Greetings from Shanghai!

I AM 10000KM AWAY FROM MY SOCIAL LIFE WOOOOOOO watsup.

OMGGGGGGGGGGGG FINALLY GOT THIS TO WORK mother of god, suffering from major blogger withdraws. I had a lot to blog about as soon as i got here 10 days ago but i only managed to get onto this today, SO this will be an extremely condensed post about my life,  just a little of my observations and revelations during my travels so far.

 

First meals in shanghai yeeee

WELLLLLLL i've already spent 3 days in shanghai and 8 days in Beijing.
- No one smiles here, when i got off the plane at shanghai everyone was just so cold like WHY SO SSERRRIOUSSS comrades?!?! Also on beijing tour when we were in our little mini golf carts i did an experiment and turns out only 1 in 6 people wave back to you when you wave at them. and about 1 in 10 smile at you. I reckon if it was in AUstralia it'd be more like 9 in 10. I'm really appreciating and understanding the cultural differences here.
- I feel like my life is in danger whenever i cross a street in china. Regardless of zebra crossings or green walking man lights cars, buses and trucks zoom weave in and around pedestrians. I admire local girls who as it appeared to my untrained eyes seemingly nonchalantly walks into the middle of ongoing traffic on a busy highway. Imagine someone walking calmly across the great western highway whilst listening to music and talking on her phone. Whereas i was shatting my pants wondering when to cross the road and ended up running across the road and receiving wtf looks from everyone. /firstworldproblems
- Then in beijing there was this good-looking chick while i was walking with the family in a shopping centre and i was checking her out (as you do) and then she started picking her nose and we established awkward eye contact. I proceeded to avert my eyes for the sake of herself and myself only to see that she continued to pick her nose and did a flicking motion. Evidently the awkwardness was not a mutual feeling. meh noregrets LOL. except i'm kind of sad because i prided myself in being someone who does not feel any awkwardness yet i was defeated in an instant in the land of china :(
- EVERYONE wears uniforms here from the checkout chick to the security guards to the cleaners. Like seriously imagine ANY service that exists in china and some type of uniform will be involved.
- People think I'm retarded because they don't understand that just because i look chinese doesn't mean i can speak mandarin. One even asked my dad if i went to school or if i can speak english. /feelsbadman. But to be honest i'm really enjoying it here more than the last time i came here 5 years ago when i couldn't understand a word of mandarin. Now i can understand maybe 50%... i even had a nice conversation with an 18 year old who was at a foot massage parlour that we went to. We were both reflecting on our forever aloneness LOOL (and just for the record he to was wearing a uniform). They were actually doing some weird synchronised exercise with flags in their fluro yellow, I gangnam styled in between them and around them, turns out trolls aren't really appreciated here :(
- Also the ascent and descent of a plane is beautiful. Especially seeing a city so high up that it looks like a massive lego set and then eventually descending to it's own level and feeling like an ant.
- haven't used my brain in almost 2 weeks, can feel it turning to mush...
- And that is all i can think of at the moment oh yeah and on a side note, i also went to the great wall, temple of heaven, chengde, tianjing, tianamen square, birds nest stadium, the forbidden palace and saw some shaolin monks break metal using their heads (pree sure it was grey foam, seeing as bits of 'metal' floated down the stage LOL), meh was okay. ANd now enjoy some dodgy photos which shall explain all...

 yeeee feels like I'm in an ancient drama. (This actually was the place that palace was filmed, this place was meant for women only oooft). Also... so.many.people.everywhere.

Taking selfies in 0 degree weather on the great wall like a bosss. Also evidently the rain doesn't stop tourists LOL.

 Some village, some park with snow and frozen lake. I like the last picture a lot, not bad for iPod touch camera quality huh, should really bring another camera but w.e 

 Cannot get over these squat toilets. This was the only one i could find that was semi clean. ANd next to it are my long road trip snacks FINALLY GREEN TEA POCKY. So cheap that sausage and pocky together cost me like $1.50 aud.

 I also don't see the point in having these moving escalator things on the floors of airports. It's actually slower than walking... I also don't understand western models in chinese advertisements. My 80 year old grandpa looks better than this guy. legit. 70 year old pedo man doesn't do it for me sorry.

P.S. I have a lot more photos but they aren't that great haaha, have to say the scenery here is pretty amazing. hope class of 2012 enjoyed their formal today (Y) :) I was really looking forward to the after party aswell but oh well looks like i'll just have to go twice as hard on nye ahahh.

Alright guys hope you're having fun, until next time :)