Thanksgiving in June

I'm on the plane to Shanghai and this is the first of eight flights so far this summer that I haven't been able to sleep, even with Seal's buttery smooth voice on Audio-on-Demand. There are eight flights after this. We are approaching week 6 of the summer, and I have 4 weeks of international travel left. My mind is restless.

I can't stop thinking about how privileged I am to be on this trip at all, and how absolutely grateful I am for the people in my life. There are those who are making it logistically possible-- providing funds to explore and enjoy, offering me a place to stay, showing me around their cities, and just generally being some of the most generous, gracious people that I am lucky enough to associate with; those from home (both ATL and LA) who keep me grounded and feeling connected by continuing to communicate with me online and remind me of how good things are on my side of the world; those who I may not have talked to, but I know I'll be excited to see at the end of summer; and those who I've encountered on this journey and have done so much to alter my perspective of the world.

Even in thinking about the people who I was once close with but no longer am, I know and appreciate how great they are and how they've contributed to my being. Other than the ones that suck, obvi :)


Then I wake up and realize-- who is this person? How am I having such happy thoughts, how am I feeling so satisfied with everything, how did I get so damn lucky? More importantly, how can I perpetuate this feeling? The answer-- who the hell knows, but I should write this shit down.

That's it. Deep thoughts over. Though my fall schedule of 20 units including research, ultimate, APAMSA, and hopefully volunteering/shadowing and a job will take a lot to finesse while keeping myself both sane and satisfied. As usual, the way I like it.

Two of the things I am most looking forward to seeing at ATL home.

 Last day in Jakarta featured lots of lounging around, eating, drinking, and manicuring. My fingernails are a shimmery black. I drank a cup of Kopi Luwak coffee-- the kind referenced by Jack Nicholson in The Bucket List-- unique because the ripe coffee berries get eaten by a civet cat whose digestive system can't digest the bean which then gets shitted out, chemically altered by stomach acid and digestive enzymes (thanks to Herrera/physiology I could name these, along with the pathway they follow to the shitter), and collected by poor Indo coffee growers and sold at staggering prices.

Classy cup, just for this coffee.

 It's a really rich, dark coffee bordering on bitter, with a distinct taste that I'm having a really hard time verbalizing. It's a bit of a sour but fresh and fruity high note which then fades into a more mellow soury aftertaste. Even so, sour isn't the right word. Merrrrrh. Anyway, the coffee is excessively acidic as expected when considering its development process, and my stomach was not too much of a fan of that part which is why I stopped drinking normal coffee. But I figured, when else am I going to drink authentic cat shit coffee?

And since it's now 4 am Shanghai time I'll probably spend the day planning and organizing my 2 weeks there, sorting out the weekend trip to Beijing, and napping so I can be energized to PLAY PICKUP IN THE EVENING. Hopefully. No cleats, ankle braces, or spandex will be very new for me.


Also, I just watched Just Go With It, with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston. It was surprisingly good, a fuzzy romcom that's not entirely retarded and had quite a few genuinely laughable moments. I don't even usually like Jen. And I realized Adam Sandler seems to enjoy doing movies in Hawaii. Makes me want to go back.


This post failed as a photoblog entry... Don't worry though, there will be countless photo opps through Shanghai!

Also, this plane consists of the most densely Chinese-populated group of people I've seen in a long time. It makes me a bit uncomfortable when everyone looks like me, but more fobby. Better get used to it, I guess.

To Ponyo + food adventures!

To China and its commie state.

 -----
It's now 2 days later and I'm typing yet another multi-post post since I only occasionally have internet access. I considered completely ignoring the last post since I was likely delusionally exhausted (I ended up sleeping all afternoon the first day I was in SH since I slept MAYBE an hour on the overnight flight. Later realized my restlessness may have also been caused by the Kopi Luwak.), but then I decided I would still post it so the few people who read this blog might think that I actually have a soul...

Mosquito bites all over my leg and ant bites
on my feet from Bali. You drank my
blood, now I'm thirsting for yours. Bitch.

 Chilled and explored Nanjing Dong Lu today, a big pedestrian shopping area in the center of town. Saw Annie's workplace, got noodles for lunch, drank 2 bobas (secret goal: try as many different boba places as possible and find the best one in SH), got a guidebook, listed the sights I want to see and grouped them by location to plan efficient days. I have an exploration partner here, Dan, Annie's boyfriend, who is also here to visit and explore the city, so we'll trek together! At last my foreign language skills are useful. He's white.

A regular boba is about $1 USD here. Same in Taiwan. Historically when I visit Taiwan I make sure to drink at least 1/day. I fully plan to continue that trend, which means I will be consuming just about a month's worth of daily bobas. In the states the same amount of money would only support this addiction for 1 week.

SH has murky skies. Almost as bad as Jakarta.
Makes LA look good-- at least we have
blue skies often despite the pollution.

Lunch: Soupy noodles with salt pork and some shredded
vegetable with sauteed mushrooms on the side.
Plus soup buns. $3 USD/person. Screw you, Oz.

Underground pedestrian street crossing at People's Square
(peep-o squah, as they say on the metro announcements),
doubling as a replica of 1930's SH, quickly transitioning
into a commercial pedestrian mall.

 Hit up Isola, an Italian bar/grill in Pudong for happy hour. It was a really classy, upscale place and we sauntered in looking like ratty college kids. Oops. And happy hour really just meant 2 for 1 of a certain drink. We splurged on food. No more paying for Western food in the Eastern hemisphere. Other than fast food.

Arugula/mushroom/grape/parm salad with strawberry
Caipirinha, some Portuguese cocktail

Oh oh also, even with limited internet, China blocks facebook and youtube. USC VPN connection=superwin! And when I got off the plane I got a text basically saying 'Hey, We know you're here and you're on our phone network. We're watching. Don't screw up or forget to dial +. Love, China'

Chinese Big Brother is watching. Scary.