First couple of days
9/3/09
San Francisco
Flight from San Francisco to Seoul, Seoul to Shanghai. Throughout my waiting on my journey I would continue Stranger in a Strange Land. Mom noted how apropos it was; I just felt bad for not finishing it beforehand. The other books I brought that I hadn't started/finished were High Fidelity and Man's Fate.
While sitting at the terminal in San Francisco, a man sat next to me and introduced himself as Justin. He was surprising one of his cousins (Joe) by accompanying him on the same flight to visit the family back in Korea, unbeknownst to him. I was enlisted to video the exchange when it happened, so that a third cousin going on a different flight could see it.
He was around 35 years old. We continued talking, and he turned out to be a financial consultant with Microsoft. He had gone to a state school in Washington before heading to Apple in 1997 for the dotcom boom. He then sold his soul "with eyes wide open" and joined Microsoft. He talked about John D. Rockfeller (he had recently read a book on him named Titan), which he broached because Mr. Rockfeller founded UChicago. We talked of billionaires and investing.
He was ambivalent about his career in finance, wishing that he had taken a gap year or travelled to figure out what he wanted to do. But then again he seemed content with what working in finance had given him. Anyway, it was very interesting to talk to him.
9/4/09
上海 Shanghai
Sticky and hot. Bus taxi hotel nearby restaurant hotel crash.
9/5/09
Shanghai -> 杭州 Hangzhou
Leisurely woke up at 9:30am, subwayed over to Little Wang's Sheng Jian place, a pan-cooked soup dumpling restaurant that I love near People's Sqaure. Got four to go, finished them on the way back, checked out of the hotel, taxied to the train station, trained to Hangzhou.
I got to Hangzhou in the early afternoon, took the hour bus ride from the train station to near campus, then taxied to the general area of the dorm (it doesn't have a street address). The dormitory is located within an old enclave of dorms nearby the campus. Run-down but functional. Checked in, got my room (B201), roommate had already been living there but for now was nowhere to be seen. The room is across from the bathroom/laundry, which has squat toilets, no toilet paper. Rooms have no internet, but my roommate has a dsl modem so I think we'll be able to get a router and share the happiness.
The rest of the day was spent frentically trying to find living necessities. ATM trouble prevented me from being able to get any money, but thankfully the leftover money Neil gave me (from when he visited me in China in 2007) would last (by 50 yuan) until I could find some money.
Visited the Internet cafe, went to 兰州拉面 (Lanzhou Handpulled Noodles) for dinner, hadn't eaten lunch, had a bowl of mutton noodles. When I returned to the dorm, my roommate was there. Benoît, a Belgian, he speaks fine English (in addition to Dutch, French, Chinese, and some German). Seems like a cool guy. He had just gotten back from couchsurfing in Wuxi, visiting some friends there. It seems as if his entire Chinese department class at university has come to China, as he has numerous classmates/friends in various Chinese cities, as well as in Taiwan.
His existence immediately made being here more bearable. Talked a fair bit, then to bed.
9/6/09
Authoritarianly humid; hot and sticky. Went about fixing my money issues. Tons of road construction everywhere, many women carrying umbrellas as parasols. Got some money, still haven't quite figured out why my debit cards weren't working at the China Construction Bank.
Benoit helped me get a sim card, and now my phone works in China. It still displays the wrong time, which is annoying...
Slowly figuring things out... registration with the college is tomorrow.
Blogspot/blogger and facebook are blocked here, so until I can get my own internet I won't be able to access those. LJ works for now. So I don't know quite yet what I'm going to do for 'blogging'. We'll see. Right now I´m using Benoît´s computer, the keyboard is azerty, it´s weird...
- 迈肯 Maiken
Mailing address:
P.O. Box 1542
Oversea Students Building, Yuquan Campus
Zhejiang University
Hangzhou, Zhejiang, P.R. China 310027
Room telephone (calling from US):
011 +86 571 87933556
Cell phone (calling from US):
011 +86 571 15988833602
Videochat online (once I have my own internet):
http://www.tokbox.com/Michael9462
San Francisco
Flight from San Francisco to Seoul, Seoul to Shanghai. Throughout my waiting on my journey I would continue Stranger in a Strange Land. Mom noted how apropos it was; I just felt bad for not finishing it beforehand. The other books I brought that I hadn't started/finished were High Fidelity and Man's Fate.
While sitting at the terminal in San Francisco, a man sat next to me and introduced himself as Justin. He was surprising one of his cousins (Joe) by accompanying him on the same flight to visit the family back in Korea, unbeknownst to him. I was enlisted to video the exchange when it happened, so that a third cousin going on a different flight could see it.
He was around 35 years old. We continued talking, and he turned out to be a financial consultant with Microsoft. He had gone to a state school in Washington before heading to Apple in 1997 for the dotcom boom. He then sold his soul "with eyes wide open" and joined Microsoft. He talked about John D. Rockfeller (he had recently read a book on him named Titan), which he broached because Mr. Rockfeller founded UChicago. We talked of billionaires and investing.
He was ambivalent about his career in finance, wishing that he had taken a gap year or travelled to figure out what he wanted to do. But then again he seemed content with what working in finance had given him. Anyway, it was very interesting to talk to him.
9/4/09
上海 Shanghai
Sticky and hot. Bus taxi hotel nearby restaurant hotel crash.
9/5/09
Shanghai -> 杭州 Hangzhou
Leisurely woke up at 9:30am, subwayed over to Little Wang's Sheng Jian place, a pan-cooked soup dumpling restaurant that I love near People's Sqaure. Got four to go, finished them on the way back, checked out of the hotel, taxied to the train station, trained to Hangzhou.
I got to Hangzhou in the early afternoon, took the hour bus ride from the train station to near campus, then taxied to the general area of the dorm (it doesn't have a street address). The dormitory is located within an old enclave of dorms nearby the campus. Run-down but functional. Checked in, got my room (B201), roommate had already been living there but for now was nowhere to be seen. The room is across from the bathroom/laundry, which has squat toilets, no toilet paper. Rooms have no internet, but my roommate has a dsl modem so I think we'll be able to get a router and share the happiness.
The rest of the day was spent frentically trying to find living necessities. ATM trouble prevented me from being able to get any money, but thankfully the leftover money Neil gave me (from when he visited me in China in 2007) would last (by 50 yuan) until I could find some money.
Visited the Internet cafe, went to 兰州拉面 (Lanzhou Handpulled Noodles) for dinner, hadn't eaten lunch, had a bowl of mutton noodles. When I returned to the dorm, my roommate was there. Benoît, a Belgian, he speaks fine English (in addition to Dutch, French, Chinese, and some German). Seems like a cool guy. He had just gotten back from couchsurfing in Wuxi, visiting some friends there. It seems as if his entire Chinese department class at university has come to China, as he has numerous classmates/friends in various Chinese cities, as well as in Taiwan.
His existence immediately made being here more bearable. Talked a fair bit, then to bed.
9/6/09
Authoritarianly humid; hot and sticky. Went about fixing my money issues. Tons of road construction everywhere, many women carrying umbrellas as parasols. Got some money, still haven't quite figured out why my debit cards weren't working at the China Construction Bank.
Benoit helped me get a sim card, and now my phone works in China. It still displays the wrong time, which is annoying...
Slowly figuring things out... registration with the college is tomorrow.
Blogspot/blogger and facebook are blocked here, so until I can get my own internet I won't be able to access those. LJ works for now. So I don't know quite yet what I'm going to do for 'blogging'. We'll see. Right now I´m using Benoît´s computer, the keyboard is azerty, it´s weird...
- 迈肯 Maiken
Mailing address:
P.O. Box 1542
Oversea Students Building, Yuquan Campus
Zhejiang University
Hangzhou, Zhejiang, P.R. China 310027
Room telephone (calling from US):
011 +86 571 87933556
Cell phone (calling from US):
011 +86 571 15988833602
Videochat online (once I have my own internet):
http://www.tokbox.com/Michael9462