(no subject)
gahh. internet connection so slow. haven't used dialup probably since the turn of the century. less than 56k.
sadly spent most of today sick due to the combination of guangzhou weather and pollution. guangzhou is great in that everything is very cheap - i got a haircut for ~$1.60 usd and TWO foot rubs! as well as a whole bunch of clothes - but not so great because the pollution is horrrrible. on the bus from hong kong i saw the cloud of smog from at least an hour away. i have also never feared more for my life than in guangzhou while crossing the street. now that i have seen guanzhou traffic, i shall always think of california freeway traffic and boston traffic is neat and orderly. i am not joking. people cut other people off like crazy and don't turn their blinkers on and stuff. there are a lot of people there on bikes and scooters but there isn't any sort of 'bike culture' (sadly, j.), it's only because bikes are cheap and about as fast as cars in that city. went to taishan for the day yesterday and saw quite a few family members - including my mom's cousin's family who will be moving to new york this july. i met some cousins. my relatives in taishan were extremely kind to me. my host in guangzhou (my step-grandmother's daughter) was also very good to me... and the first night i was there, she took me drinking. oh my. she has a darling little daughter who lives with her grandparents. so cute. i am turning into mush; i am becoming one of those people who say awwww the baby all the time. ew. ew. ew. ew.
now i am in shanghai, trying to get through my email. too slow. very painful. shanghai seems like a very clean city, compared to hong kong and guangzhou, both of which were clean but whose houses' exteriors often looked very dirty and dingy. there are little creeks running through various parts of the city. my stay thusfar has been mostly silence broken up by outbursts of whatever information i or my host deems necessary to tell the other; at times this is met with laughter since sometimes we cannot understand each other.
sadly spent most of today sick due to the combination of guangzhou weather and pollution. guangzhou is great in that everything is very cheap - i got a haircut for ~$1.60 usd and TWO foot rubs! as well as a whole bunch of clothes - but not so great because the pollution is horrrrible. on the bus from hong kong i saw the cloud of smog from at least an hour away. i have also never feared more for my life than in guangzhou while crossing the street. now that i have seen guanzhou traffic, i shall always think of california freeway traffic and boston traffic is neat and orderly. i am not joking. people cut other people off like crazy and don't turn their blinkers on and stuff. there are a lot of people there on bikes and scooters but there isn't any sort of 'bike culture' (sadly, j.), it's only because bikes are cheap and about as fast as cars in that city. went to taishan for the day yesterday and saw quite a few family members - including my mom's cousin's family who will be moving to new york this july. i met some cousins. my relatives in taishan were extremely kind to me. my host in guangzhou (my step-grandmother's daughter) was also very good to me... and the first night i was there, she took me drinking. oh my. she has a darling little daughter who lives with her grandparents. so cute. i am turning into mush; i am becoming one of those people who say awwww the baby all the time. ew. ew. ew. ew.
now i am in shanghai, trying to get through my email. too slow. very painful. shanghai seems like a very clean city, compared to hong kong and guangzhou, both of which were clean but whose houses' exteriors often looked very dirty and dingy. there are little creeks running through various parts of the city. my stay thusfar has been mostly silence broken up by outbursts of whatever information i or my host deems necessary to tell the other; at times this is met with laughter since sometimes we cannot understand each other.