OMG

so i'm like in lanzhou right now. we're on a 10-day study trip, this is our 6th day... i think? we've been going to a bunch of places, like dunhuang, lanzhou, xiahe, and net is xi'an and our rural stay. lots of plane rides, train rides, and car rides. our longest train ride was 19.5 hours and our longest car ride was about 7 hours, not counting breaks we took to eat.

anyway, so i went to the china open about a week ago to see the quarterfinals, with sharapova and asagoe. saw sharapova win. apparently, the flash from my camera startled her while she was practicing... oops. and i was like right in front of her when she was leaving the practice area to go to her locker room, but her body guards were pushing people so i thought it'd be safer to get out of her way. she beat the japanese girl pretty easily that night and then we saw doubles, with sun tian tian/li ting against this european and south african pair. saw the chinese team win. it was fun. NOW, i'm saving money to go to this: http://www.masters-cup.com/en/ i am so stoked about it and cannot wait. my classmate, Garfield, who is this 34-year old from arizona, is into tennis too and i'm going to save money so i can go to shanghai with him. he's offering free transportation in his new audi, with his chaffeur driving. for about $300 or so, he said we get to see the semis and the final, get box seats, food, and maybe meet some of the players.

dude, what is going on in the world of sports? the padres clinched the NL! and the yankees are on top again. dude, and what is up with michigan??? and the harris poll?!?!? i feel so out of the loop.

I'm in China

So I'm in China right now... I have a lot to say, but I'll just give some highlights.

- crossing the street is scary and cars do not break for you, seriously
- the bus breaks a lot and you have to hold on for dear life
- apparently I have a Cantonese accent when I speak Mandarin (3 people have told me so far), I guess it makes sense to me, but it's a long complicated story
- things are apparently cheap, like $1 = 8 Yuan... and a bottle of water is like 2 yuan, breakfast costs about 5 yuan, and the most expensive meal so far was 193 yuan split between me and 5 other people, which is like 32 yuan, or about 6 dollars each and I thought it was a bit pricey by Chinese standards
- squat toilets: they are still around... I haven't used one since my visit to Cambodia, but apparently much of the world still use it, and it's not just like for underdeveloped nations... Japan still uses them... like I saw them in the Narita Tokyo airport.
- Beijing University's medical campus is "small" compared to the main campus, but not by my standards. It takes me 15 minutes to walk to the cafeterias and to our classrooms... that's freakin' far. I'm used to it only taking 2-4 minutes to walk to class and to eat.