additional remarks

beyond what i wrote to my friend,
i 'm very happy with everything now. in the last 48 hours i've hung out with tons of people. my chinese is now at a conversational level, which astounds me, but is true, i have made multiple friends who can't really speak english (not more than a marginal amount). i recently saw that woman celine, and it was really good, she's very sweet and pretty and we're going to the beach together sometime soon. we spoke english and chinese in my 12th grade classroom for a while then she took me to her neighborhood and bought me lunch, noodles and soup and some rice cakes- kinda sticky, weird but good.

yesterday night i was out until way late, until the first train came in, at some weird snazzy place playing trance and the amelie soundtrack with some girls i know, my friend michael and his friend scott, talking about ketamine (which scott apparently did a ton of at one time) and stuff like that, what art is, how my glasses are stupid looking, etc. then the girls went home, it was midnight, so me and michael wandered around talking about the whole fucked up situation with him and carol- he lived with her, they were intertangled, then he moved out abruptly at her request- anyway it was really good, i feel like i've made my first real male friend here in him, which rules. we went and saw lucy, a scottish writer/art girl who lives here, at some wine bar, and then after that careened to logo where i talked to hong kong girls who had predictably stupid opinions about shanghai as sin city. i went with a beijing girl north but realized enroute that i couldnt crash at her place because her mom lived there, so i just hopped out of the cab at a metro station and waited for dawn- at 5 o clock i came home and napped for a bit, then woke up to some mustard greens and tofu and a job interview. i got the job, 375 rmb per 2 hour session once a week, pending my first lesson (which will be fine, i expect). so i went and bought some clothes. now i'm preparing to go and meet this girl jenevieve (who cant spell her name correctly, unfortunately) to see a contemporary dance recital; she's a performance artist who doesnt like gross male performance artists of the kind i fancy (chris burden, viennese actionists, gg allin, etc) so we'll have lots to petulantly not talk about. I met her also with michael a few nights ago at a basque restauraunt where she was discussing an upcoming erotica film festival's entry requirements. that night i ended up going to robin's place and spooning with her and talking to her cat and talking to her about LA. this vacation has been so awesome, i've done so much stuff and i still have days of it left- my chinese has honestly skyrocketed.