Still Alive (ALeX)

This was a triumph
I'm making a note here...HUGE SUCCESS!



I am here now, and I apologize for the absence of correspondence. I just got internet today so you can imagine after two weeks of not being hooked up to the interwebs I'm like a crack fiend desperate for a fix. Time seems to move slowly here - with so many new sights and smells (most terrible, but that's to be expected in China) one would think that it would move at a rapid pace. The truth is my class load is lighter than I expected and without a job I just don't know what to do with myself. So far I've burned through all of my comics and have been playing a lot of Alphi Centauri because I don't know what other games Busha has on his laptop (I borrow his computer, thank you my friend).

My room:

I greatly underestimated the rockstar nature of being a foreigner. I constantly have people coming up to me saying hello, asking where I'm from, how old I am, and than quickly retreating to their English books to devise some new clever inquisitions so they can practice their English. It was fun for the first week, but I think I am harboring a strange animosity for my own celebrity.


The hardest thing is food. Being the white barbarian I am with little command of the language I have had to resort to pointing at things saying zhege ("this"). They generally just laugh at me but understand the intent behind my crude behavior. On that note, the food is great. Tons of spicy dishes and vegetables that I normally wouldn't touch at home prepared in such a way that they've become my favorites. I'll try to get pictures of those soon.

The city I am in is Wuhan, which technically is comprised of three municipalities. Last weekend I journeyed to the otherside of the river to Hankou. Hankou was different from the part of the city where I am from because it had been a concession to Britain I believe (possibly due to the Opium Wars but I am not sure). The architechture was very different. VERY Americanized, at least the part I ended up at. I had to take a bus down to a docking area, jump on a ferry across the river and walk through some slums before I got there, but the main district was filled with shopping centers, eateries, and a fucking awesome arcade that tops anything ever imagined in America. I bought some clothes that probably would have cost me upwards of $100 in America for a mere $30 given the exchange rate. I think my endgame really needs to be just to bank up a bunch of money back home and live like a king here.

Other than that, classes aren't bad...for me anyway. Some of the local students I understand have upwards of eight classes - in a day. How one can even study for eight classes I don't know, but its the Chinese way I guess.

Random observations: Chinese people wear a lot of clothes that are English brands or have sayings on them written in English, but after seeing some of them I doubt that they understand what they say or represent. I will give a few brief examples. My favorites from the conservative school girls are clothes with the "Playboy" logo on them or shirts that say obscene things like "Bitch!" Also, I heard there is a guy on campus who wears a shirt saying "Commies aren't cool." Whoops. Another interesting thing is that if you go to a fast food resteraunt you have to leave your shit on the table for the employees to clean up as if you are in a nice sit down joint. I can't tell you how many times just from habit I've tried to take my tray to the garbage to throw away my shit only to be intercepted and nearly tackled by a 4'5" Asian chick for making the attempt.

I think that's about all for now, I'll leave you from some pictures. I haven't gone to any serious landmarks yet so most of these are just pictures from the campus or from travelling outside the campus gates.