a perfect way to start 2009

Chinese people don't really celebrate New Year's Eve since they have their own new year celebration that's based on the lunar calendar (so the date changes every year), but since Americans live in China there's still a lot of stuff to do on NYE and a huge public fireworks display.

I always have such a great time on NYE. I can't remember a single NYE where I wasn't doing exactly what I wanted to be doing, and last night was no different. I've had good luck when it's come to starting off the new year.

In order to ring in 2009 right and truly set the tone for the year, I knew I had to get a massage first thing in the morning. Massages here are amazing. They're only 10USD for a whole hour and the spa I go to is so nice inside. There are "spas" that offer 5USD massages, but they're really grimy and everyone gets massaged in the same room. My spa, Bamboo7, is wonderful. There's fountains, calming music, and a light scent of lavender in the air. I love that about spas. So refreshing.

The masseuses don't wear name tags, instead they were number tags, which is such a Mao thing to do. Usually I just take whoever is immediately available, but they were short staffed and only had guys ready when I stopped by, which I'm not a fan of. I've never received a male massage, and it's not a "first" I feel like experiencing in China. I don't really know why, but it creeps me out.

So I made a reservation for a little later in the day, and remembered that #70 had done a really good job the last time I was in, so I requested her. When I came back to Bamboo7 later, there had been some kind of mix up and I ended up not getting #70, but #31.

It didn't really matter to me since I've always received great massages there and it actually ended up working in my favor because #31 was AMAZING. Like, life changing. It was the best massage I have ever had. I can't even describe it. It was that wonderful. I left utterly speechless. An hour is a long time, but #31 was so relaxing and calming that it felt like I had been there the whole day.

Then, as if the day couldn't get any better, I came back to my room and made myself a burrito from the burrito supplies (cans of refried beans and a package of tortillas) that my aunt and uncle (and cousins) sent to me and some cheddar cheese I bought at the supermarket. A burrito. In China.

2009 is going to be a fabulous year, I can tell.

my new year's resolution

Everyone's been asking me what my New Year's Resolution is. Okay, not everyone, just my 12th graders, but they're my only contact with the outside world during the work week, so they're "everyone" to me here in China.

I don't really like the idea of a New Year's Resolution. First, I never really know what to resolve. I googled "Top New Year's resolutions" this year trying to find some ideas, and every list included: going to the gym (I do that), quitting smoking (I don't do that), and saving money (not gonna happen). AKA, lame, lame, and lame. Second, doesn't everyone always have the same New Year's Resolution? Does anyone actually stick with it or what? I feel like the answer is usually "yes" to my first rhetorical question, and "no" to the second.

Despite all that, I'm a conformist and thus will conform and make a New Year's Resolution. I've done a lot of resolving in my life recently, so this was a tough decision to make in terms of actually thinking of something that would be tough to give up or change in my life, but I finally found a goal I'd be interested in trying to keep in 2009.

I'm quitting dessert.

Yes, you read that correctly. I'm quitting dessert. For 2009, at least. And yes, I am fully aware that I have given up sweets on my blog before (twice, actually). Clearly that didn't stick since I am resolving to give them up right now, but you know what they say, third times the charm. It's a new year and I feel like I have more motivation to actually follow through with my goal. Plus, I can't bake here in Shanghai.

Last year I quit soda, and despite a few slips (or should I say sips? har har har) here and there, I did amazingly well in keeping my resolution. I was the girl that used to buy 3 12-packs of diet A&W rootbeer at a time "just in case", so it was definitely a struggle to kick the habit. But I did for the most part, and I'm happy I made the choice, too.

There are some rules to the quitness of dessert. They are as follows:
1. My birthday (January 2nd, mark your calendars) does not count as I will be having at least part of a slice of birthday cake. It's a tradition, after all.
2. 100 calorie packs of any variety, even candy or cookie, do not count as dessert.
3. Fro yo is not dessert UNLESS it is topped with a not healthy topping (anything syrupy, chocolatey, or otherwise tasty).

Those are the rules. Wish me luck.

If I had more self awareness I would say this whole eliminating stuff from my diet thing (remember I gave up all meat but fish a month or so ago) is my way of dealing with a quarter life crisis. I feel so helpless when it comes to what the fuck I'm going to do with my future, that I'm controlling the one thing I feel like I can control: what I eat.

But I don't have that kind of self-awareness--despite having read both The Power of Now and New Earth--so I'll just call a duck a duck and say that giving up sweets is my New Year's Resolution. So there.

another year bites the dust

It's interesting having a birthday so close to New Year's. It really makes you think. Reflect. All that.

Actually, it doesn't really, it just means I usually get gypped on birthday gifts since Christmas is the week before. I feel sorry for people born on Christmas day, that must really suck. And to share the same day of birth as Jesus? Man, talk about some competition for attention.

I mean, I shared the womb with someone and all, so naturally I have to share a birthday, but instead of "sharing" the day, it usually ends up amplifying it, making it seem like a bigger deal than it really is. So there's plenty of attention to go around. Wearing sequined clothes and funky headware helps in the attention department, too.

Well, it's December 30th, two days away from 2009, so am I supposed to make a "year in reflection" post? Is that a requirement of every blogger? This is my first legitimate New Year as a real blogger (whatever that means) and I'm not familiar with all the rules.

I guess just to cover my bases, I'll do a little 2008 in review:

High point of the year Reading my paper on Martin Scorsese's gangster films at an undergraduate research conference. I was sitting on a panel with some other students with papers related to film and when the presenter before me finished with her paper and people were allowed to switch rooms to go to other presentations, a flood of people came into the room, more people than there were even chairs for. It was quite exhilarating talking about something I had researched so much and felt so passionately about to a room full of strangers who were there because they wanted to hear what I had to say.

Low point of the year Saying goodbye.

Song of the year "Butterfly" by Jason Mraz.

Book of the year The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle.

Best idea of the year Taking a trip to South Korea. I had no idea I loved Koreans until I moved to China, imagine that!

Dumbest idea of the year "Let's switch cabs!"

Hmm, guess I kinda suck at reflection. It's overrated, anyway.

flashing, flashing, lights, lights

Way back in November when I still had hair, I went to a Kanye West concert in Shanghai. It definitely made my Top 5 Lamest Concerts of All Time list (which is also graced by Avril Lavigne and Hootie and the Blowfish, hey, I go to a lot of concerts, okay? Don't judge).

The Shanghai Indoor Stadium is MASSIVE. I have no idea how many people it holds exactly, but considering this is a city of 18+ million people, I would guess somewhere between a "shit ton" and "helluva lot". At the Kanye West concert there were 43 people. Okay, I'm sort of lowballing that number, but the stadium wasn't even close to being a quarter filled.

Despite the lameocity of the event, I managed to have a fabulous time. Mostly because I was wearing shutter shades and a cat shirt. Oh, and we also got to sit way up in front since no one actually paid for the good seats. Sweet.

le nom eiffel

An edible replica of the Eiffel Tower? I'm all over it.

I don't know how long it took Marilyn over at Simmer Till Done to create this gingerbread masterpiece, but it was totally worth it! Joyeux Noel!

I miss France. There's actually a significant population of French people here in Shanghai, mostly Algerians, so that's pretty cool. Every time I hear someone speak French, it warms my heart a bit and makes me wish I could find some decent bread in this country. Mais, tant pis, mon amie.

everybody was kung fu fighting

Today is a momentous day. Not only is it my 4 monthiversary with China, it's also my 1 year blogiversary! How serendipitous is that?

To commemorate this, I would like to share a story with you. A very Strawberry story. One in which I kick ass and take names, of course.

A few nights ago a bunch of my grad school friends went out to celebrate our last day of the semester (that's right, I'm half way done!). Good times were had by all, cheesecake was eaten by some, it was a pretty kick ass night to say the least.

It's about a 30 minute cab ride home from Puxi (where all the night life in Shanghai is), so unless I plan on staying out until the subway opens at 6AM, I try to leave "da club" by 3:30 at the latest. Plus, the DJ was playing way too much Sean Paul and not enough B Spears, so Romy and I decided to call it a night a little after 3AM.

Our friend Penny lives kind of near us, but not really close enough to share a cab, at 3AM, though, a lot of things seem to make sense that normally wouldn't, so the three of us shared a cab back to Pudong. After dropping Penny off the cab ride was already more than it usually costs to get back to our dorms from Puxi, but since we were splitting it three ways it wasn't that big of a deal. At first.

It started to become a big deal when the tab was twice as much as usual (140RMB compared to the usual 70RMB), and we were nowhere near our school yet. Then, I noticed the cab driver was literally driving us around in circles. I don't know if he was legitimately lost or purposely running the meter, my guess is a mixture of both. He kept pulling up to other cab drivers and asking them stuff, but since I don't know Chinese he could have been asking them a number of things. Who knows.

Finally around 160RMB and the third taxi our driver stopped to ask for directions, I told Romy we should just get out, toss 100RMB at him, and jump in the other cab. In theory, this was an excellent idea. The driver was clearly lost and/or dicking us around, and there's no way that a cab ride from Puxi to our dorm would be over 100RMB, so giving him that much was more than fair.

In practice, however, this theoretical excellent idea of playing the ol' switcheroo on our directionally challenged cab driver turned out to be a very shitty idea. After all, it was 3:45 in the morning, I literally had to wake Romy up to even tell her about my plan, neither of us were exactly in the right frame of mind to do much of anything, much less ditch our cabbie and stiff him on the fare.

Once you set a ball rolling, though, it's hard to stop it. The problem is, once we got out of the cab, the other taxi had already driven off, so we had nowhere to run to. The driver comes over to us screaming and yelling, presumably about us paying him the rest of the fare. We start screaming and yelling and then the guy grabs my arm and tries to pull me back over to the cab so I started hitting him with my purse and we scream and yell some more. Of course, I couldn't have been wearing an outfit less conducive to fighting crime:

Me and my effing headware and peacoats, but I digress.

In typical Chinese fashion, a crowd starts to form of passersby (4 truck drivers on their way to work I'm guessing). Also in typical Chinese fashion, they did nothing to help.

I'm trying to get this guy off of me but none of the ball kicking self-defense moves I learned in college seemed to be working, probably because I was wearing ridiculous shoes and could barely even stay balanced. Romy is yelling at him to let go of me and also hitting him with her purse. The guy starts hitting me and grabs onto my purse (which, remember, I was using as a weapon) and we played a game of tug of war which ended with the strap from my purse breaking, my shoes digging a gash into my foot, and Romy throwing 30RMB at the driver to distract him as we ran off to another cab that had stopped to see what all the commotion was about.

Romy jumped in the front seat and I tried to open the back door, but all the adrenaline pumping through my veins made it impossible for me to perform any task that required thinking, and pulling a door handle was too much thinking for me at that point. I hopped in the front seat with Romy, and I'm sure we were quite a sight to behold with me sitting on her lap for the remainder of the taxi ride home.

Which, I might add, was a measly 15RMB.

so this is christmas

Behold my humble Christmas tree(s). The little one lights up which is super cute, and the big one is, well, pink and sparkley. Enough said.

My family sent me an entire box filled with Christmas gifts about a week ago. They lasted probably 5 hours in my room before the temptation to open them became to great to ignore. None of them actually made it to Christmas day to open, but it's not really Christmas without family anyway so it's not like it matters.

It's so strange being in a country where Christmas is completely commercialized. People think it's bad in the States, but at least there's a little bit of pretending about the origins of the holiday, here it strictly revolves around buying crap you don't need. Which I'm all about.

Anyway, Romy got me something so I do have a gift to open tomorrow. AND, I splurged and bought some blueberry muffin mix at the market to make for Christmas day breakfast. Yum.

As the Chinese like to say, Happy Christmas!

if you give a mouse a cookie

...soon he'll be knocking down your door expecting reliable internet. Or something like that.

One of the reasons I was attracted to the school where I am teaching in Shanghai (other than it being an IB school) was the on-site housing and supposed dependable internet connection. Now, I've come to loathe the fact that I live on campus (way too much coworker/student interactions) and have been disenchanted in regards to the internet situation.

Sometimes it's fun to have a technology-free day or two, y'know, turn off your cell phone, leave your laptop in its cute little Kate Spade case, unplug the TV, and curl up with a good book while pretending we're not being bombarded 24/7 by the electronic world. That's by choice, though. When you're forced to have technology-free days, it's not so fun. Especially if you're in the last 2 weeks of your internet-based graduate coursework.

Finally, the internet problem here got so bad I decided to talk to my supervisor. He is definitely The Man, as it were. One phone call from this dude and problems get solved, if you know what I mean. So I went by his office, expressed my concerns, and he assured me he would get to the bottom of the situation "Maybe I will call the computer technician..."

Five minutes later The Man shows up in the office and informs me that, yes, there is an internet problem, and that the problem was students were draining too much server power (I don't really even know what this means) during the daytime so they just decided to shut the internet off in the dorms between 8AM-4PM.

Great.

At this point I did what I do best: threw a fit. Really, it's the only way to get things done in China. The Man said he would work on the problem, and had me bring in my laptop the next day for the IT guy to look at. I don't know what this guy's qualifications are, but judging by the horrified expression that came across his face when he saw that Romy had a Mac, I'm guessing he's not very experienced in the world of computers.

He "fixed" the problem. And by "fixed" the problem I mean he made it so I couldn't connect to the internet at all. Which, if you know China, you know is such a Chinese way of fixing something. Oh, you have a problem? Here, let me make it 100 times worse for you. No, no, don't thank me. Inconveniencing you is thanks enough.

I'M DONE!

WITH MY GRADUATE COURSEWORK!!!

....until February. Still, it feels pretty awesome.

most awesome top 10 list ever

I have this love/hate relationship with flying.

I love the fact that it means I'm going somewhere, I hate the fact that it means I'm up in the air with my life in the hands of two pilots. I love the single serving meals (all about portion control!), I hate that they usually don't taste very good. I love looking out the window as we land and seeing the patchwork of all the crops, houses, and shopping malls, I hate sitting next to people who want to be my BFF for 3 hours and then never talk to me again.

Most of all, though, I love flying because it means I get to read Skymall. Forget that I read it cover to cover about a dozen times a year. It's one of those things that gets better with time, like, say, a fine wine.

Skymall: the champagne of in-flight reading material.

And so, behold, the 2008 Best/Worst of Skymall. You have to wonder, is it a top ten best items list, or top ten worst items list? The amazing thing about Skymall, is that you could really make an argument for either side!

I wonder if they ship to China.

the things we do out of shame

I spent 20 minutes fishing green tea out of my toilet because I was too embarrassed to show the ayi (house mom/maid/GRD/plumber) that I had clogged my toilet by pouring my used tea leaves down it.

Have you tried removing tea leaves from an overflowing toilet? Well, let me tell those of you uninitiated to the task: it's not easy. At first I tried to do it using some paper cups I happened to have in my room. The problem is tea leaves are really small--and there was a lot of them, too, damn my green tea obsession--and not heavy at all, so they sort of, swim away from you if you try to scoop them up from a toilet bowl.

The trick is, you have to be patient and let all the leaves sink to the bottom, then sneak up on them very slowly and scoop them up bit by bit. After about thirty seconds elbow deep in the cold water I realized how stupid it was to be using my toilet as a tea disposable system the past few weeks. Thankfully, that's all that was in there.

But still, not one of my finer moments here in China.

changing it up

I made a new banner and switched the colors in my layout a bit. Thoughts?

Personally, I like this a lot more, a little more muted, good for the winter season I think. I also really like the photograph, I took it this summer when I visited the Chinatown in Los Angeles.

Now I'm off to try to find a knitting store here. Apparently they're all over Shanghai which is fine and dandy for people to tell me, but I've never been able to find one. Wish me luck!

dear blog

I have decided that I'm going to write four sentences in you once every three weeks, two of which will be me apologizing for not writing in you.

KIT in case nothing better comes along for me,
Strawberry

p.s. JK! I'd totally never do that to you. I LOVE YOU, BLOG!

pin-up princess says goodbye

I've really gotten into Pin-Ups recently. Err, by recently I mean since summer. So a good five or so months. I'm considering getting a pin-up tattoo near my poppy tattoo, but that would have to wait until after I get home from China (translation errors on tattoos...I don't think even I would find that amusing).

That being said, some sad news came my way today, Bettie Page the ultimate pin-up diva passed away today at the age of 85. Can you imagine all the crazy and amazing things she did in those 85 years? So jealous.

There's no doubt that Miss BP could work it, but I have to say...I'm partial to blonds. Usually of the strawberry variety. For a brunette, though, BP had it goin' on.

adventures in salon services

I have a motto for my life here in Shanghai, which is "every day is an adventure in China" because literally, every day is an adventure.

Even the smallest task like ordering a drink at a restaurant becomes a huge deal. Oh, when you said iced coffee you meant a coffee with ice not a coffee with two giant scoops of ice cream? Oops. Want some peanuts from the supermarket? Be prepared for a surprisingly not peanut-y tasting peanut. How about some dried strawberries? Oh yeah, you just bought hawthorn, whatever the eff that is.

A lot of it is the language barrier, but it's also the cultural differences and everything else. I've learned to laugh it off because when I think about it, I'm a guest in this country so I can't really expect my host to bend over backwards to try and make me comfortable (although that would be awesome). Besides, translation errors are pretty much my favorite thing about this country, though they have gotten me into trouble from time to time.

Despite my recent posts on shopping and getting coats and dresses made at the fabric market, I have made a little bit of an effort to live more Chinese aka less American. America is a land of luxury and credit cards, China is a land of spitting in public and poorly made knockoffs. So I've tried to avoid all the tempting Western restaurants in my area and opt for more traditional (and inexpensive) Chinese fare, or I'll just cook something myself.

But there are some things a girl just can't give up. What's that saying? You can take the girl out of the valley, but you can't take the valley out of the girl? I'm not sure if that's how it goes, but this Cali chick needs a little pampering once in a while. Thankfully massages here are super cheap (10 USD for an hour!), other salon services...not so much. I've been doing my own mani/pedis mostly because it's easier than going to a nail salon, but waxing is something I can't do on my own, and it's something I always did at home that has become a staple in my beauty regime.

So, I had been here a couple of months and I really wanted to get my bikini waxed. I'm still holding off on doing my brows because seriously, a slip up with my eyebrows could make me look deformed for weeks, but I figured a bikini wax was a safe zone for a mess-up, I mean how could you really mess that up, anyway? *cue foreshadowing music*

There's a few places in my area that offer waxing services. Chinese people don't get waxed (at least not the Chinese women who attend my gym) so it caters to all of the foreigners in my area and thus charges a ridiculous price. As I was looking at the "menu" for services I noticed they had three types of bikini waxes, in ascending price order: bikini, playboy, and Brazilian.

I figured "playboy" would be my best bet because it was right in the middle price-wise and I didn't want them to just barely wax me. I didn't really know what they meant by calling it a "playboy" wax, but I figured it was in between a regular bikini and a Brazilian because I KNOW what a Brazilian is, and I didn't want that for sure. I'm not against Brazilians, but there is a time and a place for them and it's friggin' winter time, I don't need to go too crazy with my waxing choices.

So anyway, I go in, tell them I want a playboy wax, then the chick takes me to this little room and starts the service. Of course, I couldn't see what she was doing, and even though I get waxed regularly it's always super painful and feels like they're taking off way more than they really are. She used this weird putty stuff that you don't need paper for, which I actually really liked, but there was a lot more touching than a usual bikini wax because of the absence of a paper barrier.

Flash forward 20 or 30 minutes. She hands me this mirror to see the end product...and OMFG...she gave me a Brazilian!!! I was SHOCKED! The look on my face was classic, and she got really nervous because I sort of freaked out mumbling stuff about "Wait...isn't there supposed to be...wait...what?...this isn't right..." and I may have even waved my arms around a bit. Later, I looked on the salon's website, and they described the procedures like this:

• Brazilian Waxing – removal of unwanted hair from the front, back and in-between, leaving just a 2 cm "landing strip" in front. Tailored for wearing a 'thong' bikini.
  
• Playboy or Hollywood Waxing – removal of all unwanted hair from front, back and in-between. When you don't want to wear anything at all.

Obviously, it was my bad, however, every other country in the world knows that a Brazilian is the removal of all hair. Then again, China is the exact opposite of every other country in the world, so I should have known better.

call a friend not the peace corps

I used to have this shirt with a screen printed cell phone on it that read "Don't Drink and Dial. Call a Friend, Not an Ex". I tossed it out during my "I need to minimalize my life!" phase that I went through pre-China, but it was a pretty cool t-shirt.

Amazing advice if you ask me. I've never been the type to drink and dial, mostly because I don't drink, but I have been known to do "drink and dial"esque things while under the influence of sleeping pills.

My drug induced stupors usually include rambling Tweets, finishing the Power of Now, an occasional long-winded text message to someone I barely talk to, trying to help the dorm students bake a cake, or applying to the Peace Corps. I guess that's better than other things I could be doing while on sleeping pills, like, um, actually sleeping or something.

very merry unbirthday to me!

A lot of things suck about being away from home. Probably the most noticeable for me right now is my upcoming birthday. In the States, my birthday is a friggin' event. It's not even a birthday, it's a birthmonth.

When you're in a new place surrounded by new people, though, change is inevitable and sadly my birthday is one of those changes.

It will be the second birthday Twin & I have spent apart which is lame, but I hear she's going to try to take Disneyland up on their offer of free admission on your birthday, so I'm happy for her.

I'm planning a smallish party with some graduate school friends and some work "buddies", but it's not like these people are my REAL friends, y'know? Like, friends that have actually attended a birthday party for me in the past.

Either way, this is the dress I bought for the event:


When I travel, I really like to immerse myself in the local culture, so I purchased this at H&M. All their stuff is made in China, right?

strawberry's beauty gift guide

Cheez-its, Christmas is only three weeks away! WTF, when did this happen? Being in China has really effed up my whole sense of reality, and by reality I mean my sense of American holidays.

In the spirit of the season, I've compiled a list of beauty must haves that would make great stocking stuffers. Stockings are my absolute favorite part of Christmas. Well, that's sort of a lie, I love everything about Christmas, but I do think that stockings are super awesome.

Strawberry's Beauty Gift Guide

Bare Escentuals Flawless Radiance
This isn't a blush...and it's not a bronzer...it's just a light shimmer that makes your skin absolutely glowing. Even after a rough night of grad school homework, a quick brush of this in the morning makes me look bright eyed and bushy tailed. I'm really into blush, but I like to add this on top and on my nose and forehead for a subtle glimmery look.

Burt's Bees Watermelon Lip TintIf I forget this at home for some reason, I usually have a mini-panic attack, especially if I'm somewhere sightseeing and taking photographs of myself and various Chinese landmarks. I'm not the biggest fan of lipstick, but this color is SO adorable. It's a light pink with just the slightest shimmer. I absolutely love it. And of course, it has Burt's Bees signature minty fresh feel. Mhh, mhh, mhh!

Murad Perfecting Skin LotionI've been using this product since before it was re-marketed as an "acne" lotion and have always loved it. During winter my fair skin can get super dry, and applying Skin Perfecting Lotion at night feels like my skin is getting a tall drink of water. There's not much more satisfying than feeling your face hydrate after a long day, and it helps me to relax and get in a calm mood for bed. This product is so light that I wear it under my sunscreen every day, and my skin has never looked better!

Benefit Brow Zings Eyebrow Tint
I used to think it was weird to color in your brows or tint them in any way, until one day in high school when my normal waxer was out sick and the lady they put me with insisted on dyeing my brows. WOAH. Seriously, it makes such a huge difference! My hair is so light that my brows sometimes are hard to even see, this is a good thing when, say, you're living in China and haven't found a good waxer yet and thus have not groomed your eyebrows in three months. But, if you want to really look put together, eyebrow tint is the one product that really does it for me. A little color goes a long way to frame your face and really pull a look together. I don't usually wear eyebrow tint every day, mostly because I'm too lazy to apply it in the morning, but if I want to look really sharp and professional, Benefit eyebrow tint is a make-up must.

Comptoir Sud Pacifique Vanille Abricot PerfumeThis is the one gift I have consistently purchased for myself every year since I started using it. The large bottle lasts me a whole year, so it's pretty convenient to get it for myself every Christmas (if I'm lucky I can convince my mom to drop the $80 bucks on the bottle). Anyway, I was hesitant to even share this with all of you, because it's sort of my personal beauty secret weapon, but I figured I should share the wealth and spread the joy and let you all in on the mimi (secret in Chinese). Fellas absolutely ADORE this scent. It smells like cotton candy or fresh baked cookies or vanilla and sugar or jawbreakers...I've gotten all kinds of "it smells like..." when I'm wearing this perfume, but one thing all people agree on is that it smells delicious and wonderful.

moments in teaching

From a writing quiz I gave to my 10th graders, the topic was "What is an obstacle you have had to overcome in your life?":

"One day my mom said I must go in China to study Chinese for 3 years. At the first I was hungry, but at the last I accept."

Bahaha, I'm pretty hungry, too.

chinese efficiency at its best

I saw this man rolling his overpacked cart along the street outside of my school. If I could sum up all of my experiences in China over the past 3 1/2 months in one photograph, this would be the photograph.