Day Things Start To Be More Brief

There isn't much free time because things are so busy, and every night I return to the dorm past midnight (and have to sign in my name and room number and time returned on a useless book at the front desk), which leaves me no time to do any laundry or cleaning. The pile of boxers and socks is starting to build up, and the end is imminent. Soon I will have to get down and dirty with my undies, and put hands into socks. However, for the moment, Uniqlo is proving to be a lifesaver with boxers so cheap I can very nearly not have to do any washing whatsoever.

Have been to Uniqlo, H&M, Zara and all that, the last few days we've (by we I mean Eric) brought Joseph (a consumer whore) all around time to do shopping, and by shopping of course I mean he mostly window-shops while I do all the buying. A lot of buying. In a flash, I have spent about SGD2,000, of which very little goes to the costs of setting up stuff and appliances. I splurged 500 on 2 pairs of jeans. The first was a pair of selvages from Nalakuvara, this little known brand from Taiwan, on Ruijin Yi Lu and Changle Lu, which cost about 200. The second was from Haso (http://hasojeans.com/), just a few doors down, where the 300 (both in SGD :((( ) was gone before I had a chance to sober up.It was a delightful thing, perfect fit, and designed to have the dyed denim on the inside, effectively disrupting convention. The button fly leading all the way to below the crotch was also a big draw. I sound like I'm justifying purchases, but I loved it so much I decided to keep them on and dump my G-Stars into the bag. http://www.shmag.cn/feature/streetwise tells me they do customised jeans as well, which the uninterested salesgirl didn't tell me about, so I expect myself to be there real soon, once my finances are back in health again. Along with Haso, there are a lot of boutiques I haven't had time to try, so it definitely won't be the last time they'll be seeing me! I have also bough a few tees, shirts, a basic cardigan, a nice jacket, and a pair of Pumas (my first ever!) which was going at 50% off.

School was supposed to start this morning, but I decided to give the first class a miss to spend some time with poor Joseph who came down to see us at the dorm, only to wait hours while we tried to get our registrations settled. Things are still a mess on the academic front, since we only got the course list on Sunday, which left us with less than a day to choose the classes to try out for.

Mahjong with Eric and Esther was fun, automated shuffler FTW! I don't know what I'd do without Eric, all the food has been nothing but awesome, and he's picking up a lot of tabs from having to bring the whole bunch of us SMU kids around.

Weather's been like a woman, blowing hot and cold at the snap of a finger. Hopefully the freak twists and turns will end soon, and then spring will come and I no longer will have to use the faulty heater in my room. The metro's alright, but seriously at Shanghai Railway Station (one of the interchanges) the smell of century-old piss is enough to transform the most good-tempered of men into animals. I dropped money twice today, first at the railway station, and once more probably while I was taking my cigarettes out of the pocket. It probably didn't amount to more than 100RMB, but it's just a sucky feeling.

I can't remember what else I want to say, except that I hope everyone's happy and in good health, and I'll see you back here in, like, whenever!