one week left

...and i am in a state! although it's not because i am leaving shanghai. sorry teddy!

first of all, i am caught up in anticipation of my trip across western china :) aside from class, homework, and bopping around shanghai with friends, one of my daily activities has become scouring tripadivsor and lonely planet blogs for places of interest, transportation tips, foooood, etc. sponging up all this information makes me less nervous and more nervous at the same time... but always more excited. in sichuan the weather will be hotter than shanghai, and the food will be hotter than the weather! i am most looking forward to climbing e'mei shan, staying overnight in a monastery, and hiking down by sunrise the next day. in lhasa, i can't wait to see the potala palace and eat yak momo. in xian... obviously the terra cotta warriors, but i think the highlights will be staying in the muslim quarter, eating lamb in every possible form, and biking the 14 k around the city, on top of it's ancient wall!

back to the present, i am simply distraught with my internet situation. today's (and last week's) post have no pictures because i am sadly using some inadequate french proxy site to access my blog, rather than the optimal george washington university VPN. needless to say, i can't get to the wall street journal, wikipedia, the weather channel (?), facebook, or google translator! on top of that, my gw-mail account is down so if anyone is trying to reach me... email me at the same username at hotmail.com. anyway, i really need to work all these issues out before i leave on my trip so i can be as in-touch as possible from these rather remote locations.

and finally, this weekend's activities. on thursday night, michelle, sam, john and i went to zapata's for nachos and a happy hour special until 11 pm. zapata's reputation for attracting "older expats" proved true, so we were out of there pretty quick. we stopped by mural and it was empty as well (despite the thursday 50 kuai open bar deal - thats 7.5 USD for all-you-can-drink cocktails, imported beer, whatever). shocked, we were walking back to zapata's and i noticed lots of people going into a place called soho. none of us had ever been so i suggested we just check it out... turned out to be by-far the most authentic chinese club we have been to yet (aka, the weirdest, but also the most entertaining). at one point, girls in neon avatar-esque suits kicked us off stage for their choreographed dance... and lucky you, finally i can post pictures. observe green people getting on stage... then sneaky picture taken while security guards try to make sure no flashes go off!

非常奇怪。really freaking weird. sooo anyway, on friday morning we had no class, just a little party and skit performances. i am only half joking when i say that my class's skit was the best. who can beat a chinese translation of lady gaga's "bad romance" plus a heart-wrenching story of seduction, betrayal, and disposable chopsticks? our teachers also did a cute little performance of talking about their students in their various regional dialects (guilin, yunan, shanghai, etc). it's easy to forget that mandarin (汉语，普通话，中文） isn't any of their native languages either.

friday afternoon, michelle and i went back to the spa where karen and i got facials for the first time, two weeks ago. we are in love with this place - it's clean, air conditioned, quiet, and the ladies are so friendly and funny. they are super gentle with your skin, always take their time working, and make a minimal effort to upsell you on other services or products. they don't speak any english, but hey, it's great practice. it's 15 USD for a basic facial (GIRLS. are you reading this?) and 40 USD for an intense treatment that they'll only let you do twice a year. it involves a japanese magnetic machine that pulls black ooze out of your pores. we were stunned. i suppose only in china can you have such an amazing service, but only in china would your face be visibly clogged with air pollution!

on friday night sarah and i got bailey's milkshakes and watched crouching tiger hidden dragon on my laptop. thank you andrew! by the time i come home in december i would love to be able to watch and appreciate the film without subtitles... but i know that goal is a little too lofty.

i want to write about my adventures with travis on saturday and sunday and post lots of pictures from the cool places we went! but (1) i can't post pictures (2) i really need to write this weekend's essay. so i will be back to do that as soon as possible. xo.