Three flights, two customs clearings and one never-ending Monday later, the sister and I have arrived back home. *takes big deep gulps of Montreal air* The sister was barely sick during the trip back and she's already readjusted pretty well to the timezone change. Me, I'm horribly jetlagged, didn't sleep a wink the entire night (it's noontime now) ( Read more... )

Well then ( Read more... )

One could suppose that the everyday act of street-crossing in China would be governed by a mostly positivist normative framework, as constructed by the myriad of road safety laws, traffic regulations and local crossroad-related bylaws. While this supposition is not untrue, at least not in theory, it does not however correspond to the empirical ( Read more... )

Today was a great day. The skies finally cleared up in Beijing, the weather was hot but dry, and the summer program organized an outing to visit the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and to see an acrobatics show in the Center Business District. Beautiful pictures were taken, I hung out with the program's unofficial Italian delegation (there's at ( Read more... )

I've settled into a nice little routine by now ( Read more... )

Further conclusions that I've come to in the last two days or so ( Read more... )

Okay, the whole picspam idea is going to have to wait. Picasa and Imageshack seem to blocked in China, and Photobucket is giving me a hell lotta trouble (though the latter could just be my Internet connection). I apologize for the delay and will try to make up for it by posting extra cool pics or something ( Read more... )

Some random tidbits that I've gathered on this trip so far ( Read more... )

The sister is still sick and not getting any better. Her migraines have stopped, but she's still having intense stomachaches. We don't know if she's having a heatstroke or an allergic reaction to something here ( Read more... )

Some 19 hours and 2 connecting flights later, the sister and I finally arrived in Shanghai safe and (mostly) sound in Shanghai yesterday. First impression? OMG THE HEAT. AND THE HUMIDITY. *runs for the AC* The temperature is somewhere around 25 to 30 degrees Celsius, but the humidityyyyy, oh lordie. The whole city feels and smells like a swimming ( Read more... )