WAYYYYYYY overdue. but here is the last post...

(wrote this a couple days after i got back into the states. just never posted it. my b)

Oh and before u read, GO HERE: https://files.nyu.edu/jys259/public/

it's a project i had to do for my infotech class. its a guide to cool coffee/esspresso shops and cafes around the NYU area. (I NEED TO GET PEOPLE TO VISIT THE SITE. SO GO!!)

I’m back! (in the states that is) For those of you who have been following my blog you may have noticed it’s been awhile. Well guess what? Blogspot got blocked! Either I said “communism” too much or Mao just didn’t like the idea of allowing people to speak freely. Oops. Maybe it was both of those. But I can say that now, I’ve left the borders of C(apitalist)ommunist China. Bye Mao! Bye comrades! Bye neon lights!

I’m on the plane now flying from Shanghai to LA. From LA, I have a little bit of a layover and then I get on my flight back home to Phoenix!! I can’t wait, its been far too long since I’ve driven down the 101 while being scorched by leather carseats.

So I guess a little bit of an update is in order. I don’t really remember when I left off. Not having internet on a plane does that to ya. My last few weeks in China have been a decent close to an awesome semester, but I really wish that I had stayed just a week or two longer to see the few things around Shanghai that I wasn’t able to. No closure, you could say.

The last few weeks were pretty much dominated by schoolwork, which kind of sucked. While the three hour classes didn’t help with easing the headaches, they did give me a little bit of extra time. That time was quickly taken away by the three (3) THREE papers I had to write. Maybe being in the business school has turned me away from writing papers, but having to write three (as opposed to having finals for those classes) kind of killed me. Two of the papers had to be at least ten pages and the other one around six. The short one was for my Cultural Currencies class though, and had to compare western and Chinese philosophy. Not fun. Especially when I do exactly the opposite in school. I definitely would have rather taken tests instead.

A few final observations of China:

• Neon lights! There must be government regulations on how much each building has to have! Next time you hear the Chinese complain about their limited energy resources, just remember that for every Chinese citizen, there is probably enough neon lights to light a third world country.
• Old Chinese people like to walk with their hands folded behind them. They also like to congregate in parks, open fields, Starbucks courtyards, etc… for ballroom dancing. They also do this strange synchronized hitting of themselves. I think it is some form of modern tai chi?
• Chinese women would rather die than be seen wearing flat shoes. Boots, stilettos, and heels all the way, even for those ballroom dancing senior citizens.
• As the infinitely wise yet totally if-she-were-to-die-right-now-it-wouldn’t-be-the-worst-thing Sarah Palin once said, “its all about job creation!” For every task that we have in America, they have two or three people doing in China. They’ve even created jobs that don’t exist on the other side of the world. (i.e. people who massage your heads while you watch Chinese opera)
• An authoritarian government is SO MUCH more efficient than that thing we’ve got in the States. You think a giant plot of land with hundreds of thousands of residents and hundreds of businesses will stop the government from building a giant subway or freeway in its place? Think twice.
• It’s all about the contrasts and contradictions. Every luxury brand in the world is in Shanghai in full force, yet you can, almost too easily, buy fake versions of their stuff from any “fake market.” You can buy a full meal from any street vendor for $1 USD, yet you can also buy a $500 cheeseburger. Probably right across the street from each other. Migrant workers who live on almost nothing, walk amongst the countless Audis, Mercedes, BMWs, Lamborghinis, and Maserattis of the ultra-rich.
• All of China is a construction site. The sheer scale of it is simply indescribable in words.
• China’s undeveloped West has a lot of catching up to do with its developed East.
• It is unquestionable that Shanghai will soon become one of the world’s great cities. Or I guess you could say it is reclaiming a spot it used to hold long ago. The Paris of the East is back!

What I will miss:

• Café 85 Degrees. Chain of Chinese bakeries open 24 hours with the most delicious pastries in the world! Also amazing cakes and drinks! UGH so good! Also why I now have a layer of fat lining my stomach.
• The service. With over a billion people I guess it isn’t too surprising. But any place that provides “service” almost always does it well. Your every need is taken care of. So nice.
• All the staff members and professors at NYU Shanghai. They were all awesome and very helpful!
• Kumquats and Chinglish
• Being of drinking age. But I guess I don’t have too much longer to wait for this one.
• Chinese efficiency. Everything is always done quickly and in a fraction of the time it takes to do the same thing in the U.S. Entire subway systems are designed and built in just a few years. You barely have time to get comfortable after you order before your food arrives. When ordering delivery, food is delivered almost instantaneously. Sky scrapers sprout out of the ground like weeds.
• The food! So much good stuff that I will probably never be able to find in the U.S. Americans have been fooled when it comes to Chinese food! The stuff in America is nothing like the authentic stuff in China. Fortune cookies are also purely American. Show it to a Chinese person and they wouldn’t know what to do with it.
• The flavors of everything. Corn flavored popsicles. Shrimp flavored Pocky. Steak flavored cookies. Etc…

So this blog was created solely for the purpose of keeping a memoir of my semester in China. This may or may not be my last post. Thanks to everyone who read it (yep, all two of you)! 再见！