Day 2

I was still deliberating in the shower at 330am in the morning if I should actually be blogging instead of catching up on some much needed sleep, when It finally dawned upon me that the Herbal Essences shampoo I thought I was using was actually conditioner. Last night I was too kanckered to register surprise at the lack of suds despite the copious amount I squeezed out of the new bottle, but just now it finally occured to me to read the Chinese words carefully.

润发剂. Not 洗发露. Joanna told me the former meant "shampoo" last night at Walmart, where we all all tired after a long day, and I obdiently picked the same bottle after Rui made the decision. Rui's probably still in the dark about this. Mental note: Tell him tomorrow. Then laugh at ourselves.

Because what is there to do but laugh? 35+ units on each floor share ONE washing machine, no dryer, and the blacony is both too dusty and cold to dry colthing. The ONE fridge shared amongst over 60 people smells like someone left a rotting corpse in it for 2 years or something. After our mistake of opening the damned fridge (and reacting with a collective "OOOOF!"), we were walking down the corridor, when a minute had passed and I had remarked, "I can still smell it", and everyone agreed.

Settled the bank account and Eric bought my Sim card (number: +86 13651765233), which means cheap calls back to Singapore. After bank account, headed down to People's Square for lunch at Ajisen, where the soup was unbelievably tasteless. Starbucks was full because noveau rich snub other coffee joints for an exemplary model of American capitalism, which all Shanghainese not-so-secretly worship. At Eric's recommendation, I found the only bookstore along Fuzhou Lu which stocked English books, and bought Albert Camus's The Outsider, Fifty Great American Short Stories, HG Well's The Time Machine, and Conrad's The Secret Sharer, for a total of *TADAH* 120RMB.

Eric brought me to a nice Taiwanese restaurant, and then a short detour to Uniqlo for undies and socks, before heading for a massage at Green Massage (www.greenmassage.com.cn) which was kinda posh and nice, but sad to say, not humsup at all. During the massage, we heard this woman moaning and groaning like she was getting an orgasm, which was imposs because the masseuses were really professional and tactful, careful to avoid all sensitive ares except under the armpits, which I never why understood the need to massage.

I can complain alot about the sorry state of my room, sorry state of affairs, the gloomy prospect of school next week, but there are a lot of things to explore and do, so I'm going to put up with everything, including the miserable episode last night where I woke up at 4am wondering why I was conscious, only to look down and see my feet shrivelled and shivering, because the temperamental A/C cum heater decided it was bedtime for it too. I didn't buy a blanket at Walmart because I found it too expensive (when it really wasn't, except for the fact that I wasn't used to buying household items like that and didn't budget for it, hence the resistance), so I slipped on a pair of socks, and spread my Burton jacket like a mini-blanket which covered up to my knees only, taking care not to move around bed too much. To put myself to sleep, I had started to play Blackadder Season 3 on my Macbook like it was a lullaby, only to wake up shivering and sneezing at Episode 2 of Season 4. Depressing stuff, but I'm happy with the books bought, and Eric's promise of cheap DVDs tomorrow.

Have spent over 2000RMB in 2 days, not a good sign at all. I still have to write my Temasek journal, and source for community service. Tomorrow I'll have to really clean up the room so I can finally walk barefoot in my own room. I also need ashtrays, furry slippers, more towels, more rags, and a DVD player in anticipation of all the boxsets I'll be getting tomorrow.

Finally, WHO THE FUCK TOLD ME SHANGHAINESE CHICKS WERE CUTE?!?!???? YOU LIED.