alive!

After sleeping ten hours in the first four days since I left home, I went to bed at noon yesterday and basically slept until five this morning. 17 hours of sleep definitely made a difference in my level of consciosness. It wasn't even drug-induced sleep... I failed to find anything resembling benadryl to put me to sleep. I was just that exhausted.

The day before yesterday I went out with Kelly and bought myself a Chinese cellphone. If anyone has an interest in calling me (I don't expect that you do), let me know and I'll give you the number. Also, once I move, I'm going to put up my address so stuff can be mailed, but I'm not movnig until the end of next week now.

The area of the city I'm in is called 'university city' because tehre are give or take 13 universities in the immediate vicinity. This is as close to a suburban area as China will come... yesterday I was crossing the four-lane street to get to the internet cafe and there was a wagon of watermelons being pulled by some horses thrown in the mix of cars and busses that don't stop honking. I walked around the backside of our university and found a guy in camo with some cows grazing outside what will be the building I live in. So I'm guessing we're not too far from rural areas.

Speaking of cars honking, crossing the street in China is always an adventure. I read a book recently by a guy who traveled around China for a while, and as he put it, they honk before they pass someone, they honk wile they're passing, and they honk after they've passed'. It's totally true. When you want to cross a street, even a four-lane borderline highway like the one I have to cross to get to the store or the University, there aren't any crosswalks, just breaks in the curb every few hundred feet where you cross your fingers and frogger it across. you just watch how fast the cars coming towards you are going, and don't let them hit you. The traffic isn't really heavy so it's usually not a problem, but it is always an adventure.

I had my first encounter with a squatty potty the day before yesterday, i managed not to fall in. How I went two days without having to face one I have no idea. I'd better get used to it though, that's all there is in the building I will have classes in.

Today I'm going to try and find season four of lost on DVD cause I only have one episode left of season three. That's what I've been doing to pass the time when I've been too exhausted to go outside but too freaked out to sleep. I'm going to take the bus downtown and explore. My mom said I shoudl try and find the Walmart... I know there is one, I went there two years ago. Around here the only recognizable store I've found is a two-story KFC. The Chinese loves them some chicken.

I would also like to share with you something I was tipped off on by the only other non-Chinese person I know in Harbin, though I haven't actually met him yet... www.icanhascheezeburger.com is blocked in China. As timhowes put it, icanhascommunism. I'm gonna miss those silly kitties.

Time to go on an adventure, ta ta for now