China, you make me laugh/vomit.

so Thursday night, I went with my friend Fred to the gym and bought a membership. things to know about gyms in china:

• school gyms suck big time and have almost no equipment and a million people.
• women don't really work out in china, because they're supposed to be "delicate" so not only am I white, blonde, and foreign, i'm a woman, at a gym=the most exciting thing in the world to stare at for chinese people apparently
• the locker room is a terrifying place. i walk in and was immediately confronted by naked chinese women, old, young, fat, thin, etc. then i walk around looking for my locker, which is conveniently located next to the bathrooms, where chinese woman are going to the bathroom (squat style, so everythings out there for viewing). then one woman finishes peeing or something and walks out of the stall, to then wipe herself, in front of me. like seriously? get real. that's disgusting. vommm (it) at least take care of that in the stall. and shut the god damn door! blahhhh (that's me vomiting)
• the machines are crazyyyy. they are like a personal trainer built in. story: so i get on an elliptical and am going along for about 6 minutes, when it stops and resets. so i start over, so annoying. so then i'm even more tired cuz i had to start over so I'm slowing down a bit,when all of a sudden, the screen flashes, "Increase RPM or will turn off" and you have like 5 seconds to do it or seriously, it starts you over again. so if you don't keep up the speed, it shuts off on you. so you have to work so hard. and you can't change the levels in the middle so whatever you pick in the beginning, you're stuck with. I eventually had to stop cuz i couldn't keep up with my machine. haha. 

So ya, that was the gym. but they have some awesome classes- MTV dance, china dance, hip hop, a million yoga classes. I haven't had time to do any yet but i think i'm going to mtv dance tomorrow. haha. can't wait. 

then we went to chinese class friday morning, where I discovered I made the most hilarious translation mistake ever: we had to write a short story about a fable with a moral from america, so i did the boy who cried wolf,... or so i thought. I looked up "wolf" online (or woof as you'd say dad) and used what I found 色朗 selang. my teacher was going over major errors in class and brought up my use of this word, which actually means "rapist". hahahaha. (this also changed the meaning of other words in this context) So let me translate some excerpts of "The Boy who cried Rapist" for you:

(parents talking to son, who heards sheep): "Your job is very important because if you do not watch the sheep, the rapist will come and rape them."

(boy yelling): "Rapist! Rapist! The rapist is chasing the sheep! Help me!" 

(and in the end): "The boy shouts: 'Rapist! Rapist! Help me!' But the townspeople did not come because they thought he was lying. All the sheep were raped by the rapist or they ran away."

pretty excellent stuff huh? so now we are constantly calling the guys selang (cuz only guys can be selang). it's pretty hilarious. although yelling "rapist" on the subway will get you a few looks, even more than the ones you're already getting for being white and blonde. haha. not recommended. 

friday afternoon I went to the climate change meeting at my internship place. It was all in chinese. fml. I understood her presentation cuz she used slides that were mostly in english and had pretty graphs. but then the questions started and I was so lost. towards the end, one of the other employees from PIUSE (the company i intern for) was like, "Julia, do you have any questions?" and duh, i was like "no" and then they all laughed and were like "oh so cute, the little intern speaks chinese!" it was probably a really cool presentation and discussion but i didn't really get it. I know they were talking about US climate change politics, which I know a lot about since I lobbied for that legislation in dc the last two years. I made a new friend though, she's a new intern from the US pavillion at the expo. she's doing this in her spare time. she's fluent in chinese. (and english obvi, she's american). and she's coming with me on tuesday to this religion forum thing with me. should be cool. the chinese are so into guanxi (relationships/networking), but like i have no idea what to say to these people. so i'm just really awkward. haha. 

friday afternoon/evening, i confirmed all of our hotel stuff for inner mongolia. they're giving us a discounted rate and they sound really awesome! and we're going baller tours in the grasslands and the Gobi Desert! we're staying at www.andaguesthouse.com if you wanna check it out!

then we had hot pot for dinner, we accidentally went to a really nice place (the shittier, the better usually in china) so it was just ok. it's kinda like fondue, the oil kind. you put raw meat/veggies/noodles in a bowling pot and dip them in yummy sauces and such. yum. 

then we went out to celebrate Diggory & Jay's birthdays. We had cake in Jay's room, then went to windows, our fav bar. again. then to a go-karting place. fastest go karts i've ever driven. you spin out every turn if you're going at all fast. sooooo fun. then to M1nt (mint),the most exclusive club in shanghai. you have to call ahead to get on a list. so that was fun-ish. but it was hard cuz we went so many places and it was long taxi rides to get everywhere. and then we were really tired by the time we got to M1nt. but still fun. 

today i went downtown to the french concession to shop with Sup, Diggory, Alex, & Sean. it was fun, but we were just looking mostly. and it was expensive. it totally didn't feel like china though on the streets- it was crazy western. 

then Magnolia and I went to dinner with her host mom's friends at their house. The mom (not noli's host mom) made the greatest dinner ever with like 10 different dishes: fish in an awesome sweet & sour sauce, chopped up frog, tarot (i think that's what it was), veggies, asparagus like vegetable, edamame (traditional mid-autumn festival- see other posts for that), chicken, beef, soup, weird seafood that we don't have in american and no one could explain, and more. so delicious. the best food I've had yet in china. :) and they were soooo nice. they wanted to show us everything about their house and helped us speak chinese and made us try everything and showed us how to eat it. then after dinner we had watermelon and grapes (very traditional to eat fruit after dinner). then we talked/they showed us random stuff, such as the toys their 25 yr old son used to play with- cool...? the mom does fan dancing and is apparently really good. she's performing in november and they're going to be on TV. we asked her to perform for us but she said she needed music. so of course, magnolia and i sung mo li hua (jasmine flower), a traditional chinese folk song that we learned last summer. it was great. and she danced. :) they also said they'd give us extra tickets they have to the expo for free! yippee! we haven't been yet, but obvi really wanna go. then when we were leaving, they gave magnolia and i each gifts- yue bing (moon cakes), a traditional delicacy for mid-autumn festival. they're so delicious. it's like pastry thing filled with random deliciousness, such as lotus, beef, pork, green beans, red beans, etc. so nice! and they got them from the nicest place in shanghai! i love chinese people. they are so nice and friendly and honestly just want to share their however humble, lives with you. so open and warm. 

now i'm at home preparing my hw for chinese class tomorrow. yes sunday, that's right. class on sunday this week to make up for wed-fri that we have off this week. and chinese test monday. :( so scared! I feel like I had no weekend either, just one day off. so painful! 

ok, well that's it for now. miss you america!