A Short Hiatus

A VERY BELATED CONGRATS!

2009-04-20T01:49:00.000-07:00

SYZterhood is...

...being there for one another in times of need...

...lending a helping hand w/o being asked to do so...

...calling from half-way across the world just to wish her a happy bday...

...and sending her off with a momento that'll make her smile every time she gets homesick...

oh how i miss it...

but enough of my sap. this post is dedicated to YOU Tau Lambdas! kudos for all the hard work and congratulations on finishing strong! i'm truly looking forward to meeting all of you wonderful girls upon my return =) but for now, have a great rest of the semester and welcome to greek life!

#68 Jessica Izumi Liu
#69 Tori innibrë Catipon
#70 Elizabeth Ellipsis Ding
#71 Lillian Luciera Tran
#72 Irene D'vie Wang
#73 Gina cavalli Kim (yay little piggie!)

precious aren't they? =P great job PE, PA, and bigs!

*adorable photos courtesy of steph & amanda's fb albums*

I LOVE LIFE

2009-04-18T07:03:00.000-07:00

excuse this random post, im just super-high on life right now. and no, i am not drunk it is only 10pm....but i probably will be in a few hours. isn't life grand =)

thoughts of the moment:

- exercise high is the best kind of high there is

- wish i could steal a beach/pool/lawn chair from the gym

- a difference in cultural habits/customs is one thing but to be conscious of a wrong-doing and proceed w/ such an action anyway is a completely different issue. maybe i'll elaborate later

- i've stopped weighing myself at the gym because i've accepted the fact that all i can do at this point is maintain my current weight. the only way i would be able to lose the extra pounds would be to stop consuming chinese food and alcohol...which is not bound to happen anytime soon. hey...i pride myself on being a realist haha

- im determined to get a tan.....one way or another

LAST BUT NOT LEAST:

1. NO FALLING DOWN TODAY

2. NO TOILET TODAY

3. NO DRUNK DIALING/TEXTING TODAY (this one is prob the hardest)

we'll see how this goes. ta ta

itinerary for the night: SOHO & M2

too excited! yes im a dork...sue me

P.S. I THINK THIS IS THE LAST MONTH TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE 6 MONTHS FOR 500 RMB DEAL AT PHYSICAL! ok im not a promoter, i'm just a wannabe fitness freak who feels very fortunate to have stumbled upon this offer and hope that i can help those like me who are looking to join a nice gym at a reasonable price. in the words of nevin...im just a selfless person...it's who i am =P

ENDS APRIL 30th!

Too Good To Be True

2009-04-12T02:44:00.000-07:00

free alcohol AND MANICURES....what more could you ask for. thank god i didn't get that 1200 RMB discount card at the nail place. oh the wonderful things you can find on the internet =) plus volar is quite nice...just went last night and had a blast...but maybe it was the company =P

i <3 these peoples

in other news, i got an ELEVEN hour US-China calling card for approximately TWELVE bucks! can you say baller? so if you happen to get a strange call during the afternoon/evening time, that would prob be yours truly doing some hardcore international drunk dialing ;)

ok time to get off my buttocks and head to the gym. ta ta!

Delectable Finds

2009-04-06T08:59:00.000-07:00

i must admit that i waste far too much time on the inter-web. but every once in a while - between all the facebooking and email-checking - i'll actually come across something unique and worthwhile. i'm not talking about the usual hype surrounding a newly-opened shanghai dance club or a restaurant named after a world-renowned chef. for those of you who know me, you should be well aware of my love for good and cheap street food. and where better to get it in shanghai than the famous wujiang lu. that i already knew... what i just found out less than 5 min ago was that this little street holds a variety of food events on a somewhat regular basis. just thought i'd share this new-found knowledge with all you other foodies out there. here's an excerpt from a cityweekend blog:

Confirmed events:

4/10 - 4/12 Egypt Culture Week 埃及文化周 The festival supposedly will provide visitors with a sampling of Egyptian cuisine.

4/25 - 4/26 Korean Seafood Festival 韩国水产节

Still pending events:

4/17 - 4/19 F1 Carnival: TBA

8/09 Thailand Week: TBA

9/09 or 10/09 Shanghai Tourism Festival: Wujiang Lu may hold some corresponding food activities

And two other indoor foodie events:

4/1 - 4/30 Northeast Asian Food and Culture Festival currently ongoing at the Golden Jaguar Mall (金钱豹国际美食百汇)

11/7 - 11/8 The Cuisine Festival An international food fair which will include cooking lessons and a jazz concert, held at the Shanghai Exhibition Center

egyptian food in shanghai...who would've thought right? definitely going to check out as many of these as possible. let me know if you want to join in on the fun =)

p.s. ummm as for the other happenings in my life...i'll update later.....perhaps......or just check my fb for pics thanks haha

Mini-Recap

2009-03-10T08:25:00.000-07:00

sorry that i've been neglecting this blog ever since its inception. i really think college has made me develop some serious form of aversion to writing. it really doesn't matter what kind - it could be a med school essay, a lab progress report, or even a simple blog entry. w/e it is, i just can't bring myself to start writing, and we all know that starting is the hardest part. on top of that, writing, for me, requires a lot of time and focus, and im usually too lazy to put in that kind of effort. but when you're sitting in your dorm room with a 100F (38C) degree fever eating crackers and drinking gatorade, all you've got is time. now, the focus part might require a tadbit of effort.

so what have i been up to in SH, let me break it down for ya:

academics // classes started about 2 weeks ago. i took a placement test the day after i arrived and they placed me in advanced level 1 (高一). they made a rough estimation of my chinese ability based on a short conversation, then had me take last semester's final exam for a level that they thought was appropriate, and told me that they would place me one level higher if i passed that exam. i ended up getting a 65, which is barely passing, and they placed me in the higher level. i was pretty nervous about it at the time, but now i feel like it's a good, if not great, fit for me.

there are a total of 5 classes: writing (写作), speaking (口语), reading (阅读), intensive reading (精读), and listening (听力). here are all my lovely books costing a whopping 250RMB...ok $36 might not be considered much for textbooks in the US but it's a lot to spend in china!

and there are 2 different times/teachers for each class, so i spent the last 2 weeks shopping around for the best teachers, and i think i'm pretty happy with my schedule.

wednesdays are a bit hectic but i wanted to have thursdays free because wed nights are ladies night =P but also for a variety of other scheduling reasons that are too complicated to explain. worst comes to worst, i will stop going to intensive reading wed afternoon because that teacher creeps me out =\ all in all, i have 2 GREATTTT, WONDERFULLL teachers (writing and reading), 1 decent but gay, flamboyant, overly-optimistic-to-the-point-of-sounding-like-a-cheap-infomercial teacher, not to mention he's only 24 (speaking), 1 boring and awkward teacher with an annoying, ear-piercing voice who likes to talk about suicide in a giddy tone, which, coincidentally, makes me want to kill myself (intensive reading), and an amusing teacher who is just confused/stoned (listening). i like my writing class to the extent that not even an 100 degree fever prevented me from attending or finishing my essay yesterday morning. it was entitled MY FRIEND - KEVIN LIANG (我的朋友- 梁兆维) muahahah check that!

i also started calligraphy this afternoon. but what is there to say really? we practiced 2 strokes the entire class, and i swear he paid 10000000x more attention to the caucasian students. but maybe it's because they were just having more trouble.....aka sucking at life. n00bzors. i might stop going if it doesn't pick up soon. at least i got a cute little bag out of it:

girls got pink and guys got blue/black. they really take time to think this stuff through...

ok that's enough about school...

social life // i'm not sure if i can say that i already have a steady group of friends here but there are definitely a few people that i tend to hang out w/ regularly. first and foremost, sy and nevin, for obvious reasons that need not be explained. other than those 2, i've met a good amount of asian-europeans...many of which are from the same chinese province as i am. i must say that i was surprised to find so few asian-americans. maybe they all left, maybe i just havent met them yet, who knows. i dont mind at all though, because it is much cooler and more eye-opening to meet people with different backgrounds/viewpoints. i say this, yet i still tend to gravitate towards other chinese people. they might be european, but in the end, they're still chinese haha. on the other hand, if you asked me whether i could become good friends with native chinese people, i would have to say no. language-barrier aside, the difference in mentality and cultural upbringing is just too great. i'm not saying i can't get along with them just fine, if not wonderfully, but to fully understand each other and establish a meaningful bond, that is something i cannot see happening.

so onto more lighthearted topics...i've gone out the past 2 weekends, both of which resulted in some plastered action, so to speak. mostly my fault, but partly the fault of chinese clubs for having all you can drink policies. this past friday was especially bad, and probably the main cause of this sickness. it was fun while it lasted...based on what i could actually remember. and it was nice to meet more people and hang out with the ones in my building:

in addition, i made the mistake of going out again on sat night to do something more "relaxing" -_-, aka pool and ktv. too bad we sang until 4:30am....yea not exactly what i'd call relaxing. it was quite fun, but im not sure if it is worth having to deal with this fever... i think i'll reserve this coming weekend for some real relaxation...assuming i'll have completely recovered =\

miscellaneous // so before my crazy night on friday, nevin and i went to help his chinese friend tutor some elementary/middle school kids:

the session started out pretty well, as i was able to help some 4th graders with their english and math homework. they really looked up to us and even had dinner ready for us. but once the middle schoolers started to pile in, we began to feel completely inadequate. i thought that i might be able to help them out with some chemistry or physics problems as long as they explained to me what the question was asking but no such luck. one girl couldn't do a question involving the solubility of compounds. i knew what it was asking but no way would i still remember those solubility rules. all i did was memorize them for the MCAT and erased them from my mind the day after the exam. i tried to explain to her that it's a straightforward problem and all she needs to do is go look at the solubility rules, but that didn't really satisfy her. even middle school english was a pain. i don't know enough chinese to explain why a sentence should say "they were playing football on the field" rather than "they were playing THE football on the field." and as sad as this may sound, i wasn't even sure if one of the sentences should've read "what would you suggest the tourists do?" or "what would you suggest the tourists to do?" yea yea...i know now but it confused the crap out of me at the time -_- at least i fared a little better than nevin did; he got ridiculed by a 4th grader who was amazed at how slowly he reads chinese and said that he must be breaking some kind of world record hahahhaha...and then that kid proceeded to pwn nevin in chinese chess:

cute huh? really quirky and mischievous little boy....reminds me of filippo hahahaha

social commentary // at the request of my aunt and cousin, i went to a chinese hospital last night to see a doctor about my fever. the moment i stepped inside, i knew that i had made a grave mistake. what i saw was not a hospital but a loud and chaotic madhouse, not to mention completely unsanitary:

yes, that would be the sight you witness right when you walk in the entrance. and yes, that pile of blankets is on the floor, and im quite sure that a person was laying there getting IV infusion not too long before i took the picture. to be honest, i was pretty scared of catching something much more serious while i was there. the trip was a complete waste of time because all that chinese doctors want to/can do is give you IV infusion, and all i wanted was some tylenol, which i could've gotten easily at the pharmacy down the block. even after i declined the IV, the doc asked if i wanted a shot to suppress my fever. once again, i declined, and i must say that i am extremely happy that i did so because i found out later that the shot is given in the rear....yea would have been quite an experience to say the least.

i do think that when it comes to something like your health, you have to do what's best for your body, regardless of discomfort, cost, inconvenience. and i grew up in china so i've gotten plenty of iv infusions and needles to the buttocks. it's not the pain that i'm worried about but rather the safety of the treatment and the cleanliness of the medical equipment here. chinese ppl prefer shots because they enter the bloodstream and act much more quickly than oral medication. i'm not well-versed on this topic and have no concrete evidence stating that iv infusion is more harmful than tylenol/advil, but i just feel a little uncomfortable at the thought of putting medicine straight into my veins. i'd also rather avoid needles in this country as best as i can. there is a reason why china's health system was ranked 144 out of 190 countries by the WHO...

one of the reasons that i wanted to improve my chinese was so that i could spend part of my time doing medical volunteering in rural china once i become a doctor. i was under the impression that rural areas were the only places that needed help, but after seeing the condition of a top shanghai hospital, i can say that i was clearly wrong. but as my health policy professor used to say: doctors aren't the ones who make decisions regarding the direction of healthcare. in the end, everything lies in the hands of the government. it's true in the US, and it remains just as true in china. and in my opinion, the chinese political system has many more issues that most westerners can't even begin to comprehend...

so yea......that definitely took a good 2 hours haha. the "mini" in the title might be a misnomer. this is why i dont blog often. but maybe if i did more often, the entries would be shorter.....hmmm who knows. i just want to sleep early and rid myself of this fever =\

goodbyess, hope you are all well!

Shanghai Thus Far

2009-02-20T08:09:00.000-08:00

so i've been here for about 2.5 days and it's been amazinggggg. i'm not sure whether it's because i had low expectations or if i'm truly having an outstanding time...but i'm leaning towards the latter. in either case, i created this new blog mainly due to my inability to access xanga using the school internet. don't ask me why it's blocked because i have no clue. all i know is that chinese universities are not fond of xanga or the sigma psi zeta national website....and im sure a number of other random sites. i'm not complaining though because i was already planning on making a new blog exclusively for my shanghai adventures and this only helped to give me the necessarily motivation.

well where do i begin....i feel like i've done so much in these past 2.5 days but maybe that's just the overwhelming nature of being in a new place. i definitely love the living conditions though; i'm pretty sure a big portion of my happiness can be attributed to the grandeur that is my dorm room. it is big, clean, and well-furnished to begin with, as you can see from the following picture:

but with a little help from ikea....it became simply baller:

yea i love my room...thank you ikea =)

i also managed to join a gym today...not to mention at the amazing price of 500 RMB for 6 months! i'm so glad i didn't settle for the first gym we went to where the woman was ridiculously persistent and even kept calling and texting me afterward to ask when we were going back and why we chose the other gym....yea.....creepy much? but im extremely satisfied w/ my decision. i love it when i make good decisions...esp ones that save me a lot of money =D

ok that is all for todayyyy

p.s. i love shanghai ^^