the creepiest thing i've ever done

I usually don't post twice in a day, but since the last one was kind of sad and because something amazing (and by amazing I mean incredibly creepy of me) happened tonight, I'm making an exception.

Tonight, Pong, Cong Cong and I went to this place called The Village, which is basically this enormous shopping mall with the world's largest Adidas store. (As Pong said, China is obsessed with having the biggest, the longest, the --est. . . overcompensating? Hmm. . .) She dropped Cong Cong and me off to go park the car and said she'd meet as McDonald's. So Cong Cong and I are waiting in line at McDonald's when I see the most amazingly handsome boy I've ever seen (who was not a former Armani model).

I immediately whip out my phone and text the people I know will appreciate it the most: Garbo, Kat and Phuong. After describing said boy to all three friends, they demand pics or STFU. I refuse. I'm not that forward, I say. And I'm not.

Cong Cong and I leave McDonald's to find Pong and I wax poetic about this beautiful guy to her. She immediately wants to see him. I know my face turned bright red (like it does) and I kept repeating no, no, he'll know. . . but Pong was not to be swayed. She asked Cong Cong if he had seen said 帅哥 and he says of course! And takes her hand and leads her to the guy. And POINTS.

I'm dying. Pong makes me sit down and drink my Coke approximately 10 feet away from where he's sitting, while saying I should take a picture with him because he is so handsome. I keep refusing, saying it's weird, he'll think I'm weird, etc, etc. He keeps looking over, because he has to know we're talking about him (beautiful people always know).  And so we leave.

After wandering around the mall for a while, we go into the Apple Store, where I covet a new iPhone...and see the guy. With three of his friends. And this time Pong won't take no for an answer. Gripping my arm as tightly as she can, she drags me over to them and starts talking. And introduces me.

(Just so you know, I'm dead from losing so much face. My 面子 is completely 丢ed.)

So we chat for a bit, and I'm hoping that's enough for Pong, but nope. She chirps, "Take a picture?" to the guys. And they blink a little, then say, "Sure!" And insist that I'm in the middle.

For your viewing pleasure: my ultimate creepstar moment.

The one on the far right was the one I saw in McDonald's. The others are 还可以.

Oh and ps--got the one in bright blue's email. So I can email him this picture. Bow down at the altar of my creepstarness. Or Pong's creepstarness, I should say.

as many times as i blink, i'll think of you

You know how when you first go off to college and you meet new friends and one semester later, you can't remember life without them?

That's how this is.

Even though I only met all of these people in March, I can't imagine life without them.

It's not goodbye, it's see you later.

Australia vs. Germany

So it's happened. I knew it would, eventually, especially under the right circumstances. . .

I like soccer (ahem--football). Erin is still coaching me through the finer points of the rules and who's who and why that's a penalty and what's a red card again? but I like it. I really do.

And not that this should have surprised me given how I act at American football games, but I have discovered I really like soccer trash talk. For example:





















I've refrained from posting it on the walls of actual English friends.  Because I don't want to to get punched in the face.  Or jinx the US team, because I can't handle having that on my conscience.

However, I have no problem jinxing other countries.  So on Sunday, after having slept until approximately 1 in the afternoon recovering from the previous night's exhausting watch of US-England, Kat, Jelena and I headed to Secco.  Where we, with our Aussie friends, talked serious smack to the Germans. 

In order to paint a proper picture of this, I should start off by saying that we were watching the game at a German pub with a group of about 15 Australian supporters (us included).

And we were those fans. You know the ones. . . the ones you just want to sit down and shut up before you really lose your temper and make them shut up.

For example. On our way to the German pub Secco, we chanted these gems:


"There were 10 German bombers in the air (in the air)!
There were 10 German bombers in the air (in the air)!
There were 10 German bombers, there were 10 German bombers
There were 10 German bombers in the air!
Then the RAF from England shot one down (shot one down)!
Then the RAF from England shot one down (shot one down)!
Then the RAF from England, the RAF from England
Then the RAF from England shot one down (shot one down)!"

. . . And so on and so forth until you get to zero, when you shout something about Germany losing the war.

I particularly liked: (this is to the tune of "Yellow Submarine")

"We all live in a convict colony
A convict colony
A convict colony." (and repeat)

And the classic:
Chant Leader: Aussie Aussie Aussie!
Chanters: Oy Oy Oy!
Chant Leader: Aussie!
Chanters: Oy!

Once we ran out of those, we made up our own, righteously pissing off the Germans. They involved, in no particular order: Volkswagen, sauerkraut, the Schleiffen plan, a brief rundown of German history since 1945, and World Wars I and II. (Although we made up with a few Germans by challenging them to a drinking contest [and by "we" I mean the boys, Mom and Dad] which was promptly lost by the Aussies.)

The end result? Germany 4, Australia 0.

And that dear friends is why the smack-talking pic of Robert Green is only getting posted on American walls.

USA v. England

So as most of you know (unless you live under a rock or just got out of prison...or are American) the World Cup started this Friday and the US and England played on Saturday. As much as I love the English friends I've made here, all that camaraderie was put aside at approximately 2:30 Saturday morning (don't worry, friends, it was recovered at approximately 5:00 Saturday morning). 

When Erin and I heard that the English were painting their faces with their flag, we knew what we had to do: not allow America to be shamed with less hardcore fans. So with the help of Garbo (who is British but Welsh, so it's ok) I found Crayola paint and we painted up our faces. And it was amazing.


















We felt like pro-wrestlers. And straight out of the movie Nacho Libra. And awesome.

So we get to Castle, the bar where most of our friends (American and English) were watching the match, where we discover that we are the most hardcore of the Americans. People I didn't know took pictures with me, Chinese people pointed (not that that's all that unusual. . .) and many an England fan made sure to tell me that even though they hoped they stomped America into the ground, they admired the face paint. At one point, someone told me, "Go you! Not go USA, but go you!" I took that as a compliment of the highest order. And I took some pics with the enemy:






































Once the match started, there was the customary ribbing and taunting. Some new Americans from a state I won't say here (hint: it rhymes with Shmarizona) must have never been to an Ole Miss- LSU game and apparently don't understand that taunting is a part of sports. They were getting personally offended at the insults the English were yelling. . . and started yelling personal attacks at specific England fans. They overused the "1776!" chant waaaaay too much--it's funny a few times (let's be real, we all know I called all my English friends redcoats and limeys all night), but after the 87th time, just stop. We get it. We won the Revolutionary War. Let's move on, please.

Anyway, so England scores in the first 5 minutes, and the Shmarizonians are making me so 不好意思 and making America in general 丢面子 that I want to die. Or hit them.

But the game was fantastic and intense, which is really all I can ask for in any sport. So English friends, good game and your defense is fantastic; American friends, I'll be seeing you in less than three weeks!

shanghai expo 2010

Okay guys. It's the post you've all been waiting for...the Shanghai World Expo 2010 post! Get excited! Go on, go make your popcorn and settle into your favorite chair because this is gonna be a beaut.

I left Nanjing on the 6:30 am train (yes, that means I got up at 4:30, showered, finished packing and left the dorm at 5:30) with Garbo, Delphine and Laura (all of the British persuasion, but we love them anyway :D) and arrived in Shanghai at around 9:30 am. On Saturday, we managed to snag Guest passes into the Asian X Games where we hung out for most of the morning, watching people roll down ramps in giant hamster balls the color of Mountain Dew (in other words, one of the best days ever).

After seeing hundreds of different flips one can do on a skateboard, Jazza (British) and Lee (Canadian, so I had at least one fellow North American with me to argue that it's not "aluminium" it's aluminum :) ) and I went wandering around Shanghai (read: walked around Shanghai and made snarky comments). It was while wandering that I found the best bakery in all of China:

















After wandering around, we all met back up and ate a vegetarian restaurant, aka a restaurant where the chefs make meat-like foods out of veggies. The food is really good, which surprises a lot of people.

We made our way over to the Bund, which I think I mentioned in a much earlier post (around February). It's the old European section of Shanghai, so all the buildings are very old-school European architecture. Anyway, Garbo, Delph and Laura and I were beginning to fade since we had been up since 4:30ish so we all hopped in a 黑车, which is basically an unmarked cab that takes you to your destination for a set price. It was very sketchy and I was convinced that we were all about to go on an Albanian adventure like in the movie Taken, but I was so exhausted I didn't care.

Sunday was EXPO DAY! (It's in all caps because it was awe.some.) Woke up at 5:30 to take our bags to the train station and then head to the Expo (the train station and the Expo park are on opposite sides of town and we wanted to get in the entry line at least an hour before it opened). So we rushed to train station, dumped our bags and rushed to the Expo park where we encountered this mass of people:

















The line moved fairly fast, so we got into the Expo at about 9:15 and immediately headed to the ferry to cross the river over to the country pavilions.

First on our list was the UK pavilion because it was supposed to look like a giant pincushion. And it did not disappoint:

The inside was just as cool because the "needles" had plastic handles with different kinds of seeds found in Britain in them:

After the UK pavilion, we wandered into the Africa pavilion where there was traditional, live African dancing going on:

After Africa, Garbo and I split off to head to the USA! Where I took an obscene amount of pictures.

Yes, a rando Chinese popped into my pic. Oh well.

I may or may not have bought an "I <3 USA Pavilion" t shirt. And a USA Pavilion hat. It may have come with an obnoxious American flag bag that I adore. You can hate me now, it's cool. I'm kind of disgusted with myself.

After the US pavilion, Garbo and I headed to Ireland, the home of my ancestors! They had many a pic of Bono, Westlife, Colin Farrell and Cillian Murphy, as well as castle pictures. We bobbed in and out of various pavilions but the one I really want to tell y'all about was the North Korea pavilion.

Yep. North Korea had a pavilion. The question most asked of me about the North Korean pavilion is, "Is there a nuke in it?" No. But there was grainy footage from the 80s/mid 90s showing smiling and healthy North Koreans dancing around with ribbons. And it was sunny. We all know the sun doesn't shine in North Korea, who are they fooling?

We spent literally 11 hours wandering around the Expo, and towards the end, after not having waited in line for more than 15 minutes the entire day, we decided to venture into China. (PS-after incorrectly assuming that Starbucks would be by the American pavilion--because seriously, who loves Starbucks more than Americans??--we found it by China. Sneaky ninjas.)

And then my camera battery died. So you'll just have to take my word for it that China was amazing. They had split the space by province so it was like traveling from one province to another and it was just fantastic.

So, with my feet despising me with every step I took, we headed off to the train station at midnight. And after a grueling 4 hour train ride with various poultry chirping desperately to be let out, we arrived in Nanjing, where I promptly went to my bed and passed out for 12 hours. Expo for the win!

Much love!