China

[Ok. It took way to long to post about my trip to China. So, I'm finally gonna post some stuff now. There's still a lot to come. So... that's be soon.]

So, I recently came back from a 10-day trip to China. I met up with Cole in Shanghai, stayed there through New Years, then went up to Beijing for a little, and then went down to Hong Kong for the rest of the trip. It was great.

After traveling all day on Friday, I arrived in Shanghai at about 8 pm (and yes, I got another kosher meal on the way over). Cole was there at the airport to meet me. I hadn’t been in his presence for five months, but we skype often enough that it felt like no time had passed.

Immediately after getting off the plane, I realized I wasn’t in Japan anymore. First thing I noticed: no katakana. I rely on katakana so much to get around Japan – I read it on everything (its just English in disguise). In China, it’s all kanji. I can read, like, three kanji.

The first thing we did, after dropping my stuff at Cole’s apartment (which is amazing, by the way – huge, two-bedroom, two-bath, study, furnished, with an amazing view, and a maid service), was go out to eat. Chinese food is great (as one of the teachers in my school said before I left, “Chinese food is very very delicious, but very very greasy"). The Chinese all know that foreigners love kung pow chicken. We got kung pow chicken. It was very very delicious. I kept having to fight back the urge to speak Japanese. Just little things like saying “thank you” to the waitress, and stuff.

[This first person stuff is boring me… I’m gonna switch to a more entertaining style (more entertaining for me to write). Sorry…]