Bubble Tea 24/7

Sorry I don't lead the most exciting life. Last week mostly consisted of me chilling around the apartment and visiting my grandma.. plus some additional things here and there I've been getting figured out. Went shopping a couple times. Intense salespeople can still tell I wasn't raised in mainland China - even before I say a single word. My aunt is my personal barterer (wow okay, that is a legit word..thought there were too many -er's). I can say a lot about shopping but I'm lazy and rambly and awful at this blogging thing (if you couldn't tell) and so that's that. Still gonna tell you what I got though: two pairs of leather flats, two bags, black sheer H&M button-up, another pair of shoes, sunglasses... if I left out brand names, that's probably for a reason. Picture with the sunglasses below. Don't judge me for this narcissistic picture, I was playing around with Instagram. I know, my love/hate relationship with Instagram scares me too. Was going to get the sunglasses in tortoiseshell but already have a similar pair of those so went with the kinda opaque pink color. Sorry guys, promise I'm going to stop talking about fashion now.

I went to the botanical gardens in the area with my grandma last week. I was probably one of the only non-retired, non-baby humans there that morning. Lots of exercising older people. And cute babies. (Don't have pictures of those because I didn't want to be too creepy.)

Unfortunately, most of the flowers already bloomed but it was still a nice day to walk around there and not be constantly surrounded by the city. Took some typical flower pictures and some pictures of my cute, lovely little grandma. Check out the odd textures on those flowers. Grandma loved these elephant statues. We had to search for them. And yeah, I may or may not have worn a flowery blouse because I knew we were going to the botanical gardens. The last picture of the two of us I took on my phone. Fun to watch the grandma struggle with the concept that while we were looking into the camera screen, we were seeing ourselves because of the forward-facing camera (not sure if that's the technical term). Also, even though it was super sunny and nice that day, the sky's still never entirely blue in Shanghai. Always a lil' bit smoggy.

Played with reflections. Click through for bigger versions of those pictures on my flickr. I need to probably update that more often. And put Photoshop back on my laptop. Notice how I just got lazy and stopped 'shopping the more recent pictures? Yeah, whoops. Also, side note, teach me Photoshop if you're good at it. It'd be much appreciated. I'll pay you back with food.

Got to hang out with my friend, Leland, who also goes to Michigan but lives in Shanghai. He went to an international high school right down the street from my relatives' apartment. We had dinner and walked around Xu Jia Hui - which basically consists of a bunch of shopping malls, movie theaters, and restaurants. I wish this was where me and my friends could hang out back home when we were bored. A tad better than the local Wendy's and McDonald's.

And yes, we saw a transformer outside this karaoke place. That's what a lotta people do for fun here, KTV. Haven't gone. My singing voice shouldn't be heard in public. There was this guy guarding the transformer slash greeting people in front of the karaoke place, and I tried to get him to take a picture of me and Leland and the transformer but he said no. Party pooper, right? That last picture below is of this guy on the side of the street making little kabob type things with your choice of veggies, meat, seafood, and bao zi (bread type dough). Got yelled at when he saw my camera so enjoy that picture please.

Chilled with the uncle/aunt/cousin/grandparent set on the other side of the family during the weekend. My grandpa likes to go off and tell little stories. Fun stuff. My cousin works 6 days a week at the bank. Saw her Saturday. I'm the tallest out of this side of the family, minus the grandpa. They think I have big feet. My other set of uncle/aunt/cousin are all way above average for Asian people standards. My cousin on that side of the family is 6'2. Silly opposite relatives.

Some tweets exposing more of my Asian life to you:

Call Me Maybe on the radio in China. Can't escape it.
— Sophie Zhao (@sophz) May 19, 2012

Bubble tea 24/7. #nom
— Sophie Zhao (@sophz) May 22, 2012

Company next door setting up for a fashion show. Hopefully I get to catch some of it. Perks of working in a creative park.
— Sophie Zhao (@sophz) May 23, 2012

Just made soup by adding hot water to this rectangular block of egg and seaweed. First time for everything.
— Sophie Zhao (@sophz) May 24, 2012

One of the better things for me and sucky for workers is that there isn't tipping here. So, at work we order lunch and bubble tea. Yay! I never even drink bubble tea in the States. Who knows why. I probably need more Asian friends to hang out there. Yeah so speaking of work, I've been interning at this marketing group here since Monday and I've been working on their Estee Lauder team. Did some research on the competition for one of their clients so far. Also, next weekend, I'm going to be the assistant of a French professor flying in from Paris while he's here for a couple days teaching MBAs about CSR. That should be fun.

There it is. Update on my life. I should really just blog more often instead of writing ginormous posts every week. Or just not ramble and feel the need to say a buncha little things. Lo siento.

Jetlag-free

Didn't pack enough long pants and long-sleeved shirts. I've never been in Shanghai this early in the year, and was happily shocked that I wasn't dying from the heat and humidity as soon as I stepped off the plane. I don't have any sort of jacket or cardigan besides this zip-up I wore on the plane. And besides a pair of jeans and leggings, the rest I brought were shorts. Good job, Soph. Most of all that is back at my house in Ann Arbor so my Mom can't even bring it from home when she comes. I'll just have to make do. A paragraph on clothes. Clothes are important, guys. Sorry I ramble...

No jetlag for me! My sleep schedule is the most normal it's ever been in a while. I've been sleeping around 12-1am and waking up around 7-9am since I've gotten here. My grandma told me waking up at 8am was really late...but, you proud? You would be if you knew how awful my usual sleeping patterns were. Maybe that's why I don't get jetlag.

Saturday I went to see the house my uncle (pictured above) and aunt bought and are customizing about an hour outside of the city. I guess in China there's this tradition where before you start constructing/remodeling (technically not "re" since it hasn't been done yet) your house, you set off a bunch of firecrackers inside the house. Something about luck and alerting the gods underground that you're going to start construction. So that was fun. The neighborhood was cute and had these little rivers flowing through it with clusters of lily-pads floating around in them. They bought houses with a couple other families they were friends with and are planning to come out here to chill once in a while to get away from all the people and noise in the city. My aunt brought up how staying out there might get boring too - uh yeah, welcome to the suburbs I grew up in.

Got my first two mosquito bites. No one else got bitten. Story of my life.

My uncle and aunt kept referring to where we were as the countryside, which I guess it kinda was. We ate lunch at this little restaurant some farmers ran (pictures of the restaurant and surrounding area below). You pick out fresh fish and other random, slimy water creatures and they make it for you. Pretty decent. I've never been in this part outside of Shanghai before. It was nice laying out in the yard of the house earlier. Everyone I was with was so accustomed to city life.

Oh hi, remember me? I was alive a little while ago...

Sorry this blog post is never-ending. Here's a shot of part of my aunt and uncle's apartment that my cousin took when he was messing around with my camera. He's the same age as me but will be coming to the U.S. to work on getting his Ph.D in Chemical Engineering at the University of Cincinnati! I went with him yesterday and wandered around a mall while he was getting interviewed at the U.S. Embassy to get his visa. Some guy on an intersection around there attempted to sell me learning materials that would teach me English. I told him "No, I'm alright..." and he told me it'd be good to know for a job. My cousin kinda just laughed at him and we walked away. Maybe I should have responded in English.

Clothes get hung up to dry in China. They have these nifty poles that lower/raise when you crank the handle on this little pulley system.

Yay fruit fruit fruit! I live off fruit. I think this was the first time I've had dragonfruit (left). And lychee (right) is super common here. They're in season, so life is good.

On Sunday, I got to see my Grandma! (Okay, I just attempted to Instagram a picture of her really quick and she rejected me. You'll see her soon..) Then went to get my haircut by this guy my aunt always goes to. He remembers me from two years ago (and I guess actually a couple years even before then) and we're best friends. He was super busy and since four people wanted him to cut their hair before me, I went to this little boutique with my aunt and helped her pick out summer clothes. Then we went to Starbucks and I attempted to order a no-water chai but they might not have that here and I got the loose-leaf version of the tea instead. I was taking a picture of the menu and got yelled at.. But a tall iced coffee was 17 RMB so about $2.70. Most of the tall lattes were around 27 RMB so about $4.27. That's about how much the airports back in the States were charging. What.

Got my hair cut and way thinned out. The people in the shop kept commenting on how thick my hair was. The guy who first washed my hair was new and had only been there a week and was struggling and complaining so got made fun of by the other guys. I kinda felt bad. Whatever, Mom's genes. But yay, got rid of more than half my hair. My head feels all light and free!

Grr-face.

Listening to: "Pictures" - Benjamin Francis Leftwich

Arrived in Shanghai

All settled in at my home away from home. Kinda sleepy so I think I’ll be okay with jetlag. Both plane rides were pretty successful – I didn’t take the direct flight from O’Hare to Shanghai since it was a lot more expensive so made a stop at LAX. I love airports. Love O’Hare. I like how busy it is and that everyone has a purpose there. Fun place for people-watchers. And to throw in a negative, the first thing I notice is that Starbucks is pretty much double the usual price…so that was sad. Depriving myself of Starbucks when I actually kinda needed it. Yeah I know, first world problems. I really suck.

I made friends with the nice, precious retired lady sitting next to me on the Chicago to Los Angeles flight. She was from L.A. and had just been to Chicago for the first time so I got to hear all about this lil’ trip she had with three or four of her girlfriends. She was a sweetheart! The kid on the other side of my was some Asian dude who had his earbuds in the whole time and probably thought I was some weird chick making friends with a bunch of old people.. which is actually true so I guess I don't blame him.

Thought I was going to have to search or even shuttle to get to my next gate once I was at LAX but instead I literally just walked to the end of the hall. 2 hours to people-watch. I sat at a little pod gathering of chairs in the waiting area by my gate and eventually realize I’m sitting next to Tom Greene. Less than 20 minutes of stepping off the first plane and seeing famous people..okay L.A. And then after wandering the duty-free store, staring at alcohol and perfume for a bit, deciding whether to get overpriced Starbucks or not, and calling my parents, I realize I should probably eat food. So I’m waiting in line for my $8 Caesar salad from Burger King and get a “Go blue!” from this man near me since I’m wearing some Michigan t-shirt. I figure out he’s an alumni and majored in music. I tell him I’m actually minoring in music. He asks if I know Mark Clague. Uh what, he was only my musicology professor this past semester and asked me to help lead the business side of this student org (Arts Enterprise)… Oh. Don’t worry, the alumni was actually one of the original founders of this organization. So not only is he a Michigan alum that knows my professor, but he founded a club I’m helping run? SMALL WORLD? Yeah. Sorry for the stretched out version of the story but I get excited about coinkidinks like that. If I didn’t choose to go to Burger King at that time (I was being indecisive about where to eat, if to eat, and when to eat if i did eat), if he didn’t say “go blue”, if I didn’t wear a Michigan shirt… keeps going. So much aligned and it twas exciting. Don't make fun.

Took this 2 years ago the last time I flew to Shanghai, so this is kinda a lie within this post.

Now onto the last 13-14 hour stretch from LA to Shanghai. First/business class consisted of mostly American businessmen and economy was literally all international Chinese college kids going home, plus me. (By the way, isn’t it always great to walk past all the nice seats on your way back to economy? And watch as the space one seat took up all of a sudden becomes two seats?) I figure out I’m surrounded by mostly kids from China because the flight attendant ran around with the departure slips asking people “Anyone not Chinese?” and by Chinese she meant Chinese citizen – I had to clarify since it felt a little weird being technically ethnically Chinese but not a citizen like she meant. But yeah, I was the only U.S. citizen in my vicinity. Guessing most people are like my sister and still in school so the passengers around me were mostly all Chinese college kids going home...for the first time in at least a year. It's fascinating that so many parents in China are sending their only child halfway around the world for school (and I thought USC was a tad far). Just shows how much education is and should be valued though. Finished reading A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, sat in the dark bawling while watching The Vow, and watched most of Hugo. Passed out on and off for who knows how long. The flight wasn't too bad.

Okay peace, about to die..bedtime. And it's just around midnight. Normal sleeping schedule, leggo.

Halfway Done

End of sophomore year. Halfway done with college... what? More than halfway actually. Going to attempt to graduate a semester early - time to take on more credits these last 3 semesters, woo.. Sophomore year was a good year though. A lot of work, but lots of fun. Loved taking more relevant classes, the business school, and adding so many lovely new people into my life! The pictures here are all from the end of this year and the start of summer: Michigan vs. OSU lacrosse game with my housemate and her cousin (aka, my twin) I know, crazy relationships. It can be hard to figure out, but you'll get it. Then, the picture with the dog.. there's a golden in it, so that's more than enough reason to post the picture. But actually, it's me chilling on my neighbor's (actually ex-neighbor's) porch watching people move into my old house at school. Just some casual bonding time with a new housemate/friend.. who takes a lot of cute pictures with me. (See above and below.)

The pictures below are when my friend Maggie used me for my camera so she could have a new Facebook cover and profile picture. It's kinda okay because I got fed dinner, but still. (Will work for food..? Just kidding..) This was finals week so I'm sporting my finals best - giant sweatshirt, leggings, and a comfy scarf. You should adopt a version of it while you're possibly still taking finals. YEAH. Your finals. Since Michigan gets done at the end of April! I'M ALL DONE!!!

That's gonna be it for me being a jerk... this early start to summer meant I got to visit some high school friends at UW-Madison on Cinco de Mayo for Mifflin! And starting tonight, a couple days here at home and then onto Shanghai this Thursday to see my cute grandma. Hopefully I'll figure out a way to get onto blocked sites while I'm in China so I can update this little thing while I'm there. If you don't hear from me, it doesn't mean I died - just temporarily social media-disabled because of Chinaland. Wish me luck!

Listening to: "Sail" - AWOLNATION