Shanghai. Whaddup.

So, I know, I haven’t updated this blog in somewhere south of forever. Truth is, times be crazy here in China. Allow me to give a quick summary of everything that has happened in the past three months:

1. I graduated from my program at BeiWai in May. I was awarded Top Student of the Intermediate-Advanced Chinese level, along with another student in my class. Kind of came out of nowhere, but they gave me this super awesome Chinese calligraphy scroll. I honestly couldn’t care less about the Top Student thing, but the scroll? Friggin AWESOME. It’s the best souvenir ever, because it is the embodiment of all those hours spent memorizing Chinese, and one of the teachers in my program made it, so it’s authentic. As you can tell, I’m kind of in love with this scroll. I’m planning to elope with it as I type. I was thinking Hawaii, thoughts on elopement location? Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to photograph the living daylights out of it and post the photos. SO BEAUTIFUL IT PAINS ME!

2. I went to Hong Kong. Twice. So…the Chinese government changed visa policy RIGHT when I needed to be getting a visa for Shanghai. I am really not going to bore you with the details of this. Actually, to be honest, I don’t want to put my visa at risk, or risk getting myself kicked out of China, so I’m going to play nice in this post. Allow me to summarize, succinctly, why I hate the Chinese Visa Fight to the Death:

First: It is the quintessential red tape experience of a lifetime. Nothing is transparent. There are no summaries of how to do what you need to do to get visas. You have to go through back doors and through trials by fire just to get a flipping L visa.

Second: Everyone contradicts each other. Like, Hong Kong and Shanghai, do your visa offices ever, you know, chat? Like, to get your story straight? I mean, sure, I loved being toyed with as much as the next girl, but you guys are the worst manipulators ever. You are so transparent in your lies, it isn’t even funny.

Third: It’s expensive for no reason. It’s mainly expensive if you get raped by the system and have to do the visa trip twice. Which I did. Don’t even talk to me about it; my pocketbook isn’t speaking to me right now on account of how badly this whole visa thing went financially.

Anyways, while I was playing the leading role of Rocky in this visa match of pain, getting owned in the face by the Chinese government for nine rounds of blood, guts and gore, I got to see Hong Kong. Hong Kong, my friends and family, is awesome. You all should be worried, because I might just elope with my scroll to Hong Kong and never come back to the States. Hong Kong is so awesome, I’m going to give the city its very own post, just because it’s too awesome to describe in one paragraph.

3. I moved into an apartment in Shanghai. Now, as most of you know, I got a thing going with Siemens right now. Due to a non-disclosure agreement, I can’t really tell you anything about what I am doing via blog. However, if you want the particulars, call me and we’ll chat. Skype, people. I live on it. As Shakira once said, “Whenever, wherever.” Call me.

My apartment in Shanghai is really, truly wonderful. I love it dearly. It is situated one block from the Huangpu River, so I get to run along the Riverside Promenade whenever I want (this is a bit like being able to run along the Embarcadero in San Francisco whenever you want; essentially, it is an awesomely easy, daily activity you get to do that most people travel half the world just to see. I have run it dozens of times now, and I am still in awe). It’s just a couple blocks up from the Metro, so I have easy access to all of Shanghai for less than a US dollar per trip. The apartment itself is quite nice; two bedrooms, a study, a kitchen, a laundry machine, a refrigerator, two bathrooms, a living room, and free WiFi are just a few of the perks. Also, it has spectacular views of Shanghai; I can see the Oriental Pearl Tower from my room. Basically, this apartment is a dream. Except, the bathroom showers kind of like to go hot and then cold, and the washing machine takes forever to run a load. However, given the awesomeness of everything else in the apartment, I tend to overlook those downsides.

So, now you are pretty up to speed on my life. My next posts will be talking about life in Shanghai, my touring around the city, and I’ll probably be answering that age old question: “Beijing or Shanghai??? Which is better?”

If I say Hong Kong, am I cheating? Kidding! More on that in the next blog post!