss told us to. instead, we choose good old akward silence.

ps i just panicked and ordered chicken gizzard for lunch.

so. i admitted that i have a blog to guy the other day. this brings the total number of people who know my dirty little secret up to 3. he asked to read it and i gave that one a big hell no, leading to a somewhat-argument, but nothing serious, just teasing, about my blog.

player lbg: i promise, you don’t even want to read it.

player g: but i do.

player lbg: it’s even less coherent than when i talk.

player g: yea actually, i could see your blog being all about what time of day you pee.

and he’s absolutely correct. but i didn’t create this thing to start a political revolution, to entertain people, even to let people know that i’m still alive and well in whatever country. i started it because it is yet another great way to procrastinate. and because it’s nice to just ramble along. especially when you’re doing work and just want to unload all other thoughts onto something. so. today i peed at 4:41pm beirut time. and about 9 times before that.

in all fairness, i have written guy more than one lengthy email detailing the daily bathroom activities. but still. 

so i’m at work and the editor just handed me a press release about the UNDP’s launch of an
energy conservation campaign in lebanon. they want me to write. i’m too
intimidated, but honestly - saying no would be missing an amazing opportunity. and
would just be limiting. i was just researching a bit because the launch of the
campaign isn’t until tomorrow morning, and i wanted to prepare some questions and know some background. but then i decided to take a quick break to write..

the cheese/mountain story should be coming out tomorrow. it was supposed to be out today, but there wasn’t enough room. and since it’s not news that needs to be published immediately, they held it. i
like seeing my name in the paper though. i’m not gonna lie.

i don’t like though, how guy gets compliments. on me. no one says ‘you’re super’ or whatever, they go up to
guy, sitting next to me, and congratulate him. tell him that he made a ‘good choice’, or that his ‘woman is beautiful’, etc. -don’t get me wrong, it’s not like these comments burn my ears - it’d just be cool if i could get some credit for
it.

world cup last night. good good day yesterday. italy won. i won 1,000LL. it was crazy anarchy here. now there’s a big
story here about what the Italian player said to Zizou. they’re saying it was a remark about Arabs - terrorist or something really upsetting.

red white and green covering the city. “I-TAL-IA, I-TAL-IA”, mosh pits and chaos. it was
like christmas. in july. a somewhat violent and less-lawful christmas. but a lot
of fun.

things are really good here. the work, the food, guy. things are all really good. this is my last week. we went to imad’s house yesterday. we were invited the night before, but i was sick. he has an amazing house slash life.
we’re doing another story with him, and he says he’s going to try to take us white-water rafting and hiking in the > mountains if we can get friday off of work.
i’m mildly in love with imad. i’m pretty sure guy is too.

alright. back to work.