The beginning of consistent posting

After two weeks of on-and-off VPN access and trying to go through proxies such as MYSPACEATSCHOOL.com, it seems that, finally, I will be able to write consistently in this blog. Three cheers!

Now, to begin, I'm in Shanghai conducting research on Chinese attitudes and perceptions towards private car ownership and its consequences, particularly those regardingthe environment and urban development. Right now, I'm in the "survey" stage. The other two stages will involve interviews/observations and statistics from the government. To make the sample as random as possible, I planned to interview students. The problem is that once I got to China, I realized that classes would end in two weeks and so, I've been hustling to the max trying to get things done. Didn't really occur to me that Chinese students got a summer break...how foolish! Furthermore, because I was planning to do this at another university as well, I will also need to go back and forth between Shanghai and Zhenjiang, which is about an hour north. It looks like I will be pretty busy in June with little to do in July. So all in all, much hustling.

Well not really. I've actually been wandering around aimlessesly much more than to not feel guilty about. Despite my attempts to fit in as a native Chinese, people can still tell I'm foriegn. As I exit the train station at the People's Square (which is ironically the most capitalist, ritzy place in all of Shanghai and possibly all of China now), several people have come up to me and immediately practicing their English on me as if I had blonde hair, a stupid hat on, or was wearing a fanny pack. I asked some of them how they knew I was foriegn. They played it off pretty well at first..."you just have a foriegn aura to you" (can you be any less specific?), "you had english on your shirt" (well so does everyone) until finally the truth came out, 鼻子好大阿! which translates to "Whoa your nose is huge!" Well YOU, miss, have stupid hair and probably also have weak arms. You know, on my last trip to China, a fortune teller once told me that I had a "money-making" nose and my mom says she really likes my nose. So there.

As for the living situation, I have currently run back and forth between my various uncles and aunts. As anyone who reads wikipedia might tell you, China has a population of 10 billion people and as wikipedia might tell you once more, through a series of complex equations, on average everyone has 8 uncles and aunties in China. As a mere mortal, I am no exception to this rule. The first week or so, however, all my uncles and aunties combined forces to quarantine me at home due to 1) H1N1 and more likely 2) My general bumbling stupidity at anything practical. Pretty understandable.

Perhaps the unifying theme no matter where I am living (or where I go so far) is the fact that everyone I see wants me to get fat. I am not joking in the least bit here. I quote from my aunt directly:

"I just want to see you get fat. If you come home and have gained weight, I think my responsibility to your mother has been fulfilled."

I eat almost four dinners a day. Its revolting. More on this later. Eventually this blog will become a vehcile for me to rant about waste and consumerism - basically, what I usually rant about.

Luckily, though, there is a gym close by, which I have gone to exercise several times. Interestingly, the idea of GETTING SWOLL AS SHIT has arrived in China. The owner of the gym, who is there every day, is definitely one of the more interesting characters I've met. Picture your favorite middle-aged professor, friendly, intellectual, smiling. Now picture that head on a body of a fucking gorilla. Like 500 pounds, 6 foot 4. Now put a working-class wife beater on him and some long, super-classy chinos and imagine him deadlifting 900 pounds of iron in a shoddy, Soviet Union-1950's-style gym, asking people if they are tired yet and sometimes poking your obliques to check their rigidity and swolleninity.

All in all, I am immensely happy to be back here. I am attached to China. I love seeing my family, I love Shanghai and Zhenjiang, and coming back has just solidified my longing for this place to permanently be a part of my life.

Anyways, I'll be writing about my adventures and observations throughout the summer. Take a look when you can and send me links to YOUR blog.

A shiny new buick...

...busted (the pics are for my "research")

The People's Square, hang-out for hipsters, expatriates, and the extremely wealthy

Construction: can be seen everywhere