shanghai 08

last one

2008-07-06T22:19:00.000-07:00

what up

so i dont think i could have pictured this any better, my last shanghai post in the airport. im writing my last post at the PVG shanghai airport where i arrived at 1130 for for my 3o clock flight. the reason for this is because i left to the airport with my grandpa who had a flight at 1 back to taipei. it was great spending time and seeing my grandpa the past weeks. even tho i was really busy with finishing up school, saying bye to friends, goodbye dinners, last minute sights seeing, and the whole moving out of the dorm process.
my grandpa is really old and just by spending time with him and communicating with my broken ass chinese to him i sometimes forget how really old he is. he is like 87ish and has experienced a lot in his life. no wonder why people should respect elders. so please do.

all i can say about the past 5months is that its been a great experience. i made great friends, saw parts of the world i never thought id see, learned chinese [somewhat], made countless memories with friends, experience a whole different culture, and simply just enjoy life. the past 5months flew by so fast and i honestly cant believe its been only 5months, to be honest, i feel like ive been out here for at least a year. the things i did, the places i saw, and the memories i made out here seemed it took longer than just 5 months to make. it just shows me how one can spend their time and to make the most of everything. but yeah, i recommend everyone to travel to a foreign country and live there for some amount of time, enough time to adapt and adjust to their lifestyle. im not gonna lie, im pretty fuckin rude now and lost some manners of how i treat people. people in china are fuckin rude, they speak over you, cut lines, push and shove, and just dont say thank you. a lil weird to what im accustomed to in the states, im not sayin states is the nicest place ever but hey, some people are at least respectful. china people just dont give a fuck. and it sorta rubbed off me to some degree haha

but yeah. i dont know what really to say in my last shanghai post oter than that i had tons of fun.

things ill miss from shanghai
-taxi drivers...the best DD ever
-cheap mild sevens
-cussing at people in english and no one understanding me haha
-the friends and people i met out here
-to some degree cheap food
-cheap clothes
-black market dvds

things i wont miss from shanghai
-the fuckin weather. it was SO cold at some points and its SO hot now.
-ugly teeth -_-
-ugly girls haha ... some exceptions
-all the signs in chinese characters
-the smell of BO, no1 wears deodorant out here. its disgusting
-bargaining for everything because u never know if ure gettin the "legit" price. everyone in shanghai is tryin to make a dollar off your foreign ass.

things i cant wait for in the states
-english!
-driving
-family
-friends
-using US currecny, ive seen and used too many kinds of currency these past months. hongkong macau thai japan and taiwan. i just want to see the good ol GREEN dollars
-mexican food...u have no idea how bad i want a burritoe from cotixans
-better weather

but yeah

its about time to board so here it is. the finale.

zai jian

thank you shanghai for being so good to me the past 5 months

much needed update

2008-06-30T18:57:00.000-07:00

what up what up what up

ive been horrible at updating and i must apologize for that. i knew at a certain point in time i'd get lazy to update but here it is and im trying very hard to do so.

updates.

-im currently on my week of finals. i got 3 days of testing from 8am till 1130ish. i just finished my 2nd day of testing which was speaking and writing. [didnt take the writing test so im back even earlier.] day 3 is grammar and day 1 was listening and reading comprehension.
so since its finals. that means school is almost over which means the program is over which means im leaving back to the states REAL soon. hard to imagine how fast time flew by in about 5months. it was ridiculous fast.

but i'll get into that later. my last post will be one of those reflecting ones.

but other updates.

- a couple of the friends that i hung out with the most left already and it sorta feels empty. evan chan alex chen and michael lin left 2 days ago to taiwan.

- eugene chang my boy is stayin in shanghai! haha cant believe this guy he was the guy that i was close to coming out to shanghai with and i never really thought he was stayin after the program but he is. he just signed the lease and got the new keys to his apt yesterday. what a trip.

- been living it up and making the most of what i got left which is exactly 6 days. july 7th is my flight back home and because i save a day flying back to the us, it'll be the 7th when i land.

other updates.....

watched kungfu panda
found some REAL seedless weed out here
indoor go karting
outdoor paintballin
ate at a gang of dinners all over the city from nice rest to ghetto ones
visited the civil planning museum of shanghai. its pretty much a museum about what the future city planning will be of shanghai. pretty nuts
gonna hit up the shanghai aquarium today
still bummed the lakers lost the finals. [sorry to bring up but had to]
ummm what else...gotta make the most of the 6 days. thats whats been on my mind....hmm

a couple of ucsd people flew abroad a few days ago duke lydia rose quang and walter. they're going to some eap program in jiao tong. a college in the city which i wish i went to. for the people who ever go to fudan. this school is far from all the lights and glam, and its just inconvenient to have to go on a 30min cab to hit up the city.

im really excited to come home and be home. shanghais cool and all and ive had tons of fun, but it aint home. "theres no place like home"

well this was a quick short update to motivate me to update more this last week.

i hope all is well with everyone and i will sooon be back in cali. take care

signing off
ryan

post 15, i believe

2008-06-03T01:40:00.000-07:00

what up what up what up

hows it goin everybody. hope all is well. so i got about a month left on my abroad program. school ends july 5 and i think i gotta be moved out latest, the 8th. so all i have to say is, if people want souvenirs or anything from china let me know asap! i suck at gettin gifts so if you really do want something please let me know or else you'll just get a hug and a "hows it goin" when i see you.

so on my last month at shanghai i really plan to make the most of it and soak in the city, see the people, eat the food, hang with friends, and party like a madman. i gotta make the most of everything right? things on my to do list consist of go cart racing, hitting up some museums, hittin up an aquarium, shop for stuff, and simply hang out with friends that ive made out here.

before even coming on this abroad program i was planning to hit up taipei and see my gramps, hang with friends, and of course chill with my dad. but since i already went to taiwan to see my grandpa earlier this past month i may just have to put it on hold to next time and arrive back in LA earlier than expected, which is not a bad thing at all. i miss home, im not sayin im homesick or anything, but being away from your family and friends for this long of a period it takes somewhat of a toll on you. so i should be expected to land in lax around the dates of july 6-10.
sorry to all of my friends that i was gonna meet and party with in taipei, next time! to be quite honest, im a little bummed about not going but its okay since i already went.

what else is there to say...i watched iron man out here and its a good movie. very pleased with robert downey jr's performance. my favorite scene was on his private airplane, haha. ive been really into the DEXTER showtime series. its freakin good yet a lil creepy. everyone should give it a shot! what else is there to say....umm hope all is well with everybody. see you guys in a month.

take care

peace out

ryannn

ps holla if you want something!

pss. congrats to all my friends who demitted from akpsi and all the friends i got graduating this year! congrats!

the one with japan

2008-05-28T09:27:00.000-07:00

i just came back from japan and all i have to say is, japan is indescribable. everyone should go one day, its by far the MOST advanced asian country ive been to. the cities were clean as can be and the technology advancements are what i wish the US was. to be honest, the city was clean as hell and for some reason there are VERY few trashcans around, ,i dont know why but i guess everyone just holds there trash cause u can easily walk around for about 20min without finding a trashcan. but yeah, japan was tite.

the cities ive visited was tokyo, kyoto, and osaka. i only spent 5 days and 4 nights there but made the most of it. wish i couldve been out there longer but i ditched MORE than enough school. i ditched school to a point where i HOPE i wont get in trouble. i need these credits or im fucked and heading straight to a jc for chinese =\ so lets hope that everything is okay for my sake.

so the line up was.... michael joyce alex evan yiling marvin julie conway and myself. joyce and alex were the only non first timers of japan so it was a great experience for us japan virgins.

so lets go through each day out in japannn!

day 1. tokyo - flight was 10am from shanghai which meant waking up around 6am to get to the airport on time. landed in japan around 2ish. took 130hr train to toyko, from train station subwayed to SHINJUKU which where our hostel was. check this, our hostel was one of those places where you sleep in a hole in the wall cabin ish things. think of a morgue, and thats how our beds were without the freezer door. checked in, rested a bit, dropped off bags, and then headed out to the city. the most popular and most known area in toyko. SHIBUYA. according to japan records, theres an average about 5 million people to walk on this specific intersection right outside the SHIBUYA train station. freakin nuts right? but yeah met up with michaels friends cat and vicky which are both ucsd akpsi alums, very friendly people who brought us to a nice tapa restaurant. i never heard of this till this trip but it must be somewhat common, but a tapa kind of restaurant is when you order a bunch of small dishes and drink. its like half dinner and half gettin drunk, we were all pleased to indulge ourselves after a long day of traveling with our bags. after a night of dinner, drinking, some arcading, and shopping. we called it a nite.

day 2
kyoto

woke up fuckin early in toyko to have a full planned out day in kyoto. the train ride is about 3hrs from tokyo to kyoto, so that was the time to sleep. go to kyoto...took a bus to our hostel and checked in. this hostel was freakin ridiculous. theres not many ways to describe it but it was just unique, old, traditional, and ghetto. hopefully they'll be pics posted up on facebook. it was really a once in a lifetime place to see and to stay for a nite. haha. after grabbing lunch went to the GOLDEN temple which is a famous place in kyoto. it was a tite place, very scenic but a lot smaller than i pictured it. nonetheless, a very good spot to see for its historic purpose. btw, it started to RAIN this day and everyone was outdoors -_-. wasnt too pleasent, so after the temple headed back to the hostel and walked around its streets. as walking through the streets, i found out that pachinko, some kind gambling slot machine is VERY popular. a lot of districts/cities ive hitted up always had a pachinko slot machine area near by. didnt know how to play, but if i did, i wouldve tried it out. after resting a bit then went to dinner... during dinner we discussed the plan for the next day, which was waking up early and headin to osaka [its about 30 min train ride from kyoto] went back to hostel after dinner but before heading back, we made sure to make a pit stop at a quickie mart to pick up some goodies, alcohol. =D. japan had a wide varities of mixed cocktails in cans, it was crazy and we made sure to pick up a good amount to test it out with a good amount of beer and a carton of sake. it was a good nite of drinking, chillin, and planning the next day. during this nite, some 2 random white boys living at the hostel decided to crash our room part/meeting and started to talk about themselvles. so CHECK it...

we met two 22-23 year old white boys from virgina who are HITCHHIKING through japan. they simply bought a ticket to japan and fuckin literally put up a sign while standing on the street beggin for a ride to the next city. its ridiculous. i forgot how far they traveled but from my understanding, theyve journeyed pretty far gettin free meals and housing from random strangers. ridiculous right? they said they used this site... couchsurfing.com looks pretty legit. one random fact. one of the white boys had a tatoo of the death eater symbol from harry potter. seemed pretty creepy and ridiculous. but yeah, if ever you travel and stay in a hostel. be prepared to meet some wacky motherfuckers. they were friendly and all, but seemed a lil corky.

after drinking and planning. called it a nite and woke up around 6am the next morning -_-
btw, during my time in japan. sleepin was very minimal. we litterally woke up as early as 4 during our stay out here. the avg amount of sleep went from 2-5hrs a nite, depending on how much we were out for. but to be honest, a tip for travelers who dont have much days while traveling. u rather give up sleep then give up time in a foreign country. start days early, plan, and end them late. haha

but yeah

day 3.
osaka
took train, decided not to crash a nite at osaka so we would save time seeing osaka. by doing this, we saved a bunch of time and we would have just trained back to tokyo at nite instead of early the next morning. . so we left all our shit at the osaka train station locker and headed to the famous osaka castle museum! the castlel was tite and very historic. i really enjoy seeing historic/sightseeing things in general. i find them to be interesting and meaningful, but yeah. the castle joint had many snacks, stores, and people. one of the biggest regret ive had on this trip was that there was this characacher artist who drew people japanese anime style! he was fuckin talented and it looked hella tite. we didnt have enough time to hit him up since we had a strict schedule to follow and it wouldve sucked if only one or two of us got it while the other 7 didnt. but regardless, the castle was tite. right outside the castle, there was this kendo stick competition that we snuck in to see. fuckin intense. those kendo sticks can do some damage. after spending a few hours in the castle area, which id like to add was very peaceful and insightful.
but yeah. after castle went to the most famous aquairum in japan. osaka aquarium in KAIYUKAN. the aquarium was tite. they had a whale shark! O_O spent a few hours there looking at a gang of fish, stingrays, penguins, aligators, beavers, jellyfish, more fish, turtles, dolphins, some fish, a couple of sharks, and of course a gang of fish. very nice joint. after another few hours in the aquarium, hit up an arcade right outside and played some games. i love arcades haha. i really miss dnbs, i really enjoyed just kickin back and playin games. i think thats one of the first things i'll do wen im back. shoot some zombies, race some daytona, shoot some hoops, and doin all this with some tasty beer.
back to japan...
after all a long full day of events rushed back to the train station to catch the last train from osaka to toyko.

got back to toyko, and planned the next day/s. no drinkin this nite. had to wake up at 4am the next day....

day 4
BACK to toyko
woke up at 4am so we could go to some crazy fish market. every morning at this fish market. TSUKIJI was the place and our goal was to reach there before 530 to see some chopped up fish. the fish market was not like no farmers market, it was fuckin nuts. it was like a huge warehouse of fish that were literally just pulled on to shore 2hrs ago. pictures are best to describe this joint. but it was nice to see some fisherman do their work and chop up fish in front my eyes. the warehouse was huge and it was really hard to get thru and view the joint since all the workers are still working. im not gonna lie, if i was a fisherman working on that pier/post, id be fuckin pissed. so many tourists walk thru the areas clogging up aisleways, but seriously fuck it. im american haha and whens the next time i'll see a tuna about 3 feet tall [no joke.] after viewing and causing huge ruckus and making the fishermans life harder which i bet, goes through everyday since this is a HUGE tourist thing in osaka. but yeah. after, had a sashimi breakfast and walked the streets all before 8am. o_O great morning.

after that..headed to HARAJUKU which is a huge shopping area for stuff. from my understanding, the first bape store was there. i could be wrong! but yeah, the place was tite, a huge shopping district! tons of stores. tons of girls. tons of walking. spent a few hours there and it was great. stores like stussy, bape, bbc, neighborhood, undefeated, and yada yada yada were all there. im not gonna lie, the average person in japan got TONS of style man. japan is the king of style, everyone from kids to grandpas got stylo. i was very surprised. and id like to adddddd....majority of the girls in japan are hot. O_O realllll hot, a HUGE change for me from dirty ugly china girls. japan is where its at for hot asian chicks. hit it up fellas. but yeah
shopped..bought a shirt, my goal was kicks but nothing i found out here was calling my name, so another day =T
after spending hours in this district...headed back to hostel and rested a bit. took a nap, dropped bags off, and then headed to dinner. btw, this was our last nite in japan so had to go nuts. dinner consisted of a gang of sake and beer. after a late and long dinner, walked the streets of tokyo with a bottles of sakes in our hands to keep the night going. majority of the group went back to hostel before 2am since there was a lock out from 2-430am and they didnt want to stay up that late since there wasnt much goin on other than walkin the streets and hittin up bars. so me, marvy marv, and miko stayed out till 430 drinkin sake and roaming the streets. great time with those fellas. hahaha a lot couldve happened but we just kept it chill and roamed around. got back to the hostel around 4am and literally SLEPT outside the hostel doors till it opened. i was fuckin trashed this nite btw. great last nite in japan.

day 5
leavin toyko
woke up at 10. thank god for sleeping in. but yeah. last day was chill. went back to the area of SHIBUYA where the big intersection was. had lunch, shopped and was enjoying the last hours of japan. hit up airport and kissed japan goodbye.

overall, i think japan was probably the most nicest countries ive been to, ridiculously clean and friendly. btw, noone speaks english OR chinese. communicating was freakin hard, nothing but pointing and sign language.

random notes
big thank you for evan joyce miko and alex for planning the trip. without them, we'd do shit. another shoutout for miko alex and joyce for knowing SOME japanese to get by. haha
but yeah other notesss...

-japan girls are hot
-subways are fuckin packed - at one stop. we waited about 30min-1hr for a subway for reasons which couldve been a suicide. japan is known to be the most sucidial country and cat [a local of 1 year] said that many people commit suicide by jumping into subways -_-. fuckin sad and ridiculous right? she claimeed that its common and that subways are lagged cause of it. cant believe it, but its true.
-japan has exclusive snacks and goodies - example. green tea kit kats. fuckin bomb. green tea orea mcflurrys and kit kat mcflurrys. double bomb.
-not only does japan have exclusive snacks, but STOGS TOO! they had this mild7 methol that was bomb and i prayed for a carton at the duty free buttttt, they dont sell it at duty free :( wished i bought more. im usually not a fan of menthols, but the mild7s are my fav stogs. aqua menthol was the name. let me know if you see it.
-everyone in japan got style
-at every news stand they sold some kind of porn. japanese people are pervs.
-public transportation, housing, and food is what most of my money is spent on when i travel.
-the AIR is crisp and clean in japan compared to other parts of asia ive been to [china, taiwan, hk]
- i always thought hongkong was clean, nice, and pretty but japan beats it BY FAR!
-japanese people are friendly and short, i felt like a giant there. everyone is just short, dont know why.

lastly.
everyone should visit japan. great times and i wish i could go back one day.

this has been probably the most detailed post ive ever posted. hope you all enjoyed. toook me forever to write it. my fingers and hands are tired beyond belief!

ill make sure to post more before i leave.
my school ends july5 which means i have lil over a month left before im done. i may hit up taiwan after for a few weeks to see family and kick it with my pops so my ETA [estimated time of arrival] back to the states should be no later than mid july.

i miss home to some degree, its not homesick, but i guess i just miss seeing familiar faces especially my bro and mom. hope all is well with everyone!

go lakers! lakers in 5!!!
btw, ive been freakin sad because i rarely get to watch full games now. readin espn articles and watching highlights is all i got =T

well im tired and im done blogging. this shits been way tooo longgg

stay pimpin everyone

ryannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

2008-05-22T09:56:00.000-07:00

what up folksss

i must apologize for my lack of entries. ever since i came back from thailand and taiwan ive been busy catching up with school and just simply being lazy. some updates...

thailand was great and beautiful
taiwan was chill and family orientated
school has been school, im about the ONE MORE MONTH mark O_O!
weather in shanghai is starting to get disgusting hot
im going to japan tomorrow!
i recently started getting into dexter...good show
lakers came back from a 20point deficit

other than that...life has been chill. everyday is eventful with goin to the city, EATING, bball, reading up espn and cnn, chilling, sleeping, and just makin the most of everything

i know this is a really shitty post and i really gotta keep myself motivated for the blog before it dies. i for sure will be more on top of my updating.

but before i go....i'll just say some stuff to make this read worthy...

thailand had the most beautiful beaches ive ever seen. the water was see through blue. so clear i couldve seen FISHES swimming next to me. there are some great pictures on facebook if you guys want a real visual. i was in thailand for a pretty long time...about 10 days. during those 10 days, 2 of them were spent on traveling alone, lay over times in the airport and just a bunch of delays. the trip overall was great and i promise ill be more detailed when im back.

at thailand...

stayed in bangkok for a couple days
found out how disgusting yet real lookin LADYboys are -_-
visited krabi island
rode an elephant
scuba dived
kayaked
snorkeled
ate delicious thai food [curries, noodles, and thai style pancakes (sorta like crepes)]
did a lot of fun and outdoor activities
visited city ruins, temples, buddhas, and the buddha statue in sagets level on street fighter!

well its about 110am and i gotta be up by 6am to make it to my 10am flight to japan. ill fill in more details laterrrr!

take care everyone. stay well stay healthy stay happy! peace everyone

ryannnnn

btw, im freakin excited to see japan. cant wait to see the bright lights and the beautiful country sides. ill tell you all about it later!

go lakers!

post 15

2008-04-30T19:59:00.000-07:00

what up folks

i didnt write much about this before because i wasnt sure i was going or not, but i am going to thailand! O_O. i have never ever been there and i can only imagine how crazy it'll be. i have a couple days off from school due to the chinese labor day weekend. but in all, i will be missing a gang of school. im leaving TODAY, may 1st and will be returning may 13. may 1-9 thailand and may 9-13 taipei! im only goin to taipei since its my grandpas 87 birthday and i should be going, i cant remember the last time i ever celebrated my grandpas bday. its a short pit-stop trip to taipei, but my dad insisted that i go so i'll be headin to taiwan after the 9 days of thailand. its gonna be a long 2 weeks for me. i'll make sure to update when i get back

i hope all is well and everyone is well! go lakers! i hope i'll be able to watch some playoff games in thai. the weather in thailand is 95 degrees -_-
heres my flight schedule for the next few weeks. in order to save some money we bought a lot of tickets from different airlines

shanghai to shenzhen [shenzhen, boarder of china near hongkong]
shenzhen to bangkok
bangkok to krabi
krabi to phuket [boat]

now check this. this is my way back to shanghai.

phuket to krabi [boat]
krabi to bangkok
bangkok to TAIPEI
taipei to hk
hk to shanghai

there are a lot of layovers and i will be visiting a GANG of airports in 2 weeks. gonna be a crazy 2 weeks. i'll fill you in with everything

stay pimpin
stay healthy
stay happy

peace

ryan

post 14

2008-04-27T14:29:00.000-07:00

what up.

its 530am right now and i cannot go back to sleep so i decided to just blog a little.

some updates:

i have my chinese exams today tomorrow and the day after that.

2 today - reading and listening class
2 tmw - speakin and writing
1 weds - grammar

all my exams are at 8am -_-
ridiculous right?

within this past week there has been a couple of birthdays

april 21st - mine! im 23!
april 25 - alex wueste
april 27 - marvin coo

so ive been celebrating a lot this week.

next update

after my exams i actually have a couple of days off due to the national holiday. chinese labor day. its like...3-5 days off school and a good time for students to travel out of the country. i was PLANNING to go to thailand with the same peeps i went to hongkong with but from the looks of it...i dont know anymore. my dad emailed me last week that id have to go to taiwan for my grandpas bday which im excited and not complaining to go. family comes first, also wouldnt you like your grandson to attend your 87th birthday? i wouldnt hurt right? but yeah. back to the point...i was told that my gramps bday was the may 5th so i thought i couldnt hit up thailand since id be in taipei. BUT a newsflash hit me just 2 days ago...my gramps bday is may 10. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm what to do now. should i hit up thailand with the fellas for a couple of days and then fly to taiwan? or chill in the dorms solo since ALL my friends are going to hongkong, thailand, hainan, and who knows where. so yeah, i guess im thinkin about what i should do. but yeah gotta make a decision soon. break begins right after my weds exam.
be sure to let you know

next business...

go lakers! 3-0

dont got much else to say, im pretty tired. im actually debating if i should post this. seems pretty dry and not interesting. oh well

hope all is well everyone.
stay pimpin
stay healthy
stay true

a very tired ryan

post 13

2008-04-19T22:58:00.000-07:00

what up friendly readers. hope eveyone is doin well as usual. stay pimpin. and happy 420!

so recap of xian in bullet point form:

-took a 15hr train to xian. thank god it was one of those sleeper trains, where they have 6 beds in an open compartment.
-saw a lot of temples and sight seeing places...the ones to mention:
-xiaolin temple [the martial arts stuff, same stuff in that xiaolin soccer movie.] loved that movie haha
-dragons grotto? thats the chinese to english translation but its called dragons gate or something like that in chinese. it was freakin tite.
- terra cotta soldiers
- and i cant recall any others that stood out, it was one of those typical asian tours but instead of old couples or with families, it was with about 100 students and 3 tour buses. so i guess it was tite. the trip was 6 days and i felt like such a tourist, hitting up countless temples, museums, and shitty family style restaurants.
- i literally ate the SAME exact family dishes for lunch and DINNER everyday. not only was it the same stuff, it was all poorly made. just horrible stuff, i probably lost a couple pounds that week from not eating much. but yeah, xian was tite. good times with geen ricker amanda n julie. shoutout to ellie who took care of us in xian. shes a med student there that we met up from a mutual friend. partied every nite as usual.

some random notes about trip:
went to luoyang, another china city close to xian
had a ice cream at almost every tourist/temple place, i think im addicted to redbean ice cream.
security guards at xian wear bullet proof vests, apparently xian is a dangerous city
the trip was good overall, i really enjoy hittin up scenic/historic places. makes me feel more worldly and keeps my mind open of things.
best nites of trip...club nono and hotel lobby with the doctor

okay. now back to shanghai

schools been cool, havent been studyin as much as i want to. ummmmm what else. went rock climbin the other day, shits fuckin scarey btw. it was indoor and its just scarey when you reach the top. all i gotta say is...use ur legs to push up, not ur arms. i had bad technique and was sore fore hours after mounting the wall. good times tho, i probably never felt the rush i had while climbing. when you look down, its really scarey and pushing your body to the limit by graspin for your life. try it!

now off to the crazy, only happen in shanghai story
it involves illegal uses of drugs, so kids. prepare yourself

in honor of 420, i went at GREAT lengths to try to get somewhat high.

ive smoked shanghai weed before, around last year. a lot of their shit is hash weed. just whatevs.
and since ive been here, ive smoked like a couple times [no more than 3], the weed was whatevs. so since i knew 420 was coming up, i had to do something special. so instead of hitting up the usual guys id hit up to SEE if they even had a word about weed, i went to the streets and asked. not literally haha.

but a couple of us went to club attica this past thursday and to save money that nite. we hit up a bar right across the street where they had bottles of chivas whiskey for 300-350rmb where club attica, were charging 2000rmb for a bottle. [ridiculous right?] so yeah...im just there chillin at the bar and noticed some white boys [its a foreign bar, called i love shanghai] rollin some sticky icky.

heres the dialogue as i remember:

me: whered you pick up from? 420 is coming up and i wouldnt mind celebrating
whiteboy: EAGER BEAVER!

me: excuse me? whats eager beaver?
whiteboy: outside eager beaver, theres a cart guy. who sells lambsticks. ask him from HAAAASHISSSSH [he said it like that]

me: what the fuck? a LAMB guy? one of those foos that sell those meat sticks.
whiteboy: hes like yeah, hes there every nite outside. good shit.

me: where is this place eager beaver at?
whiteboy: its a bar near the zapatas area.

me: thanks man, appreciate it. how will i know which guy is it?
whiteboy: your welcome. trust me, you cant miss him.

that was my next destination. eager beaver

after askin him more detailed questions about how much is it, what will i get, and is this fucker legit. i was ready and good to go. made some mental notes during the convo and put it on my agenda for tmw.

partied the night away and enjoyed the scenic giant balcony club attica had. it over looks the bund. a must go club, even tho its fuckin expensive as balls.

next nite...
i hit up that bar area near zapatas. this is about 10-1030 at nite and im walkin the streets with some friends. we had no idea or heard of this eager beaver joint so as i got near zapatas, i started asking white foreigners around if they knew where it was. luckily, the first guy i asked knew and pointed me the direction of which way to go.

he said, "walk down and take a right at the next street, cant miss it."
and i replied " thank you much appreciated, you made my day" with a huge smile on my face, full of curiosity if this lamb guy was for real.

it was funny how the eager beaver is named eager beaver. i actually felt like a eager beaver walkin with ease down the street. but as i turned the corner and look on, i saw a cart guy from a distance. i told my friends...
"no fuckin way."

as we walked closer to the bar, i noticed the bar changed its name to the beaver. i guess no more need to be eager since i was there. haha

as i walked PASSED the cart guy, he looked so mysterious and foreign, as if he wasnt asian at all. he paler skin and more facial features. big eyes and big nose. it wasnt up until he lift his face up and i was face to face with him to realize he was asian. as i was walking closer and closer to him, i was thinkin in my head. how OBVIOUS does this look? this foo aint even chinese and hes selling cart food like a bum? how can this fucker not look suspicious?

apparently theres a type or province of china people called. xin jian ren. im not really sure how far or where it is in china but its in china. from my understanding they're the crooked type of people. raised to learn how to steal, pickpocket, gypsies, the criminals of china. and i think this is a known fact about the xin jian ren. ridiculous right? the xin jian ren have distanct facial features and dont really like chinese. this lamb cart guy was a xin jian ren.

back to the story

so yeah, after walkin by and makin sure we were at the beaver [remember, i was told eager beaver but the new bar sign outside said beaver] i just wanted to make sure the location was right before i hit the cart guy up for hash-eeesh.

this next move may show a sign of how stupid or absent minded i am, but i was just curious and wanted to know fast. i walked towards the cart guy as when he had a customer waiting for us lamb stick goods, i faced him and asked straight up in chinese. "do you have hash?". he looked at me with some kind of disgust and turned his head and i walked away back to my friends which were only 10 feet from him.

ricker and eugene said "wtf, he has customers! whyd u even ask foo?"

i replied, i thought everyone was buying hash of this foo!

so yeah, after the customer left. i turned my head towards the cart guy and he started to secretly wave his hand at me from the side, giving little eye contact.

i ran up.

he asked, in chinese "how much you want?"

at this point, im like holy fuck. these guy is for real. spoke in my broken ass chinese and made the exchange. the whole process was hella slick on his part. he hooked it up with 2 free lambsticks and handed the goods in the same hand of the sticks. he has a perfect way of handing the goods to me, as i pick up the sticks he already has the goods in his palm and i grab all with one hand grip. as hes doin this, he uses is off hand to fan for multiple uses. keep the coals firing burning and to block both of our hands from bystanders sight.

i say thanks and as im walkin away. i look at the aluminmum foil and reply the events that took me to get this.

went a cheap bar
saw whiteboys rollin js
had conversation with white boy
excuse me? "eager beaver"
"wtf a lamb stick guy?"
zapatas area
good directions
encountering lamb stick guy

this was a ridiculous journey and way how i found a way to celebrate 420. but u do what you gotta do. time to smoke hash! happy 420!

hope you enjoyed the ridiculous adventure

p.s. heres a kick to the story...the lamb sticks were fuckin bomb. hahaha

take care everyone! play safe

im 23 tomorrow O_O!

ryan

post twelveee

2008-04-11T01:40:00.000-07:00

what up folks

i just got back from my field trip to xian and luoyang a couple of days ago.
i'll update my hk trip b4 my field trip [hk was just more fun]

so HERE IT IS....[read previous blogs to know what ive been doin the week b4 i left]

continue from last post..

FRIDAY

our flight to hk was 10am and it takes about 130-2hrs from school to aiport. so if it takes us that long, and knowing that when you go to airport you gotta go at least 1hr early to check in and security check...so we're supposed to be AT the aiport latest at 9ish.
we literally goto the airport 30-40min it DEPARTED!
us 5 who lived in the dorms left around 645am...woke up at 530am -_-
took a bus to subway, hopped a couple subway lines to reach our destination the MAGLEV. the maglev is a 8min air train to the airport from the city. it goes up to 453KM per hour, they literally have a gauge in the seating area. shits f'n fast. soooo after arriving f'n late to the airport, we litterally sprinted to the checkin and got our stuff handled. after gettin on the plane, i was in complete disbelief for actually even GOING to hk. remember that i literally bought the plane tickets the PREVIOUS day. this whole hk trip was talked about the earlier monday and it was just shockin how we actually pulled it off.
2hrs later on a plane...we're in hong motherfuckin kong.

first thing after gettin out of the airport, we had to figure out the cheapest way to get to the city. the airport was pretty far from the area where we needed to be. soooo after talking ENGLISH to some nice airport assistant, we ended up taking a double decker bus to the city. if ya'lls dont know, people in hongkong are able to speak english to some degree. it was a great change to speak english to asian people during this trip rather than trying to speak with my broken ass chinese. got to some shoppin area in central and ate at some wonton joint that michael recommended.
side note: michael has a crush on waitress with the last name poon that served us at the restaurant. yes, poooooon. it'd be hella funny if her first name was sandy, but it wasnt.

next. took the subway to our stop...MONG KOK. michael made reservations at the YWCA the previous day before we left. the YWCA is cheap rip off of what YMCA is, the ymca apparently in hongkong is a nice place to live in. its sorta like a ymca u know and see in the states with a NICE hotel area. since, we were trying to budget a lil on the trip we went to the ywca. after gettin off the station, we had no idea where the fuck the ywca was. according to google maps, it was only 0.1km away from the station. we talked to friendl hk peeps on the streets for where the ywca. all i gotta say is, it wasnt no f'n 0.1km walk. shit took us like 30-40 minutes in the humid weather to walk to the place. not to mention, we're all carrying our bags and sweating balls.
FINALLY after arriving to the ywca...the worse/best thing happened...they CANCELED our reservations! the front desk apparently sent michael an email stating that they over booked. so check this...we're in hk with our bags and with our balls hanging out cause we got NO place to stay. luckily conway and i noticed a nice hotel nearby the ywca while walking. METRO park hotel was the name and im glad we stayed there other than the ghetto ass ywca. the cost was probably like 20-30bucks more a nite then other joint, so it was no biggie. we went from a ghetto ass dorm style hotel to a 3-4 star hotel. we were living somewhat large. haha. after checkin in to 2 rooms, we took a relaxing rest from our long day....thennn

LAN KWAI FONG!

lan kwai fong is a huge street full of bars/clubs/hoes/people/food its the party central of hk. if you guys ever go to hk, lan kwai fong is a MUST to be at. so it was just us 6 fellas enjoyin the crowd, hittin up bars and hittin up 7-11 for cheap 40s and whiskey. all i gotta say is...if you want a cheap and drunk nite. drink KING ROBERTS whiskey, shit will fuck u up for no more than 7usd. it was fun nite walking the streets and observing a bunch of random people wearing the most CRAZIEST costumes. apparently we went to hk during a HUGE rugby tournement held in hk called ruby sevens. sooo at these games people wear costumes so theyd be aired on tv, i guesss after the games everyone gets fucked up in lan kwai fong. we saw some ridiculous costumes from duffman, those olympic characters, to bottomless sailors. shit was not a prety site. all i gotta say is, all 6 of us got fuckin wasted. we left lankwaifong on a BUS we just saw that said the word MONG KOK. all of us jumped on and pass the fuck out, it was prob a 20-30 min ride. i dont even remember anything cause i was ktfo. SO the bus drops us 6 off in the MIDDLE OF FUCKIN NO WHERE IN MONG KOK. its like 3am and all we have to get back to the hotel is a business card. so all of us drunk walk around, end up in a 7-11 askin for directions and jackin water. lookin back on that nite, i dont even fuckin know how we got back cause seriouslly, we were all trashed as hell. haha but yeah, we get close to the hotel and i saw a gas station nearby, at this gas station that we saw nearby, i saw a fire extinguisher. knowing my drunk ass, i jacked it and rannnnnnnnnnnn. shit was f'n huge and heavy. i lugged it a couple blocks while laughing my brains off and debating where to set it off. all 6 of us found a lil alley and cracked open the baby and went nuts. haha it was a fuckin blast, theres a gang of facebook pics/videos up. the smoke burns and stings like lemon is squirted in your eyes and throat, stingy and tangy at the same time. after all the fun, we found our hotel and called it a great nite.

next day....

i feel like whenever i make short trips to places, you gotta make the most of it. soo we woke up around 10, all feeling like shit and being out the door by 11ish. we grabbed lunch at some bomb ass hainan chicken joint which was a whole in a wall. a huge plus about mong kok is that its probably the BEST place to shop for shoes. theres a streets with around 20-30 shoe stores, even tho you probably see a bunch of repetitive shoes butttttt! all the shoes seem 230982734 times more legit then china. they actually are/look REAL. the bargin shoes in china looks like a ugly coloring book. all the paint and seems of the shoe are off and some even have the wrong logos!
so yeah, a gang of kicks. sadly i didnt buy any tho after being there for so long. none of the shoes really caught my eye. we didnt stay there too long cause we planned on sight seeing more this day...we hit up times sqaure, enjoyed some bomb mangos. window shopped at the malls and walked the packed streets of hk in the middle of the day. thennn i think we went to the PEAK. took a bus up a scary ass hill to the peak. the peak i believe is the highest point in hk where you oversee the city and valleys. took pics and blah blah yeah. im gettin lazy gonna start fast fowardingggg

night time! went back to LKF to meet up some of evans/wades friend from irvine, belle. shes a student and hku and a good friend of ANSON [what up homie] she was a great hk host by bringing out a gang of girls to party with us that night :D another drunk ass nite in lkf which led to dancing on the streets and a lot of bunny ears. nite ended with conway yacking outside the cab window and tons of laughs. this was the last nite in hk....

next day...off to MACAU!
macau is the fucking VEGAS of china. its been here for agessss, but to be honest. i never knew it existed till prob like last year that there was a gambling joint in china. macau is pretty much its own independent country, but it was once i believe part of mongolia? something like that. but macau is only an 1hr speed ferry away from hk and it was part of our agenda in hk. so we spent our last day in hk sleeping in, eating lunch, shoe shopping, eating dinner, and relaxing. we left our hotel around 7 and subwayed to the ferry station, took the ferry to macau, took a venetian shuttle to the hotel and ended up checkin around 1030pm. macau is nothing like vegas, the only thing that is simliar is the fact that you can gamble legally and the lights. no clubs, no strip of walking, and no pretty girls to look at. theres only like 3-4 BIG ballin' hotels which include venetian, mgm, sands, and wynn. the venetian rooms look exactttttly like the ones in vegas, so it could perfectly fit us 8. [2 of the girls we met the night b4 met us up in macau...shoutout to belle and may!] so yeah...back to the nite. we pretty much settled in, rested a lil and started to drink. the gambling pit was hugeee! just as big as the stuff you see in vegas. a huge popular chinese gambling game here is SIC BO, its BY far the EASIEST game to play in the world. theres 3 dice and you pretty much have a wide variety of bets of what the 3 dice are or sum up to be. so you can simply just bet BIG or small. [big sum over 11, small sum under 11] bet even, odd or even on what exactly the dices will read. its a pretty fun game that just goes by. i recommend everyone play it if given the chance! but of course there were a bunch of blackjack tables that i love to play. a huge plus of the night was taht drinks were FREE if gambling, just like vegas. i dont know why i was surprised but i was, maybe cause i thought asia would be cheap with drinks. it was tons of fun just gettin trashed and gambling, i usually NEVER ever ever ever ever win when i gamble, but this time in macau. i came up. i came up good. reallll goood. good times in macau, gambled and drank all night just like what i do in vegas! so yeah, day over.

next day, last day in hk/macau was a jam packed day

woke up, lunch, check out, last rounds of sic bo, walked around the shops at venetian [it just looked like the sky mall in ceasers], took shuttle to ferry, ferry to hk, went thru customs, said bye to belle and may, subway to airport, check in, go thru customs, fly BACK to shanghai. got to shanghai around 10pm, bus to the city, grab some muslim noodles near conways house, taxi back to dorms, sleep. it was a very hectic day indeeeeeed. if you look thru my track record of what kind of transportation i used in ONE day i used a shuttle, ferry, bus, plane, taxi, and subway. the only thing im missing is a hot air balloon.

overall the hk trip was insane. no words could describe how much fun i had. it was only 4 days and 3 nights but it felt reallllllll long. i had a great time with cobra 6 [that was our nickname on the trip] and great memories. im writing this blog all on pure memory from almost 3 weeks ago and i miss it. lets go to hk again!

i rushed thru the trip so i probably missed a gang of stuff. hope ya'lls were entertained.
hope all you readers are doin fine!
i promise i'll update more sooon enough. im hella tired, this took me like a 2 days to do since there was so much to say.

peace everyone

go lakers!

note to self:
update week of mom and xian

btw, i think im really starting to miss my home friends. miss those familar faces and the good times i had at home and sd. really hope ya'lls doin good!

last btw, im gettin fuckin old. -_-

okay for real last btw, if you want a postcard. send me ur addddddddddddddy!

ryan

peace

fieldd trippp

2008-04-04T20:53:00.000-07:00

yo
i know i promised id update hk b4 i left. sorry, no can dooo. i promise i'll make a bomb entry when i get back. hk has been the most fun i had out here yet. now im off to a week long field trip to xian luoyang and some other city. im takin a 15hr train ride to get there O_O! take care ya'lls

i'll update asap when im back!

go lakers!

ryan

btw, im missin ALL my finals week of my fantasy leagues -_-...i hope i win some. peace

post 11

2008-04-02T00:31:00.000-07:00

what up people

sorry for the horrible updates. ive been freakin active doin a GANG of stuff. lets go back 2 weeks...
march 21st was a party that the dorm people held. it was pretty bunk but it was good to see everybody and meet people in the dorms, since everyone ususally aint that friendly when going up the elevators. we rolled deep with like 10-15 friends of mine and just partied at some bar called, wunderbar. it was f'n ghetto. shitty as djs and a gang of cocks. pretty whatevs haha. but after chillin there for a bit, we all rolled to club muse around 1-2ish? not really sure, but after cabbing to muse there was a POWER OUTTAGE and the club was closed. the second we got there the club was exiting people. how f'n ridics is that? so we hit up another club...windows. [i cant believe i went back] some pretty ghetto but legit local club where a lot of foreigners go. the vibe was alright up until we found an empty table with a 3/4 bottle of jd. knowing me...u know we just sat there and started swigging and drinking someone else alcohol. hahaha... we werent even worried if the other people came, we acted as if we owned the table haha. sooo after finishing the bottle of jack and some of the other guys JACKING the pack of stogs on the table...the PARTY came back to their table and in chinese asked..."what happend to our alcohal? what happened to our stogs? and where the fuck did my 5rmb dollar bill go?" [it was next to the stogs and someone just jacked the bill with the cigs] hahaha freakin hilarious.
we just straight up booked it as they were questioning us, leaving all of us in laughs and drunk. thank you shanghai fobs for the bottle. stogs, and 5rmb! hahaha
now you can see why china people hate americans. we just dont give a fuck. haha

next day...
i believe it was a saturday. dont think i did much tillllll nite time.
i went ktving with miko alex evan eugene wade wades frenchie julie and yiling. it was good times this nite cause i dont usually get to hang with this crew because of conflicting schedules. this was another drunk ass nite for me...after drinkin a bottle in the ktv room, julie and i went to a nearby liquer store and bought a bottle of the SHITTEST alcohal china has to offer. we didnt know, usually at all the liquor stores ive been to had some kind of alcohal brands i know...jack daniels, johnny walker, absolute, yada yada the stuff you see at ur local ralphs. but this one didnt have shit, it didnt even have any kind of whiskey [btw the drink of choice out here in china land is whikey and green tea, shits delicious] but yeah. so i was like fuck it, balls to the walls tonight, i asked the teller whats ur strongest shit you got here...she pointed at a bottle of BAI JO. [bai jo is a kind of alki that is made and i think a china drink. its clear but not vodka. i think its fuckin poisen. literally. and the reason why i said that is because after drinkin it that nite, it tasted like rubbing alcohal. i wanted to yack just by smelling it. later i found out it was 140 proof -_-
so we were pretty trashed...really trashed. next thing i know, im at a 24/7 mcdees and i had enough balls to STEAL the mcdeees deliever boys helmet. haha shit was tite. check facebook for pictures, be aware that im hella drunk in those pics. good nite [thats 2 nights in a row of being trashed]

random notes about this nite:
alex chen yacked all nite. good shit homie!
remember how i said id quit bike kicking? =\ well i upgraded and fuckin started to kick scooters! while walkin back to the dorms, the scooter felt my wrath and the bikes had a night off. hahahahahaha
im not gonna lie. i felt fuckin guilty when i saw it the next morning. shit was broken and pushed to the side with some bars hanging out. =\
karma is gonna get me, im never gonna own a scooter or bicycle for the rest of my life.
sorry to you scooter person! [another reason why china hates americans, we just dont give a fuck. haha]
btw. the scooter aint no razor scooter, its those gas powered ones u see all in europe. so yeah, i felt bad.

next day..sunday.

it took forever to sobber up [fuckin bai jo] and was just chillin up until...yes you guess it, night.
a bunch of us celebrated rickers bday since it was monday [the next day] we ate at some nice korean bbq restaurant. food was good and the conversations at the table were good and interactive. so, were thinkin of what to do on a sunday nite...nothing else to do but to KTV! [back to back nites at the same place] theyre was like 10-12 of us [pictures all up in fb] good times here. everyone here got hella drunk, especially ricker. drinkin nothing but chivas whiskey and green tea, it was good times to celebrate a bday with a good friend. happy bday ricker, you old motherfucker! the night went on singing a bunch of old hip hop songs, some bsb, and a gang of chinese songs which i dont understand. there are few chinese songs that ive just been dying to here, all i gotta say is...i know why fobs love jay chou. foo is the MAN, he got the best songs, by far! we had i think about 3 or 4 bottles, im not too sure. but everyone was trashed esp ricker. since i was at the same ktv joint i was at the night before, i had to end the nite right...i STOLE another mickeydees helmet! hahahaha. if y'alls havent noticed..im sorta a kelpto when drunk. not even here, but in the states! i steal whatever from traffic signs, cones, store signs, and pretty much whatever i can get my stubby fingers on! :D

random notes:
an jing is the jam [chinese song]
another happy bday to ricker
name of ktv venue: big echoooo

next day...monday

had class. thats all i can really remember from this day. but at night...i went KTVing AGAIN [yeah, i cant believe it neither] but the reason why i went for the 3rd time was cause my boy SPENCER wong was in town! what up spence! he's in shanghai visiting joyce [what up joyce!] we went to CASHBOX, it was the nice, popular ktv i went to in the beginning of my trip here. so yeah, this nite was fuckin ridics. we crammed a lot of us in a room because all the other rooms were full. we had a room probably fit for 10-12 but we had like 14-15 and trust me. those bodies add up when ure in a ktv room. i was like knee to knee to the people next to me, but regardless of space, it was a great time seeing faces that i dont see often [joyce eric and spence]. i think out of all the nights ive been here...this was the night i got reallllly shit faced. =\
after singin a gang of songs and drinkin all night we left....i dont even remember the fuckin cab ride home. all i know is that i had my head stuck out the window as if i was dog yacking out the window while in motion. it wasnt pretty. im pretty sure i got my yack on the side of the car, actually...im POSITIVE i got yack on the car. all i gotta say is....THANK YOU MARVIN FOR TAKING CARE OF ME. the cab ride was nuts. all i gotta say is...i stole a nice ashtray from cashbox to put in my room but i left it in the cAB! dammit!

random note:
china stogs suck. i bought a pack at cashbox. never smoke any stog brand called..."double happiness" wtf is that right?

now to happy tuesday!
went to class, did the usual. i surprisngly only missed HALF my classes for the day and not the whole...NOTE TO SELF: stop ditchin class fucker.

alright...so back to my day. dont remember doin much during the day cept school and chillin with the language kids on the field. its a really nice place to relax, chill, play cards, and lao tian! [chit chat] haha. i think my chinese have been getting better, it has to right? my listening probably enchanced a lot but my speaking is still whatevers. i literally talk chinese by translating a english sentence in my head and speaking it. it doesnt really come out right, but whatevs. i'll catch on eventually. i hope.

but yeah.. back to the day. since dinner was in town i promised to hang with that foo...so i met him up for dinner at some yummmy hot pot place. the dinner consisted of me geen miko spence conway and joyce. good dinner with good convos, one of the things i appreciate in life is good convos with friends, because its just a good feeling. you cant spend all ur time with friends, so when you have the time with them, make the most of it right? talk about their life and how they're doing. gotta be sincere with homies...but yeah..

i told myself thatd id only go out this nite if i only went to RACKS [its the poool hall/lounge that ive been dying to go since being here. i like the atmosphere of lounges/bars over any club. if you havent notice, im more of a chill, lao tian kind of guy. not really a club banger.] so yeah...i wasnt planning to go out and had the mental note of not goin out at all cept it was racks. and guess what....we went to racks -_-. miko and gene called it a nite since one had 8am class [ouch eugene, ure a troooper for always going!] and miko who had a paper. so it was just spence joyce conway and me....racks was everything id imagine. a sleeeek chill classy lounge/pool hall. i was freakin surprised how packed it was for a TUESDAY night...so in order to get a pool table...we had to get a bottle -_-. half the reason we did this was cause spencer was in town and we gotta show him a good time. cant be bitchin out when friends flew across the world for only a week, gotta make the most of everything right? so yeahhhh...ANOTHER nite of drinkin for me. god dam, i was freakin feeling like shit all day too. like was cracked out but fuck it, i was happy to be in racks and happy to be drinkin with friends. good times there. we actually met a shareholder of racks, he somehow made his way to our table and started to talk to us and ended up joining tables with him and his friends. both of us had somewhat small head counts and just joining it would make it more fun, its called networking i guess right? he was cool, but i felt like he was all talk. the only thing he had was a nice racks business card with his name on it. haha i sound like a hater, dont i? dont trip, im not. hes chill, gave us free alki! haha! so all in all it was a good night, met new people and hung out with old people. i surprisngly really like the game of pool, totally random that a not many people know. im not all pro, but i think i can hang...well hang to some degree. btw, even tho we had a bottle, i surprisngly wasnt tooo drunk and im glad for that. dont think my liver couldve took it. so good times and being buzzed for a night was good enough after a nite of yacking out a cab!

random notes:
everyone who comes to shanghai should hit up racks.
anyone who ever wants to open a venue like racks, hit me up! we'll be partners! haaha
thats 5 nites in a row of drinkin...shit has been a crazy week. having wayyyy too much fun in shanghai!

next day...wed!

school. hung out at field. bought a FUDAN sweater! yay! it was nice haha. u'lll see the pics prob on facebook. btw, id like to apologize to all my readers for not postin pics. i know ive said it many times but to be real...the internet is mother f'n slow. it takes forever to post a photo up here and yeah...its just bad. check facebook for pics!

back to the day....it was a fun day. alex found out about a ARCHERY range in shanghai. so we freakin journeyed to the area...all we had was a map, address, and our legs to get there. none of us knew of the place and just went with our gut. we took a not too long subway ride [30min], but a sorta long WALK to the place after the subway. the archery place was tite and freakin fun, they'll be pics up sometime. i had to wear all this protective gear on my arm to prevent me hurting myself with the bow. it was huge and heavy duty bow... it literally could fuck shit up. it was fun and we competed who would have the highest score and winner wouldnt have to pay for dinner. i wasnt LAST, but 2nd to last =\ michael won. for those people who know michael, i was surprised too HAHA [dont get angry miko] but yeah. after the archery, we hit up an arcade right next door. i love arcades in china, shits so cheap! freakin 10rmb [its like $1.5o] can last u a good amount. imma hate dnbs when i get back...not only are the tokens cheap but the games itself are hella cheap! not to sound cocky or anything, but im the KING in those basketball games. i broke a bunch of high scores in all the arcades ive been too and i think my highest score been 400 something. so im currently taking CHALLENGERS! haha [yes duke, im talkin to you hahaha]
but yeah...after arcade, went to xian tian di [one of the most popular areas in shanghai, all the foreigners come here] me miko alex marv and conway ate at some Brazilian ALL you can eat place. it was scrumptious! after a long day of shootin arrows, basketballs, and walkin around. i had to call it a night.

random notes:
dont mess with me in those basketball shooting games haha jk
how the fuck did lakers lose to memphis and charlotte?
i bought a couple of vouchers to the archery joint so i may hit it up soon

thursday

my rest day, i had to prepare for HONG KONG and MACAU! this trip was literally last minute. we bought a tickers THE DAY before we FLEW! my flight was friday morning and yes...nothing but great times in chaos in hongkong. i promise i'll post up my hk trip soon.

i still cant believe im back from hk, many adventures, many sites, and many stories to come!
stay tuned!

i promsie i'll post more after my mom leaves. gotta spend time with the mom. you know how it is...btw. im goin on a WEEK long field trip to northen/central part of china this week from sat thru sat...cant wait!
but i'll make sure to post up hk trip b4 i go!

take care readers!

comment me fools!

signing offffff

ryannnn

MONSTER UPDATE COMING SOOON!

2008-04-01T18:21:00.000-07:00

the past two and a half weeks have been mother f'n crazy. i promise i'll update soon

preview:
dorm party
3 ktv
racks
HONGKONG
macau

hope all is well

my mom just got to shanghai so i gotta spend my time with her. ttyl y'alls

post 1o

2008-03-21T01:49:00.000-07:00

what up folks
hope all is well

updatesssss....
ktv was a busttttttt, we went too late and all the rooms were booked. we hitted up a casino instead and i actually came out even, not too bad right?

my dad flew this past sunday and i pretty much spent all my free time this week just hangin with him. i get off class around 2ish everyday and i prob will be in his apartment by 4. my dads shanghai apt is sick and he left me the key ;) so yeahhh, huge plus if i want to get away from the dorm and sleep on a bigger bed. im seriously tired of twin size, not to sound spoiled or anything, but that shits small. 2 rolls and im on the floor or up against the wall. but back to the topic...hanging with my dad this past week been good, i honestly dont see him much and it always a good time. i probably see him like once or twice MAX a year, so i try to prioritize the guy. we actually had a good week together...it consisted of dinners with his homies from shanghai at some nice restaurant, a ktv nite with the same homies [fools were hella drunk], multiple LEGIT massages at nearby joints, a walk at shan xi nan lu [some nice shoppin area near his pad], watched dvds "there will be blood" and "the departed", a numerous amount of dinners [one with my closer friends, geen miko joyce amanda ricker and julie] my dad is a kind of guy who likes to see who my friends are, and during our whole bunch of activities we had countless great conversations. i think thats what i most appreciate with my parents, the way we connect and talk about random shit. we're at a level of respect and maturity where we can say whatever the fuck we want and accept it. so i appreciate that bond i got with my folks. love ya mom n dad. so all in all, it was a good week with my pops, great week.
one of the biggest convos i had with my dad was about my future and my plans when i get back to the states. imma keep it real, im fuckin terrified about my future. i think everyone expects a lot from themselves after college and in my case, im just worried and scared that i wont make it. its a good scared right? i just want to make sure im happy in the future, dont gotta be bling bling ballin, but it never hurts! haha but on the real, im just worried about my future and im grateful that my folks let me take my time and prepare myself for the real world. since talkin to my dad, ive actually started thinkin about working in asia O_O! imagine that huh? no matter what tho, i'll be coming back to the states in july-aug unless i get some crazy job offer that i cant refuse. theres actually a lot job opportunities out here for international people. so, dont be afraid to check out asia for a job. i promise u'll get paid more here IF you get a job here. but yeah.. enough of this job talk, i'll worry about it later. probably around post 25 when im almost back or something...

so yeah, dont really know what to say/type...weathers been gettin better. spring may come sooon. so thats sorta good news. its good that its gettin warmer, but that means summer is coming O_O summer in asia is hell. u gotta shower at least 2 times a day or ull hate yourself for smellin and feelin like dirty cheese. u just sweat so much and u just jump in the shower to cool down.

so yeah, i gotta bounce soon. gonna go ball with the fellas in the indoor gym. ttyl people
hope all is well!

ryan

ps. go lakers! it sucks being a huge fan and not being able to watch laker bball. they play that shit so rare. they air OLD houston games instead -_- ridiculous right?

peace

hope all is well!

post nine

2008-03-13T09:05:00.000-07:00

hellooooooooo

what folks, hope all is well.

quick update huh? i told myself i wouldnt lag a WEEEK for an update so yeah. got some free time right now since i didnt go clubbing tonight, but i went LAST nite. went to club mt with a couple of the fellas. ricker q josh and met up rickers homies chris and taco. ricker apparently heard or saw some ad about some wet tshirt contest at some club so we check it out. club MT3....there was no contest -_-. the ad suckered us in, good advertising i guess. regardless of seeing wet tshirts or not, it was still a chill nite. one of those guys nite out at some random club/bar nite. after goin last nite made me miss the times when im back at home doin the same with my bros. so shoutout to you fools, u guys know who you are.

but lets seeeee. what else have i been up to...been findin CHEAP ass food out here, like the costs of meals i have here range from 1dollars us to around 5. food is hella cheap out here, but of course you can find regular $10us meals. i just dont goto the much, i havent had a cooked meal since i LEFT for shanghai. the community kitchen on my floor smells like ass and it literally smells like funky cheese. why is that all community stuff always trashed? must be because no1 really owns it and people are less considerate when its not THEIRS. human nature i guess. but yeah...lifes been good, no complaints.

other than...
fuckin china people are rude as hell. the concept of a LINE and waiting for the person in front of you is all bullshit. if you can order first before the person next to you even if ure in FRONT of a register, they'll take that persons order. for example, today. i had to fill out some resident permit visa to enable me to travel outside the country and come back multiple times. theres around 100people in line, i see fuckers just straight up WALK past everyone as if we're invisible and just chill in front of the line. so yeah, monkey see monkey do. haha i did the exact same thing and cut about 50 angry mofos whove been waitin longer than i have. hahaha call me a dick, but its just china culture. lines dont exist and the phrase first come, first serve is taking literally. as i said earlier, people dont give a rats ass about you. gotta do shit urself if u want service. rude ass asians...

so it rained today and i hear the rain here is more acidic then the states. its not like literally acid fallin from the sky, just a higher pH. for all you science-y people u guys know what i mean. im a management science major but i still no some nerdy stuff. haha

so remember how a couple of my drunk friends play "kick the bikes"? haha we took it to a NEW LEVEL! haha last nite, one of us carried a bike to a totally new bike parking area and threw it in the bushes. hahahah we're fucked up, i know. but when youre drunk, its hella funny. straight up vandalism is probably the funnest things to do when ure not sobber. one of the reasons why i dont own a bike yet, is because i know karma will hit me hard. having a bike here would make my life easier, it takes about 15-20 min walk to class and with a bike itd take like 5-7min. i got class everyday, so do the math. i walk a gang.

i know i promised pictures, but im hella lazy. sorry, it just takes too long to even upload pics here. anyone know any good pic servers? the second i got a good/easy one to use, i'll post pics up!

well yeah, thats it for now! take care friendly readers.

ryan

ps my dad is coming to visit this sunday. hooray!

pss tmw nite is gonna be a nite to remember. a guys nite out at a escort ktv. dont worry, its not a whore house. id never pay for pussy. peace!

post ate!

2008-03-10T10:02:00.000-07:00

what up what up what up
sorry for the late ass post, been really busy out here in shanghai. hope all my readers out there are doin well and enjoyin life.

so yeah...things ive been up to since LAST tuesday [sorry again for the late post] its been really a combination of being lazy and being busy. if y'alls havent notice, its been pretty much a MONTH since ive been here and dam, the saying "time flies fast" really implies when youre out here. i know in general that time goes by, but by me just sayin that ive been here for a month, its mindboggling. cant believe it. i know for a fact i'll miss home soon enough. i already start to miss familiar faces that ive always seen in sd and la. shoutout to all you foos.

but yeah, back to the blog. what have i been doin...i can barely remember myself. ummm been doin a lot of chinese classes and work. [more like hardly working] i sleep in class -_- gotta make sure to change that. the only REAL practice i do here is ordering the taxi around or fuckin barginging the shit out of stuff. the trick to barginging, is...
first. whatever the price they say, ur goal is to get it to 1/4 whatever the say. straight up. fuck goin for half, go for 1/4 and work your way from there.
2nd. dont show too much interest, remember they need your business more than you need that fake lacoste polo.
3rdd. u gotta be prepared to have a poker face and be a good actor. dont show signs of weakness and remember that the sellers are fuckin better actors/actresses than you. ive seen some academy award winning performances by some of these fools. just disregard it and stay strong.
4th. theres prob another 2-3 more stores in the same shoppin area youre in, so if u dont get the price you want, go to another joint. its prob 2 doors down with the same EXACT thing u want
5th. if all else fails, just bounce. fake shit aint legit. haha

tips i use to bargin:
-say shit like. "are you f'n serious?" after they give u the price or say like "tai duo le!". show me emotion when you say this. english or chinese, they'll get the picture. they surprisingly know a lot more english then you think
-walkin out of the store after bargining sometimes will make them run after you and you'll get the price u wanted
-ummm...u sorta gotta be shameless when you bargin, so maybe u dont want to have a girl/guy youre tryin to impress there. u could easily look like a douche bargaining. haha

well yeah. thats it for not in my random ways to bargin

other things ive been up too..hit up club bling last thrus. legit but small club. good times
friday hit up club LC, shit was wack. there 2 asian mcs rappers rappin to pdiddys "i'll be missing you" in the worse chinese accent. shit was ridics. whenever they went on stage to adlip or mc some songs, my head was down in disbelief. went early to the club to avoid cover and recieve free tequila shots. the club was semi dead so a couple of us got a table and chilled. after suffering in a shitty club for 2 hours went to another club, attica! it was a much better club. goood times there. btw, 80% of all the alcohol ive had out here has been watered down as fuck. its ridiculous. only at tables, ktvs, and SOME clubs the alki has been straight. cheap ass asians.

but yeah....ummm the people ive been meetin out here been cool, good people. what else...been ballin here finally. gotta work on my game, i hear there intermural bball comin up, so i gotta work on my game. haha

last couple of thoughts...
go lakers!
start to miss my fam. id say my relastionship with my brother and mom is great and being a part from them takes a toll. just hope my mom is doin fine and my brother is handling his shit. [you better be foo]
what up to all my bros
what up to all my kids
what up to twc
what up to you!
what up to everyone!

hope y'alls enjoy the blog. any questions comments concerns hit me up on aim.

got to get off my chest:
for people who say they WONT do something, dont be a bitch and do it. im not referring to the little things that people do such as a phonecall, meeting up, or a deadline, but things that i take to heart. hate it when people arent considerate with peoples feelings. i lose respect for people who are fuckin hypocrites. ---dont worry, this doesnt refer to anyone that reads this blog. [or i think] i dont even know who reads this anymore. i only wrote it down cause winston hu [what up winston!] told me that writing stuff out in blogs helps release the stress. good tip bro, i feel better already haha

what a way to end a blog huh? i'll end in a positive link--its long but i enjoy it. funny as hell if you got a sense of humor. goood find marisa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiFrfeJ8dKM

stay pimpin everyone! hope all is wellllllllll

till next time,

ryan

post se7en

2008-03-01T23:23:00.000-08:00

what upppppppppp

hows it goin? well this is goin to be a quick update.
this past friday i went to an all you can eat/drink restaurant. it was a benihana style place. since it was all you can drink, you can imagine all of us got trashed. well it turned out to be only a few of us gettin wasted, which included me =\. unlimited sake and beer can really fuck you up. i was so trashed, then we went to the club called g plus! imma be honest, i dont even remember gettin there or the walk to the club. according to my friends i was litterally sleep walkin and just completely out of it. i surprisingly didnt yack, i was very suprised. but yeah. right outside gplus i saw some freakin sc betas. its a small world, was chit and chattin with them for like 10 min and ended up losing my group right outside the club. it went all down here from there...as i was entering the club i ran into yina. she was heading downstairs outside the club to ... puff puff...so of course i joined her. haha as i was heading down the elevator i realized i didnt have my phone, i mustve gave it to one of my friends when i was drunk to answer calls cause apparently i couldnt. after the quick sessoin, i said my goodbye to yina who was goin to another club, muse. as i was walkin inside, i saw ricker heading out with his local shanghai homies and he insisted i roll with them. since hes my boy, i was like sureee in a drunk fashion. remember, i forgot my phone. so i was trying to call the people upstairs to let them know that i was rollin with ricker, next thing i know, fuckin rickers phone RAN out of minutes on his prepaid fone. shit wasnt goin right for us. so after gettin to muse, borrowed another friends phone to call and guess what happened. her phone was apparently BROKEN! bullshit right. i felt guilty for not letting know where my friends were but shit happens and i was still f'n drunk. so yea...after chillin at muse for no more than 30-40 minutes we bounced since it was gettin late and after drinkin more and muse with ricker, we both were pretty trashed. so yeah that was my random friday nite. sorry people for not calling! my bad.

now saturday, woke up fuckin late. had lunch and then got a LEGIT massage. shit feels good, u honestly feel rejuvenated. but yeah, relaxed and chilled the rest of the nite with some friends.

now its sunday.
had a late lunch with ricker, julie, erina, and some japanese fob. shit was random. but yeah. now im off to some shoppin center!

ttyl y'alls

hope all is well

ryannn

post 6

2008-02-28T23:15:00.000-08:00

hello hello hello

hows it goin peeps. hope all is well with you guys!

ive been hella busy with school -_-. it takes up so much of my day, even tho its a couple of hours a day, i just dont got much hours in a day. so lets see what ive been up to since tuesday.
to be honest. i cant really remember much. haha. ever since ive been here everythings been such a huge blur. a good blur, like my brain and body is still gettin used to the environment. i can still remember the exact day i left and everything i did prior to leaving. its a huge trip to think that i was just in la yesterday. like literally, it may not seem like that for everyone else but these past 2.5 weeks went by SO fast! O_O now i know why people say times gonna fly by here.

so other than school everyday, ive been doin much hangin out with buddies. going on random adventures around shanghai. takin buses, subways, and taxis to places that i probably would never seen. its even a bigger trip for me to go to a sightseeing place that ive been to before. this isnt my first time in shanghai, since high school i think ive been here 3 times and this is my 4th. so its a trip to see/be in places i was at 7years ago. makes me think how fast time goes by and how much you gotta just live it up before things get to late. another thing that ive been thinkin about is how thankful i am to have this chance to BE across the world. if i can recommend anything to my friends, id tell you fools to travel out of the country. especially not meeting so many people here from different countires canada, the states are freakin ignorant. its not our fault, its just the way it is. but yeah. i'll stray away from this topic. startin to get a lil random. but yeah, go travel! :D it really opens your mind.

but yeah, things been great here. no complaints. the weather is slowly gettin better but im still fuckin freezing at nite. i hear that when end of march and april comes, its the best weather. im really excited for that. i didnt even get a chance to ball fools up here yet, apparently theres a fee you gotta pay to rent the gym for an hour and out of all my friends here, im the only one taht really is willin to pay. but im i just gonna rent a court for myself? hell no. so i hope the weather gets better so i can ball outside. speakin about basketball, i miss it. i miss all those nites when im just chillin in front of the couch watchin games. i have class during the times they air games here and i personally hate watchin bball games if they aint live. so yeah, i hope all you laker fans out there cheer just a little bit extra louder for me. btw, lakers are gonna be the champs this year! haha

alright, well on my free time. ive been watchin weeds season 1. shits good. ive only seen season 3 and it was great, so its even more fun for me to watch from the beginning. im currently tryin to finish the tipping point book. send me some book recs, ill read it. but yeah. i think im out for now. i'll promise to post pictures up soon, i just gotta start bringin my camera out. haha

things that i do here but not states:
-i carry a messenger bag bc theres so much shit i gotta carry! other than the obvious, books and pencils. but when i go out i carry tissues, hand sanitizers, pair of chopsticks [trust me, u dont want to use the shit they got here, if i could bring my own plates i would.] book, ipod, scarf, beanie [in case it gets cold when im out], gum, candy, map!, and stogs. haha

-im a lot more rude out here. its culture man, if you gotta get to a point. u just push ure way through haha. not only that, but i seem to be cussing 10 times more. i think its because no one can understand so i just cuss louder and im less scared to say the word nigga. haha

my best shanghai days:
are the days when a couple of us, no more than like 4-5 people. shit gets too complicated with big groups. but just exploring shanghai, leaving the school around 2 and comin back around 10pm. shits just a journey seeing all these random places. im not gonna lie tho, u get f'n tired from walkin all day, but these are the days i find most memorable and exciting. its like an adventure.

im out people. hope all is well!

oh yeah my dad and mom will be visitin soon, so thats a plus. i hope i get a chance to see my dad more often while im here. so yeah. thats all the random updates i have in my life. hope all is well people. take care

ryannnnn

post 5ive

2008-02-26T07:22:00.000-08:00

what up folks

sorry for the lag on posts. school started monday so shits been fuckin busy.

since my last post, i had a fuckin adventure that i need to tell you all. the same nite after my last post, i didnt go ktving. i had the most random nite EVER! first, thanks to toms network i met a girl named yina, who got the hookup to herb. i just got all ur attention huh? haha. its gonna be a good read for you guys, dont trip.
sooooo, after takin a 20 min taxi ride to the city with my boy ricker we met up with yina at a coffee bean. shes a down to earth chick who used to live in the 626. shes fluent in english and chinese, borned and raised in norway and now in shanghai takin int'l fashion school. soooo after chattin with her for a bit at coffee bean we went to pick up. the drug dealer she hits up is some ASIAN AFGHAN guy. to give a lil background...you know china is a huge province and just because if that youre in the province of china, that dont mean you gotta be asian. on the boarders of the china province, theres like afghan lookin foos. they're recognized as chinese people cause of where the live, but they dont speak a spit of chinese and are theyre own kind. afghan fools in china boarders. so yeah, it was a trip. we met up at some random corner of a street, and the way you pick up drugs is by walking along with them and doin the exchange. its too obvious if you stand still and do it, we just walked along together and did the exchange. the process took no more than 5 seconds. it was crazy. the person who did the exchange wasnt even that afghan foo, it was his WIFE. this chick looked like a regular white skinned afghan chick, never woulda guessed she had herb on her. she looked so innocent and dressed nicely too.
after pickin up, we taxi'ed to yina's favorite local bar, SHELTER. before goin in....we smoked a joint. btw, yina rolled the joint in the BACKSEAT OF THE TAXI! shit was so gangster, she was like "i do this all time". fuckin shanghai right? haha but yeah...the entrance of the lounge is a TRIP! you walk thru a black tunnel for about 20yrds, i was soo trippped out. did not know wtf was going on. so yeah, the placed looked like a subway station, tunnels and arched walls. it was a pretty tite place to chill at. the place was dead [its a sunday nite]. we just chilled ordered some drinks, chatted, and rolled more joints on the table. hahaha. it was some good conversations ricker yina and i had. we talked about traveling, some of our history, and i found out that RICKER was a PAPHI from san jose. if anyone affliated remember this....that PAPHI/LAMBDA stabbin up in norcal? THAT WAS FUCKIN HIS CHAPTER! HE WAS AT THAT FIGHT. it was the biggest trip for me because ive heard that story since i was pledging betas in 03 man. shit was a trippp to MEET a guy who was there that nite. shit was ridics.
now the nite gets random....
as we're goin outside to smoke the 2nd joint....some random asian fools run into me at the door. "Hello Ryan, do you remember me?" im like "uhhhh oh shit! KASIGSTAN RIGHT? he laughed and said "OoooOOoo yes hahaha"[on the first day of moving in, i noticed two asian guys in the front desk who could not communicate a word of chinese to the register people, so i helped them a lil. thats how i knew them, but it was no more than like 90 seconds of talkin to them. the only reason i remember them because...HAVE YOU EVER MET 2 ASIAN BORN AND RAISED KASIGSTAN FOOLS? never right? so how could i forget these two fuckers. haha]
the first thing they said to me was...."do you have weed?" [they can tell we were gonna spark up]
i was like hahaha mos def man, i'll sell you some of what we got. first of all, im still fuckin tripped out. these fuckin asian guys are from KASIGSTAN! the country that was made fun of by BORAT. haha.
so yeah...these fuckers can smoke like chimneys man. i never seen any people conserve and smoke weed like they do. the do that lip to lip shit to the STEM! kasigstan foos got iron lungs man, they were blazin up a storm. there were 4 of them, 2 asian fools and 2 whtie guys. can you imagine those 4 talkin to kasigstan? a fuckin trip seeing those words come out of that asian guys mouth. all these fools were fuckin clowns too haha. my god. they were so creative with this water bong they made, it took them no more than like 4 minutes to turn a water bottle into a bong. shit was ridics. i never seen anything like that before. they used no pen caps or anything, just the bottle and some foil they ripped from the stog boxes. i took a couple rips and shit hits not too bad. after talking and makin fun of them wit the borat movie, we went to some CLUB! [this is about 130am already] hit up some club called WINDOWS. shit was fuckin poppin but helllllllllla ghetto. apparently all the girls in there are local hoes, and yes, they looked like local hoes. some skanks dressed up in like nothing. it was sorta grosss but i guesss if youre desparate, its paradise. it was a chill atmosphere, everyone loooked fucked up in there. hahaha. danced a lil, drank some more, and watched the kasigstan fools make another bong. haha shit was nuts. those foos never stop smoking man. left the club around 3. it was a good nite of randomness and chillin with yina n ricker. those fuckin kasigstan fuckers made it a funny nite. got home around 4 and went to bed, i had a 6hr day of school the next day -_- startin at 10am

side notes about these borat guys
when they talk...they have the exact same accent as borat in the movie. haha

side note about the herb
its whatevs..seriously. its nothing special, not that much of a head change, but i'll do a lil more testing before i give my final thought on it.

nowww to
monday
going to my first class was a journey alone for the first day, luckily i had a friend named julie who had the room next to me so we left together.. firrst, we went to the building where we thought my class was, but after sitting in the room for about 10 mintues, i was like wtf. this shit sounds fuckin complicated, but in my classroom there were white people which made me think that i had to be in some kind of easy chinese class. boy was i wrong, after sitting there 10 minutes fuckin clueless and observing the other students book [it didnt match mine], i had enough courage to just stand up and interrupt the professor. "is this track c?" the teacher and class looked at me funny and all replied, "this is track E". i was like holy fuck, no wonder i dont understand shit in this room except words like "wo" and "ni" hahha. so i quickly bounced and started my journey lookin for my correct building. i first went to the buildin next to the one i was in...empty. then i asked custodian, she pointed me to the direction of the newest and nicest buildin on campus. i was like coo, because the previous buildings i was in was ghetto as shit. like ghetto, must be over 50 years old and not maintained well at ALL! got to the new building to the correct room number was yet again EMPTY. im like wtf? walk around more and discover a information desk. the people workin there were worthless! they had no idea wtf was going on. so back to the hunt, we end up finding the room in the same building but on teh EAST side. the buildin was constructed with two identical towers and connected in the center, thank god we check the east and WEST building.
now that im class, i take a seat in the front since im hella late. next thing i know, the bell rings. im like wtf? it was break time. i was literally an hour late to class and every hour of class theres like a 10min break. i literally sit in the same room and chair for the WHOLE day. the only thing that changes in the room is the teachers. so i pretty much will be seeing the same faces in my classroom for the next 5 months, and booo for no eye candy. haha jk. but seriously. no eye candy =\.

my school schedule for monday is from 9.55am to 4.15. pm with a 1hr lunch break from 1130-1230. everyday my schedule is pretty much the 10-2 except on monday and my friday [8-1130]. so monday was the longest day of the week, freakin 6hrs of chinese straight. every 2 hrs a new professor comes in the room, im not 100% of all the subjects i have, but so far i got writing, reading comprehension, speaking, and listening. the class is pretty challenging for me =\, but i know for a fact i can hold my ground...i hope. haha
but yeah, school is chill. i made a good friend already, names amanda and from canada. im actually surprised of the people ive met here. so many euros here! not only that but ASIAN euros. [i'll get to that later] so during lunch break, the school is a fuckin jungle. its hard to explain but the roads are just packed as hell during the first 10min when everyone is leavin the rooms.

after class, chilled and didnt do much. rested a lot due to the night before and wakin up early -_-
it takes like a 20 min walk to the classroom. the campus is fuckin huge, like bigger than ucsd. ate dinner with geen and a guy named Q. called it a nite after that

tuesday!
had class at 955 - 2pm. went to take my student ID photo with geen julie and amanda. after headin to the dorms, i dropped off my books and us 4 headed out to the city. we took the subway, its like an 30-45min ride to pudong. we shopped and hung out all day. it was a great day of site-seeing and gettin to know my peers. amanda is the QUEEN at bargaining shit down, i wish i had her street smarts on bargaining. we ate dinner at some mall and walked some more. we headed to the bund area and just hung out there and watched the view. it was a peaceful and nice moment. went home and now im here. i summed up today really fast, i spent all my energy earlier in the post. but! i dont want to make it seem like this day was whatever. today was actually sorta my first time doing something tourist-y. it was a good day and i am fffffffff'n tired. -_-

good nite folks.
hoped u enjoy
i'll try to update more often
-if y'alls never wrote a blog before, this shit takes long. haha peace

thanks again tom ngo for the connect to yina

peassssss

post quatro

2008-02-24T02:36:00.000-08:00

what up peeps

i hope everyone out there reading this is doing well, and i say this with full sincerity. i honestly care about the well being of my friends and people in general. even tho i may not be as convenient to talk to or reach, just hit me up if y'alls need me.

but back to the blog! from the last time i posted, i told you i was headin to dinner and yes i was. haha. ate at some rest nearby school. after din headed back to the dorm to chill for a bit, and then off to a local ktv joint. it was pretty close, near the local walmart. before i get into the nite, all i have to say that everyone here goes to the walmart area/plaza for multiple reasons.

1. walmart, shits fuckin cheap there. if you think its cheap in the states for random crap and knick knacks, imagine here! people get there bedding, food, lamps, and room accessories here
2. theres a huge movie complex in the plaza
3. a bunch of stores and an underground mall center
4. a gang of restaurants from elegant nice places to 3rmb noodle places.
5. a bank at every corner so you can do your money exchanges and withdrawls
6. close to a bunch of ktvs

so back to the ktv, the ktv nice was coo. had a bar tab around 1300rmb, which isnt that bad for about 13-15 people? so it was chill. im not sure why ktvin is so much more fun here than the states, it must be because there aint shit else to do and the alcohol is cheap as hell. haha, not only that but drinking and singing is always a good way to break the ice. u'd be surprised how many people know the lyrics to all the fuckin bsb, nsync, all for one, britney spears, and justin timberlake songs. hahaha not only that, but the ktvs really keep up to date with theyre songs in both chinese and english. another huge plus is that there are private rooms you just chill with you party and get crunked in. imma be honest and say that i was pretty drunk. not toooo bad but bad enough to do some kicks later. [hahaha] i have to say a big thanks to evan, that foo saved me from being lost in the ktv place. THANK YOU EVAN CHANG! nice guys homie! nice guys!
so after ktv, we mobbed the mcdees downstairs from the ktv joint. a HUGE plus about shanghai is that the fuckin mcdees is open 24/7777777! and you think it cant get better? IT DELIEVERS! haaha. we had our after drinking meal and had our druken convos. apparently, i made a bet with wade peng about eating a dirty chicken. he dropped his chicken nuggets on the dirty ass china mcdonald floor and i was tellin him NOT to eat it. i was just tryin to be good friend and let him know, its not worth gettin sick for. so he bet that he wouldnt get sick the for the next two weeks, and if he didnt, he'd slap me. what kind of bet is this right? whats in it for me? but we were drunk and he recorded it and theres a video contract. its actually on facebook. check the video tagged of me. im hoping the fool doesnt remember cause that fool is yolked. haha nonetheless, 2 weeks from now i'll let u know if hes sick or if i got a huge hand print on my face.

after mcdees, went back to the dorms. i promise this will be last time evan and i do this....kickin the bikes hahaa. im startin to feel bad, but the current high score is 6 by me and 4 evan. its a horrible yet funny feeling when i walk past the bike racks the next morning and see a couple bikes on the ground. but yea, i'll stop. promise. :D
went to bed at 6am and woke up at 1030am -_-. im not sure if it was the jetlag or the blacktea/whiskey i drank the nite before but i just couldnt sleep well. it was freakin annoying, luckily had some nba games on tv [yay on tv] to keep me company during the morning. watched the cavs/wiz game, was hoping that lebron get the 3straight triple doubles. after that watched a lil of the suns and celts game. had lunch with some friends and went back and took a longg nap. after nap chilled and did some light online reading. dinner and then called it a nite. yeah, yesterday was a slow day. that ktv nite messed up my sleeping AND eating schedule.
wait i forgot. i went to the gym this day, it was FUCKIN ghetto as hell. no more than like 10 machine which are rusting from the sides. there was a bball court and not to sound cocky or anything, but dam they suck. no one plays d and everyone calls baby fouls. i was trying to play but apparently you have to rent the court hourly? im not too sure, i gotta figure that shit out. i wanna block some fob fools. its too cold to play outside right now.

random note:
i knew china smoked everywhere, but dam. people are smokin IN the gym. i see fools lightin stogs in the basketball courts after being subbed out. not only in the courts but, in the weight room too! shit ridics man, im glad the US banned that smokin in public places. as a smoker, theres just some places u shouldnt smoke at, its common senese.

now todayyy..... today was my opening ceremony for the language program. i was just a long ass orientation about visas, laws, and classes. the ceremony/orientation took freakin forever. whatever the chinese conductors said, it was repeated 3 times after that. english, korean, and japanese. it was a LONG ass ceremony, we got there around 10 and didnt leave till like 1.30
i got my school schedule for the semester. i got school 5 days a week! i go to a total about 18hrs of school a week -_-. some days consist of one hour long class and some days are like 6 hours! shits nuts, and all this is straight thru and with the SAME people. think of my class schedule preplanned for me and i just happened to get the one where i only have one 8am class. thank god. i saw some other track C classes with multiple 8am days. feel bad for those mofos. i got my books which costed like 20 bucks, shit seems hard man. i know for a fact i'll be struggling a lot in the class, i guess i gotta be more motivated since i dont wan to go a jc when im back. STUDY HARD RYAN!

after ceremony, ate lunch with geen, kat and julia. we walked the walmart area and ate at cafe de coral. its a chain ive seen in taiwan and hongkong, its good and cheap food. think of all the cafe food youve seeen at jjs and have it under 3 US bucks. you cant go wrong with the backed pork chop combo with ice tea. walked around the area for awhile, bought some bread at some baker and chilled for a lil. went back to dorm and rested for a couple hours. a lot of the other peeps want to keep goin out and explore the city, while i just chill in the dorm. dont get me wrong, im not anti social or not adventurous. i just want to pace myself, im here for 6months not 2 weeks. no need to go out everyyyydayyyy and see everything. but yeah. today was chill, good talks with friends on aim and MSN! haha i just got it. add me if you got it
mrryanhuang@hotmail.com

well yeah. its almost time for dinner and i think imma go ktv again tanite! hah we'll see. i got school tmw! my FIRST day! oh nooooo!

thanks for the jams dtea, much appreciated

signin offff
peacee

post III

2008-02-22T03:32:00.000-08:00

what uppp folks

i told you guys i had a placement exam right? well yeah, shit was fuckin RIDICULOUS! i requested to take the placement exam for the track C course. i wouldve prob took B, but since i still need credits for my language requirement at ucsd. so technically i didnt completely graduate from ucsd, this track C class should do it. thats if i pass it. -_- so yeah. back to the test. it was a two part test, written and oral. the written placement exam consisted of 100 mult choice questoins. i think 60 questions were fill in the character that fits the sentence and the other 40 was reading comprehension. the test had about 5-8 pages? i forgot. but i literally could read no more than like 50 characters out of fuckin a million. it was baddddd, REAL bad. it didnt help either that the test was in traditional characters while i only know simpflied. i went through the first 60 fill in the blanks and fuckin DOODLED the other 40. i was makin decorations with the bubble sheet man. hahah it was pretty funny at the time. so yeah, after that. went to the oral part. it was pretty much a one and one convo with a tester and asked simple questions. she asked me how many years of chinese ive studied, do u practice it at home, blah blah blah. she could tell that i could speak and understand enough to get by, so i she actually let me take track C knowing that i cant read shit. this could be a HUGEEE problem for me but whatevers. ill be force to study hard cuz i dont want to go to jc when i get back home to take chinese class. thatd be a bummer.

after the exam, eugene and i walked to walmart to pick up some things for our room. after walkin around for a bit and picking up what i need, i stumbled to the TV section and there it was...the LAKER vs suns game was on. it just started 4th qtr and i literally was chillin there watching the game with some local shoppers. i acted the exact same when i watch laker games, i fuckin cheered, screamed, gave high fives, threw my hands up, yelled bullshit. i even got the employees and by standers watching the game staring at me after big plays. haha. there was this foo next to me that seemed to be a laker fan at first, so i gave him a high five when kobe hit at huge 3 in the middle of the 4th. he was reluctant at first but gave in. i mustve scared him to do it. its china nature to be passive here. but LATER i saw his ass cheering for the suns. while nash was shooting free throws, he was imitating him with his form and made the SWISH sound. i was like fuck this guy. was even LOUDER when kobe and the lakers scored. i almost caused a scene when gasol made that game sealin dunk. shit was nuts man. it was the game of the year and i was sad i wasnt home or not even home, just with some good friends to enjoy the game with. regardless, laker fan till i die and im glad i got a chance to watch the "biggest game of the year" btw, fuck shaq...he did surprise me tho.

but yea, after walmart. ate some niu rho mien for like 4rmb and shit was scrumpcious. thennnn went home and chilled for the rest of the day. during the day actually i rented a fridge from the dorm for 150rmb for the semester and rearragned my room. the pics i posted are the updated version of it. the second night falll came, i could see fireworks up in the sky. it was the end of the chinese new year. the fireworks were alll over the skies in every direction. it wasnt those small fireworks, im talkin like the shit u see in carnivals. i was a sight to seee, ever corner had some kind of fireworks up. i was trying to take pics, but it didnt come out well at all. boooo. during the fireworks, eugene and i chilled on the balcony and talked while sippin on some REEB beer. some random beer we bought that we wanted to test. it COSTS only 2.5 RMB! [remember 1us dollar=7rmb] for a 32oz. it wasnt too bad at all.

then had dinner with a gang of people from the program at some korean rest that was down the street from school. it was good stuff. after din decided to hit up a club called BON BON. ive actually been to this club last year when i came to shanghai. the club is an ALL you can drink club. it has a trance and hiphop room. before goin to the bar, i heard that the liquor was fake. i put taht shit to the test, geen and i got the first shot of it. and holy fuck. i was fuckin disgustin. we didnt even finish it, it sorta ruined my nite. i couldnt drink much after that half shot, it literally tasted like assssss. it only costed about 88 rmb to get in the clubbb tho

so word of advice!
if you goto BON BON. make sure to only get the beers, all the fuckin hard shit TASTES like shit.

now back to the club, the club was aiteeeeeeee. we got there a little early around 1030ish? primetime around here is 11-1130ish. im not sure if it was a bad nite or anything, but the girls there were FUGS. straight up. i was disappointed, i was hopin to at least have eye candy while drinkin my beers and chillin with the crew, but no. a bunch of dogs up in the joint man. i hate to be mean, but i expect better from shanghai. and if makes you USA girls feel better, i get spoiled in the states, especially in socal. if the quality of girls are like last nite for the next 6months, ill fuckin go crazy. just from the experience from last night, i appreciate US girls more. no one but shanghai local girls offended right? haha, just makin sure. but yeah, its more than just ugliness here, its like ugly fashion. i fuckin saw a girl who was already yuck, wearing a fuckin pink cotton track clothes. shit was long sleve and long pants, i thought she was wearin her uniform or something. and to know a lil something about me, the first thing i see in a girl is TEETH. and god dam, shanghai got some wack ass chompers here. hahahahh. okay im startin to be too honest in this blog. but yeah the club was chill. i wasnt drunk at all, just chillin, sippin beers, gettin to know my new friends, bouncin my head to the music, and smokin stogs. got home around 230 and called it a nite.

slept in alll day today and had lunch with geen at the nooodle joint. i plan on going there a LOT. theres a huge variety of things to put in your make it yourself noodle basket. didnt do much today, just did a lot of espn reading, chattin with friends, and now im about to have dinner and maybe drink tonight? i'll keep you posted fools. take careee ya'lls

random notes:
to know my time just add 4 hrs to local time and change am/pm
thanks anson for the link, send the next one haha
couldnt indent, so i just made double enter. thanks cmao

give me feeedbacccck on what to write or HOW to write. peace

just pics

2008-02-21T01:23:00.000-08:00

this is my room from all the angles.

bathroom
balcony
bed
desk

post 2

2008-02-20T03:21:00.000-08:00

what up again

i hope all you guys and gals readin this are doin good and enjoyin life. u only get one, might as well make the most of it right?

hope yalls enjoyin my gibberish blog. please excuse the horrible grammar again.
but yeah, last nite was the first of many drinkin nites on this trip i have. but before the drunken moments, i'll start with the sobber moments. we started off the nite with a family style dinner and some niceee ass restaurant. like it was a nice chinese joint called something dynasty. haha i forgot the first part of its name, but the place was really bling bling. gold plated walls and grand antiques in the lobby. at first id thought itd be an expensive dinner from the ambiance of the place but it was like only 15us dollars a head! for a family style dinner with 10 people. we made sure to order enough to make sure everyone gets enough food. dont you just hate that awkward part of dinner when eating family style, the part where the food is runnin low on the dish and it just sits there cause no one wants to eat the last piece? u guys know what im talkin about right? theres always that ONE guy whose been eyeing it for like 5 min. well yeah, i hate that feeling at a table. i rather just make sure to order extra. but anyways, that was a random. during dinner geen and i treated the table to beer, and bottles of it. we had like 6-7 24oz bottles of suntory and tsung tao. it was like 3 bucks a bottle so whatevs, anything to make a group of strangers at a dinner table socialize.

random note about rest
it had small personal flat screen tvs in front each urinal in the mens restroom. that how bling it was.

after dinner we met up with a bunch of other people and went to some street which was full of bars and clubs, but being a tuesday nite. shit was bunk alllllll over man. after a few drinks at zapatoes? [some bar] a few of us went to cashbox. its a ktv joint. ktving is one of the most popular things to do in asia for fun. u have ur own personal room which can seat from 6-18 maybe and just sing and drink all nite. theres always ktvs around here where you can pick a lady friend for the nite to pour ur drinks and lite ur stogs. its just some girl to keep you company during the nite at the ktv. some ktv places have girls that do more than just keep you company if you know what i mean. but yeah, we went to the a non escort one and i got pretttttty drunk. the drink of choice in asia is whiskey and green tea. shits bomb. it was good times singing songs and poundin whiskey gettin to know my peers for the next few months. after a couple of hours of drinking went back to the dorm. as i was leaving cashbox, there was this bum lady who was askin for change and ...

i am usually never this mean but i was drunk like i said. i had no change on me so i was like fuck it, put a fuckin stog in her cub and got in the cab. i didnt see her as i was going in but miko did. [michael lin is another good friendi met from ucsd] apparently she gave me the dirtiest look a bum can ever give, but whatevs. a stog is bout 25cents right?

next dumb drunk thing i did. vision a line full of bikes along a wall. like a gangggg of bikes just parked with locks on. evan chang [eugenes litte brother!] and i were curious if we KICKED one of them down, would all of them fall down? sort of like the domino effect. after numerous amount of kicks to a mutilple bikes. no luck. a line of bikes dont fall like what we see in cartoons.
went to my dorm and ptfo.

woke up the next day and walked to some store to grab some breakfast. theres this bomb ass cheap snack near my dorm. its that brown sticky rice thats wrapped in a leave. i always forget the name of it, but its bomb. i enjoyed my leaf rice while listening to the laker game. since i cant watch the laker game. i had to pretend i was in the 50s and turn up the radio and listen to the game thru live streams on espn. thank you espn. i wouldve used this tite asss website, www.channelsurfing.net but chinas government regulates EVERYTHING! theres a good amount of sites blocked from china. examples, xanga, blogspot [i cant even SEE my own posts, i can write but not even my own website] the channelsurfin site and a few more. btw, thanks james min for findin me that site. good lookin out.

alright after the game, met up with ricker [tite name right?] and Q. some guys i met through the program. apparently there was an all day orientation for the econ program students and us being language program students had the whole day to wander shanghai. we hit u up the famous tourist temple area [i really gotta start knowing names and streets of the places i goto] its near the bund center. but yeah bought a mao zi dong poster for my room and a mouse for my laptop.
chilled the day gettin to know those guys and it was nice to walk the streets of shanghai. i find it very peaceful and relaxing to just walk in scenic places. i'll throw up some pics soon...if im not lazy to bring my camera out. haha

had dinnner with kelly miko and evan at some bomb ass noodle joint where you get to pick what u want in it. its a hole in a the wall place buts its dirt cheap. like dirtttttt cheap. 7rmb for a bowl of noodles with fishballs veggies meat pork whatever you want. the currency exchange is about 7rmb to 1 us dollarrr. i plan to hit that place up often during the next couple months.

well yeah. i felt like i blabbed on WAY too much. i was literally just thinkin about my whole day and just writing it down. i got my chinese placement exam at 9am so time for me to bounce everyone

take it easyyy

send me feedback of what to write or things to write or how to WRITE better!

stay pimpin

first post

2008-02-19T01:14:00.000-08:00

im not much of a writer, so this blog is pretty much me speakin and typin out what i say haha. just fyi

day 2

what up
i always thought id be the last one to ever have a online journal, but theres always a first for everything right? so i guess here it goes...
i am currently in shanghai studying abroad at fudan university. i'll be studying here for 6 months and during my stay i will be trying to master the teachings of partyi- i mean chinese. yes, chinese. i currently probably have the chinese skills of a local 5th grader here. its reallllll bad, i got the worse accent and i literally translate word for word english to manderin to get by. so my goal for the next months is to really crack down on manderin and become more well rounded as a person.

so my flight was this past sat feb16 departin from lax around 1230pm. i sat next to my buddy joyce roan on the plane, and because of that the felt like it went by real fast, it mustve been the good convos on rambo and the memory card games.

word of advice
dont take china eastern! ive been on a good amount of international flights to asia and like 90% ive had personal interactive tvs. from what i know, this is the only asia airline yet to have that shit. i probably wouldnt be complaning, but since china air and eva both have it. i gotta talk shit. fff china eastern. food wasnt that great and there was no instant noodles! bullshit right? international flyers, u feel me right?

so yeah, landed. got my bags, i cant believe i packed more than joyce -_-. i felt a lil embarrassed but whatevs, i like my clothes, what can i say? but yeah. thanks again joyce for the ride to fudan! much appreciated! thennnn checked in the room. i got a single on the 12 floor. room 1219. i got my own restroom and a tite asss balcony. [pics will be up soon enough i hope]
the first nite here was fuckin cold as fuck. my heater in my room didnt work and i was literally wearing everything i had to stay warm. just kidding, just a a sweater and jacket. haha. but thank god, it was fixed the next day. 30degrees celsius never felt so good. just for those people who plan on coming to fudan in the future, u gotta buy your own bedding which includes sheets pillow blanket and i reccomend a mattress bad of some sort, the mattress they provide is less than a inch think of cotton. you're literally sleepin on fuckin wood planks. 2 doors down is my partner in crime eugene chang. he is my pdad for akpsi and a great friend. i know for a fact geen and i will have wild adventures the next 6months. ill be sure to post some up.

well yeah. to wrap my first post up, ill just list some things i did
-registered for school [classes are undecided still]
-shopped at walmart for some necessities [im surprised theres one here too]
-bank [if you have boa, hit up china construction bank. no fees! they're apparently linked up]ee
-walked a gang [dont wear chucks]
-ate with joyce at some noodle joint for less than a buck
-no school till next week! so it gives time to settle in and to get to know the area
-ate with joyce and geen and some rest down the street of school
-bought a sim card for my phone

word of advice
when coming to asia, bring an unlocked cellphone or be prepared to buy another phone AND if you buy a phone, make sure not to get ripped off like me.

things i gotta say before i go.
-thanks justin nand for the music. i can bump jams in my room now
-thanks kristen shimatsu and tom ngo for makin me do this blog
-if u want to hit me up, my shanghai cell is 15000474942
-IT IS FREAKIN COLD IN SHANGHAI

till next time! peace